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Everyone, welcome to our services tonight here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. If you would all please find your seats and we'll begin with our congregational singing this evening. Let's go to hymn number 164 tonight. Number 164, praise him, praise him, Jesus our blessed redeemer. Number 164. And once you find your place, we'll start together on that first verse. Let's really sing it out together. Number 164. Praise him, praise him, Jesus our blessed redeemer. Sing, O earth, his wonderful love proclaim. Hail him, hail him, highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor give to his holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard his children. In his arms he carries them all day long. Praise him, praise him, tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever a joyful song. Praise him, praise him, Jesus our blessed redeemer. For our sins he suffered and bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal salvation. Hail him, hail him, Jesus the crucified. Sound his praises, Jesus who bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful deep and strong. Praise him, praise him, tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever a joyful song. Praise him, praise him, Jesus our blessed redeemer. Handly mortals loud with hosannas ring. Jesus, Savior reigneth forever and ever. Crown him, crown him, prophet and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise him, praise him, tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever a joyful song. Amen. That's where the Charles is taken to open us up in prayer. We thank the Lord for bringing us here tonight to sing praises in your name and to hear the word of God. We ask Lord that you will bless us for this day. We thank the Lord for bringing us here tonight to sing praises in your name. Amen. Number 44. Number 44 will work till Jesus comes. Number 44. Let's sing it on that first verse. The land of rest for thee I sigh. Hymn number 44. O land of rest for thee I sigh. When will the moment come? When I shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered long. To Jesus Christ I've bled for as he made me seem to roam. And leave for succor on his breast till he conduct me whole. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. I sought at once my Savior's side. No more my steps shall roll. With him I'll pray that still he died and reach my heavenly home. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. Amen. We'll do our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in Ezekiel chapter 27. We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms. Congratulations to the Serret family on the birth of baby Penelope. We've got a soul winning day trip coming up to the U.S. side of Nogales this Thursday, February 17th. It's an all day thing. It includes all the meals and any gas station snacks that you need. Brother Segura will take care of you. And then it involves also attending the Tucson church service at 7 p.m. on the way back. And then sign up if you're planning on attending. I believe the sign up should be over here to my left. And then the weekly singing class is temporarily postponed. It'll resume on Sunday, March 6th. On the back there's a movie night at Faith Forward Baptist down in Tucson. Being Baptist on Friday, March 4th at 7 p.m. with refreshments. So if you're interested, you can head down for that. The mission's trip to St. Thomas on the U.S. Virgin Islands is May 15th through 21st. So mark the calendar and speak to Brother Raymond for more details. Keep praying for those pregnant ladies. And that's about it for announcements. Also, we have the children's music CDs in the back that have been coming in. There's been multiple volumes that are back there. But there's also a book to go with it now. Basically this has just a really easy, simplified music for this. So they can be played on piano or any other musical instrument in a simplified format for all the songs on the CDs. So these are free as well. Do they just grab these in the back? Where are they? Yeah, they're in the back. They're in the back? So yeah, you can just grab these from the back and they are back there for you. And with that, let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days. So going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday? Okay. Got it. Okay. We'll just call it Thursday. Anything else from Thursday? Okay. And then what about Friday? Anything from Friday? Got it. Got it. Okay. Got it. It's Thursday somewhere, right? All right. That's what the International Dateline is for. All right. Two more for Friday. Anything else from Friday? How about Saturday? Anything from Saturday? Got it. Got it. Anything else from Saturday? And then today, Sunday. Brother Scott. All right. I'm getting used to your new location over there. All right. Eleven for the main group with Brother Scott. Anything outside the main group? Another one over here. Okay. Got it. Got it. I'm sorry. I missed you in the back there. Okay. Okay. Okay. Anything else from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right. Turn your song books to him number 259. 259. Jesus saves. Number 259. We have heard the joyful sound. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Number 259. Let's sing it out on this first verse together. 259. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Amen. Up to hymn number 324. 324, draw me near to number 324. I am thine O Lord, I have heard thy voice. Number 324. Let's sing it out in this first verse together. Number 324. I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice, and it's all thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms of fame, and be closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious, pleading side. Concentrate thee now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, and mine will be lost in thine. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious, pleading side. O, the pure divine of a single heart, that before thy throne I said, When I kneel in prayer, and with thee my God, I communest friend with friend. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious, pleading side. There are depths of love that I cannot know, till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights of joy that I may not reach, till I rest in peace with thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious, pleading side. Good singing this evening. All right, this time we'll pass the offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to the book of Jude. Right before the book of Revelation is the book of Jude. Jude, beginning in verse number one, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter. Follow along silently with Brother Dan as he reads. Jude, beginning in verse number one. The book of Jude, the Bible reads, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you, and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, under the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, in the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when condending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Kor. 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. Trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, 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. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speak with great swelling words, having been persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And if some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Dear Father in Heaven, please fill the pastor with your spirit to teach us, and please give us all ears to hear and receive wisdom from the sermon this night. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Amen. The title of my sermon tonight is, It Was Needful to Contend. It was needful to contend. The Bible reads in verse number 3, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that we should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints, for there are certain men crept in unawares, and on and on it goes. But the idea here is that Jude wanted to write about the common salvation. He gave all diligence. He set out to write about the common salvation, but it turned out that it was needful instead to write to them that they should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. You see, there's sometimes a difference between what we want to talk about and what we need to talk about, what I want to preach about and what preaching is actually needed. And there are people out there that want us to only talk about salvation all the time. I remember one time this guy came to our church, and I preached a sermon on Sunday morning. This was like the early days of our church. And he wrote a note and just like leapt it on his chair just about how much he hated the service and how bad the preaching was. But his big complaint was you didn't preach the gospel at all. You never one time mentioned salvation or the gospel. And I'm thinking to myself, so what? So what? Because God has called me to preach the entire Bible, not to preach salvation every single service. Okay, Jude is not giving a salvation message here. He thought about giving a salvation message. He did diligence to do that, but then he said, wait a minute, I need to write that you need to earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. And so every message is not going to be a salvation message, especially because the vast majority of our church is already saved. And so if the vast majority of the church is saved, why would we want to hear the plan of salvation every Sunday morning? Now look, today, this morning, I preached a very salvation-oriented sermon. But guess what? It wasn't that way last week and it's not going to be that way next week because it's just a subject of many. You know, Jesus Christ said, Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. God said that we should be teaching even the least commandment of the Bible. So this attitude that says, well, salvation is the most important thing, so let's just only talk about salvation. Folks, that's wrong. We are supposed to talk about everything. Everything. Even things that have nothing to do with salvation. We need to be preaching out of Genesis. We need to be preaching out of Exodus. We need to be preaching out of Leviticus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. There's not one book in this Bible to be shunned or avoided in preaching. Well, that book doesn't mention Jesus. Preach it anyway. Well, it's not about salvation. So what? There's more to life than being saved. I got saved when I was six years old. Am I done now? What have I been doing for the last 34 years? Right? There's more. There's Christian growth. There's the commandments of God. There's doctrine. But people get this attitude sometimes that we should just only be preaching about salvation. Every Sunday morning is a salvation message. And let me tell you something. People who go to churches like that, they get bored on Sunday mornings. And eventually they leave the church and here's what they say. I wasn't being fed because every Sunday morning it was salvation. And I'm already saved. And how many times can I get saved? Only once. You know? So this altar call is just not working for me. And so, you know, we need to preach about everything else. But then there's another attitude that I've seen as well that says this. Well, shouldn't we be out soul winning? I mean, shouldn't we be out soul winning instead of arguing about doctrine? I mean, here you guys are worrying about doctrine. You should be out soul winning. My question for these people is, do you go soul winning 24 hours a day? Does anyone go soul winning 24 hours a day? No. So this attitude, shouldn't we be out soul winning? Hey, why don't we do both? Why don't we go soul winning and then earnestly contend for the faith? And then fight for the truth when it comes to doctrine. Then expose the heretics. Why don't we do it all? It's not an either or like we have to sacrifice soul winning. Like, all right everybody, we're going to cancel soul winning this week and just expose heretics all week. No, because we're going to go soul winning when it's time to go soul winning. And we're going to expose heretics when it's time to expose heretics. We're going to teach doctrine when it's time to teach doctrine. And when it's time to eat breakfast, I'm going to be eating breakfast. When it's time to eat lunch, I'm going to be eating lunch. I'm not going to be soul winning. I'm going to be eating my lunch. When it's time to eat dinner, I'm going to eat dinner. And tonight at two in the morning, I'm going to be fast asleep. I'm not going to be out soul winning. I'm not going to be reading my Bible either. See, there's a time for everything. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. And so this attitude that says, well shouldn't we be out soul winning? It's just a holier than thou attitude. And by the way, it's usually said by people who don't go soul winning very much. That's the irony. You know, people who I know who actually go soul winning a lot, they never say that to me. They never say, well shouldn't we just be out soul winning? You know, the people who actually go soul winning a lot, I've noticed, they just go soul winning a lot. And then they actually like the other stuff too. They like talking about the Bible. They like doctrine. You know, they like everything. And that's the way we're supposed to be well rounded Christians. And so this attitude that says, well stop fighting about doctrine. We just need to win the world to Christ and that's all that matters. First of all, number one, you're never going to win the world to Christ. Because broad is the way which leads to destruction. And many there be which go in there out because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life and few there be that find it. But number two, you're going to have more success reaching more people with the gospel when your doctrine is straight. And when you keep the leaven out of the church, when you get the sin out of the church, get the sin out of your own life, keep the false doctrine at bay, then the church is going to have real success. Because, you know, there's a movement that was pretty big when I was a kid and it's still huge but it really blew up when I was a kid which was a movement among Christians that said, you know, really the only thing that matters is just getting people saved. That's all that matters is just getting people saved. And I kind of grew up around that a little bit. So I kind of had that mentality a little bit as a teenager and because I was just immature in the faith and I kind of thought that way. But here's what's funny about that movement. That movement that just said, you know what, just forget everything else. It's just about getting people saved. Don't emphasize doctrine. Take Baptist off the sign because we don't want to divide or anything. We don't want it to seem like, you know, hey, we're Baptist and we're not like those Presbyterians and Methodists. You know, we just want to kind of keep it generic so that everybody shows up. Just call it community church and then, you know, play the music that they want to hear, preach the message that they want to hear, and because it's just about reaching more people with the gospel, just get people saved. But here's what's funny about that movement. You know what I've found is that they're not getting very many people saved even though that's the only thing that they're supposedly doing. Supposedly the only thing that matters, and this has been called the New Evangelical Movement, the only thing that matters is just the gospel and let's keep the main thing, the main thing and just only worry about getting people saved and don't worry about all these rules and thou shalt and thou shalt not and man, it's not a religion, it's a relationship and all this kind of stuff. Isn't it funny that every week we go out and knock doors and we talk to the people who go to these giant New Evangelical churches and we get them saved because a lot of them aren't even saved. They aren't even succeeding at getting their own church members saved half the time. And look, don't get me wrong, a lot of people who go to these churches are saved but typically the people who are saved who go to these churches, when you get their testimony, they got saved before they went to that church. They got saved at some Baptist church back in the day and now they're going to the Fun Center New Evangelical Church. You see, here's the irony. When you decide that you're only going to worry about salvation, you're only going to worry about soul winning, evangelism is all that matters, ironically, you end up doing less evangelism than the guy who tries to do everything because God wants us to be well-rounded, okay? And the well-rounded Christian is going to do more for God, the one who's into reading his Bible and he's into prayer and he's into soul winning and he's into church and he's into doctrine, he's into singing the hymns, he's into learning but he's also into evangelizing, he's into missions, he's into, you know, winning people to Christ here at home in the U.S. You know, the guy who's well-rounded, who's a family man, you know, oh, I could just do so much more if I were single. Well, really, could I though? I don't know. Because, you know, being married and having a family and having children is its own blessing and it balances out our life in another way. Now, some people are called being single and they can do great things for God being single like the Apostle Paul but most of us end up being better off being married, having kids and living that balanced life. Obviously, there are going to be those who thrive as a single but most of us are going to thrive more when we're married, when we have kids. We're better off that way spiritually, okay? And so we don't want to get this super specialized mentality, okay? And just see, here's an illustration that, you know, some of you might be able to connect with but think about lifting weights, okay? What if somebody just decided, I'm just only going to work on this one body part. I'm not going to work out the rest of my body. I'm just going to work out this one body part. And they just put all their effort into that one body part. And then another guy, he does weight lifting and he trains the entire body. Who do you think is going to build a stronger of just that one body part that the guy is thinking about? Let's just say some guy just decides, you know, all he cares about is his chest. That's it, just chest, right? So all he does is just chest. He just works the chest. No leg day, no back day, nothing else, right? He's just chest, chest. The guy who works out everything is probably, not only is he building all his muscle, he's probably getting up with a bigger chest anyway. Because our body wants to grow symmetrically. Your body doesn't want to just have a huge chest and skinny bird legs. Your body wants to be symmetrical. And so the point is, our Christian life wants to be symmetrical. And so you're just like, it's just soul winning, just soul winning. It's all about evangelism. It's just about reaching people with the gospel. And then it's like, here's your doctrine. And it's like you've never done leg day and your legs are super skinny. And then you wonder why your chest doesn't grow. You know what I mean? And then pretty soon you're all hunched forward because you tightened up these muscles. You didn't work the muscles in the back and you're going to be like this. You know, because you're overdeveloped in the front, underdeveloped in the back. And by the way, the back, you know, this part maybe isn't on display as much as this part. But you know what? This is equally important. The part of our Christian life that maybe people don't see. How about the back of our Christian life? What's the back end of our Christian life? The back end of our Christian life is our personal life, our Bible reading, our prayer, our integrity, right? And then maybe the front is the soul-winning. But here's the thing about the front, it's important too. I don't want to skip the front, but I'm not going to just only work on the front. The mirror muscles is what they're called. Some people, they only go to the gym and just work on the mirror muscles. Well guess what? Here's the mirror muscle, soul-winning, evangelism, what is seen, what is more readily seen. What about the stuff on the back end? Okay, we need to work all of the areas of our Christian life. And so even though you might want to overemphasize salvation, it's needful to contend for the things that Jude wants us to contend for here, the doctrines of the faith. It's not just enough to talk only about salvation. Now let's read this and get this in context. It says in verse 4, For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look, these people are at least giving lip service to salvation by grace. I mean they're like, yeah, grace, amen. Amen to the grace of God. But here's what they're doing, they're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. Now what does it mean to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness? It's to use God's grace as a license to live an unclean life and to live a filthy life. Okay, like the Bible says in Galatians chapter 5, which is a powerful passage about the fact that salvation is totally by faith, it's not by the works of the law. That's the context of Galatians 5. But he also says, Brethren, we've been called to liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. So he's saying don't use the liberty of grace as an occasion or an opportunity for your flesh to just kind of go wild. And it's the same thing that Paul's getting at in Romans chapter 5 and 6 when he says we're sin-abounded, grace did much more about, but then he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid that we would just continue in sin that grace may abound. So look, it's great that you understand that salvation is by grace, but guess what else we need? We also need the hard preaching against sin. We also need to clean up our lives. We also need to abstain from fornication, to flee fornication, to abstain from adultery and all these different things. Because we could just say, oh man, we're saved by grace and we can never lose our salvation, but then if we go out and start committing fornication and committing adultery, that's not going to help us be effective as Christians. It's going to cause us to destroy our Christian lives. Now truly, if I were to go out and get drunk or commit adultery or commit murder, I would still be saved, but that is not what God wants me to do. God forbid that I would ever do that and it would cause me to make a shipwreck of my Christian life and become a complete loser and a complete failure if I'm out doing those things. And then how many souls am I going to win then? How many people am I going to convert to the gospel message then when I've done that to my life? And so these people are coming in, they're bad people, they're evil people. They don't even actually believe in the grace of God. They're not even actually saved, but they're coming in and giving lip service to grace and trying to pervert it and twist it into something that says there's no rules in the Christian life. Now maybe this teaching is foreign to you, this teaching that the Christian life has no rules. But let me tell you something, when I was growing up, again, this was big. And I remember when I was a teenager in the 90s, this was big. And I can't even count how many times people said, you know, that there were basically like no absolute rules in the Christian life. It's just whatever God's spirit leads you. And you'd show someone something in the Bible where the Bible said something's a sin, and here's what people would say to me. They'd say, well, you know, I'm glad that the Holy Spirit has spoken to you about that, but, you know, the Holy Spirit hasn't spoken to me about that. You know, and so I just believe that it's okay for me. It might be sin for you, but, you know, the Lord hasn't really spoken to me about that, so I'm just going to keep doing it. And I'm like, well, God spoke to you about this 3,500 years ago, and it's written down right here. No, no, no, they want the Holy Spirit to come personally tell them, hey, just so you know, you know, thou shalt not commit adultery, okay? And obviously people weren't arguing about things like adultery because any idiot knows that adultery and murder are wrong, but other things that the Bible tells you not to do, other things that are not the will of God. And I even heard people justify fornication, justify drunkenness, justify all kinds of things, and just say, well, we're free in Christ, don't bring us under the law, don't bring us under bondage, but these people, what they're doing is, they're taking something that the Bible teaches about the grace of God and not being under the law, and what they're doing is they're twisting it, and they're turning it into something it's not. They're taking the grace of God, which is a good doctrine, and turning it into lasciviousness, which is uncleanness in the avenues of fornication, adultery, etc. And so these bad guys are creeping in and changing the doctrine and twisting the doctrine. And so what do we need to do? We need to fight this. We need to contend for the faith which was once delivered under the saints. And let me say this, the faith that was once delivered under the saints, the faith there, it isn't just salvation, it's everything we believe. The faith. When Paul said I've kept the faith, he didn't just mean, hey, I stayed with the plan of salvation. When he's saying I kept the faith, it's basically he's just talking about the faith, the whole thing. And sometimes we get too narrow in our terminology, too narrow with what the word gospel means, too narrow with what the faith is. You know, the Bible here is saying that we need to earnestly contend for the faith, meaning all the things that we believe about scripture. You know, Jesus said that we are to teach people to observe all things that Christ commanded. And we're to teach the least commandments of God. We're to teach everything. We're to believe everything and talk about everything. And so he says in verse 5, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed them that believe not. And here's what he's saying with this is that not everybody who left Egypt was actually a believer. You know, when that group came out of Egypt, it included the nation of Israel, but it also included a great mixed multitude, the Bible says. And even among the Israelites themselves, there were unbelievers. And then amongst the mixed multitude, there are even more unbelievers. So you have all of these people leaving Egypt and the attitude says, oh well, everybody at church is good. Everybody at church is saved. Everybody at church can be trusted. But he's warning them, no, no, you don't understand. These people are in your church. They are ungodly men who have crept in unawares. They have come in as an infiltrator like Judas, like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in the Exodus. And the Lord had to afterward destroy those that believe not, which shows that there were people who believed not that were in that church in the wilderness. So let me tell you something. Moses in the Old Testament is presiding over what the Bible calls the church in the wilderness. And there was a faction of unbelievers in there. There were unbelievers mixed into that. Then Jesus is the pastor of that church of the New Testament with the 12 disciples, and one of them is Judas Iscariot. So if Judas Iscariot is there, if Korah, Dathan, and Abiram are there, if the infiltrators are always there, and then 2 Peter 2 tells us there shall be false teachers among you. There shall be false prophets among you. There are certain men crept in unawares. So we shouldn't get this attitude that says that, well, everybody at church is automatically good. They're automatically saying, oh, if it's Baptist, it's good, it's right, we can trust it. Wrong. We need to contend earnestly for the faith because there are going to be bad guys who creep in. And we can't just sit there and say, well, let's just get along with everybody and let's just, for the sake of peace, let's not talk about doctrine. Let's not worry about the Trinity, you know, whatever you think about the Trinity or don't think about the Trinity. Oh, you think the Trinity is pagan and polytheistic? Well, that's okay, as long as you believe in Jesus. Folks, there's another Jesus. There's another gospel. There's another spirit. And people will come in and they will deny the only Lord God, and they will deny our Lord Jesus Christ. But all the while, they'll talk about, oh, salvation by grace, even while denying the Lord and denying Christ and teaching damnable heresies. You know, either denying the divinity of Christ or denying the humanity of Christ, denying the Trinity, teaching modalism or other weird heresies and twisted views of who God is. These things need to be fought. When people come in and tell us, we're free in Christ, that means no rules. We need to fight that and say, no, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. He didn't say, if you love me, keep my suggestions. And God does have rules, just like I have rules for my children, God has rules for his children. That's what the Bible actually teaches. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. How's he scourgeth him if there's no rule? There are rules. We need to follow the word of God. And so it's my job on Sunday morning to get up and preach about some thou shalts and thou shalt nots. And to get up on Sunday night and to preach about some rules. And to get up on Wednesday night and say, here's what pleases God and here's what doesn't please God. Oh, wait, talk about salvation. Okay, you want to hear me talk about salvation, come soul winning with me. Until then, we're going to talk about some rules. We're going to talk about some Bible stories. We're going to talk about Ezekiel. Okay, and it doesn't matter whether it covers salvation in that particular sermon because we need to get through the whole Bible and not just hammer the same subject over and over again. Jude understood that. That's why he sits down to write a letter about salvation, but then something came up and now he's got to write about how they need to earnestly contend for the faith because the people that he's writing to are naive. They don't realize that, you know, I mean, he says, I just got to remind you of this. You used to know this. Remember those bad guys who went with Moses out of Egypt and the church in the wilderness? Well, guess what? Your church is the same way. So beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly they are ravening wolves. You know, I was just reading in my Bible this morning, Judges chapter 19. And in Judges chapter 19, you've got a story about a Levite who's got a concubine and he's traveling home with his concubine and his servant says, hey man, and I'm paraphrasing, but he says, hey man, it's getting dark. You know, we need to find a place to stay for the night. How about Jebus? Next exit, Jebus. Okay, let's take this exit. Let's spend the night here because we shouldn't be out in the dark traveling like this. And this Levite basically says like, oh, no, no, no. You know, I'm not going to Jebus because Jebus is not of the children of Israel. They're too heathen. You know, I don't want to stay there. I'm going to push through until we get to one of the... And then he pushes through until they get to Benjamin and then they stay in one of the towns of Benjamin and it turns out that there are some horrible sons of Belial in the land of Benjamin that end up coming and doing unspeakable acts to his concubine and violating and murdering her and they really wanted to do homo stuff with him. But that didn't happen. But that's what they set out to do. And so the lesson that jumps out at me from that is the idea that says, hey, they're not all Israel which are of Israel, you know. And you can't just sit there and say like, oh, as long as we're in Israel, we're safe. You know, oh, man, Jebus is scary. But oh, if we're in Israel, everything's great. You know, we want to make sure that we understand that that's not quite how the world works. Sometimes the most danger could be in a church. You could have the worst kind of people, even worse than Joe Unsaved out there, could be the one who creeps in, the false prophet, the wolf in sheep's clothing. He's even worse sometimes than the Jebusites. You'd rather hang with the Jebusites than these rotten people. Now, in general, obviously, God's people are more righteous. Israel is more righteous than the heathen. But in that case, this was a case where, wait a minute, the exception proves to rule because Benjamin was worse than Jebus. So we need to know that. That is written in the Bible for us. God wrote that story in the Bible so that we would read Judges 19 and say, you know what, I need to realize that even when I'm in Israel, there could be some really horrific, bad sons of the devil that have crept in because that's the way it was there. That's what we're supposed to learn. That's one of the things that we're supposed to learn from that story is that just because you're in Israel, just because you're in church, it doesn't mean you can just trust everyone. Like, oh, church people, sure, my kid can spend the night at your house and I'll loan you all kinds of money and, you know. It's like, well, hold on a second. Don't just assume that everybody at church is righteous because we're guaranteed to have bad people creep in. Okay. It's not a maybe, it's a for sure. And especially if you have a church with hundreds of people in it, you know, it's just, do the math. There's going to be a Judas or seven or 20. But anyway, so it says here, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not, and the angels, which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, under the judgment of the great day. Oh, an angel came and spoke to, touched by an angel. A fallen angel, right? Oh, an angel came, the angel Moroni. Oh, an angel came and gave me the Koran. The angel gave me the Book of Mormon. Hey, did you forget that there were angels that rebelled against the Lord and followed Satan? And so that's why, though we are an angel from heaven, we should preach any other gospel unto you, let him be accursed. Because we need to realize not everybody in church is righteous, not every angel is righteous, because there could be fallen angels and unclean spirits. You know, try the spirits whether they be of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. He says, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, or set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a rattling accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee, but these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. So they blow off their mouths, they talk a spiritual talk, they say a lot of stuff, but what they're actually doing is defiling the flesh, a la Sodom and Gomorrah, right? So there are people who are doing horrible things, they're evil, they're wicked, they creep in, and you know what, it's our job to call it out, and to preach against it, and to fight this stuff. We must fight against heresy and false doctrine. And by the way, the people who are the purveyors of heresy and false doctrine are bad people, according to the Bible. The Bible puts them in the same category with the sons of Belial, and he puts them in the same category with the Sodomites. Did you see that? Because he says, just like Sodom and Gomorrah gave themselves over to fornication and went after strange flesh, so do these also defile the flesh. Who? The evil men crept in unawares. So, you know, when you've got people preaching heresy and teaching false doctrine, and you've got these people on TV, the TV preachers, preaching all this junk, just realize they're rotten people. Because the most rotten person in this world is a false prophet, a false teacher. It doesn't get any lower than that. You know, you're playing with people's souls, it's people's heaven and hell that's in the balance, and you're going to get up and teach things which you ought not for filthy lucre's sake? You're disgusting. I mean, who would get up and take something so beautiful as the word of God, something so beautiful as the gospel of Jesus Christ, and twist it for a buck, or twist it to be popular, or twist it to be famous? And tons of people are doing that every day, just to get on TV so they can wear expensive suits, and they're out being with whores and taking drugs, and they're doing all these things. And why? Because they're horrible people, that's why. Getting up and preaching the word of God for wrong reasons or preaching lies so that you can be more popular or whatever, I mean, it's disgusting. It's the lowest of the low. It's horrible. And that's why we need to understand that false prophets are scum. They're right there with those of Sodom and Gomorrah, demons, fallen angels. I mean, that's why they're mentioned in the same breath with those kind of people. He says, Woe unto them, verse 11, for they've gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsang of Korah. Think about what motivated these villains from the Old Testament. Cain, Cain, I believe more than anything, is motivated by pride. Because why did he kill Abel? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. He's envious of Cain. He doesn't like being told that he did something wrong. He gets all mad when somebody tries to correct, because he is arrogant and prideful and wants it to be his way only and isn't willing to take any correction or learn anything from God. Then you look at Balaam. Balaam was motivated by money, ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, the text says there in verse 11. Okay, this is people who are getting up and preaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. And then it says, perished in the gainsang of Korah. Korah is, there are a few things about Korah. One thing about Korah is you could say he's like a demagogue, because he basically gets up and acts like he's fighting for the common man. You know, like, like, oh, you know, all the people are holy. Let's have democracy. And everybody gets a voice. And everybody gets a say. Why are we listening to Moses and Aaron? You know, Moses and Aaron, they take way too much on them. You take way too much upon you, you sons of Levi, seeing as all the people are holy. Because, see, the Bible doesn't really record much out of the mouth of Korah. It records him saying, like, one thing. It's like two verses. And I pretty much just paraphrased what he said. Okay. And so he basically is saying that, you know, hey, don't listen to any leadership. We don't need any leaders. We need direct democracy. Everybody's opinion matters. Everybody's voice matters. The guy who just got saved last week, let's let him make decisions and run the church. Who cares that he's only been saved for two months? Oh, you've read the Bible 0.3 times, cover to cover? Let's put you in charge. So he's kind of a demagogue, meaning that he basically pretends to be a champion of the people at the bottom, as it were, as far as people who are just Joe six-pack or whatever, for lack of a better term. But basically, you know, really, what are those kind of guys trying to do throughout history, the demagogues of this world? They're really trying to get power for themselves. So they always act like they're sticking up for the little guy. Like, oh, man, you know, Moses and Aaron, you know, they're just these dictators. We should all be in charge. Really, what they want to do is to be in charge themselves. Korah actually wants to be in charge himself. So what's motivating Korah, I think, is a lust for power, a greed for power. And he's just using the people to get his power, getting them to rebel against Moses so that he can be the new leader. And so what motivates false prophets? One of the things that could motivate them is financial gain. Another thing that could motivate them is just pride and arrogance and just refusal to submit to God's will like Cain. They just stubbornly will not submit to the will of God, but they just want to do it their own way and preach what they think, and they don't care what the Bible says. They're just hard-headed, stiff-necked, stubborn people. Or thirdly, it could be people who have a lust for power, which is, I think, what Korah was. He just wanted power. He wants to take the power from someone else. He wants to be in charge, and that's the type of thing. Because think about it. There are these pastors who basically just love having people look up to them, and they're a big shot. They're Korah, okay? Or there are pastors who are literally millionaires, okay? Now, if somebody's listening to this recording like 10 or 20 years from now, a million dollars might not be very much anymore. But back when I'm, you know, since we're going through so much hyperinflation. But while I'm preaching this in 2022, millions of dollars are still lots of money. And a pastor who's making a million dollars every year is filthy rich in 2022. But yet, there are all kinds of pastors out there who they think it's okay for them to make millions of dollars as a pastor to own several homes, to live in a mansion, to wear designer suits and drive sports cars and, you know, expensive, fancy, overpriced cars and whatever. And you know what? It's wicked, all right? Now, I don't believe that pastors should live in poverty, but a pastor should not be rich either, period. For any reason, okay? A pastor should be following the middle path of just having a modest income to support his family and not filthy rich. Say, well, you know, he's a really successful pastor. So that's not really the point. If he's really successful, he's successful by the grace of God. He's successful because of God. It's because of the Word of God and the Spirit of God, not because he's some rock star pastor if he's actually successful. But a lot of these pastors that are successful are actually sold out. So they pack the house because they preach smooth things. They pack the house because they preach what people want to hear. They pack the house because they're a mega-compromiser and they're making 600 grand a year or whatever. Oh, but you know, don't muzzle the ox. Folks, that's not, we're not talking about muzzling the ox, you know, but at the same time, how much, you know, is this like that animal, what's that, I always forget, what's that meat where they force feed the cows or something? Foie gras. Foie gras? Wagyu. Wagyu? I don't know. See, because you know what, because I'm not one of these, you know what I eat is just a regular burger. You know, give me a grass fed organic cow burger. I don't need any foie gras or wagyu or ragyu or whatever. What's that? Burgerfi. Yeah, Burgerfi is a blessing. But this message was also brought to you in part by Burgerfi. But, you know, the point is though that there's this kind of, and I don't know what I'm talking about on this part, but help me out if I mess up, but there's some kind of cow where they just like overfeed it and they just like force feed it and stuff it so full of food and then it makes a special kind of meat. So that is done with geese. And it's done with geese as well? I thought it was done with cows too. Who believes it's done with cows as well? Yeah, it's out there. Maybe not in India because they're a little too sacred. No, no, no, but you're right. They do it with geese, cow. Okay, well this is basically these pastures, they're like that geese just being jammed with truffles and whatever and the cow that's being jammed with whatever. Okay, there's a difference between muzzling the ox and giving the ox like ten times the normal person's salary, right? That's a little bit overboard, I would say. You say, well, you know, let the elders that rule well be cow worthy of double honor. Yeah, but notice it doesn't say quintuple honor. It doesn't say quadruple honor. It doesn't say hexadecimal tuple honor. That's not a word, but anyway. The point is that there are people out there that are preaching for the money and they've got the money to show for it. So it says in verse 12, these guys that we're just talking about, 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. Now notice, these bad guys, they are clouds without water. Here's what that means. They have no substance. You know, who so boasteth of a false gift, the Bible says in Proverbs, is like clouds without rain. So it looks like something's going to happen, but there's nothing there. There's no substance. There's no meat on the bone. They speak great swelling words of vanity. You know, they're all puffed up like a cloud, but there's no actual moisture. There's no actual, you know, there's no actual rainfall that would produce fruit. And these clouds without water, they're carried about of winds. You know what that means? They're going to go wherever the wind blows. They're tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Because you see, the guy who's teaching false doctrine for money, he's going to go where the money is. The Quora, who's a demagogue, he's going to say whatever the people want to hear, and what the people want to hear in 2022 is not necessarily the same thing people wanted to hear in 1982 or 1952, but the Quoras will tell people what they want to hear so that they can receive power. The Balaams will tell people what they want to hear so that they can receive money. They're tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. They're carried about of winds. Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. You know, just to remove any doubt that these people are saved. These are unsaved people that have crept in. Ungodly men. Ungodly men, they talk about grace, but they don't actually believe it in their heart. Just like the people who pretended to believe and left Egypt, but they didn't really believe. Just like Judas, who pretended to believe in Christ, and Jesus said, there are some of you that believe not. And he was talking about Judas in John chapter 6. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved, the blackness of darkness forever. Again, emphasizing the fact that they are going to hell. And the Bible told us all the way back in verse 4, for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation. They were before of old, ordained to this condemnation. Let me say this. The Bible's not saying that specific people were chosen for this job. That is not what this is saying. What was before of old, ordained, is that anyone who went down this path would face this condemnation. Just like it was foreordained that anyone who rejects Jesus Christ will go to hell, and anyone who believes on Jesus Christ shall be saved. God did not arbitrarily just pick people and say, you're going to be a false prophet. Too bad, so sad, but you're going to be a false prophet. No, no, no. God before of old, ordained false prophets to this condemnation. Whoever fills that slot of false prophet, there are going to be people in every generation who choose to fill that slot because of the wickedness of their own heart, not because God made them that way, but rather they went down that dark path and they chose that fate that they will face. Verse 14, Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and did I mention that they are ungodly, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speak of great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. These are the sycophants, and if you don't know that word, sycophant, well, you haven't been pastoring for 16 years, because if you've been pastoring for 16 years, this word is in your vocabulary, because you've been dealing with sycophants, okay? I'm sure that every person who's ever held any position in a business or anybody who's ever been famous in any way or anybody who's ever run an organization or anybody who's had a position in a church or anything knows this word, sycophant, okay? Because sycophants are people who have men's persons in admiration because of advantage. That's almost like a dictionary definition of sycophant, okay? A sycophant is someone who's like a fanboy, but it's because they want to get close to someone either with power or influence or famous or just someone who's influential in some way. They want to get close to that person for their own advantage. So they pretend to love that person. They flatter that person, and they try to get as close to that person as they can, and what is their goal? Their goal is advantage for themselves, okay? These are like the, you know, the rock and roll groupies, the sycophants, the courtiers of hundreds and hundreds of years ago. There's nothing new under the sun. People who would suck up to kings and suck up to nobility and suck up to actors and actresses and rock stars, but unfortunately these sycophants also creep into the house of God, and they will try to flatter and suck up to members of the church staff or the pastor and try to get close to them in some way, like people who are hell-bent on their kid marrying my kid so that they can, like, marry into Pastor Anderson's family or something. It's sick. It's truly sick. Now look, if one of my kids marries one of your kids, great. I'm sure eventually it's going to happen that one of my kids is going to marry somebody in here's kids. Hey, great, but let it happen naturally and organically, not because you're some weird, sick freak who wants to come over to my house for Thanksgiving. Because you're just like, I want to go to Pastor Anderson's house for Thanksgiving, and if my kid marries his kid, I'm in for life, and he could never get rid of me. But what if I told you that just because I'm related to someone doesn't mean I have to hang out with them? So put that in your pope and smack it. I mean, what if I told you that even blood relatives I don't necessarily have to hang out with, let alone people who marry into my family next to you? My Thanksgiving table's already full. It's packed. And you say, that's a weird thing to say, Pastor. You know what? The reason you think it's a weird thing to say is because you've never been in my position, okay? But I guarantee you that there are even people in this room who've dealt with sycophants in other areas of life, maybe even at their job, people sucking up to them and flattering them, even at a job, just in order to get in with somebody important or whatever or what they think is important. This is a phenomenon. That's why this word exists, okay? That's why this word is in the English language. That's why it's in the dictionary, because it's a thing. That's why it's in the Bible, having men's persons in admiration because of it. Oh, I am just Pastor So-and-so's biggest fan. But really what that is, is I want to get close to Pastor Anderson so I can be important. It makes me want to puke. It's disgusting. It's weird. You know, I hope that if somebody marries one of my kids, it's just because they love my kid, not because they love me. Leave me out of it. I don't need any new friends in my life right now. I've got all the friends I need, okay? And here's the thing. When I make new friends, it happens organically. It happens naturally. Not like, you know, dear diary, I'm going to move to Phoenix, Arizona today, and I just know that when I get there, Mrs. Anderson is going to be my new best friend. She doesn't know it yet, but I know we're going to be really close. Somebody's writing that right now. And I know this might sound crazy to people who don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm telling you, it's out there. There are people who literally move here thinking that they're going to become my new best friend. And then when it doesn't happen, then they're my worst enemy. Or they come here thinking that they're going to be my wife's best friend. And it's like, oh, I'm not getting enough attention from Mrs. Anderson. Mrs. Anderson has 11 children and is pregnant with the 12th. And she has moi. And so between moi and all those kids, she's tied up. She's busy. Maybe she can pencil you in next decade. But listen to me. Look, I'm glad for people who move here to come to church. I'm thankful because some of our best church members over the years have been people who moved into the area. Nothing wrong with moving into the area to come to our church, but move into the area because of the church, not because of me personally or my wife or my kids. You're looking at your daughter and my son. You're looking at your son and my daughter, and you're like, ah, 3,000 miles away hatching some plan. Okay. That's a sick reason to come here. Okay. Because, you know, you got to come here because you love what the church stands for. You want to be a part of the team. You want to serve God as a part of the team. You want to go soul winning. You want your family to be under the preaching of God's word. Those are good reasons to come here, right? Like, man, I just want to go to a church that's going to fire me up about soul winning. Or, man, I just want to raise my family in a church where the doctrine is sound. You know, or, you know, I just want to go to Arizona because Arizona's just the best state. That's a good reason, too. Just because Arizona is literally better than any of the other 49 states, that's a good reason, too. But coming here because you want to be my pal or my wife's pal or my kids' pals is a bad reason. And you know what? I bet you some people are listening to this right now and thinking like, well, that's not very nice. Please don't, if you're that person who's thinking that right now, please never come here. Please, please do not come here, please. Because you know what? You're the exact kind of person that I'm talking about that thinks that it's my job to be everyone's buddy or that it's her job to be, by the way, and while I'm on the subject, can I explain to you that in the Bible there are pastors and there are deacons, but I can't find this officer of the local church, pastor's wife. I can't find it. It's because it isn't there. Let me explain to you what a pastor's wife is. It's a pastor's wife. And those two, that's two words, not one. And there's no hyphen. The pastor's wife, you know what she is? She's my wife, and that's all she is. She's my wife. That's it. She's not the spiritual leader of every female in this church. She is not your guru. She is not your mentor. She is not your BFF. She's my wife. She has some people that are her friends, some people that are not her friends, because she's just an ordinary person. Do you understand what I'm saying? And look, our church has hundreds of people in it, and here's how friendship works. You're not going to be friends with everybody. You're going to make friends within the church, and out of 400 people to choose from, you're going to have certain people that you're just kind of loosely acquainted with, other people that you're pretty tight with, and everywhere in between. And you might notice, well, Pastor Anderson's kind of tight with certain people. How do I get in there? Here's the answer. You don't! You know what I mean? How do I get into Pastor Anderson's inner circle? Here's the fun part. You don't, okay? Because of the fact that people that I'm tight with, I didn't set out to be tight with those people. It's just, there's just certain people that you just, they just kind of end up being people that you have some common interest with, and you kind of are a little closer with certain people. But you know what? Is that really what church is about? Is this called Pastor Anderson Baptist Church? Or is this called Faithful Word Baptist Pastor Anderson? Is this called Pastor Andersonanity? Is that what this religion's called? Because last time I checked, it's called Christianity. It's called Faithful Word Baptist Church Assembly Congregation. It's not about me. It's about a group. It's about a congregation. I'm one person. I'm not the whole body, okay? I have a job. I get up here and I preach three times a week. I lead the direction of the church. I provide leadership. I do the work of an evangelist. I administrate. I pastor. I am not the designated buddy of everyone in the church. Does everybody understand that? But there are people out there who have been some of the worst people who've crept into our church, all bent on being my best buddy, marrying their kids to my kids, trying to creep in and get close with whoever of my relatives or whatever. It's bizarre and it's wicked. And I don't mind calling it out because it is what it is. And 99% of people this doesn't apply to and so they're not offended. They're just laughing right now. They just think it's funny. They think it's a joke because it is a joke. But you know, the people that are just like, ah, I can't believe Pastor Anderson doesn't want a new buddy. You need help. Stop and get some help. Man. All right, now I'm glad I got that taken care of. And so the title of the sermon tonight is sycophants and other freaks that want to get into my family. No, I'm just kidding. No, the title of the sermon tonight is it was needful to contend. It was needful to contend. Okay, we want to talk about someone. And look, man, I would love to just, my whole ministry to only be about evangelism. I could live with that. I mean, I would just love it if just all we're doing is just planning mission strips. Small towns, mission strips, just, hey, more ways to put more preaching on social media, get the word of God out more on the internet, knock more doors, take more trips, start more churches. I mean, that sounds great. You know, I would love it if we're just, like, starting several churches a year and churches are just popping up all over the United States because we're just like, hey, deny, you know, but in order to do that, here's what we'd have to do. Hey, deny the Trinity? No problem. Start a church. Oh, divorce and remarried? That's okay. You can still be a pastor. And again, let me say this. If you're divorced or remarried, great. I'm glad that you go to our church. I'm glad you're a Christian. I'm glad you're serving God. But the Bible clearly says that to be a pastor, you have to be the husband of one wife. So it's nothing against divorced people serving God in the local church. But when divorced people are hell-bent on being a pastor, when the Bible says no, that's a problem. But hey, if we just say sure, ordain the divorcees and just don't worry about doctrine and don't worry about this red flag and that red flag and come on in sycophants, come on in false teachers. Look, we have a need to split from people. See, I'm tired of all the division. I don't know. I want to just keep dividing more. I'm not looking for something to join. I'm looking for something to be kicked out of. You know, it's like to sit there and say like, oh, there's too much division. You know, how far did you make it in your Bible reading? Genesis 1? Because there's a lot of division in Genesis 1. God's just like dividing and dividing and keep on dividing. Let me tell you something. Yes, we want to focus on evangelism. Yes, we want to get people saved. Yes, we love to talk about the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. But it's needful to contend and to fight. And what do we need to fight? What do we need to fight according to this passage? We need to fight the attitude that says, oh, Christianity has no rules. You know, no rules. Quit preaching against sin. We need to fight that mentality and preach even harder against sin. You know, what do we need to get up and fight? We need to expose the frauds and the heretics out there and stop people from being so naive like that guy in Judges 19 that just thought, oh, everything in Israel is safe. Oh, everybody in church is safe. No, there's false prophets crept in unawares. We need to earnestly contend and fight the false prophets, the heretics, the infiltrators. We need to rebuke the sycophants and the murmurers and the complainers and the people who have men's persons and admiration because of advantage. Hey, sometimes we need to kick some butt as a pastor. Okay, just like it or lump it, but it's part of the job. And in order to be a pastor, yes, you have to have love, joy, peace, and be a sweet person. But, you know, you also have to be able to crack some skulls as a pastor, too, because it's needful to contend. It's needful to contend for the faith, and we've got to fight the heresy, fight the garbage that's constantly coming in. We've got to say no. We've got to be able to put people in their place. When the Korahs and Dathans and Abirons pop up, we've got to shut them down. When Balaam comes in, we've got to shut him down. When Cain is around, he needs to be sharply rebuked, and so it's the job. And so don't get this mentality that says salvation's all that matters. It's only the Gospel. Quit majoring on the minors. You know, I'll just major on everything. Just major on the whole book. All of it. Genesis to Revelation. And, you know, nothing's off limits in this Bible. I want to preach every chapter. And, you know, when people are coming in and they're worshipping a man or worshipping a woman instead of making it about Christ and about the work of God, but it's just all about getting close to personalities. You know, I've seen that junk too many times, so I'm going to contend against it. I'm going to contend with it. Get up and call it out and say, hey, don't even think about it because, you know what, maybe I was not wise to that the first couple of years of pastoring. Maybe the first couple of years I kind of just fell for it, but, you know what, I'm not anymore. I know what's up now, and we all need to know what's up. We all need to realize, hey, people are out there, and they're not all good. There are some bad people out there, and we've got to fight them. And, you know what, in a perfect world, we wouldn't have to fight, but because it's not a perfect world, we have to fight the good fight. We have to earnestly contend for the faith, and, you know what, sometimes fighting can get ugly, but, you know what, is even uglier is when you don't fight and you let the devil take over the church because you just roll over and just let the devil come in and take over. That gets uglier than the worst church split ever. I'd rather have the ugly church split if we end up purging out the chaff than to just always have sweetness and light, and we're always just being corrupted all the time. It's needful to contend. It's needful. That's why we have the book of Jude, folks. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this book, Lord, and, um, Lord, I'm thankful that Jude didn't get his way and didn't get to write about the common salvation, Lord, because we really needed what you ordained, what you inspired here for Jude to write to us, Lord. Thank you for inspiring this word. We know it's your word. We know it's the perfect word of God, and so, Lord, bless it to our ears and help us to put into practice the teachings from your word. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Take your hymnals and go to hymn number 404. 404, when the battle's over, number 404. Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb, number 404? Let's sing it out on this first verse together. Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cross or plush to speak His name? And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown. When the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Must I be carried to the skies on cloudy beds of heat while others fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas? And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Sure, I must fight if I would make him please my courage hoard. I'll bear the toil, endure the faints of Lord and by Thy word. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Amen. Great singing tonight. You're dismissed. Thank you. Thank you.