Title of my sermon this morning is Too Little Too Late or another title for this sermon could be A Day Late and A Dollar Short. Now, beginning in Proverbs 1:23 the bible reads, "Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh," and of course, this is the Lord that is speaking.
"When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil."
This scripture is a perfect example in the bible of people who when they get into distress and when their fear comes upon them, they turn to the Lord somewhat, but it's too little too late. These people are people for whom it was clearly too late because it said in verse number 28, "Then shall they call upon me," after they've already hated knowledge, after they've already rejected the truth, rejected the Lord. They didn't want any of his counsel. They wanted nothing to do with him. "Then they shall call upon me, but I'll not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord."
Now, let me just make it really clear here what this scripture is not saying. This scripture is not saying that a person could believe on Jesus Christ and he would not save them because anyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved, and there are no exceptions to that. The bible says that, "Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life," and not only that, but it says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," but we have to get that in the context of what comes right before and right after.
It says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?" Right before that it said, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
When the bible says here, "They'll call upon me, but I'll refuse them. I won't answer. I will not be found of them." This is not saying that a person could believe on Jesus Christ and not be saved. What this is saying is the people who sometimes cry out to the Lord or cry out to God and it's too late for that person, but it doesn't say that that person believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. See, that's the difference.
There are a lot of people who are just, "O God, save me." I think a perfect example to differentiate these two things is with Prince. Everybody heard about Prince? Who heard about Prince dying a week ago? I was walking through the airport and I saw his effeminate face looking at me from every magazine rack, "Oh, Prince has died," and so forth. The interesting thing about Prince is that if you look at his life, he lived a very wicked and ungodly life. I mean, he was a major fornicator, completely godless, completely blasphemist, just living probably one of the most wicked lives that you could live, and he was known just for his flamboyancy, his cross-dressing, his wickedness.
At the same time, he claimed not to be a homosexual, but I mean, good knight. He was everything short of that if you're going to take his word for that. Here's what's interesting. Prince got to a point in his life where he realized that he had destroyed his life, where he realized that the wickedness of his lifestyle had caught up with him when he realized that he had HIV. He realized that all of the fun and the partying and the women, what the world shows you as being so fun and exciting, that it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Even though he had all the millions and millions of dollars and the fame and the women and the fans, he realized the vanity and emptiness of a life that's not spent serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore in his heart, he repented of his wicked lifestyle to an extent and said, "You know what? I've been a fool. I've lived my life the wrong way, and now I want to seek after the Lord." The question is when he sought after the Lord, did he find the Lord? The answer is no, he did not. I think he's a great example of Proverbs 1 because when he said, "Well, I need to seek out the Lord. I need to seek out the bible. I need to seek out Jesus." He had right there next to him, a friend of his in the music industry that was a Jehovah's Witness. This friend stepped right in and said, "Oh, you want to seek the Lord, huh? You want to seek the bible? Here, let me help you. Let me take you under my wing." Prince was indoctrinated into the cult known as Jehovah's Witnesses, the watchtower cult.
That is why Prince is in hell today. Prince is not in hell today because he was effeminate and sissy. He's not in hell today just because he's a fornicator. Hey, the real reason that he ended up in hell is because he never put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and now he is being punished for being a fornicator. He is being punished for being a cross-dresser and a weirdo and wicked. The reason that he went there is because he did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. Even when he sought the Lord, I think the Lord just looked down and said, "You know what? You didn't want anything to do with me. You rejected me for so long. You hated me. You just spit everything that I was against." I think it was just a point where God said, "You know what? I'm going to allow you this delusion of the Jehovah's Witnesses religion."
You know what? You have to be delusional to be a Jehovah's Witness. I mean, it's really a ridiculous religion. I mean, I thought I had a Greek New Testament in the pulpit here. I would like to just set a Greek New Testament on the pulpit right here and ask somebody to show me the word Jehovah in it. No, it's not in the English New Testament either, right? I mean, you can go through the English New Testament and you can look all day long. You're never going to find the word Jehovah.
He said, "Well, you've translated it wrong. You need to get the New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses?" First thing, we can get out of Greek New Testament. We could put it up here in the original Greek and I want somebody to show me the word Jehovah in the New Testament, but they claimed, "Well, that's the only name of God." Well then why is it never found even once in our New Testament? Why didn't Matthew use it? Why didn't Mark use it? Why didn't Luke use it? Why didn't John use it?
You have to be delusional. You have to be deceived. You have to be blinded by the God of this world in order to fall for these type of lies. Look, God in his wisdom, God in his providence could have allowed some evangelical Christian to be at hand in Prince's life when he finally decided to repent of his wickedness, but instead he allowed him to be deluded and to go down this Jehovah's Witness path. You know what? The change in Prince's life beside the fact that he never received Jesus Christ as savior and he got inducted into a cult, the change in his life was too little too late because he still looked way too effeminate even after the change. He still looked like a total homo, okay?
Anyway, the point being that we need to understand that God gets fed up with people, and God gets to a point with people where he says, "Hey, it's too late." I mean, can you imagine Prince coming to your door and saying that he wants to study the bible with you? Because you know that Prince actually went door-knocking as a Jehovah's Witness. You have. I mean, to be a Jehovah's Witness, you have to go door-knocking. I mean, can you imagine Prince coming to your door and say, "Hey, I'm a bible student. I want to have a bible study with you." "No. No thanks, buddy."
Anyway, what does the bible say in Proverbs 29? Flip over to Proverbs 29, and then we're going to go to Hebrews 12. We're going to do a lot of Proverbs this morning, but let's do Proverbs 29 while where there. The bible reads in verse 1, "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." God gives people multiple chances to be saved. God gives Christians multiple chances after they're saved to come back to him when they're backsliding.
God is constantly giving people another chance and reaching out to people. He sent Israel prophet after prophet after prophet giving them another chance, another chance. Last of all, he sent unto them his son to give them another chance. Look, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God is long suffering. God is patient and merciful, but God's patience has an end. His long suffering comes to an end. He is not the God of infinite chances.
The bible says, "Then shall they call upon me, but I'll not answer. Why? Because they hated knowledge, they hated me, they hated reproof, they despise my word? They'll call upon me and I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." The bible says, "Seek, and everyone that seek could find me." Yeah, if you seek him, you'll find him, but the bible says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found."
It comes a point where it gets too late. We want to put things, people that are not saved, they want to put it off, "Well, I'll think about that later. I don't really know what I believe right now. I'm just an agnostic right now. I'm just going to salvation off." You know what? You keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. Eventually, it could become too late for you if you're not saved.
Then Christians who are saved, they say, "You know, I'm going to live for God someday, but first I want to live a sinful life, first I want to sow my wild oats." God might just decide that he's had enough of your sinful life, and he might just cause something bad to happen to you, something serious, something without remedy. "He, that being often reproved," reproved means told that they're doing wrong, "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck," and just stubbornly resist, "shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."
I don't want my life to be destroyed in such a way where there's no remedy, there's no way to fix it, there's no way to pick up the pieces. I would hate to be, and obviously, an unsaved person who dies without Christ, there's no way to fix that. It's too late now, too little too late.
Not only that, go to Hebrews 12. First of all, from Proverbs 1, we looked at it being too little too late by unsaved, wicked people who all of a sudden realized, "Oh, wow! I'm being destroyed. I'm desolate. I'm a failure. Now I'm going to turn to the Lord." It might just be too late for those people. Now, sometimes we're even amazed by God's mercy. For example in the story of Manasseh, I mean, Manasseh was a really wicked guy, but yet, he sought the Lord and the Lord was found of him later in life. That's a pretty extreme example in the bible.
Then we see other examples in the bible where it's too late like in Proverbs 1. We don't want to push God, and I'm talking to the unsaved this morning. Don't push it with God. You better seek the Lord in your youth. You better get saved now if you're not saved. I know that 90 some percent of the people that are here this morning are saved, but honestly, I know that there are also probably unsaved people here this morning.
Just simply because of the fact that they came along with a friend or they were just brought by a spouse or brought by their parents, and they do not in their heart believe on the Lord Jesus Christ their savior. They do not believe the word of God this morning. My message to you if that's you and I don't do this very often because the vast majority of people are saved, but my message to you this morning is that you need to get saved before it is eternally too late.
You could die today, you could die tomorrow or you could be sent a strong delusion where God eventually just gets sick of you listening to sermon after sermon after sermon, and gets sick of you rejecting his word, rejecting his word, rejecting his word. He might just get to the point where he gives you over to a reprobate mind, where he would darken your eyes and harden your heart, and it would be too late for you. What a shame. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Don't let it be too late if you're unsaved.
Secondly, don't let it be too late if you're backsliding. If you're a Christian, if you're saved and you're on your way to heaven, of course, nothing can take away your salvation from you, but your life can be a wreck. Your life can be destroyed without remedy.
Look at Hebrews 12:16, "Lest there be any fornicator," and a fornicator is one who goes to bed with someone that they're not married to, "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."
Here's a guy who realizes that he made a mistake and he cries, and he's sorry, but it didn't really change the fact that irreparable damage had been done to his life. You couldn't go back in time and fix it at that point. God says when you're a fornicator, you do that kind of damage to your life, that you can't go back and fix. That's a warning to the backsliding. Don't let it be too late for you.
Now, if you would go to 1 Samuel 2, not only did we see in Proverbs 1 too little too late by the unsaved, too little too late by those who rejected the word of the Lord. Number two, we saw too little too late by the backsliding where they want to turn back to the Lord after they've already irreparably damaged their life. Number three, it's often too little too late by parents of children, by parents of children. Children often get to a point where the parents can't get them under control anymore, and then the parents try to make some last-ditch effort, but it's too little too late.
1 Samuel 2, while you're turning there, I'll read for you Proverbs 13:24. Listen to this, "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Now, what does betimes mean? A lot of people don't understand that they think it means, "Oh, from time-to-time," but if you study the word betimes in the bible and if you look it up in the dictionary, you'll see that betimes just simply means early. It's just an old word for early. That's all it means. Betimes, early.
Right here, it's saying that if you love your children, you will chasten them early. If you spare your rod, you hate your son, but if you love him, you'll chasten him betimes or early.
Then in Proverbs 19:18 it says, "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." That implies that there's going to come a point where there is no hope. You got to chasten him while there is hope, "and let not thy soul spare for his crying." You're going to spank him, "Oh, it just breaks my heart when he's crying." He's going to break your heart when he grows up and turns away from the Lord and lives a wicked life. You need to fix it now. Nip it in the bud now while you can, while there's hope.
1 Samuel 2:22 says, "Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." I mean, these guys are fornicating with those in the church. It says in verse 23, "He said unto them, 'Why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons,'" No, no. "'Nay, my son, for it is no good report,'" Oh, it's not a good report that I hear. "'Ye make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him?' Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them."
Now, look. Eli here is doing too little too late. It's too late. I mean, they're already grown men, they're grown adults. Eli is very old at this point. Then all of a sudden he says, "Whoa! Kids, what are you doing? Nay, my sons." He doesn't stop them. He's rebuked later by the man of God for restraining them not. It's not enough just to say, "Nay, my sons." He's supposed to restrain them, put a stop to it, do something.
Eli is doing too little too late. Listen to me. I feel like today in 2016, Christians when they read the bible, they willfully ignore certain things in the bible. They don't want to hear them. They block them out, and I wonder if when we just read this, some Christians that the end of verse 25 just went right over their head because they just want to hear no evil, see no evil, and want to just think that everything is sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.
Listen to me, the bible is the final authority on everything that we believe. If we want to know who God is, we need to look in the bible. We want to know how he feels about things, we need to read it in the bible. The bible says here that God wanted to kill these two boys. That's what it says. It says, "Notwithstanding," and I want to park it here because I don't want this to just go over anybody's head, just slip by. No, let's just park the car right here for a minute. Let's roll down the windows, and let's just get the air, get the scene here. Let's understand the word of God this morning. Let's not just blow through it. Let's just park here for a minute.
"They hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them." Now "would" there, don't misunderstand the language of the King James Bible, it means he wanted to like where he said in Proverbs 1, "They would none of my counsel," meaning they didn't want any of my counsels. The past tense of wanted is would in the bible because I will means I want, like God says, "I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house." Would is the past tense of that will meaning I want to.
It says here, "They hearkened not unto the voice of their father," why not? "because the Lord would slay them." That means that the Lord stepped in and hardened their hearts like he hardened Pharaoh's heart to make sure that they would not hearken because he wanted them dead. He didn't want them to fix it at this point because it was too little too late, and he was sick of them, and he wanted them dead because God gets to a point. Yes, he's merciful. Yes, he's loving. Yes, he's forgiving. Yes, he's the God of the second chance, but he's not necessarily going to be the God of the 10th chance. It says in plain English here, "The Lord would slay them." That's why they didn't hearkened unto the voice of their father.
Now, this isn't some Calvinist junk. People try to accuse you being a Calvinist when you point at what the bible says. Look, I don't believe that it was God's will that these boys be killed. He would have rather that they repented, but when they pushed it too far, it got to a point where it's too late for that.
It's not that God just foreordained these boys to be doomed and damned. That's what Calvinism teaches. Calvinism teaches that we don't have freewill, and that God chose these guys to just be doomed and damned, and there's nothing they could do about it. No. These boys had freewill and they abused that freewill, and abused it and abused it and abused it and abused it and abused it. Then God said, "Okay. Now, you don't have the choice anymore. Now, I'm taking away the choice from you. Now, you're just going to die now. Your place of repentance is over." I don't think that that's too hard to understand.
I think that some people who don't understand that might just be that they just don't want to understand that because it's really not that complicated that we all have freewill, we all have the chance to be saved, but that people could eventually lose their chance to be saved. It would be like this, it will be like if there is a young lady and a man asked her to marry him, and she says, "No." That's her choice to say no. I mean, I believe that women should have the right to marry whomsoever they will only in the Lord.
He asked her to marry him, she says, "No." He asked her again, she says, "No." He asked her again, she says, "No." What do you think that guy is eventually going to feel? I mean, think about it. Eventually, he's going to feel pretty rejected. He's going to get upset, and he's going to feel like, "Wow! This is embarrassing. This is humiliating." You know what he's eventually going to do? He's going to stop asking.
He might even get to the point where he gets angry or upset that he's constantly being rejected to the point where he actually even if she came back and said, "Hey, I changed my mind. Now I want to marry you," he's going to say, "No, it's too late now. The door already closed on that. That ship has already sailed." Do you see what I'm saying? "I've already moved on to somebody else now because I got tired of you saying no, so I went and asked this other girl and she said yes. Too late for you now."
Now you say, "Well, yeah, but you know, she has every right to make that decision." Right, but when God's asking, you better say yes. Since he's the creator, since he's the God of the universe, when he comes to you and invites you to be a spouse unto Christ, when he invites you to be his son, and when he invites you into his family, you better say yes. He'll ask you a second time because he's merciful. He'll come to you a third time because he's gracious and long suffering. Eventually, he'll get to a point where he'll say, "Well, no. I'm done with you. You rejected me too many times," Prince or whoever. You know what I mean? "You pushed it too far."
This is the word of God, my friend. It gets too late. "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." Fourthly this, too little too late by Christians who want to try to bring our nation back to God or let me say this, not even trying to bring our nation back to God, how about this? Trying to bring our nation back to sanity. Just trying to live in a normal nation, just trying to live in a nation where we could raise our families and in some halfway degree of normalcy. Christians are doing too little too late to fix things in America today.
I think a perfect, and if you would flip over to Isaiah 55, Isaiah 55 is a great scripture on it being too late. Look, what I'm going to say in the next few minutes is going to offend people. I'm telling you right now, but honestly, I feel and I know that I'm 100% justified on what I'm about to say and what I'm about to preach because the bible is crystal clear on the subject that I'm going to go into and I'm not making any apology for what I'm about to say. You know what? If it offends you, well, you're probably the person that needs to hear it the most this morning.
The bible say in Isaiah 55:6, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." I just wanted to read that because it has to do with the sermon in general. I really want to focus in on verses eight and nine.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." You see, Christians often have their way of doing things, and their way of saying things, and their way of preaching things, and it's a lot different than God's way of doing thing. You say, "Well, how do we know what God's thoughts are? How do we know what his ways are?" Because the bible says that if we have the word of God, we have the mind of Christ.
If you want to look into the mind of Christ, all you have to do is look within the pages of the word of God. His way is always right, and often Christians, they have their way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Now, yesterday, a very famous, well-known preacher, and not only is this guy a famous, well-known preacher, but he has all kinds of pastors all over America following him amongst Independent Fundamental Baptist. His name is Paul Chappell. He posted a blog post yesterday, "When Christians Do Nothing (About Target)" The title of this blog post is When Christians Do Nothing (About Target).
Well, I'm going to write my own little blog post, and I'm going to call it When Christians Do Nothing (About Paul Chappell). Now, you hear me out before you get upset. Just listen. I'm going to read this blog post that is too little too late. Listen to this, and I'm going to read every word of it. I'm not going to give it to you out of context or anything. Here is his blog post from yesterday.
"I don't believe the response to every social evil is a boycott, but when a company publicly and forcefully comes out on the wrong side of a moral issue, I don't believe the correct response is to do nothing either. Especially in America where we have freedom in our choices, whether they be at the voting polls or where we spend our money make a difference. By now, you've heard of Target's decision to open their gender-specific restrooms and fitting rooms to the opposite gender. The state of reason for this is to be inclusive towards transgender individuals, but consider that transgender population makes up 0.03% of the American population, I would submit that their reasoning has more to do with tolerance being in vogue in America today. Regardless of the reason however, the result is that my granddaughter can be in the restroom at Target and have some guy walk in and that's not okay with me."
Now, I'm going to continue reading, but let me just stop and analyze this for a moment. First of all, he says, "Hey, I don't believe in a boycott every time there's a social evil, but man, when a company comes out and just publicly and forcefully comes out on the wrong side of a moral issue, I don't believe the correct response is to do nothing either." Well, let me ask you this Paul Chappell, what verse in the bible states that men can't go in the women's restroom and women can't go in the men's restroom? I would like you to show me that in the bible, Paul Chappell.
Show me that verse in the bible, Paul Chappell, because you're telling me, "I mean, this is just so clearly and morally wrong." Okay, then show it to me in the bible. I'll show you in the bible where homosexuals are supposed to be put to death. That's what the bible says. He doesn't preach that. Somebody show me where he preaches. Go to Leviticus 20:13 where the bible says they should be executed. Go to Leviticus 20:13. This is reiterated in the New Testament in Romans 1 when it says that they that do such things are worthy of death. This is reiterated in 2 Peter 2 when he talks about God sending fire and brimstone to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah as an ensample to those that afterwards should live ungodly.
In Leviticus 20:13 it says, "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." Where does that say anything about the bathroom that they use. They're supposed to use the bathroom in hell. That's where the bathroom is that they use. "Oh, I don't like this kind of ..." Get out of here then because I'm preaching the bible. You want me ... If I got up and started just preaching about, "Yeah, we need to fight against Target, and Target is ruining America because they're letting that pervert go into the ladies' room," I'd get Amens and everybody's happy, but then you start preaching the bible and everybody gets uncomfortable.
There are all kinds of little weakling pastors all across America today doing too little too late, "Well, I'm going to draw the line in the sand. I'm going to take a stand against Target." Well, I'm going to take a stand against Paul Chappell and I'm going to tell you why. Wait. Oh, wait for it. It's coming. It's worse. It's much worse than you think. I'm going to show you where Paul Chappell is doing something way worse than Target ever thought of doing.
Now, let me analyze this. "When a company publicly and forcefully comes out on the wrong side of a moral issue," that he can't show us a single verse about in the bible, "I don't believe the correct response is to do nothing either, especially in America where we have freedom, and our choices whether they be at the voting polls or where we spend our money make a difference."
This guy thinks that voting makes a difference. Let me just stop and point out the stupidity there. He thinks that the republicans are actually against transgender and homos. What in the world? Are you nuts? Where have you been living, Paul Chappell? Because George W. Bush hired more Sodomites to his staff than any president in the history of our country, including Bill Clinton. All of these republican candidates say that they'll hire Sodomites. Hello! Is anybody home? The democrats are the same thing. They're all pro-Sodomy. They're all pro, oh, but they're against the bathroom thing. Oh, but they're against the marriage thing.
Yeah, but do any of them stand for anything the bible actually mentions? Voting polls, where we could really make a difference. Yeah, you know what? This November, oh yeah, you can really make a difference at the voting polls with the choices that are being offered, right? It's going to be great. I'll skip it.
It says here in verse, or not verse, good night, in the fourth paragraph, and I'm not skipping anything, I read it all to you, and I'm going to read it all to you, "Regardless of the reason however, the result is that my granddaughter can be in the restroom at Target and have some guy walk in and that's not okay with me." Here's what is okay with Paul Chappell. Apparently, he's okay with his grandson being in the men's room at Target and having some filthy pedophile go in there.
Stop and think about this. He's saying, "Well, I don't want some filthy pervert walking in on my granddaughter in the bathroom." Well, what about your grandson, Paul Chappell, because there's more boys that are molested than girls by these freaks anyway. Hello? Is anybody just thinking about this? See, you can't have these people around because they're perverts, they're pedophiles.
That's why the bible said, "Stone them with stones." That's why the bible teaches, and I'm not saying we should be vigilantes. I'm saying the scripture teaches that the government should execute these people. Why don't we teach the bible on this? "No. Well, my granddaughter ..." but what about your grandson? See how dumb this is? It doesn't even make sense. Let's keep going.
"I know there are some people who say, 'Fine, then let's use the single-stall family restroom,' but the point is that there's a men's and a women's restroom for a reason. The single extra stall restroom in stores that have it and not all do is supposed to be for people with an exceptional situation, not the norm. Yet Target's new policy is treating normalcy as abnormal, and it's putting people, women and children in particular, in a place of compromised safety. In addition, I'm not only concerned about the safety of those in my family, but I care about decency and protection for women and children in general, especially in public places where they should expect it, except male children."
Here's the thing. What if some filthy lesbian goes into the women's restroom? Your daughter is still in the presence of a pervert. What if some filthy Sodomite goes into the men's room? Now, look. Obviously, I believe that men should use the men's room and women should use the women's room. Did I really need to tell you that that's what I believe? My point is that this is where they're going to draw the line now. They let these people march up and down the street, they let them in their church, they welcome them to the church. They say, "Oh, we love them. We want to tolerate them. Everything's fine, but just don't go in the wrong bathroom though." It's too late. Too little too late, buddy.
"I know that our culture is shifting as it willfully turns its back on God, and as I wrote in a recent book, I know that the big-picture response of Christians is to lovingly hold to the truth while living a consistent testimony, praying for revival, and sharing the gospel, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also respond otherwise. That doesn’t mean we should roll over and do nothing when a company, in this case Target, makes a public statement of a policy that flies in the face of Christianity, not to mention common sense."
Now, listen. I'm going to show you in a moment a company that makes a statement about its policy that flies in the face of Christianity and common sense. That company is called Lancaster Baptist Church. I'm going to get there in a moment because they're allowing even weirder people into the restroom than Target is. I'm going to show it to you in black and white. Hang in there.
"I don’t think we should lash out in anger." Of course you don't, Paul Chappell. Of course you don't think we should lash out in anger because you're so soft and watered-down that you would never lash out against sin and anger. You would never call out these filthy perverts. "Well, I don't think we should lash out in anger, but we should be decisive, and we should be willing to do something," and he emphasize something like, "I mean, we got to do something."
No, why don't we do the right thing which is to not tolerate homosexuality at all, to not allow it in our churches, to not allow it in our family, to have no, if we have an extended family member that's a homo, they should be ostracized, we should have nothing to do with them, get them away from our children. Our government should be putting them to death. We should have nothing to do with these filthy people. "They should be put to death," the bible says.
"We got to do something. One organization, the American Family Association, has already collected over a million signatures on their pledge to boycott Target." That's why Paul Chappell is ready to take a stand now. When he's got a million people behind him, he has the guts to take a stand on an issue when a million people have gotten on board. He's ready to be a million and one. Why don't you stand alone, Paul Chappell? Why don't you stand alone and say, "No homos are allowed in my church." Why don't you stand alone and say, "They shall surely be put to death according to God's word," but no. He'll stand when there's a million people behind him, when he can hide behind a million people.
You say, "Well, you're being too hard on Paul Chappell," that's because you haven't heard what I'm going to read to you from his website yet. Don't judge a thing before you've heard it. Wait until you hear what his public. It's worse than Target. Target didn't even bring up bestiality. Paul Chappell did. We'll get there.
"On the same page, they also provide several news articles of how sexual predators exploit policies like Target’s." Yeah, they also exploit policies like those of Lancaster Baptist Church, but I'm getting ahead of myself. "Personally," listen to this. This is his hardcore stand. "Personally, I’m not shopping at Target anymore, and I encourage others to make that decision as well." Here's the next sentence and I kid you not.
"Now, I can’t say there will never be a day in my life when I go into a Target." Okay? Now, hold on a second. "I'm not going to Target. Well, okay. Wait a minute, I might go there." He's not even saying ... Now, you might think to yourself, "Oh, well maybe he's not going to go there if they change their policy." No, no, that's not what he's saying. Let's read.
"Now, I can't say that there will never be a day in my life when I go into a Target. There may be a time in the not-too-distant future when there is no corporate entity that honors the posted gender of restrooms and fitting rooms and protects those inside, but I believe that day will come sooner if no one pushes back right now. So, in the foreseeable future, I’m shopping other places than Target."
Basically what he's saying is when Walmart does the same thing, then he's start going to Target again. That's what he just said. He didn't say, "Well, I think Target might back down." No. He said, "Well, I'm not saying I'm never going to go to Target, but I mean, we got to do something. We got to at least talk about not going to Target, right? I mean, we know they're all going to roll all over us anyway eventually, but I mean, maybe we can just, it will take a little longer."
"Additionally," oh man, he's taking a real bold step. Wait until you hear this next bold step. "Additionally, I’m writing a letter to the managers of our nearby Target stores. If you would like to write a letter as well, feel free to download and edit this one." It's right here. "Dear Target Manager, I'm writing to let you know that I'm deeply offended by the intolerance shown in Target's recent statement. I'm not offended by intolerance. I love intolerance." Hello? Is anybody out there? What's this tolerance?
Back in the '90s, my pastor who actually had hair on his legs and preached the bible, he preached a sermon called Tolerance" The Devil's Doctrine. It's a great sermon, by the way. "By inclusivity, by allowing people to use their restroom or fitting room of their choice, regardless of their biological gender, although Target had stated, 'This upholds inclusivity,' in reality, it's incredibly insensitive toward families raising children, and even toward women in general. Despite the shifts in culture, I do not want to put my daughters or those I love in a private place where any man, including a sexual predator could walk in."
He's saying, he doesn't want to put anyone he loves in a place, a restroom, where a predator could walk in. Okay. Well, why don't we ...? I'm sorry, I can't hold back anymore. Let's read from his statement of faith on his website. This is from the statement of faith of his company, Lancaster Baptist Church, Pastor Paul Chappell under human sexuality. Here's his statement of faith where he says that not only homos are allowed in the church, but those who practice bestiality are allowed in his church.
It is not allowed for any member of his staff to be disrespectful to anyone who practices bestiality or homosexuality. Nobody believes me but it's right here in black and white. Go to the website when you get home. Call me a liar, "Oh, how dare you attack Paul Chappell? Oh, he's a man of God." Hello, people? You're going to get mad at Target? This is a guy who's claiming to run a church. Target is a church. This is a church, and they're saying, "Well, not only are we bringing in the trannies, we're bringing in those who practice bestiality and homos."
Are you still in Leviticus 20? Look down at your bible, just in case you don't know what bestiality is. Verse 14 or on verse 15, "And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
Now, look. You say, "Well, you shouldn't talk about this," but it's the word of God. It's what the bible says. Now, listen. Here's Paul Chappell statement of faith and yes, it says what I just told you it says. Listen carefully, and this is written in a legal document style fashion. This is not just an off-the-cuff statement. This is written with a lot of thought behind it. Lawyers have thought about this, and put this together, and they're expressing exactly what they want to express, and I'm going to read for you in toto.
Human sexuality. Number one, they have three points, and then they have four points of how this practically applies to the church. Here are the three philosophical points. Number one, "We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of marriage between a man and a woman." Amen. "We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography are sinful perversions of God's gift of sex." Amen. "We believe that God disapproves of and forbids any attempt to alter one's gender by surgery or appearance." Amen.
Number two, "We believe that the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman." Amen. Number three, "In keeping with our beliefs regarding human sexuality as expressed in this statement of faith, and in keeping with our purpose as expressed in section 1.02, we have the following practical policies." Now, here are the four practical policies in regard to what we just read above. Point one, "All people are welcome to attend our regular worship services." He's basically saying that pedophiles, bestiality practicers, homos, lesbians, they're all welcome in the service. Where are they going to use the bathroom? With your grandson, with your granddaughter, and you're worried about Target.
If you go to Lancaster Baptist Church, you better watch out for that public restroom because they're inviting in the homos, they're inviting in the pedophiles, they're inviting in those who practice even bestiality. Listen. Number two, "Those who attend may not display behavior that is indicative of the sinful behaviors listed in K1 of this section in church services, at church functions and on church events."
He's saying, the homos, the pedophiles, the beastophiles, they're all allowed to come but they just can't wear a shirt that says like, "I'm a pedophile," or they can't talk about, "Hey, we're pedophiles. Hey, we ..." They're not supposed to outwardly show that, talking about it, wearing it, whatever.
Listen to number three. This is the one that just blew my mind. Number three, "Church representatives are not to display overt disrespect for those who are involved in the sinful behaviors listed in K1 of this section." No representative of Lancaster Baptist Church may be disrespectful to pedophile, may be disrespectful to someone who says, "Hey, I practice bestiality." "Whoa! That's gross. You're a freak." "Whoa! You just violated this policy." "You're an abomination." "No, you got to respect." "Well, you know what? We're glad you're here, and the restroom is right over there. As soon as my grandson's done, you can go in there and use it."
Hold on a second. Paul Chappell, he said, "When Christians do nothing about Target," he said right here, he said that, "The sexual predators will exploit policies like Target's." He said, "I don't want some dude walking in when my granddaughter in the restroom at Target." Well, what about your grandkids at your church, and isn't that a ... Isn't a policy of welcoming in all filthy Sodomites? Look, I just talked to a guy, and you think I'm just, "Well, it's just some statement of faith." No, they thought about that. They put that together.
Now, listen to this. I just talked to a guy who goes to an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church, and a couple of homos start coming to the church every Sunday morning. Sunday school and church, a couple of homos, okay? One of them was like the female of the relationship but they were both a couple of open Sodomites. Everybody knew they were homos. It was crystal clear, they're homos.
This guy went to his pastor and said, "These people need to be thrown out of the church. We can't have homos in our church." "No, no, no. Everybody's welcome. It's right here in black and white in our statement of faith." Week after week, this guy is just so mad like, "Why is our pastor letting these homos come to our church? Open Sodomites." Hey, then one of these homo dudes walks into the ladies' restroom, and the pastor said, "That's it. They're out of here." What is the difference? Are you nuts? What is the difference if that pedophile, that freak is in the bathroom with your little boy or little girl? It's stupid, it's ridiculous, it makes no sense, it's garbage, and this guy is who? Pastors you're looking today.
Look, just to prove it to you, I just took this whole statement of faith, this section, and I put it in quotation marks, I put it into Google, and I found eight other churches that have copied and pasted this exact word-for-word. Let alone the ones who paraphrased it. You say, "Well, why don't you just leave Paul Chappell alone and just let him do his own thing?" Yeah, but he has a leadership conference where he invites hundreds and hundreds of pastors and says, "Oh, come follow me. Be like me." I don't want to be like you, and I'm sick of people lifting this guy up as a role model.
Hey, when Christians do nothing about Paul Chappell, I'd be much more likely to go to Target than to go to Paul Chappell's church. At least Target didn't say, "Come on in, beastophiles." I don't even know if that's a word, but I'm sure we'll figure out real soon what the word is when it becomes accepted in America in a couple of years because of these lily-livered, weak, penny-waste, pulpit preachers, these weaklings, these pink tea and lemonade, sissified, girly men that can't get up and preach hard, and you say, "I don't like this. I don't want to hear you preach against Paul Chappell. He's our fellow brother in Christ. He's an Independent Fundamental Baptist."
You know what? If he's going to call out Target, I'm going to call him out for the hypocrite that he is. He's doing the same thing. He's bathroom is every bit as hazardous as the Target bathroom. Every bit is hazardous. It might even be more hazardous because at least at Target, people have heard, "Hey, watch out. Hey, beware," but people haven't heard that warning about Lancaster or about West Coast Baptist College. Well, I'm giving you the warning right now.
You say, "I don't like it." Look, go somewhere else if you don't like it. Go somewhere else. I don't need a bunch of homo-sympathizers in this church to make me feel like I'm a successful pastor. "Oh, look at the big crowd." "Ooh! Look at the big offering." Good, take your money and shove it. Take your little queer-loving, queer-bait butt out of here, and you go down to the little weak church down the street that loves Paul Chappell.
Paul Chappell like the fundamental pope where all these pastors in Arizona, they're all looking to Paul Chappell as their idol. Paul Chappell needs a swift kick in the pants and he needs to quit inviting pedophiles and bestiality practicers and homos into his church. Let me just say it again, see, I don't change with the times. Let me just say what I said a year and a half ago. No homos will ever be allowed in this church as long as I'm the pastor here. Never.
You know what? Come back in five years, it will be the same thing. I don't care if every bathroom starts having a picture of someone with pants and a dress on, and somebody who's both male and female or whatever. Look, I don't care, I mean, I don't care if they put a three-legged picture on the door of this is the bathroom for ... I don't know. I don't care what happens. The bible doesn't change, and I'm not going to change.
The bible talked about Asa, and Josaphat and people like that, they broke down the houses of the Sodomites that were next to the house of God. Now, we're supposed to bring them into the house of God. "Oh, man. I mean, just a clear violation of scripture with this bathroom thing." Of course, nobody can show us where that scripture is. I can show you where Leviticus 20:13 is.
I got to finish reading because I promised I would read all of it. Then point four, "The pastor of the church will preach consistently against all forms of sinful behavior as listed in K1 of this section, as well as other sinful behaviors." I want to know if he is consistently preaching against bestiality. He said that he would consistently preach against everything on the list. I would like somebody to send me the sermon, and in fact, he would have to send me a regular because he said, "I'll consistently preach against bestiality." Okay. Well, I would like somebody to send me the link to that sermon, sermons because I want to see a pattern, Paul Chappell.
He said, "I'm going to preach against the behavior, but don't you dare be disrespectful to these filthy perverts. Don't be disrespectful to them as you stone them with stones." What is this respect all views, include everybody? No, no. It's the devil's doctrine. That's the whole thing for you.
Look, let me just review for you. He listed the worst possible perversions, and then he said, "None of the staff are allowed to be disrespectful to these people, and they're all welcome to come to church." Look at it for yourself. I'll put it right here for you. You know what? The people that are mad right now, they won't even come up here and look at it. The people that are mad, they don't even have the guts to come up here and look at it. They're just going to go run out of this building with their tail between their legs. Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
Let me go back to the Target, the letter that we're supposed to write to Target because I said I'll read everything, so let me just finish quickly. "I'm aware that Target has suggested that those who feel this way use the single-stall restroom when available. I do not understand why when there's already a single-stall for those who for whatever reason are not comfortable using the gender-specific restroom. Target doesn't simply encourage them to use the single-stall restroom." Say that 10 times fast. "Because of their concerns, because of these concerns, I will no longer be shopping at Target for a little while."
I skipped, I added there for a little while because remember in his other thing, he's like, "Well, I'm not saying I'm not going to shop there. I'll no longer be shopping at Target, and I'm asking you to consider the millions of customers who are offended and uncomfortable with Target's corporate stance on this issue. Respectfully ..." Why do you respect Target, Paul Chappell? What do you mean respectfully? Why do you respect ... You just finished telling us how bad they are, "But I respect them because I just respect everybody. I respect Charles Manson, I respect the pope, I respect pedophile, I respect ... I just respect everybody because I'm Mr. Politically Correct to disrespect every- ... Hey, I don't even know who you are, man, but I already respect you. Oh, you are a mass murderer, I respect you. You're a pedophile, I respect you too. If anybody on my staff disrespects you, they're in violation of section K 3.5."
Let me finish reading his firey blog post. "Additionally, I'm writing a letter to the managers of our nearby Target stores. If you'd like to write a letter as well, feel free to download and edit this one." No thanks. "Whatever you choose to do, could I encourage you, don't do nothing. I mean, just do something, but just don't do nothing. Don't assume you can't make a difference, and don't care about convenience more than speaking out. As Edmund Burke famously observed, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' So yes, be gracious, live a godly testimony, pray for revival, but consider boycotting and writing letters instead."
Can somebody show me the boycotting in the bible, the writing letters in the bible? Why don't you just do something? I mean, we know we don't want to do what the bible says like preaching Leviticus 20:13, preaching Romans 1 that they're reprobates, that they've been given over to vile affections, that they are haters of God, preaching about Sodom and Gomorrah, and how God still feels the same way, and how they should be executed, and how they're evil, how they're rapists, how they're pedophiles, but we could write a letter.
"All right, little boys and girls. Welcome to Lancaster Baptist Kindergarten. We're going to be handing out crayons, and we're all going to write a letter to Target today because we know that none of us are in our big boy pants to actually get up and preach a hell fire and damnation sermon, and actually lay it on the line. We don't have the guts to say what Pastor Anderson said because if we said what Pastor Anderson said that no homos are allowed, we'd be on the evening news. If we said what Pastor Anderson said, we would actually get persecution. We actually wouldn't have the police chief and the mayor come visit us every year, boys and girls, and we know that we want to bow down and worship at the feet of the police chief and the mayor and the city council and bring them into our church, so you knew the big shots in town, the big church where all the important people go. Let's pass out the crayons and we're going to pass out a piece of paper, and you're all going to write a letter to Target."
Why don't we all write a letter to Paul Chappell? Maybe I should put together a letter for Paul Chappell and say, "Here, you can download and edit mine about his bathroom policy." I want to sign on his bathroom door that says, "No homos allowed in this bathroom." I mean, he's so scared of having a homo in the bathroom. Look, I don't want a homo in the bathroom either.
These bathrooms are all certified homo-free. See, but down at Target, his granddaughter is unsafe. Well, what about your grandson? "He don't matter." That's why so many kids are getting molested in these Baptist churches. They're getting molested in these Christian churches because they don't preach them out the door like I do. You say, "Yeah, but you're going to preach some nice people out the door." Well, good. At least my kids aren't going to get molested because the freaks and weirdos can't handle this kind of preaching. Get out of here. You don't belong here, and you know who you are if I'm talking to you.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you so much for the warnings in your word, Lord. Help our lives never to be characterized by the slogan "Too little too late" or "A day late and a dollar short", Lord. Preachers like Paul Chappell who are leaders, he represents hundreds of Baptist pastors that are following him. I'm not just preaching against one man, Lord. I'm preaching against hundreds of men who are following this man.
Lord, they are a day late and a dollar short. I pray that you would help your people to wake up and put a stop to these things before it's too late, fight, stand before it's too late. Lord, if there's anybody who's here that's not saved, I pray that they would get saved before it's too late. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen.
