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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 go or stay Anywhere with Jesus when he points the way Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot know Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go Anywhere with Jesus I can go to sleep When the darkening shadows round about me creep Knowing I shall wake and nevermore to roam Anywhere with Jesus will be home, sweet home Anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot know Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just want to thank you, God, for another Sunday that we can meet in your house and hear your word preached. I pray, Lord, that you would just fill our pastor with your power and spirit. I pray, Lord, that you would bless the soul wanting to follow. In Jesus' name we ask all of it. Amen. All right, you may be seated. And take your song books and turn just one page over to song 127. Song 127, we'll sing, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." Song 127, we'll sing, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus, How I Trust Him, How I've Proved Him O'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. O how sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to trust His cleansing blood. Just in simple faith to plunge me Neath the healing cleansing flood. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, How I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus, Just from sin and self to cease. Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, How I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. I'm so glad I learned to trust Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior friend. And I know that Thou art with me, will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, How I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. Amen. Welcome to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday morning. And you know the old saying, April showers bring May flowers. So it's been raining a little bit this past weekend. But I'm just hoping that the warm weather stays. I know I preached a whole sermon about glorying in the winter, but it's not winter anymore. So I'm not going to glory in it. But just some announcements here. We have normal church services today, so everything's on there. It should be normal there. And as far as the Bible memory, we're still on Psalm 16 for this month and for our chapter of the month. And then Proverbs 23, 23, buy the truth and sell it not. And I wanted to open up here because I don't want to mix up everything that's out of that. So buy the truth and sell it not. Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. So a good verse to have memorized. A lot of us have that first part memorized, but it's good to have the rest of it memorized there too. And so I'm going to be making sure I get that in the right order. So also wisdom and instruction and understanding. So that's our memory verse for the week. And then upcoming events. We have the women's prayer meeting. That'll be this Saturday. And so that'll be at 11 a.m. We're also showing the men's prayer meeting on there for the end of May there. And then soul winning marathon, tentatively. It's going to be mid-June. I haven't picked out an actual Saturday yet, but it will be a Saturday. We're going to go down to Charleston. So we haven't been down there yet. And so we're going to go to the Capitol. Not the Capitol building, but we're going to go down to Charleston, the Capitol of West Virginia. And there is plenty of places to go soul winning down there. So everything is really dense and should be pretty receptive down there. I have high hopes it's going to be receptive down there. And so be in prayer for that, though, as we prepare for that. And obviously that we find the receptive areas. We don't find the rich neighborhoods or anything like that. We want to find the poor areas and all that. So be in prayer for that. I'm excited about that. And just be in prayer for any types of marathons that we do this year. And just for good reception that we find the good places to go to and all that. Soul winning time. So we have our main soul winning time after the service today. So just make sure that if you're wanting to go out to meet up here before one so we can get all teamed up as far as who you're going to go with and where we're going to go. And then on Monday we have regional soul winning time. Brother Richie leads that up down in the Clarksburg Bridgeport area. And then Brother Charles leads up the Tuesday soul winning time in the Morgantown area. And so get on the WhatsApp there. Great places. So Brother Richie or Brother Charles will be sending you a place where you'll be meeting at throughout the week there. And so definitely get on that. And then as far as I did finally fill out my salvation to get all that stuff caught up. So actually last year we had 327. We had 325 on there. But when I counted it up as far as what I had on there it was actually 327. So anyway that being said yeah so we had a couple more than what we thought. But that being said I got all that stuff caught up there. And then birthdays. So we need to get John D. We haven't said happy birthday to John D. Right? We haven't done that right? So John D. And we'll get Bethany eventually. She thinks she's dodging it but she's gonna get sung to. And then Brother Nick. You weren't like trying to like speak up there like hey don't forget about me. No so Brother Nick will be singing happy birthday to you. So that holds John D. now. Four. And then so she's just a little older than Anna. So and then how old are you? 24. Okay so just add 20 to that. It's a young young buck over here. Yeah 24. I remember when I thought that was just like that's that's man stage right there. 24. And then you turn 36 and you're like no no no no. I'm just kidding. So but we'll sing happy birthday to all those before we get into the last song there. Besides that you know just everything else is normal as far as that goes. Yeah so Brother Dave will come and sing one more song. Sing happy birthday. One more song. And who's reading this morning? Brother Richie. So Brother Richie will be reading John chapter 2 for us. All right take your song books and turn to song 125. Song 125 we'll sing the solid rock but before we do that we need to sing happy birthday to John D. and Nick. Get you both to stand up. I don't know in the back. I don't know. I'm not sure. Hey Anthony you see him back there? All right so we'll sing. When's your birthday? 28. Okay I don't even know what day it is today. I'm like is it like the 14th today or something? Okay so Wednesday. And then when was John D's birthday? The 16th. Okay all right so we'll sing happy birthday to both y'all. Ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday y'all. All right and then we will sing song 125. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name. On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand when darkness veils his lovely face I rest on his unchanging grace in every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand his oath his covenant his blood support me in the whelming flood when all my ground my soul gives way he that is all my hope and stay on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand when he shall come with trumpet sound oh may I then in him be found dressed in his righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand all right if you would take your bibles and turn to john chapter number two john chapter number two have brother richie come and read that for us all right john chapter two if you're there say amen all right in the third day there was a marriage in cana of galley and the mother of jesus was there and both jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage and when they wanted wine the mother of jesus saith unto him they have no wine jesus saith unto her woman what have i to do with thee mine hour is not yet come his mother saith unto the servants whatsoever he saith unto you do it and there were set there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the jews containing two or three firkins apiece jesus saith unto them fill the water pots with water and they filled them up to the brim and he saith unto them draw out now and bear under the governor of the feast and they bear it when the roar of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not whence it was but the servants which drew the water knew the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and saith unto him every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men have well drunk than that which is worse but thou has kept the good wine until now this beginning of miracles did jesus and cana of galley and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him after this he went down to capernaum he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples and they continued there not many days and the jews passover was at hand and jesus went up to jerusalem and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting when he had made a scourge of small cords he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the chargers money and overthrew the tables and said unto them that sold doves take these things hints make not my father's house and house of merchandise and his disciples remembered that it was written the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up then answered the jews and said unto him what sign showest thou unto us seeing that thou doest these things jesus answered and said unto them destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up then said the jews 40 and six years was this temple and building and wilt thou reared up in three days but he spake of the temple of his body when therefore he was risen from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them and they believed the scripture and the word which jesus had said now when he was in jerusalem at the passover and the feast day many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did but jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that he should testify of man for he knew what was in man and let's pray uh dear heavenly father thank you for this uh this church service and i just pray that you'll fill pastor robinson with your spirit and i pray that we'll all have ears to hear and we'll make application in our lives in jesus name i pray amen amen you're there in john chapter two and i want to preach a sermon called a house of merchandise a house of merchandise and um the reason i'm preaching this is actually um i probably would have preached this you know when i first started the church if this was like a big deal out of the church i came out of okay meaning um church bookstores selling stuff in church that's what i'm going to be dealing with is selling stuff in church or exchanging and all that stuff it just really wasn't a big deal when the church so i wasn't like this thing where i'm like i i get this off my chest you know not that that should be the reason that you're just preaching something right but i did go to churches where this was a big deal you know selling bibles selling you know preaching cds or tapes or whatever it was back then and uh or you know even in churches that uh are bigger churches and they have like this this cafe you know and they're just selling you coffee selling you you know whatever you know and what i want to get into is that nothing should be sold at church okay everything here if it's something that that that you want you know as far as bibles or uh you know stuff for soul winning uh the food over here uh the drinks like everything that is all going to be free when we go on uh missions or you know when we go on mission trips the one thing i want to try to do is for everybody to pay for everybody but that's not selling stuff you know like if i say hey you got to get your way there but i i want it to be to where hey you know what if we're doing something uh you don't have to pay for it when we do a retreat we're not going to go on a retreat unless the church is paying for it all as far as all the accommodation accommodations and you say well you know what about gas and all that stuff listen if you need help getting out there if you need money for gas you need travel expenses whatever the case may be you know we'll get you there okay and uh but you know what i'm not going to make it to where okay i want to go but i just can't afford it and or just like these different activities i just i'm not going to do that okay now that's kind of getting off on the realm of a house of merchandise as far as that goes like these these outside activities um but when it comes down to this um a lot of people have asked me questions about this kind of more on the minute details of it and so i'm going to give you my stance on it and where i lie on that as far as uh you know is this okay is this you know going into that realm okay so first of all we see here that in john chapter two let's read this again verse 13 it says and the jews pastor was at hand and jesus went up to jerusalem and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting and when he had made a scourge of small cords he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers money and overthrew the tables and he said to them that sold doves take these things hence make not my father's house and house of merchandise and his disciples remembered that it was written the zeal of thine house had eaten me up so what a lot of people do to try to get around this okay because when you see that you're making my house a house of merchandise they're selling doves and oxen all the stuff it's very clear they're selling stuff in the temple of god and he's saying don't do that okay you know get the stuff out of here you're not supposed to be doing this you're making a house of merchandise so what a lot of people will say is to say well you know but in other places it says uh you made it a den of thieves so it's not that they were selling stuff it's that they were ripping people off they were extorting people when they were selling it but that's just not the case first of all this is actually a different time than when he said that okay there's actually two times that jesus threw people out of the temple if you know this story and first of all i want you to see that you say well how does this apply to us we don't have the temple you know we're not selling doves and oxen and all that stuff go to first timothy chapter three first timothy chapter three i want you to know that the church is called the house of god okay so in the old testament the house of god was the temple you know that's where they do the sacrifices that's where you know you'd have the outer court and people would be praying there and they do all these different things at the temple well now in the new testament our bodies are the temple of the holy ghost and the church itself is the house of god okay and all the local churches that are legitimate churches are houses of god okay so this is how it applies to us because that means that you know what if jesus was angry about it back then and he threw these people out of the temple for selling things and then you know what it still applies today now in first timothy chapter three and verse 14 it says these things right into thee hoping to come into thee shortly but if i tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of god which is the church of the living god the pillar and ground of the truth okay so house of god is synonymous with the church of god and the church of god is the assembly right so it's not about the building as much as it's about the assembly okay but i'm going to get to this is that i don't believe that we should be doing baked sales or anything in this building okay and because this building is bought and paid for by the church okay this is not a building that we're just going to rent out and make money off of you know like this space okay that's just that's my personal thing i'm not saying we can't have events here we're not paying it we're not charging anybody for it okay so if you want to have a birthday party here or something like that there's nothing wrong with that but we're not going to have admission tickets to it okay and all that so uh the first thing to see here is that john chapter two is actually happening at the very beginning of jesus ministry and how do i know that because john chapter two happens before john chapter three and go to john chapter three and verse 24 john chapter three and verse 24 says for john was not yet cast into prison okay so john was not cast into prison if you read matthew mark and luke one of the first things that's mentioned is jesus starts his ministry and john's put into prison and everything after that is like after he's been cast into prison john two and three john's still not in prison yet so this is it this is john two and three john one two and three is really showing you kind of the very beginning of his ministry whereas matthew mark and luke aren't really showing you as much detail at the very beginning of his ministry okay and so that being said that this happened when he said make not my father's house and house of merchandise that was at the very beginning of his ministry okay and let me show you where it talks about uh you know the the well actually i'm just going to go through because the bible says in another place as it's written my house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves okay and go to matthew chapter 21 i'm going to show you where it says that and if you know matthew 21 we're getting to the end of the book there okay and this is actually when it calls it a den of thieves when he says don't make it a den of thieves this is in matthew mark and luke okay but it's all at the end of the gospels because you're actually getting to where jesus is about to be crucified okay and we're coming into the end of the gospel uh with this other time okay so in matthew 21 verse 16 i'm sorry matthew 21 verse 6 uh just to show you the timeline of where we're at here okay it says in verse 6 and the disciples went and did as jesus commanded them and brought the ass in the cult and put on them their clothes and they set him there on and a very great multitude spread their garments in the way others cut down branches from the trees and strawed them in the way and the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying hosanna to the son of david blessed is he that cometh in the name lord hosanna in the highest okay so this is when he's coming in on uh the cult the fall of an ass and they're praising him and he's coming into jerusalem okay the king you know the king's going to come lowly meek and lowly sitting upon an ass right and notice in verse 12 there it says and jesus went into the temple of god and cast out all that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and said unto them it is written my house shall be called the house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves okay so it's very clear the timeline okay he just gets done in galley and says this beginning of miracles did he in galley okay and then after that in chapter uh john chap you know chapter four is talking about this is the second miracle he did in galley okay when he heals uh that servant of the man's servant or whatever in compernium and so we're definitely dealing at the very beginning of the ministry where he does that and then and when he does it again you're at the very end of his ministry so he literally caps off he starts off his ministry throwing people out of the temple and then he ends his ministry throwing people out of the temple you know and and you say well is this a big deal what you're talking about it's a big enough deal to where jesus threw over tables show me another place where jesus got this angry okay so you may say this is minute you know but to me when i read this story it doesn't seem that minute actually this seems like probably the the one of the things that made jesus more angry than than the rest of the things that were going on is the fact that they were selling things in the house of god another interesting thing is that both times that he does this it's right before the passover okay uh john chapter two if you're back in john chapter two and the second time he does it it's before the pastor because it's literally when he's going to be the passover okay and you know that if you know the timeline jesus was crucified on the passover and because he is the passover lamb christ our passover okay but in john 2 and verse 13 notice what it says it says the jew's passover was at hand and jesus went up to jerusalem that's how it starts off and he goes up to jerusalem and he makes this uh you know this this uh scourge of small courts and so this shows you first of all that he's not swift to anger swift the wrath right he's slow to anger because he literally took time to make this scourge okay so it's not like he went in there just blew his top and just like wow you know what's going on no he knew what was going on and he made a scourge like he's just out there thinking about it you know making the scourge and you know i don't know like the leather straps and just like braiding this thing that he's going in there with um and so that being said you know he he took the time to think about what he was going to do and then he went in there and did it but after that it's interesting because the thing that they ask him they're like like you got to give us a sign as far as what like why you would do this okay why are you like flipping tables and and you know basically throwing everybody out of the temple um in verse 18 it says then answered the jews and said unto him what sign showest thou unto unto us seeing that thou doest these things jesus answered and said to them destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up then then said the jews forty and six years was this temple and building and wilt thou rear it up in three days but he spake of the temple of his body when therefore he was risen from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them and they believed the scripture in the word which jesus had said you know what's interesting about this is that this is the accusation that they so speak got him on okay remember they bring all these false witnesses before them and then they found two false witnesses that agreed with each other but it said even those didn't agree meaning that they were talking about the same thing but it didn't exactly agree with it and they were talking about the fact that he was going to destroy this temple made with hands and he's going to raise again the temple made without hands and they said something to that effect okay but he wasn't talking about that temple he was talking about the temple of his body being destroyed meaning he's going to die and in three days he's going to raise again and so it's interesting how he starts off his ministry with this and gives them that that sign that hey you're going to destroy this destroy this temple in three days i'll raise it up again and then then he throws people out again right before he's crucified and that's the accusation they use against them and so it's very interesting on how that works and how that all fits together but let's go you know let's look at this john chapter two this house of merchandise because there's actually two different scriptures that are brought up for both these cases the house of merchandise and the den of thieves okay brings up two different scriptures it's two different times right so they basically say house of merchandise it's the reason it's called a house of merchandise is because they were extorting people no it's called a house of merchandise because they were selling things in the house of god it's called a den of thieves because obviously they were using the house of god to make money and they were stealing meaning this that if i went and just you know used walmart to get customers to come to my business that's stealing okay does that make sense because they used all the advertising they're the ones that work to get all the people to come to them and then you're using their clout of like people coming there to make money okay it's not right you know basically it's not the the way it should be done and this is the way it would apply to church people are coming to church because they love god they want to hear the word of god and you're using that to make money okay that's being a thief you're using uh god's influence and god the one is the one that's building the church and bringing people in and you're using that to make money okay so we shouldn't have a business that's attached to the church where we're like all right we're gonna make money i don't care if it's going to the church because here's the argument that people will use say well you know but our bookstore we're selling things for church okay i don't know how they get around the coffee and stuff like that you know selling coffee and pastries and stuff like that but they're like we're selling bibles we're selling you know things that you use as a christian yeah that's what they were doing what do you think they were doing with the doves the oxen and all that other stuff that they were using they were for sacrifices okay and so what they were selling were things that they were going to use to sacrifice here's the thing there was nothing wrong with them selling that stuff outside the temple and then bringing it into the temple and using it for a sacrifice because the bible actually talks about that if you live very far away you know like and you don't want to like bring old bessie with you all the way from from bear shiba or dan you know then you you you sell bessie you know and then you come to jerusalem and you buy a different bessie and and then you sacrifice it okay obviously i'm being silly with that but the idea is that you don't have to like traverse capacity and land with this animal you can make it into money you come there and you buy what you need that's very biblical but here's the problem you don't do it in the temple okay you do it outside the temple you do it in the city you buy it and you bring it in there shouldn't be this exchange of money for goods in the house of god and specifically on things that were for the house of god that's what's ridiculous about having a christian bookstore now you're saying um and people use this argument like well you know but you know as far as selling bibles shouldn't the church be the one that's in charge of that no no you know what i i don't buy bibles just because the church is the one that's producing it actually i don't really agree with that okay i'm not against the christian having a company that makes money selling bibles okay that's fine okay you got to make money to be able to be in business to do the business right there's nothing wrong with that okay now obviously you should be selling king james bibles okay not these other perversions okay but you know like companies like um you know thomas nelson zonofin yeah they make some really perverted you know versions of the bible but they make king james bibles and listen i'll buy them i'm pretty sure i'm not sure if those bibles i think it's thomas nelson those ones i get them bible by the bowl okay bibles by the bulk or whatever those ones that we hand out to people they're thomas nelson okay they're the ones that published a new king james bible okay you say well you should buy it from bearing seed or bearing precious seed or you know some church ministry listen i'm against churches making money off the house of god okay i'm not against them having a separate company that's not attached to a church that they're making these bibles that's fine and i would buy from them that's fine okay but in the end you know what when it comes to this the reason the reason this makes me angry okay is because i've gone to churches where you win some on the christ and there's a whole shelf of bibles that are for sale you win some on the christ that person says i don't have a bible and what am i supposed to tell that person all right go purchase that you know what i'd rather do be like here you go here's a bible and you know what's interesting about that is that these churches have enough money to make gymnasiums and make all this crazy elaborate buildings but they don't have enough money to pay a dollar 25 for a bible to give to somebody or dollar 38 sorry inflation i don't know you know but but it's under two dollars okay those bibles when i buy them by bulk it's under it's like a dollar fifty at most for those bibles and i consider them pretty decent bibles you know as far as just your first bible it's well enough to read in and you know when i started the church the one thing that i wanted to make sure i had was that we had bibles for everybody enough bibles to where if i get someone saved i can hand them a bible and i have no problem doing that or if anybody in here needs a bible okay we will get you a bible we will have bibles for you and we will not charge you for it at all okay and it just baffles me the priorities okay what's your priority when it comes to the house of god and now uh psalm 69 psalm 69 is where we see this the zeal of thine house have eaten me up psalm 69 and verse 7 so they quote this and they basically say they remembered the scripture the zeal of thine house have eaten me up and what it comes down to is that jesus isn't being selfish or like you know just throwing around his weight you know i'm the son of god i'm going to throw my weight around okay he was legitimately eaten up by it okay he was eaten up by it it reproached him that he saw people just buying and selling doves in the house of god because it's not what the house of god is for okay and it's not negating that you should buy it like i said it's not saying you can't buy and sell things that are for the house of god but it needs to be outside of the house of god okay it's not something that is not a ministry of ours ours to buy it to sell things okay uh and so in uh psalm 69 verse 7 it says because of for thy sake i have borne reproach shame hath covered my face okay so notice that it's stating here for thy sake i have i have borne reproach so he's talking about god you know for thy sake god i have i have uh borne reproach shame hath covered my face i am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother's children so basically like my siblings you know which jesus i mean i could show you passages where his brethren didn't believe okay and they're like will you go up to this and he's like my time is not yet your time is all the way ready you know talking to his brother because they had not yet believed on him and so you can definitely see how this would apply to jesus verse 9 for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me and he's basically you know my father's house and he's saying i'm eating up because they're defiling your house by selling all this stuff and buying all this stuff in your house and it's just showing you that hey they remembered this scripture that this reproach of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me meaning that all the stuff that reproaches god the father is falling upon the son and that's why he's angry about it he's like make not my father's house a house of merchandise right and he's basically getting upset and he's ashamed of what's going on and that's why he took this scourge in there to basically throw people out and anybody thinks that jesus is a weakling yeah you do that you go into a place where everybody's doing business and just be like and just throw stuff around and and just whip people out of there okay yeah tell me that some weakling is going to do that okay now i know that he's the son of god okay and obviously uh he has the power of god upon him but at the same time like that is bold right there that that's a man right for for you right there but when when it says in the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me go to romans chapter 15 because romans chapter 15 actually quotes that portion so uh psalm 69 and verse 9 actually has two places that are being quoted in the new testament the zeal of thine house have eaten me up that's john chapter 2 okay talking about the house of god and the fact that he was eaten up by this okay that they were doing this but then he couples it with you know the reproaches of them that reproach thee are falling upon me notice what it says in roman chapter 15 verse 3 for even christ please not himself but as it is written the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me listen he wasn't doing that for his own pleasure does that make sense when he threw them out of the temple he's not like all right it's time for me to show you who's boss right no he was not doing something to please himself he was doing something to please his father okay obviously jesus is god but you know you have the father son relationship there within the godhead and he's basically saying the reproaches of that of them that reproach thee are falling upon me that has the old thine house have eaten me up right and make not my father's house and house of merchandise okay so you say is this a big deal that we don't sell things in this church yeah it's a big deal okay and you may think that's minute and listen we haven't been selling things in this church but but you should be saying hey yeah we need to keep it that way okay we're not going to be selling things in this church okay now go to uh proverbs 23 and verse 23 this is our memory verse proverbs 23 and verse 23 because like i said you know what's what's that what's the application here in today's day because obviously we're not selling oxen and sheep and doves right because we're not doing sacrifices you know that's all been done away in christ the new testament doesn't involve any of that but notice in verse 23 so proverbs 23 verse 23 buy the truth and sell it not also wisdom and instruction and understanding it's saying don't sell the truth don't sell wisdom don't sell instruction don't sell understanding now obviously you know you can see the spiritual aspect of like you know retain all this and don't let it go right but physical aspect if i buy a bible i'm not going to sell it to you in on from the church if the church buys a bible okay we buy bibles not selling it to you you're going to get it for free okay we're either going to use it here or you're going to get it for free okay and same thing with under wisdom understanding and knowledge the idea here is that i'm not going to sell my preaching okay and and here's the thing this may step on the the old fundamental baptist toes it's a little arrogant for me to say yeah i listen guys you want to listen to my preaching five bucks okay now in our day and age this is kind of silly because everything's online right you know so um it's kind of you know back in the day when it was just like cassette tapes and you know cds and stuff like that you can kind of understand um you know the fact that where you could actually do that nowadays everybody's like i'm getting on youtube you know sucker you shouldn't put it on youtube you know i got it i got it downloaded all that stuff right but the the the arrogance to me on i don't care how big our church gets i don't care how popular i get or infamous i get notice i said infamous i will never think that my sermons are something that someone should have to buy okay and you you may say no i and listen you may say this about other preachers to be like no i think their stuff's actually worth buying okay now if someone is like has their own business and they're like making like uh usbs or they're making cds and they're making stuff and they're producing all this they're buying all this like a material and making it and selling it there's nothing wrong with that does that make sense nothing wrong with that the difference is if the church is buying those materials and the church is making these things and then they're selling it okay as a church okay listen the money that comes in here is not mine okay the money that comes through the offering is all of ours it's a church okay it's the church finances okay now i'm the leader so i'm the i obviously have the say as far as what's done with the finances right but i also have other people that are like you know i think brother charles we have you technically as the treasurer and brother dave is the secretary that's just the titles they give you okay you know like i that's not a church thing that's just a state entity thing anyway all that to say is that technically i do have like a treasurer and a secretary and i do run these things by them as far as like hey you know we're gonna you know buy this i just want to let you guys know hey we're dropping this on you know such and such like the baptistry or the different things like that right and a lot of times why i do that is just because i i don't want to be you know dumb about it i like getting counsel be like hey you know i think that's a little much you know like what you're paying there for this i think you can get it better over here right um because i don't want to be uh lackadaisy about our finances to be like it's not my money you know i just throw it you know uh no obviously i want to be smart with it but i also use it for things that uh i believe are gonna further the ministry okay you say well what about a building you know and all this stuff listen i'll rent till jesus comes and i want a clean building i want a building doesn't have asbestos and mold and you know rats running around you know what i mean like obviously there's like a standard of like building that we want to have right but in the end the building is very low on the list as far as priorities when it comes to the finances in my opinion you know i'd rather have missions trips i'd rather have bibles i'd rather have money to go on marathons and pay for all the you know expenses as far as the meals and all that stuff um you know or even one day maybe we'll get a church van for soul winning going back and forth that type of stuff you know what i mean like that's where our finances should be going not for a gymnasium okay you want to go play basketball we'll go out to a park somewhere or we'll go rent a gymnasium to have some fun or something like that you know what i mean and i'm not against using finances for that but this whole idea well christian school no homeschooling okay there's my answer homeschooling we're not doing christian school we're not going to have some big elaborate like multi-million dollar building with a gymnasium and swimming pool and all these different things okay and you say well that's i'm leaving now you know i thought eventually you know we're going to get into that realm sorry to burst your bubble but obviously i don't think anybody's thinking that okay but go to second peter chapter two because listen there are churches out there that use their people as merchandise okay and there's a lot of false prophets out there okay and all the tv preachers out there listen they're using the house of god for a you know a house of merchandise they use it to sell their books man and i don't have many notes on this because i knew i'd get off on tangents the missionaries that come in the evangelists that come in and put their their stuff in the back and say hey buy my books do all this stuff house of merchandise don't make my father's house a house of merchandise if you want to give out your books that's fine but don't sell them in the house of god okay you want to sell them outside of that and you have a store that you sell them from or you sell them online nothing wrong with that but don't come don't you dare come here with your like book on pre-tribulation rapture and try to sell that in my church okay there's many reasons why i would not allow that happening here but you know that type of stuff happens a lot okay and and i'm kind of picking on the old ife but listen how much more on the scale of like these uh like joel olsteins and and the john hagges and stuff like that right i mean they are literally using their ministry to sell their books sell their merchandise and just are millionaires they're millionaires because of it okay there's nothing wrong with being rich but there's something wrong with being rich off the house of god okay if you're a millionaire because of you know the ministry there's something wrong okay no one should ever be rich because they're in the ministry okay and anyway so go to uh second peter chapter two verse one it says but there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you joel steen john haggy you know just go down the laundry list of a lot of these mainstream preachers that are false prophets okay and then go keep reading there it says who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of what's the way of truth eternal security once they've always saved easy believe ism believe on the lord jesus christ now shall be saved not by works not by repenting of your sins yeah that's the way of truth they're speaking evil of notice keep reading there and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumber is not you say who you talking about uh well let me start with the catholic church okay the catholic church says that you need to give money to get your family member out of purgatory penance you know like whatever they call that you know where they they they give money it's funny because we won someone to the lord last week that grew up catholic and uh and we were talking about heaven and hell and i'm like you know i know the catholic church believes in purgatory he's like yeah and he didn't have nice words to say about it he's basically saying it's like a ponzi scheme you know he's like i still haven't got my receipt for all the money you know like and my my relatives i don't know if they've gotten out you know and he's joking because it's ridiculous okay but just as much as that's ridiculous that happens on the the mainstream evangelical realm as well okay put your hand on the screen you want a blessing from god send in a thousand dollars happens and listen unfortunately the older people get sucked into this type of stuff okay and they think that you know the gift of god can be purchased with money or something like that and the idea here is that listen they are many shall follow their pernicious ways and through coefficients how they make merchandise of you they're making merchandise out of people okay through the house of god and it's wickedness okay you're dealing with reprobates here you're dealing with people whose damnation slumber is not and so that being said you can see how it goes to a really far extreme okay selling books in church not as bad you know as far as uh you know bad extreme you know like praying people out of heaven and give me money so i can pray these people out of heaven or i'm praying out of heaven pray i'm out of purgatory into heaven right you're like hey you got a raw deal there why are you praying my relatives out of heaven um but obviously listen jesus didn't throw them out for uh people giving money for purgatory penance okay he threw them out because they were selling doves oxen and sheep okay those were all things under the old testament where they would be doing sacrifices two turtle doves you know a sheep a lamb and ox you know like different different sacrifice for different types of offerings right and they were selling that stuff in church and jesus got so angry that he made a scourge and threw them out of the temple threw over tables and kicked them all out okay and so it's a big deal now go to mark chapter 11 mark chapter 11 because it's interesting because they they always want to say wow no it's because it's the den of thieves they're extorting people and that's why it's not just it's not that they can't sell anything it's just the fact that when you sell it you can't be extorting people i'm sorry but i think five dollars for a sermon is extorting people okay you know it's all it's all in the eye of the beholder what do you think's extorting people okay i don't think that i should even sell you something for what i bought it for at cost okay meaning that let's say i bought a bible and it was two dollars and i say okay i paid two dollars for it give me two dollars even no that's selling stuff you're like well you didn't make any money on you didn't make any profit i don't give a rip i don't care if i said give me a dollar for it and i lost 50 you know i've lost a hundred percent you know amount on it or 50 how you want to look at it the thing is is that no you're not supposed to sell anything i don't care if you make money lose money whatever the case may be don't sell it now in matthew or sorry mark chapter 11 verse 15 you know and it's funny because our church isn't that big you know i think our church is growing obviously we have no problem paying the bills like i'm almost thinking like what can we do now you know like there's just so much money that's just there from people that tie people that give and you know i'm never worried about paying the electric or paying the bills now when we first started i did because you know it was kind of like all at the beginning you don't know who's going to be coming and all that stuff you kind of worry about like are we going to pay rent never worried about never had to borrow any money and never plan on ever borrowing any money but that being said i'm like what are you doing with your money you know like you can't afford bibles you can't afford like uh you know things to hand out to people and all these different things you can't afford to uh when you do some kind of like special event that you know we go somewhere to where we can't pay for that i'm just i'm always wondering like where is this money going now i'll say this okay for some defense here i don't take a salary okay so part of that is i'm not getting paid okay you know we're a small church so i'm not taking any salary so that means all the money that's coming in is just going to whatever we want it to go to and it's not coming to me now i'm not against getting paid i'm not against having people on staff but you know it just kind of it still baffles me you know the amount that it costs to buy bibles and how you can't do that and just little things like that but in mark chapter 11 verse 15 because they'll say well no you could it's just about extorting people okay verse 15 and they come to jerusalem and jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and notice this in verse 16 and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple okay he wouldn't suffer anybody to carry any vessel through the temple okay obviously we're talking about items that are sold and bought right talk about you're talking about inventory you're talking about like merchandise that's being brought through he wouldn't even let him carry it through there let alone sell it like don't even you know carry it through there and all that now in uh verse uh verse 17 yeah verse 17 and he taught saying unto them is it not written my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves and the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him for they feared him because all the people was astonished at his doctrine now go to uh isaiah 56 and obviously we're going to be getting that to this week you know actually we're going to be going into isaiah 56 but that's where this is brought up you know as far as the house of murder or i'm sorry the the house of prayer and uh so i want i want to talk about this a little bit but really i'll kind of hit on this next part this week yeah this week so uh on uh wednesday in verse six here so isaiah 56 and verse six is also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the lord to serve him and to love the name of the lord to be his everyone that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it and taking hold of my covenant even them will i bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in the house of prayer and i'm sorry in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar for mine house shall be called and house of prayer for all people the lord god which gathered the outcast of israel saith yet will i gather others to him beside those that are gathered unto him and this is old testament by the way because they're bringing sacrifices and it's basically stating that anybody that wants to come from other nations they can and come and worship the lord do these sacrifices but they're they're basically coming in there and making money off of it okay people are coming from outside and other nations and this is the perception that they're getting of the house of god okay that i gotta come here and i gotta buy all this stuff you know i gotta buy it here at this place and they're just making it a big uh retail store you know it's pretty much what they're doing and uh obviously god does not like it to the point where he throws people out of the temple but this is where i wanted to touch on okay so these are the questions that i get a lot of times with this you know most people no one in the church is like hey when you're gonna open up a bookstore you know when are we gonna start making some money off this stuff you know and you know get the thermometer on the wall listen i don't plan on ever doing any type of fundraiser you know or any type of uh even extra giving okay like some thermometer on the wall building funds whatever listen if we got it we got it we don't we don't okay that's the way i look at it and we'll just deal with what we got but the question that i usually get it's a legitimate question okay is okay people in the church obviously make things they have things or um or even like someone will buy something they'll be like hey when you're there go buy that for me you know and then i'll pay you back okay and there's like this exchange of goods okay uh and a lot of people ask me you know like okay can i do that you know like when i come to church can i like you know this person bought this for me and i'm just giving them the money for it and all that well this verse in mark chapter 11 where it says he suffered not any any man to carry any vessel through the temple is what always sticks out in my mind okay and you may say well you're just being really strict about this and really crazy about this listen i'd rather be safe on this than not okay because if this is something where jesus actually threw people out of the temple for i don't want this to be like on us okay so okay for example if uh i'll give you an example okay i bought uh something from uh mrs utzler you know like she makes these like knitted things or whatever and i bought them for holly for christmas or whatever i literally they were here you know visiting but i'm like we walked outside the building and we did it out there like a drug deal no i'm just kidding no we but you say that's that's that's silly okay that's silly to do that you know to take it outside of the church building but i don't want there to be any like inkling that hey there's been any exchange of like i don't want a vessel to be exchanged through here okay even though the church didn't buy that has nothing to do with the church okay but i want to make it a big deal that hey okay you know if you're outside the building whatever okay to try to do that outside the building because we don't want and you say well i don't think it's that that's what that's talking about i think that's more just talking about items that the church buys and you're trying to sell it and stuff like that and i can get where you're coming from okay but i take a pretty strict stance on this okay and and we may have all faltered on this me included as far as like the idea of you know handing a check or doing this or whatever for items that you bought from somebody or whatever in the church building um but we really need to try to keep this to where it's outside the church building okay outside the church building if it's in your car you're in your own persons you know like you're not you know in the church building where the church people are at and all that and and i even take this to the point well well okay the church is the congregation what if you as a church member you came here and was selling things from the church building and the church isn't here i understand that the church building is not the church but it's also paid for by the church okay and so you're using that as a platform or a space and all that to sell things okay so that's my stance on that okay um as far as that goes i'm not i'm not here to police everybody on this but this is my stance and i think we need to really be careful about those little things and you say uh you know think about this you know because you say well that just seems small okay outside of like the church having like a store and selling things and like all this other stuff obviously that's kind of the main thing i'm trying to get across here you say well that type of stuff is as far as exchanging money and stuff like that in the house notice it was talking about the changers of money and exchangers and all that in that passage you say i think that might be a little extreme that's fine but i'm going to take that extreme stance okay and there's certain doctrines in the bible where it may be a little gray or i might just be a little um you know uh just not a hundred percent sure on okay as far as like if there's a leeway in it if i'm not 100 if i have a doubt okay i'm going to take the stricter stance okay because i don't want to get caught into this doubtful disputation where you know you're damned if you eat because you did it not in faith okay meaning i wasn't fully persuaded that that was okay and even if it was okay i'd still be in sin okay and so i'm going to take that stricter stance and i'm going to say that everybody here needs to take that stricter stance i am the leader okay and you know what we all we all falter with that and you're just you know and you may forget about it and all that but just be cognizant of it okay we all we all make faults we all you know do things that we uh you know we forget about it and all that stuff but just make a conscious effort to say hey you know what if i'm getting something from someone else or that there's an exchange of goods just do it outside the building okay and we'll just keep it that way keep it safe keep it to where we know that that's not going to be an issue now i go to first christian chapter 16 because it's not that money isn't going through this church okay there's an offering box okay so this isn't just saying like money can't be moved around here okay because obviously there's money being moved around when we count the offering and there's money being moved around when uh you know like brother charles brother dave will get something from somewhere with the church card or i will and we have receipts that are going around and just different things are being bought and sold for the church building okay there's nothing wrong with that as far as you know for the ministry and what we're doing there okay and i want to give a verse on that because uh and first corinthian chapter 16 is talking about giving a collection for the saints so basically people were uh giving money for like this this offering that they're going to give to these saints in jerusalem the poor saints and stuff like that so it's kind of like a love offering if you will in first corinthian chapter 16 verse 1 it says now concerning the collection of the saints i i have given order to the churches of galatia even so do i do you ye upon the first day of the week that every one of you lay by him in store as god hath prospered him that they may may that there be no gatherings when i come and when i come whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters then will i send to bring your liberality unto jerusalem and another place that talks about how you know giving um you know basically uh givings to the poor saints in jerusalem so basically dealing with people that don't have a lot in jerusalem and you're just kind of helping out with your abundance and the thing is is that the reason what he's saying here is that you know do this on the first day of the week so when i come it's not it's already together you know what i mean like i'm not there and you're like all right everybody where's all your stuff that you want to give right he's basically just like first day of the week and the first day of the week is when people are meeting breaking bread and you know obviously having church and all that and he's saying just do it on the first day of the week get this this offering together uh for these saints in jerusalem and when i come it'll be ready to go and then i'll take it there okay so there's nothing wrong with like having money going in and out of church okay because there was money going into the temple right you had the tithes that would go to the priest the priest would use that to live and buy things and all this other stuff there's nothing wrong with that but it's got to be in its place okay um and so i just want to state that that obviously there's money that's being moved around i write a check up here for the rent okay there's nothing wrong with that you're like making the house emergent no you know that's for the church you know if the temple needs to buy something that's not making it a house of merchandise that when a temple selling and you know people are buying and selling within the temple you know to just make gain that's where you're making a house of merchandise okay and and i don't care if you don't make gain you're trying to okay no one buys and sells things if they're not trying to make gain be like well i suffered a loss well good don't still don't be doing it in the house of god you know i you just got your just reward you know for doing that um but anyway the idea here is that our church we want our church to be without spot okay go to uh ephsian chapter five ephsian chapter five and you say well this is kind of insignificant well the bible says in matthew 23 you're going to ephsian chapter five it says matthew 23 23 well i want to use scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you pay ty the mint and annas and and i'm going to say cumin because if i say common my wife's going to get on me but that's the way scorby says it okay cumin and have admitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith these ought to you to have done and not to leave the other undone okay so you may say okay these things kind of seem like they're not the weightier matters of law okay you know as far as like the exchange of goods inside the house of god and stuff like that well i would kind of beg to differ you know considering how angry jesus got at it but at the same time let's say it is should you still leave it undone okay is it something that you should just let that's not important okay clean first the inside of the platter that the outside may be clean also should you not clean the outside and that's what people say it's like well it's only the inside that matters no they're both important the inside is more important you know the weightier matters of law are more important but it doesn't mean the rest of the law is not important okay so we want to we want to be without spot and notice what it says in epsilon chapter five and verse 25 epsilon chapter five verse 25 says husbands love your wives even as christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish see our our goal is to be without blemish without spot okay so if i see a spot if i see something like hey this is i i don't think that this is the way we should be doing if there's a spot here there's a blemish here you say it seems so small we're doing all this other good stuff yeah that's great that we're doing all this other stuff and we got all this stuff worked out but let's get it clean okay spic and span i want to be ocd about our church being without spot without blemish without wrinkle okay because that's what jesus wants okay now go to revelation chapter two and i'm just going to give you some verses here because this is what i don't want jesus to say to us okay and in three of these churches here you're dealing with you know with thyatira programus and uh and i'm sorry if the emphasis uh thyatira it's thyatira programus and emphasis okay the order so first we're dealing with emphasis and in all these churches you are dealing with the fact that jesus is complimenting them on things that they're doing right okay in all three cases you're doing things that are good but okay nevertheless notwithstanding okay and here's the thing it's not that they weren't doing great things it's just the fact that i don't want that but i don't want that nevertheless i don't want that notwithstanding okay i want it to be like philadelphia or smirna where it's just like they're just like keep going keep doing what you're doing you definitely don't want to be sardis where there's nothing really good to say about you besides that you used to do some stuff that was good back in the day um but that being said is in in revelation chapter two and verse four it says nevertheless i have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love go down to verse 14 so that's that's emphasis and now with pergamos it says in verse 14 but i have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that holds the doctrine of balaam who taught balak to cast a selling block before the children of israel to eat things sacrifice unto idols and to commit fornication verse 20 so revelation 2 and verse 20 notwithstanding i have a few things against thee because thou suffers that woman jezebel which calls herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrifice unto idols you say well those seem a little more extreme okay granted i'm not saying i'm not here to like compare these things but again i may also beg to differ on the extremity of what jesus did when people were buying and selling in the house of god okay so you can say well it seems small it doesn't really seem that small to me because i don't see jesus whipping people out of any other place anywhere else okay but this is why i want to preach this first of all i've had questions you know from people in the church even my wife you know as far as like you know what's what's you know the stance you know how is this more is this too extreme is this not you know is this not enough and so you know what if i get questions on it i need to preach on it first of all um and but i'll say this is that one of the big reasons i want to preach on this is because i i don't want that that nevertheless i don't want that but and i don't want that notwithstanding when it's dealing with our church i i want jesus to say you know talking about the to the angel of the church and you know in fairmont you know to the angel of the church of mountain baptist you know these things i write you know that works are the the the last of thy works are greater than the first you know and just going through this list and i just wanted to end right there you know i just wanted to be like and keep doing what you're doing you know like that's that's what i want it to be with our church i don't want to be like but nevertheless i have a few things against thee notwithstanding there's some issues we've got to deal with here okay i don't want that to be the case so when it even comes to things like this you know where i don't think we we have an issue okay but they're having questions about this and i think that we're better to be on the side of caution the side of just being really kind of hard-lined about that to where it's like hey listen even if it's just exchanging uh you know money from things that you bought with people outside of church we should do that outside we should not do that in the building okay and so if you've done that before you know don't worry about it okay i might have accidentally done it you know you just don't think about those things a lot of times you know when you're dealing with that type of stuff but i do believe that we need to be strict on that we need to hold the line on that and uh and all that so um let's not make the house of god a house of merchandise we're not here to make it a den of thieves we're not here to to make money off merchandise okay any merchandise that we have in here is either what we're using for the church or it's going to be given out to you free okay all the drinks nothing like there's nothing where it says hey here's a jar put in this and i'm not going to even say this well you know just put something in the offering plate for it no okay if it goes in the offering plate it's not for anything that you got here it's just going to be an offering okay to the lord now there's no paying back there's no like well i'm going to donate you know that's like that typical thing where it's like um you don't have to pay anything you just have to donate twenty dollars you know it's like when and i've been kind of picking on people you know they do these lights up here for christmas and i'm not here to say like it should be free but just tell me it's twenty dollars or whatever it is to go through this thing you know or whatever the i can't remember what the cost is you know per person or whatever but i'm like just tell me that's the cost don't tell me oh it's a donation well if it's a donation i should be able to blast through here without having to pay anything okay and so you know no we're not going to be like well just make a donation you know or anything like that no it's free okay these bibles over here do you want to pass these things out like candy to people you get saved or people that you have your conversations with then do it now just let me know when it starts running dry there and we'll order some more but we will not make this house that house of merchandise and we're going to keep it that way but we also just want to make sure we hold the line even on the little minutia when it comes to that so let's end with a word of prayer the only father we thank you today thank you for your word and lord just thank you for these passages the lord to give us this information as far as how we should behave in the house of god and lord just to help us to to always be well pleasing to you and if there are any things that that you would have against us lord that it would come to our attention that we'd see it in your word and that we'd fix it but lord just pray that you'd help us to to keep your church without spot without wrinkle without blemish and lord just help us to bring glory to your name we love you and pray also to use christ's name amen the brother will come say one more song and that will be dismissed all right take your song books and turn to song 115 song 115 if you would stand we'll sing no one ever cared for me like jesus song 115 i would love to tell you what i think of jesus since i found in him a friend so strong and true i would tell you how he changed my life completely he did something that no other friend could do no one ever cared for me like jesus there's no other friend so kind as he