Thank you very much.
Welcome to May 4 Baptist Church, if you please find our seats in a row of our handles for
today, we'll be singing the song number 33, Christ the Lord is risen today, again that
is song number 33.
Christ the Lord is risen today, again that is song number 33.
people who are not able to be here today for sickness or other
reasons and in the name of Jesus we pray, amen.
Amen.
All right, please turn your song books to song number 19.
We sing the song number 19, There is a Fountain,
in the song number 19.
There is a fountain in Jesus' hands,
for strangers who dream in love.
There is a fountain in Jesus' hands,
for the mighty angels to sing and plant in his hand.
And there in the palace we will show
the signs of faith.
Wash all the sins of faith.
Oh, daily and on average, wash all the sins of faith.
The knife and the knife, wash all the sins of faith.
To all the lands of Judah, we stand to sing the Lord.
We stand to sing the Lord.
To all the lands of Judah, we stand to sing the Lord.
There sits one in my soul, on the street,
there is no place to go.
In the evening the flesh will go,
it shall be still on fire.
It shall be still on dry.
For we do the work that's been done,
it shall be still on us.
In the evening the first thing is done,
what's in the mountains we do.
There is no place to go,
no silence in the rain.
No silence in the rain,
no silence in the rain.
There is no place to go,
no silence in the rain.
And then we'll start with Bill Dyer.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you for everyone.
It's like bullets in the wind, some of them
have been brought to you.
And as always, we have our service time
system in the back.
We're in 10, 3 a.m.
Again, at 5, 3 p.m.
this evening.
Thursdays at 7, and we're going through the book of Genesis
with you in chapter number 36 this week.
We have the Churchwide Soling Times and Regional Soling
Times for both the salvation and the baptism of the book
of the year.
And also, there is a reservation soling trip coming up,
I believe next week, I think might be this way.
Yeah, this is actually coming up this week.
So this would be this Friday and Saturday coming up,
September 20th through 21st.
And this is, of course, our reservation soling is mainly
and really only to the Navajo reservation right now.
It's the only reservation in Arizona
that our church has not completely knocked every door.
So obviously, it's the biggest one.
It's the largest one.
It's going to take the most time and effort to accomplish.
But we're well on our way to achieving that goal.
And this is another trip out there.
So this is going to be over probably on the east side,
I'm assuming, simply because of the fact
that there is going to be some kind of recreation
at Canyon du Chez, which I've never been to,
but I've seen pictures.
It looks like a very beautiful place.
I know a lot of people enjoy going there.
It's kind of a tourist attraction.
So if you want to go there and check that out,
you know that you get some good soling in,
and you go to Canyon du Chez and mark that off the bucket list.
I know it's kind of coming up quick.
I apologize if I didn't make you aware of this sooner.
But if you want to go, as always, our trips are always,
these local trips here are free of charge.
So we'll provide transportation, board, all that kind of stuff
if you want to participate in any of these trips.
With that, that's going to do it for now.
So let's go ahead and sing one more song before we begin.
All right.
Please open up your handles to song number 36.
We're singing song number 36, Christ the Rose,
and I'm signing number 36.
Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
for the honor you've seen.
Oh, Lord,
Jesus, I sing,
with you above,
with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
for the honor you've seen,
with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
for the honor you've seen,
with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
for the honor you've seen,
with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
for the honor you've seen,
with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
for the honor you've seen,
with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
for the honor you've seen,
with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
for the honor you've seen,
with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
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with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
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with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
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with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
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with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
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with Jesus, my Lord,
I thank you,
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with Jesus,
my Lord,
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with Jesus,
with Jesus, my Lord,
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with Jesus,
my Lord,
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with Jesus, my Lord,
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with Jesus,
You know, the people that are humble themselves are often the people
that are brought into positions of leadership, are the people that often
are brought in to lead others. Why? Because
to be in leadership is to be a servant, and it takes humility.
Gotta have it.
If you would, go over to
Third John.
So again, in James 4, the Bible says that God gives more
grace. God resisted the proud. He giveth grace unto the humble.
We don't want to be these people that think we're better than everybody else.
And I love Galatians 6. Whenever I think about this topic,
I always think of Galatians 6, verse 3. It says,
For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth
himself. Right? And I mean, that's really descriptive of the
Pharisees this morning, the people that Jesus is warning us about, these Scribes and Pharisees,
these people that really think they're something. Why? Because of the clothes they got on.
They really think they're something. Why? Because of the things that people say to them, and
the seats that they get, and all the praise of men that they get.
But they're really nothing, and they're deceiving themselves.
You know, the proud people often, they
don't even see their own pride. Pride, that's why it's so dangerous, because pride
is so blinding. We can be so blind to
our own pride sometimes in our lives. And look, we all have pride to some degree
or another. Some people are just filled with it. They're nothing but
pride. You know, and pride is something that's always going to be there in this life,
something we always have to battle.
But sometimes people, you know, when they get proud, it's like everybody else can look at them and
say, you're so puffed up and so full of pride, why can't
you see it? It's just something about
pride. They deceive themselves. They're not fooling anybody else.
They really think they're something. In fact, they're nothing.
And everybody else can just go, well, the only person you're fooling, buddy, is you.
Look at 3 John, chapter number, well, the only
chapter, verse 9 there, it says,
Again, this is the Apostle John writing, right? The disciple whom
Jesus loved. If you remember in the Gospels,
you know, there's the 70, right?
There's the 12, and then there's Peter, James, and John.
And then even amongst Peter, James, and John, there's John.
You know, John is the one that leaned upon Jesus Christ.
John is known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Now, Jesus obviously loved
all his disciples. He loved all of mankind. But, you know, he had a soft
spot for John especially, it seems like, when you read the
scriptures. You know, John, there's just something about him. I don't know what it was.
We're not really sure. But Jesus, you know, it seems like
of all the apostles, I don't want to say he played favorites,
but John was the closest. Not everyone got to
lean upon Jesus' breast at the Last Supper. John did. So that's who's writing
this. Now, keep that in mind as you read this. This is John
writing. He says, I wrote unto the church, but
Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Can you imagine
the apostle John writing and trying to show up at your church and not being received,
and him not being received by some Diotrephes?
Who's Diotrephes? I don't know. This is, you know, this is it.
You know, we just hear about him here. He's not in the, he wasn't
with the 12. He wasn't with the 70. He wasn't with Jesus.
John was. But Diotrephes, he loves to have
the preeminence. See, and again, the point I'm making this morning is that this is one way
in which pride manifests itself. We want to be seen of men.
As it says in John 12, there were certain chief rulers
among them that believed, but because of the Pharisees, they did not
confess him. They did not confess Christ, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.
If you as a Pharisee or even just an attendee,
as a good faithful Jew back then, started professing Christ, you would be
put out of the synagogue. You'd be kicked out. Why wouldn't they profess him?
Because they love the praise of men more than the love of God.
You know, more people are more concerned with what other people think about them than what
God thinks about them. And that's a form of pride.
And here you have a guy named Diotrephes who kind of falls into that same
category. Somebody who loves to have the preeminence among them
receive it that's not. He doesn't want anybody else to be considered
better than him or to have the preeminence. Look, if the apostle
John showed up this morning, I would gladly sit down.
And look, it doesn't even have to be the apostle John. I could give you a list of some much more
you know, ordinary men that I would just gladly say
go ahead and preach, you know, by all means.
It wouldn't have to be an apostle to get me to sit down, okay? Don't take
that the wrong way. But this guy, Diotrephes, even when
the apostle John is writing unto them and trying to say
hey, here's some others to receive, this guy won't receive them. Why
won't he receive them? Oh, because he thinks they're bad people? No, because he loves the preeminence.
He wants it all to be all about him.
Look at verse 10, wherefore if I come, I will remember his
deeds which he doeth, priding against us with malicious words and
not content therewith. Can you imagine bad-mouthing the apostle John?
Crazy. Neither doth he receive
himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and
casteth them out of the church. I mean, he's not letting people in church,
he's casting people out of church that refuse to recognize
him as the preeminent preacher or the leader.
Look at verse 11, Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but
that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil
hath not seen God. So this is a form
of pride, okay? Now, hopefully I don't end up preaching two different
messages here, but we're going to go back to Mark chapter 12 and look at verse
40, okay? Because the source of the problem here is pride,
right? We read in James 4 that stern warning, okay?
Not a descriptive warning, but stern nonetheless because of who that
warning was coming from. God resisted the proud.
And we want to make sure we're on
guard against pride in our lives because pride, as
the Bible says in Proverbs 16, pride goeth
before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Pride goeth before what? A destruction.
You see someone who's proud and lifted up,
just mark it down, they're on their way to destruction. There's a fall
coming. A haughty spirit comes before a fall.
Remember I read that, I always think about how
proud people, that expression, they look down their nose.
They've got their head up in the air. They don't
see what's right at their feet. They don't see the problem that's right there. They don't see the
obstacle that's right there. Why? Because they're just looking out and they're just lifted up and they're
just, you know, sneering at everyone.
But the humble person, you know,
often, you know, if you want to just think about in terms of maybe sometimes body language, I'm not saying if
people don't exhibit this body language, they're not humble people, but you know sometimes
the way that might be expressed in body language is, you know, a person who's humble
you know, would kind of maybe slouch a little bit, their eye
would fall down. It would be, have more of a downcast
countenance, right? Well at least that person sees what's right in front of them.
At least that person sees the potential obstacles. At least that person
sees, well this could be something I stumble over. This is something I could fall over.
There's a cliff over here. There's a, you know, a precipice over here. There's something
that caused me to stumble and fall and be destroyed. At least the humble person
can see that, right?
They don't have their nose up in the air. They're not looking down on others. They're busy looking at
their own walk. They're busy looking at where their own footsteps are falling.
So the warning again
this morning is that pride can creep in. This is just one way we're looking at it.
One way we're looking at which it can creep in, right?
But the warning is, is that destruction
is what follows. That God judges proud people.
Look at verse 40 of Mark 12, who devour widows' houses and for
a pretense make long prayers, right? I didn't really touch on that too much, right?
They have the, you know, they have the long written out prayer,
you know. These shall receive greater
damnation. Greater damnation. There's some
people that are going to receive damnation, but these guys in particular, it's going to be
worse for them, okay? This is why the teaching that
all sin is equal is unbiblical. It's foolish to think that.
One, it's foolish to think that, you know, some minor infraction is the
same as creating, you know, committing some abomination, right?
They're not equal. That's why he says there's some people that have the
greater damnation, and the people in this chapter, this passage, that are
going to receive greater damnation than others are people that are filled with pride.
Now again, that
greater damnation could be referring to a person's eternal
soul, but it could be referring to just judgment
in general. Now if you would, go to Romans
13, Romans chapter number 13.
In Mark 3, for example, Jesus warns that those that
blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness,
but is in danger of what? Eternal damnation.
So not all damnation is necessarily referring to being cast into hell.
And that is eternal damnation, because once you go to hell, there's no getting out.
You know, the smoke of their torment got to send up forever and ever,
day and night, and forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, okay?
But there's other, you know, damnation could also just mean,
you know, judgment in this life. Look at some passages that
show us that. Look at Romans chapter 13, verse 2.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.
Right? Talking about the higher powers and forms of
governments, you know, municipalities, so on.
And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Right? Look, if you go out and break the law and get caught,
you're going to be judged. You're going to go before a judge. You're going to be given a citation.
Depending on exactly what it is that you do, there's going to be some form of damnation.
Right? You're going to be condemned. Okay?
You know, we don't really use that word damnation in the, you know,
in the same context that the Bible is using it. Okay?
But that's basically what he means by that. Showing us that even we
as believers can be, can come into condemnation.
That we can be condemned. That we can face damnation. That we can face
judgment. Not eternal damnation. We're saved. We're always
saved. We all get that, hopefully, this morning. And if you don't,
we'll talk about it. Come see me. But even we as believers
in this world, in this life, can be judged by God and we are still
subject to the same laws that everybody else are in this world.
You know, if I go out there this morning
and do 20 over the speed limit, like everybody
else in this town. Right? If I go out there
and do 20 over and get pulled over, you know, I can't just go, well, but I'm God's
child. I can't just go, I'm a Baptist minister.
I'm deacon Corbin Russell. Oh, oh,
oh, excuse me. Right? But there's some people that
they think that their status, their title, their standing will get them off the hook.
We've probably all seen the video of the guy who's doing
130 and some, you know, Hellcat or whatever gets pulled over by a state trooper.
And he's like, well, I'm an off duty officer. And he's like, I don't care.
Your career just ended. Right? Because that's reckless
endangerment. Anything, I think once you get to 20, it's reckless endangerment.
They could literally haul you off to jail for doing 20 over.
But some people think, well, you know, I've got a badge. I'm
just so special. I'm more important than other people. I had this
great standing. We've all seen the videos, you know, the councilmen, the
mayor, whatever gets pulled over for speeding and they, well, I run this town.
You know, you're in my payroll. No, you're still
subject to the same laws as everybody else. And look, just because we are saved and we
are God's children and there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit,
that, you know, we still can fall into condemnation if we walk after
the flesh in this life. From the ordinances
that are ordained of God, the ordinance of God, or
from God himself. If you would, go over to 1 Timothy chapter
5. 1 Timothy chapter number 5.
And really, you know, because
we are God's child, we're called to a higher standard.
Meaning, I believe that we that know God's will and
know the Bible and have been taught these things that that makes us
more accountable. That doesn't give us a free pass. We're actually
more capable of falling into greater damnation than say somebody else.
God might actually judge us harder because we are his children
than he would maybe some unsaved person.
You ever wonder why sometimes the wicked are getting, it seems like they're getting away
with everything that they're doing. But really, sometimes, often that's
the long suffering of God. God knows that that person's
end, if they don't get saved, is hell. And he's giving
them space to repent. He's giving them space to get right, to
knock those things off. He doesn't just always come down on them. Now, sometimes he does
I get that. Look, God's judging people literally every day in this world.
Every day people are being judged of God.
I'm just saying this morning that we, as God's people, as God's children,
we could be subject to greater damnation, not less.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 11, I'll just read
to you. I'm talking about the Lord's Supper. He says,
he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself. Meaning if we take the Lord's Supper
unworthily, having not examined ourselves, or we're treating it like
a flippant thing. The Bible says that we actually
drink damnation to ourselves, not discerning the Lord's body.
We're not being sincere.
I'm not going to go into all the time, into how that plays out, or
exactly what that means. The point is, is that Paul's saying here
that you can actually condemn yourself. You can eat and drink
damnation to yourself. You can actually bring the judgment
of God upon you if you eat the Lord's Supper without
discerning the Lord's body, if you eat unworthily.
So this is just another example of people, believers
being subject to damnation, or what you would call judgment. Look at 1 Timothy
5, verse 11. Of course, 1 Timothy 5 deals with widows
in large part. He says, but the younger, in verse 11,
but the younger widows refuse, for they have begun to wax wanton
against Christ they will marry. If you remember, he says that a widow should not be received under
three score, years old, had been the wife of one man,
well-reported of good works. If she had lodged strangers, if she had watched the saints beat,
if she had brought up children, it's not in that exact order,
she had been obedient unto every good work. She has to
have met certain criteria over the course of her life before the church would
financially support her. Even then, the Bible says that if any
children would have children or nephews, meaning grandchildren, nephews is
a grandchild in the Bible, that let them, meaning the children
and grandchildren, learn to show first piety at home and to
requite or repay their parents and even their grandparents. That's a biblical teaching.
That, you know, the Bible says we are to honor our parents. There is
a financial aspect to that, by the way. And look, I understand
we're living in a day and age where people set themselves up for retirement, they don't
have to rely on their children, but you know, Roth IRAs and 401Ks
and pension plans haven't been around for all of eternity. That's kind of a
recent development. It wasn't too long ago where
you worked until you couldn't work anymore and then you just relied
on your children and grandchildren to take care
of you and take you in. And that's actually a good, wholesome thing.
So hopefully my kids will do that for me one day.
I'm counting on it. That'd be nice.
And look, you say, man, what a drag I'm going to take your grandparents.
They're not going to be around that long. They're old.
What do you got, like 10, 15, maybe years? You've got the rest of your life without them.
And I'm kind of joking there, but you know, we would want, hopefully
if we were destitute, we'd want our family, especially those that we've raised,
those that we gave life to, whose little butts we
wiped and whose little mouths we fed, those that we clothed and sheltered all their lives
and protected to repay us in our old age. And it's
not even that big. I mean, what, do you got to give me a little corner of the room somewhere and
feed me my mush twice a day? It's not that big of a deal.
I don't know how I ended up going off on that. Yeah, first 75,
right? And he's saying this is the
requirement for widows to be taken into the number.
But he's saying refuse younger widows, those that are under
three score years old, because eventually they're going to wax wanton and
they're going to marry, look at verse 12, having damnation
because they have cast off their first faith.
Now that damnation there does not mean that they're going to be, they're going to go to hell.
God's going to judge them for that. If you would,
go over to, I don't know where I had you go last, but
go to John 19. Actually, you know what, go to 1 John 5.
I'll move through here a little more quickly.
I wasted my time making jokes about being old, but
it was worth it.
You know, certain, we as believers can actually bring
greater damnation in our lives. I'm just showing us this morning that damnation is something
that can happen to a believer, someone who's going to go to
heaven no matter what. They believed in Christ, they're eternal secure, they have the
sealing of the Holy Spirit unto the day of their redemption, they're saved,
but they can still be judged in this life. Paul warns
Christians about this in the Epistles, that you can still be judged
by God and you can fall into the greater condemnation, or as
Jesus said in John 19, that there's some people that have the greater sin.
Look at John 5 verse 16,
not all sin is equal. If any man see his brother sin of sin which is not unto
death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin
not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say
that he shall pray for it. You know, if we commit a sin that's actually punishable by
death, which the Bible has a list of many, of course, you know,
it's all dependent upon whether or not society, the government wants to
use the Bible as their source of law and
if they actually want to enforce these things, right, and back then it was probably a lot more
common, even up until recent history. He's saying, look,
if a brother in church or a brother in Christ, you know,
commits a sin that's actually unto death, we're not to just try and sweep
that under our, we're not going to pray for that and just say, well, you know, God forgive you for committing that sin,
right? Sins like adultery, sins like murder,
sins like rape, okay, there's certain sins that are a sin unto death
that even believers are capable of committing.
All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto
death, meaning there is a sin that's unto death, and I'm just showing us that there's degrees
of sin here. Go to Luke 12, Luke chapter number 12.
So, hopefully everyone gets that, you know,
we can all come into condemnation, we can all come to damnation,
and look, we're all going to be chastened of God. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter
number 12 that God chasteneth every son who receiveth,
right? Whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you are bastards
and not sons, okay? That if you're God's child, you become
a child of God, a son of God, a daughter of God, you're going
to go through chastisement, chastening to some degree or another. Why?
Because God punishes sin, period.
And we're all sinners.
We all are going to commit sin. But here's the thing, what we don't want to be guilty
of is greater damnation. There's some people that are going to be more harshly judged
than others, and you say, what's that going to be based upon?
It's going to be based upon what they know, what they've
been taught. They're going to be held accountable for the things
that they have been taught, I believe, out of the word of God, okay?
Look here in Luke chapter 12 verse 42, the Bible says,
and the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord shall make
ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord
when he cometh shall find so doing. You know, the blessed servant
is the guy that's doing the will of God when God comes and finds him.
God looks in on him, the Lord looks on him, hey, that guy's busy doing what I commanded.
Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make
him ruler over all that he hath. You shall be exalted,
he shall be given grace. Verse 45,
but, and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord
delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens and to eat
and drink and to be drunken. Just starts living for the flesh,
just starts mistreating others, I mean, starts beating
the men servants and the maidens, which is basically like young women
and girls, you know, just violently beating
them, beating a bully, I mean, why would anyone do that? Pride.
Pride.
Pride that says I am better than somebody, it's okay for me to mistreat them
and mishandle them and treat them poorly because they're beneath me.
That's pride.
Or, you know, they start getting into just the sins of the flesh,
the eating and drinking, right, they're just being given over
this, you know, hedonism, they're just living for the flesh to be
drunken, okay. The Lord of that servant
will come in a day when he looketh not for him.
Oh, God's not going to judge me, look out.
I'm not doing anything wrong, God's not going to
look at me, don't listen to that preacher,
don't listen, you know, my parents are full of it, they were trying to, eh, whatever.
Yeah, you know what, God's going to show up and judge you in a day when it's going to
come out of the blue when you're not even looking for it. That's how
judgment happens.
He'll looketh not for him at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him asunder and will point him
as portion with the unbelievers. And that servant
which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not
himself, neither did according to his will shall be
beaten with many stripes, okay. So he's saying that that
guy that mistreats and is full of pride and just living for the flesh
and mishandling others, thinks he's better than other people, mistreating them,
he's going to be judged in an hour when he thinks not, he's going to be cut asunder
and he's going to be, his portion is going to be that of the
unbeliever, okay. Now some people take this to mean that that person really wasn't
saved, it's a parable, I don't think that you can really say that with any certainty
but what I believe you can say based upon other scriptures
is that that person, you know, that servant of God
is going to have his portion with the unbelievers.
What's an unbeliever's portion from God? It's nothing. They don't get
anything from God. They get damnation, they get condemnation,
they're going to get the same thing in terms of reward that an unbeliever gets.
Nothing. They're not going to get the blessing
of God. And that servant which knew his Lord's will
and prepared not himself, what's the problem with this guy? He knew the Lord's will
and prepared not himself. He knew what the Bible said.
He had heard biblical preaching, they had heard sound preaching, they've been
taught the Bible in the home, they've been taught the Bible at church and they said
no thank you, not for me. I reject that.
And they did, neither did according his will shall be beaten with many stripes.
Not just beaten, right, but with many stripes.
Which is basically like being
whipped, that's what he's talking about.
The Bible says, you know, a rod for the back of fools. Verse
48, but he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes
and he did the same things, but the only difference is
one guy knew the Lord's will and one guy didn't know the Lord's will.
He shall be beaten with few stripes. Is he still going to be beaten? Yes.
But it's not going to be the greater damnation, the greater
condemnation, it's not going to be the greater judgment or punishment
that comes upon him from God. It's going to be less.
It's going to be fewer stripes. Look, no stripes is what's preferable.
It's better to just not be beaten at all.
We want to keep God's judgment to a minimum in our lives.
It's going to be there, we're all going to slip up, we're all going to be making mistakes and yet God's
going to show grace and mercy too and maybe God sometimes will look at us and see the things
that we're doing and whatever and maybe based upon our past behavior
give us a pass from time to time. But look, if we're
someone who knows God's will and refuses to do it or does
things contrary to God's will, it's just a matter of time
until that person is beaten and perhaps even destroyed by God.
Why would God destroy anybody?
Well because God is a God that judges and if you don't think that God wouldn't judge his own people
you haven't read the Bible. I mean that's
basically the overarching theme of
the Old Testament. God's people falling into sin, being judged,
getting right, falling into sin, getting judged, getting right, I mean that's basically
you know, what the Old Testament's about.
Broadly speaking. And God
judges his own people more severely than he would even somebody
an unbeliever who does not know the Lord's will. They're ignorant.
He that knew not
and did commit things with his stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto
whosoever much is given of him shall much be
required. Who to whoever is given much of him shall much be
required. You know if you're sitting under sound biblical
preaching, if you're being taught the Bible especially from your youth, you
have been given much.
You've been given far more than a lot of other people in this life.
You know it's always so just
frustrating when you see Christian
young people, people who are brought up in a godly home who despise
their father, despise their mother, and throw away everything that they've been
taught from their youth. And look I've known multiple
people like this over the years. I've known people like this over the decades
that I've been a Christian. I've seen this play out over and over and over again. People who
grow up in a godly environment, not perfect parents, not
sinless parents, but parents that did their
best to shield them and protect them from the filth of this world
that did their best to be godly examples and to teach them the word
of God, to bring them to a church where they can
receive sound biblical preaching and then they just throw it all away.
And they just go headlong into the world. And they think foolishly
in their pride that they're going to get away with it. But the Bible says
that to whomsoever much has been given of him shall much be
required. And I'm just saying this
morning if you know the Lord's will you've been given much.
And his commandments are not grievous. It's a
nice thing to know the Lord's will. I wish I had learned
a lot of it much earlier on in life. It would have spared me some
problems. It would have spared me some heartache
to have known the Lord's will earlier on in life.
Knowing the Lord's will is a good thing.
It's a privilege.
It's a blessing. It's being given much.
And we this morning, all of us in this room who know what the Bible
says about things, if we refuse to do those things, if we go contrary, we go
against it, we have no excuse whatsoever.
We might have a reason and it's probably pride.
And pride goeth before destruction. I mean if we know what
the Bible says and we do the opposite
and then God asks us, well why are you doing contrary to my word?
What answer are you going to have for him that's going to say, oh I can understand. Well I see where you're coming from.
You don't have one. You don't have an excuse. There is no excuse.
At least the unsaved, unregenerate
person who's never had the privilege, the opportunity, the advantage
of being taught the word of God at least has the excuse of, well I didn't know
that. And I understand according to Romans 2 that
the heathen that know not God have the law of God written in their hearts.
I'm not saying that they're still going to be beaten with stripes but not as many as the person
who knows the Lord's will and does it not and rejects it.
And you know
if you're sitting there and you think, well I don't believe any of that. I don't believe that what he's saying
in Luke 12 is true. Well stand by.
You know, judgment is loading.
The little wheel is spinning. And you know
sometimes people think they're getting away with it and it's because God is long
suffering and merciful. God's not
standing up there just waiting for you. You're like, oh just step out of line one time. It's like
get you. But the problem is a lot of times is that
people don't just step out of line and get back in line. They step out of line
and they get as much distance between them and that line as they can.
They just go running in the complete opposite direction. And that's the
person who God eventually has to just smack down.
God
chastens his sons. God chastens his children. And those of us that know
the Lord's will, we're actually more accountable to God than those that don't.
If you would
go over to, go to Psalm
103. We'll end there. I want to make this last point in
closing.
There are some people in this world that are going to receive greater damnation
than others. We saw it this morning in the passage.
Right? They make pretense
for pretense they make long prayers. They devour widows' houses.
They love the chief priests. Now these scribes, these Pharisees that were described
in the chapter this morning, Mark 12. Jesus said
of them, these shall receive greater damnation.
Those people were worthy of more punishment than others.
And we saw that even God's own people
are still subject to God's judgment in this life.
And that those that know the Lord's will and do it
not are going to be held more accountable than others
who don't do God's will but are ignorant of it.
Who have been given much, more shall be required of them, not less.
And that God is a God that chastens his children without exception.
And that even we as
human beings, you know, in the institution of the
church, in the institution of the family, even we have to exercise
judgment. Even we have to exercise condemnation
upon other people. 1 Corinthians 5 is a great
example of that. And elsewhere in scripture where people can do certain things
where they're actually kicked out of church and as Paul
put it, they are delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That's damnation.
That's condemnation. That's judgment of a believer. You're guilty of these
certain sins. You can't come to church here. You're kicked out so that
Satan will destroy you and your flesh. But the
hope is that person will repent and get right.
You know, we should understand first of all, you know, we're all
brethren. One master, the one master we have
is Christ. And we are all brethren.
And what I want us to understand is that we're all capable of greater damnation from
God. There's none of us in this room that's exempt from that.
And that, you know, when we see somebody that is headed
towards the judgment of God, we should not be happy about that.
We should not have an attitude of, yeah, serves them right. Look,
it does serve them right. They get everything that's coming to them.
But it's God that's going to determine exactly what that is, not us.
And we should not take pleasure
in the fact that somebody is going to be judged by God.
That's a sad thing. It's an unfortunate thing.
In fact, Paul told the Corinthians
in 2 Corinthians, referring to that same person that he had before
in 1 Corinthians said to be delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the
flesh, he then had to encourage the Corinthians in his second letter to
receive him back because he got right with God. You know, maybe he started
to feel that destruction coming upon him. Maybe Satan started getting a hold of him.
Maybe he realized, he certainly realized, what he did was wrong
and he repented. He got that sin out of his life. And Paul said that he was
to be received again into the church. That's the purpose of church discipline.
You know, sometimes people, because we practice this here.
And thankfully here in Tucson, we've never had to practice it
that I can remember. Maybe one time.
But, you know, it's something I've seen up in the Tempe location
over the years. And we will practice it here. I'm not saying, oh, we're different.
No, we're on the same page. Fornication,
drunkenness, covetousness, all these things, extortion,
you know, sowing discord among the brethren, walking disorderly,
you know, these things will get you kicked out of church. And we'll practice
it here. But it's not like, I'm, you know, I'm going to go tally
you up if that happened to you. Like, yeah, got him.
Right? That's the wrong attitude. You know, and
people accuse our church of being unloving for practicing a biblical practice
called church discipline. But the reason that
we do that is, one, to protect the flock. Because a little leaven leavens the whole
lump. If you just let someone come in who's committing
fornication and being a drunkard, taking drugs,
and just not kicking that person out, you know, you're tolerant of sin. It's going to spread
in a church. Other young people can say, oh, so and so can get away with it.
Why can't I? What they need to be shown is that, no, we don't
tolerate that. And in fact, that person is headed for the judgment of God.
And I would rather them to be judged by God out there in the world
than here in this church. I don't want to be collateral judgment
you know, in somebody else's collateral damage
excuse me, in somebody else's judgment.
But again, we know we're not to be gleeful over that, happy about that, because
the point is to bring somebody back. He said in Saint Corinthians,
sufficient unto such a man is the punishment which was inflicted
of many. You did your duty. You did what you were supposed to do. It's sufficient.
You don't need to go above and beyond what the Bible says. So that contrary
wise, you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him.
And I've known people over the years that have committed sins that have gotten
them kicked out of church, sometimes more than once even,
and have been welcomed back and forgiven and those things should never be brought up to them
again. And we've practiced that here and those people have gone on
and to this day are continuing to live godly, they're not perfect,
no one is, but living godly Christian lives, they're having families,
they've gotten those sins out of their life, and they've moved on. Why? Because one, they
were warned, they were punished, and then they got right and they were forgiven and
comforted and given a second chance. Sometimes
a third chance. Less perhaps
one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. You know, sometimes people
they get punished, you know, if they're not too filled with pride, they get humbled by god,
they get punished, and then they realize, well, you know, I see now, I was wrong,
I want to go back, I want to make this right. But what if they were trying to go back
and say, hey, you know, I cleaned that up, can I come back? And we were just like, no, never again.
That person might despair and then just go even further
into sin. He said, I beseech you, Paul said, to confirm
your love toward him. That's the purpose of church discipline.
Okay?
God will condemn, God does damn, God does judge.
And not just the unbeliever who goes to hell, but even
his own people. You know, judgment must begin in the house of God.
Unto whosoever much is given, shall much also be required.
But I had you
go to Psalm 103. If you look at verse 8,
the Bible says the Lord is merciful and gracious
and slow to anger and plenteous
in mercy. And we should never be on a hair trigger
to condemn somebody. We should never be on a hair trigger
to just cast somebody out. It should be
something that's done slowly and after
space has been given, after mercy has been shown, and after grace has been given.
I believe that. Now look, sometimes it has to be
swift judgment, I understand that. Someone's preaching some heretical
doctrine, someone's going around, you know, sowing discord, someone's trying to split a church,
you know, that person needs to be thrown out immediately.
But some people, you know, they need to be given space to repent.
I mean, good night. Jesus even said in the book of Revelation when he was writing
on the seven churches of Jezebel who taught his saints to
commit fornication, that it says even of her,
she was in the church teaching the saints to commit fornication.
Even her, Jesus said, but I gave her space to repent.
He gave her a season of time to get it right.
You know, God is merciful, God is gracious, God is slow
to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide,
neither will he keep his anger forever. God gets
angry, but he doesn't always stay angry.
You know, if we come under the judgment of
God or somebody else comes under the judgment of God, you know, let's not
be happy about that and let's not, you know,
commit to just staying angry at that person forever. Let's open pray
that people get things right. Because yeah, there's
going to be people that we know, people that are
worthy of greater damnation, but I'm not wishing that
upon them. I'm not, you know,
I'm scared for people that fall into that category.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Because you don't know what form that judgment is going to take. I mean, think about all the different ways
that God can judge us. Because it's not going to be a lightning bolt from heaven,
although that would be kind of cool.
That would be hard to deny, unless you're Jim Caviezel, right, who was literally
hit by a lightning bolt twice when he was wrongfully
and sinfully portraying Christ in the movie The Passion. By his own admission, he says
he was hit by a lightning bolt during the crucifixion scene.
He was electrocuted. And his stupidity
was like, you know, I just assumed God was just trying to teach me what it was like to suffer.
There's other ways, Jim.
Right, you rank Catholic. He needs to
repent. I don't know what the, anyway. It's not always
going to be, you know, a lightning bolt unless you're Jim, okay? Jim Caviezel.
No offense to Jims, right? You're okay.
It could take all kinds of different forms. And sometimes I think, sometimes I think
people assume that it's going to be this great
big dramatic thing that God does in their life when he judges them.
That when God is actually judging them in some other way, like some ordinary
commonplace way, that they don't even recognize it.
And I'm not saying every single thing that happens to somebody, if it's bad
or negative, is the judgment of God. But it might be. That's for them to
figure out. That's for them to search their hearts and pray about and wonder about
and talk to God. It very well may be. But I mean
that's, my point is that it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.
And when you're worthy of greater damnation, that's a scary place to be.
And I don't take joy or pleasure in seeing people
being put in that position. It's not good.
I don't want to, you know, to the merciful that he will show mercy.
I want to be a merciful person. I want to be a forgiving person.
I want to be a long suffering person. I'm not saying I don't ever want to be angry or upset.
But I want to be slow to anger. And I want to be quick to forgive.
And I don't want my anger to go on forever. When people have been punished,
when people have gotten right, when people have gotten upset, you know, they need to be forgiven
and it needs to be forgotten and they need to be able to live those things down and move on with their life.
And it's, because it's scary to think about
all the different ways that God, who the Bible says
holds your breath in his hand.
I mean there's been people, I mean go,
there's been an eye in Sapphira lying to the Holy Spirit at church and just
drop dead. They just, right there.
Was it cardiac arrest? No, they just died. Did they have a brain aberration?
No, the Bible says they just died. That the Holy Spirit just killed them right there
on the spot. I mean God could just take your spirit right
out of you just that quick. He's God. And your breath is in his hand.
And I understand that's an extreme example, but it's
in Scripture for a reason as a warning to the rest of us
that there's no way in which God cannot
touch you. And we're not going to get away with it.
And if we take the long suffering and the mercy and the grace
and the forgiveness of God for granted, and if we
willingly and just disobey
God and if we just forsake the things that we've been taught
we are going to be held to a greater damnation. We are going to be held to
a higher standard. More is going to be required of us and as a result
we shall be beaten with more stripes at whatever way those stripes come to
our lives. We're all, all of us are subject
to this fact. So when somebody else is put in that position
don't get all like, heh heh heh heh, so and so's
got it coming. Yeah, they do. And it's sad.
And it's unfortunate. And hopefully it leads to the
proper conclusion of the matter where they recognize that they've
done wrong, repent, get right with God, and don't just sit
under the greater damnation of God for the rest of their lives to the point where they're destroyed.
Why would we wish that on anyone, let alone
one of our own brethren, a child of God?
Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you for
your patience. Thank you for your long suffering. Thank you for your mercy, Lord.
We all need it. Every single one of us, Lord. We all have sin. We all have
shortcomings. We all have rebellion in our hearts.
Lord, we all, to some degree or another, depending on where
our background is or where we've been, we've all learned something from the word of God.
At least this, this morning, that we are accountable to you
and that you are a God who judges in the earth and that you will chasten your
children. And Lord, I pray you'd help us to be a merciful
people, Lord, so that we can have mercy from you. And Lord,
I pray that you would work in the lives of those that have put themselves
squarely in the
cross hairs of your judgment, Lord, that you would, as Habakkuk
prayed, Lord, in wrath remember mercy. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.
Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song.
Alright, could you please turn your song books to song number
66. We'll sing
song number 66 at Calvary, and then song number 66.
...