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

Man it's great to be here tonight and also I'd encourage you if it's possible for you to make it out next Thursday night as well because brother Raymond Cooper does a real good job and he is going to be fresh off of a missions trip so I'm sure he'll have a lot of good stuff to talk about next Thursday night it's great to see everybody down here and the great work you guys are doing the the soul winning map getting colored in and I know you guys have been faithfully out there knocking doors in this area appreciate the great job that brother Corbin wrestles doing here just week in week out preaching Sunday morning Sunday night Thursday night and I know he's doing an excellent job down here and so tonight I want to preach on the subject of the good fight of faith the good fight of faith we need to think of the Christian life as a fight because that's what it is and over and over again especially in the pastoral epistles first and second Timothy and Titus Paul is telling these men you've got to fight and there there's a fight going on it's warfare and you know he told the same thing the Corinthians in first Corinthians chapter 9 and Hebrews chapter 10 talks about our Christian life being a fight there's a fight that's going on it's a constant battle there's a war that's going on and so the Bible says in verse 1 where we are there in chapter 2 thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus we as Christians need to be strong what's the opposite of being strong weak don't be weak what does it mean to be weak you know somebody who just backs down they have no courage they have no energy to do anything they're they're they're they're just lame you know in the Bible saying no no be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus if we're gonna fight a good fight if we're gonna war good warfare we need to have the strength to do battle the endurance part of strength is endurance and the Bible says in verse number two and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ so part of the good fight part of being a good soldier of Jesus Christ is that we're gonna have to endure hardness and a lot of people today they want to live a Christian life of no sacrifice they don't want any trade-offs it's like they want to have their cake and eat it too they want to have everything that this world has to offer they want the popularity they want the pleasures and things of this world but then they also want to be a servant of Jesus Christ but we have to understand is that life is about trade-offs you can't have it all you have to decide what's really important to you and the Bible says here that if we're gonna be a good soldier of Jesus Christ we're gonna have to endure some hardness we're gonna have to go through some difficult things if you want to live an easy life you're in the wrong place now here's the thing if you went out and lived a super sinful life that's not gonna be easy either because the way of transgressors is hard but you know when you live the sold-out zealous Christian life that's not gonna be easy either because God expects you to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ if you're looking for the easy way you need to just get in some watered-down liberal church where you just kind of check the box that you went there and they don't make any waves and it's just good God good sin good devil cold hell type of a preaching and if you go to those type of churches and live that kind of a Christian life you know you might be able to just kind of cruise through life and be a do-nothing fight nothing say nothing kind of a Christian but you know what that's not what God has called us to do and so at our church we don't gear it toward that we don't gear it toward being lukewarm God doesn't like lukewarm he said if you're lukewarm I'll spew you out of my mouth and so God wants us to be red-hot zealous and he wants us in the fight enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ I don't know about you I want to be in the front lines that's why we go to faithful word Baptist Church amen because we're serious about serving God we don't want to just kind of technically be in the battle but we're you know we've never really seen any action you know we want to be on the front lines want to be where the action is we want to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ not just barely a soldier of Jesus Christ the Bible says in verse 4 no man that warth entangle it himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who had chosen him to be a soldier he's saying if you were you can't really get too distracted with the things of this life to where you lose focus on the battle and what's important and the fight that we're fighting it's easy just to kind of get caught up in the things of this world and just get busy about those things and forget the important thing which is getting people saved standing up for the truth preaching the Word of God fighting against the forces of evil in this world and so we don't want to get entangled with the affairs of this life because we want to please him Jesus Christ who had chosen us to be a soldier and if a man also strive for masteries yet is he not crowned except he strived lawfully here he uses an athletic illustration you know striving for the mastery here it's talking about competing in something like the Olympics or some kind of a sporting championship and he says you're not going to be crowned unless you strive lawfully so don't get distracted by the things of this world don't get into sin because sin can disqualify you and and take you out of the fight you know God wants you on the front lines fighting for him serving him and you can get sidelined if you get involved in sin so don't break the rules strive lawfully so you can get the crown he says in verse 6 the husband men that laborerth must be first partaker of the fruits consider what I say and the Lord give the understanding in all things remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel wherein watch this wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer even under bonds but the Word of God is not bound so continuing the theme of you know striving struggling being a spiritual athlete being a good soldier warring a good warfare not getting entangled with the affairs of this life thinking about pleasing him who had chosen us to be a soldier he says in the process of this fight we suffer we suffer trouble as an evil doer even under bonds even at the point of possibly getting arrested but he said even if I'm bound though he said the Word of God is not bound there's so much great stuff in this verse here verse 9 he says I suffer trouble as an evil doer it's amazing that we live in a day where men call good evil and evil good so that when you serve the Lord and do what's right you end up suffering trouble as an evil doer and it's amazing to listen to how people talk about myself and my other preacher friends how they talk about us like we're just the worst people ever because we have the audacity to preach the Bible or to stay fundamental and stay old fashioned in our Christianity you know I think of Pastor Shelley because he's been going through a lot lately with that and you know we were talking about on the way down here we were driving down the road and there was a billboard saying hey advertise here and and we were joking about that billboard and I told my son I said you know it's interesting Pastor Shelley he had billboards for his film the sodomite deception so he put up these billboards in Dallas Texas that said sodomitedeception.com that that's pretty much all they said was just advertising that website they didn't say anything crazy on him or anything you know I mean even if they did that would just been even better billboard but basically you know he's trying to just be cool so he puts up these billboards sodomitedeception.com and they just within a really short amount of time they're taking down all his billboards giving him his money back and and and just telling him how wicked he is and how bad he is you know lately he had a lawyer that he was working with and the lawyer canceled him and said you're wicked I can't worry you know he's a Christian preacher standing up for being straight standing up for the Bible standing up for the most basic teachings about you know men and women and he's just literally made out to be this horrible person while the sodomites and perverts of this world are praised as being so wonderful and they're so kind and loving it's the exact opposite because we live in a world where they're called good evil and evil good they put light for darkness and dark for light they put sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet I mean we live in a backwards world where you literally serve God and you suffer trouble as an evildoer and let me tell you so I'm not ashamed you see the the tendency is that when you start suffering trouble as an evildoer when you do what's right is that you could get ashamed you get embarrassed and say you know oh man you know people are calling me out how bad I am and then you start getting embarrassed you start hiding what you believe and you know think about how many times this happened about look at Peter you know oh you were with Jesus of Nazareth no no no I don't know that guy I know not the man no no you were with him no no no I don't know him I don't know what I know not what thou sayest I don't even know what you're saying man what did you just say I don't know him why was he doing that you know he got ashamed okay think about how Paul talked about onesimus he said he was not ashamed of my chain because guess what a lot of people were ashamed of Paul's chain people get ashamed that's why the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 1 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek and we see that Jesus said you know whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this evil and adulterous generation of him so son of man be ashamed we come within his glory I mean how could we be ashamed of Jesus Christ or of any of his words or anything in the Bible considering the evil and adulterous generation that we live in who should be ashamed you know who ought to be ashamed are the sinful people of this world the adulterers the murderers the perverts you know that's why I'd be embarrassed it's pretty sad when Christians are embarrassed about being a Christian and they're a little bit ashamed about being a fundamental Baptist or you know well yeah wait you go to that church you got a faithful word Baptist Church you know and it's like well you know I mean you know yeah I you know I got a lot of friends there I mean you know it's a soul winning you know I mean yeah I don't agree with everything you know it's just it's sad that people would get embarrassed or ashamed because of the fact that they suffer trouble as an evildoer just for doing what's right you know and then I said to my son I said think about all the weird stuff that you've seen on billboards in your life I mean think about it's like sodomitedeception.com Christian documentary very well documented by the way with historical references biblical references it's filled with facts okay but but it's like no way to that but think about the worst billboards that you've seen in your life because I've seen some pretty wicked billboards for all kinds of triple X stuff and adult stuff and and it's stuff that I wouldn't even mention but they put it on a giant billboard with no shame but that's okay but I don't see those companies saying you think I'm gonna advertise this smut huh you think I'm gonna advertise this adult store get some morals buddy no no but it's like you darn Baptist you know they think you can do this hate speech I mean it's it's bizarre the stuff that they would allow and then what they will not allow it's crazy and so you will sometimes suffer trouble as an evildoer even into bonds where you know Jesus even said in the book of John chapter 16 he said the time will come with when he that kill if you will think that he do with God service you know there are people out there that are so backwards they will call good evil and evil good and you can end up suffering trouble as an evildoer just for doing the right thing but you know what that's all part of the battle it's all part of the fight because if you think about warfare because you know he said what be a good soldier war good warfare if you think about warfare what's a big part of warfare propaganda every war has it you know it's kind of funny looking back historically at the propaganda even that our country has used okay we're not immune from this everybody uses it I remember I was driving through New Mexico and they had this this little museum there's some kind of a World War II museum you know brother Martinez probably you probably been to some of those type of museums and things on the rez they're a little it's in like a gas station or something but they have these really cool little museums in different places on the Navajo reservation and they have this World War II museum and had all these propaganda posters of World War II these things wild like you know it showed like a Soviet Union soldier with like there you know the red and the you know the hammer and sickle the communist and it says this man is your friend he fights for freedom I mean this guy from the Soviet Union this man is your friend he fights for you know of course a couple of years later it's like nope he's the bad guy again but you know during World War II we teamed up with the Soviet Union so it's like hey everybody this is the good guy he's fighting for freedom when in reality he's living in like the most repressive communist socialist worst regime in the history of mankind probably like second only to like what the People's Republic of China or something or North Korea I mean the Soviet Union under Stalin was bad it's really bad okay but it's like this man is your friend fights for freedom and then other ones showed Japanese people looking like they weren't even human and they're climbing into a kitchen window with a knife attacking a housewife who's cooking and it said like we're gonna fight him over there so that this guy doesn't come to your house and do this you know it didn't say it like that but it said something like you know we gotta fight him there so that they don't come here and it just shows this this demonic looking Japanese guy coming through the window attacking a housewife with a butcher knife he's like ah and then they had this other poster that was telling you to work hard you know you got to work hard to support the war effort and it showed one of the other like kind of ghoulish cartoon Japanese guys and he said like you loaf I like very much please like loafing on the job you loaf I like very much please like he's basically telling you to slack off you know so that he can win and so yes it was hilarious and you can actually you could probably just go on Google nowadays and just type in you know World War 2 propaganda posters and and see some of these wild posts but for me this was you know this is like 10 years ago or so this is the first time I'd ever seen them and I was just blown away by some of these posters but my friend this is a big part of warfare propaganda on all sides throughout history I don't care what war we're talking about I don't care what part of the world what era I don't care if you go back thousands of years there's always the propaganda campaign and we're in a war and let me tell you something the other side they've got a serious propaganda campaign going on to demonite we're the ghoulish looking Japanese guy with the butcher knife coming in the window it's like a Baptist pastor okay I'm telling you the world has got their propaganda machine running on the television they've got to run it on the radio they've got to run it in the school system even the churches are churning out the propaganda for the devil's crowd and so we've got to understand that serving God there's gonna be some friction there's gonna be some battle there's gonna be some heat and we gotta understand there's gonna be some propaganda from the other side trying to demonize our side the Lord's side where they're gonna call good evil and evil good and put sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet and everything's backwards and so we've got to understand that you're gonna as a soldier of Jesus Christ you're gonna suffer trouble as an evildoer possibly even under bonds but I like what he says here the Word of God's not bound when I look at that verse the way I take this is that you know what it's not about me it's about the Word of God you know when you're a soldier you ought to be thinking about your the team you know you ought to be thinking about your company or your squadron or your battalion or or your country or your army right what the whole point of being a soldier you're not just out there for yourself it's not like you join the military and you're put into battle it's like let's see how many medals I can earn today like I don't really care if my side wins I don't care if my buddies are killed you know I just want to see how many medals I can earn that'd be pretty weird wouldn't it but it's out there if you've if you've ever read you know the Iliad and the Odyssey you know Homer's Iliad that's what the whole books about the the main character Achilles is just like I want everybody to die cuz I'm not getting enough glory I'm not getting enough credit and he just only cares about himself he's only in it for himself and that's what is that what it means to be a good soldier just hey let me go get personal glory personal accolades let me see if I can just earn medals no no in reality a soldier is supposed to be part of a team he's part of a unit and he's watching out for other people and it's not about personal glory it's about winning it's about the cause it's about country you know God and country and your fellow soldiers I've never been in the military but I get it you know it's it's for others okay being a good soldier of Jesus Christ is no different and so when he says I suffer trouble as an evildoer even under bonds but the word of God's not bound he's saying look if I end up getting arrested or put in prison or slandered or physically beaten or assaulted if God's Word goes forward if the cause moves forward if more people end up getting saved if churches are established if the truth is preached if people learn the Word of God I love what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians he said yay and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith I joy and rejoice with y'all he's saying you know he's willing to be sacrificed so that the church can succeed so that the church can thrive so that God's Word can go forth so that Christ can be glorified he's willing to be sacrificed and so even if we're bound the Word of God's not bound so it's possible even to be defeated personally but yet for your side to win right I mean people go to war and maybe a guy dies but through his sacrifice you know his country wins the army wins and so Paul is saying I'm bound but the Word of God's not bound you can bind me you can tie me up you can put me in prison you can put a jailer on each side of me and I can sit between two jailers but yet the Word of God will keep going because the word that we've preached it's not going to return void and once we've preached God's Word and once we've won souls to Christ the devil can't really undo the damage that we've done to his kingdom when we pulled somebody out of the fire because they're saved eternally and so he can't undo that he said therefore you know because the Word of God's not bound I endure all things for the elect's sake he said look I'm willing to go through stuff because I know that it furthers the Word of God I endure all things for the elect's sake meaning the people that are going to get saved I do it for them I do it for the people who are gonna get saved because it's worth it for me to suffer for them to get saved and that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory look at verse 11 is a faithful saying for if we be dead with them we shall also live with them if we suffer we shall also reign with him if we deny him he also will deny us if we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself of these things put them in remembrance charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers so he says in verse 12 if we suffer we shall also reign with him you know if we suffer if we're bound if we endure hardness if we're troubled as if we're some kind of an evildoer just for doing what's right he says you know what it's gonna be rewarded someday you know if we suffer we shall also reign with him we're gonna be rewarded and it says if we deny him he also will deny us you know this is similar to what Jesus said when he said that if you're ashamed of me in this evil and adulterous generation then I'll be ashamed of you in the presence of the Father you know and so when he says if we deny him he also will deny us it's not saying you're gonna lose your salvation but it's saying that basically he'll deny you meaning that basically you're not gonna have the same benefits he's not gonna do things for you that he would have done for you you might ask something and your request is denied and basically like you know if you think about it as saved Christians our relationship to the Lord is like the relationship between a child and their parent it's like a father-son relationship between us and God and so here's the thing what if I had a son that basically said like oh I'm not I'm not pastor Anderson's son you know he like he maybe he like changed his name and somebody said aren't you pastor Anderson's son no no that's not me I I know not the man right what if that got back to me you know that I have a child that's that's denying that they know me denying being my child because they're ashamed of me and then what if that what if you know obviously I'd be talking about an adult child okay you know what about an adult child that said like I don't know him and then what if that adult child then came to me is like hey dad I need to borrow 500 bucks then you know he's gonna get denied am I right I mean you think I'm just gonna be like oh sure son here you go anything you need it's like wait I thought I thought you don't know me you know I thought I you denied me I deny you you know you it's it's why you want God to have your back and and to take care of you and to answer your requests and and supply your needs and you know you want him going to bat for you but then it's like you're gonna say that you don't even know him you're gonna say that you're not even a Christian you're gonna pretend not to even be a Christian or so hey you're not a Christian are you oh no no not me I mean it makes sense that God would then deny you now obviously you're not gonna lose your salvation just like if my son did that he wouldn't stop being my son but he's just not gonna get the same benefits as the son that would actually be proud to be my son or the daughter that would be proud to be my daughter rather than the one who's just you know oh well you know you know my dad and you know what here's the thing that would even make more sense because at least I'm a human being at least I'm not perfect Jesus Christ if you're ashamed of him and of his words you've got a problem because he does everything perfectly he does everything right and so it says of these things put them in remembrance charging them before the Lord verse 14 that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the years so there's been a lot of talk in this chapter about fighting and being a soldier and warring and enduring and suffering trouble and and and going through all this but then he says make sure they know not to strive about words to no profit so what's he saying here it's not that just fighting in general is good there's a good fight the good fight of faith is what we ought to be fighting but then there's also some wrong fights that this chapter brings up one of them is this idea of striving about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers you know this reminds me of something that Paul said in 1st Timothy if you just flip back one page in your Bible go to 1st Timothy chapter 6 and it says in verse number 3 it says if any man teach otherwise and consent not the wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting now what is doting mean doting would be showing undue attention to something right and so doting about questions and stripes of words so basically harping or doting on little nitpicky things like semantics is what we would say because you know stripes of words we would probably just call that like semantics where people get in these arguments where they're splitting hairs and they're harping or doting on things that just don't matter you know the Bible also talks about vain jangling and you'll hear people kind of arguing about things that don't really matter and they fight over things that don't really matter and and they they'll just kind of like split hairs and and cut things so specifically that it's almost like why does that matter what's the point well why are you being so strict about that like just you know you're making a mountain out of a molehill here okay so we don't want to fight over every little thing you know little tiny picky words here and there and and just really trying to just nail everybody as being wrong we want to fight fights that actually matter want to fight for what's right but we don't want to get into this kind of nitpicky vain jangling striving about words to no profit but to the subverting of the heroes and in verse 14 there if you're back in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 i think the key word there is where he says profit right there where he says uh that they strive not about words to no profit meaning that it really doesn't matter you know there's no benefit it's just getting down to really straight things and you know one of these things is is for example the really detailed aspects of end times bible prophecy for example you know bible prophecy is a complicated subject and especially when you get into specifics there are going to be some things that nobody really knows for sure the answer to them and everybody's going to have a different opinion you know like like i think about my close pastor friends and and and guys that i consider good friends of ours and churches that we would line up with on on most things and you know all of our friends are you know they're not pre-trib you know i mean they're they're post-trib pre-wrath but i guarantee you that we all probably disagree on a bunch of little things about bible prophecy you know we're not all going to see everything the same way but even when it comes to people that believe in a pre-trib rapture or something you know i wouldn't break fellowship with them over that i wouldn't i wouldn't fight them over that and get in some big warfare over that and everything you know if i had a pastor friend that were pre-trib i would have no issue with that that would not be a problem for me just be like you're wrong but whatever it wouldn't really matter i'm not going to go to war over that it's a big error but if i'm not going to go to war over that even though it's a bigger error i'm definitely not going to go to war over every little nuance of of doctrine okay but you know there are some big things that are worth standing for and worth fighting for you know big things like salvation like the king james bible like the fact that salvation is eternal like the trinity you know these are big things that we need to fight for and you know what when it comes to trinity i will die on that hill you know when it comes to eternal security the believer i'll die on that hill when it comes to the king james bible i will die on that hill you know the esv is trash the niv is trash i will die on that hill now i'm not going to die on every hill though because we don't want to just get into this mode where we just fight about everything you know yeah i want to war good warfare be a good soldier take you know stand up for the fact that the bible's against the homos and and the bible's against adultery the bible's against abortion you know stand up for the big things and fight tooth and nail for those things but we don't necessarily want to go to war over every little nitpicky thing okay because and especially things that don't really have any profit anyway like they don't really affect our lives you know if you know somebody says hey who are the two witnesses in revelation you know no matter what opinion you have about who the two witnesses are in revelation is not going to affect your christian life at all it's like man my christian life wasn't really going that well but then once i figured out the two witnesses it's like you know i'm reading my bible i'm praying i'm going to church i'm winning souls seems like my preaching is just taking on a whole you see what i mean so you know you can get all caught up in these dumb issues these side issues and they don't really have any profit it's really just about uh sometimes for people just drawing away disciples after themselves like they've got some unique doctrine and you have to believe it and it's some radical thing or something you know and like i said you know i'm for i'm for preaching the whole bible and you know i've preached everything that i know about end times i've preached everything i believe about end times and and if i learn something new i'll preach that also but it doesn't mean that i'm 100 percent right about everything and it doesn't mean i'm going to go to war over little different nuances in end times doctrine you know because we don't want to fight over every little thing we don't want to strive about words to no profit little nitpicky things if somebody worded something a little off or something you don't want to make sure that we identify our true enemy and don't fight against good people and don't fight against good preachers and good churches just because they're a little different on something want to make sure that we actually pick the right battles and not strive about words to no profit but it's the burning of the years he says in verse 15 study to show thyself approved unto god a workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth here's what's important about that is that you know by studying the word of god and knowing what we're talking about that helps us to determine really what is important and what's not important what is worth fighting over and what is not worth fighting over you know we we actually know the bible we know what's important we know what's worth fighting for so he says you know rightly divide the word of truth but shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase unto more ungodliness he's saying learn how to rightly divide the word of truth and stay away from just stupid teachings vain and profane babblings okay now you know what does he mean by profane profane means common and the way i read that when he says profane and vain babblings it's basically just just bozos who don't really know what they're talking about they're just kind of average joes as far as not really knowing the bible or anything they don't have a serious level of knowledge and then they have these vain babblings but they just kind of run their mouths a bunch of stupid doctrines and they don't really know what they're talking about you know he's saying stay away from bad teaching of the bible and he and he gives some examples of of some bad teaching he says their word will eat as does the canker these these uh vain babblers these profane babblers and he's like let me name a few names here of whom is hymenaeus and philitus who concerning the truth have erred saying that the resurrection is passed already and overthrow the faith of some now the apostle paul here is bringing up an example of something that he does believe is worth fighting over he says you know we some people are just kind of doting about questions and stripes of words and and they're kind of just striving about words no profit don't get involved in those dumb fights you know study to show yourself approved and he says but shun profane and vain babblings and and he brings up some false teachers if he's calling these guys out by name then their error must be serious otherwise he wouldn't be calling these guys out and and fighting them openly so i don't think you should ever you know call out other preachers by name because we don't want to show any division in christianity is there anybody on this planet who thinks that christianity is united is there really a single non-believer out there how can we fight in front of the unbelievers is there really an unbeliever out there who thinks that christianity is united don't i think they all know that there's a bazillion denominations i think they all know that there's catholics and protestants and baptists and a bunch of cults and whatever it's no secret it's like oh no don't let them catch us fighting but that's what they say right they say like oh you know we got to be united don't call out other preachers by name but yet the apostle paul is calling out some preachers by name he's fighting he's going to war over this issue against hymenaeus and philitus and here's the weird doctrine that they're teaching who concerning the truth of erd saying that the resurrection is passed already and overthrow the faith of some so these guys are claiming that the resurrection already happened now you say i don't you know who would teach that that's dumb there are people that are teaching that even today okay or or things that are just as dumb because for example if you talk to a lot of these ruckmanite type dispensationalists you know they teach that all of the old testament saints were resurrected when christ was resurrected i don't know if you know that but they teach that all the old testament saints already got resurrected the resurrection already happened and that they all got resurrected around the time of christ now i can easily prove that that's false because uh peter gets up on the day of pentecost in act chapter two and he says let me freely speak to you of the of the patriarch david that he's both dead and buried and his sepulcher is with us unto this day and he is not ascended into the heavens so on the day of pentecost he flat out said david sepulcher is with us to this day and he is not ascended to the heavens but yet you've got the ruck tards out there and the dispensational is teaching what oh yeah they all all the old testament saints resurrected uh when christ resurrected but is that what the bible says no because peter said david still i mean if david didn't go nobody went okay and here we have paul saying no the resurrection is not passed already it didn't already happen then you have another you have another doctrine that is not i mean i don't know if i want to say it's not quite as weird but it's it's still ridiculous the doctrine of preterism that basically says that the second coming of christ already happened come on folks you know what what are we what are we like the jehovah's witnesses or something like jesus came back six times and you didn't even notice that's what the joe's witnesses believe they believe that jesus returned already six times but he just returned to brooklyn only to one building in brooklyn and hung out with you know the watchtower and then took off again i mean we they're waiting on i guess the eighth coming of christ they falsely predicted the second coming of christ six times well he just came to us you know it was a private it was a private showing it was it was a real elite red carpet kind of event but hold on a second my friend the second coming of christ already happened i mean you know what a what a anticlimactic event was that that's funny it was it was such an awesome event that it's not in any history book it's not i mean think about that like nobody even noticed it's stupid my friend it's a dumb doctrine now i'm not saying all preterists believe that because there are different various shades of preterism they're all false but there are different brands of predators but to sit there and say oh yeah christ already came in the clouds the trumpet already sounded he already gathered the elect the second coming happened it's like what none of that stuff happened so what did he already turn the water into blood and and kill millions of people too it hasn't happened yet okay that's kind of an absurd doctrine isn't it and so there's nothing new under the sun you had bozos teaching that back then too in second timothy chapter two people are saying oh the resurrection that already happened it's already passed already and and you know paul is saying this is overthrowing the faith of some people this is messing up their faith this is actually affecting their belief and it's it's not good nevertheless the foundation of god standeth sure having this sealed the lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that name it the name of christ depart from iniquity but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth some to honor and some to dishonor if a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work you know there's some people that we that we need to separate from we can't unite and hold hands with everybody we got to break fellowship with certain people that are heretics that are preaching false doctrine if they're using a totally different bible than us preaching a different salvation than us we've got to purge ourselves from some of these people that are not the right kind of people for us to be yoked up with and he says flee also youthful lust but follow righteousness faith charity peace with them that call on the lord out of a pure heart but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strives and the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient now stop and think about this we started out the chapter saying fight war strive if a man also strive for masteries war good warfare fight the good fight be a good soldier of jesus christ then we get to the end and it says well the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient now people love to take these last verses from second timothy chapter 2 and throw them in the face of a preacher like myself or a brother corbin wrestle or you know guys who are actually fighting the fight and preaching hard and and rebuking sin and then they'll say no no you you know servant of the lord must not strive but must be gentle unto all men and they'll pull this out of context but hold on isn't this the same chapter that told us to war good warfare fight a good fight isn't this the same chapter where he's calling out preachers by name and rebuking them sharply so what we have to understand is that the bible is giving us a balanced view because there is a time of war and a time of peace the bible says in ecclesiastes chapter 3 to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven and we have to understand that in certain situations fighting is appropriate warfare is appropriate and in other situations it's not appropriate okay that's why in one part of the chapter he's saying fight war battle and then another part he said be gentle don't strive meek etc we have to understand who our true enemy is and here's what we need to understand just because someone is unsaved that doesn't make them the enemy you know if somebody walks through those doors into this church and they're not saved and you walk up and question them and they they give all the wrong answers on salvation and maybe you witness to them and they don't get saved the first time they hear it it's not like they're reprobate get them out of here you know they're not the enemy we're trying to reach them sometimes people need to hear the gospel a bunch of times and and and so when we go out door to door and we knock on the doors of unsaved people those aren't our enemies they're not the enemy we're not out to fight them that's not the enemy unsaved people are not the enemy because what you have to understand is that there are saved people and unsaved people that's one way we could split people up in this world right we could say hey some people are saved some people are not saved but then we can divide things further and we could say among saved people there are people that are serving god and people that are not serving god you know there are a lot of saved people but they're not really doing anything for god but then we could even further divide that and we could say you know there are saved people that are serving god and then there are saved people that are not serving god but it's just because they're kind of backslidden or a slacker and then there are saved people that are so sinful that we shouldn't even be around them because they're just like such a bad influence on us or maybe they're really bitter and backslidden and maybe they're even just negative about church or maybe they're a drunkard or fornicator you know the bible says if somebody's a brother and they do those things with such one know not to eat so you know there's different there's different types of people out there you know there there are saved christians and then there are saved christians that are you know backslidden and then the ones that are just so toxic we don't want to be around them even though they're saved and the bible even tells us that but then amongst unsaved people all unsaved people aren't the same either you know you got the vast majority of unsaved people they're not a reprobate they're unsaved they're neutral they're not saved they're not a reprobate they don't believe the gospel they don't hate the gospel they're just they're just not saved they're neutral they're not our enemy they're our mission field so we want to love them be kind to them meet them we don't want to fight with them we don't want to argue with them we don't want to strive with them we don't want to go to war with them we want to reach them we want to be a friend unto them okay i want to reach out to them and show them the love of christ they may not know it but we are trying to help them you know we're trying to pull them out of the fire we're their ally but then there are the false prophets and the false prophets are the people who are just actively knowingly preaching lies and there are many the bible says many false prophets are gone out in the world there are many antichrists many false prophets i mean think about the people who get up every week and they just preach lies they preach things that are contrary to what the bible says those people are the enemy philetus hymenaeus are the enemy but joe unsaved isn't the enemy reprobates those who hate the lord they don't even want to retain god and ours those are the enemy but but most unsaved people the vast majority of unsaved people are not false prophets and not reprobates and by the way most false prophets are reprobates those two things are one and the same in scripture he described when he describes false prophets he describes them as the evil trees bringing forth evil fruit twice dead corrupt reprobate and so forth so we have to understand who our true enemy is you know we want to fight against the real bad guys but we don't want to just fight against the unsaved people of this world because we want to try to love them and reach them so when the bible says the servant of lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient look what it says in meekness meekness is being humble in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves so see they're not our enemy they're not opposing us who are they opposing you know who they are an enemy of is they're their own worst enemy if they're not saved they're they're their own enemy they're not really our enemy and even if they even if they slam the door in our face and say mean things to us they're still not our enemy because they're still opposing themselves you know and and maybe they'll get saved down the road in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if god per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him and as well you know we got to keep preaching the word of god and preaching the gospel to the lost and sometimes they might need to hear it three four or five times before eventually they can hopefully get recovered out of that snare of the devil and and he says per adventure per adventure means maybe right that's that's not a word we use now but it just means maybe if god per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him and as well and by the way let me just throw this in by the way if the bible says god per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth you know what that means that means there are some people he's not going to give and you know what that means is that there are some people who can't repent and in fact that's exactly what hebrews chapter 6 says those people have been once enlightened it says it's impossible to renew them unto repentance but see we don't necessarily know who is a reprobate and who isn't now some people are wearing a sign that says i'm a reprobate you know what i'm saying you know exactly who i'm talking about they go around wearing a sign saying hey look everybody i'm a reprobate but you know a lot of times we don't know what god's doing in someone's heart and we don't know if they've crossed that line or they're a reprobate that's why if i'm 99 sure that somebody's a reprobate i give them the gospel anyway just for the one percent chance that they're not just if per adventure god will give them repentance under the acknowledging the truth and if god's still giving them a chance and god's still working in their heart and god hasn't given up on them you know just for that one percent chance i'll do it and so we don't always know who the reprobates are we don't always know so you know basically he's saying instruct those that oppose them and meekness just in case they haven't gone over the line obviously some are obvious we know they've gone over the line but many times we don't know that and so it's a per adventure at that point and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who were taken captive by him as well just flip over one page to the right over to titus chapter one real quick titus chapter number one so we have to understand that there's a time for fighting and warfare and being a soldier and then there's a time for meekness gentleness and and just you know even when people are fighting against us to think to ourselves hey they're actually opposing themselves father forgive them for they know not what they do you know they they don't know but there are some people who know what they do by the way the false prophets but forgive them they know not what they do not everybody's our enemy but look at titus chapter one we'll see another example where he he's not necessarily saying to be meek or or gentle in this particular situation he says in verse 9 holding fast the faithful word that sounds like a name for church as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers for there are many unruly and watch who we're talking about vain talkers and deceivers especially they have the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped shut these people up fight these people now that's a little different than in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if god per adventure will give them repentance and the acknowledging of the truth he's saying these people their mouths must be stopped who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake one of themselves even a prophet of their own said the creations are always liars evil beasts slow bellies this witness is true wherefore watch this rebuke them sharply now is it telling you to handle these people with kid gloves and and i'm telling you this is where error comes from is when people want to take one side of what the bible teaches and they don't want to take the other side so on the one hand you got some people that would just completely ignore the part about meekness and gentleness and and reaching people and they're just all fight all war they just want to fight everybody and they're all just hateful and negative and nothing's positive they don't like they don't get along with anyone they're just taking that one side and then you have other people who they just grab hold of that in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves being gentle servant of the lord must not strive be gentle unto all men they want to grab that side of things and then it's like they never want to fight they'll never call anybody out they'll never go to war they'll never say anything negative it's only sweetness and light so do you see the problem here if we're actually going to be serious about the word of god we read the whole chapter second timothy chapter two and we we read the first part of the chapter about the war and the fighting and the battling and darn that hymenaeus and philitus and we apply that to our life we apply that part of the chapter to our life and make it a part of our thing then we get to the part about the meekness and the gentleness and we also apply that to our life and we apply that to our thinking and we do both okay but see a lot of people they'll just ignore one side and just focus in on the other side either they're all positive and no negative or they're all negative and no positive okay he very clearly says here rebuke them sharply and here's what the atheists will do the atheists will just say oh the bible's filled with contradictions over here he said rebuke him sharply over here he says be gentle and don't fight with anybody but again it's context the bible doesn't contradict itself the bible teaches balance and it gives both sides and it tells you what to do in different situations you know joe unsaved out there when we're out knocking doors soul winning he doesn't hate the lord he's not just some evil foaming at the mouth reprobate and so when he tries to argue with us we don't want to argue with him we don't want to get in a fight with him we don't want to be rude to him even if he rejects the gospel we want to leave him on a positive note because someday down the road we'll knock that door again we can reach that guy so you know even if i'm out soul winning and people reject the gospel it's like hey have a great day god bless you because you know what hopefully that seed can be watered and they can get saved down the road they're not my enemy you know i've even had i i've even had preachers you know there's this one guy on there's a sermon on youtube preaching against me and and the guy was actually preaching a lot of good stuff in his sermon and he was preaching a lot of stuff that i agreed with in fact he was preaching so much stuff that i agreed with that he had to kind of say like you know i'm not one of these steven anderson guys though don't don't get me wrong i know i'm sounding that way but you know so then he said a bunch of stuff negative about me you know so he he preached a lot of really good stuff but then he had to give like a disclaimer steven anderson and he said a bunch of bad things about me i left a comment on the guy's video i said hey i said even though you don't like me this was a great sermon and i appreciate you standing on this truth that you preached in this sermon because this is an important sermon that needs to be preached and very few people are preaching this so even though you don't like me this is a great sermon why because he's not he's not the enemy you know and and then the guy called me the next day on the phone and apologized and said i'm never gonna preach against you again i'm sorry i don't know why i said that i shouldn't have said that he said i disagree with you on stuff but you know what i'm not gonna preach against you you know because it's like that guy's not the enemy okay just because he doesn't like me or something but but but but you know we don't want to get in the wrong fights we don't want to fight with people that aren't bad people over little disagreements and what was my disagreement with this guy you know our disagree he's pretty trip i don't care about that that's why i could say hey you're doing a great job good sermon you know because i don't care about that when we're out soul winning you know we knock on the door of of people that are that say i'm an atheist they're not our enemy right because we want to pull them out of that atheists get saved all the time catholics get saved all the time right i mean people get saved on soul winning every week through the efforts of faithful or baptist church and so we're constantly taking people and bringing them over to our side and we want to make sure that we're gentle we're meek and we're loving and kind and you know what i'll tell you this i go out soul winning with a lot of people from our church and i you know and if i if i see something because i'm the pastor of the church if i see something in their soul winning that's wrong i'll typically you know gently give them a little correction try to help them do a little better you want to know the number one critique that i give out soul winning number one by far and and nothing even comes close to this when i go out soul winning with people the biggest critique i usually give is hey try to be a little bit nicer be a little friendlier smile be nice you know don't be rude that's what i'm telling people till i'm blue in the face because when we're out there you know these people that we're trying to reach we want to show them the love of christ they're even if they're an atheist even if they're part of some false religion they're not the enemy we're trying to we're trying to be a friend under them to reach them and bring them over to the truth we're trying to meekly gently instruct them and not strive with them that's why whenever anyone tries to argue with me out soul winning i walk away now i've failed a few times but i'm saying in theory in theory i always walk away okay obviously we're all human and we can all get sucked in sometimes but i try to i try not to strive with anyone i try to just go out there and uh reach people and be nice to people and and be friendly and smile okay but hold on but but are we just going to completely ignore this verse that says rebuke them sharply there must be somebody that i'm supposed to rebuke sharply or what is this who put this verse in my bible what is this doing in my bible it's here because god put it there because it's relevant because it needs to be applied somehow somewhere somebody needs to be rebuked sharply and you know who it is it's these deceivers and vain talkers and false teachers people teaching false doctrine need to be rebuked sharply again i'm knocking on somebody's door they're just some random member of one of these churches they're not some horrible false prophet they're a victim of these deceivers and vain talkers you know joe catholic isn't the problem because he's a victim of the lies of catholicism it's the pope that's the problem it's the priests and the bishops and the people that are the architects of this doctrine the ones teaching these lies they are the ones who are the enemy you know you know i'd rebuke a catholic priest sharply i would rebuke the pope sharply you know you know brother heil said if he ever got a chance to kiss the pope's big toe he would he would he would he said that he would be the first pope having his toe amputated because he said he said he would bite it off okay i didn't say that that's what he said and so you know yeah obviously we rebuke the false prophet so we get we get up behind the pulpit in church and we will scream and yell and rebuke the false prophets of our day we'll rebuke the joel osteens and the rick warrens and the false prophets and false teachers out there the td jakes who denies the trinity by the way you just love listening to his motivational sermons well he denies the trinity how about that he's he's brought up oneness pentecostal and even many christian outlets have kicked him off for not being trinitarian i think now he's starting to become like a half trinitarian because he was losing too many gigs so now he pretends to be sort of trinitarian he's a oneness pentecostal that's the background and he has been oneness for years and years and years teaching that damnable heresy you know that guy needs to be rebuked sharply he says rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in faith now the they there is not referring to the false prophets because you can't fix these people he's saying that they subvert whole houses they're leading people astray so rebuke them sharply the false prophets so that they the people that are led astray by them may be sound in faith not giving heed to jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth now a lot of people misunderstand this verse because they think that the they and the them are referring to the same group of people read it carefully and you'll see that that's not the case because it says right here rebuke them sharply rebuke the false teachers sharply that they may be sound in faith the people that they're deceiving here's how i know that not giving heed to jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth the men that turn from the truth are commanding false things and he's saying rebuke those false teachers so that the people are following them don't give heed to those jewish fables taught by the circumcision does everybody understand that so if you read this carefully and think about this it's pretty clear that the false prophets are to be rebuked so that the the whole houses that they're subverting and leading captive can be sound in faith when they hear their false teaching rebuked and then it says under the purer all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled they profess that they know god but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate reprobate right and uh you know paul uses the word reprobate many times about false teachers just flip back one page quickly i'm just about done but second timothy chapter three he says of this sort verse six of this sort of they would creep into houses now what did he say in titus chapter one they subvert whole houses you're always going to find a lot of parallels between titus and timothy because it's the apostle paul writing to his young preacher proteges so he's going to give him the same type of advice i mean if i had two young guys that i'm training probably going to give them both a lot of the same pieces of advice and a lot of the same things so he says some of the same things he told titus about he said remember he said to titus they subvert whole houses so he says to timothy they creep into houses and lead captive silly women led away with laden with sins led away with divers lust ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth now as janice and jambres withstood moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith so the the bad guys the false prophets in chapter three here they're also called reprobate concerning the faith they also are subverting houses creeping into houses with this stuff and it says that they're men of corrupt minds and then what did titus say in verse 15 of chapter 1 he said their mind is defiled their mind is defiled corrupt minds subverting houses creeping into houses reprobate unto every good work concerning the faith reprobate i mean it's not a coincidence we're talking about the same type of people here isn't it interesting the word reprobate comes up both times all these other things come up both times but their folly and here's what i want to key in on their folly shall proceed no further all right excuse me i read that wrong backup but they shall proceed no further we're in verse nine of second timothy three but they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was now what does it mean to be manifest open exposed laid bare obvious to everyone how is their folly going to become manifest or laid bare or obvious to everyone what did he say in titus chapter one rebuke them sharply so that other people won't give heed to their junk so that others won't give heed to the junk they're teaching rebuke them sharply here he's saying their folly is going to be made manifest unto all men even as theirs also was whose janice and jamboree's and who confronted them moses moses exposed their folly and men of god are to expose the junk that's being taught out there by false teachers so that the victims of these false teachers can be recovered out of the snare of the devil so all that to say this the christian life is a battle it's a fight don't be surprised if it gets a little ugly sometimes you know and a lot of people it's like they just want everything to be a hallmark movie or something you know and it's just all sweetness and light and everything's so wonderful and it's all positive and there's never anything there's no drama they want everything to be peaceful but look i'm for peace but when i speak they're for war life is not going to all just be this smooth sailing on the calm seas you know they're going to be the storms of life they're going to be battles wars fighting and you know what war gets ugly warfare gets ugly i mean there are casualties people get hurt there's blood and guts gets violent you know obviously we would love to be at peace and we should strive for peace but let me tell you something there are certain fights that we've got to fight we got to fight against the false prophets we got exposed the reprobates and the devils and look if we're living in a time where our country is literally be turned being turned into a sodom and gomorrah before our eyes i mean shouldn't somebody stand up and do something about it or should we just sit back and just let it happen and just let the devil just steamroll over us and just run us over roughshod and we're just kind of just sit back and just say well you know well you know christ is coming soon and just let the whole thing go to hell in a handbasket folks know we got to get up and preach and and stand against the evils of this world and it can get ugly sometimes i mean you know it's not ugly for us right now at our church things are going good at our church things are going good down here in tucson things are going good up in tempe but you know what about our friends pastor shelley and pastor mahia and pastor thompson and guys like that that are going through some ugly things let me tell you something when you show up and there's transvestites outside the building with holding a sign that's ugly it don't get much uglier than that when i said it gets ugly it gets ugly and so you know there's some ugly things there's some battles and some fights and and you say well he brought that on himself oh what by getting in the front lines so somebody gets in the front lines if i say you brought it on yourself you're on the front line well you better know i am and so we gotta fight the good fight be willing to make some sacrifices be willing to lose friends be willing to be made fun of at school be willing to be made fun of at work be willing to maybe not be the coolest kid on the block or the big man on campus or the coolest guy at the water cooler stand up for what's right make sacrifices you know so you know maybe sacrifice some of your partying on the weekend so you can actually have your butt in church on sunday morning and sunday night right sacrifice your weeknight routine by you know coming down here on a thursday night you know make some sacrifices right make some trade-offs and say you know what here's something i like doing but i'm gonna skip it because i want to be in church serving god i want to be out soul winning i'm gonna skip some things it's a bit there's a battle going on it's all hands on deck i want to get entangled with the affairs of this life so much as i forget that there's a war going on people are dying going to hell we got to get them saved we got to pull them out of the fire we got to stand up so that our country cannot become a complete sodom and gomorrah right before our eyes with nobody even saying it and you say well what can we do i believe that we've had an influence i believe that that that pastor jimenez and myself and and other men of god have had an influence over the last decade you know millions of people have heard our message and many of them have been influenced by it even if they didn't come all the way over to our side they've been influenced by it i think most independent baptists have been influenced to preach a little bit harder against the sodomites even if they don't come all the way to our side so it's you know it's worth it because the word of god is not bound even if they all hate me or hate my friends you know the word of god once they hear it it's not going to return void they heard it they got it they learned it and so there's a battle going on but we want to always make sure that we identify the true enemy and that we don't just fight against every single person you know we need to understand that most people are not our enemy and we need to realize which fights are worth it and which people we need to just turn the other cheek and because look the bible tells us to turn the other cheek the bible tells to be meek and gentle and so forth we need to know what is appropriate in what situation and not just say well here's the part of the bible i like i'm gonna go with that and for some people that's the negative part i just want to crack everybody's skulls that some people are like that and then other people go to the opposite well i'm just going to take this meekness and gentleness part and that's all i'm going to do well you know what i'm going to do both i mean you know and it's maybe it maybe it's a little bit more complex but how long you simple ones will you love simplicity you know sometimes some things in the bible are more complicated and a little more nuanced and and life is about having the wisdom to discern who is my friend who is my enemy who's neutral who should i rebuke sharply and who should i be gentle and kind and win over to my side okay am i perfect on this no are you going to be perfect on this no but we need to understand there's a fight and we need to figure out who the enemy is who the innocent bystanders are and we need to make sure that we fight the good fight of faith and don't shy away from it it's a battle let's bow your heads in the word of prayer