2 Kings 16: Ruining the House of God SEPTEMBER 20, 2026 Pastor Steven L. Anderson

Man's second king, chapter number 16, the Bible reads in verse number one in the seventh year of Pica, the son of Remeliah.

Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to raise.

Reign, 20 years old was Ahaz when he began to reign and reigned 16 years in Jerusalem

and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father,

but walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire.

According to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.

And so if you remember, there's just been several generations in Judah of just really kind of just lame kings.

They, they vaguely did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not like David their father, not with all their heart.

There's always a caveat and then toward the end of their lives, they all crashed and burned.

So there've been a lot of lame generations, but with Ahaz in the southern kingdom of Judah,

things just go all the way off the cliff now and he's just doing that which is wrong in the sight of the Lord.

And he's even to the point where he does a sacrifice of his child.

He'd be a human sacrifice, murdering a baby basically by making his son to pass through the fire.

According to the abomination of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.

So the people that lived in Canaan before the Israelites showed up were super wicked people,

super perverted in Leviticus chapter 18 and in Leviticus chapter 20.

Leviticus 18 · chapter mention Leviticus 20 · chapter mention

It lists all of these gross perversions and wicked things and you're like,

man, why is this stuff even being brought up?

But then it says at the end that the inhabitants of Canaan had done all of those things.

And that's why even the land itself was just vomiting them up because they were just so wicked.

And one of the things that they also engaged in was this process of like passing your children through the fire,

which is basically like a burnt sacrifice of humans.

And really, these two things are always going to go hand in hand.

Sexual promiscuity and murdering babies are always going to go hand in hand

because you kind of can't really have one without the other.

Okay, because it is promiscuity.

It is fornication.

It is adultery that causes people to have an attitude that says,

well, we got to abort these babies.

We got to have some emergency contraception.

We got to do this abortion.

And look, this is really not different than abortion.

Okay, killing a newborn baby and killing a baby in the womb.

You know, you're still murdering a human life just because maybe one of them

is a little bit less grotesque.

But really, that's just only because our society kind of puts the blinders on

to the grotesqueness of the one versus the other.

They're both wicked.

They're both an abomination in the sight of God.

They're both murder.

They're both evil.

And look, the devil and his crowd,

they're always trying to push things a little bit further anyway.

So if you say, well, let's just allow abortion during the first term, you know,

then it'll be like, well, why not the second term?

And then it's like, no, why not third term?

And then it's like literally partial birth abortion where the baby is half-born.

And I mean, this is something that has happened in the United States.

Democrat politicians just absolutely pushing for,

hey, we got to have partial birth abortion.

And then they'll have these pieces of legislation where

if the baby's accidentally born while they're trying to kill it,

they'll just kind of just set it to the side and just let it slowly die or whatever.

I know Obama had, you know, signed off on something like that

when he was the senator from Illinois.

And, you know, this is why these people are just so wicked and such evil trash

that they don't even have the most basic respect for human life

of just respecting the Bible's teaching on, thou shalt not kill.

And again, it's not married couples who are monogamous

that are driving the abortion industry.

Okay, it's being driven by whores and whoremongers.

Okay, that's what it comes down to.

It's gross, it's wicked, it's evil, it's an abomination in the sight of God

and it ought to be an abomination in our sight as well.

And let's face it, children are not always going to be convenient.

They're going to be a pain in the butt at times.

But you know what the Bible says,

in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children

and thy desire shall be to thy husband

and he shall rule over thee.

So guess what? That's life.

Okay, men go to work all day and they work by the sweat of their face

and women bring forth children in sorrow

and their husband rules over them.

This is the order of the world that we live in.

And so you can't just say,

well, no, I'm just going to just rebel against that.

I'm just going to murder my child.

Well, there's going to be hell to pay

because God is going to punish that kind of sin.

And innocent blood is not something that God just winks at or overlooks.

It's a serious, serious crime, sin and wickedness.

And the eyes of God.

So passing his child through the fire is, of course,

a major abomination and God's upset.

And it says in verse four,

he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places

and on the hills and under every green tree.

Verse five, then reason King of Syria

and Pika, son of Bromeliah, King of Israel

came up to Jerusalem to war

and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

So what we see here,

you have, of course, the northern kingdom of Israel

that again, they always have a bad king.

Southern kingdom sometimes has good kings,

sometimes has bad kings

and the southern kingdom is not called Israel.

The southern kingdom is called Judah, okay?

And so Judah in the southern kingdom,

now they have a wicked king.

God's bringing some judgment upon them.

So the northern king of Israel

teams up with the king of Syria

and attacks Jerusalem

but they were not able to totally overcome Ahaz

although they're besieging him.

But then it says in verse six

and this is a very key verse, verse six here, okay?

You wanna know where this is in your Bible.

This is an important verse, okay?

At that time, reason King of Syria

recovered Elath to Syria

and draped the Jews from Elath

and the Syrians came to Elath

and dwelt there under this day.

You say, well, you know,

that doesn't seem like a very important verse.

What is the significance here?

The significance here

is that this is the first time

that the word Jew is ever mentioned in the Bible

which is pretty significant

because the word Jews is gonna be used over and over again

dozens and dozens of times

all throughout Old Testament, New Testament.

Very important, significant word

but isn't it interesting that we've already read

our Bibles all the way up to this point

and there's no mention of Jews in Genesis,

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel

all the way up to this point of First and Second Kings

where we're already starting to wind down

with the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel

and we're getting toward even the end

of the Southern Kingdom of Judah

as far as under the monarchy period

and we're just now getting to the word Jews, right?

So the historical books are taking us,

you know, all the way from the creation

with Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,

Joshua picks up from there.

Historical books, you know, are almost over

because at the end of Second Kings

it's like, okay, after that it's pretty much chronologically

just, you know, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, stuff like that.

So why is this so important?

Why am I making a big deal about the fact

that this is the first time the word Jews is used

is because a lot of people will mistakenly think

that Israel and Jews are synonymous in the Bible

and here's a powerful proof that that's not true

because here it is Israel fighting against the Jews.

Israel is teamed up with Syria fighting the Jews.

That's the first time Jews are mentioned

is actually in opposition to Israel, okay?

And what these Bible teachers will do now

is come along and say, oh, the book of Revelation,

it talks about the Jews, this and the Jews, that

and you're like, wait a minute, bro,

I read the book of, it's like, oh, no, it's all about the Jews.

The end times is all about the Jews.

The pre-tribbers will tell you the tribulation is for the Jews,

not for us, it's for the Jews.

It's all about the Jews.

Then wouldn't it mention the Jews like somewhere

in the book of Revelation about that?

And what they'll point to is where the Bible mentions

the 144,000.

But here's the thing about the 144,000

is that it says that there are 12,000

from each of the 12 tribes of Israel,

but these pre-tribbers will just say, quote,

144,000 Jews.

The Bible does not say 144,000 Jews,

it says 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel

and then it even gets super specific.

12,000 from Reuben, 12,000 from Gad,

12,000 from Naftali, et cetera, et cetera.

Now that is a huge difference from the Jews

and here's why, because what does the word Jew mean?

The word Jew means someone from the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

And this is where the word Jew even comes from,

from Judah.

And so we have the Northern Kingdom of Israel

and the Southern Kingdom of Judah

and the people who live down here

in the Southern Kingdom of Judah

begin at some point to be known as Jews.

And then in the New Testament period,

this became a Roman province called Judea.

And then the Northern Kingdom of Israel

becomes a Roman province known as Samaria.

And so you have the province of, again, Judea.

And so the Judeans, the people who live in Judea,

the people who are following the religion of

and are in the Southern Kingdom of Judah,

they are Jews.

That is where the word comes from.

And so the Northern Kingdom of Israel,

also known as the 10 lost tribes,

they're not called Jews, right?

So the people living and operating in that Northern Kingdom

are not called Jews, they're just not.

Now in the Old Testament, they're called Israelites,

Hebrews, et cetera.

And then ultimately they're going to become known

as Samaritans, but the Jews

are referring to people of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

So if you're going to go into Bible prophecy in Revelation

and say we got 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,

those aren't Jews.

12,000 from the tribe of Gad, those aren't Jews.

You know, 12,000 from natural life, those aren't Jews.

Now look, obviously there are just small remnants

of people from those Northern tribes

that migrated from the Northern Kingdom of Israel

and came down to the Southern Kingdom of Judah

and became Jews, you know, and they basically,

you know, join in with that nation.

But the vast majority of those people

of the Northern 10 tribes were never called Jews.

They're never Jews and they ended up being scattered

into all nations and those tribes no longer exist.

So today what we have is of course the 13th tribe,

the tribe of Poland over in Israel today.

We have the Pollocks and Hungarians and Russians

and all the Germans and people over there

that are basically masquerading as Jews.

They're basically just white Europeans

who've adopted the religion of Judaism, okay?

And now all of a sudden they're supposedly

the ancient Israelites.

But here's the thing, even the ones who are

some kind of a descendant of the actual Jews,

you know, would predominantly be from two tribes, right?

Judah and Benjamin.

And then you could say Levi as well

because the priests obviously.

So three tribes, Judah, Benjamin and Levi

are pretty much the main players of the Southern Kingdom.

It's gonna be very few examples of people

who migrated down.

So to sit there and say that in the end times

there's gonna be 144,000 Jews, that doesn't make any sense

because it doesn't say Jews, it says 12,000 Reubenites.

And guess what, the tribe of Reuben no longer exists.

Tribe of Gad doesn't do a little research on it.

Naphtali doesn't exist.

None of those tribes exist,

which is why they're called the 10 lost tribes.

And so Jews are only representing

the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

And also if you ask those in Israel today

or Jews in New York or Jews in Los Angeles,

if you ask them what tribe are you, they don't know

what tribe they are.

The only ones who would even claim to know

are the priests because they would say like,

well, we know we're of the priestly faction

so therefore we're of Levi.

But again, we're taking the Bible more literally

and they accuse us of not being literal

and spiritualizing everything.

But really we're actually being literal

that we believe that in Revelation

when it says 12,000 Reubenites,

it actually means Reubenites.

And the only way to get 12,000 male Reubenite Virgins

would be to get them from the Old Testament, right?

I mean, where are you gonna get 12,000

of the tribe of Gad?

You know, you're gonna get it from the Old Testament

back when the tribe of Gad actually existed, okay?

And so here's what's going on

is that if you actually,

and I don't wanna make this a big Bible prophecy sermon

but I just wanna kinda touch on this briefly,

is that what's going on is that in the end times

after the tribulation is gonna be the second coming of Christ

and the dead are going to be resurrected.

And when the 144,000 are on this earth

doing their ministry,

it's after that resurrection takes place.

Their ministry happens after the resurrection takes place.

So they're basically resurrected, okay?

That's what's going on.

And so you have the 144,000 being sealed up in heaven.

They're already in heaven before the rapture, okay?

So you have the 144,000 in heaven before the rapture

already being sealed and prepared for their ministry.

And basically as we're leaving,

they're basically showing up.

And so as the Christians are raptured

after the tribulation, but before God's wrath,

they're basically replaced on this earth with the 144,000

who are resurrected Old Testament saints,

literally 12,000 from Gad, 12,000 from Manasseh, et cetera.

That's an actual literal reading of the text

that actually makes sense.

But what they'll try to do is just say Jews.

But again, if you go to 2 Kings chapter 16 verse six,

2 Kings 16 · chapter mention

you get a definition of Jews.

You see, it's not Israel, it's not Syria.

No, it's people in the southern kingdom of Judah.

That's who the Bible calls Jews.

And a lot of times the first time a word is used

in the Bible is significant

because it kind of defines that word for you.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the very first time

that the word Jew is ever used in the Bible

is in opposition to Israel showing you,

hey, Israel and Jews aren't the same thing.

These are two different things, okay?

Southern kingdom of Judah.

So anyway, that was a little bit of a rabbit trail,

but I just wanted to make sure and teach that

because there's so much bad teaching out there

about end times prophecy and all this kind of pro-Israel,

Zionist dispensational teaching gets people confused.

I'm just trying to cut through some of the confusion

and say, look, Jew is southern kingdom of Judah.

144,000 is from specific tribes.

That's not just the same as just a blanket Jew terminology

because couldn't God have just said 144,000 Jews?

You know, he could have just picked the whitest,

blondest Jews that he wanted to if that's what he wanted to do,

but that's not what he's going to do.

He's going to take 12,000 from each of these ancient

Israelite tribes, you know,

and they're going to be on this earth doing their thing

while God's wrath is being poured out.

So back to chapter 16, verse 6 here.

So they're fighting and it says in verse 7,

so Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath,

Pileser, king of Assyria saying,

I'm my servant and my son,

come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria

and out of the hand of the king of Israel,

which rise up against me.

And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found

in the house of the Lord and in the treasures

of the king's house and sent it for a present

to the king of Assyria.

So he's not relying on the Lord,

he's relying on this foreign king of Assyria.

So he takes the money away from the house of God

and used it to pay off this foreign king

that's going to help him because he can't trust the Lord

because he's not actually following the Lord.

So God's not going to be there for him.

And so it says in verse number nine

and the king of Assyria hearkened unto him

for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus.

Of course, Damascus is the capital of Syria

and took it and carried the people of it captive

to Kerr and Slough reason and king Ahaz went to Damascus

to meet Tiglath, Pileser, king of Assyria

and saw an altar that was at Damascus

and king Ahaz sent to Eurya the priest

the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it

according to all the workmanship thereof

and Eurya the priest built an altar

according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus.

So Eurya the priest made it against king Ahaz

came from Damascus, some strange grammar there

but that is just because this was translated

over 400 years ago.

The bottom line is that he goes to Damascus

he teams up with some heathen,

he goes to this heathen capital of Damascus

and while he's there, he sees an altar

that he thinks is cool, right?

So he's basically in a place of false religion,

idolatry, not worshiping the Lord

and he just aesthetically likes this altar.

He just thinks this altar looks really cool.

The prophet doesn't really tell us what it looks like

but he gives a very graphic description of this

and he sends it home to Eurya the priest

back home in Judah and he says hey,

you know make this thing

and basically the idea is he's going to make it

even before king Ahaz gets home

he's already going to have the new altar made for him

according to the specifications that he sends.

So then when Ahaz gets home

he's got this cool new altar waiting for him.

Now we're going to get into that as we go.

That's the main thing I want to preach about tonight

is ruining God's house

because what Ahaz is going to do

is just totally change everything about God's house

and get away from the biblical pattern

and make everything totally different

and then you know what that's going to lead to

ultimately is the doors of God's house being closed.

And I'm going to show you an analog with that

how churches that get away from the fundamentals of the faith

and change everything about our doctrine

change everything about what we believe and preach

they will eventually shrink and fail and close their doors.

You know when you start getting away from the word of God

and clear biblical doctrine

you know that is just you getting ready to die as a church.

Okay and I'm going to talk about that a little bit later.

Let's get into this though.

It says here in verse number 12

when the king was come from Damascus

the king saw the altar

and the king approached to the altar

and offered their aunt

and he burnt his burnt offering

and his meat offering

and poured his drink offering

and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar.

Remember this is not God's altar

God had them construct a very specific altar

and it was a brazen altar

an altar of brass.

Now what does brass represent in the Bible?

This is a representation of the judgment

and justice of God

and what's happening on the brazen altar

is animal sacrifices

where animals are being killed

and their blood is being shed

to make an atonement for sin

and the picture is of course

that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God

which take away the sin of the world

and we as human beings

are all liable of judgment.

We deserve to be punished

and judged for our sins

and God's holiness

and God's justice

is satisfied on that brazen altar

where Jesus Christ

actually took our punishment for us

and that's what the brazen altar represents

a sacrifice for sin

to satisfy the justice of God.

God demands justice

and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ

satisfies that justice

and the picture of that

was the brazen altar

that was in the Old Testament set up

whether it was the tabernacle

or later the temple.

So that's being put off to the side

and this aesthetically pleasing altar

that's just based on how cool it looks

not that it's based on truth

or right or justice

it just looks cool

that ends up taking the place of

the brazen altar

and the brazen altar is put off to the side.

Look what the Bible says

he brought also the brazen altar verse 14

which was before the Lord

from the forefront of the house

from between the altar

and the house of the Lord

and put it on the north side of the altar

so basically you know

if you think about the way the temple is laid out

you enter the temple through the east

and when you walk in

to the temple complex

the first thing that you're going to come to

according to God's design

and God's specification

is you come to that brazen altar first

the first stop.

So if you go back to the Old Testament

read about the tabernacle

you walk in

and the first thing you're confronted with

is the brazen altar

where the animal sacrifice take place

then beyond the brazen altar

you get to the brazen

laver

and you know if you don't know what laver means

but you probably know the word lavatory

which is another word for a bathroom

if you know Spanish lavar

means to wash

and so the laver

is a washing place

where the priests

would wash and purify and so forth.

So if you think about

the order

it's like brazen altar

then you got the washing up place

the laver

then you get to the house of God

right?

And so if you stop and think about this

this is symbolic

we have to get saved first

you don't clean up your life first

the first thing you do

is you get

your sins taken care of

through salvation

through believing on Christ

through the blood of Christ

it's like that represents salvation

being the first step

first you get saved

then afterward is the cleaning up

the washing up your life

sanctification

right?

and then

it's like

you first get saved

then you go to church

now obviously unsaved people come to church as visitors

and we want to get them saved

and preach to them

but you know

obviously in order to really be a part of the church

you have to be saved

right?

So it's like

salvation

and then you get cleaned up

then you go to church

and that's the importance of the order

but see

what is he doing here?

He's taking the most important thing

that's at the forefront of the house of God

the brazen altar

and he's just like

you know what?

let's put it off to the side

like we're not totally getting rid of it

but we're demoting it

to being like a side thing

it's not the focus

it's not important

and it's not for you

you're going to do this

you know

aesthetically pleasing

damascene

kind of altar

or whatever

and so

the brazen altars

put on the north side of the altar

so again

think about it

if you're walking in

from the east

then basically it's just being put off to the side

to your right

because if you're

if you're walking in the east side

then north is going to be on your right

so it's just like

the altars is pushed off to the side

and then this stupid

foreign unbiblical altar

gets stuck right in the middle

that's what has the preeminence

and then it says in verse 15

and King A.S. commanded you ride to the priest saying

upon the great altar

so

again

this is the false

Damascus wicked altar

upon the great altar

you know

maybe just meaning that it's

it's bigger than what God had prescribed or whatever

but he says upon the great altar

burn the morning bird offering

and evening meat offering

and the king's burnt sacrifice

and his meat offering

with the burnt offering of all the people of the land

and their meat offering

and their drink offerings

and sprinkle upon it

all the blood of the burnt offerings

and all the blood of the sacrifice

I mean look

basically he's saying

everything happens on the fake altar

everything happens on the bogus altar

except at the very end he says

the brazen altar

shall be for me to inquire by

so it's like

that's what I'm just going to use that

we're going to keep it off to the side

almost like

something in a museum

it's like a

it's like a relic

or an artifact or something

so I'm just going to kind of have a little superstitious thing about it

like

yeah we'll kind of keep it off to the side

kind of afraid to get rid of it

and I'll just go

I'll just go pray there

and just like inquire of God there

maybe use it for some kind of divination

or maybe just he's just going to

inquire by it

he's just going to use it for prayer

or whatever

and then it says in verse 16

thus did you rise to the priest

according to all that King A.S. commanded

and King A.S.

cut off the borders of the bases

and removed the labor from off them

and took down the sea

from off the brazen oxen

we're under it

and put it upon a pavement of stones

he's probably just turning this into money

he's probably just trying to cash out the brass

so he takes all the brazen apparatus

and just replaces it with like a stone

platform instead for the laborers

and it says you know the covert

for the Sabbath

that they had built in the house

and the King's entry without

turned he from the house of the Lord

for the King of Assyria

so now that that's what he's doing things for

he's doing things for the King of Assyria

it's not for the Lord

it's not based on what God wants

and it's hey let's be conformed to this world

let's have an altar like the Damascus altar

let's do what the King of Assyria likes

let's just completely remodel

and change around the house of God

and in fact let's just give it a totally different emphasis

what it used to emphasize

let's emphasize something else

and just put the main emphasis

off to the side as a relic token thing

and then it says you know

the rest of the acts of A has are written in chronicles

let's go over to chronicles

and look at something over there

flip over to second chronicles 28

because here's the thing

when you totally change everything about God's house

when you totally ruin it

and revamp it

and remodel it

and deemphasize truth

and doctrine and salvation

and what's right in the blood

you know

you end up with something unrecognizable

and ultimately

it just closes its doors

look what the Bible says

in second chronicles chapter 28

2 Chronicles 28 · chapter mention

it says in verse number 22

and in the time of his distress

did he trespass yet more against the Lord

this is that King A has

for he sacrificed under the gods of Damascus

which smote him

and he said because the gods of the kings of Syria

help them

therefore will I sacrifice to them

that they may help me

but they were the ruin of him

and of all Israel

and he has gathered together

the vessels of the house of God

and cut in pieces

the vessels of the house of God

and watch this

shut up the doors of the house of the Lord

and he made him alters

in every corner of Jerusalem

so ultimately God's house

just ends up closing its doors

and in every several city of Judah

he made high places to burn incense

unto other gods

and provoked

to anger

the Lord God of his fathers

and so you can see here

that

what starts out as just

hey I like that Damascus altar

let's go ahead and

you know use it

ends up just

ultimately closing the doors of the institution

now let me ask this

was A has ever

right with God or worse

no A has was always a phony

he was always bogus

he was always wicked in the sight of God

every indication that he is totally unsaved

okay

so the idea here is though

is that he's unsaved

taking over

the house of God

and then he turns it into something totally different

and then ultimately the people end up

forsaking and abandoning it

ultimately just close the doors

because I mean what's the point

right if you're going to totally get away from

the whole point of having the house of God at Jerusalem

then why would you even want to make the trip

why are you going to drive that far

why are you going to travel there

if it's bogus anyway

and so what happens is

they end up just making alters

just wherever they live

just on every street corner

and in every town

because what's the point of going to this place

if it's not even the house of God anyway

because you've turned it into something

unrecognizable

and you say well yeah

but it was a really cool looking altar

super beautiful and aesthetically pleasing

and yet

there are beautiful aesthetically

pleasing

Protestant church buildings

and yet nobody's showing up

because people don't go to church for the architecture

they go to church for the word of God

they go to church for the preaching of God's word

now let me give you a little bit of an analog of this

here in America

it's interesting because I was reading this book

and it had some really interesting statistics

that I want to read for you

because here's the thing

is that in the past in our country

there were a lot of Methodists

Presbyterians

Episcopalians

and these are known as the mainline denominations

Lutherans right

those mainline denominations

you know I think that there is a lot of evidence that even

all the way back to 1776

they were already starting to fail

and decline and be on their way out

but they still hung on for a long time

when they really just got completely annihilated

was in the latter half of the 20th century

okay

so in the latter half of the 20th century

I mean they just went into free fall

they're just hemorrhaging members

to the point where now

they're very insignificant and irrelevant

and obviously the vast majority of churches

that are really growing and thriving and big

are either Baptist or Pentecostal

and all of your big non-denom churches

are pretty much either Baptist or Pentecostal

you know they just don't want to tell you

but most of your big non-denom churches in this area

if you look at the statement of faith

it's either a totally Baptist statement of faith

or it's a totally Pentecostal statement of faith

and really the big colossal difference between those two things

is whether you believe you can lose your salvation

because if you believe this salvation is by faith alone

and you can't lose it

you know that's the core teaching of being a Baptist

whereas the Pentecostals are more of a works-based salvation

they all believe you can lose your salvation

and so you'll find that there's the

lose your salvation tongue-talking non-denom churches

and then there's the kind of a baptistic

save by faith, can't lose your salvation

community churches

and those are the two big ones

so what happened to the mainline denominations?

what happened to the Presbyterians

and the Methodists and the Lutherans

and the Episcopalians and the Congregationalists?

you're like what's a Congregationalist?

but if you look at the early days of our country

there were tons of Congregationalists

what is that?

where are they?

well let me tell you why these denominations

got totally destroyed

is because they basically did what King Ahaz did

so I've got this chart in front of me

and this is a survey that was taken in 1963

so this is second half of the 20th century

1963 this is right around the time

when these Protestant mainline churches

just started to absolutely go into free fall

and just shutting the doors of their churches

and just losing members like insane

so let me give you some survey questions

and this is thousands of people were surveyed

in northern California

church members

so these are all church members of various denominations

so here's the first question on the survey

that I'm going to read for you

it says

I know that God really exists

and I have no doubts about it

like do you agree that God exists?

you're sure that God exists

okay?

so when it comes to the United Church of Christ

which is basically congregationalists

41% said yeah

yeah we know that God's real

Methodist, 60%

Episcopalian, 63%

Presbyterian, 75%

Lutheran, everything except Missouri Synod

73%

Missouri Synod was 81%

hey Southern Baptist, 99%

okay so you can see there's a little difference

in the Baptist view

versus these mainline Protestant denominations

and then when it comes to

what it labels here as sects

so that'd just be like

all different upstart sects

a lot of which are Pentecostal, Charismatic, whatever

you know they're also at like 96%

of saying that God exists

so here's the thing

your mainline Protestants

huge amounts of the congregation

are like I'm not really sure

if God even exists

60% of the congregationalists

are like I don't know

if God exists

and even 33%

of these different denominations

Methodists, Episcopalians, whatever

I mean that's pretty bad

listen to some of these other questions

because it gets even worse

when you start getting specific

that's just the existence of God

okay how about this one

Jesus is the Divine Son of God

and I have no doubts about it

Congregationalists 40%

Methodists 54%

Episcopalians 59%

and then it's like

why are these churches on their way out

because they've just become unrecognizable

they're not teaching

and preaching the Bible anymore

as being like hey this is the word of God

thus sayeth the Lord

they became into

not spiritual salvation

not you must be born again

not the brazen altar

not the blood of Jesus Christ

the United Methodist Church famously removed

the songs from their hymnal

about the blood

because they said quote we don't want to have a bloody religion

take out the blood

what are they saying

take the brazen altar and put it off to the side

and when you take the brazen altar

and you put it off to the side

and it all becomes social gospel

social justice

all these liberal community efforts or whatever

and then you wonder why your people don't even believe in God

or that Jesus is even the Son of God

and then how about this

it is completely true that Jesus was born of a virgin

so do they agree with this statement

is it completely true

that Jesus was born of a virgin

the congregationalist

21% said yes

this is why you've never heard of the congregationalist

because

only 21% of the members are like

yeah Jesus is born of a virgin

Methodist

34% that means 2 thirds

are denying the virgin birth

and this is in remember this isn't today

today these numbers would be even lower

this is 1963

this is before

all the hippies

all the sunflowers

and all of the hindu rishis

and gurus coming over with the beetles

none of that has happened yet

and a lot of people think of the 60s

as this liberal wild time

that didn't start until the very end of the 60s

that's like 1967

at the earliest

okay

the early first half of the 60s

you would think it's like the 50s

you know it culturally

it was only the very end of the 60s

that it became all this wild

long hair dudes

taking drugs and all the hippie stuff

wait this is before any of that

1963 this is the

religious state of these denominations

and then you wonder why they all just

totally

hemorrhaged members and closed their doors

well it's the same thing you know when A has

dramatically changes and remodels

the house of God

not in accordance with God's word

but in opposition to God's word

trying to fit in with the world

trying to please the heathen

well this is what you end up with

80% of people saying

no virgin birth

so what percentage of the Episcopalians

believed in the virgin birth

39%

Presbyterians 57%

right

Lutherans that are not Missouri Synod

66%

Southern Baptist

99%

right so Southern Baptist

does God exist 99%

yes Jesus the divine

son of God I have no doubts about it

99% it's completely

true that Jesus was born of a virgin

99%

definitely Jesus will actually

return to the earth someday

Southern Baptist 94%

Congregationalist

13%

Methodist 21%

and this isn't talking about like

the timing of the rapture

or whether you're post-trib

or pretrib

or whether you're post-millennial

this is just is there even a second coming

of Christ period

right and

13% of the Congregationalist

say yes 21% of the Methodist

24% of the Episcopalians

43% of the Presbyts

54% of

mainstream Lutherans

75% of Missouri Synod

Lutherans and then because that's like

the more fundamental wing of the Lutherans

and then the Southern Baptist

are at 94%

how about this it is completely

true that the devil actually

exists

Congregationalist 6%

believe that the devil even exists

and it's like bro he's running your church

like how can you not believe in him

what the heck so it's like

Methodist 13%

so 87% of Methodist

don't believe in the devil

in 1963

how many of them

believe that the devil exists in the Episcopalian

17%

Presbyterian 31%

Southern Baptist

92%

and you know the Pentecostal

and other sects and cults and things

they're all around like 90% or whatever

but the point is here

that these mainline Protestant

denominations

you know they get to a point where it's like

oh it's all about the social gospel

it's not about the blood

get rid of the brazen altar

put it off to the side

they're emphasizing all these other things

and the next thing you know it's like

they don't believe in God

they don't believe in the virgin birth

they don't believe in the miracles of the Bible

and let me tell you something they're even worse now

this is 1963

we're talking over

60 years ago

when the country basically still looked

like the 1950s

you know where it's like

where men are like going to work in a suit and tie

with a hat on and their wife's like

at home in the kitchen

baking in a fancy dress and everything

you know it's just like a totally different culture

than now

and these mainline denominations

are already just completely denying the Bible

and then do you wonder

why they just completely

just lost the market share

on religion in the United States

of America because there's such

a joke and look church of England

same thing

and you know what right now

I don't remember the statistic I hope I'm getting this right

I want to say that like

6%

of people in England

go to a Christian church

6%

of the nation goes to church

so the church of England is just a

complete joke

this used to be a nation where

the vast majority of the nation

they're all members of the church of England

they're all going to church

now the church of England is just

pretty much gone

there are more people today

going to a mosque

in England than going to a Christian

church of any denomination

but again

the church of England is super liberal

bunch of weirdo, lesbian

freaks that don't believe the Bible

and then they wonder why no one will show up

here's the thing

the whole point of going to church

is to meet with God

it's to sing praises to God

it's to hear the preaching of God's word

it's to have an ear to hear what the Holy Spirit

is saying

to the churches through his word

through the preaching of his word

what is even the point

of even having church

if you don't believe Jesus was born

of a virgin well then we might as well

just eat, drink and be married because tomorrow

we die

it's a joke and you know what's so stupid

is that there's a logic out there

that says

well if you be more like the world

you can win them to

Christ and we have to just

be like them to win them

and we have to just be seeker

sensitive and put aside doctrine

get that brazen altar

off to the side all that judgment

and wrath of God

and hellfire and damnation

and salvation

and you gotta be saved and if you don't

get saved you're gonna go to hell

put that to the side

and behold

the beautiful Damascus altar

but the problem is

when you get rid of your core beliefs

when you get rid of

what you even stand for

you're just

announcing the closing

down of your church

and the death of your church

let me say what I've said over and over again

you stay great the way that you became great

right?

churches that were founded on soul winning

churches that were founded on hard preaching

churches that are up there breathing fire

and ripping face

and preaching hard on sin

and rebuking false religion

and aggressively winning souls

and preaching hard and ripping on sin

and not holding back

you know what those churches if they're gonna continue

to thrive they have to stay the same way

they have to stay the same way

and you gotta have

some brass going on

you gotta have some judgment

you gotta have some fire on the altar

not just a pretty altar

a beautiful altar it needs to be

the word of God

it needs to be doctrine

it needs to be distinct and different

see here's the thing why would I want to have an altar

that looks like the altar of a false religion

when you start trying to copy

false religion you die

I remember you know something similar

happened when I was growing up we were in a church

and the church

had problems

because of nepotism

and you know there were just like internal things

where like the pastor

had put his kids on staff

and they're making you know more

money than other like more qualified

people because they're just nepotism whatever

and so there's different fights going on

and then the pastor's wife died

and then he married a Presbyterian

and everybody's like what the heck

you know there were just a lot of just kind of

dumb things and just kind of

strife and whatever and so the church

ended up you know losing members

you know unfortunately churches go through drama

and problems and whatever

so the church started losing members

and so a lot of people quit the church

and they start going to a liberal church

down the street which was called

First Baptist of Elk Grove

and so First Baptist of Elk Grove

was just kind of a rock and roll

NIV kind of church or whatever

non-denom church on paper

the doctrines all you know as far as like

it's all Baptist on paper you know

salvation by faith whatever

but they're just liberal

not standing for anything

super weak super watered down

and so what happened is

we had gone back

we had left the church tried some other churches

but eventually you know we're just like

hey let's just go back and make it work

there so we went back to the church

and you know we had

some extended you know

relatives or people that were connected

to our family who had switched over

to First Baptist of Elk Grove

they came back for a visit

at our church and the pastor is

asking them hey can you give me that

bulletin from

the liberal church because he said

you know I want to see what they're doing

I want to start patterning things

after what they're doing and he basically

said well if everybody's going to leave

and go to First Baptist of Elk Grove then we're just

going to become like First Baptist of Elk Grove

if people are going to leave

and go there we'll just start to become like them

well here's what's so stupid about that

is if you're going to try to copy

the big liberal First Baptist down the street

then why wouldn't people

just go to the source instead of the imitation

so if you understand what I'm saying

like if you're

a fundamental Baptist if you're

preaching heart if you're into soul winning

if you're having biblical standards

if you're preaching against sin

and then you look down the street and there's some

non-denom churches growing

and thriving and being big or whatever

and then you think like oh well let's

be a little bit more like them

let's be a little more like Damascus

and then if we do that

then you know we can grow too

it's like bro no because here's the thing

if you start copying them why wouldn't people

just go all the way

to the real thing

the whole point of being a fundamentalist

Baptist is to be different

now back then you know notice I was

reading statistics from the southern Baptist

but here's the thing you know back in the

especially in the early 20th century

you know a lot of southern Baptists were

pretty fundamental

you know by 1963

you know you still have them

answering pretty well on the survey as far as

the church members at least

in 1963

and so in many ways the southern

Baptists of

the early 20th century

or maybe even mid 20th century

are analogous to today's like

independent fundamental Baptists as far as being

you know more fundamental

versus the northern Baptists are more

liberal okay

and so the point is that

we are to be distinct

we are to be different

than this world and when the salt has lost

its savor it's good for nothing

it's not good for anything

and so it's so stupid to think like

well if we could just tone down

the preaching a little

and be a little bit more like the liberal church

and be a little bit more like the non-denom church

and be a little more like the world

and start being a little more permissive

and a little more feminist and a little bit more

of this and that and the other

and thinking that somehow that's going to reach more people

first of all even if it did

reach more people it's still be wrong

because it just writes right and wrongs wrong

so like even

if it did reach more people it doesn't make it right

because we're supposed to just follow

the Bible I don't care if

everybody loves the Damascus altar we're not doing it

we're doing the Brazen altar front and center

but here's

the thing is the irony is

it doesn't even make the church grow

it just destroys the church

and means that the church is going to close its doors

because guess what happened to that church

where the pastor said hey let's

borrow their bulletin let's see what they're like

let's start patterning ourselves after them

you know pretty soon

the entire church population

pretty much left to the point

where you're in this giant building

and there's like nobody coming

and so you end up having to downsize

so they end up selling the building

moving to a tiny storefront

and the church just became a tiny

shadow of what it used to be

you know why because they

you know lost their first love

they lost their distinctives

and they just became about

hey let's just do whatever we can to grow

and you know what's funny is that these

libtard denominations like the Presbyterians

Methodists, Congregationalists

you know ELCA

Evangelical Lutheran Church of America

you know they think that by being liberal

they're going to get more members

but isn't it interesting how the opposite happened

and here's the thing the more

fundamental that you are

you're actually giving people a reason

to even show up

okay

and at the end of the day like I said it doesn't matter

because rights right wrongs wrong we're going to do what's right anyway

we don't care if everybody leaves

and quits we're still just going to do what's right

we don't care but here's the thing

notice our church is thriving

our church does have

a great crowd why

because of the fact that people are showing up for something

real and as soon as you stop

offering something real

then there's no reason to show up

and that's what happened in the Church of England

that's what happened to all these denominations

because basically if people are going to be told

that Jesus wasn't even born of a virgin

then it's like well then what are we even doing here

and you know what's funny

even the Roman Catholic Church experienced

something like this at the exact same time

and obviously the Roman Catholics are totally

not saved

not real Christians

total pagan idolaters they've never

believed the gospel

okay but what's interesting

is if you look at the history

of the Catholic Church in America

the Catholic Church in America was

growing and thriving

in this country in the

early 20th century

okay like I mean their numbers

are just going through the roof

a lot of that's from immigration

because you got all these bunch of Irish

and Italians and Germans coming over

all these Catholics immigrate

because when our country was founded it was like

totally non Catholic

you know when our country

became independent in 1776

the most Catholic state in America

was Maryland it's literally

named after the Virgin Mary Mary land

it was literally designed

by Lord Baltimore to be a

safe haven for Catholics because

other places like Catholic Catholicism

was persecuted and not even legal

because people in America

a lot of them came here to get away from

the mother whore Catholic Church and they hated it

and they're like we don't want the stupid Catholic Church here

they're super anti Catholic

in America

and so Maryland is designed for like

a safe space for Catholics

and in 1776

approximately 3%

of the population of Maryland was Catholic

so the other colonies Catholicism

was virtually nonexistent

not relevant

and in Maryland it's 3%

of the population okay

but obviously

as we absorbed huge

chunks of what used to be Mexico

right because Arizona

and California used to belong to Mexico

as we absorbed all these chunks

of Mexico we're bringing in a bunch of Roman

Catholics because the Mexicans were

predominantly at that time very Catholic

and then also we had all these

tons of immigrants come over from

Ireland, Italy, Germany

and other Catholic countries and so that

boosted the Catholic numbers and then once they got

here though you know they were really

zealous about Catholicism because

it was kind of a cultural thing too

it's like a way to stay connected with the old

country and they're connecting with all

their fellow Italians and

you know Irish and whatever

and so you had

like a lot of growth

and numbers going

up of the Roman Catholic Church

in the 20th century

but what happened well

guess what around this exact time

you have what

who knows

anyone anyone

early 1960s what did the Roman Catholic Church

do a massive major thing

early 1960s

exactly Vatican II

they had their Vatican II

Council you know and they

ended up just radically

overhauling the Catholic Church to make it

more modern and so

they modernized it and

one of the things they did is they got rid of

meatless Friday you know because

it used to be considered like a big

sin a big

sin in the Catholic Church

if you're eating meat on a Friday

and so I mean think about this kids are going

to school and they're having to have

special lunches they're out with their

friends on a Friday night they're not eating a cheese

burger down at the drive-in

down in and out burger McDonald's

they're not having a burger until

midnight clock strikes midnight then they can have

a burger now this is

a stupid arbitrary rule

that's not found in the Bible

so the Roman Catholic Church is like

hey we're going to modernize

so let's get rid of meatless Friday

the

mass is no longer going to be in Latin it's

going to be in English

once you put it in English we can figure out

the nonsense that you're saying

you figure out how stupid your sermon is

when it's in English how

worthless your teachings are so it's like

oh we're going to put the mass in

in English we're going to say

sorry to the Jews and we're not going to

be against Jews anymore

you know it's all big misunderstanding we're

not going to be anti-Semitic no mo

and they said you know we're

getting rid of meatless Friday so they

dramatically overhauled and modernized

the Roman Catholic Church and you

know what it you know what ended up happening

just their attendances

just completely just

plummeted as a result

why because because then it's like

people are thinking like wait a minute

why were we even doing meatless Friday then

if all of a sudden it's just not a sin

all of a sudden it's just fine

to not do it you know

and so they ended up just totally

just plummeting

and losing members and just completely

you know going south

and it went from having just

like you know

I mean I was reading the statistics in this book

of just how

many nuns they had

how many priests they had

how many young men

are studying for the priesthood I mean it literally

just tanked

to the point where it's like

they're just in freefall

numbers across the board

of people just totally abandoning

the Roman Catholic Church

which amen praise God

and you know of course this is at the same time

as you had a bunch of big soul winning movements

firing up in the 60s 70s

and 80s winning Catholics to Christ

and so thank God

for Vatican Council too just making these people

ripe for the picking

realizing that their religion

just dramatically changed right before their eyes

and so the point is

that this idea that says

oh if we get more modernized

and more worldly

and we conform to this world

somehow that's going to bring in members

it's funny the denominations

that have tried to do that

whether they were saved or unsaved

everybody who tries it fails

it doesn't work

and so you got to just be

who you are

you know be Jerusalem

have the brazen altar follow the Bible

stand for doctrine

stand for what's right

and don't just sit there

and say well we got to just see what's popular

and change and whatever

because if you're not even distinct

what's even the point and you know

here's the thing about the independent fundamental Baptist movement

is that the independent

fundamental Baptist movement used to be

a hellfire and damnation

hard preaching

zealous soul winning movement

that's why it was growing

that's why it was thriving

that's why it was succeeding

you see when I was a 17 year old boy

walking into an independent

fundamental Baptist church

for the first time in many many years

you know I loved it

because it was so different

from the liberal churches

so I walked in and it was like

and it was exciting

it was hard preaching

the preaching stepping on my toes

and getting on my sin

and it was everybody's zealous

about soul winning and evangelism and everything

and they were fired up and preaching hard

and it was like man this place is legit

this place is the real deal

that's how the fundamental Baptist movement was

in the 90s

but what happened

what changed the fundamental Baptist

between then and now

a big part of it is the internet

part of it is the death of brother hiles

because he was kind of like a leader

of the fundamental Baptist movement

and he was a hellfire and brimstone

kind of a guy

he died and the people who replaced him

were just really soft and watered down

I'm not saying in that exact ministry

I'm saying in America

as leaders of fundamentalism

but a big part of it is the internet

is why

what do I mean by that

is because now because of the internet

if you preach hard

if you rip face

if you tell it like it is

you're going to be persecuted

because the whole world is going to find out about it

people will take little clips from your sermon

they'll grab that hot little clip from your sermon

and you will go viral

on tiktok

instagram, x, facebook

whatever because

it's all public

on the internet

so here's the thing these guys in the 90's

they're getting up and ripping face

and preaching on homos and preaching to get sin

and being strict

and you know

preaching hard and staying strong

on doctrine and everything like that

but then what happens is now that their preaching is going on the internet

they had to tone down their preaching a little bit

because they don't want to get busted

they don't want to get in trouble

that's why you have a guy like Jeff Owens

Jeff Owens in the 90's

is just screaming and yelling

1996 in America

we got to stop burning flags

and start burning fags

and he's just saying all these wild things

and preaching hard and it's just like

he's preaching that in the largest independent

Baptist college in America

Hiles Anderson college

he's the vice president of the college

preaching it

the crowd's going wild

everybody's loving it

everybody's supporting it right

and then what happens

you know the internet comes along

and somebody

whose name starts with an S

and ends in Tivan Anderson

uploads

that sermon to the internet

I uploaded that part of the sermon

to YouTube

I made a YouTube video out of that part of the sermon

and it went viral

predictably

I was there for it

I was like yeah this is awesome

I liked the sermon

the whole sermon is called Struck Blind

by Jeff Owens

Struck Blind

so I upload the sermon

I upload the clip

and then they come after Jeff Owens

and start persecuting him

and he uploads the lamest

most faggity

apology that you can even imagine

he's like hi my name is Jeff Owens

and I said some really hurtful things

about gay people

and I'm really sorry

and I didn't even mean those things when I said them

I was very young and stupid

and immature when I said those things

it's like bro you weren't young and immature

you were the vice president

of the largest independent

Baptist Bible college in the world

and you'd written two books

one of them called Character

and another one called More Character

I mean when you

write a book called Character

and then you write another book called More Character

and you're the vice president

of the biggest independent Baptist Bible college

I wouldn't say that you're young and immature

you sound pretty stinking mature

to me

I'm not over here writing books on Character

I'm not mature enough

someday maybe I'll be that mature

but I'm not there yet

but it's like

oh I'm so sorry

and you know oh you know

will you please forgive me

I literally like I forget

how bad his apology was so I have to listen to it

like once a year

I'm serious I have to pull it out and play it

like once a year just to

because I can't even process it

like my brain can't even grasp it

so like I can't remember

it's impossible to remember how bad it was

so I have to play it like once a year

the Jeff Owens apology

because it's so bad

and it's not just

him folks

the whole old IFB

was ripping face preaching hard

and they were growing like crazy

now

the independent Baptists are in decline

right now

they just are

most of your independent fundamental Baptist church across America

are getting smaller

they're having to merge with other churches

they're declining

they're getting less people saved

they're big auditoriums

high steeple few people churches

because

what's the point anymore

I mean think about it

what's the point of going

to Hiles Anderson college

to get an unaccredited degree

so your credits don't transfer

anywhere

it's totally unaccredited

it's not considered a legitimate

in this world's eyes

bachelor's degree or master's degree

what's the point of going there

you're going there because it's a special place

you're going there because

you want to hear all that super hard preaching

and you want to be in this super

zealous soul winning environment

and you want to be in this exciting place

that's totally different than devil

state university

that's why you're there

but here's the thing if these places

will soften

then it gets to a point where it's like

the state university

and get an unaccredited degree

at the state university then to go to this place

that's not really that

you know different anyway

or that fired up anywhere

and it's like yeah they're still going to have

the clothing standards and the dress standards

but what you really need is the face ripping

hellfire and damnation preaching

that's what people want

people want the spirit of god

people want

the zealous soul winning

I'm not criticizing Hal's Anderson

I'm just saying that

as a whole

I'm not singling them out or talking about them

in particular I'm just saying

that as a whole the old IFB

in our area

in every area has become weak and watered down

I don't see them on the news

and going viral

you don't see them going viral

for ripping on sodomites or ripping on feminism

or fighting the cultural battles

but if you took

if you could dig out there preaching from the 90's

it would all go viral

you understand what I'm saying

and so all that to say this

when you

deemphasize the blood of Jesus Christ

when you deemphasize

salvation

and soul winning

and going out and getting people saved

when you deemphasize the wrath and judgment of god

when you deemphasize

the maybe unsavory

or ugly

things

in the word of god quote unquote

which I think is all beautiful but you know what I mean

the things that this world would look at is unsavory

and you want to put those things off to the side

and have a religion that appeals

to the heathen

and you want to be like the world

look the more you do that

all you're doing is just

speeding up your decline

and ultimately the doors are going to close

the doors are going to close

and you know we could even name

churches that had been

new IFB type churches

that were our friends and in our movement

that basically went

soft on issues

and then they closed their doors

or they shrink and get super small

you know it's like

God's not going to bless that

and so Ahaz

mutilated God's house

went away from sound doctrine

changed it

and the next thing you know doors close

that's the way it works my friend

and why do you think they closed the doors?

they closed the doors because nobody's showing up

why did Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans

Church of England, Episcopalians

why did they all close the doors?

congregationalist nobody's showing up

because it's become unrecognizable

and look if faithful

word Baptist church is going to continue

to be a great church

continue to be a soul winning powerhouse

continue to reach people

continue to grow

continue to thrive continue to make an impact

we have got to continue

to be different

than this world

we've got to be distinct and different

from other churches

we're not trying to be more like other churches

we're not trying to be more like the old IFB

we're not trying to be more like the

non-denominational crowd

we're not trying to be more like the

Protestant mainline type churches

no, we want to be distinct

we want to be different

we want to be hardcore

we want to be biblical

we want to keep the main thing

the main thing and stay on the same track

because the way that you stay great is the way that you became great

last thing we want to do

is say well

let's accommodate

let's mellow out

let's not chill out

let's get more fired up

let's get wilder

let's go crazy

why not?

and what's funny is

some people do think that I have gone a little wild

over the last couple of years

but I would like for you to name one thing

that I've preached or taught in the last two years

where you can't find

the same stuff from 0607

look it up

I mean

people are constantly like

can you believe what Pastor Anderson said

and it's just like all the preaching.com

search transcript

2006 sermon

2007 sermon

2013 sermon

it's like bro I'm staying the same

I'm preaching the same stuff

I've made little tweaks here and there

but any tweak I make is

let's get more biblical

let's be hard or core

but I don't even think I've become more hardcore

I think I'm just preaching the same stuff

I've been preaching for 20 years

and why would I change if we're succeeding

why would I change if we're thriving

folks

we need to stay distinct

we need to stay what we are

we are faithful word

we are the new IFB

and we do not need to become

something that we're not

we need to stay with what we're doing

because that's how you fail

as an organization

by getting watered down and trying to copy

other people

that are less successful

in the kingdom of God

that's what he's doing

he's trying to copy Damascus

I want to be Jerusalem

we thank you so much for your word

and we thank you for

this example that we could learn

a bad example of Ahaz Lord

who mutilated your house

and changed it

and emphasized the wrong things

and put the right things off to the side

Lord help us to keep the main thing

the main thing and stay distinct

and stay salty

and stay

fundamental

and Lord God I pray that you would bless those

among the old IFB

who are preaching hard

and who are staying fundamental Lord

and Lord I pray that these

lame liberal watered down churches

would close their doors Lord

so that people could go to good churches

and hear good preaching Jesus' name we pray amen