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

2 Corinthians 6, the Bible reads in verse 1, we then as workers together with him beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. Now remember, to give you the context, we just finished in 2 Corinthians 5 talking about salvation and talking about how we're ambassadors for Christ and we're beseeching people and begging them to be saved and to be reconciled to God. But then at the end there in verse 21 he said, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And of course, I talked about the doctrine of imputation, how our sins are not imputed unto us because we believed on Christ and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us and that's put on our account. So that's a discussion there in 2 Corinthians 5 that deals with salvation by grace through faith and that it's something that Christ did for us. So we roll into chapter 6 verse 1, we then as workers together with him beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. Now keep your finger here and go back to 1 Corinthians 15. Let's see what the Bible means by receiving the grace of God in vain. If we compare scripture with scripture, you'll see what that means when he says, look, I'm beseeching you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. What does that mean? Well, look at 1 Corinthians 15, 10, the Bible reads, but by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. So what the Bible is saying here is that to have the grace of God bestowed upon you and for it not to be in vain, you have to work, right? Because he says here, hey, it wasn't bestowed on me in vain. Why not? Because I labored more abundantly than they all. Now go back to 2 Corinthians 6 and that fits perfectly in this verse when he says, we then as what? Workers. He's saying, look, we work, we are workers together with Christ. We're ambassadors for Christ. We're out winning the loss and we're doing the work and we're beseeching you also that you not receive the grace of God in vain. What's he saying? I want you to do work too because otherwise you've received the grace of God in vain. He says in verse 2, for he saith, I've heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee. Suckered means helped thee, like the Spanish word socorro. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. Now when something's in parentheses, if you take out the parentheses, the sentence will still flow without it. It's something additional. It's something that is outside of the main structure of the sentence, the subject, the predicate, and what's going on in the sentence. It's like an independent clause that's put in that parenthesis. He saith, I've heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. This is just, again, referencing back to the fact that they're already saved. You know, when they called out to Christ and when they called upon the name of the Lord, he heard them. He responded to them. That was the day of their salvation. Salvation takes place now. Salvation takes place immediately. Salvation's not a process, okay? So he's saying, look, you guys are already saved, but now that you're saved, I want you guys to do work as well. I want you to be workers together with us, okay? Now if we read it without the parentheses, it would say in verse 1, we beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain, jump down to verse 3, giving no offense in anything. He's saying, I want you to not receive the grace of God in vain, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, et cetera. So what is he saying here? He's saying, look, yes, you're saved, but don't let the grace of God just stop there. Don't let the Gospel stop with you. Don't just take this gift of salvation and then just not do anything else with it and not become an ambassador for Christ or a co-laborer with us because if you do, you're giving offense to the ministry and the ministry is going to be blamed. If you get saved and then you just go out and live a sinful life and you don't do any good works and you don't clean up your life and you don't follow God's commandments, you're a bad testimony. And you're giving offense, you're offending people, right? When people see you claim the name of Christ and then go out and live a sinful life, not serve the Lord, not do the right things, you're a bad testimony. You're a bad example of Christ and you're causing the ministry to be blamed and you're giving offense, you're offending people, you're a stumbling block. You're making it less likely for other people to get saved because when they look at you, they're not going to be inspired to want to get saved. They might even look at you and get a bad taste in their mouth of what it even means to be a Christian. And wouldn't that be terrible? Remember when David committed that horrible sin with Bathsheba, he was told by the prophet that he had given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. People were going to blaspheme God. People were going to speak against the Lord because of what David did. So we as Christians, we're ambassadors for Christ, it says in chapter 5 verse 20. This is continuing the same thought. He's saying, look, we're ambassadors for Christ, okay, that's a positive thing. Hey, isn't that great? We're ambassadors for Christ. But here's the negative side of it. You're an ambassador for Christ, so if you don't live right, you're going to cause the ministry to be blamed and you're going to cause offense of the cross instead of being a good testimony that's bringing people to Christ, you could be turning people away from the Lord, right? So it's a responsibility to be an ambassador. So don't receive the grace of God in vain, but rather give no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God. What does that mean, approving ourselves? You know, we're constantly showing that we're doing the right thing. We're constantly approving ourselves. We're constantly letting our light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven. So when we preach a salvation that's free by grace through faith, plus nothing minus nothing, not of works lest any man should boast, we're not giving people a license to sin, okay? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Now, obviously, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. But what we ought to do with that free gift, what we ought to do with the grace of God is to turn around and work hard and serve God, not because we're earning our salvation. That's done. He already heard us in the day of salvation, but because we don't want the ministry to be blamed, because we want to be a good testimony, and we want our light to shine before men because we want other people to be saved, okay? So works are important. The Bible says, let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful. What's that say? If you don't have good works, you may be unfruitful, right? The more works you have, the better life you're leading. The more you're following Christ's commandments, you're going to be more fruitful, okay? So it is important that we follow God's commandments and live a clean life and do right. He says, in all things approving ourselves, verse 4, as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses. Now he goes into this big, long list here, right? And this is kind of a really long sentence where he just goes down this giant list. Now what's this list about? He's talking about the fact that these are the type of things that you're going to go through if you are a serious worker for Christ. Now if you just get saved and don't do anything for God and the grace of God is bestowed on you in vain, I mean, you're still saved, but you're not helping the ministry, you're not doing anything for God, then you may not endure much persecution either. I mean, if you're a do-nothing Christian, you're unlikely to be heavily persecuted. But when you go out and do a lot for the Lord and really work hard, there's going to be persecution as a result, because the Bible says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And he says here, we're proving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in afflictions. What are afflictions? Tribulations, troubles, trials, persecutions. He says necessities, distresses. These are the things that you should expect in the Christian life. You shouldn't expect the Christian life to just go smoothly all the time and everything's peaceful and everything's perfect and there's never any fighting, never any problems. You should expect to go through hard times. I mean, Jesus said, these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. So we do have peace in our hearts, because we have peace in Christ. But we don't have peace because nothing's going wrong. We don't have peace because everything's going smoothly and there's no persecution. We have peace in Christ, but in the world we have tribulation. Well we're in a good mood anyway, we're of good cheer, why? Because Christ has overcome the world. We're on the winning side. So as we go through afflictions, necessities, and distresses, we need to make sure that we're always approving ourselves as the ministers of God and that we're not giving offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. Here's what the Bible's saying. Even in times of hardship and persecution, he still expects us to do the right thing. We have to continue to approve ourselves and continue to not give offense in anything, even when we're going through afflictions and we're going through necessities and distresses. We can't just use hard times and persecution as an excuse to start sinning and say, well you don't understand how hard of a time I'm going through. I'm suffering for Christ, you know, my head's on the chopping block, and I'm being persecuted, and I'm going through all these problems, so therefore, you know, I have the right to indulge a little bit in this sin or that sin or, you know, well no. If we're, even when we're going through hard times, we need to always do the right thing. We need to always have integrity and not use that as an excuse to sin. He says in verse 5, in stripes, now this is actually being beaten with a whip to the point where it leaves a mark, where it would actually leave a line across your back where that whip had made contact, a bloody stripe. That's what he's talking about, being beaten to the point where it actually leaves a mark or even draws blood. He says in stripes, in imprisonment, in tumults, in labors, in watchings and fastings. Now as the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, you've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Now there are people in this room that have gone through persecution for the cause of Christ. I've gone through persecution. My fellow pastors have gone through persecution, but we've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. None of us has been beaten with a whip for preaching the gospel of Christ. We've not gone through stripes yet. And we might have spent the night in jail, but we haven't really gone through serious imprisonments yet, right, where you're actually in prison for a long time. And so Paul here is listing some things that are beyond anything we've suffered in the United States here. Now we go through afflictions, we go through necessities and distresses, but most of us have not gone through stripes or imprisonment. But if the time ever comes where we're called upon to be beaten with stripes or where we're called upon to go to prison, we need to maintain our integrity and continue to be an ambassador for Christ, continue to do the right thing, not give an offense in anything, and continue to preach the gospel and serve the Lord and not let anything stop us. He said in labors and watchings and fastings. Then he says by pureness, again, showing the need for integrity, clean living, doing the right thing, pureness, by knowledge. We need to know what the Bible says, we need to study the word of God and make sure if we're going to spend our lives doing work on something and if we're going to be willing to suffer and even die for something, better make sure that we know what that is. Better make sure that we know the right doctrine and that we're making the right sacrifices. You need to sacrifice yourself for something that isn't even right, that you don't even believe in. So he says by pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering. And this is similar to the first thing he mentioned, which was patience, long suffering. Not just at the drop of a hat, losing our temper, at the drop of our hat, getting upset, panicking, freaking out. You know, we need to be long suffering, we need to be ready to endure some things as Christians and not to just panic when the first thing goes wrong. We need to be long suffering. He said by kindness, right, we need to be nice to people. That's all kindness means, just being nice to people, being gentle and friendly. He says by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned. Really we need to walk in the Spirit, we need to be filled with the Holy Ghost. It's a spiritual battle, it's not going to be won in the flesh. We've got to walk in the Spirit if we're going to have these virtues in our lives. And then he says by love unfeigned. What does unfeigned mean? It means that your love is real. Feigning something is faking something. So he's saying by love that is not fake, love that is unfeigned, real love. There's a lot of fake love in this world. Keep your finger here and go back to Romans 12. Keep your finger there in 2 Corinthians, go back to Romans 12. There is a lot of fake love in this world and it's really sad because you know what, love is really the greatest thing that there is. I mean the Bible says now abideth these three, faith, hope, and charity. The greatest of these is charity. I mean the Bible tells us God is love. He that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. So love is the most important virtue that we could ever have in our lives and so much of the Christian life revolves around love. I mean the greatest commandment is to love God. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourself and the Bible says that on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets and if we would actually have our love right, the Bible says love is the fulfillment of the law. I mean, O know man anything but to love one another, he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. So if we had love right, we would live right. We would live a clean life. We would live a godly life. We would do things for other people. We would be a good person if we would just get this one virtue right, love. That's the most important thing. But here's the sad thing about it. There's so much fake love out there that it just leaves such a bad taste in our mouth that it almost ruins this important biblical teaching and virtue where we ought to be thinking about love and teaching about love and meditating upon the love of Christ and having love in our hearts and making this the main thing. But the problem is so many people have ruined this for us by just perverting what love means and there's so much fake love out there and the sad thing is then it makes people not even want to talk about the real love because they're just so turned off from all the fake love that's out there. Look what the Bible says in Romans chapter 12 verse 9, let love be without dissimulation. Dissimulation is again something fake. Think of a simulator. Simulation. It's real. It said let love be without dissimulation. This is where you're pretending to love but you don't really love. Let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. So notice the bookends here, okay? One of the bookends is let love be without dissimulation. The other bookend is be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. So you got love and love and what's in the middle of this love sandwich? Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. So here's the thing. If somebody says, oh, I love everyone, that's fake. No, you don't. No one loves everyone. That's nonsense. That's garbage. That's stupidity. Oh, I just love everybody. I just love pedophiles and the pope and I just love ax murderers and cannibals. I just love – no, you don't. You're an idiot and you're ruining love for the rest of us that want to talk about the real love, not this fake dissimulation of just, oh, I just love everybody. These bunch of faggots act so loving. They hate everyone except themselves and their dog. All they love is themselves and animals. Oh, I just love my dog because I can't relate to people. Yeah, because you hate everybody. Your only object of your love that you pick is an animal like you. Oh, I just can't relate to people. It's just my dog. You know what? These people who are overly in love with their dog and I – you know, let's get a step on some toes, but you know what? This is the truth tonight. People who just love their dog just so much, you know what? It really means that they hate everybody else. So they have no human object for their affection. So they pick an animal and put all their love on an animal. I don't care what anybody says. That's wicked. And if you don't like it, you can lump it. It's wicked. It is wicked to put an animal on a pedestal and worship it and love it more than you love your fellow man. Look, I'm all for you loving your dog, but you better love people a hundred times more than you love your dog or you're not right with God. I just don't trust people. I only trust my dog. You're an idiot. You're a fool. You don't have love in your heart. And you know, these bunch of fakes with their fake love, it makes me sick. You're taking the most beautiful thing in the world and perverting it. And what are these bunch of sodomites, what's their slogan? Love is love. I just saw some filthy faggot walking down the street the other day and I said, love is love. You know, God is love and you love only yourself and feces and animals, you filthy animal. Ah, you're so unloving. You know what? We don't need people like you in our church. If you think that's unloving, we don't need a bunch of fake people like you in our church because, you know, I've had it about up to here with people that are fake. I'm sick and tired of fakes and frauds and phonies. I've had enough phonies and frauds for my entire life. And these bunch of sloppy, agape, oozing love all over. They just love fags and they love pedophiles and they love child molesters. You know what? You make me sick, get out. Because that's not real love. I know what's in your heart. Your heart is as black as the night if you think, oh, pedophile, I just love pedophiles. You're sick. You don't even know what love is. Get the hell out of here. Okay? And you know what? It's funny how everybody talks about how loving they are as they stab you in the back. As they break all of God's commandments, break all of God's laws. They're truce breakers, they're false accusers, they're covenant breakers. That's not love, friend. You know what that is? That's flattery and it's one of the most wicked things in the Bible, the flatterer. You know what a flatterer is? It's somebody who comes in and they just love everybody. They're just so loving. They're just so caring and they just care so much about you as they just drive the knife in a little deeper and twist it. That's not love, friend. You know what? Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And if the Bible tells us, hey, don't love in word, don't love in tongue, don't let your love be dissimulated, you know, don't have fake, feigned love. You know what that tells me? There's a lot of people that are faking love or else you wouldn't have to keep bringing that up. There's a lot of fake love out there. You go to these churches that claim they love the community so much. Funny how they don't do any soul-winning. Funny how they don't do any evangelism. Funny how they're not in the highways and hedges reaching people at all. They just love the community. No, they love themselves. They love their pocketbook. There's so much fake love out there. And today we get love from the media, a definition of just people hopping in bed together on the first date and they call that making love. Isn't that what they call it? Oh, making love. That's making fornication. That's making rebellion. That's making something wicked. That is not love. Fornication's not love. Adultery's not love. Being a sodomite and a pervert isn't love. Say, oh, you're not loving. I'm very loving. You know what? I love God. I love Jesus Christ. I love the word of God. I love church. I love my brothers and sisters in Christ. I love my wife. I love my children. I love the lost. But I don't love wicked, evil, perverted things. I never will. And if you say you do, you're just showing you're fake. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. You know what's funny is that people said, oh, Pastor Anderson's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Really? Last time I checked, I let my teeth be shown. You don't see me trying to make myself look like a little lamb up here. No, the wolves come to you in sheep's clothing. They come to you looking all gentle and looking like they're so harmless and inwardly they're just like, ah. They want to rip you apart and tear you apart. You know, with Pastor Anderson, what you see is what you get. I'm getting up here and telling you exactly how I really feel, and you know what? You can like, love, or hate what I stand for and what I preach, but you know exactly what I stand for and what I preach and what I believe, and there's no question about it. And you could be with me on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and I'm going to be the same person every day, and this is who I am, and this is what I believe, and these are the works that I do, and this is the preaching that I do. And you say, well, I just don't think it's loving. No, no. It's real. It's real. And there's a lot of fake love out there. You know what? You show me the person who loves God, okay, I'll show you a person who hates evil. You show me the person who loves God, I'll show you the person who's doing work for God. They're actually going out and doing work for God. You show me the person that loves the lost, I'll show you a person who dedicates their life to reaching the lost. That's the person who loves. Okay, you show me the person who loves their wife, I'll show you the person that is faithful to their wife. I'll show you the person that provides for their wife, that treats their wife with honor and respect. Look, I'll show you a good husband, that's the person who loves his wife. If you're a good husband, that's loving your wife. And you know what? The crummy wife doesn't love her husband. The adulterous wife doesn't love her husband. The rebellious, disobedient wife doesn't love her husband. Why? Hey, let's not love in word, neither in tongue, love in deed and in truth. Love is critical. Love is important. Love is the central ingredient in the Christian life, but it has to be a real love, not this fake love that Hollywood taught you of just fornication and just carnality, and not the fake love that the liberal church taught you, which just says, oh, we just love Charles Manson and we love Jeffrey Dahmer, we just love the pope. May the pope rot in hell. Don't love the pope. He's wicked. You know, I would love it if the pope just fell over dead right now. I'd say praise God, wicked evil vicar of hell. Why would we love him when he's damning literally millions of people? That's not love, folks. There's a perversion of love out there. There's a corrupt, fake, feigned love out there, and you know what? It makes me sick, frankly. I want nothing to do. If that's what love is, then count me out. If love is just having warm, fuzzy feelings toward wickedness and evil and the devil – I mean, I've sat in a fundamental Baptist church before and heard it preached that God even loves the devil. And the preacher got up and said, how many of you think that God even loves the devil? And like half the auditorium put their hands up that, yeah, I think God loves the devil. Folks, people don't know what love even means. They don't even know what love even is, okay? You know, when people ask me for parenting advice, one of the biggest things I tell them is, you know, you just have to love your children. And your children, they know whether you love them or not. You know, you can't fake that. You've got to – man, you've got to love your wives. You've got to love your husband. You've got to love your children. I mean, love for Christ is the only thing that's going to keep you serving Christ in the long run and keep you going. You've got to love Christ. Now, what does it mean to love? What does it mean to love? You know what? Obviously, love is a very deep subject and it's a very – something that you couldn't just explain in a few moments. You know, you read the whole Bible to learn about the love of God, right? I mean, the whole thing is teaching you about love and so forth. But you know what? If I love God – let me just give you some simple things about loving God. You know, if I love God, that means that reading the Bible is something that I want to do. Serving him is something that I want to do. Going to church, going to his house is something that I want to do. Singing praises to him and worshiping him is something that I want to do. That's what love means, OK? If you love him, it means that you desire him. If you love him, it means that you choose him. If you love him, it means that he has preeminence in your life. That's what it means when you love him. And it's not a drudgery to serve God. You want to serve God because you love Christ and your heart burns within you when you read the word of God or when you're listening to the preaching of God's word or when you're singing hymns and your heart burns within you and your heart is just beating with love for Christ. That is love. Now, a lot of people, they go to a house of worship where they will just have a bunch of pulsating emotional music and they'll get worked up in a feeling and they'll say, oh, I just love God so much. But even though they don't read the Bible, they don't follow his word, they don't live the way he wants them to live, they don't go out and preach the gospel of the lost, but they just go somewhere and just, oh. But here's the thing. You could have that identical experience at a concert that's not even about Jesus. I mean, look, you can go to a worldly rock concert or whatever the genre and you'll tingle and you'll get caught up in the emotion of the crowd and you'll get out your lighter. And I mean, you could have a really emotional experience and walk away tingling and feeling like, wow, you know, this was just so amazing. And I mean, look, I've seen people at concerts just with tears streaming down their face or people just listening to the radio and tears are streaming down their face listening to the carpenters or something, you know what I mean? It's like, folks, that's all that the liberal church is doing for people. That is a fake love. It's not real. You say, how do you know it's fake? How dare you call it fake? I'll tell you why it's fake, because they don't abhor that which is evil. They don't hate sin. They don't hate wickedness. They don't hate the evil. And you know what? They don't do the work of the Lord. If they love Christ so much, how come they can't even read the Bible cover to cover one time? Oh, I just love God so much. I just love it. You can't even read it one time, not even once. You haven't even read it cover to cover once. Oh, you just love God so much, but you don't even have five minutes a day or 10 minutes a day or 15 minutes a day. I mean, what if I just told you, oh, I love my wife so much. I'm so madly in love with my wife. And just every time my wife wants to spend time with me, I'm just like, nope, got something else going on. I never want to have breakfast with her, never want to have lunch, never want to have dinner, never want to do any recreation with her, just avoid her. Would you say I love my wife? If I spend as little time with her as possible, would you say that I love my wife? If just any little thing that would come up, oh, let's do that instead. Sorry, got to be bowling every single night or sorry, you know, got to do this, got to do that. Look, if I'm constantly avoiding talking to my wife, spending time with my wife, that would mean I don't love my wife. Okay, look, if there are restaurants that you love, you don't avoid them. You're drawn to them. You can't just say, oh, I love that restaurant, oh, I love it so much. It's like, I haven't been there in 10 years. You don't love it or you just don't have any money. But I'm saying, look, if you love someone or something, you're drawn to them, right? You choose them, you desire them, you gravitate toward them, right? That's how the love of the Lord is. Man, it's just like we just want more. We want to sing more, we want to read the Bible more, we want to preach more, we want to pray more. You know, we're drawn to them, we choose him. So to sit there and say, oh, we just love God, we love Christ, so let's go to the church that preaches the least Bible possible, but they have great music. You know, it's like, oh, I just love the Bible so much, which is why every morning instead of reading the Bible, I read a devotional book that uses one Bible verse and then it's just some other dude writing for page after page after page, and I call that my Bible reading. Folks, I don't know who or what you're in love with, but it's not Christ, it's not the Word of God because your life shows it if that's the way you are, okay? So there's a lot of fake love. And you know, these Hollywood types, oh, they're so in love, right? They're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, they're in love, right? Like, is it just grievous to me to stay married to my wife? No, because I love my wife. Is it just grievous, oh, man, I gotta go out to dinner with my wife. I gotta go on a walk with my wife. I guess, you know, I gotta spend some time with her because, I mean, after all, we're married. Folks, that means I don't love my wife. If it's this drudgery, if it's a chore, and look, the more of a chore it is where you have to just drag yourself to church and just drag yourself out sowing, drag yourself to reading your Bible, you know what, that just shows that your love is not right. Now here's the thing. Even if you feel that way, yeah, drag yourself to church. Drag yourself out sowing. Drag yourself to the Bible and try to get the love back. And you know what, if you don't love your wife, then drag yourself out on that date, drag yourself into that dinner, drag yourself out on a walk, and find the love for your wife once again. Remember your first love. Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and get back to the first love, get back to the first works. Folks, love is the principle thing here and it's very important that we have our love right. But don't get sucked into this fake love. You know, people talk a big talk about being loving, don't they? We're the church who loves you. We're the most loving church ever. Really? Let me see the works. Let me see the proof. You know, the most loving church, they might not even have to tell you that they're the most loving church. You'll just observe that about them. You'll see the love, okay? And so it's sad how sometimes in fundamental Baptist churches you don't hear a lot of teaching on love, preaching on love, because we have such a bad taste in our mouth sometimes where we sat in the liberal churches and heard this topic abused and twisted. But we can't let them set our agenda, you know. We need to talk more about the love of God and the love of Christ and having the right love for the lost and having the love for our spouse and other people, loving the brotherhood, because it is such a critical subject. It is the most important thing. And you know what's funny is that I have this reputation for being this hateful preacher, okay? You know, we're listed as a certified hate group and I'm this hate leader and Pastor Anderson's so hateful. But you know what? To those who actually know me, nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth, okay? I'm just a loving person, all right? And you know, I'm not going to dwell on this point because that's for you to be the judge, but you know what? I can stand here and tell you I love the Lord and I love people. And when I go soul winning and that person opens the door to me, I have love in my heart for that person. Even if, look, if I open the door and I see the most worldly person, I see a person that's clearly living a very sinful life. Look, I have love and compassion for that person and I want them to be saved so bad. I really want them to get saved, okay? And I love my wife. I love my children. I love our church. You know, people that have been thrown out of our church, people that stabbed me in the back, most of them I could look back and say, man, I really love that person. I really love that person and I couldn't believe it when they stabbed me in the back. Okay. Look, I believe in love. I think love is very important and I think that love is something that we need to have in our hearts. I don't know how to impart it unto you. It's something that you get from spending time with the Lord and getting to know Christ and the love of Christ is going to rub off on you and you'll be a loving person. How do I know you're a loving person? Because you care about other people. Because you put other people first. Because you put their needs first. You put others before yourself. You're willing to sacrifice yourself for other people. That's what love is. I mean, how did God show his love for us? I mean, God's to love the world that he gave his only begotten son. So it's the sacrifice that shows your love, right? It's the selflessness that shows that you're a loving – a selfish person is not a loving person. You say, yeah, but you're not loving because you screamed about bastards and fornication and adultery. Hey, you know what? It's love to warn you about those things because I care about you and your kids and I don't want you to screw up your life. And you know what? Living that fornicating, adulterous, bastardizing life is going to ruin your life. It's going to make you and everyone around you miserable. So if I love you, I wouldn't just let you do that. I'm not just going to let you just go off that cliff. If I loved you, I'd warn you about that stuff, okay? And you say, yeah, but you hate homos. You better know I do because they're a bunch of child-molesting perverts and you know what? I love their victims. I love the children that they abuse. And so, yeah. You know, you want them all dead. Yeah, I wish that every homo would fall over dead before they molest and abuse and ruin any more lives. They're sodomites. They're reprobates, the Bible says. They've been given over. They've been given up. They're past feeling. They've got a place in hell with their name on it and you know what? I don't care about them at all. And I wish that they would all die, okay? Oh, you're not loving. No, you're not loving. If you want our society to be filled with these dangerous predators, that just shows you don't love my kids. You don't love your own kids. You don't love America because you're willing to just let it turn into a Sodom and Gomorrah. And if you don't understand what the Bible teaches on that subject, that's your fault, not mine. Because you know what? I've got up and I've preached on Romans chapter 1. I've preached on Leviticus chapter 20. I've preached on the book of Jude. I've preached on 2 Peter chapter 2. I've covered that subject. And if you're going to sit there and say, well, I'm just can't handle, I'm just going to leave the church and whatever, then you might as well just leave then because you know what? We're not going to change. We don't love filth and evil and wickedness. There are people in this world that deserve to be put to death according to the Bible. And they are a cancer and they are scum and they are destroying our world. They're destroying the earth and one day God's going to punish them all. So don't sit there and tell me that I'm supposed to love the weeds. No. You love the flowers and you hate the weeds. You can't sit there and say, oh, I just love everybody. That means you love no one. What if I just said, oh, I just love every restaurant in Phoenix equally? You know what that would mean? That there's no restaurant that I truly love. Because if I truly loved a restaurant, I wouldn't just put it on the same. What if I just said, well, I love my wife but I love all women? I mean, is that loving my wife if I just said, well, I love all women? I love all women equally. You think that's what my wife wants to hear? But you know what? That's the stupidity of saying, oh, I just love everybody the same. I mean, oh, God just loves everybody the same. Oh, really? Is that why he had a disciple that was the disciple whom Jesus loved? Because he just loves everybody the same? Hey, sorry, you didn't get that from the Bible. And if so, please show me chapter and verse where God loves everybody the same. It's not there, friend. The Bible teaches what love is. We need to get our definition of love from the Bible or we're going to end up with a fake love. And I don't want to have a fake love. And I'm so sick of fakes and phonies and frauds. I mean, I've just had it up to here. I'm done. Don't you come at me with that flattering tongue. You know, I mean, in the name of the Lord, I will destroy you because I'm done with it. Don't you just hate people that are fake? You know, I wish people would just come up to me and just say, I'm mad at you. I wish people would just say, I don't like you. I don't like you, Pastor Anderson. You know, if somebody walked up to me and just said, Pastor Anderson, I don't like you. You know what I would say to that person? If it was someone that I liked, I'd say, well, you know what, I like you anyway. Even though you don't like me, I still like you. That's what I would say to them. Or if they said to me, Pastor Anderson, I don't like you, I might say, I don't like you either. You know, if I didn't like them either. But you know what, one time a pastor came on and he ripped on me on YouTube comment and I responded back to that pastor and I said, hey, you don't seem to like me, but I just want you to know I like you. I listened to your sermon, I liked it. But you know what, I wouldn't say that if I didn't mean it. Because how many people have I told, well, you know what, same to you, buddy, I've said that. Why? Because I'm just keeping it real. You know what? Love is a great thing, but fake love is disgusting. Don't pretend that you love people that you don't love. Don't pretend to be something that you're not. Don't pretend to be so righteous and holy. You know what, yeah, be righteous, be holy, but quit being a fake and pretending to feel some way that you don't feel and be something that you're not. You know, I have infinitely more respect for somebody who just walks up to me and says, you know what, you're my enemy, Pastor Anderson, I don't like you, you know, I don't want anything to do with you, and I hope you slip and fall and crack your head open. I'd rather that somebody just told me that to my face than to pretend to be my friend while hating me on the inside. Look at these heretics that literally have dedicated their lives to only attacking and being an enemy of our church. It's their whole life. Oh, we still love Pastor Anderson, we're so thankful to Pastor Anderson. No, you're not. At least I admit that I think you're scum. Why? Because you know what, if I say I love you, if I ever tell you I love you, you'll know that I mean it. Because I'm not going around just throwing fake love everywhere, just love for everybody. I'd rather have this much love that's real be given to me than whole gallons of fake love being dumped on me, because I have no use for that, but a feigned, fake love. It really bothers me, folks, as you can tell from the last 20, 30 minutes of preaching. But anyway, let's actually talk about 2 Corinthians 6 tonight, shall we? I don't know, you know, I didn't even plan on that. I just got to that word love unfeigned and I just went off for the last half hour. It's just because I feel really strongly about this. It's just that unfeigned, that word just triggered me. It just set me off, because it's like, I'm so sick of this fainted love, this fake love. And you know what, nothing says I'm a phony more than being a flattering tongue that's just love, love, love, love, and more love. Just shows how fake and phony you are, that you'll never call out anything, you'll never say anything negative. That's not the Bible I'm reading, because all the men of God in the Bible, they're all preaching about famines and pestilences and earthquakes and fires and brimstone. That's what they all preached about. They weren't a bunch of fake phonies just telling everybody that they love you so they can make more money like Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes. Anyway, let's get back to the chapter here. By the word of truth, verse 7, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true. What does he mean by these? Let me just go through each of these quickly. And hopefully they won't take as long as love unfeigned. But by the word of truth, by the power of God, those are pretty self-explanatory, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. Again, that's just talking about having the whole package, the whole armor of God, right side, left side, it's all covered, you have integrity, you're through and through. He says by honor and dishonor, you know, when you serve God, you're going to find honor and dishonor. You know, by serving God, some people are going to admire you for serving God. There are people who admire me, but then there are other people who hate me. So there's honor and dishonor about being a pastor. When you're a pastor, you're going to get some honor and you're going to get some dishonor, right? Evil report and good report. You know, some people are going to say, man, let me give a great report on Faithful Word Baptist Church. Other people are going to say, oh, man, can you believe Faithful Word Baptist Church? You're going to give an evil report, right? There's going to be a good report and there's going to be an evil report. He said, as deceivers and yet true. What's he saying there? They're being accused of deception, but they're actually telling the truth. You know, they're preaching the truth, but they're seen by some as deceivers. They're called a false prophet or a liar or a deceiver, even though they're preaching the truth, even though they're telling the truth. As unknown and yet well-known. What's he saying there? He's saying, look, when you're a true preacher of the gospel, you're not going to be on the front of Christianity today or you're not going to be on the TV station. You're not going to be the guy who holds out the Bible for the president to be sworn in on. You're not going to be invited to the presidential prayer breakfast. So I mean, think about some well-known preachers of our day, Benny Hinn, the Pope, TD Jakes, Rick Warren, Billy Graham, Joel Osteen, you know. So these are the well-known, right? But in comparison with those names that we just mentioned, what about guys like Roger Jimenez, Joe Major, Tommy McMurtry, Jonathan Shelley. Are these guys well-known? Are these guys household names? Well, I mean, come on, Pastor Grayson Fritz, you know, it's like, yeah, it's like, who? Who are these guys, right? Pastor Michael Johnson, who? Nobody knows, why? Because of the fact that we're unknown, but yet we're well-known, why? Because God and his angels, they know us, you know, because they look at us and they see, okay, these guys are preaching and they're doing my work, they're reaching people with the gospel. So Paul is saying, look, we're well-known. I mean, the demons knew Paul. They said, you know, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? But then they're unknown, you know, when they show up at Athens, it's just like, well, who's this setter forth of strange gods? You know, what's this babbler going to say? What's this guy got to say, right? I mean, you know, give us Aristotle, give us Plato, give us Socrates, you know, give us the wisdom of these learned men, you know, who's Paul? Who's that? He said as unknown and yet well-known, because now the Apostle Paul is way more well-known than Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, or any of those guys ever even thought of being. The Apostle Paul is way more famous now, but when he walked into town, they laughed at him, made fun of him. Who is this? Who is this? He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods, you know. So we're unknown, but yet we're well-known. And you know what? Let's say you're not a pastor. You're even less well-known, right? You're just a Joe church member, but you know what? If you're out there week in and week out preaching the gospel, getting people saved, boy, you're well-known in heaven. In God's sight, you're an important person. You're an MVP up there. Even if on this earth, you're totally unknown. You're even unknown even in Christian circles. You're well-known with the Lord. God knows what you've done. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you've showed toward his name and that you've ministered and do minister to the saints. The Bible says, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Look, worldly speaking, we may not own anything. We may not even own a vehicle. We may not even own a house or any land or anything like that. But you know what? We possess all things because the Bible says, he that overcometh shall inherit all things and I'll be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. I mean, the Bible tells us that the meek shall inherit the earth. So we're as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straightened in us, but ye are straightened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same I speak as unto my children, be ye also enlarged. So I want to spend some time on these three verses because verses 14 through 18, we've all heard a million sermons on verses 14 through 18 because verses 14 through 18 are some of the most famous verses in the whole Bible about not being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So I'm not going to spend time on that tonight because I've already covered that in many, many sermons. So let's cover this in verses 11 through 13. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. So the Bible a few times mentions this concept of largeness of heart, okay. And if you remember King Solomon, the Bible talked about how he was given wisdom and understanding and largeness of heart. That was his great attribute, largeness of heart, okay. Also the Bible says in Psalm 119, I'll run in the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. So what does it mean to have a large heart? Well if you look at Solomon, when Solomon is offered anything he wants, God will give him whatever he wants, he doesn't ask for something for himself, he asks for something to help other people. That's largeness of heart. Because what does he say? He says give me a wise and understanding heart to judge this thy so great people. He's saying look, I want to be a blessing to people, I want to be a good king, I want to serve the people and I want to be able to help them, give me wisdom and understanding so that I can help them, okay. He didn't say give me money, he didn't say give me a long life, give me good health, he said I want to have wisdom and understanding so that I can rule this great people. So he's thinking about other people, okay. So that's what the Bible means when it said he had largeness of heart. So Paul says oh ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged, okay. So he's saying our heart is enlarged. What he's basically saying is we love you. Now part of the reason why he's saying this is because he's been pretty mean. In 1 Corinthians and in 2 Corinthians he was mean. But it's not because he didn't love them folks, it's because he did love them, okay. He was trying to fix things, he's trying to help people, he doesn't want them to go off the cliff, okay. So he says our heart is enlarged and then he says in verse 12 ye are not straightened in us but you're straightened in your own bowels. Now what does it mean to be straightened? Now notice there's no gh there, this is not straightened as in, you know, straightening your hair because it's too wavy, okay. Straightened without the gh is talking about narrowed, right, straight, straight is the gate and narrow is the way, right. Straight means narrow like the straights of Gibraltar, okay, it's a narrow place. So when the Bible says you are straightened, this is the opposite of being enlarged. So there's being enlarged, widening, broadening and then there's being straightened or made narrow or small. Now the bowels in the Bible are often used synonymously with the heart. Obviously our blood pumping organ is not really where our love comes from, right. But the heart is a metaphor for our inward being, our inner self, our heart, why? Because it's the center of our body and it's the most critical component of our body. So when we talk about something being from the heart, what we really mean is that it's from the core of our being, it's from our inside. Well in the Bible the bowels are the same way. So you know we would talk about something coming from our gut, right. And so if something's from our gut, you know, if it's from our heart, what that really means is just that it's coming from the deepest part of our being, who we are. What's really on the inside is your heart or your bowels, okay. And it doesn't really matter which body part because it's not truly coming, love doesn't truly emanate from our blood pumping organ or from our large and small intestine, okay. Neither place is really the seat of human emotion. We know it's really, you know, coming from our brain and our soul, okay. But these are metaphors. So the Bible uses the heart and the bowels both the same. So don't get confused when you see the bowels, like what is that? When it talks about the bowels, it's what we would say in our modern vernacular, we would just say our heart, okay. That's what's meant. So he says you're not straightening us but you're straightening your own bowels. What he means there is you're straightening your own heart is how we would understand it in our modern vernacular because we don't use the bowels this way, okay. Now for a recompense in the same, I speak as unto my children, be ye also enlarged. See, pretty much every parent loves their child, don't they, unless they're just without natural affection. Every mother is going to love their child by nature but does every child love their parents by nature? There are a lot more children hating their parents than parents hating their children, right. There are a lot of parents who love their child and their child is just like, I hate you and want nothing to do with them. Then vice versa. Then a child is like, I love you, mom. We hate you. Die, you know. That would be super rare. It's out there but it's rare. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So in general, the parents are the ones who initiate love and this is just like, God, we love him because he first loved us. He is the initiator of love, right. Parents initiate love because when a baby is born, it's not filled with love in its heart. It's filled with hunger. It just, give me food, change my diaper, give me what I want, take care of me, you know. And then it grows in love for its mother and grows in love for its father and siblings and so forth. And as it grows up, hopefully it loves its parents. So what he's saying is, he's saying to the Corinthians, I'm speaking as unto children. It's like I'm talking to my kids right now, he's saying. You're like my children. And he uses that elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 4.15, that the Corinthians are like his kids. And he's saying, look, my heart toward you, and he uses the plural because obviously he's with his buddies, you know, at the very beginning of the book, you know, he says this is from Paul and Timothy is who this letter is coming from, okay. So he's saying, look, our heart, Paul's heart, Timothy's heart, he's saying our heart is enlarged. Our mouth is open unto you. You're not straightened in us, but you are straightened in your own bowels. He's saying, you know what, the problem between us right now, the conflict right now between Paul and Timothy and the church at Corinth, he's saying, you know what, it's not from our end. Our mouth's open unto you. Our heart is enlarged. I mean, look, we love you with all our heart. We have largeness of heart toward you. You know what, you are straightened in your own bowels. You have the problem inside you. And that's why he's telling them as he would speak unto his children, be ye also enlarged. Look what he says in verse 13. Now for a recompense in the same, be ye also enlarged. What does it mean, a recompense? A recompense is when you pay someone back, right? So what's he saying? Look, I love you. I have largeness of heart toward you, and you know what, I want you to recompense me that same love. I'm saying to you, be ye also enlarged. You are straightened in your own bowels, and you need to be enlarged. He's saying, look, I have nothing but love for you. I'm expressing my, and elsewhere he says, the more I love, he said, I'm hated, the more I love you, the more I'm hated by you. He says, am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? And you know what? How many times do children see their parents as the enemy? Frequently, don't they? Oh man, my mom and dad, you know, they're just on my case. They see their parents as the enemy when their parents are their greatest ally. Their parents love them. Their parents are trying to help them. And you know, or the pastor, oh the pastor, you know, look, the pastor loves you. The pastor's trying to help you. Look, you're not straightened in us. Mom and dad say to their children, you're not straightened in us, you're straightened in your own bowels. Hey, you're not straightened in me, you're straightened in your own bowels. My mouth is open unto you. My heart is enlarged. Be he also enlarged as a recompense of the same. And again, this goes back to the subject of love. You know, Paul's the guy who's cracking heads and ripping face, but under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he can honestly say, you know what? My heart is enlarged. I love you. I really care about you. You don't care about me. You don't love me. He's saying, you're straightened. I don't know why, you know, you've gotten so narrow in your love, but I want you to be enlarged. Let's get a little payback for the love. And you know what? This is what every child needs to hear this message and realize, hey, your parents love you. You need to recompense that love. You need to enlarge your heart toward your parents. Me and larger – and you know what? I was once a foolish teenager that didn't love my parents the way I should have, but you know what? I learned the importance of loving my parents and how my parents were actually great parents, how they did so much for me, how I would not be anywhere without them. They taught me so many wonderful things from the Word of God and they took care of me. They made sacrifices for me. They loved me. And I was, you know, in my teenage mode a little straightened in my own bowels there. But you know what? I became enlarged. My heart was enlarged and I love my parents today dearly. I appreciate my parents. I love my parents. I care about my parents. And you know what? If you're a teenager and you're all straightened in your bowels, you got your bowels all in a knot about your parents, hey, you know what? You need to love your parents. You need to love your mom and dad. And you know what? This goes back to, again, what love really is. What does it really mean to love your mom and dad? You know what? If you love your mom and dad, that means you're not avoiding them. It means you want to spend time with them. You want to talk with them. You care about them. You want to put them first. You'll sacrifice something to make their life better. That's what it means to love someone, right? It's self-sacrifice. It's choosing that person. It's wanting to be around them, spend time with them, caring about what they want, caring about what they need. You need to love your parents. And you say, well, my parents, just shut up and love your parents. And you know what? If you don't love your parents, you don't love God. Because he who loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? If a man say, I love God, and hated his brother, he's a liar. Yeah, let me guess. You just love God and dogs, and that's it, right? You just love God and animals. You know what? Scratch that. You only love animals. OK? You say, why are you getting on the animal lovers? I'm not on the animal lovers. You know what? I'm on the people who don't love people. I'm on the people who don't love people. That's who I'm on. And when all you're just gushing about your love for animals is because you don't have any love for people to gush about. That's the truth. It's true. It's real. It's not, look, look, if you could, if you actually were just enlarged and gushing with love for the Lord, and for your family, and for your brother's assistant Christ, and you loved the lost, and then you just had all this extra love that you didn't know what to do with, so you just like put it to our dogs, I'm for it. Great. But have you noticed these people are just like, oh, well, the only person that really understands me is my dog. Your dog eats its own vomit. And that's putting it nicely. Exactly. And so, folks, let's not be fake in our love. Let's be real. And let's love the people who love us. You know, kids, love your parents, okay? Love the people who preach to you. Love the people who serve with you side by side. Love your soul-winning partner, right? Love your brother's assistant Christ. Love the brotherhood. Love your wife. Love your husband. Love your children. Love your parents. Love your brothers and sisters physically, your physical brother, your physical sister. Love them, too. And you know what? Love the unsaved. You know what? I've loved some of the wrong people in the past. You know, why? Because people are innocent until proven guilty. You know, so I've poured out my love toward people in this church that turned out to be Judas Iscariots who hated me and stabbed me in the back and wanted to sabotage me. But you know what? What can you do about that, right? All you can do is just move on. But you know what? We need to never get to the point where we've been burned so many times that we only love our dog anymore. Don't get to that place. Keep loving people, okay? Let it be said of you that you have largeness of heart, not Mr. Straight Bowels, okay? I'd rather have a largeness of heart than straight bowels. And let's just close on that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the ultimate example of love, that you died on the cross, Lord, and that you shed your blood for us. What an ultimate example of love. Greater love hath no man than this, than that a man lay down his life for his friends. Oh, God, please just help us to get rid of this junk in our minds that Hollywood has taught us about love or that, you know, liberal churches have taught us about love where they just have this fake, gooey emotion that's not a real emotion, Lord. Help us to have the real emotional love where we just burn in our heart with a passion for your word, for your people, and where we just love other people and want to save them and help them and just to put other people first, Lord, help that love to be real in our lives. We've got this perverted love is love slogan that just makes us want to throw up when we see these transvestites with a love is love t-shirt when you are love. Lord, help us to love you with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength, Lord, and help us to love our neighbor as ourself. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.