2 Corinthians 6 the part that I wanted to focus on is there at the end, where the Bible reads beginning in verse 14, "14 Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
What I want to preach about this morning is this non-denominational movement or this idea of churches being non-denominational. This is the popular or trendy thing now for churches to not have any kind of labels, where you look at the church and you have no idea what they stand for, because the church is just called The Point, Cross Point, The Rock Church, you know, just whatever generic type of name and they say, "We're just non-denominational, because we're sort of above that."
We're above that worrying about doctrine and crossing the t and dotting the i. We're sort of post-denominational in our thinking here, because we're just all-inclusive of everyone. This is the trend today. If we drive down the road, the vast majority of churches now are non-denominational churches. The big giant buildings where throngs of people go every Sunday for a church service are non-denominational.
The question is, is God in favor of a non-denominational type of an approach? Should we remove the name Baptist from our sign and change our church's name to Cross Point Fellowship Hope Life Church Center or whatever? Or should we actually have a name that means something?
Now if you would flip back just a few pages to 1 Corinthians 14. As we're getting into the sermon, let me explain to you this subject. The word denomination is actually usually used to refer to an organization or a grouping of churches.
For example, you could have the United Methodist Church would be a denomination, the Roman Catholic Church is a denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination, or the Missouri Synod-Lutheran Church is a denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. These are organizations of churches. Then there are other churches that are independent. Meaning that the churches are standalone church. It's not part of any greater organization.
Now, Faithful Word Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist church, meaning that we are not part of any denomination. We're not part of the General Association of Regular Baptist. We're not part of the Bible Baptist Fellowship. We're not part of the Southern Baptist Convention. We're not part of the North American Baptist Convention. We are an Independent Baptist church.
We're not part of a denomination, but that's not what we're talking about. When people say non-denominational, what we're talking about is pretty much the name on the sign. A lot of these churches that say, "We're non-denominational," are actually part of a denomination.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
You can open the phone book and, for example, look under Assemblies of God or look under Southern Baptist and you'll find these churches there, and they're, "Oh we're non-denominational," but they are part of a denomination. They're just not telling you about it, okay? When I talk about that which is non-denominational this morning, what the sermon is actually about this morning is churches that don't have a name that identifies them. Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
We have an identifier in our name, Baptist. Why do we have that identifier and why are other churches ditching the identifier and going non-denominational? Well, look what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14:8.
The Bible says, "8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? 9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air." According to the Bible, when we use words we should use words that are easy for people to understand. Why? Because words are the way that we communicate ideas to one another.
Well, when it comes to a name, what is the purpose of a name? Well, let me just start out by saying this, the word name is used one thousand one hundred and seventy-seven times in the Bible. The Bible talks a lot about names of things. In fact names in the Bible have great importance and significance. In fact, when people's lives would dramatically change, in many cases they would get a new name.
For example, when Simon begins to follow Jesus, he names him Cephas. He says, "You're not going to be called Simon anymore. You're going to be Cephas now or Peter." He gives him that name. Saul becomes Paul, Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah. On and on throughout the Bible people's names are changed because of significant events in their lives.
In fact, when you look at people naming their kids in the Old Testament, they named them with a meaning in mind. For example, if you look at Jacob's sons that became the Twelve Tribes of Israel, as it gives you each child's name it gives you the story behind the name on each of the names. For example, she's giving birth to Judah, she says, "Now I'm going to praise the Lord," you know Judah. Then that's what that name means. It explains, a troop cometh, Gad.
Each name has a meaning and they're given that name for a purpose. Peleg is so named, because in his days the earth was divided, and so on and so forth. Names in the Bible have great significance. God has multiple names for himself. He doesn't just go by a generic moniker of just God. He goes by God Almighty. He goes by The Lord. He goes by Jehovah. He goes by Jesus Christ. He has specific names.
Names are to identify something, okay? Often a name is also to describe something so that we know what it is. Now, just to illustrate to you how foolish it is to just take all the descriptors off of church names and just call it just Church, Community Church, just Local Church.
Think about this. What if you went into your food pantry, where you have all these cans of food. You've got beans. You've got vegetables. You've got tomato sauce. You've got all these different cans. What if you just said, "Man, I'm just so sick of all these labels. What do we need all these labels for, man? We're post-label." What if we just had non-denominational food, where we basically walk into the pantry and just rip off every label off of all of it and just take a Sharpie and just write food.
What if we just went to the grocery store and there were just shelves of food and we're just walking down the aisle and it's like food, food, food. A couple of boxes of food here, cans of foods here and you don't know what's in it. I mean, is this like a Nancy Pelosi church? You've got to pass the bill to find out what's in it.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
It's like, oh well, you've got to go to the church to find out what's in it. What is the problem with that? There are well over a thousand churches in Phoenix alone. Just in Phoenix alone there are over a thousand. What if we just had to just try every church to figure out? It'd be like having to go to the store and buy boxes of food and open them.
It's like surprise, it's macaroni and cheese. Surprise, it's Rice-A-Roni. Wouldn't you rather have a label to tell you? It'd save you a lot of time that if you want green beans, you can go straight to the green beans. If you're looking for Spam, you can go straight for the Spam. You don't have to sit there and just sort through a bunch of identical looking packages trying to figure out what is what. Wouldn't that be frustrating?
That's the way it is with these churches that have zero label on them. Just Rock Church, Point Church, Christ Church, Christian Church. I mean it's just like Acme Food and it doesn't make any sense. Now, what's behind it? What's the motive?
Well, the true motive is to basically be all-inclusive and say we just want to bring in as many people as we can, not offend anyone, and just build a big church by just getting a bunch of people to just come in. We don't care what they believe, just get them all in here and let's have a little rock concert. Let's give a little fifteen minute motivational talk, and the money comes pouring in and we have a fancy building and we tell ourselves that we're doing great things for God.
This is not God's plan. We need to have labels. Now, here's why we need labels. Go back to 2 Corinthians 6, because God has commanded us to be separate, okay? Now, the buzzword today is unity. Now unity is great within a family. Unity is great within a church. We don't need unity with everyone in the world. We don't even need unity amongst all believers. That's not what the Bible teaches. You say, "Whoa, Pastor Anderson, of course we want unity amongst believers." Here's how we'll have unity. Everybody get on this program, a King James Bible and Baptist doctrine and then we can all have unity.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
No, no, no they don't want that. See, look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Does God want us to join together with unbelievers?
Congregation:
No.
Pastor Anderson:
If we are this non-denominational church of just hey, we're not Baptist. We're just sort of an anything goes, non-denominational. Hey, if you believe in Jesus, that's enough for us. Come on in. Well then, basically you can bring in the Mormons. You can bring in the Catholics, bring in the Presbyterians, bring in the Methodist and we can all sing Kumbaya, but many of those people are not saved.
Congregation:
Right.
Pastor Anderson:
All the Mormons are unsaved.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
They're not saved. God says, "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." How can we have fellowship with an unbeliever in the House of God. It doesn't work that way. The Bible, let's read it together, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?"
See, those that are not saved that are in darkness, we can't have fellowship with them in God's House. They're in darkness. We're the children of the light. There's no communion there. See, the whole purpose of going to church is to be a called out assembly of people that are born again, baptized believers. Not just get together with a big group of people in a room. The point is to have fellowship.
What does fellowship mean? We have something in common. We believe the same thing. Why are we assembled at Faithful Word Baptist Church here? Because we believe the stuff that Faithful Word Baptist Church believes or at least the vast majority of it. Obviously no two people are going to agree on everything all the time, but on the essential important points of salvation by faith, the scripture alone is our authority, we love soul-winning, et cetera. We agree. That's why we're here.
If we didn't believe like a Baptist and we said, "No, I'm actually a baby sprinkling, baby baptizing, sodomite worshiping Methodist," then we'd be down at the United Methodist Church today with the big rainbow on the sign, with a lesbian pastor, okay? See, what if the lesbian pastored United Methodist Church in Tempe with a rainbow on the sign? What if it just said Christian Church and our church said Christian Church? How do you tell the two apart?
Thank God for that rainbow on their sign, so we can know that it's filled with filthy sodomites. I'm thankful for that rainbow. I'm thankful when they put a pitch fork on their sign like that Unitarian, unity, unified church or whatever. They have like a pitch fork and then they have a picture of two dudes with a heart around it saying, "We accept everyone." I love that sign, because it just lets me know to never get anywhere near that church with my family.
Congregation:
Right.
Pastor Anderson:
See, labels are effect ... It's sort of like rat poison having a skull and crossbones on it. It tells you hey, this is dangerous. Whereas you want the food label to tell you what kind of food is in it, and then you want to know this is not food. This is poison. I love labels. I love names.
I mean what if I just decided not to name my eight children and to just call them all George Foreman? You know, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. There's no identifier. It makes it hard to communicate in that home when they all have the same name. It doesn't make any sense. Look down at your Bible there. It says, "What agreement," verse 16, "hath the temple of God with idols?" Now look, that shows me right there I can't agree with Catholics.
Congregation:
Right.
Pastor Anderson:
When they've got idols of Jesus, idols of Mary, idols of the saints, when they have graven images and so forth. There's a difference there. We can't have communion and fellowship because the temple of God has no part with idols. Idols are graven images according to the Bible. It says, "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."
Now let's go to 2 Thessalonians and I'll take it a step further. Not only does the Bible teach that we should not worship with, have fellowship with, and have communion with unbelievers, and we should not be yoked up together with them, fellowship with them, and have communion with them, but also the Bible teaches that there are even those who are saved that are believers that we should be separated from as well.
Look down at your Bible in 2 Thessalonians 3:6. Now notice it says, "Now we command you, brethren." This is not a suggestion, is it? He says, "We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. Jump down to verse 14, "And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."
Notice, this is a brother who we're being told have no company with this guy. Withdraw yourself from this guy. Don't hang around this guy. God does not teach unity of all believers, where we just unify with anyone who's saved, that's enough for us to unify. No, he says withdraw, be separate. He says have no company with him. Pull back from that guy, because of the fact that he is trouble.
Go to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5 is another scripture where God teaches this doctrine of separation. He says in 1 Corinthians 5:9, "9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat."
Now, whether this person is a believer or not, if they are called a brother and they're living in fornication or drunkenness or one of these other major sins, it says, "With such an one no not to eat." Verse 12, "For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? 13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person."
Let me ask you this. Does the Bible teach everybody is welcome? Everybody is welcome. Come on in. No, he says, "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." That's what the Bible says, but amongst the non-denominational movement, that's not what's taught. They'll say, "We'll include everyone." Even to the point where not only will they include fornicators, which the Bible says that if you're called a brother, if you're a Christian and you're in fornication, you're to be thrown out of the church.
That's why every time I find out that someone in our church that there are people that are living together that are not married, I always go to that person and say to them, "You have two choices." Actually I give them three choices. I say, "You can either one, get married in the next seven days. If you really love each other and want to live together as husband and wife, then you need to get married and you have seven days to get married.
Or two, you need to stop living together, stop fornicating, and then you can continue coming to the church and just you can be boyfriend and girlfriend, as long as you're not living together and as long as you're fornicating. Or number three, you have to leave the church and not come back." Because the Bible says that we're not supposed to allow a brother who is a fornicator to attend the church. Not to have any company with them.
He says, "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." Why? Because he said, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." It's a bad example to the children in the church. It's a bad testimony. It makes it seem as if we condone it. You say, "I don't like this kind of preaching." Well, you know what ... I'm never coming back. Well, that's why I'm telling you while you're here. Since you're not going to be back, I better explain it to you while you're here then, because this is what the Bible teaches.
This isn't the trendy non-denominational thing, but this is good old Baptist preaching. This is what the Bible says. This cute thing that I've been hearing is, "Oh well, you know, the church is not a spiritual museum, where we go to look at artifact. It's a spiritual hospital." Of course, we want to bring in this. Yeah, but here's the thing, it's not a spiritual morgue though.
Yeah, it's a spiritual hospital, but it's not a spiritual morgue where we're going to bring in a bunch of dead bodies and just have a bunch of dead rotting corpses around us. Spiritual hospital, man. Yeah, as we bring in all the filth, germs, and disgust of a dead body? Here's the thing, that's not ...
What verse is that in the Bible? Can somebody show me that verse where it says that the church is a spiritual hospital? I mean it sounds great. It sounds like you could probably get a job with Hallmark coming up with these kinds of slogans. Wait a minute, is it biblical to say, "Oh the church is a spiritual hospital."
Here's the thing, I can see where some people are coming from when they say that, because obviously look, we're all sinners. We all have problems. Nobody is perfect. We're not a bunch of perfect people. Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. I get all that. I'm a sinner. I have sin in my life. You have sin in your life. I get that.
Here's the problem. When you start pulling out that, "Oh man, it's a spiritual hospital to bring a bunch of sodomites in or to bring in fornicators or to bring in drunks." The Bible says no. I'm sorry, I can't get on board with your cute slogan, because 1 Corinthians 5 says no.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
That's my authority. You can sit there and give all these really motivational speeches about how it's not a museum, it's a hospital. No, it's neither a museum nor a hospital. It's a church. It's not a hospital, not a museum, it's a church.
A church is a place for born again, baptized believers to come together and be edified by the preaching of God's word. If those believers start living in fornication, they need to be cast out of the church. That's what the Bible said. If they're are drunk, cast them out. Oh, but what kind of a loving attitude. I don't know. Why don't you ask God?
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Well, you're not loving. Christ would have just embraced them all. Hold on a second, not into the church, no. If so, then he must have schizophrenia or something if he's got multiple personalities here. What are you talking about? This is the same God that wrote 1 Corinthians is the same God who wrote Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The bottom line is that a church is not just a place where we say everybody is welcome. We will never have a sign that says everybody is welcome, because everyone is not welcome. No homos.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
No fornicators. No drunks.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Sorry. Then here's where people make the mistake. They say, well, how do you expect to get those people saved? Well, we have a great plan for that. It's called soul-winning. It's called going out and knocking every door.
See, we go where they are. We go out into the highways and hedges. We go out door to door and we knock every single door. We talk to every homeless person that we walk past on the street. We knock the doors of the apartments, the dormitories, the houses. We go to the nursing homes and we bring the Gospel to the lost.
I don't care if they're a fornicator. I don't care if they're a drunk. I'll bring him the Gospel. You know what I'm not going to do though? I'm not going to pastor a church filled with fornicators and drunks when the Bible says no.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Because I have to follow God's word as my authority. This non-denominational attitude that says, hey everybody is welcome. Bring in all types of people. I mean, I even saw some meme that was going around Facebook. I'm glad I finally learned how to pronounce that word properly. I saw this meme going around Facebook that was just saying, yeah ... It was some liberal pastor of one of these non-denom churches.
He's got his jeans with the holes in them, his t-shirt that's a little too tight, and his punked-out hairdo because he's hip with the kids. He's out there saying, "You know, it's not a spiritual museum. It's a hospital." He's saying, "We've got people in here that are having you know what with each other and they're not married. We've got people in here that are ..."
It's like why are you bragging about that? Basically what you're saying is I don't care what the Bible says. If you're just openly announcing that your church is filled with fornicators and sodomites, then you're basically just saying I have zero regard for what Christ taught in the scripture in 1 Corinthians 5 and elsewhere. It's an embarrassment. That's exactly what it is.
Let's talk about the name of our church quickly. Our church is called Faithful Word Baptist Church. Now, the reason why our church is called Faithful Word Baptist Church is because that helps people identify what type of church it is just by the name. Now, let's break down each part of this.
First of all, I've been asked many times, "Why not just call it the Church at Tempe? Or the Church in Tempe?" That would be more biblical. You know like in Revelation the Church of Laodicea. Church of Laodiceans, Church in Smyrna.
The reason that we don't call it the Church in Tempe is because there's not only one church in Tempe. I mean, if we just said like, "We're the Church of Tempe." It's like well no, we're the church of ... No, we're the church of Tempe." Everybody can't use that name. It's sort of like there's only one First Baptist per town. There's First Baptist Church of Tempe.
Now, we could call ourselves Second Baptist, but we're not the second one either. I don't want to go through the history of Tempe and call ourselves Thirty-ninth Baptist. I've seen churches that were literally called Third Baptist, Fourth Baptist, and things like that.
The point is, the reason why we don't call ourselves The Church at Tempe is because we want to set ourselves apart from all the hundreds of other churches of all the other denominations, that believe all kinds of things that we don't believe in. We want to make it easy for people to find us.
You see, there's a reason why we have big window lettering right there that says Baptist Church or the Faithful Word Baptist Church. The reason why is because we want people to find us, right? Now, what we could do is we could just kind of shut all the blinds, get rid of the stickers, get rid of the signage, get rid of the van wrap and it'd be sort of like something where you have to know about it. You knock three times and then it buzzes you in, and you come in.
The whole point of having a church name and having a sign is because you want people to know where you are. You want them to know who you are. It's the same reason why I have a name Steven Anderson, because I don't want to be just called, "Hi, I'm Baptist pastor." Because then I'm going to be confused with thousands and thousands of other people, or my name is man. I am man, this is woman, son and daughter, son, son, son, daughter, daughter, daughter, son, son. This is my family. It wouldn't make any sense.
The whole point of naming is to be able to identify and differentiate one from the other, right? Okay, I get it Pastor Anderson. Why would you call the church Faithful Word Baptist Church? Well, let's break that down.
The reason that we use the term Baptist is because right away Baptist tells people a lot about what we believe, because there are many things that all Baptists have in common. Now, there are obviously a great variety of Baptist churches, but here are some things that all Baptists agree on.
Number one is baptism by immersion. We dunk people. That's something that all Baptists agree on. Every Baptist dunks people as opposed to this kind of baptism, the sprinkling or the pouring or stuff like that. Here's the thing about that. The Presbyterians, the Methodists, they do that kind of a baptism and the Bible teaches something totally different.
For example, go to Romans 6. Why do we have Baptist in the name? Why don't we just go non-denom? Because we don't want people to have to pass the bill to see what's in it. We don't want people to have to come to the church to figure out what jungle we're even flying in, let alone our exact teachings and beliefs.
The Bible says in Romans 6:4, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death." Now does that sound like sprinkling, pouring or dunking? It sounds like you're being immersed, "Buried with him by baptism into his death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."
Go to Matthew 3. This is why when we baptize people, we'll often say, "Buried in the likeness of his death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection," because it's a figure or a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Death, burial, and resurrection, that's what's symbolized.
Look at Matthew 3. This is Jesus Christ baptism. It says in verse 16, "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water." Now, in order to come up straightway out of the water, you have to be down in the water. "When he's baptized he comes up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him."
In John 3 it talks about John the Baptist, "Baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there." You don't need a lot of water to sprinkle and pour, but you need a lot of water to dunk people, okay? To immerse people, to baptize people scripturally.
The Bible says in Acts 8, and if you would flip to Acts 8 because I want to give you a second thing that all Baptists believe in, is that secondly all Baptists believe that baptism is for those who are saved, not for the unsaved or not for babies. It's for believers. It's people who have been saved.
Colossians 2:12 says, "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Acts 8:36, "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him."
I don't care what Baptist church you go to, every single Baptist church will agree that baptism is by immersion or dunking and that baptism is for believers. You have to believe with all your heart on Christ to be baptized. That's something that distinguishes Baptists from the Presbyterians. See, Presbyterians are a baby baptizing, baby sprinkling denomination. The Methodists are a baby baptizing, baby sprinkling denomination. The Lutherans are a baby baptizing, baby sprinkling denomination. The Catholics are a baby baptizing, baby sprinkling.
Look, right away we've actually just narrowed things down for people, where they know you're not like the millions of Presbyterians out there. You're not like the millions of Lutherans. You're not like the millions of Methodists. You're not like the millions and billions of Catholics. You are one who actually follows the Bible's teaching on baptism.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Now, you say, "Well, is Baptism really the most important thing?" You know, whether or not it's the most important thing, it shows that you have groups of millions of people that have zero regard for what the Bible says is what it shows. You can't find a single verse in the Bible that even insinuates sprinkling, that would even begin to hint at pouring water on someone's head as a form of baptism. It's always going down into the water, comes up out of the water, buried with him by baptism and all this.
This pagan Babylon sprinkling ritual is not something that the Bible ever teaches anywhere. You can actually learn a lot about that group of people just from this one doctrine. When you see here's a doctrine where millions of Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and Catholics are willing to just completely ignore what the Bible says and just go with what their church says.
That tells you a lot about those people, doesn't it? It tells you that the Bible is not their authority, not even close. Baptism is a key doctrine. Baptism is not an obscure doctrine. It's not a doctrine that is something that's kind of just a minor. You know, don't major on the minors. No, baptism is huge.
Baptism is something that we see over and over. It's the first thing you do after you get saved is get baptized. You're off to a wrong foot when somebody is dumping water on your head or sprinkling.
We thought it was so funny. We were at the Tempe, what's that park called, Kiwanis Park the one on Baseline, right? We were at that Kiwanis Lake at the park and here's this great, big body of water and a bunch of Protestants are there sprinkling a baby. I'm thinking like, why did you go to a lake to sprinkle? You could have gone out in the middle of a desert to sprinkle. You could have just brought a water bottle.
I wanted to just grab that baby and just dunk it in the water, but then I thought it's not even saved. What would be the point? It's believer's baptism. Then I wanted to grab the female minister and dunk her in the water, but then I realized she's not saved so what would be the point of that? I just rode my bike by and didn't think anymore about it, until this sermon.
The bottom line is that right away we're differentiating ourselves as a people who care what the Bible says and we're actually differentiating ourselves from like ninety percent of so-called Christians that don't believe in the right kind of baptism worldwide. All the Protestants, all the Catholics have it wrong, which tells you that the Protestants are just Catholic light. Here's the definition of Protestant, Catholic light. That's all it is.
Now, here's another thing that all Baptists agree on. Go to 1 John 2. All Baptists, supposedly, will at least give lip service to the fact that our doctrine is based on scripture alone. Scripture alone. This is something that all Baptists agree on.
Now, when you talk to people of other denominations, many times they will say, "Hey, we need to go with the church fathers. We need to hear what the church fathers have said or the traditions of the church, or the writings of Ellen G. White or the Book of Mormon or the Watchtower publication or this prophet and that prophet."
We believe in scripture alone as our authority. Meaning that there's no man, no tradition, no statement of faith, no creed that we believe in other than this book. Any kind of statement of faith that we've put out is just stating that we believe what the Bible says on these subjects. It's never saying like this is our doctrine. No, this is our doctrine.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
This is our final authority. Not only is it our final authority, it's our only authority. The Bible says in 1 John 2:26, "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. 27 But the anointing which ye have received of him," talking about the Holy Spirit, "Abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
According to this, we do not need men to teach us the word of God, because the Holy Spirit is our teacher. Now, if you would go to 2 Timothy 3, the Holy Spirit is our teacher. We do not need creeds, church fathers, and traditions to dictate our belief in God's word.
I believe that you personally, whether you're a man, woman, boy or a girl, can go home today and open your Bible and read it and understand it just as well as I can understand it. If you read it as many times as I've read it, you will understand it as well as I understand it if you are a doer of the word. Obviously you have to be a doer of the word and you have to pray unto the Lord and everything like that.
Honestly, there's nothing special about me, nothing special about you. We're all one in Christ and we all have the same Holy Spirit, the same anointing. I love how he says that in 1 John 2, that the same anointing he says. I love that phrase "the same anointing."
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
He says, "The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you," he said, "Because the same anointing teacheth you of all things." What does he mean by that? The same anointing that's on John is the same anointing that's on you. The same anointing that was on Jesus, same Holy Spirit.
That's why we don't need to go to a special person like a priest or a pope that somehow will interpret it for us. We just can go to it ourselves. Isn't that great. I mean, do you really want to rely on people when so many people let you down in your life and just blindly trust people? This is what we trust. Our own eyes, our own brain as we have the Holy Spirit guiding us through the word.
You see, you'll say what? People will say, "Well, you're just prideful if you think that you can figure it out on your own." No, no, no it's me and the Holy Spirit. Okay, so it's not pride because all the credit goes to the Holy Spirit. He's the one that reveals the word.
These people that often bark at that, where they bark at you interpreting the Bible on your own like, "Who do you think you are with all these great scholars and church fathers and tradition and pastors? Who do you think you are to interpret on your own?" It's because they've never met the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when you start telling them, "Well, the Holy Spirit is going to teach me the word." They look at you like you have two heads because they don't know whether there even be a Holy Ghost, because they're not saved. That's why they need all of these man-made junk.
Let me ask you this my friend, would you like our church to be filled with people who believe in things other than the Bible as a final authority? Would you like our church to be filled with people that believe in the Book of Mormon? Would you like our church to be filled with people who are toting around giant commentaries and books of the church fathers and stories of the saints?
Would you like to be in a church that's filled with people where everybody has got a different Bible version and people are wearing rosary beads. People are chanting over here and lighting a candle over here, and burning some incense over here. It's just everybody believes something different. You've got some people getting sprinkled, some people are getting dunked. Hey God is not the author of confusion.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Let me tell you something. I want to be in a church where I can get together with people who are Baptist.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Meaning that they believe the Bible is the only authority. The Bible is the final authority and they read this Bible and then they read it again, and they read it again. They say, "There's no sprinkling. There's no pouring. It's not there, therefore, we're not doing it." That's the kind of people I want to go to church with.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
People who say well, it doesn't matter what he, she or it said. The Bible said and I have the Holy Spirit and I can interpret the Bible on my own and I know that what that person is saying is false because of what the Bible says. That's the kind of church we want to go to.
Now look, you say well, I don't want to go to that kind of church. Then there's plenty of other churches to pick from. The point is when they have labels, it makes it easier. You want to go to that kind of church you to a Baptist. See, every Baptist dunks, every Baptist believes in scriptures alone. Also, virtually every Baptist believes in the eternal security of the believer.
Go to 1 John 5, virtually every Baptist. Now, the reason I say virtually is because in other parts of the country there are people called Free Will Baptists where they deny the eternal security of the believer. In Arizona every Baptist church in Arizona or California, to my knowledge, believes in the eternal security of the believer, okay, every single one. In California, Arizona, probably most of the Western United States.
There are some people who misuse the term Baptist down south and call it a Free Will Baptist. Well, you're just not even a Baptist anymore at that point if you believe in losing your salvation. I wish they wouldn't call themselves Baptist because at least it's nice to know that at least some people are Baptist.
Here's the thing, you could go on the website of the most liberal Baptist church in Arizona, find me the most liberal cross point whatever, that's what it's called in Tempe I think, Cross Point Tempe. I've never looked at their statement of faith, but I'd be willing to bet any amount of money that if we go to Cross Point Tempe, where they put in real tiny SBC like we're Southern Baptist, because they're trying to hide it, non-denominational. Well, actually we're Southern Baptist.
Anyway, the point is I guarantee if you go to their statement of faith it's going to say eternal security of a believer. Even though they're going to be liberal on a bunch of other stuff, they're going to dunk down there. They're going to believe in eternal life, eternal security at least on paper, even though the members might not even have been taught that, but it's going to be on the statement of faith my friend. They're going to believe in scriptures alone.
I'm sure if we asked that pastor, "Hey, are the scriptures alone the final authority?" He's going to say absolutely. Even if these churches are not exactly like us, using the word Baptist gets us in the ballpark, doesn't it? It's like okay, Baptist now we can talk.
Now let me warn you. When you go outside of Baptist, it's a jungle out there. Let me tell you this, there are churches out there that don't have Baptist in the name that are great churches, that are fantastic churches that preach great doctrines, great soul-winning, great preaching. Okay, they're out there.
Don't get me wrong that hey Pastor Anderson is saying if you don't have Baptist in the name, you're a bad church. No, there are good churches out there that don't have Baptist in the name. There I said it. Let me tell you this though, do you really want to wade through the thousands and thousands and thousands of tongue-talking, baby baptizing, a man's tradition observing churches to find that one? Wouldn't it just be a little easier if they just put Baptist in the name and at least you're like okay, gets me in the ballpark.
Again, I'm not saying it's a sin. Here's the thing. Remember my sermon on convictions and preferences? I'm not saying that you have to have Baptist in the name to be right with God. I'm just telling you that it makes way more sense to have Baptist in the name. We have Baptist in the name for a reason. We're never going to remove Baptist from the name.
I recommend every person that I train and teach, I tell them put Baptist in the name. Why? Because you're labeling it to let people know where you're coming from. Now you say, "Well, but the Baptists have apostatized and they're giving us a bad name." Well, then here's the new thing. You need a new name then, or at least expand the name Baptist. You can't just sit there and just we're just Christian, just the church in Tempe. That's moving backwards.
Now you're sating yourself with a lot of even worse elements. It'd make more sense if you wanted to add like Independent Baptist, Faithful Word Independent Baptist Church. I mean let's add stuff. That's why Baptists often are ridiculed for stacking up adjectives in front of their name. You know what I'm talking about? Like whenever you get an invitation.
I remember the first time I got an invitation from an Independent Baptist church when I was seventeen years old. I was invited to Regency Baptist Church. It said on there, "We're an Independent, Fundamental, King James Only, non-charismatic." It was just listing all you know, hell fire and damnation, chicken eating Baptists. Just all these non-vegan or whatever, just all the different Southern Baptist.
The point is if anything we need more adjectives. We need more descriptors. I mean that's why look at our church sign right there. Look at it. Look at it. It says, "Faithful Word Baptist Church," you can't read backwards? It says, "Independent, Fundamental, Soul-Winning, King James Bible Only."
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Here's the thing, not only are we Baptist, we're also Independent Baptist. Not only are we Independent Baptist, we're Independent, Fundamental Baptist. Not only are we Independent, Fundamental Baptists, but we're King James Only Independent, Fundamental Baptist. We're set apart even further by saying hey, we're soul-winning.
Congregation:
Soul winners, yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
That's why I tell people, hey when you're looking for a church in your area, I always tell them go to this website called Military Get Saved. For some reason, I don't know why it's called that. There's a website called Military Get Saved and they have a directory of every Independent Baptist church in America except one is left off, it's Faithful Word Baptist Church. I don't know why they hate us.
Anyway, I still love them. Even though they hate me, I love them. I tell people to go there. I say, "Go to Military Get Saved and go to your state, right?" Let's say I'm in Alabama and I'm looking for a church. Go to Alabama on this website and list every Independent Baptist church in Alabama.
Then what you can do, I always tell people to use the Ctrl+F key like the find feature and just look for the word soul, because you want a church with some soul. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, because of the fact that if you look for soul, because it has usually a few words to describe the church and a lot of them say soul-winning. If you type in soul, it kind of helps you find some soul-winning churches right away.
Why? Because if it's a soul-winning church, that usually means that they're ninety-nine percent of the time King James Only, or they're ninety-nine percent of the time believe in salvation by faith alone. They're good on the Gospel. They're good on a lot of things.
I'm not saying it's going to be perfect. You might try a few before you find the best one. The point is identifiers, names, they help us hook up with like-minded believers. That's the whole point of what church is all about.
Look at 1 John 5 and see what an important doctrine this is of eternal security. Verse 10, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."
I don't want to go to church with a bunch of people who are calling God a liar, that God didn't give us eternal life, that God gave us temporary or conditional life. Therefore, just by being Baptist that tells people we believe in the eternal security of the believer, versus the Pentecostal churches that all pretty much teach that you can lose it.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
Right away I'm separated from them. I want to be separate. Now, look if you would at 2 Corinthians 6 again where we started. Let's go back to where we started, 2 Corinthians 6. Just a quick review, God wants us to be separate.
He wants us to not be fellowshipping or having our church filled with unbelievers. He also doesn't want us to be filled with believers who are living in fornication or drunkenness. He also doesn't want our church to be filled with people who disregard the word of God. He said, look if people just not obey our word by this epistle, just note that man, and have no company with him.
When they're just ignoring the part of the epistle where he says it's baptism by, buried with him by baptism and down into the water, he's saying you don't want to be fellowshipping with people who just ignore the Bible. The Bible is our final authority. Names help us with that.
Well, let's finish talking about our church's name. We talked about the fact that it has Baptist in it, why? Because we have to be Baptist? No, because we're narrowing it down for people. We want people to know who we are.
Okay, why Faithful Word? Even just by calling it Faithful Word Baptist Church, that tells you a little bit about the church, because we chose the word Faithful Word, so right away we're emphasizing the Bible because we're talking about the word in the name of the church. Then by saying Faithful Word, faithful means something that you can trust or rely on. We're basically announcing we believe that God's word is trustworthy. We believe that it's accurate. We believe that it's what God said. It's faithful to the original. It's the faithful word.
The Bible says in Titus 1, "Holding fast the faithful word." That shows an emphasis on the Bible and a faith in the Bible. Baptist, we already talked about that. How about the last word, church. A lot of people are ditching the word church for fellowship, Faithful Word Ministries, Faithful Word Christian Center, Faithful Word Baptist Temple or whatever.
The reason that I'm going to go with the word church ... I know I told you to go to 2 Corinthians, keep your finger there. Go to Matthew 18. The reason that I want to stick with the word church is simply because number one, I believe in using words that are clear and easy to understand. Everybody knows what a church is, right? We might as well just use the easy, simple, clear word church.
Not only that, the word church today is actually being misconstrued and twisted by a lot of people, where we're losing the meaning of church. By calling this a church, it helps people remember what church means. This is a church, Faithful Word Baptist Church. You're in a church.
Okay, look what the Bible says about the church. This is actually one of the first mentions of the church. It's the second mention of church in the Bible. It says in Matthew 18:15, "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Now, the reason I read this scripture to you is to show you that the biblical definition of a church, which is a congregation, makes perfect sense in this passage. He's saying, if somebody does you dirty, you go to that person. You try to make it right between you and him around, otherwise you take one or two witnesses and you try to get it resolved.
If that doesn't work, you tell it to the church. If he doesn't hear the church, if the church tells this guy, "Look, you're wrong, buddy. You need to make this right," and he won't listen to them, then he's cast out of the church, okay?
That makes perfect sense if you understand the biblical definition of church, which is a congregation of people. A congregation of believers, what we're in right now. We've all congregated here. We're an assembly here. Church means assembly. Here's the false definition of church that they have. It's just all Christians make up the church. This is known as the universal church doctrine or the invisible church doctrine.
I don't believe in the invisible church or the universal church. Here's what's so silly about this, is that if you apply that to this passage, if you think that's what church means is all believers, well then, if I have a problem with you and we can't make it right, I've got to go tell every Christian in the whole world. I mean I'm communicating with Christians in India and China, because I've got a problem with him. I mean does that make any sense? Then they're all going to come back and tell him, you're wrong, and then if he doesn't listen to them. I mean think about it, isn't that silly?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
If it's a group like this, you could see how it would actually work. Again, there's a twisting of the word church. For example, I was just recently out soul-winning and I talked to this lady and I asked her, "Do you go to church?" "Yeah, every day right there on that street corner." Basically just to her just if I pray anywhere I'm in church, because this is what people think now.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
People will often say this to me when I'm out soul-winning, "Well, you and I we're in church right now. This is church right now, because we're talking about the word." No, it's not church at all. That's what people think, because they don't understand that actually a church is a ... It's not the building. Now look, it's not the building. Amen?
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Here's the thing, but then what people try to say when you try to tell them it's an assembly though, they'll try to accuse you of claiming that it's the building. Have I ever taught that it's the building?
Congregation:
No.
Pastor Anderson:
No, but they'll say it's the people. Yeah, it's the people when they're assembled. That's what's missing. See, when you just say it's not the building, it's the people, you're missing something. It's the people when they're congregated.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
The Bible used the word congregation and church interchangeably. If you're not congregated, you're not in church. If you're watching this on TV or at home or listening on the radio, you're not in church right now. You're only in church ... I've said this before, if you can see the whites of my eyes, you're in church. If not, you're not in church, okay? It's that simple.
The point is that people are abusing that word church. By the way, the lady that I talked to, I explained to her. I said, "Look, that's not church." Thank God she .... She wasn't saved, she ended up getting saved, and then she ended up coming to church on Sunday.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
She got in the real church, not Street Corner Baptist, you know what I mean? She was able to get into an Independent, Fundamental Baptist Church. Basically, the definition of church is under attack. I like to use the word church. If it isn't broke, don't fix it. Let's call it a church. Call it what it is, it's a church.
I've got a lot more in this sermon and I'm out of time, so let's just kind of clo ... I'll just bring up one more. I wanted to go into a whole point on the tongue-talking and I had all these Bible verses about people throwing themselves on the ground and foaming and rolling around and how they were all demon-possessed. Now we don't want to bring in those kind of unclean spirits and familiar spirits into our church, right? By just saying, oh we're non-denominational, seeker-sensitive.
If we say we're seeker-sensitive, some guy is going to come in with a turban and think it's Sikh. It's a Sikh church. No, we said seeker, but they say, no, no it's seeker-sensitive. We're not sensitive here. I've been called a lot of things. Sensitive is not one of them.
Congregation:
Right.
Pastor Anderson:
The point is we don't want to bring in the tongue-talkers because we don't want to bring in demons.
Congregation:
Right.
Pastor Anderson:
Now, again, when the Bible talks about tongues, it's talking about foreign languages. I'm all for speaking German, Spanish, French, Russian, Italian. I'm for it. What I'm not for is people having epileptic fits and calling it a gift of the Holy Spirit. That's what I'm against.
Congregation:
Right.
Pastor Anderson:
That's no offense to anyone with epilepsy. I know that is a legitimate disorder. If you would, go to 2 Corinthians and we can close with this. If you think about some of the names of the churches of guys that I've trained to pastor, because our church is called Faithful Word Baptist. Then Brother Dave Berzins' church is called Word of Truth Baptist Church. Again you can kind of see what he's getting at there, the Word of Truth.
You've heard of the Truth Movement, right? He's someone who cares about the truth, not preaching what people want to hear, but what is the truth. Not tradition, truth. What is right. Look at Verity Baptist, Pastor Roger Jimenez, what's verity mean? Truth. It's synonymous with truth.
Okay, look at Brother Romero's church's name, Stedfast Baptist. What's that tell you? That he's not tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. I mean no wishy-washy person is going to call their church Stedfast Baptist. I mean when you hear Stedfast Baptist, that kind of gives you an incline of not only are they Baptist, but actually this is probably a church that stands on something. It's a good name.
Whereas you see a church called Sovereign Grace Baptist Church and you immediately know that they're going to be Calvinists. Why, because of the name. Names tell us a lot. I mean what if you meet a guy and he says, "My name is Mohammed Ahmed." What religion do you think he is? Right?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
What if a guy comes to you and says, "My name is Shlomo Goldstein." You know okay, he's Jewish, right? Let's say somebody comes up to you and they're like, "Let me introduce you to my children. Their names are Peter, James, John, Andrew." You're like this person is probably a Christian because they're using all these Bible names. Or here are my children Noah, Moses, Uriah, and Jonah. Immediately you think to yourself this person is a Christian.
Congregation:
Right.
Pastor Anderson:
Because names tell us things about ... I'm not saying you have to use Bible names for your kids, but just don't name them Moon Unit or something like that. I'm saying names do tell us something about you, about the church, et cetera. Let's just close on this last thought.
Let's close where we started 2 Corinthians 6:14, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." I don't want to be united and lumped in with people that aren't saved, why? "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial?"
You know what? Familiar spirits, unclean spirits, we don't want to bring them in, okay? That's what a lot of this demonic activity is in the Todd Bentley circles and that whole thing, Benny Hinn and all that. "16 What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."
The whole message boils down to this. We're not here to please men. We're here to please God. We're not here to be conformed to this world. We're here to be transformed.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
We're not going to sit there and just have a generic name for our church, Church at Tempe, Christian Church because we just want to bring everybody in and make them happy. No, we're telling people, this is who we are. You can come here and get on our program or you can go somewhere else. You don't come in here and tell us what kind of music you want, tell us what kind of preaching you want, and tell us which Bible you want.
I mean look, literally these megachurch pastors, of the Rick Warren and the Bill Hybels, they send out questionnaires before they start the church. They literally teach their people send out a questionnaire, what kind of music do you want? What do you want the sermons to be about? What do you want? They send it out and they give people what they want. No, no, it ought to be this is our church. This is who we are. We are Faithful Word Baptist Church, like it or lump it.
Congregation:
Right, yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
We're here to get you on our program, not for you to come in here and say, "Well, here's what I want. Give it to me and I'll pay for the show." Your money perish with you. Our church is going to be what God wants us to be and we're here to please one person and that's God.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
We're not here to just give people whatever they want and just bring in a crowd. Look, I want our church to go, who likes the fact that our church is growing? Say amen if you like the fact.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
Our church is booming. Our church is growing. We've been running over two hundred on Sunday mornings every week. We grew by like fifty people last year. We've been through ... I think that's great, but you know what? That is not the most important thing. The most important thing is having integrity.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
I want to grow this church where if the Lord would bless it and build it to a thousand people, great. Let's have a thousand people in our church. Let's have two thousand. Let's have five thousand, but never at the expense of integrity. If integrity means we never hit those numbers, so be it. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
If God willeth and we can grow and get huge, great. See, the non-denominational movement is a get huge at all costs.
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
Get huge by bringing in people that believe nothing like you. You know what I like about this church? Is that it's not just two hundred people, it's two hundred people that love the Lord.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
I mean that's it, right. We're two hundred. I mean we can walk into a grocery store and find two hundred people, that's so great we're in a room with two hundred people. It feels so good. Hey go to a rock concert you be with thousands of people and what do you have in common, a rock band. Here, we have a lot in common.
Bible doctrine, salvation through faith, eternal security of the believer, a love for soul-winning, right, King James Bible. We have a lot in common. That's the whole thing that makes this church great. The camaraderie, the fellowship, the unity within our church.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much, Lord, for our church. What a blessing it is, Lord, to have a church like this to go to every week. We're thankful for the great friends that we have here and the loved ones that are with us.
Lord, I just pray that you'd help people not to be sucked in by this non-denominational movement, and to think unity means we ignore the doctrines and just all hold hands. When in reality, Lord, the unity we need is where we all get around the truth. Where we get unity because we all have a King James, we all do soul-winning, we all love you, and we all are fundamentalists, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Congregation:
Amen.
Pastor Anderson:
All right, speaking of growth, we broke the record. How many people do we have?
Congregation:
Two twenty-one.
Pastor Anderson:
Two twenty-one people are here this morning, two hundred and twenty-one people. How many did we have the old record?
Congregation:
Two seventeen.
Pastor Anderson:
Two seventeen was the old record. We just smashed it with two hundred and twenty-one, so that means that we have ice cream for everybody after the service. Every time we break the record, we have ice cream afterwards. I believe we're having a baptism after the service also. Is that right?
Congregation:
Yeah.
Pastor Anderson:
If anybody is here this morning and you're saved but you've not been baptized or you got this kind of a baptism, then be sure that you stick around. See me right after the service and tell me if you'd like to be baptized, because we will have everything set up. We have change of clothing and everything. Let's sing our next song.
