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

I pray, amen. Amen. Ezekiel chapter number 44, we're continuing this section from chapters 40 through 48. And if you remember at the beginning of the section, it started out just talking about a building or measuring that building. Then it kind of becomes apparent that it's the temple. Then he flat out says that it's the temple. And then he slowly starts getting into some of the ordinances and some of the rules about that temple. Then the Lord showed up in chapter 43 and explicitly told them, hey, tell the children of Israel to mark this pattern well, that this building that you're looking at, this temple, it's a pattern of what they're supposed to basically build when they come back. Because he said, show it to the children of Israel so that they can do it, so that they can build and do it according to the form thereof and the fashion thereof. And we talked about all that last week. And then it started going over some of the ordinances and regulations about how that's gonna work, the system with the temple and the priests and the Levites and everything like that. So in this chapter, we're more into those rules of how things are supposed to go when they get back from the Babylonian captivity. This is what they're supposed to do. And of course, throughout this series, we've been talking about the fact that there's a false doctrine out there that claims that this is somehow the millennium and this is an end times passage. And of course, that's ridiculous in light of the fact that these are all Old Testament type ordinances, animal sacrifices and so forth. And I've already preached all that. I'm not gonna redo that. I just want you to have that in your mind as we go forward here. So in verse number one, it says, then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary, which looked toward the east and it was shut. Then said the Lord unto me, this gate shall be shut. It shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it. Therefore, it shall be shut. And we talked about that last week, how Ezekiel saw that vision of the Lord in all of his glory with the wheels within the wheels and everything coming toward him and how he approached from the east and his glory filled the house of God and so forth. And so that's what he's referring to here of man should not enter by that door because the Lord has entered in by it. Therefore, it shall be shut. Now, this goes to the fact that we should not try to be God or try to take the place of God or even try to be equal to God. We need to understand our place. There are false religions out there whose goal is to become God. Now, it's not just what you're thinking because you're thinking the Mormons, right? And you're right, okay? Because one of the most famous quotes from an early Mormon leader all the way back to the 1800s was as man is God once was and as God is man may become. And so they believe literally that our God used to be a man on some other planet somewhere and he achieved Godhood and that now this is his planet and basically we could do the same thing according to the Mormons where if we go through all the rituals and do everything, we could someday be our own God of our own planet and obviously that is super blasphemous and satanic because if you stop and think about it, this is what the offered man literally as the first temptation in the Garden of Eden, he said, if you eat of that tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, you can be as God's knowing good and evil. Now, a lot of people will say, well, the reason that Satan fell is because he wanted to replace God but in reality, what he actually said was, I will be like the Most High which doesn't even necessarily mean that he's trying to replace God but that he's trying to be on the same level as God. Even if he's not trying to excel God or go beyond God or take the place of God, he wanted to be as the Most High. He wanted to be on par or on the level with God and many people think that the devil and God are on the same level like there's the good and the evil and they're fighting each other. Folks, there's no fight. When the fight happens in the Bible, it's between the devil and Michael the Archangel. They're on the same level. Satan and Michael are on the same level. God's up here. God, if he wanted to, could just snap his fingers right now and the devil would cease to exist or the devil would go down. God is omnipotent. He's all-powerful and in fact, someday the devil will be confined to hell for 1,000 years and at the end of the 1,000 years, then God will release the devil from hell because God is the one who has the power to bind him and cast him into the bottomless pit and then pull him out when he wants to pull him out and so the devil is not an opponent for God. He's our adversary, the devil. He is not God's equal or adversary or opponent in that sense because they're not on the same level. The devil is a created being that is inferior to the Lord in every way. In his pride and arrogancy, he wanted to be like the Most High, that's absurd but yet human beings wanting to be like the Most High is even more absurd because the Bible says that angels are greater in might and power than we are. So if angels are greater in power and might than we are and if Michael the archangel is on a higher level than we are in the sense that he's more powerful and when Jesus became a human being, the Bible says Jesus was made a little lower than the angels to become a human being. So the point is that if Michael the archangel is on the same level as Satan, it's absurd for Satan to think he could be like the Most High but it's even more ridiculous for us to think that we can ever be like the Most High and so I don't wanna be God, I don't wanna be like God, I don't wanna be as God, I wanna be a humble servant of God for all eternity. You know, I'm just perfectly happy to just be a servant and way down the totem pole from the Lord and spend the rest of my existence throughout all eternity worshiping the Lord, following him around and doing what he says. I'm not trying to be on his level or achieve some kind of union with him or an apotheosis as we'll sometimes hear it called and this isn't just Mormonism, my friend, because Hindus are teaching the same thing. Hindus are trying to achieve union with God. In fact, the word yoga literally means union. It's related to our English word yoke and I'm not just making that up. That's a real etymological connection because Sanskrit, the language of Hinduism is an Indo-European language and it literally is where we get our word yoke and yoga. They both come from the same proto Indo-European root and so that's why I don't wanna do yoga. I'm gonna find another way to stretch because I don't want to do something that's called union because I'm not trying to get unified with what the Hindus are trying to get unified with because they're trying to achieve union with God. They wanna like literally merge with God and become one being with God. Of course, they have a different name for God and they have their different false deities that they worship but they believe in one major supreme deity and their goal is to someday merge with that deity and in a sense, become one with God or to become God in that sense. But it's not just the Mormons, it's not just the Hindus but also the East Orthodox Church. Now we don't really hear typically as Baptist a lot of preaching against the East Orthodox Church because here in America, we're usually preaching against the Roman Catholics because that's something that we deal with a lot more in the English speaking world. But when you go outside the English speaking world into say the Eastern European world, Greek speaking world, Russian speaking world, Eastern Orthodoxy is huge, okay? Roman Catholicism has like a billion people but East Orthodox is around 500 million people or something. It's an incredibly large religion and it is just as bad as the Roman Catholic Church as far as teaching work salvation, being apostate and not following the Bible but they even have some features unique to the East Orthodox Church that are even worse than Roman Catholicism because at least the Roman Catholicism isn't teaching this doctrine of becoming one with God but the East Orthodox believe that someday they could achieve union with God and basically become God, become one with God or something. Folks, this is a false doctrine. We are distinct beings from God. We will never be as God. We will never be like God. We will never be God. And we're not trying to merge and become one with God and just get absorbed into him or something like that. No, I will continue to be Steven Anderson for the rest of my life and beyond my life and for eternal life, a humble servant of the Lord, okay? And so watch out for this heresy of merging with God or becoming one with God or being as gods. You know, it's what the devil said in the Garden of Eden. And then in Isaiah 14, 12, when he's cast out, it says, I will be like the most high and he's cast out of heaven, okay? So that's what I take from chapter 44 verse two here. Hey, that gate is for the Lord, he enters in by it. Don't try to be God, don't try to be like God. There are certain things that are for God and certain things that are for you and keep that separate, okay? Stay humble. So it says that nobody's gonna enter in by it because the Lord, the God of Israel has entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince, the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter in by the way of the porch of that gate and he shall go out by the way of the same. So the prince does use this gate, but he does not enter in by the gate the way that the Lord did. He does it through like a sideway. He resides there, he basks in the Lord's glory there, but he's not supposed to enter in through it the way that the Lord did because he's a man and the Bible's putting a difference here. Now, some people might say like, well, who is this prince? And of course, this wrong doctrine that we've been talking about over the past few weeks, when you listen to what they say, they say, oh, the identity of this prince is a mystery. And you know, and it's a mystery because when you foist false doctrine onto the Bible, then it's easy to get confused. There's nothing mysterious about who the prince is. The prince is simply the political ruler of the children of Israel, that's it. So when they get back from Babylon, his name is Zerubbabel, that's his name, mystery solved. It was Zerubbabel with the candlestick in the library. There's no mystery here. We don't have to wonder who this is. When he says the prince, he's talking about the ruler of the people. And the word prince is frequently used throughout the Bible to denote the top ruler. It's not like what we think of England or something, the Prince of Wales or something. Typically the prince is the top guy, okay? It could mean the son of a king because it's the firstborn son of the king and prince literally means the first guy, the top guy. So sometimes the firstborn son of a king is called a prince, but often the king himself is referred to as the prince because he's the principal ruler. You go to the school and the principal is what? He's the guy running the school. The prince is the leader, but he's not the religious leader, he's not the high priest, he's the political leader. He's like the king, but maybe he's not necessarily a king. Maybe he's a governor or a chancellor or a president or whatever you wanna call it, but he is the top political ruler. That's what we're talking about in this passage, in this context. So the prince, the political leader, is the guy who's gonna sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. And this is why the dispies and the Judaizers and the pretribbers, the reason that they think this guy is such a mystery is they're like, wait, I thought Jesus is rolling and raining in Jerusalem. So who's this prince? So then they come up with this whole big story about, oh, well, the prince is like this other guy who kind of rules, but he's kind of Jesus's deputy. Come on. The Bible flat out says that when Jesus returns, that the 12 apostles are gonna sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Where's this lieutenant governor come in? It doesn't. Arizona doesn't have a lieutenant governor either, by the way. So there's no prince that is gonna be in the end times except Jesus, the prince of peace. He's gonna be the prince. So they have to kind of do these mental gymnastics about who this prince is. And they can't say it's Jesus because if you get in chapter 46, he's offering a bunch of animal sacrifices and he also has children. It's talking about how his sons are gonna inherit property and stuff. And obviously, Jesus doesn't have sons who inherit property. We're all his sons spiritually, but Jesus doesn't have physical children. And so the prince here, he eats bread before the Lord. He enters by the way of the porch of that gate and shall go out by the way. The same seems like a kind of a side door or something, whatever. Now, we talk a lot in the United States about the separation of church and state. And I do believe in that because of the fact that scripture does put a separation when it comes to, let's say, Old Testament Israel, where you have the king over here and then you have the high priest. And when the king tried to do the job of the high priest like when Uriah enters the temple, God punishes him and he's not supposed to do that. And so there should be a separation in that sense. And obviously, we don't want the government controlling church. We don't want a state-run church. We don't want a state-run Protestant church or Catholic church like they have in Germany or something. So we do want there to be a separation of powers between these things. But at the same time, the prince or the ruler of the people should be one who in a perfect world would be believing in Christ, loving the Lord, following God's commandments. Obviously, that's the best kind of leader that we could want. And so we don't want the state to be officially involved in church, but it would be great to have Christian leaders. And it would be great if our leaders would actually follow the Bible and follow God's commandments. We don't want them legislating the church. And I personally don't want my tax dollars going toward religion simply because the government's gonna send it to the wrong religion. You wanna pay taxes in Arizona to further Christianity. They might give it to the Catholics or the Mormons. They're not gonna necessarily be promoting the actual gospel of Jesus Christ. So we need to leave the church to the church and spiritual things to God's people. Render to Caesar the things that be Caesar's. Render to God the things that are God's. But on that same token though, obviously our leaders have beliefs, don't they? They worship Satan. That's their religion. But anyway, they have their beliefs. And it's impossible for them to just turn off those beliefs when they go to the capital to make laws. Obviously if they're a Mormon, if they're a Catholic, if they're Baptist, if they're a Hindu, if they're a Muslim, that's gonna influence them. That's who they are. That's their morality. That's what they believe. And if they're an atheist or an agnostic, that's gonna affect the decisions that they make as well. So obviously we want Christians leading us. And there's nothing wrong with our leaders praying in Jesus' name or talking about the Bible or something. Sometimes we want this separation to be too extreme. And so there should be an official separation. But as far as in people's hearts, there shouldn't be a separation. I think our government should be run 100% by Christians. No Hindus allowed. No Muslims allowed. No atheists allowed. I think that'd be great. We're supposed to be a Christian nation here. But our government, they take this thing so far of separation of church and state, and they're like, well, we don't wanna promote any one religion, so let's open the Congress with a Hindu praying. This is not a Hindu country. It's never been a Hindu country. Our government is not supposed to be run by Hindus. The point of our government is that it's supposed to give freedom to minorities, but it's not supposed to just do everything for the minorities and just say like, oh, well, we gotta be equal to the Hindus and the Muslims and whatever. And so lately they've been doing this thing where Hindus will literally pray in Congress to open up Congress, and some people freaked out. There was one congressman that had to be dragged out, I remember, a few years ago, because he stood up and just started praying loudly like, dear Lord, I'm so sorry for this abomination that's happening right now that this guy is praying to the devil right now or whatever. Maybe I'm making the guy sound cooler than he was, but he did something like that and dragged out, yeah. Anyway, I'm sure it's out there somewhere. All right, let's move on. Then brought he me the way of the North Gate before the house, and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell upon my face, verse four. And the Lord said unto me, Son of man, mark well and behold with thine eyes and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee, concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord and all the laws thereof, and mark well the entering in of the house and every going forth of the sanctuary. And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, dost say it to the Lord God, O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations. He's saying, look, I'm sick of all your garbage. I'm sick of your abominations. You're rebellious. He's saying you need to preach hard against these people and tell them that they need to listen and pay attention to God's word and to run God's house according to God's word. God's house is not supposed to just be a free for all where anything goes. We need to listen to what God has said in the Bible and make sure that what we do in church matches the Bible and not to just do it how we want to do it and bring in all kinds of abominations. Now let's get specific here. And that you brought in to my sanctuary strangers uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. Now obviously we're not living in the Old Testament with a sanctuary per se that can't be defiled by the uncircumcised entering. But here's what we need to understand. The things that are taught in the Old Testament law and this passage is like a law passage. This is similar to a passage that we would find in say the book of Exodus or Deuteronomy. In fact Ezekiel 44 would be right at home if we just popped it out of our Bible and just stuck it in Deuteronomy or something. It would fit right in, right? You kind of feel like you're reading Deuteronomy or Exodus because God's laying down some law here. He's given a little bit of a refresher on the law. And in these books of the law, obviously he's laying down ordinances and statutes that don't literally apply in 2022 because we're not in the Old Covenant. We don't have a temple and a holy place and Levites and priests and so forth. But yet all scripture is still in the New Testament profitable for doctrine. And so what we need to understand is that the teachings of the Old Testament law are still instructive to us because they symbolize teachings that still apply today. So like for example, in the Old Testament he says don't bring into my sanctuary strangers that are uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh. Now the first thing we see right away is that this concept of the circumcision of the heart already existed in the Old Testament. This is big in the New Testament, right? Romans chapter two says he's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart and of the spirit not in the letter whose praise is not a minimum but of God. So in the New Testament, we're not physically circumcised, some of us are but you know, our parents didn't ask our opinion. But we're circumcised of heart. We're spiritually circumcised in the New Testament. We don't circumcise our children physically in the New Testament but we're spiritually circumcised by the circumcision made without hands. And the Bible's big on that. But here's what we need to understand. The Old Testament is different than the New Testament. A lot of people could read a scripture like this and say oh, circumcision's always been of the heart. But notice what God said. He said that no one who's uncircumcised of flesh or heart is supposed to enter the temple. Am I right? He doesn't just say hey, it's just the heart that matters. No, he said nobody who's uncircumcised of flesh or of heart should be entering. That's the difference in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, you had to be physically circumcised in order to be in compliance with God's laws, period. In the New Testament, it's only the circumcision of the heart. We don't have the physical carnal ordinance of circumcision. We only have the circumcision of the heart. In the Old Testament, you had both. Does everybody see that? So it's not that it was always the heart. No, no, it was always the heart, you're right. But back then, you had to do both. You couldn't just say hey man, it's just the heart. I'm not gonna get circumcised. You wouldn't have been right with God in the Old Covenant. You had to be circumcised. Whereas the New Covenant is just the heart. So there's a difference there between Old and New Testament. But when he says, well you brought in these strangers uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh to be in my sanctuary and you brought in these people that are polluting God's house and it's being polluted with abomination, how could we apply that in the New Testament today? Well, the Bible teaches that the church is the house of God. It says that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. You know, what I take from this, we know the circumcision of the heart in the New Testament has to do with being saved. If you're saved, you're circumcised with that circumcision made without hands, okay? Romans 2, Colossians 2, et cetera. And so here's the thing, we should not seek to fill the church with unsaved people, okay? The church is a called-out assembly of born-again baptized believers. That is what the New Testament church is, a called-out assembly of born-again baptized believers, okay? It is not meant to be just a place where we just get as many bodies in the building as we can to hear the preaching as we can. We're not just trying to just get as many people in here. Now look, if we bring an unsaved visitor because we want them to hear the word of God, preach, we wanna expose them to church, wanna expose them to the things of God, we wanna expose them to the gospel, great. I am all for you bringing an unsaved visitor to Faithful Word Baptist Church to expose them to preaching, to get them to hear the word of God. Maybe someone can witness to them. But you know, I think what would be better than that is if you witness to them yourself. Because if you're a saved Christian, you should be able to present the gospel to your friends and loved ones yourself. But let's say you've already attempted to do that, or let's say you've done that, or maybe you didn't even have an opportunity to do that. You know, there were times when I would get co-workers to come with me to church when I was a teenager who I hadn't had the opportunity to really give a clear presentation of the gospel at work. So I would bring them to church and get them exposed to church a little bit, and then maybe give them the gospel after the service, or whatever, and I brought a lot of unsaved people to my church when I was a teenager, Regency Baptist Church, and I am 100% for that. I don't want you to misunderstand. Let's bring unsaved people as a visitor to church. Great, but here's the thing. We don't want our church to just be filled with a bunch of unsaved people who are just like part of the church, and they're just not even saved. Now, if we have one or two people like that, we have one or two people kind of floating around who've been coming for a long time that are unsaved, that's not really a big deal, but what about if we had a church where 25% of the church body was not saved, or 50% of the church body isn't saved? You'd say, oh, it's great. We got all these unsaved people to preach to. It's great. You'd be like, wait a minute. There's something wrong with this church here, okay? Because it's not really a church anymore because a church is supposed to be a congregation of believers. So if a large proportion of the congregation isn't saved, that's not normal, that's not healthy, that's not right. We shouldn't have a goal of just getting unsaved people to come to our church without getting saved. We could have a goal of bringing unsaved people so that they'll get saved. But if they're not gonna get saved, if they're not interested in getting saved, I'm not interested in them coming to our church. Why would I want a bunch of unsaved people at the church? Because then I'm gonna start gearing my sermon toward unsaved people. And then the saved people aren't getting what they need. This is for us, not them. Church is for the edification of the saints, for the body of Christ. That's why I don't get up and preach the plan of salvation three times a week. I've been to churches where every Sunday morning, it's a salvation message, every Sunday morning. And let me tell you something, it gets pretty boring the 150th time when you're saved and you're listening to the 150th salvation sermon in a row on a Sunday morning. That's not what I need, buddy, I'm already saved. And I've heard these pastors defend it and say like, well, if you get tired of hearing the gospel, there's something wrong with you spiritually. It's not that I'm tired of hearing the gospel, it's that I'm tired of hearing it from you every Sunday morning, okay? Because you aren't creative enough to preach the other 1,188 chapters or whatever, and you just wanna just keep on hammering the same salvation message every Sunday morning. Well, we got these visitors or whatever. Look, if unsaved visitors come, and by the way, don't expect me to tailor my sermon to your unsaved visitor either. Now, sometimes people will come to me and say, hey, Pastor Anderson, I'm bringing this loved one, hint, hint, you know, don't say anything too crazy. But here's the thing, you know, and I'm not offended by that at all. When people say, hey, I'm bringing a loved one, I'm rejoicing with you, I'm excited about that. And sometimes they'll say, hey, maybe you could hit on this particular point because they need to hear that. You know, I wanna oblige, I wanna help you out. I wanna help reach your loved one. I don't wanna, you know, offend them for no reason, okay, and I'm sorry if I've done that in the past. But like, I get it, but at the same time, if I have some red hot sermon planned and you bring a visitor, I'm probably not gonna just put that away and just pull out, you know, my Easter sermon or something. Because honestly, I really have to give priority to the body of Christ here, not your unsafe visitor. You know, if I can accommodate you concerning your unsafe visitor, I'll do it, but not at the expense of dramatically changing my sermon or my preaching. And by the way, we almost always have visitors. We have visitors every single Sunday morning and we often have visitors on the evening services. You know, I'm not, I really don't worry about it. I'm preaching to you guys. You know who I'm preaching to? The diehards. I'm preaching to you guys who are here week after week. And you know what? And by the way, on Sunday morning, my sermon's more about the Wednesday night crowd. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not like, oh, I gotta really tailor this to the Sunday morning people. You know, the people who come three times a week, that's who I tailor my preaching to three times a week. You know, so I'm not one that's gonna tailor my sermon to the guy who comes three times a year, the guy who comes on Christmas, Easter, every once in a blue. I'm tailoring it to the guy who comes three times a week, okay? And you know, if you're a diehard, you should like that. That, you know, Pastor Anderson's preaching to me. He's teaching at my level. He's preaching stuff that I need to hear. That's what church is about. It's for us, not them. And the problem is that today, a lot of churches, they're getting too into bringing in the uncircumcised. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, they're all about just bringing in visitors and bringing in unsaved people, and they'll have people come to the church for years unsaved, because their gospel's so watered down that nobody knows what they believe. And people are even taking this further now, where they're saying that they wanna have a homos in the service. They're saying like, well, we gotta bring homos into the church so we can reach the homos. Now look, if God's saying in the Old Testament, don't bring in these strangers into my temple because they're gonna defile it with their abominations. You know, how about a New Testament application of don't bring people into God's house that are gonna defile it with their abominations. Don't fill it up with unsaved people who are gonna defile it with their abominations. Hey, if you wanna bring in an unsaved visitor who gets on our program, who sits down and participates in our service and listens to my sermon as is, and I'm not gonna change my sermon for them, then you know what? That's great. I'm for that 100%. But we're not gonna bring in the visitor and have the visitor tell us how the service is gonna go. The visitor's not gonna come get behind the pulpit, and we're not gonna have unsaved people speaking behind the pulpit and coming in and dictating our service. No, we're gonna run things here, and it's gonna be run for saved Christians. And if unsaved people are listening in, great, but we're sure not gonna bring some dude in drag into the house of God, okay? And folks, I understand we're not in some kind of a legalistic, old covenant type of a system, but the principles from the Old Testament still broadly apply in the New Testament. And if God wanted his house to be holy in the Old Testament, he wants it to be holy in the New Testament. Now, it's different. Back then, holiness meant be circumcised, be clean, be physically clean and follow all these rituals. Well, guess what holiness looks like in the New Testament? It has to do with all things in the house of God being done decently and in order and knowing how to behave ourselves in the house of God. Well, I wonder if knowing how to behave yourself in the house of God also includes a man dressing like a man and a woman dressing like a woman. I mean, if God says we ought to know how to behave ourselves in the house of God, and then we're gonna let some transvestite come to the church, no way. Not on my watch, not while I'm the pastor. I'm not gonna allow it. And you say, well, we gotta reach the homos. Number one, they're reprobate. Number two, if you think you can reach them, why don't you reach them out there? You go win as many homos to the Lord as you want, my friend, and I'm not gonna stop you. Good luck with that. Better you than me. Have fun. Knock yourself out. Just don't bring them here. And so we don't want to defile God's house, to pollute God's house by bringing in a bunch of abominations and saying, oh, we're reaching people. Hey, folks, I wanna reach people, but the Bible said to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 99% of our evangelism happens out there, and 1% of it happens in here. 99% of it happens out there. It's go, not bring. You bring your sheaves with you, that's after they're already harvested. You go get them saved, and then you get them in church. That's the best way to do it. And like I said, I'm not discouraging you from bringing an unsaved visitor who's not a faggot, who's not in drag, who's not here to take over the service and tell us how to run our church. I'm for you bringing him. You know, think about, what if you wanted to go on like a police ride-along or a firefighter ride-along or something? You know, are you just gonna walk in and be like, all right, guys, here's, you know, and you're just gonna start running the fire station? You're gonna start telling the cop, here, pull over here, go drive up here. These are the donuts. We're gonna get my brand of donuts. No, you're gonna follow what he dictates because you're on his turf. Well, let me tell you something. God's house is God's people's turf. And we're not gonna let the strangers and the uncircumcised of heart dictate how we do things in God's house. The music is not gonna be tailored for them. The preaching is not gonna be tailored for them. It's gonna be tailored for us. God's people, saved, born again, baptized believers. And you know what? If a few unsaved people come in here, great. They better get on our program while they're here or they're not welcome. If they wanna come and sing with us and hang out and hear some preaching, great. But if they're gonna come and try to spread heresy and false doctrine, if they're gonna come here and drag, if they're gonna come here, some dude with his boyfriend, no way, because you know what? I don't want my kids to be exposed to that filth in the house of God. Okay, let me just say it. I don't wanna see it, okay? There, I said it. I don't wanna see it. I gotta look at that trash. And you know what? God doesn't expect me to look at that trash. And the Bible says, I'll set no wicked thing before my eyes. So why, do you think God wants me to look at sodomites? No, mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land. And if I'm in public and some sodomites around, guess what I do? I'm just like, I don't even wanna behold them. I didn't wanna look at them. You say, why do you keep bringing this up? Because it's June. I didn't set this month. I didn't put this on the calendar. Did I invent this month? Did I come up with pride month? Is that a Pastor Anderson? I came up with the age-free Christmas, okay? I didn't come up with pride month. This is not my creation. This is not my monster that was created. I'm just here in the same month that you are. And so excuse me if I just kinda kick that dog a few times while I'm here during this month, especially cause I'm leaving. I'm running out of time to save my peace. Although I probably wouldn't be shocked if some of the guest preachers don't maybe touch on that, maybe, I don't know. I'm not saying that they should. I'm just saying. It wouldn't really shock me if it happened. So, you know, be prepared for that, you know? All right, we're not getting very far in this chapter. Let's move forward. Let's keep, this is just, I like this chapter a lot, actually. It's so good. Let's move forward. Verse nine, thus sayeth the Lord God, no stranger uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh. So you see how in the Old Testament, they were to follow the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, shall enter into my sanctuary of any stranger that is among the children of Israel. The house of God, here's the principle that applies in the New Testament. The house of God is for God's people, not strangers. Now look, obviously it's different in the New Testament, but doesn't that principle still broadly apply? God's house is for the saved, not for the unsaved. That's why Ephesians four teaches that church is for the edification of the body of Christ, for the ministry to the saints. The Levites that are gone away far from me, verse 10, when Israel went astray, which went astray from me after their idols, they shall even bear their iniquity. He's saying they're gonna suffer for what they've done. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary. He's saying, look, the Levites, they need to be punished because a lot of them were apostate, but yet he's saying I'm not giving up on the tribe of Levi. The Levites are still, even though a lot of them have gone astray and done idolatry and everything, that's still the family that's gonna be the priesthood when we come back from Babylon. We're not gonna come back from Babylon and pick a new tribe or a new family to be priests. It's gonna be Levi, it's gonna be the sons of Zadok, and of course there's gonna be that all the way up until Jesus replaces that in the New Testament. That's what he's saying here. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary. I'm not excusing their faults, I'm not excusing their idolatries and wrong things, but we're staying with the Levites. They're coming back after Babylon. It says, yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house and ministering to the house. They shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them because they minister unto them before their idols and cause the house of Israel to fall into iniquity. Therefore, if I lifted up my hand against them, sayeth the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity and they shall not come near unto me to do the office of a priest unto me nor to come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place, but they shall bear their shame and the abominations which they have committed. Now what's he saying? He's saying they're still gonna serve God in the house of God, but they're not gonna come to the most holy place. They're the ones who were apostate and the ones who were idolatrous. They're gonna suffer for that. They're gonna be punished, but yet this tribe of Levi's still gonna serve in the house of God, but they're not going to do the office of a priest unto me. They're not going to come near any of my holy things in the most holy place. They shall bear their shame. So he says in verse 14, I'll make them keepers of the charge of the house for all the service thereof and for all that shall be done therein. What he's saying here is that there are a lot of jobs in the house of God that were lesser jobs because the Levites are also just kind of sweeping the floor and cleaning the place up and hauling things around and doing manual labor. I mean, think about it. There's manual labor that gets done around here. And it was the same thing in the Old Testament. If you're gonna be slaughtering all these beasts and doing all these animal sacrifices and have this building, the building's gonna need a maintenance man and you're gonna need to deal with trash. You're gonna need to clean the place up. So there are a lot of menial jobs that the Levites would do, but they're not gonna do the top spiritual jobs if they have been apostate, okay? And this, again, we could kind of carry this over into the New Testament. What's the application in the New Testament? Well, part of the application is that, you know, there are people who are disqualified from ever being a pastor or disqualified from being a deacon, but that doesn't mean that they can't serve God in the church and be greatly used by God, okay? So if you're one who is disqualified, because for example, to be a pastor, you're supposed to be blameless, the husband of one wife and so forth, what if you've been divorced and remarried, okay? You're not qualified to be a pastor, but you could still serve God. You could still be greatly used by God. You can earn more rewards in heaven than me someday. It's not that you're a second-class citizen spiritually, because when it comes to serving God, we can all do great works for God and earn rewards without having a certain title or a position. But there are certain positions that are off-limits to you if you're not qualified. How about females? You know, women can be greatly used by God. I guarantee you that when I get to heaven, there'll be some women rewarded more greatly than I will be, okay? Many that are first shall be last. Many that are last shall be first. There are gonna be some women who are greatly rewarded by God at the judgment seat of Christ, but that doesn't mean that women can be pastors, okay? You know, maybe you have a horrible background, a horrible past. Maybe you've just got a really bad past, and maybe it's been 20, 30 years, but you just have some really horrible things in your past. That's the thing. Put all that behind you, forget all that, and serve God and do great works for God and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, but you're not gonna be a pastor, okay? You're not qualified to be a pastor. You know, a man came to me, and this man had cheated on his wife a long time ago before he was saved. He had cheated on his wife, and he said, you know, would you ever ordain me to be a pastor? And I told him, I said, look, I will never ordain you to be a pastor. I'm not saying that I'm 100% for sure right, but I believe you're permanently disqualified for, you know, sleeping with someone other than your wife, and I said, you know, maybe some other pastor would ordain you. He believes something different, but I'm looking at the qualifications of being faithful and blameless, and I'm thinking, you know, if you've done that before, there's a good chance you could do it again. You've not ruled well your own house. That's a fundamental failure of your leadership as a husband and as a parent, and so I want you to do great things for God. I would allow you to preach. I would allow you to do missions. I think you could preach to great crowds on the mission field, and do great works for God, out soul winning, and do the, but I don't believe you should ever be a pastor or a deacon because you don't meet the qualifications in my opinion, and that's my interpretation of reading those qualifications. Now look, those qualifications don't expect people to be perfect. It doesn't expect their wife to be perfect. It doesn't expect their children to be perfect. It doesn't expect perfection, but here's the thing. Committing adultery is a big deal. Now look, if you've committed adultery in the past, I'm not mad at you. I don't hate you. I don't want to chastise you. I don't want to talk about, I don't want you to tell me about that. I don't even want to, if you've committed adultery, I don't even want to know. Why would I want to know that? Now, if you need to tell me that because you need help and you need me to intervene in a situation, of course you can come to me with stuff like that. I'm saying, I don't want you to just tell me just for the sake of telling me. If you need help, reach out and I'm here to help. And you know what? If you come at me and tell me some horrific thing that involves adultery or something, I'm not going to be shocked because I am a pastor. I do this for a living. I deal with problems probably worse than yours all the time. I deal with problems in our church, outside of our church. I deal with problems, even sometimes when I'm out soul winning. I deal with people from all over the country call me and I help people whenever I can. So, you know, if you have some sordid situation that you need intervention, you need help, you know, reach out to myself, reach out to Corbin, reach out to brother Segura, whoever, you know, that's what the deacon is for. That's what the pastor's for. That's what the staff is for. I'm not telling you not to reach out, but I don't need to know that about you. You know, if you don't need help with that, let's just not talk about it. How about that? I don't need to know bad things from your past. I don't need to know those sordid details, right? I mean, that's, you know, just take it to the cross and leave it there, right? Confess that sin, forsake that sin. There's no reason to bring that out and rehash that and talk about that and go around telling people that. I think unless you need help specifically, you should keep that to yourself, in my opinion. Okay, but here's the thing about that. You're permanently disqualified from ministry, in my opinion, as far as holding these positions. You can still serve in God's house. And you know, that's a principle we see in this chapter. It's possible to serve in God's house without holding those top positions or going near the most holy things. So even if you've really messed up your life and messed up your testimony, God has a place for you in his house. God has work for you to do. There are positions that you can fill. There are great works that you can do for the Lord, but there are certain things that are off limits to you. And if you are just like, well, I just have to have that position of pastor, you're probably a wicked person that should never be a pastor anyway. Because it sounds like you want to be a pastor for the wrong reason. Because if God told you you need to be the husband of one wife, and you're like, I want to be a pastor anyway, it sounds like you got the wrong motive. Because it doesn't seem like you're in it to serve God. It seems like you're in it for yourself at that point. And so people who have cheated on their wife are permanently disqualified from ministry. And by the way, people whose wives have committed adultery, I would never ordain them either. Because the wives should also be faithful in all things, the Bible says. And so wives who are out sleeping with other men, that is not something. Look, and again, I'm not saying the qualifications are asking for perfection. But can you not commit adultery though? Can you not go to prostitutes? Could you not do these extreme, like somebody, there is a guy who's a pastor who literally murdered his own father. Convicted of murdering his father. And he's pastoring an independent, fundamental Baptist church right now. Now, if that doesn't disqualify you, I give up, okay? You're not even supposed to hit your father. In the Bible, if you hit your father, it says you shall be put to death. You're not even supposed to curse your father and mother. Bible says in the New Testament, Jesus said in Matthew, who so cursed father and mother, let him die to death. This guy murdered his own father and is not repentant about it and is pastoring a church right now. But folks, if that's not permanently disqualifying, I don't know what is. I mean, I don't care what the guy's been doing for the last 20 years. If you murdered your father 20 years ago, you're permanently disqualified. You murdered your parent, okay? Sorry, and look, hey, I'm not saying that you can't go soul winning. I'm not saying that you can't love the Lord and be a good part of the church and serve God. Look, maybe you're here tonight and you're a convicted murderer. You know what? I'm okay with that. Now, maybe someone else feels like that's weird or something, but honestly, no. I mean, I'd be willing to bet money just based on statistic that there's a woman in this auditorium tonight that's had an abortion before, just statistically speaking. I hope not, but you know, there are probably several or maybe none, I don't know. But let's say there are. Then they're a murderer too, by the way, because having an abortion is murder. But guess what? If you've committed murder, if you've committed adultery, if you've been a thief, if you've been in prison, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands. I guarantee you there are people in this auditorium that have been in prison, that have been drug addicts. Hey, I want you here. I want you here, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad that you're serving God. I'm glad that you're living for God. I'm glad, hey, you used to be a drunk, now you're serving God, great. You were in prison for murder, for stealing, for robbery, but now you're right with God, you're serving God, great. I forgive you. I don't wanna bring it up. I don't wanna talk about it. Let's just go forward and serve God together, but you're not gonna be ordained to be a pastor. If you have lived this very sordid past, everybody see the difference? You're not gonna be ordained as a deacon if you have had a very sordid past. You say, where do you draw the line? Well, look, obviously I have to try to interpret scripture and draw the line the best I can and maybe I'm not perfect about where I draw the line and maybe you disagree where I draw the line. But folks, there is a line, can we agree on that? There is a line and we have to use biblical principles to try to establish where that line is and say, okay, you've had this major personal failure in the past, maybe you're not qualified to do this position, but we've got this other position for you in the house of God over here. Well, I wanted to have the top position. Well, you kind of blew that when you cheated on your wife, you know? And so, but God still got something for you, but it's not the pastorate, okay? That's very reasonable. And so a lot of people have this attitude of, well, but it was before they were saved. Everything before they were saved is under the blood. Guess what? Everything after you're saved is under the blood. You know, I hate it when people say, well, before they were saved, it's under the blood. Are you implying that stuff that we did after we were saved isn't under the blood? Because last time I checked, Jesus died for all my sins, past, present, and future, and they're all under the blood. If I'm saved, well, yeah, but you know, they didn't know better Oh, really? So you're telling me unsaved people don't know that you're not supposed to sleep with someone other than your wife when you're married? Can you show me an unsaved person who doesn't know that in the entire United States of America? I promise you that every single unsaved person out there knows that you are not supposed to sleep with other women when you're married. Okay, they all know that. So well, you know, but yeah, but he wasn't saved. So what? Okay, you failed your wife in that area. You failed your children. You failed your house. You failed to rule your house. I don't care if it was before or after you were saved. It's not this thing of like, well, everything you did before you were saved doesn't matter. Oh, you're unsaved? Do whatever you want. And I've heard, I know I'm going off on a lot of tangents tonight, but don't worry, I'm gonna be gone for a while so you'll get some more structured sermons by these other more skilled pastors than me that are gonna have three points and a more structured sermon. But this is a subject that I really feel strongly about. This thing of like, oh, before you were saved doesn't matter. Here's the thing about that. I believe that every single human being on this planet is obligated to follow the commandments of God. I think it's a stupid doctrine that says, well, God's commandments are for Christians, and they're not for unsaved people. And we can't expect unsaved people to follow God's command. Now, it's true that we don't expect them to, because we expect them to probably be heathens if they're heathens. I get that. But does that excuse their behavior though? No, okay. Now, obviously, yes, we do hold Christians to a higher standard. Amen? Christians should be held to a higher standard because unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required. But do we hold the unsaved to no standard? Of course not, that's absurd. We hold Christians to a higher standard, but there is a standard even for unsaved people. Unsaved people should know better than to murder. Unsaved people should know better than to support homos and support abortion. There are plenty of unsaved people out there who are against abortion, against homos, and they know murder's wrong, and stealing's wrong, and adultery's wrong, and they're for monogamous marriage. Am I right? Who here got saved later in life? But yet, every single one of you knew that those things were wrong long before you were saved, didn't you? Isn't that interesting? That long before you were saved, you knew that all those things were wrong. More than half the auditorium just lifted their hand and said, I got saved later in life. But you know what? Before you were saved, you knew right from wrong. You had a conscience. You did something wrong and felt bad about it. Right? The law of God's written in your heart. And will Christians be held accountable for things that they did before they were saved? Well, I think a perfect example of this is the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul went through a lot of suffering. A lot more suffering than your average apostle. Say, well, it's because he labored more abundantly than they all. But you know what's funny? Is that the day that Paul got saved, God's already like, well, I'm gonna show him how great things he's gonna suffer for my namesake. That's what he's saying the first day of this guy's salvation. Okay. Look, maybe that has something to do with the fact that he was persecuting Christians and did all this stuff that basically what goes around comes around that if you persecuted Christians and then you get saved, you're probably gonna get persecuted hard because what goes around comes around. Okay? Now look, I'm all for forgiving people. But here's the difference between me and the people who have this wrong doctrine is I wanna forgive saved people for what they do after they got saved also. I don't wanna be like, oh, oh, you committed murder? Was it before you were saved? Oh, well then come on in, buddy. Everything's fine. Look, if you committed murder after you were saved, I still wanna forgive you. If you went to prison after you got saved, I still wanna forgive you. If you cheated on your wife after you were saved, you know what? If you're repentant, I forgive you. You're not gonna be a pastor, you're not gonna be a deacon, but I forgive you. And I'll be like, oh, I was after you were saved. Well then we just need to mark you with a big scarlet letter for the rest of your life. Oh, but it's before you were saved. Who cares? That's nothing. That doesn't even count. Guess what? Every idle word men shall speak, they give account thereof at the day of judgment. That's unsaved people. That's not even saved people. I'm not gonna give account for my sins because my sins are gone as far as the east is from the west. God has separated me from my sins. The only punishment I'm gonna get from my sins is on this earth every day. I'm gonna reap what I sow on this earth right here. But you know what? The unsaved are gonna give an account for every idle word that they spoke amiss. Unsaved people are gonna be held accountable for the junk that they do. They ought to be scared to death of that. And that's where this stupid idea comes from that says, oh, well, you know what? I'm not ready to get saved yet because I still have a lot of sinning to do. Have you heard this? Well, I'm just not ready yet. I still gotta sow my wild oats. I got a lot more sinning to do. I'm gonna get saved when I'm ready to get right with God. You better get saved today because you might die in your sleep tonight. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. You could go to bed tonight and wake up in hell. But let me tell you something that you who are unsaved and you think that you just get a pass for sinning because you're not saved, if you know to do good and do it not, it's a sin, whether you're saved or not. You're still racking up, you're still treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath as an unsaved person. You go out and just commit all this adultery and murder and rape and pillage, and then you're like, oh, now I'm gonna get saved later. Okay, that'll get you to heaven getting saved. But you're still gonna face the consequences for all that junk that you did from before you were saved. Now does God hold us to a higher standard when we're saved? Sure. Does he hold us to a higher standard because we go to church every week and we know the truth and we know the rules and we hear preaching? Yeah, we are held to a higher standard, but the world is still held to a standard. This doctrine of no standard for unsaved people is a foolish doctrine. It's not biblical. It's not taught anywhere in scripture. And what ends up happening with this foolish doctrine is that we end up going super easy on unsaved people to the point of ridiculousness where they can just get away with murder and it's all fine and none of it matters. And then, oh, you wanna be a pastor? Sure. As long as all your murders and rapes were committed before you were saved, it's like, no, you're permanently disqualified, right? But then it's like, but then we wanna take somebody who maybe grew up in a Christian home and then goes through a rebellious period and then we just wanna just trash them and hate them for the rest of their life and never forgive them and they can never live it down. That's stupid. Because being saved doesn't make you stop being human. And so we ought to extend forgiveness to our brothers and sisters in Christ just as much as we would extend forgiveness to the unsaved. It doesn't mean that they're ever gonna be qualified for positions of authority in the church, but we should still love them and forgive them. And look, we need more forgiveness as Christians. We need more of this. I'm constantly burdened about this because as a pastor, it's my job to forgive people. Because I hear about all kinds of bad things that people do and I have to deal with things and sometimes I have to come down on people or rebuke people and everything, but I have to be a forgiver. And it always, it blows my mind when I hear people pulling out people's sins from years ago and bringing them up. It's just like, are you serious? And you know what? If you do it around me, don't be surprised if I might kind of come down a little hard on you because I get emotional about this. I'll be around people sometimes and somebody will be like, oh yeah, well remember that person was kicked out of the church four years ago. Somebody who maybe was kicked out and then they were restored. And people wanna bring that up and I'm just like, and I've often told people and sometimes I might be a little bit curt with you when I say, don't ever bring that up to me again. Stop talking about that. That person has gotten right with God. That person has been repentant. We're not just gonna mark that person for the rest of their life. Let them live it down. And you know what? If you can't practice Christian forgiveness, don't be surprised when God doesn't just keep beating up on you about your sins because if you don't forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. So don't be surprised when you're getting disciplined by God all the time and he's coming down on you like a ton of bricks. If you wanna keep bringing up the fact that somebody got kicked out of the church years ago or somebody got disciplined or somebody did something stupid, why keep bringing it up? Bringing up stupid things people did years ago, sins that they committed years ago, let it go. Forget about it and forgive and forget. Be like the Lord in that respect, okay? Be forgiving and don't sit there and say, well, this guy did it before he was saved and this guy did it after he was saved. Folks, if people are repentant, we forgive both. Amen? Forgive both and we should condemn both whether they're unsafe. Look, if unsafe people are committing murder, I'm gonna condemn them because it's murder. I'm gonna condemn the abortion, the sodomites and all that and people who promote sodomy and stuff. Well, they're not saved. Oh, well, then okay, anything goes, I guess. You see what a destructive doctrine that is for so many reasons? It's confusion, my friend. Be a forgiving person of Christians, of things that they did after they were saved. I guarantee you that there are people in the building tonight that have done terrible things after they were saved. You know what? What matters is are they right with God now? Are they living for God now? Are they doing right going forward? That's what matters. I don't care about your past. Now, if you want a position in the church, yeah, your past is gonna come into play there. But God has something for you, okay? No matter what your past, if you're here and you're saved, God has a place for you in the church as long as those days are behind you of those really extreme sins, okay? Those sins that would get you kicked out. But I want to forgive saved brothers and sisters in Christ because I want the Lord to forgive me and because I feel so strongly that this is such a key component of Christianity. Like if you had to list on paper the 10 most important Christian virtues or even like what are the five most important Christian virtues in your life? Like what attributes do we want to have as Christians more than any others? What should characterize our personal walk with God? I mean, being a forgiving person is gonna make that top five every single time. It's not just about how righteous we can be. That's important that we should be as righteous as we can but look friend, if you're not a forgiving person and if you, and you know what? We must forgive the repentant and we usually should even forgive even people sometimes that aren't even repentant, you know? That's kind of an optional forgiveness but I like to check that box as much as I possibly can because I just so strongly believe in this Christian virtue of forgiveness and I don't want to be constantly bringing up failings of people that are not applicable anymore. You know, the fact that somebody was a certain way 10 years ago or five years ago or three years ago or two years ago doesn't matter to me. I wanna know what you're doing right now and like I said, don't even bring your past up to me unless you need specific help but don't just bring it up, well, I just feel like you need to know this about me, pastor. If you're not trying to get ordained, I don't because I love you anyway and you know, it's fine. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord and I'm sorry that I didn't preach as much of it as I possibly should have, Lord, but I pray that what I did preach from your word tonight would be a blessing to your people and that it would edify and that we would all practice the virtue of Christian forgiveness and that we would get our doctrine straight about the purpose of the church and the difference between the saved and the unsaved, Lord help us to study, to show ourselves approved and help us to live by your word and run the church the way that you would have us to run it according to your word in Jesus' name we pray, amen.