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Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Aaron's rod that budded, Aaron's rod that budded. This is brought up in the book of Hebrews, it talks about what was in the ark, it talks about how there was the golden pot that had manna, there were the tables of the covenant, and also Aaron's rod that budded. So here's where that story takes place in Numbers chapter 17, I'm going to show you what this story means, but let's back up a little bit and get the context. Go back to chapter 16 verse number 1, in chapter 16 of Numbers verse number 1, Now Korah the son of Ishar the son of Kohath the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth the sons of Reuben took men, and they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face, and he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him, even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him. Now this is warned about in the New Testament because this story with Korah, look at the first words of verse 1 there, Now Korah, so this is the main instigator, the main ringleader, Korah the son of Ishar, this is brought up in the book of Jude about false prophets, wicked people who creep in unawares, it says, Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and are perished in the gainsaying of Korah. So in the book of Jude, when he's talking about certain men crept in unawares, people who bring in damnable heresies, false prophets, false brethren, Judas Iscariots, if you will, he brings up three different types of them, or even all three of these attributes could be one, that they've gone after the heir of Cain, they went after the heir of Balaam, and the heir of Korah. So he brings up these three guys as examples, right, Cain, Balaam, and Korah. What was wrong with Balaam? Well, Balaam loved the wages of unrighteousness. He was willing to preach things which he ought not for filthy lucre's sake. He was in it for the money, and a lot of false prophets, false teachers, people who infiltrate Christianity or churches, they're in it for the money, those are the Balaams of this world. Then we have the heir of Cain. What was the heir of Cain? Well, first of all, we know that Cain brought the wrong offering to the Lord. Cain and Abel were supposed to bring an offering of an animal sacrifice to the Lord, picturing the fact that Jesus Christ would one day be the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. Cain, instead, brought fruits and vegetables, which is of the produce or the fruit of the ground, so he's bringing his works instead of trusting the blood of the Lamb, okay? A lot of people who are false prophets, infiltrators, they believe in a works-based salvation or teach a works-based salvation, but not only that, Cain also hated his brother because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. This explains why a lot of people would creep in to try to infiltrate or destroy a church or pretend to be a Christian when they're really not and preach lies and so forth is because they hate God's people. If Cain hated his brother Abel because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous, then these people, because they're wicked, just want to come in and destroy something good. They want to come in and find that innocent person and ruin them, destroy them, destroy a church, destroy a ministry, whatever. So it's pretty easy to understand Cain and Balaam. Those are two pretty famous characters, but then he says they're perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Now the reason why he brings up perished is because in this story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram that we just read in number 16, the way this is going to end for them is that the earth is going to literally open up and these guys are going to fall down into a crevice in the earth. God is going to cause an earthquake, open up the earth, and these guys just drop into hell directly, okay? So it says they're perished in the gainsaying of Korah. What does it mean to gainsay? This is a really old word, but it's used a few times in the Bible. Gainsaying is to contradict or speak against, okay? So the gainsaying of Korah is referring to when he spoke against Moses or contradicted Moses. Look what the Bible says in verse 3. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them. Now I want to point out that the word gainsaying, what's the second half of that word? Saying. So it has something to do with what Korah said. Korah only said one thing, so it's not hard to identify the gainsaying of Korah. You don't have to scour the whole book of Numbers, writing down all kinds of quotes from Korah and trying to figure out which one made God so mad. The only thing Korah ever said is found in verse 3. So this is the gainsaying of Korah, and apparently it was important enough for God to bring this up in the book of Jude. It says they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them. He take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them. And the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. So we saw the Cain types that teach a work of salvation or they just want to destroy that which is good because they hate the good and because they're not good. And we saw the Balaam's who are in it for the money, but here we see the person who uses flattery to come in and say all the congregation are holy, you know, trying to basically get the people on their side saying, you know, who's this Moses guy think he is being the leader, telling you what to do, you're all holy, God's among you all. And this is a tearing down of leadership and saying that we don't need any leadership, okay, because everybody should be the leader. Well, this is also described in Second Peter chapter two and Jude where Korah is mentioned is that they despise government or they hate authority. They are people who do not want to ever submit to any kind of leadership, same kind of people who disobey their parents, the same kind of people who don't obey the boss at work, the same kind of people who say, well, you know, we don't need to have a pastor, we don't need a leader, we're just everybody's equal, everybody, you know, is a democracy and nobody is in charge. Well, wrong. That's not how the church is set up, folks. There is supposed to be leadership in our family, leadership in a business, and leadership in the local church. The Bible says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. It doesn't say the elders who get told what to do and basically just are part of a team where everybody makes decisions, wrong. If 51% of the people in this church want to stop soul winning, we're not going to stop soul winning. If 51% of the people in this church want to get rid of the King James Bible, we're not getting rid of the King James Bible. 51% of the people want to bring in the rock band and the mini skirted backup singers up here, the smoke machine, the purple lights, the bar stool. It's not going to happen. This is not a democracy, okay? We have leadership in local churches. We have pastors. We have leaders that basically decide this is the direction we're going to go according to God's word. And they have to meet certain qualifications that will qualify them to be mature enough to lead. They have the experience. They have the knowledge. They have the personal character where they can be put in a position where they're going to lead the church. But this is not an open mic or a karaoke bar and anybody just gets up and preaches anything, says anything, sings anything, does anything. This is not a free for all. But there are always going to be those people who want to come in and say that it should be a free for all. It should be a free for all. You know, and you have these people that have been saved for literally less than a year. They haven't even read the Bible cover to cover one time, but they know how to run the church and they want to take over. And you get in these Bible studies where everybody's doing the teaching and it's just confusion. You got the blind leading the blind, okay? We must have leadership. Now obviously there are pastors who abuse their authority. They abuse their leadership where they will try to come into your own home and tell you what to do in your own home or try to contradict what you tell your wife and kids or something and say, hey, don't listen to them, listen to me. Obviously there are abuses of power. There are pastors who think that they're above the rules or above the law or above God's word and that they can just do whatever they want. There are pastors that are just in it for the money like the Balaams and there are bad examples of this, but at the end of the day, though, God has appointed there to be leadership in the church and so we ought not get this attitude that says, well, all the people are holy. Yes, that's true. They were all a holy nation. They were all the chosen people. But does that mean that they're all in charge? No. They're all Moses in charge for a reason. So that was the gainsaying of Corey. That's not what the sermon's about, but I'm just trying to kind of bring you up to speed with the story. So of course, God does this thing where they have a standoff with Moses and God opens up the ground, as I mentioned earlier, and they all fall down into the earth. They all get wiped out. God punishes them severely. So then when we get to Chapter 17, God does this miracle so that this will be something that they don't forget. Now I doubt they were going to forget all those people being swallowed up by the earth, but they wanted something that would be in a perpetual remembrance, some kind of a symbol of this rebellion to warn people in the future who would be rebellious against leadership that would rebel against Moses or Aaron or other God-appointed leadership. So look at Chapter 17, Verse 7. They each give a rod. Each of the 12 tribes give a rod, and the leader of that tribe has his name written on the rod. So for the tribe of Levi, they have the name Aaron written on the rod, and they lay up the rods before the Lord, and one of the rods is going to bud, and that's how they'll know who God has chosen to be the leader. Look at Verse 7. And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness, and it came to pass that on the morrow, Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the God of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel, and they looked and took every man as rod. And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels, and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that they die not. And Moses did so as the Lord commanded him, so did he. So we see here that Aaron's rod budded, and this was the way that God chose for them to know who the God-ordained or God-appointed leader is. Now you say, Pastor Anderson, what in the world does this have to do with my life in 2019? How can this apply? This rod that budded isn't even around anymore. We don't even have the Ark of the Covenant anymore. That's not even a thing. But I submit to you this morning that the exact same way that they knew that Moses and Aaron were the men that God had ordained to lead is the exact same way that we are told in the New Testament to identify the right leadership. The title of the sermon is Aaron's rod that budded. Go if you would to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter number 7, Aaron's rod that budded. What does it mean to bud? Each rod or staff represents what? Leadership. You know, we think of Jesus Christ returning someday and ruling with a rod of iron. That rod of iron is a picture of Christ's authority. It's a picture of his leadership. That rod is like a scepter that is something that pertains to a king. Aaron's rod budded. What does that mean that it budded? Well, it bloomed, blossomed. It brought forth buds and it even bare fruit. It could bare almonds, okay? Look what the Bible says in Matthew 7.15, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves, ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Now keep your finger there and go to Jude. Keep your finger there in Matthew 7 and go to Jude. Now remember in Jude, verse 11 is where we have this verse. Woe unto them, for they've gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for a ward, and perished in the gainsaying of Cori, and Korah is the guy who was in this story that led to Aaron's rod being chosen to bud. Well look what it says in verse 12 of that same passage. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, watch this, trees whose fruit withereth. Without fruit, meaning without good fruit, without legitimate fruit, without right fruit, their fruit withereth. Twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. So go back if you would to Matthew chapter 7, you see that the false prophets are without fruit when it comes to the right kind of fruit. They have fruit that withereth, corrupt fruit. They bring forth evil fruit. So how do we know who the right leadership is? How do we know who the godly leadership is? How do we know a true man of God from a false man of God? How do we know a true preacher from the false prophet? You'll know them by their fruits. Aaron's rod budded. What does that mean? It brought forth good fruit. His leadership, his rod, produced good fruit. It brought forth flowers and almonds that were produced. Whereas the other 11 rods were without fruit, the wrong leadership. So you see how this story is actually totally relevant to today because this is what Jesus said in the New Testament, verse 15, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves, ye shall know them by their fruits. Now a lot of people will use this and say, hey, this is the test of salvation. The test of salvation is you got to bring forth good fruit and if I don't see good fruit in your life, you're not really safe. That's not what the Bible is saying here because there are going to be people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and all of their works are just wood, hay, and stubble. That's what the Bible says. In 1 Corinthians 3, it talks about how all of our works are going to be made manifest for the day shall declare them and there are going to be the gold, silver, and precious stones and the wood, hay, and stubble and if anything abides the fire, if anything we've done in our life is gold, silver, or precious stones, we shall receive a reward. But the Bible says if any man's work be burned, meaning that all of his work was just wood hay and stubble, it's all burned up, yet he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. So there are people who are going to be saved and they're going to lose reward. The Bible says he's going to suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. So he's going to get to heaven, he's not going to be rewarded, all of his works are burned up in the fire, they were all of temporal value, nothing was of eternal value, but he himself shall be saved. Why? The Bible says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man unto him God impudeth righteousness without works. Without works. Okay. So we're saved without works. The Bible says our faith is counted for righteousness. So this will often be applied as hey, figure out who's saved by looking at the works. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says identify false prophets by their, by their fruit. Identify true prophets by their fruit. You see, not every person is going to bring forth fruit. And let me give an example of this. Let's say I have an apple today. That apple may never reproduce. Does that prevent it from being an apple? Well, that's not an apple because it's not bringing forth any fruit. Yeah, it's an apple, right? Now what about a human being? What if a human being never reproduces? What if somebody just remains single or they don't have any kids, does that make them not human? No, of course they're human. But take it to the bank. If that person reproduces, the offspring will be human. If that apple reproduces, take it to the bank, it's going to produce an apple. And if you bury that apple in the earth, that apple gets buried in the earth and an orange tree grows up, you know what? You can safely say that was not really an apple, right? If I plant it in the earth and it starts bearing a different kind of fruit, then I immediately know I was deceived as to what that thing was. I thought it was an apple, but it wasn't because look at this, it's a cherry tree that's growing. That wasn't an apple. The tree is known by its fruit. I venture to say that the vast majority of us, if we walked into an orchard and the fruit was not in season, we would have no clue what kind of orchard we're in unless we were some kind of an expert. Very few of us could look at the leaves of the tree and say, that's an apple tree, that's an orange tree, that's a cherry tree. I wouldn't have a clue. I mean, I can pretty much identify a pine tree and a pine tree. I can identify cactuses, but I don't know. But if we were there during the fruit season, it'd be a piece of cake. Oh, look, apples, look, oranges, look, lemon. Why? The tree is known by its fruit. I'm trying to use an illustration that we can all understand, that typically we may not know what a tree is until we see the fruit, and that's the giveaway. Now I know exactly what kind of tree that is. Duh, it's covered in apples. Why? Because it's impossible for the apple tree to bring forth anything other than apples. It's impossible for a human being to give birth to anything other than a human being. Okay? And so that's what the Bible is saying here. You'll know them by their fruits. The fruit is the reproduction. We think of all the way back to Genesis 1, be fruitful and multiply. Who is he talking to? People telling them to give birth to more people. The Bible, you don't have to turn there, but in Romans 7, 4, it says, wherefore, my brethren, ye also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So the Bible says that we're married to another so that we can bring forth fruit unto God. So he's using this illustration of marriage. What's the fruit of marriage? You get married, you bring forth fruit. What's that talking about? Reproduction. You're going to have a baby, okay? And what the Bible is saying here with bringing forth fruit unto God is when we reproduce. So if the apple produces apples, the orange produces oranges, the Christian produces other Christians. Okay? The soul winner produces other soul winners. The Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Why is the fruit of the righteous a tree of life? Because the righteous is already himself a tree of life. So his fruit is another tree of life, right? He's reproducing. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. So there are going to be some people who don't reproduce, some people who don't preach. They don't preach good things, and they don't preach bad things. They're just not a preacher, right? I mean, there are people, even who are saved Christians, who go to church every Sunday, but they're not doing any witnessing, they're not doing any evangelizing, they're not doing any preaching, they're not speaking the Word of God to anyone. You believe that? Oh, you know that that's true, that there are millions and millions of people who go to church on Sunday and they take everything in. That doesn't mean it's coming out of their mouth on Monday, coming out of their mouth on Tuesday, coming out of their mouth on Wednesday. They're kind of just taking it all in, and it kind of just stops with them. They're not going out and reaching people and preaching and winning people to Christ. They're not reproducing, and they will live and die without winning anyone to Christ. The vast majority of Christians will live on this earth saved for decades and never have a single convert to Christ. Does that mean they weren't a Christian? Of course not. They're still saved, but they're like that apple that ended up in the supermarket, they got eaten, they got thrown in the trash, they never got planted in the earth and became a tree. What we want to do, though, we want to bring forth fruit, amen? The Bible says, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. So we're to die to self, take up the cross daily, follow Christ, and if we follow him, he'll make us a fisher of men, and when we die, we bring forth much fruit. Paul said, I die daily. That's why he brought forth so much fruit. And so that's what he's talking about here when he says you should know them by their fruits. If we look at a false prophet, we should be able to look at his converts, look at the product of his ministry, look at the result of his ministry, that's what the fruit is, and be able to examine that fruit and say, this guy's a bad guy. How do you know he's a bad guy? Look at the fruit. All rotten, corrupt fruit. And then you say, this guy's a good guy. How do you know? Look at all the good fruit. The tree is known by his fruit. Now, this, unfortunately, is something that virtually no one puts into practice in 2019. This is not even a thing. I mean, here Jesus teaches this pretty clearly, I think. I don't think there's anything unclear in Matthew 7 when he says, look, do men gather grapes of thorns, figs of thistles? Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. I mean, he keeps just saying this backwards and forward. The good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree, meaning every prophet or preacher or one who evangelizes, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, right? Because they're a bad tree. And he says, wherefore, because of this, by their fruits ye shall know them. But this is not at all what people go by today in 2019, to figure out, you know, what is the truth, what's right, who do we listen to. No, they'll constantly listen to people whose fruit withereth or who are totally without fruit and just completely disregard this teaching of Christ that says you should know them by their fruits. They'll just completely ignore this teaching. Have you noticed how many just bozos there are on YouTube teaching lies, teaching false doctrine, but guess what, they don't have any fruit. You know, some guy in his basement making videos, he doesn't even attend church, let alone pastor a church, he doesn't even attend church. But he's putting out all these, oh man, this is such great teaching, oh man, this is so good. The guy doesn't even go to church, he doesn't have a single convert. You couldn't even do a fruit inspection, there's no address. There's nowhere to show up to even inspect the fruit. People can do a fruit inspection of our ministry any time they want. They can do, all of our pastor friends, churches, they can show up and do a fruit inspection when they want and they know what time and place to be there, whereas you've got just these internet personalities. And you know what's funny is I've been accused of being an internet preacher. Oh really, because as far as I know, I'm physically here right now, unless the holographic technology has just gotten amazing, I'm here right now actually. I'm actually physically here, we're actually physically in a meeting here. And you know what's funny is I've been accused of being an, he's just an internet preacher of people whose church is like one tenth the size of our church or one fifth the size of our church. He's an internet preacher. No I'm not, I'm actually standing in a brick and mortar building right now preaching the word of God to human beings who can see the whites of my eyes right now. You know what I mean? And look, I'm telling you, this is what we need to put into practice is checking the fruit. Let me give you an example. When you go to a false prophet and ask them what they believe, a lot of times they'll pretty much just tell you what you want to hear. I've had false prophets give me all the right answers. I'm sure Judas Iscariot could have given all the right answers. Otherwise he wouldn't have fooled everyone around him. But I find that a more effective way to figure out what a church is about is by talking to the people that go to that church and asking them what they believe and figure out, okay, you guys are the fruit of this ministry. You're the product. You've been here for years. You were reached for Christ through this church. Let's see what you believe. Let me give an example. I visited an independent fundamental Baptist church not too long ago and went out to dinner with the pastor and some of his members and we sat down and I asked the members, I said, so do you know for sure if you die today you go to heaven? He said, well that's a weird thing to do. I mean you're at an independent fundamental Baptist church and you're with the inner circle of the church. I literally sat down with these people and I looked at them and I said, do you know for sure if you die today you go to heaven? And they said, yeah. Oh yeah. I said, so what do you think a person has to do to go to heaven? Live a good life, obey Christ, follow the commandments, obey Jesus. So how long have you been going to church here? Three years. That's a pretty bad sign, isn't it? And especially when you're talking to person after person after person, you start getting the picture, this is a bad tree. I don't care what that pastor says you believe. And by the way, the pastor then proceeded to say a lot of the wrong things as well. But I don't care if that pastor says it's by grace, through faith, it's not of course. When you talk to all the members and they're not saved, let the fruit speak for itself. And you know how this really applies is when you go out soul winning. Because we go out and do a lot of soul winning and we end up talking to a lot of people from a lot of churches and it's one big fruit inspection, isn't it? And you'll get around a certain church and just everybody from that church virtually isn't saved. What does that tell you about that church? That's a bad church. I don't care, I don't need to look at their statement of faith, I don't care what their doctrinal statement is, I don't care what the reviews are on Google, all I know is that when I talk to person after person after person from that church, they weren't saved. Let me give an example, Grace Community Church here in Tempe. I don't mind naming the names. I've inspected hundreds of their fruit. It's all rotten. Somebody just brought this up to me this week. They said, man, I can't believe it when you knock on the door of somebody who's claiming to be a Christian. Was that you, Brother Dustin? He said, man, I can't believe you knock on the door of somebody who's claiming to be a Christian and they have such a bad attitude about you being there. And I asked him, well, what church were they from? He said, oh, Grace Community. I said, here's a little story about Grace Community Church. Our video on YouTube that we uploaded like over a decade ago called the Basic Soul Winning Demonstration Video. That was back when videos could only be 10 minutes and we made it like 9 minutes and 59 seconds and we uploaded that video. In the video, Pastor Berzins is playing the unsaved guy and I'm going and giving him the gospel. I asked him, what church are you going? He says, oh, Grace Community Church here on Southern Avenue. The reason that we picked that church to throw under the bus is because we've gone soul winning in all the neighborhoods around that church and they were just the rudest, bitterest people not saved. And not only were they not saved, they were just like angry that somebody even was bringing the gospel. I mean, that was bad fruit. And then look, other churches are not as cut and dried. Some churches you'll run into a mix. You know, you'll run into a bunch of people that are saved, a bunch of people that are not saved. And sometimes you'll run into a bunch of people from a really liberal, watered down church and you'll basically ask them if they're saved. They'll give you the right answers. You're rejoicing with them that they're saved. And then they'll say like, oh, I got saved when I was a kid at a Baptist church. And you're like, okay, that makes sense. You know, they're quoting all the verses to you from the King James and telling you how they got saved at a summer camp as a Baptist. They came down the aisle at a Baptist summer camp. You know, now they're going to some liberal, watered down fun center. But then you talk to the people who were reached by that fun center. And then they're just, oh, live a good life. Well, I hope I'm going to heaven. I'm trying. The best way to learn about religion is to go out and knock doors and talk. I don't care. Well, let's watch a debate of the leaders of these two religions and figure out who's right. No, no, you know what I'd rather do? I'd rather go up and down and talk to all their members and ask them what they believe. Ask them what they believe. You know what Jesus said? Jesus said, oh, you want to know what I teach and believe? Well, I taught openly in the center. He said, ask them that heard me, they know what I said. Jesus invited people to talk to his audience to figure out what he believed. Hey, they know what I said, ask them. We ought to be able to invite people to inspect the fruit, invite people to talk to the church members and see what they believe. You know, it really goes to show you what the Presbyterians are about when you start knocking on the doors of Presbyterians and ask them if they're saved. You know, you can sit there and debate about Calvinism and you can talk about Zwingli and John Knox and talk, but you know what? At the end of the day, you can walk up and down the street and talk to Presbyterian after Presbyterian after Presbyterian after Presbyterian. What are most of them going to tell you? Oh, live a good life. You know, I'm trying to get to heaven. Well, that's not what Presbyterianism teaches. You're lying about. I'm not lying about it. That's what the people say. I don't care what's on the books in the office. Look, every Baptist church in the world, to my knowledge, has a statement of faith somewhere saying that salvation is by faith alone. And unless you're in the south and they have these free will Baptists or missionary Baptists that sometimes are like Bapticostal or they're like Pentecostal churches that are called Baptists. If you're in California or Arizona, every Baptist church will believe in the eternal security of the believer on paper, am I right? Every Baptist church in the western United States and even the vast majority of Baptist churches in the eastern part of the United States, on paper, believe that salvation's by faith and that you cannot lose your salvation, so they should all be saved, right? You know how many Baptists there are in America? Or Wikipedia, look up how many Baptists there are in America. 50 million. Did you know that? 50 million people in America identify as Baptists. If you're asked, what religion are you? Baptist. 50 million out of 340 million. But does it seem like 50 million people out there are saved in the US? But yet on paper, that's what's written down in the statement of faith, in the doctrinal statement. But you know what? If the doctrinal statement looks good, it doesn't mean the church is any good. You talk to the people, you do the fruit inspect, Christ said you'll know them by their fruits. Every Baptist is not a good Baptist. Just because it says Baptist, that doesn't just mean it's automatically good. And just because it's not Baptist doesn't mean that it's automatically bad. Although it's a jungle out there when you get outside of Baptists, you know, there could be good people that are not Baptists. But the point is, the tree is known by its fruit. This is what Christ taught us to look at. Look at the fruit. Look for the rod that budded. Which rod do we follow? Which rod is the right rod? The right rod is the rod that budded. The one that brought forth almonds. How do we know which rod's alive? Because of the leaves and the flowers and the almonds. The other rod is sterile, it's dead, nothing's being produced. You shall know them by their fruits. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. This is why it boggles my mind when people will preach that an unsaved person can get people saved. How does that work? You know, I've heard people say, well, unsaved people can win souls. Judas won souls to Christ. Because the word of God has power. Nonsense. Yes, the word of God has power, but the word of God alone is not enough to save someone. Just the word of God by itself. Otherwise the Ethiopian eunuch wouldn't have needed Philip. He could have just read the word of God and gotten saved right then and there. But he said, how can I, except some man should guide me? He needed someone to win him to Christ. The Bible says, who is Paul, who is Apollos, but ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. We all have some minister by whom we believe. And when we say minister, it doesn't necessarily mean it was a pastor. It could have been man, woman, boy, or girl. You know, for me it was my mom that showed me the gospel and won me to Christ as a little boy. But even then it wasn't just my mom, because I also heard the gospel in church and Sunday school from my dad, from my siblings. And then my mom was the one who actually won me to Christ. So I had ministers by whom I believed. You've got to have someone explain to you the word of God. You don't just get saved in a vacuum with just you and the word of God by yourself. You've got to have someone who has the Holy Spirit preach the word of God to you and make it understandable unto you. How should they hear without a preacher? You've got to have that. And so if an unsaved person comes and brings the word of God, and let me make this really clear, I do believe that an unsaved person can plant the seed of the word of God. For example, you know, I've heard a lot of people's testimonies where they heard the word of God and it really got them thinking and it really did a work in their heart. And then they went out and sought after the truth. But eventually someone had to explain the gospel to them who was actually saved. Okay. Let me give you an example. You know, I had a friend and he was watching a Hollywood movie. And that Hollywood movie read Psalm 23 in it. And they just stuck with him. It made an impact on him and it made him want to seek after the Lord and he eventually ended up getting saved. But eventually somebody had to preach him the gospel that was actually saved. My wife is a great example of this. You know, my wife grew up in Germany and she grew up in the Catholic part of Germany because Germany is part Lutheran, part Catholic. And in the Catholic church, she went to the Catholic church, she's not hearing the gospel clearly presented. And she's certainly not there with a saved minister. The priest is not saved. The Catholic priest does not even come close to believing a biblical gospel. But yet when she was in the Roman Catholic church, she heard Bible verses. She heard the word of God. And in fact, one verse that really stuck with her, and she only heard this verse from unsaved people's lips, she heard this verse that said, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And she wondered what that meant. She thought about that. And she got on her knees as a child and prayed to God that he would reveal himself, that he would show himself. She wanted to seek God. She wanted to love God. She wanted to know the true God. She got disillusioned with the Catholic church and eventually became an agnostic because she wasn't finding God in the Roman Catholic church, although that seed was planted. Then, when I met her, she was an agnostic, I preached her the gospel, eventually she got saved and so forth. But here's the thing. Reading those Bible verses, even in a Catholic church, planted a seed there because the word of God is the word of God. If there's a right verse that's being preached, obviously a lot of verses in the Catholic Bible are totally different, but a lot of them are the same. So basically, if it's a verse that says the same thing, she heard that verse, that's God's word, that seed came into her heart and that germinated there and she looked for more. When God shows us a little bit of light, if we respond to the light that he gives us, he'll give us more light. Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. But if God shines the same light in other people's hearts and they just don't care, not interested, then those people may never end up even getting saved. They may never even hear a clear presentation of the gospel. You know, I guarantee you that when my wife was in that church listening to that Bible verse, so were 100 other people and all 100 of them didn't get on their knees and begged God to tell them what it meant. I guarantee you that millions of people watched that same Hollywood movie with Psalm 23 and they didn't all walk away saying, wow, I need to figure out what that means. You know, I need to seek after God. But I do believe an unsaved person could plant the seeds of God's word. God's word on anybody's lips can give knowledge, can give information and can plant a seed. But when it comes to actually winning someone to Christ, when it comes to actually begetting someone, like Paul said, I begat Onesimus and my bonds. When Paul said to the Galatians that I travel and birth to bring you forth, when Paul said to the Corinthians, I begat you in Christ, that takes a saved person to do that. A false prophet can't do that. That's why when people point out to me and say, oh, well, not all the King James Bible translators were saved, I just think to myself, well, good, I'm glad they dedicated their lives to language and study and translation then since they wouldn't have been any good at solvening if they weren't saved. I'm glad that they spent their lives studying then so that they could actually do something of value that God could use them for his glory, whichever of them were not saved. Folks, at the end of the day, only a saved person can win someone to Christ. That's why I want to dedicate my life to getting people saved because only saved people can do that. Let the unsaved people do other things. Let the dead bury the dead. Let's go preach the kingdom of God. That's something that only we can do as saved Christians and obviously there are millions and millions of saved Christians. Not all of them bring forth fruit. Some of them are without fruit, but if they're bringing forth evil fruit and corrupt fruit, then you know they're not even saved. They're a bad tree. Corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. I don't know, I just keep repeating this over and over again because I want to ingrain this. The good tree can't bring forth bad fruit. The bad tree can't bring forth good fruit. It's that simple. Go to Matthew 12. This is a great verse that illustrates this. What's the title of the sermon? Aaron's rod that budded. How do we identify the man of God? How do we identify right leadership? Who do we listen to? Who do we follow as they follow Christ? He who's rod budded. He who brings forth good fruit. Look at Matthew 12.33. Either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his fruit. He's saying, look, you're not making any sense if you say, oh, great fruit, bad tree. You're not making any sense. Oh, it's a great tree, it's just the fruit's bad. That makes no sense. You have to pick. Either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. Let me give an example. There are so many people who look at the children of parents who are Christian, godly parents who spank their children and rear them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and they just love the product, don't they? They look at the children and they say, wow, your children are so well behaved. They're so happy. They're such good kids. I can't even control my one kid or my two kids and here you have this whole gaggle of good kids. How do you do it? Well, you know, we follow the Bible, ugh, I don't want to hear that. Well, we use spanking as discipline, ugh, ugh, well, we take them to church three times a week, ugh, read them the Bible every day. They don't want that. But guess what? They like the fruit. Well, it's time to start liking the tree then if you like the fruit because the fruit is the product of the tree and either the tree is good and the fruit is good or the tree is corrupt and the fruit is corrupt. You can't sit there and say, oh, man, I love the fruit. Look at all these wonderful children and then you show them the tree, oh, that's a bad tree. And look, sometimes it can be an ugly tree but I'd rather have an ugly tree bringing forth good fruit than a beautiful tree that's without fruit because, you know, Lucifer is pretty beautiful too. The devil's transformed into an angel of light. You know, the Roman Catholic Church is a pretty beautiful tree sometimes, isn't it? All the stained glass and the organ music and all the incense burning, hey, the Orthodox Church can be a beautiful tree. Some of these Protestant churches or liberal fund centers, man, they've got a beautiful tree. It's so fancy. It's so nice. But the tree brings forth corrupt fruit. You know, when we first moved here, my wife was really excited about some orange trees that we saw in public and so she pulls over the car and plucks an orange and starts to eat it and bleh. It was like a decorative orange tree. It was not fit for consumption but it looked great. But it was a type of tree that had been bred for looks and the fruit was not edible. It was not a tree that you would actually eat the fruit. It was just decorative. Well guess what? That's what a lot of these churches are. They're that decorative tree that brings forth corrupt and on the outside, we couldn't tell the difference. We're looking at it. We can't tell the difference. But when we started to check the fruit, you know, think about how foolish it would have been if we tried the first five and they were all bad and then we said, I still think this is a good tree. Let's go get a bush. Let's fill up a vessel. Let's just completely harvest this tree. And in fact, let's take the seeds from this and let's go plant those seeds in our yard so that we can have this exact kind of fruit tree. I mean, I know these are bad. It'd be ridiculous, wouldn't it? The tree is known by its fruit. Go if you would to Ephesians chapter 5. We're just going to turn to two more places quickly. Ephesians chapter 5 and then we're going to turn to Jeremiah chapter 1. You know, it reminded me of this verse in Matthew 12 when a guy came and visited our church. This is like a blogger who writes about different issues and he came and visited our church and he wrote an article about our church and at the beginning of the article, he talked about what a bad preacher I am and how he preached all this bad stuff, all this crazy stuff, all these wrong things. Then he spends the whole article talking about how great our church is and he's talking about how I expected the church to be filled with bozos. I expected the church to be filled with weirdos and idiots but he said, I went around and I talked to people and he said, people love the Lord. They were talking about the things of God. They were nice people. They were normal people. And he said, I would love to have these kind of people in my own church and I would love to have these kind of conversations, what I overheard walking around after the service. I would love for those kind of conversations to be happening in my church. I would love for these kind of people. But then he ends the article again by, yeah, you know, now if only Stephen Anderson would start preaching the truth. But how can you say, oh, that's a bad preacher but we love the church? You know, or, oh, great preacher but all of his people are just complete idiots. It's like, well, there's a little bit of a cognitive dissonance here, isn't there? Either the, you know, the tree is good, the fruit is, if Faithful Word Baptist Church is a good church, that means that we're going to produce good fruit. So what does that mean? That means that we're going to have a positive influence. More soul winning is going to happen. More people are going to be brought closer to God. More people are going to be saved. More people are going to be reached. Other churches will become better as a result of us being friends with them as opposed to us dragging people down, tearing people down, bringing in ungodliness and stuff. And I can't even count how many people said, Pastor Anderson, you, you're the reason why I'm saved but you're a total false teacher. You are the fruit. And then you turn around and tell me that I'm the problem? And then you say, well, you've changed, Pastor Anderson, yeah, I got nicer. You should listen to my old sermons, the angry years, all right? People think I'm mean now. The first, those first few years are rough. There was no smiling, no humor, it was just, ah, you know. So you know, people act like, oh, you're so mean. You've gotten so mean. You've gotten so bitter. My wife's laughing. I was more bitter back then, you know, but, but you know, well, I don't like that preaching, but man, I love the results of the preaching. You know, hard preaching is ugly sometimes. I'll just come right out and say it. Sometimes hard preaching can be ugly. Sometimes people cringe a little bit when they hear hard preaching, don't they, right? Who's ever heard some hard preaching and kind of cringe a little bit, be honest. But isn't it amazing how it helps you to actually get the sin out of your life and you actually walk away a better Christian, even though you cringe a little bit, even though it gets a little ugly and look, child rearing gets ugly sometimes. Everything, look, everything in life gets a little ugly sometimes. That's the way the world works. I mean, if you were to go out and butcher animals for a living, that's an ugly job, but you love that. A cheeseburger is beautiful, right? You know, at the end of the day, that turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, nothing more beautiful than that turkey sitting there with all the figs. But you know what? Killing that turkey is an ugly job, isn't it? So basically sometimes the pastor's up here just ripping the heads off chickens and turkeys and slaughtering cows and pigs and they're just kind of like flopping around and the blood's coming out. I mean, the blood's mingling in the dirt and the mud and the muck and then we're opening up the chest cavity of this cow and we're taking out the guts. We're taking out. And it's like, oh man, it's so ugly. I want to go to a soy Baptist because you don't have all this ugliness. Folks, tofu is going to be a more beautiful process. Seeing the little soy plants grow and harvesting the soybeans and washing them and preparing them and processing them. But at the end of the day, we don't want to eat tofu. We want to eat the cheeseburger. It's a beautiful thing. But sometimes it can be ugly. Okay? Look, sometimes there's that ugly, gnarly tree branch that brings forth a bunch of fruit. Amen? Or would we rather have the perfect pristine tree branch and the fruit's like, bleh. Because it's not for human consumption. It doesn't taste good. It's not nutritious. There's something wrong with it. The tree is known by its fruit. We'd rather have the rod that butted. Okay? And yes, hard preaching can sometimes be ugly, but hard preaching gets the job done. What's the proof? Where's the proof? How dare you get up and say hard preaching works? Where's your proof? Because hard preaching is the rod that has butted. Look at the last generation. Look at all the rods of the last generation and tell me which one butted. It was the one where they were preaching hard on sin. It was the one where they were knocking doors and winning souls. And I'm a product of that. I'm a product of hard preaching. I'm a product of the soul-winning church. I'm a product of my parents who raised me with the rod that butted. The sailboat rod brought forth fruit in my life. They spanked me with what's called a sailboat rod. I don't even know anything about sailing. I don't know how much they knew about sailing. But they had the sailboat rod. That's what they spanked me with. And you know what the Bible says? No chastening seemeth for the present to be joyous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness than that are exercised thereby. So is chastening joyous? Is getting a spanking joyous? Is getting a whipping joyous? No, but it brings forth fruit, the Bible said in Hebrews 12. It brings forth the fruit of righteousness when you get chastened, when you get chastised. That spanking rod is a rod that buds. This bud's for you, kids. That rod buddeth on your buddeth. So look, that rod is a fruitful rod. It's not fun spanking or being spanked. It hurts us more than it hurts you, kids. We don't like spanking kids. But it brings forth fruit. It's a rod that buds. Leadership in the church should be a budding rod. There should be good fruit that's brought forth from the preaching, from the prophets, from the leaders. The spanking rod buddeth. Hard preaching buddeth. Soul winning buddeth. Aaron's rod buddeth. That which is ordained by God brings forth almonds. It brings forth blossoms. Amen? So let's finish up. We're there in Ephesians 5. It says in verse 11, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. He's talking about people that look good on the outside, but there's no fruit there. And he says, I'm not even going to tell you what they do in secret, because it's a shame for me to even talk about it, but let me just guarantee you that when you see the unfruitfulness, there's something wicked going on behind closed doors. When you see a lack of fruitfulness, there's something wicked there. It's a shame even to speak of the things that are done of them in secret, those who are the unfruitful works of darkness. Look, if I want to listen to God's word preached, I want to listen to someone whose rod has butted. If I want to get parenting advice, I want to get parenting advice from someone whose kids have turned out right. If I want to get business advice, I want to get advice from someone who's running a successful business. Isn't this just common sense? It's the same concept that Christ is trying to teach here. Okay? In any area of life you could apply this, whether it's business, family, nutrition. I mean, are you going to find the most unhealthy person, and they're going to give you nutrition advice? Somebody who's totally underweight or overweight or out of shape, and they're going to be like, oh, let me give you the nutrition advice. You'd be like, come on, you know, I want to get someone where I can see the fruit of the advice in their life. I want to see the fruit. I want to see the product, right? What's the product of that church? Well, we can go soloing and we can find out and figure out which churches. Look, I have a pretty good idea of which churches in the Phoenix area are pretty good churches and which ones are pretty good. Because I'll get on a string of people from that church, saved, saved, saved, saved, saved, that's a good indicator. And then I'll get on another church, not saved, not saved, not saved, saved, not saved, not saved, saved, not saved, not saved. That's a pretty good indicator that that's a bad church and that the people that are there that are saved probably got saved somewhere else and are there in spite of that. And you know what? A lot of these trash can churches, by the way, that are just filled with disgruntled, faithful word listeners, that's the whole church, disgruntled fans of faithful word. How's that for fruit? Without fruit? Their only fruit is to take people that have already been reached by someone else and then just teach them false doctrine. Instead of actually reaching new people, bringing in new people and having a positive net effect on their life, right? Actually either winning them to Christ or teaching them to be a godly Christian. Whatever. Look at Jeremiah chapter 1. I'll finish with Jeremiah. It says in verse 4, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before that came as forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. So Jeremiah is being ordained as a prophet, but he's a little bit apprehensive because he has a humble view of himself. So he said, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I'm a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not I'm a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. And by the way, here's the sign of a great leader. Typically, they have to be talked into doing the leading. Have you noticed that in the Bible? Virtually every great leader in the Bible had to be talked into it. Moses had to be talked into it. Peter said, Jesus, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. And he said, No, Peter, follow me, I'll make you fish to the man. Frequently in the Bible, good leaders had to be convinced, had to be talked into it. You have these people that are just so anxious to be a pastor, so anxious to get in there, and they just have to. And as soon as they find out they're not going to be ordained, it's like, Ah, I've got to go somewhere. Because they're just hell-bent on, I've got to be ordained in six months, or I've got to go shop around to somewhere else. Good leadership typically is a little bit apprehensive. People are saying, Hey, would you lead? Would you fill in the gap here? Would you do this? It's not like, I've got to do it. So Jeremiah's reluctant, he has to be talked into it. God says to him in verse 8, Be not afraid of their faces. I'm with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I've put my words in thy mouth. See, I've set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms. Look at Jeremiah's ministry. To root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, but don't miss the last two points, to build and to plant. So Jeremiah's ministry is not all going to be negative. It's not going to be all destructive. Now, is there some destruction involved? Yeah, he's going to have to do some demolition work. But is he just all demolition all the time? No, because he's got to build and he's got to plant. Watch, now God is going to give a sign to show Jeremiah that he is going to do this ministry. Because remember, he's a little bit nervous. He's a little bit humble in his view of himself. So it says in verse 11, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Now remember, nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental. Why a rod of an almond tree? Remember the story about Aaron's rod that butted. What did it bear? Almonds. I see a rod of an almond tree, then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it. And then he moves on to another subject. So what does he mean there when he says, hey, you have well seen the rod of an almond tree. That is the sign that I'm giving you, Jeremiah. I'm showing you a rod of an almond tree so that you will know that I'll perform my word. What word specifically? Setting him up a prophet to the nations to do what? To tear down, to destroy, pull down, root out, throw down, and to build and to plant. He's saying, Jeremiah, you will have a rod. Obviously, he's going to have to crack some skulls with that rod. Obviously, he's going to have that rod of being a leader and speaking some harsh things. But he said, you know what, you're also going to plant. You're going to build your... You know what he's saying, Jeremiah? You're going to bring forth fruit. You are going to have a fruitful ministry. And you know, there are ministries online. All they do is just destroy, root out, pull down, throw down. People are like, man, I'm loving this hard preaching. This guy knows how to throw down. This guy really is ripping some face. Man, okay, but is there any fruit? Is there any building going on? Is there any planting going on? Or is it just all negative all the time? You know, and look, we could go on and on about examples. You know, one famous example is the Westboro Baptist. False prophet. The guy had a wrong salvation, wrong gospel, wrong doctrine, not saved, total heresy. And he's just getting up and just ripping on homos all the time. But when did he ever get up and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ? Never. When did he ever have a positive message about reaching people with the gospel, winning souls, all the good things? Never. Why? Because he had no fruit. He's without fruit, twice dead. He's a tree whose fruit withered, okay? Jeremiah was told, you're going to do some destructive things in your ministry because we've got to tear down some strongholds. You know, we've got to break down some of these edifices that Satan has set up. But he tells him, you're going to build and plant as well. There's going to be some production that's going to happen. You're going to be fruitful. And he said, here, let me give you a sign. Here's a rod of an almond tree. Here's a rod that budded for you. And it's no coincidence that they're both almonds because this is to jog us in our memory to Aaron's rod that budded. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and for this guidance. Lord, I pray that we would take your advice to know the false prophets by their fruit, Lord. And also, Lord, just in every area of life, help us to make the tree good and his fruit good. And help us to realize that what you teach in the Bible, if we put those things into practice, good fruit is going to be the result because the Bible is a good tree. Help us to enjoy the good fruit of your word by putting your word into practice in our lives, Lord. Help us to go to a church that's a fruit-bearing church. Help us to listen to preaching and teaching from those whose rod buds. And, Lord, help us always to follow your advice over what other people might tell us. Help us remember the words that you spake unto us. Beware of false prophets. They come to us in sheep's clothing. Inwardly, they're ravening wolves. Help us to know them by their fruits, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.