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

Good evening, welcome to our service this night here at Faithful Word Baptist Church. It's good to see everyone here on this Sunday night service. Let's all take our seats, please, as you take your song books. And we'll turn to hymn number 15 tonight. Number 15, lead me to Calvary. Hymn number 15 begins, King of my life, I crown thee now. Hymn number 15 on this first verse all together now. King of my life, I crown thee now, Thy shout and glory be. Lest I forget thy court, crown, brow, Lead me to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thy agony, Lest I forget thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary. Show me the tomb where thou wast slain, Tenderly morn and wept, Angels and rogues of light array, Guard in thee while south slept. Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thy agony, Lest I forget thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary. Let me, like merry through the gloom, Come with a gift to thee. Show to me now the empty tomb, Lead me to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thy agony, Lest I forget thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary. May I be willing or to bear, Gave me my cross for thee. Sleep in thy love of grief to share, Thou hast for all for me. Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thy agony, Lest I forget thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary. Amen. Great service to sing tonight. Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. I pray that you fill us all with your spirit as we sing praise to you. Please bless the services and the preaching to follow. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. Up to hymn number 126. 126. Anywhere with Jesus. Hymn number 126. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere he leads me in this world below. Anywhere without him near his joys were paid. Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid. Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot know. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone. Other friends they fail me, he is still my own. Though his den they lead me over dreary ways. Anywhere with Jesus he's the house of praise. Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot know. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere with Jesus over land and sea. Telling souls in darkness of salvation free. Ready as he summons me to know your name. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot go. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere with Jesus I can go to sleep. When the dark and shadows round about me creep. Knowing I shall wake and never more to go. Anywhere with Jesus I'll be home sweet home. Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot go. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot go. Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot go. Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot go. Going to the camping trip at Mount Graham the sign up sheets are over here to my left and then the Sierra Leone missions trip is rapidly approaching if you have any questions if you're thinking about going talk to brother Raymond Cooper otherwise just be praying for them and hopefully great things will happen and I'm sure that God's going to do something big on that week and then below that just some other upcoming events listed the information for the small town soul winning such as the trip to Payson this Saturday is over here that's where you can sign up for that get the schedule and brother Raymond Cooper is the guy to talk to to get more details on that and that is about it for announcements let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days going back to Thursday anything from Thursday all right anything else from Thursday what about Friday okay anything else gotcha anything else from Friday what about Saturday six for the group on Saturday anything outside of brother Raymond's group all right and then what about today okay so we got six for this group we got scott four brother tilson seven okay any other teams all right we got three one anything else from today that I'm missing all right very good keep up the great work on soul winning and with that let's sing our next song all right you should find the insert in your hymnal there of be thou my vision if you don't have them please raise your hand be thou my vision oh lord of my heart be thou my vision oh lord of my heart not me all else to me say that thou art thou my best on by day or by night waking or sleeping thy presence my mind be thou my vision and thou my true my ever with thee and thou with me lord thou my great father i thy true son thou in me dwelling and i with me one be thou my battle shield sword for my fight be thou my dignity thou my delight thou my soul shelter first in my time raise thou me and work all power of my heart gracious thou my inheritance now and always thou and thou only cursed in my heart i king of heaven my treasure thou art i king of heaven my victory won i reach heaven so bright and sun part of my own heart whatever still be my vision amen your hymnals now please turn to hymn number 309 309 dare to be a daniel hymn number 309 standing by a purpose through number 309 standing by a purpose through he regards the man honor them the faithful do all hail to daniel's band dare to be a daniel dare to stand alone dare to have a purpose for a dare to make a note many my team never lost daring not to stand who forgot at venose by joining daniel's band dare to be a daniel dare to stand alone dare to have a purpose for a dare to make a note many giants great and tall song into the land and go to the earth where followed by daniel's band dare to be a daniel dare to stand alone dare to have a purpose for a dare to make a note hold the gospel banner high on to victory grand singing in his host be quiet shout for daniel's band dare to be a daniel dare to stand alone dare to have a purpose for a care to make a note they have a great singing tonight all right this time we'll pass the offering plates around and as the plates go around let's turn our bibles to ezra chapter 6 ezra chapter 6 in our bibles as we always do we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number one follow along silo brother dan as he reads ezra chapter 6 starting in verse number one in ezra chapter 6 the bible reads then darius the king made a decree and search was made in the house of the rolls where the treasures were laid up in babylon and there was found at akmitha in the palace that is in the province of the meads a role and therein was a record thus written in the first year of cyrus the king the same cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of god at jerusalem let the house be builded the place where they offered sacrifices and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid the height thereof three score cubits and the breadth thereof three score cubits with three rows of great stones and a row of new timber and let the expenses be given out of the king's house and also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of god which nebi knesser took forth out of the temple which is at jerusalem and brought into babylon be restored and brought again under the temple which is at jerusalem every one to his place and place them in the house of god now therefore tat and i governor beyond the river shethar bosni and your companions the afarsakites which are beyond the river be far from thence let the work of this house of god alone let the governor of the jews and the elders of the jews build this house of god in his place moreover i make a decree what you shall do to the elders of these jews for the building of this house of god that of the king's goods even of the tribute beyond the river forthwith expenses be given unto these men that they be not hindered and that which they have need of both young bullocks and rams and lambs for the burnt offering of the god of heaven wheat salt wine and oil according to the appointment of the priests which are at jerusalem let it be given them day by day without fail that they may offer sacrifices of sweet saviors under the god of heaven and pray for the life of the king and of his sons also i have made a decree that whosoever shall alter this word let timber be pulled down from his house and being set up let him be hanged thereon and let this house be made a dung hill for this and the god that hath caused his name to dwell there destroy all kings and people that shall put to their hand to alter and destroy this house of god which is at jerusalem i darius have made a decree let it be done with speed then tatni governor on this side the river shethar bosni and their companions according to that which darius the king had sent so they did speedily and the elders of the jews builded and they prospered through the prophesying of haggai the prophet and zechariah the son of edo and they built it and finished it according to the commandment of the god of israel and according to the commandment of cyrus and darius and artaxerxes king of persia and this house was finished on the third day of the month adar which was in the sixth year of the reign of darius the king and the children of israel the priests and the levites and the rest of the children of the captivity kept the dedication of this house of god with joy and offered at the dedication of this house of god and hundred bullocks 200 rams 400 lambs and for a sin offering for all israel 12 he goats according to the number of the tribes of israel and they set the priests and their divisions and the levites and their courses for the service of god which is at jerusalem as it is written in the book of moses and the children of the captivity kept the passover under the 14th day of the first month for the priests and the levites were purified together all of them were pure and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity and for their brethren the priests and for themselves and the children of israel which were come again out of captivity and all such as had separated themselves unto them unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land to seek the lord god of israel did eat and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy for the lord had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of israel unto them to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of god the god of israel dear father in heaven please fill pastor of the spirit and please give us all ears to hear to receive wisdom this night from the sermon we pray in jesus name amen man the title of my sermon tonight is let the foundations be strongly laid let the foundations be strongly laid in ezra chapter 6 verse 3 the bible reads in the first year of cyrus the king the same cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of god at jerusalem let the house be builded the place where they offered sacrifices and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid the height thereof three score cubits and the breadth thereof three score cubits and so the context here of the foundations being strongly laid has to do with the house of god in the old testament this was a physical building the temple in the new testament the bible says that the house of god is the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth the bible says that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of god which is the church of the living god so when it comes to the church the foundations must be strongly laid now one of the things that we will sometimes attach to our church as a descriptor is that we are fundamentalists or we're independent fundamental baptists what does that mean obviously we know what the independent means it means that we are not part of a denomination we're not part of the southern baptist convention or the north american baptist or the general association of regular baptist churches or any of these other denominations we are totally independent autonomous self-governing entity that's what it means to be independent but what does it mean to be fundamental well the word fundamental comes from the same root word as our word foundation and that's really what it's getting at fundamental means emphasizing that which is foundational or being built upon a firm foundation we do not believe that the word of god is changing or that it's fluid or that it needs to be kind of interpreted with the times and you know it just kind of has a general idea of kind of you know love god and love other people and be nice you know we believe that god says what he means in the bible and we don't believe that the rules are constantly changing we believe that sin is still sin and we take what the bible says literally unless it's obviously figurative or poetic or symbolic we default to saying hey this is what the bible says we're not going to look for some deeper meaning until we deal with what it says right here on the surface you know if it says not to kill if it says not to steal if it says not to commit adultery we're not going to do it you know that's what we believe we also believe in things like jesus christ literally coming in the flesh and being born of a literal virgin and living a sinless life dying on the cross being dead for three days and three nights and bodily bodily rising again and we also believe in a literal second coming of the lord jesus christ these are the type of things that fundamentalists believe in we also believe that in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth and we believe that god made man in his own image that he formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul not just oh man is just you know the end of a series of evolutionary steps and you've got these other apes and chimpanzees that are you know 99 like us anyway you know no we don't believe that we don't believe that we're animals we don't believe we have quite that much in common with apes and chimpanzees because we are made in the image of god and we're on such another level from animals there's not even a comparison we're in a totally different class okay there's there's there's animals and then there's us and we're not in the same category okay these are the type of things that fundamentalists are known for because they're just basic foundational teachings of the bible and they are teachings that stem from the fact that we look at the bible as an unchanging rock where everything around it is changing and the rain beats against it and the storm and the sea and it just it just stays there it's just it just remains that's what we believe so we don't believe that it changes with the times now certain things do change as far as our culture our lifestyle in america in the 21st century is going to be different than it was in the 20th century before smartphones and internet and other things it's going to be different than before cars were invented or planes were invented obviously there are things that change about our culture and things that change about the way that we live our lives but god's word doesn't change right and wrong doesn't change the morality of the bible is literally set in stone and so that's what it means to be fundamental that's what we mean when we say we're independent fundamental baptists is that we take the bible seriously we believe what it says we don't believe it's changing it is the rock it is the foundation that we are built on it doesn't move we will conform to it instead of making it conform unto us this is what it means to be fundamental so in the house of god we need to let the foundations of god's house be strongly laid we need to lay down that foundation strongly now the foundation is jesus christ and the foundation is the word of god and of course jesus christ and the word of god are hard to separate anyway because in the beginning was the word the word was with god the word was god the word was made flesh and dwelt among us so you've got jesus christ the word and you've got the written word and so the the word of god in both cases whether it's the written word or jesus right and obviously we can't fully understand or grasp that but we know that jesus christ is the incarnation of god's word and so uh it's hard to even separate jesus from the word of god i think it's a mistake to try to separate jesus from his word and so the foundation is jesus therefore the foundation is the word now psalm 11 3 says this you don't have to turn there if you would turn to first corinthians chapter 3 psalm 11 3 says this if the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do why do we need to lay down a strong foundation because if the foundation be destroyed what can the righteous do everything else is in vain if you have a bad foundation if the foundation fails it doesn't matter how beautiful the building is it doesn't matter how quality the workmanship or how good the materials were if the foundation fails everything is doomed and so you've got to lay down a strong foundation if the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do now what is our final authority for all matters of faith and practice in the local church it's the word of god this is the boss not what the pastor says not what some great baptist leader of the pastor present says the bible is our final authority so if the devil can mess up the bible in any number of ways and give us some other version of the bible that's completely messed up that says something totally different then you could see how he would love to do that because he would love to destroy our foundation he would love to take our foundation right out from under us and this is why our church is king james bible only now a lot of people say oh you want those king james but yes oh i can't believe the king james bible only oh it's 2021 but let me tell you something it's insane to be a part of this bible of the month club where the bible is constantly changing and then you're going to claim to be founded on the rock and you can sit there and say well we're founded on the original greek and hebrew text yeah but here's the problem with that 99.9999 percent of christians can't read the original hebrew and greek text so that's not really going to do us any good being in a museum somewhere or being on the pastor's shelf or being on a theologian's shelf if it's not in the hands of the people in the pew that are actually living and serving god and operating the church on a day-to-day basis they better have the word of god in their own language and so it's not enough to just say well it's stable in this other language that 99.99999 percent of christians don't speak but in english we get a new one every five years in english we get a new one every 10 years and let me tell you something these bibles are constantly changing the niv it's not like it's just the niv which niv you know because the niv goes through dramatic changes every few years you know you got the 1984 niv and then you got the 2011 niv and they're very different we're not talking about just differences and spellings or punctuation or correcting a typo we're talking about dramatically different readings in places one of the big changes in 2011 was to make the niv more gender neutral unlike the 1984 niv which retained most of the he him his you know it switches to this plural they you know even for a singular calling a singular they right hmm what does that remind you of bunch of queers and weirdos that want to do that with our language and so i'm not a part of the bible of the month club my bible says the same thing that it does when i was six years old and got saved by my mother's bedside it still says the same thing now 34 years later and 34 years from now it's still going to say the same thing and it has said the same thing for over 400 years and god's people have thrived churches have thrived souls have been saved this week and a year ago and 10 years ago and 100 years ago and 400 years ago with this exact book as far as this english translation of the bible and so sorry i'm not interested in what the atheistic scholars in germany have decided to do with the greek new testament this year and and by the way oh i forgot to mention to you oh no the greek and hebrew are up for grabs too anyway friend those aren't even stable because guess what we're on the 28th edition of the nesley alond greek new testament so even if you you know what i said earlier just go ahead and just delete everything i said earlier about hey it's not enough to be stable in the greek and hebrew because these people don't even have a stable greek and hebrew text either because they're constantly uh twisting the hebrew text to go along with their new archaeological findings and the dead sea scrolls and the septuagint and all these other things and they're constantly changing the greek new testament to where now they are going to literally overhaul the entire thing with a new method called the coherence based genealogical method brand new method for text criticism they're going to redo the whole greek new testament and make dramatic changes to it so far they've done just a small portion of it uh i believe they did something like maybe first peter through the book of jude or something and that's going to show up in the 29th edition of the nesley alon but then there's going to be the 30th edition and the 31st and then that will all trickle down into the english translations and they'll just keep changing and they'll keep changing and then they'll dig up something and then some geek in germany will find something and change something and it just keeps changing and changing that's not a foundation the bible is done it was already finished a long time ago it doesn't need to keep changing it's done here we are we're done we've got it done greek text done hebrew text done translated into modern english done if you want to be a scholar and worry about languages then let's get it translated into some languages that don't have a bible but we're we're doing good in english we're good to go all right we're okay now let's just use the thing so we need to have the foundations strongly laid and if the foundations are destroyed where we have some bible that's been judaized where jewish scholarship and rabbinical type of ideas have made it into the old testament translations now because we all know the jews are the experts on the old testament right even though the bible says in second corinthians chapter three that the jews have a veil over their eyes when they read the old testament and they are blinded and cannot comprehend the old testament we need christians to interpret the old testament i want christians to tell me what genesis means i want christians to tell me what exodus means people who believe in christ people have the holy spirit of god in their bosom but that's not what's driving modern old testament scholarship it's driven by judaism well you know what if i wanted to be jewish i'd be down in synagogue right now i wouldn't be in a baptist church right now okay i don't believe in judaism i believe in christianity and so the modern versions they're being corrupted by bogus scholars unbelieving scholars scholars who don't believe in the bodily resurrection they don't believe in the virgin birth maybe they're even jewish and don't even believe that jesus christ is the son of god and that's who is changing these modern versions and we need to stick by the traditional text the king james version this is the traditional text this is what god has blessed and god has used and so you can say oh that's a really radical position there's nothing radical about just wanting to keep the bible the same and not getting all excited because someone dug up some piece of literal trash you know why stuff ends up in the dirt because it's trash because stuff that's not trash gets used and and people use it like here here's the thing you know we use our bibles and we drive them till the wheels fall off okay and then we throw them away right and they pretty much are not going to be dug up 500 years from now or a thousand years from now and be intact they're going to be just toast they're going to be gone okay but that doesn't bother us because we just keep copy getting more copies and more they're printing how many millions of king james bibles every year so it keeps getting passed down i'm not worried about the fact that we're going to run out of king james bibles because guess what 200 years from now there will still be plenty of them floating around okay but you know what bibles like let's say the recovery version you know one time i was in a bookstore and i found a a bible that was called the recovery version and it was in a vhs case like you slid it out of a vhs case it's like just a cool way to present the bible like you slide out of a literal vhs case you know here's the thing the i'm not convinced that the recovery bible is going to be in print 400 years from now you know what i mean in fact i mean the 1984 niv might not even be around 500 years from now i don't know but you know it's it's probably likely too because it was a major translation but there's all these other like kind of fly by night squirrely janky translations out there right now aren't there okay they're not going to be in print 500 years from now but there are still going to be millions of copies of the kjv but you know what some guy will then dig up the recovery version and find it because the vhs case like preserved it from a nuclear bomb or something it was just made out of the right material and he's gonna find it and be like oh this is older and better this is the real thing you know one document can be preserved just by a fluke just by chance and it could be junk it's like oh we found these new readings of the old testament that we've never seen before you know why you've never seen them before because they're junk because the good readings got copied and copied and passed down and preached and used to be understand what i'm saying it's the junk that dies and has to be resurrected like 700 years later because it went out of print because nobody cared because they were too busy printing the real stuff does everybody see what i'm saying you just have to use a little logic here so that's one foundation that needs to be strongly laid we need to understand that our king james bible is the traditional text that means it's been passed down that means it's what god's people have been using using using okay if you dig up something tomorrow i don't care how old it is i don't care if somebody dates it and says this is from the first century ad then i would just say well you know what there were people corrupting the word of god even in the first century ad because the apostle paul said it we're not as many which corrupt the word of god it was already happening in his lifetime so even when paul is writing his epistles there are people corrupting the word of god age has nothing to do with it either god preserved his word or he didn't either you have faith that god preserved the bible for us or you don't and if you don't then why would you even go to a baptist church if you believe that we need some scholar to reconstruct the text because god didn't preserve the text hey god preserved the text what we have is god's word and it has been providentially preserved through the centuries and this is the english translation of it in the king james version it's accurate it's reliable it's been around for 400 years don't mess with it the foundation is the word of god the foundation is jesus christ look at first corinthians chapter 3 verse 10 according to the grace of god which is given unto me as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth there upon for other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is jesus christ now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is if any man's work abide which he had built there on he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so is by fire but let me tell you something if you don't have the right foundation you're not even there you're not even at this event you know the bible here is talking about the judgment seat of christ how every man's work is going to be made manifest the day shall declare it at that judgment seat of christ our works are going to be tried by fire but let me tell you something the works will only be there if they're built on the foundation of jesus christ because if you don't have that foundation of jesus christ if you're not even saved you're not even there now once you have that foundation of jesus christ then you build on that by doing works you know you start by getting saved and then you do work for the lord right and some of the work that you do for the lord is of eternal value gold silver precious stones other work that you do for the lord was wood hey and stubble it doesn't really have eternal value and the bible teaches that if all of your work is burned you're going to suffer loss meaning you don't get a reward because your works were all wood hey and stubble but you know what you're still saved though look at that powerful verse in verse 13 if any man's work or verse 15 sorry if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved so you've got if you've got jesus as your foundation and then you you totally screw up the building right you're okay let's build on it let's build the works and it's just all wood hey and stubble nothing no gold no silver no precious stones it's just wood hey and stubble and you get to the judgment seat of christ and all your works go up in smoke but you're still saved so don't try and tell me well if you're really saved you're going to have the works you know salvation is by faith alone but faith is never alone yeah it is the bible says but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justified the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness even as david also described it the blessedness of the man unto whom god impudeth righteousness without works saying blessed are they whose sins are forgiven and whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man to whom the lord will not impute sin and if your works are burned up you yourself shall still be saved and it says yet so is by fire and people say you know well what does that mean yet so is by fire what does that mean you know answer number one who cares you're saved you yourself shall be saved amen good enough for me what i but but answer number two a better answer than that my opinion is that that simply means that you're saved like by the skin of your teeth you know it's like you you made it okay but but but here's the thing let's say i'm wrong about that who i don't care what it means because you know what i worry about in the bible the stuff that's really clear and i do know what it means because i guarantee you that i don't care if i live to be a hundred i'm never gonna understand every word of the bible perfectly but i'll tell you what some of the bible is real clear like the parts that say that if you believe you'll have eternal life and that everyone that believes has eternal life those verses abound and those are clear and the clear thing i take from this verse is that if my works are burned i will still be saved and you know what if i'm saved i have eternal life i'm going to heaven hey it's a shame to miss out on those rewards but it's a lot better than going to hell now you say why do you talk so much about salvation it seems like almost every single sermon you know you put in some little two-minute rant about how salvation is by faith and it's not by works you want to know why i bring up salvation in literally almost every sermon even if it's just for a minute or two it's because i'm trying to let that foundation be strongly laid in our church let the foundations be strongly laid what could be more foundational than the doctrine of jesus christ the doctrine of salvation right doctrines of eternal magnitude like heaven and hell that's pretty important now if you would go to hebrews chapter 6 hebrews chapter 6 we're talking about letting the foundations be strongly laid fundamentalists always talk a lot about being saved why because being saved is the foundation having jesus as your savior is the foundation and then the works get built on that so anybody who's a fundamentalist you should expect them to talk a lot about the foundation so they're probably going to talk a lot about being saved making sure everybody has that right foundation and that's why independent fundamental baptists have always emphasized being born again being saved having eternal life salvation by faith these things have always been emphasized by those who are fundamental because it's foundational now hebrews chapter 6 says therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ let us go on into perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward god of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment and he goes on to talk about other things but let's stop and look at this verse for a minute you know he lists six things here that he says are foundational says not laying again the foundation of and he lists six things but you know really there aren't six things in this list there are really seven things in the list because when he says leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ that's the first foundation the principles of the doctrine of christ that's the foundation and then these other six things are six other foundational things for a total of seven foundational things because he's been talking about the doctrine of christ for hebrews chapter one through hebrews chapter five and now he gets to chapter six he says okay now let's leave the principles of the doctrine of christ like we've talked about the basic doctrine of christ we're going to leave that subject and we're not going to lay again these other foundations so we did deal with this foundation in depth you know five chapters we've been talking about the foundation the principles of the doctrine of christ now we're going to move on onto basically more complicated things more difficult subjects and we're not going to do these other simple subjects or foundational subjects or basics okay now what are these foundational subjects first of all the doctrine of christ that's number one and we'll get back to that but another thing that is foundational according to hebrews chapter six here is repentance from dead works and of faith toward god now what does repentance of debt from dead works mean you know a lot of people say oh that's repenting of your sins is that what that says it's not what that says now you might have one of the if you're in the bible of the month club maybe your bible this month says that that's possible i wouldn't be surprised but you know the bible doesn't say repenting from sin it says repentance from dead works you say what are dead works well let me explain it to you this way you know faith without works is dead and works without faith is dead right so if you have faith without works you have dead faith and if you have works without faith you have dead works so dead works would be works that you think you're doing for the lord but you don't actually have your faith in jesus christ you know what dead works are it's when people are in a false religion working their way to heaven and they're doing all this service for god to earn their way into heaven and when they come before christ he's going to say to them depart from me i never knew you ye that work iniquity and they're going to say lord lord if we not prophesied in thy name and on thy name of cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then while i profess unto them i never knew you depart from me that work iniquity you see the unsaved who are not known by jesus christ who do not have their faith in jesus christ as their savior the wonderful works that they do god sees those as works of iniquity so you could be going down to the united methodist church every week with the rainbow flag on the sign and you maybe you're working in their soup kitchen or maybe you're counseling lesbians down there or something whatever you do down there you know they're doing all this work for the lord down at the united methodist church but i submit to you that the united methodist church is doing absolutely nothing of value for the kingdom of god and in fact they are evil is what they are but they do it in the name of jesus and they're going to be all lined up one day saying to jesus lord lord i was a lesbian minister of the united methodist church i preached about you i told the story of the good samaritan 500 times he's going to say i never knew you you filthy dyke depart from me into everlasting fire prepare for the devil and his angels and that's an extreme example with the united methodist church because the united methodist church is just so evil and so godless and so perverted but you know there are lots of other people maybe in a less extreme situation where they're just they're going to a church that seems like a good church but it's a works-based salvation those are dead works because they're not built on the foundation of faith in christ those are dead works and so in order for someone to be saved they would have to repent of dead works meaning they have to stop trusting in those rituals or works to save them i mean if someone thinks well i'm going to go to heaven because i go to church every week and i light a candle and i get on my knees and i cross myself and i go through this process and the the priest puts a wafer on my tongue and it dissolves in my mouth and and i go through the process every ash wednesday he puts the mark of the beast excuse me he puts a little ash on my forehead and and uh or i maybe i get in my right hand or my forehead and basically you know he slapped me when i was confirmed the priest slapped me in the face and said receive the holy ghost and so now i know i'm going to look in order to be saved you would have to renounce that as your way to heaven you can't say well i believe in jesus but i'm going to heaven because of the because i go to confession because i go to mass because i've been confirmed because i do the eucharist because i do ash wednesday and fat tuesday and everything else the bottom line is that those works that you do to earn your way to heaven they're dead works and you have to repent of that meaning you can't do faith and works you have to repent of the dead works and start trusting in the finished work of christ to save you so it's got to be faith not works it can't be faith plus works so this is foundational repentance from dead works repentance from works that are done to earn salvation without faith in christ not based on a faith in the finished work of christ as you're taken into heaven repentance from dead works and faith toward god faith in god we've got to have faith to save us not doing a bunch of deeds to save us because salvation is by grace through faith not of works lest any man should boast of the doctrine of baptisms you know obviously that's a foundational thing that we're baptized by immersion after salvation you know you don't really have to be that smart reading the bible to figure out the baptisms by immersion you don't have to be an expert or a theologian to understand that although i'm sure many experts and theologians can explain sprinkling to you it's not in the bible in the bible they go both down into the water and john baptized there because there was much water there and we're buried with him by baptism into his death that like as christ was raised up from the dead to the glory of god the father we also should walk in newness of light we're buried with him by baptism into his death okay jesus when he was baptized came up straight way out of the water okay they went down both of them into the water both philip and eunuch and he baptized him it's pretty obvious that people are being immersed in water when they get baptized in the river in the jordan river they're dunked under the water and it's also clear that you have to believe on jesus christ before you can get baptized that's why the ethiopian eunuch says see here's water what doth hinder me to be baptized and in acts 837 in the king james bible not in the niv not in the esv not in these other new bibles that are coming out constantly it says if thou believeth with all thine heart thou missed and the eunuch said i believe that jesus christ is the son of god and that's when he stopped the chariot and they went down into the water and he baptized him okay you've got to be saved before you can get baptized you don't sprinkle a baby and call it baptism you dunk someone who has already made the personal decision to believe on the lord jesus christ these are foundational teachings the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands what is laying on of hands about well this is typically talking about people being ordained into the ministry and people being chosen and ordained to be a pastor or a deacon they lay hands on them and pray for them they meet certain qualifications again a basic teaching the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead you know i mean that's pretty basic right that's pretty foundational to believe in an afterlife for god's people and to believe not in just an afterlife but also that there's going to be a a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the unjust and that there's going to be a resurrection of life and there's going to be a resurrection of damnation this life is not the end you know the sadducees were a group of people in the old testament who claimed to believe the word of god but yet they denied the resurrection and jesus was dealing with them constantly and dealing with the pharisees but the pharisees you know they believed at least that there was going to be a resurrection they believed in angels and spirits and things but the sadducees had such a carnal view of life that they believed that there was no angel or spirit and they believed that you know your spirit is just the breath in your body and when you die you're gone and you'll never come back and it's just over hey we don't believe that we believe that we have eternal life and that after you die there's heaven and hell and there's going to be a resurrection of the just and the unjust and some people are going to spend uh eternity burning in the lake of fire others are going to spend eternally uh eternity with jesus christ blessed forever living in the new earth and so forth the resurrection of the dead and again you know this rolls into the next thing eternal judgment eternal judgment i mean what does that mean eternal judgment is that like the seventh day avenue say where you just kind of burn up and then you're gone is that eternal judgment no the bible says these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal hell is an everlasting punishment it lasts forever it does not end that is eternal judgment and that's a foundational teaching of the word of god go if you would to second john just a few pages to the right in your bible second john let the foundations be strongly laid we we need to have a strong foundation of the word of god which means we can't be changing our bible every couple years letting five people in germany make the decision for the entire christian world what the bible should say and those five people do they even believe that jesus rose from the dead do they believe in the virgin birth huh do they even know how to win a soul to christ are they even saved themselves can you name these five people no because and if i if i gave you their names you'd just be like who's that who's that guy oh he's just the guy controlling the greek text for you know the entire civilized world and chain making dramatic changes to the word of god and that's going to filter down into your new english version 10 years from now 15 years from now 20 years from now you know anything about him no you don't because he's who is he he's in a smoke-filled room somewhere is what he is the rulers of the darkness of this world know who that guy is but look at second john verse 9 it says whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of christ hath not god he that abideth in the doctrine of christ he hath both the father and the son if they're coming unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him godspeed for he that biddeth him godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds the doctrine of christ is paramount it is foundational if we're going to let the foundations of god's house be strongly laid obviously we need a strong foundation of an unchanging word of god a final authority set in stone and look if 500 years from now the english language has changed so much that a new bible is needed in our language because because you know maybe because languages do sometimes change over time dramatically maybe not anymore because our language is pretty locked in because of the technology but let's say 500 years from now we needed a new bible in the next phase of english you know what though it would still be translated from the same greek and hebrew text underlying this king james version and it should still agree with this king james version in what it says it should still say the same message it should be an accurate translation into that futuristic language 500 years from now if that ever even happens but here we are today in 2021 and we can understand this book just fine and all the words in this book are in uh an english dictionary today there's nothing that's too archaic for us to deal with and so we're sticking with this and we need a bible that stays the same so that we can be founded on the rock and not on the shifting sands of textual criticism that is constantly changing that is never over these people don't work want to work themselves out of a job because if textual criticism is over then what you know what do they do with themselves anymore so that's why the work just has to never end that's why you know the esv recently said that it was the final edition it's never going to change again it took like less than a year for them to be like we're making a new one because they spent a month playing golf and they're like dude i need i need a gig man let's make another esv man let's just keep milking this thing for everything we can these calvinists will keep buying it man let's do it they got bored after a couple months and said let's make a new one you see there's no job in fundamentalism for being a textual critic because we already have the text we already have the greek text we already have the hebrew text we're done you know the only job is translating it into foreign languages or using it in our language those are the jobs okay the doctrine of the word of god needs to be something that's foundational we need to strongly lay that foundation and know where we stand on the bible and not just that we have the king james version but that we also believe that the bible is god's word and that the bible is inspired by god and that it's not just written by man and and he put his own opinions and well you know it just kind of reflects the misogyny of back then or what you know no it doesn't this book says what god intends it to say yes it's written by human authors but they spoke as they were moved by the holy ghost and they're inspired by god and it's god's word it's not of any private interpretation it was not delivered in old time by the will of man but by the will of god god's word is foundational jesus is foundational jesus christ salvation we need to lay that foundation strongly and also we need to strongly lay down the foundation of who jesus is now specifically what was being hammered in the book of hebrews chapters one through five when he said that he had just finished laying down the doctrine of christ the principles of the doctrine of christ you know what was really hammered in that part of hebrew is the deity of jesus christ because in chapter one it said unto the son he saith thy throne oh god is forever and ever you know and again in chapter three it says this man was counted worthy of more glory than moses in as much as he was builded the house hath more honor than the house for every house is builded by some man but he that built all things is god and it just finished telling us that jesus is the one who built all things and that he who built all things is god and so we see that jesus christ is better than the angels in chapter one he's better than moses he is god in the flesh he's the express image of the person of god the father and so jesus christ is deity but you know what there is also another error out there that teaches that there's no trinity and that jesus christ is god the father wrong jesus christ is the son there's the father the son and the holy ghost the father is god jesus is god the holy ghost is god but the father is not the son the son is not the father the son is not the holy ghost the holy ghost is not the father but they are all god but it's one god one god three persons okay and we could think of all kinds of illustrations to illustrate that and every illustration that we think of is going to come short no illustration is going to be perfect people sometimes get mad at you when you use an illustration and be like oh you don't use the wrong you know i think any illustration can work for the trinity as long as you don't just like take it too far and make the make the illustration your final authority we need to make the word of god the final authority and the illustration is just to kind of help us grasp some things so don't take the illustration too seriously don't fixate too much on the the illustration you know we're down in mexico soul winning and we felt that the tres leches cake was you know an illustration of the trinity you know three milks one cake you know the condensed milk is cake the fresh or the condensed milk is milk the fresh milk is about you know it's one dessert three milks tres leches cake all right so you know i'm sure you could pick apart that illustration and find all the problems with it okay no illustration is going to be perfect but here's the thing you know one illustration that i think is a pretty good illustration is that we as people are a body a soul and a spirit but yet we're one person now again i'm not saying god's one person god's three persons one god but it's the same type of a trichotomy because if you stop and think about it you know my soul is not the same as my body my body is not the same as my spirit my spirit and my soul are not the same thing wouldn't you say all these three are different from one another but yet the body is steven anderson the soul is steven anderson the spirit is steven anderson so that just kind of goes to show how three things can be one and even if they were separated even if i die and i give up the ghost and the coroner calls you and says will you identify pastor anderson's body and you go to the morgue are you going to be like well that's not pastor anderson pastor anderson's in heaven no you're going to look at the body and be like it's him it's pastor you know but you're going to say it's pastor anderson and it'll be true but i'm going to be up in heaven and i'm going to be pastor anderson up there too you see that okay so obviously again that is not a perfect illustration of the trinity but it just kind of gets you thinking along the right lines other people would use an illustration of like an egg you know there's a shell there's a yolk there's a white it's one egg or whatever you know and again all these illustrations fall short so don't fixate on them here are the facts from the word of god you want to know the facts jesus is the son of god is that a fact or what i mean can we argue with that jesus is the son of god okay here's another fact jesus is god and here's another fact there's only one god so you can see how we're getting toward the trinity now just by stating a couple basic facts once we know that jesus is god and the father is god and jesus is the son of the father and there's only one god and then we get to the book of john and in the book of john over and over again jesus distinguishes himself from the father he says you know you know i didn't i didn't send myself the father sent me i'm not here testifying of myself the father testifies me you know what jesus said and this this should just shut the mouth of every modalist permanently everyone is pentecostal this should just shut him up permanently jesus said if i bear record of myself my record's not true there's another that bears witness of me the father now if jesus and the father are the same person then there's not two witnesses it's written in your law the testimony of two men is true i bear witness of myself and the father bears witness he says that's the testimony of two men and if we get to first john five seven the famous verse everybody forgets the first part of the verse they're so focused on the second part of the verse they all forget the first part of the verse it says for there are three that bear record in heaven the father the word and the holy ghost and these three are one they focus on the part that says the father the the word and the holy ghost and these three are one they focus on that like father word holy ghost these three are one amen but don't forget the first part of the verse there are three that bear record and if you would go to first you're in second john it's not too far for you to go go to first john okay you can you can turn one page you big baby okay first john chapter five look at the context it says in verse number six or it says at the end of verse six it says it is the spirit that beareth witness do you see that that bears witness for there are three that bear record so you see how bearing witness and bearing record are the same thing and that's why he says in verse eight and there are three that bear witness in earth so there are three that bear record in heaven and there are three that bear witness in earth the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one and then look at verse nine if we receive the witness of man the witness of god is greater what does that mean if we receive the witness of men it's saying if we would listen to the testimony of three separate witnesses getting up and telling us the same thing in court if three witnesses showed up and testified of the same thing we would say that's a strong case the prosecution has a strong case we've got these three witnesses but what if those three witnesses were really just one witness you know uh i'd like to call to the stand stephen anderson the pastor and then when he's done okay call your next witness i'm calling now stephen anderson the husband and for my third witness i'm calling stephen anderson the parent is that three witnesses but that's what oneness pentecostals believe that's what modalists believe that it's just god acting as different roles you know these these heretics that we threw out of our church for denying the trinity this is how they explained it uh they explained it as well you know the the trinity is basically like you know it's one band and you've got the guitar this is how they explained it okay the you got the guitarist and the bass player and the drummer and it's three guys but it's one band right like three persons one god they said that you know what we believe is that basically it's like a one-man band it's just one guy he he plays the drums he plays the bass he plays the guitar but it's all one guy it's a one-man band so it's basically one guy that's in three different roles he's in the role of the drummer the role of the bass player the role of the guitar player but here's the thing they're saying you know it's it's just one person who puts on the father hat puts on the son hat it's like that old i don't know if it was andy griffith's show or something you know it's some old black and white comedy sketch one time where the it's some small one-horse town and so one guy he's like the mayor but then he like takes off his hat and puts on like a police hat and now he's the police chief and then the guy's like let me talk to the fire chief and he ticks off puts on fireman hat okay now i'm the fire chief he's just playing every role who knows what i'm talking about so the point is that that is not what the bible teaches because if you went to court and called that three witnesses that's ridiculous the in order to have three witnesses it has to be three persons that's why jesus said it's written in your law the testimony of two men is true that's why he said if i bear witness of myself my testimony is not true there's another that bears witness of me the father the son and the holy ghost are three witnesses they are the three witnesses the father the son and the holy ghost if they're all the same person they can't be three witnesses that's what the bible actually teaches so if you just get a few basic facts and people act like oh the trinity is so complicated took hundreds of years to develop the doctrine it's not complicated folks if jesus is god and jesus is the son of god and there's only one god and we know that jesus is the express image of his person and no man has seen god at any time but the only forgotten son which is in the bosom of the father he had declared him and there's three witnesses the father the word and the holy ghost and these three are one and we have all these things in the book of john where where jesus says you know i came not to do my own will just kidding i came to do my own will no he said i came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me there's the father's will there's the son's will you know what it's three different centers of consciousness it is three different persons now obviously they are united it's one god in three persons but look jesus said in john 17 that the father loved him before the world began so before the world even began before god even created the heaven and the earth the father loved the son how can that is that just one person loving himself what about when jesus was on the cross and said myself myself why is thou forsaken myself no he said my god my god why is thou forsaken me how can that be if it's the same person it's one god three persons you say well i think i should be one person there's no one else to compare him to there's only one god in the whole universe and he's three persons so you better just get used to god meaning three persons because that's the only god there is and he's always been three persons and he always will be three persons so that's what god means well how can that be one guy i think it's three guys no because you don't even know what god means because god is the father the son of the holy ghost that's the only god that there's a there are no other gods you know whenever the bible says god's little g those aren't actually gods it's false gods that's why the bible says will there be many that are called gods there are many that are called lords but there's only one god okay and so this is foundational the doctrine of christ this matters this needs to be strongly laid out don't get bored of hearing lots of preaching on the trinity don't get bored of hearing preaching on salvation don't get bored of hearing preaching on baptism being by immersion or these things you know we've got to lay down these strong foundations because look i'm all for building fancy things on it you know i like to preach the deep things of the bible i like to preach obscure bible stories that nobody's ever heard of and pull out deep truths from the word of god hey i love it you love it well i love it too i love to learn new things and to get into advanced teaching from the bible right i like the deep stuff too i'm for it i'm with it but but here's the thing you know i'd hate to preach all this deep teaching and all this advanced teaching and all this intermediate teaching and then have a bunch of people in our church you know confused on salvation confused on the trinity confused on baptism getting mixed up in false doctrine because we didn't lay down the foundation so we always need to hammer the basics and hammer the foundation and by the way it's like this in any area of life the foundation is important in every area of life you know you can have all kinds of bells and whistles on your vehicle but you know it better have a good foundation you know i don't know about you i want the engine to work and to last and to be solid it's not like oh this seed will you know heat up your backside it's like i live in arizona i live in arizona man my backside is hot enough okay but it's like oh you know it's got this you know five disc changer cd i guess that's obsolete now shows how much i know oh it's got a you know it's an automatic but you can switch into sport shift mode you know but here's the thing what happens if it just breaks down after 25 000 miles or something you're not going to care about the pin striping down the side the spoiler on the back you know oh you know you know most cars have the engine in the front this one's got the engine in the back ah what do they call that again mid engine mid engine you know i don't care if it's mid engine i just want working engine is what i care about you know you want the foundation to be right you want the the power train and the you know you want the the fundamentals to be sound and you know if if i had a car that was all banged up and scratched and dinged and and had duct tape and bondo and everything else if if i had that car but the fundamentals were sound i'd be okay driving that car whereas what about just like a beautiful perfect looking car and you turn it on and it sounds weird and it's constantly breaking down and you're constantly having problems right what would you rather have you'd rather have the fundamentals be right so i'd rather go into a church that looks a little rough on the outside a little bit of bondo but it's fundamental then the church where everything's perfect and the music's perfect and the decorations are perfect and everything but the thing won't start you can't even get the thing to start a lot of these churches are non-starters they don't even start i want a church that runs okay and you know what i don't care if it looks perfect on the outside i want the fundamentals to be right because you know what we can always fix the outside but if the fundamentals are bad you know it might be better just to total that vehicle just to send it to the junkyard because it's fundamentally flawed the engine is fundamentally flawed or something or just the the frame is not right or something it's just like you know what we could work on this and fix it and pretty soon you're just going to be throwing good money after bad trying to fix a vehicle that's fundamentally flawed it's junk get a new one but you know if i have one that's fundamentally sound i can always fix the body i can always make repairs to peripheral things and so that's the way church needs to be we need to have a strong foundation now ideally you know it's going to look good and run good but you know obviously the fundamentals are the most important thing we need to make sure that in our church the fundamentals are laid down strongly ephesians says this you don't have to turn there it says you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets jesus christ himself being the chief cornerstone you're built on the foundation of the apostles that's referring to the new testament the prophets that's referring to the old testament that's your foundation the apostles and prophets you know your your foundation is jesus is your foundation the word of god is your foundation foundation being saved is your foundation understanding the trinity is your foundation right these are foundational things and if we get these foundational things right there's no limit to how high we can build this thing i mean if we have the ultimate foundation we can build as high as we want we can build 10 stories 20 stories 100 stories if we have the right foundation whereas if the foundation's wrong it doesn't matter how good we are at building doesn't matter how much money we throw at the thing you can throw money at that building project you're going to build the leaning tower of pisa because your foundation isn't right and then everything is in vain after that if you take the time to lay down the fundamentals then you build on that okay you know and it's like that in every area of life talked about cars you know you think about fighting think about boxing or something you know it's the left jab it's the right cross you know and here's the thing even guys that are super advanced super skillful you know what they're going to keep doing they're going to keep working on jab cross hook they're going to keep doing that over and over and over and over again because of the fact that those things are fundamental and everything else kind of builds on a few basic skills and you've got to make sure that you have these fundamental things right and so we've got to have the right bible the right salvation the right doctrine of jesus christ and don't even dare come to me and say i don't think that the trinity is a big deal as long as you believe in the deity of christ you're okay you're full of beans buddy because the bible says you have to believe jesus the son of god to be saved says you have to believe he's the son of god the son of god the son of god i believe that jesus christ the son of god that's what the ethiopian eunuch said last time i checked he that believeth on the sun has everlasting life this other weird charismatic pentecostal doctrine that says well no jesus is the father it's garbage you're tampering with a fundamental doctrine there and we should not play with that doctrine we need to be serious about the fact that it's the trinity and that it's not oneness and we need to be serious about the fact that we're going to stick with an english bible that's translated from the traditional text this is the authoritative translation over 400 years it's been the rock it is the standard other versions can call themselves new american standard english standard version that don't make them standard my friend because they're all compared to this this is the standard see well why is that the standard because it is it's it just is yeah but why it just is so uh it is the standard de facto it's the standard why is it the standard oh i don't know because it's been the most popular bible for the last 400 plus years whether you like it or not and you say well the niv outsold it yeah but this is the most read bible by a mile pew research did a study people actually read the bible overwhelmingly do the king james so niv sells bibles for people to put on their shelf their little precious moments niv but they spend precious little time looking at the thing okay they use it as a doorstop they use it just as a decoration or window dressing but this right here is what people actually read the most even according to a worldly pew research centers polling and so the king james bible is the standard because it is always going to be the book that god's people are using as far as you know while we speak this language you know so if somebody's listening to this uh recording a thousand years from now i don't know what's going to be happening okay but the point is that this book is not waning in popularity i i can't even count how many times i had people say like oh the king james bible's dying you're a dying breed you king james people you're dying that's a lie look at google trends on search terms kjv esv and niv and look at how around the year 2012-2013 all of a sudden the kjv just started trending it's like they're all three kind of steady kind of steady and then the kjv just goes like this and i saw somebody show me that graphic and i fact checked it myself to make sure it was real so i went to google trends i ran the search myself and saw that same result of the kjv trending and right now even this year there are multitudes of churches switching back to the king james in the year 2021 right now they're switching back even other denominations even presbyterians and reformed baptists and they're switching to the king james the king james is still and by the way the king james i i think i looked at a statistic it's like 40 percent of churches are using it or something you know a lot of them are other denominations and stuff but the point is it's not going away it's still the standard you know it always will be you know obviously in the foreseeable future the point is that god's word is always going to be preached by god's people and loved by god's people we know the voice of the shepherd when we hear it the doctrine of christ baptism the trinity the word don't get weary of of us hammering these things over and over again because you're that same bozo who doesn't want to practice the jab and cross is what you are you you know you only want the exotic spinning back fist and and the jump kick you need the basics my friend we need to let the foundations be strongly laid let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for uh salvation for the word lord thank you for giving us a foundation i'm so glad that i don't have to live my life on the shifting sands of this world a religion that's constantly changing a book that's constantly changing lord thank you for the stability of having the word as our rock and thank you that jesus christ is the same yesterday and today and forever and it's in his name we pray amen amen let's turn our song books to him number 150 150 my faith has found a resting place him number 150 number 150 my faith has found a resting place my faith has found a resting place not in the vice nor creed i trust the ever living one his roots for me shall be i need no other argument i need no other plea me it is enough that jesus died and that he died for me enough for me that jesus says this is my fear and doubt a sinful soul i come to him he'll never cast me out i need no other argument i need no other plea is enough that jesus died and that he died for me my heart is leaning on the word the written word of god salvation by my savior's name salvation through his blood i need no other argument i need no other me it is enough that jesus died and that he died for me my great position heals the sick the lost he came to save for me his precious blood he shed for me his life he gave i need no other argument i need no other plea it is enough that jesus died and that he died for me amen great singing tonight you are dismissed so you