This chapter in our hearts that you would speak to us tonight in a way that we would understand what you'd have us to do and have us to learn, dear God.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Matthew chapter 15 starts out, and some of this is a little bit repetitious with chapter 13 and 14.
I think a lot of that is just because God is trying to emphasize to us these great truths.
And so a little bit of chapter 15 is a repeat of what we saw in chapters 13 and 14.
Right away in chapter 15, Jesus is confronted again by the Pharisees, very similar to last time when he was in the temple,
and there was a man which had his hand withered, and they asked him,
is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? And they wanted to accuse him and get him into trouble.
And he proved to them that, look, your tradition is what's wrong.
You're interpreting the Bible based on your tradition.
You're going by the teachings of men that you've added to the Bible,
and that's confusing you to where you think even I'm a sinner.
You think me and my disciples are breaking the Sabbath day
because we walk up and eat a piece of corn while we walk through the field.
Because I healed somebody on the Sabbath day, you don't understand the Bible
because your mind is so polluted by all this outside tradition of the elders
that you're putting above the things of God.
Now, I want to say this. You must be very careful. What influences you?
You've got to be careful when you start getting these commentaries,
you know, you start getting these theological books,
and I don't care if it's by some great preacher of the past,
I don't care if it's by some theologian.
You must be very careful that this book has the supreme place,
and I would recommend that this book has the only place.
Jesus said if you have this book, he said you have the Holy Spirit,
he said you need not that any man teach you.
The anointing which you have received of him is truth and teaches you of all things.
So, you and the Holy Spirit in the Bible is going to give you the best interpretation of the Bible.
But when you start bringing in all this outside reading of theological books,
commentaries, notes, and things like that, that's where you can get confused.
The Bible says God having due times manifested his word through preaching.
So, preaching is something that God wants us to do to preach the Bible,
but not some kind of another book that's chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3,
some laid out theological treatise could confuse you.
Now, look at chapter 15, verse number 1, it says,
Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
Why did thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?
For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
But he answered and said unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
You see, they were upset at his disciples for not washing their hands before they ate.
Now, is there anywhere in the entire Old Testament that says that you must wash your hands before you eat?
No. Nowhere in the Bible in the whole Old Testament does it ever say,
Before you eat a meal, you must wash your hands.
Now, the Bible is very clear, after you touch something dirty, you're supposed to wash your hands.
But not necessarily every time before you eat.
But again, in their tradition, they had to wash their hands every time they eat.
Now, here's what I want to explain to you about the Pharisees.
We saw this before about the Sabbath day.
Or we saw it before when he talked to them about divorce and everything like that.
But it's very clearly evidence in this chapter.
Most people are confused about who the Pharisees were.
They think that the Pharisees were people who were very strict.
And they were always trying to be just so strict.
But Jesus was always telling them, No, no, no, no, no, don't be so strict.
You know, you guys have to just calm down, mellow out.
You know, you're trying to just keep the letter of the law.
Hey, relax a little. It's just the heart that counts. That's all.
But look, that's not what it is at all.
Every time the Pharisees are coming to Jesus, they're always trying to accuse someone else.
But they're always, always making it easy on themselves.
And they're always finding loopholes in what God has commanded.
Think about it. They're coming to him saying, Can a man divorce his wife for every cause?
They're saying, What can I get away with?
What are the excuses that are acceptable for me to be able to divorce my wife?
Now, look, that doesn't seem like somebody who's being overly strict.
It seems like somebody who's trying to find some kind of a loophole.
And that's what Jesus said, that they bind heavy burdens on men.
They would preach a lot of hard things.
And we're going to see a little later about that.
But they preach a lot of hard things.
But they were constantly having an inconsistent standards
where they themselves were always finding loopholes for God's work.
Look at the illustration here, and let's see who's being more strict, Jesus or the Pharisees.
This is what he brings up. He says, Okay, you think my disciples are transgressing your little tradition?
You're transgressing the Bible, he's saying, with your tradition.
Look at verse number 4.
For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother,
and he that curseth father or mother, let him die to death.
But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother,
It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me,
and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free.
Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Now, look, in this case, there's a commandment of God saying to honor your father and mother,
and the Pharisees had created by their tradition a loophole
where a man would no longer have to honor his father and mother if he went through this process.
Now, look, Jesus is the one who's saying you must obey the letter of God's word.
The Pharisee is the one who's trying to find a loophole and a way out of it.
Now, let me explain to you what he's talking about here.
The word honor in the Bible, and if you study this throughout the Bible,
you'll see the word honor is a little bit different than our word today, honor.
The word honor has to do with supporting them financially.
You'll find this throughout the Bible.
If you get a concordance and look up at the word honor throughout the Bible,
you'll see that the word honor has to do with financial support.
Because, for example, the word honor, here's where it comes from.
It comes from a root word which means weight.
And so honor is when you give someone the weight and importance that they deserve.
Like today, if we honored them, you say, boy, he's a very important person.
A weighty matter in the Bible is something that's important.
And so weighing money comes from the same word, honor,
because that's what all forms of money in the Old Testament are based on, weights.
Shekel is a weight, and that's the money that they use.
Look if you went to Hebrews chapter 13, and I'll show you this word honor,
what I'm talking about a little bit.
Oh, no, I'm sorry. I'm in the wrong chapter.
It's in 1 Timothy chapter number 5.
I'm sorry. That was a different thing about honor.
But look at 1 Timothy chapter number 5,
and it says in verse number 16, and this is talking about money.
It's talking about supporting widows. It's talking about finances.
It says, if any man or woman that believeth have widows, this is 1 Timothy 5, 16,
let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged,
that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.
Look at this. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in the Word and doctrine,
for the Scriptures say it, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,
and the laborer is worthy of his reward.
So when the Bible says here about counting the elder that rules well of double honor,
it's talking about giving him his reward for his work that he's done,
and it's talking about not muzzling the ox that treadeth out the corn.
You can look at the same passage. I don't have time to turn to all these, but in 2 Corinthians.
He says, again, he says, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.
They that preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
And here he uses the word honoring the elder as far as giving him his paycheck.
And in 2 Corinthians, he uses a different term, but it's the same concept here.
And I don't have time to show, but study that word honor.
Look it up throughout the Bible. You'll see that it's associated with money many times.
Now, of course, Paul did not receive a paycheck as a preacher.
I don't receive a paycheck because I work my own job, I pay my tithes just like you do,
and I choose not to do that. And Paul chose not to do that.
And so God doesn't say you must take a paycheck,
but he just says that many preachers are supported by the church, and that's fine.
That's the way that he intended it.
Now, look, in Matthew chapter 15, if you're still there,
look at verse number 5, and I'll show you what he means here.
He says, you must honor your father and mother.
And then it says, but you say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother,
it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me.
You see the money there again, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me?
It says, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free.
Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
He's saying, and I don't really understand this culture and everything,
and I studied this in all the different Gospels where it's mentioned,
and I've come to the conclusion that it was something about where they would say it is a gift,
or it's almost like they were going to give the money to church or something.
I don't understand what it means, to be honest with you.
But I will say this, they had some kind of a loophole
where they no longer had to support their parents financially
because they would just say it's a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me.
The money that I should be using to take care of you and honor you in your old age,
I'm not going to do it.
And they were able to get off the hook on that for some reason.
Now look, that sounds like somebody's trying to tone down what God is saying
because God is commanding a clear-cut command, honor thy father and mother,
and they're making it complicated by saying, well, unless he says this and does this,
then he can get out of it, and then he'll be free from that.
And so the Pharisees always have inconsistent rules,
and they're always trying to get off the hook and not obey God's rules.
Look on further. He says, you hypocrites, in verse 7.
Well, the desires prophesy of you, saying,
This people draw up nigh unto me with their mouth, and onereth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
But look at this in verse 9.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
He says, listen, they worship me in vain.
They're always talking about me.
The Pharisees are always talking about God and the Lord and Jehovah and God,
but he says it's in vain because they're not preaching my commandments.
Yes, they're very strict about what they believe,
about washing your hands, which I never even cared about,
but he says they're very lenient when it comes to the things that I actually commanded.
What does it mean to teach for doctrines the commandments of men?
Well, think about clothing. You think about clothing issues like a woman's clothing.
Well, what does the Bible say about a woman's clothing?
Well, you can study throughout the Bible and study the term nakedness and see what nakedness means,
and God says that exposing your thighs is nakedness.
That's what he says.
He says that between your loins and your thighs on a man, that's nakedness.
He says that a woman who shows her thigh is exposing her nakedness.
Now, look, that is a commandment of God.
Now, I went to a liberal Christian school when I was growing up.
When I was in eighth, ninth, tenth grade, I went to a particular...
It was called Victory Christian School in Sacramento.
Totally a liberal school, non-denominational school,
but they sucked in a lot of independent Baptists for some reason,
and I went to this school, and this is the rule that they had.
At school, you had to wear a knee-length skirt if you're a girl,
but at camp, they could wear what was called fingertip-length shorts,
so at school, it was one rule, and then at camp, it was a different rule
because they could never go above the knee at school,
but as soon as they went to camp, it became fingertip-length.
Now, look, fingertip-length is when a girl...
And just look, I'm putting my fingers by my side.
These are pretty short shorts.
Okay, by the way, this is the rule that the public school has, fingertip-length,
and it's not a very modest rule.
Look at my hand right now where it is when I put my fingers down by the side.
This is how short the girls' shorts were allowed to be.
Now, look, is there anywhere in the Bible that denotes this line right here
halfway up a woman's thigh and says this is where the line is?
No, that is teaching for commandments of God the doctrines of men.
He's saying, look, you've gone ahead and done away with my rule,
and you've made your own little rules that have nothing to do with the Bible.
Look, you've got to decide what you believe about standards from the Bible
and then just exercise it all the way across with no exceptions.
Look, if you don't like my standards, then come up with your own standards,
but get them from the Bible.
Don't come up with some standard about fingertip-length.
Look, if you're going to go fingertip-length,
just have the shortest shorts you possibly can,
because you know what, neither of those lengths are in the Bible.
The only length that God talks about is down to your knee covering your thigh.
So either obey it or disobey it,
but don't say it's wrong to have shorter than fingertip-length.
You're making stuff up. You're a Pharisee.
The Pharisee is not the preacher that's strict and straight down the line, no exceptions.
The Pharisee is the one who makes all the exceptions and says,
at school we have one rule, at camp we have another.
Think about this. You know, movies.
Is it right to watch Hollywood movies?
Now, I don't believe it's right to watch Hollywood movies,
so I'm neither going to go to the theater and watch a movie,
nor am I going to rent a movie and play it in my house.
Yet there are independent fundamental Baptist preachers and churches all over
that say it is wrong to go to the movies.
Yet they will rent movies.
They'll rent the same movies that are played at the movies.
Either the exact same movie, they'll rent it and bring it home.
And I'm scratching my head thinking, is the movie right or wrong?
I mean, is it right or is it wrong to watch this movie?
Why is it right to watch it at home versus watching it there?
Look, if you want to watch movies, go watch all the movies you want.
But don't tell me that it's wrong to go to the theater
and then it's right to bring it in your home.
Either they're both wrong or they're both right.
See, Phariseeism is saying, I will determine my own rules
based on what I want to believe is right and wrong.
I will make exceptions to God's rules.
In this case, it's okay.
In this case, it's not okay, because that's what I've decided.
And that's wrong.
God says you're a Pharisee when you have traditional rules
that don't come from the Word of God.
He says, look, if the Bible doesn't say that you don't have to wash your hands
before every meal, don't attack somebody for not washing their hands,
because I didn't command that.
That's your little rule.
And he says, and I did command honor thy father and mother.
I did command that if your mother is a widow,
you will financially support her, because I commanded that.
He said if you're a man, and this is in I Timothy 5 where we were,
if you're a man and your mother is a widow,
he says you must support her or else you're like an unbeliever.
You're worse than an infant elf.
You should support your own family.
He said if you're a woman and your mother is a widow,
then you and your husband should support your mother if she's a widow,
because he says that's what I've commanded you to do.
And don't say korban, it says in another Gospel,
or it is a gift and have some little cop-out
where you don't have to take care of your parents in their old age
when they're widowed or crippled or whatever.
Don't just make the government support or stick them in some home somewhere.
He's saying look, take care of your family members.
And he's saying I don't care what your tradition says,
a man owes his parents something, period.
Honor thy father and mother is the truth.
He must owe his parents something whether you like it or not.
And so that's the Pharisees. That's what they're about.
You'll see this all throughout the Bible.
They're constantly making exceptions for themselves,
and they're constantly putting these heavy burdens on other people
of things that are not commanded in God's Word.
The things that I preach from the Bible,
when I preach on standards, I always try to prove them from the Bible.
I don't just get up and preach that a woman shouldn't wear pants
without taking them to the Bible and showing them where it says
that a woman should not wear men's clothing
and a man should not put on a woman's garment.
I'm not going to get up and preach against the movies
without going to the Bible and showing you why you shouldn't go to the movies
or watch the movies
and showing you that the Bible talks about not fellowshipping with the world
and so forth and on and on and on.
Now look, if you would, at verse number 10.
And He called the multitude and said unto them,
Hear and understand.
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man,
referring to them eating food without washing their hands,
getting a little bit of dirt in their mouth, perhaps.
He says, Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man,
but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Then came His disciples and said unto them,
Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this song?
I said, this always cracks me up.
Every time I've ever read this, I laugh.
This is when I'm reading the Bible.
I just start laughing.
I can just picture Jesus gets up and preaches and says,
Hey, listen, you hypocrites,
was it as I prophesy of you saying,
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth
and honoureth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
He says, But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
And He gets up and gets everybody together
so that everybody can hear Him rebuke the Pharisees.
He calls the multitude and said unto them,
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man,
but that which cometh out of the mouth.
And then they come up to Him and say,
Jesus, do you realize that you offended the Pharisees?
He's thinking, you know, what does He care?
It's just funny that they're coming to Jesus Christ,
God Himself in the flesh and saying,
Do you realize you offended the Pharisees?
He didn't care. He was going to preach the truth anyway.
Look at this, though.
And you'll find out why the Pharisees never understood this
and learn this.
He's saying, look, in verse number 13,
But He answered and said,
Every plan which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
They're saying, Aren't you concerned that you offended the Pharisees?
He's explaining to them right now why He doesn't care.
He's explaining to them right now why they always run into Him
because He says they're not saved.
That's what He's saying.
Go back a few chapters when we were in Matthew 13
and we talked about it.
Remember we talked about the ones that the Father planted?
That was the children of the kingdom.
And the ones that the wicked one planted?
That was the children of the devil.
And He says, look, every plant which My Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
He says, look, they are not of God.
The Pharisees are not planted by God.
The Pharisees are not saved.
And that's why they don't understand My preaching.
That's why I don't give a rip what they think about what I'm preaching
because they're not even saved.
And if they'd get saved, they'd understand these things.
They don't understand the Bible because they're not saved.
In the previous chapter, He said they hear and hear not,
and they see and perceive not,
lest any time they should hear with their ears and see with their eyes
and perceive with their hearts to be converted and I should heal them.
He says they don't understand.
They don't have a clue.
And you must understand unsaved people just don't understand the things of God.
The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness unto them.
And he cannot receive them because they're spiritually discerned.
And so He's saying, look, every plant which My Heavenly Father hath not planted
shall be rooted up.
Let them alone.
He says, you're wasting your time trying to argue with these people.
Let them alone.
They'd be blind leaders of the blind.
And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
He says, look, nuts to them.
They don't understand Me.
They don't understand what I'm preaching.
Don't argue with them.
Don't argue with unsaved people about doctrine.
Get them saved because that's the only hope for them.
The only hope for them is to get them born again and saved,
and then they won't be blind anymore.
Then they'll be able to see.
Then their eyes will be opened.
And then you'll be able to come to an agreement with them.
He says, then answered Peter and said unto him,
Declare unto us this parable.
And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
He says, I can't believe that you don't understand this concept.
Do not ye understand that whatsoever entereth in it the mouth
goeth into the belly, this is verse 17,
and is cast out into the draft.
He's saying, look, when you eat food,
whatever you eat, whether it's dirty, your hands are dirty,
he says, look, it goes into your stomach
and it's gone 24 hours later is what he's saying,
going out into the draft.
But those things which proceed out of the mouth
come forth from the heart and they defile the man.
You see, all throughout the Bible you find a huge emphasis
on words that come out of somebody's mouth.
Sometimes we're so careless with what we say, with how we talk.
But all throughout the Bible you find a huge emphasis
on the words that come out of your mouth.
Look, how did you get saved?
You believed in your heart, but then words came out of your mouth
and you confessed with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead
and you were saved.
Remember, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,
for by thy words thou shalt be justified
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
God puts a huge emphasis on what comes out of your mouth.
He says, look, they're so worried about cleanliness,
far more important than that
is what comes out of a man's mouth.
And look what he says here.
He says, by the way, what comes out of your mouth
reveals what's in your heart.
You can tell what's in somebody's heart.
You say, well, I don't know their heart.
You've heard people say that.
Well, only God knows their heart.
Well, listen to what comes out of their mouth
and you'll know their heart.
That's what Jesus said.
Because he said out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh.
And so if you want to know somebody's heart
then listen to the words that come out of their mouth
and you'll learn their heart.
He says right here,
but those things which proceed out of the mouth,
in verse 18, come forth from the heart
and they defile the man.
Look at verse number 19.
He gives a list of seven things
that come out of somebody's mouth
and that are in somebody's heart
that are defiling them,
that Jesus feels like these are the seven things
that are the big problems
that we should be worried about.
Look at these.
Number one, he says,
but those things which proceed out of the mouth
come from the heart and they defile the man,
for out of the heart proceed,
number one, evil thoughts.
Evil thoughts.
Now what does the word evil mean?
Well, the word evil is often misunderstood
because God does evil.
Did you know that?
The Bible says in Amos chapter 5,
is there an evil in the city
and the Lord hath not done it?
And the Bible says God repented of the evil
that he thought to do unto the children of Israel.
God was going to do evil to the children of Israel.
And the book of Amos says that God did evil to people
because the word evil does not mean sin.
This is the difference between evil.
There are two words in the Bible that are opposite words.
They're antonyms, good and evil.
Those are the two antonyms, good and evil.
Now if you study throughout the Bible,
you'll find out that sin is when you disobey God's law.
God has all these rules in here
and when you disobey one of his rules,
if you steal, if you lie, if you cheat,
if you whatever,
you disobey God's law, you transgress the law, you've sinned.
Evil is not the same as sin.
Study the Bible.
Evil is when you hurt someone else.
Now there are times when God hurts people
and that's why the Bible talks about God doing evil sometimes.
Evil is when you hurt someone else
and good is when you benefit someone else.
See there's a difference between righteousness and good.
Righteousness is the opposite of sin.
Righteousness is when you obey God's law and do right.
Sin is when you disobey God's law and do wrong.
But see the words good and evil have a slightly different meaning.
Good is something that you do toward someone else.
Evil is something that you do toward someone else.
So God did evil to people when he destroys them.
When he damns people to hell, he's doing them evil.
But is he sinning? Of course not, because God doesn't sin.
Yet God does do evil because he does hurt people
for their benefit or when they deserve it and so forth.
And so evil thoughts, that's malicious thoughts.
That's what evil thoughts are.
It's malicious thoughts that you have about someone else.
It's when you think evil of somebody,
when you want to hurt somebody,
when you want to get revenge on somebody,
when you want to vindicate yourself against somebody.
And remember the Bible we saw in Matthew chapter 5 said,
The meek, bless on the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Meekness is when somebody does wrong to you, somebody hurts you,
somebody blasphemes you and speaks ill of you behind your back
and lies about you.
Meekness is where you just turn the other cheek, as we saw in Matthew 5,
and just say, I'm not going to take revenge.
Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will recompense.
And so we don't have to take things into our own hands.
There shouldn't be anybody in our heart right now that's done us wrong
where we're holding a grudge against them,
where we think, boy, I'd love to get back at them.
Boy, I wish God would do bad to them.
You know what the best thing that you could do
if you have an enemy that's done you wrong?
Number one, you ought to forgive that person.
And number two, the best thing you could do
is pray for good things to happen to that person.
I mean, when somebody ripped me off financially,
I don't say, God, would you just take it out on their hide?
You know, I can't get them back, but would you do something?
Man, God, could you just judge them?
No, I pray, God, would you be good to them?
Would you let them have a good day today?
If they're not saved, God, would you please let them be saved?
And, God, would you please just bless them financially
and give them even more money?
And the Bible says when you do that,
you'll heap coals of fire on their head.
Now look at Romans 14.
Keep your finger on Matthew 5.
And we'll see this concept about good and evil again
in Romans chapter 14.
Did I have the wrong?
Must have ended up with the wrong.
Let me see here.
Well, you know what?
I ended up with the wrong scripture down here, so.
Oh, here we go. I'm sorry, Romans chapter 12.
There it is. I knew it was in here.
Romans chapter 12, and we'll see this concept
about what's wrong with evil thoughts.
Look at verse number 17 of Romans chapter 12,
and you'll see what I mean about these two words, good and evil.
Recompense to no man evil for evil.
Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
That means if somebody does evil to you, if somebody hurts you,
do not hurt them back, is what he's saying.
If it be possible, as much as life,
then you live peaceably with all men.
He's saying, well, if it's possible.
There are times when you have to defend yourself.
There are times when somebody attacks you and you fight back.
There are times when somebody broke into my house.
I'd shoot them dead if I got the chance.
But there will be times when you have to fight back.
But he says, if it be possible, live with peace with all men.
And he says, recompense to no man evil for evil.
Look at verse number 19.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but will rather give place unto wrath.
For it is written, vengeance is mine.
I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore, if thy enemy hunger, feed him.
If he thirst, give him to drink.
For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
You see, when somebody does wrong to you,
pray for good things to happen to them.
Do good things for them.
And God says, I will punish them.
I will take care of it.
But don't have this evil thought in your heart that says,
I wish that bad things would happen to so and so.
Don't wish bad things on people that have done you wrong.
Wish good things on them.
And then let God decide whether he wants to do good or wrong.
Look, we've done more wrong to God than anybody's done to us.
And so if God can forgive us for everything that we've done to him,
we dead sure ought to be able to forgive everybody who wrongs us.
And so look at the last verse.
He sums it up in verse 21.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
See the word good?
Don't be overcome.
When somebody hurts you, do good to that person.
And he says, look, if they've done wrong to you,
if they legitimately deserve to be punished,
he says, you're just heaping coals of fire on their head
by doing good to them.
So obey me.
Be one of the children of your father which is in heaven,
and do good to them that hate you.
Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
The Bible says, love your enemies.
Do good to them that hate you.
And so that's what he's saying, evil thoughts.
If there's somebody that's in your heart right now
that you're thinking that you have bitterness and malice toward,
I mean legitimately, because they've done you wrong,
you ought to just go to God and say, you know what, God?
Be good to that person.
Love that person.
And I guarantee you that your attitude will change toward that person
if you start praying for them.
The first time prayer is mentioned in the New Testament,
the first time you'll find the word pray,
he says, pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
That's the first commandment of prayer in Matthew 5.
The first time you find prayer in the New Testament,
God's telling you to pray for an enemy that hates you.
That should be the top of your prayer list,
people that are your enemies.
And then you know what?
If you pray for them, then you'll start to love them.
If you do good to them, then you will start to love them.
But look back at the chapter, he says,
for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, verse 19.
Evil thoughts, murders.
You say, murders? Good night.
I mean, I don't even know any murderers.
I'll guarantee you, you know so many murderers,
you can't even count how many murderers you know.
You say, good night, Pastor Angela, I don't hang around with murderers.
Look, you know a lot of murderers, I'll tell you that right now.
How about the murderer who is pro-abortion?
Because the Bible says that if you're consenting,
and we talked about this a few weeks back,
he says that David slew Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites.
He didn't kill them, but he put them in the position to be killed.
And so he said, you slew Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites.
Look at the book of Acts, chapter 4,
when Peter says, you took Jesus with wicked hands and crucified him.
They didn't crucify him, they didn't nail the nails,
but remember what they said, crucify him.
And so look, God says you're guilty of murder when you participate
in the murder of unborn babies or any other murder.
God says he that hated his brother is a murderer.
If you hate your brother, and I'm talking about you're born again,
somebody who's a born-again, saved Christian,
if you hate them, God says you're a murderer.
He says, I consider that as bad as murder for you to hate your brother in Christ.
I mean, your brother that Jesus died for and Jesus loves
that's going to spend eternity with you in heaven, some saved Christian,
you should not hate any Christian on this earth.
It's a sin, and he says you're guilty of murder if you do that.
He says, you know, and on and on.
There are people who IVF, that's murder, we talked about that, and good night.
A lot of us know people that have done that.
And so, yes, there are a lot of murders that proceed out of the wicked heart of man.
Yes, the wicked heart of man has evil thoughts and murders commonplace.
These are the seven big ones Jesus is saying.
What's the third one?
Evil thoughts, murderers, and then number three, adulteries.
You say, boy, that's not very common either.
Boy, these are big sins.
Now, look, the difference between the terms there,
because you see two terms there, adulteries and fornications.
Adultery is talking about a married person sleeping with someone outside of marriage,
or it's talking about an unmarried person with a married person that's not their spouse.
Now, the word adultery is different than the word fornication.
Fornication is talking about a physical act that's any act outside of marriage.
Anything that crosses the bounds of marriage between unmarried people or anything, that's fornication.
Adultery is talking about a married person,
but throughout the Bible you'll find the word adultery used in a metaphorical sense.
Throughout the Bible you'll find the word adultery used figuratively speaking also.
Not only does it talk about a physical act,
but the term adultery is also talking about a mental act.
As Jesus said,
Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
And so you'll never find the word fornication ever
referring to a mental act or a metaphorical, kind of a figurative presentation,
yet the word adultery is often used for that.
So how are we guilty of adultery?
Well, obviously a lustful thought from a man looking at a picture or a photograph
or a woman walking down the street, that's adultery.
When he looks at a woman to lust after her, he's just committed adultery.
Okay, how can a woman commit adultery?
What about the fact when a woman thinks about some other man more highly than her husband?
You know, oh, Joe down at the office, he really understands me.
I mean, we can really talk.
My husband and I just can't communicate, but old Sam down at the office,
I don't know, it's just, I mean, nothing physical is going on,
but he and I can just really talk.
And so sometimes we go out to lunch, and good night, that's adultery.
When you're palling around with some man that's not your husband
and you're palling around with him
and you love him more than you love your husband, see, that's adultery.
Look if you would at James chapter 4.
I'm going to show you something about adultery.
And this is a verse that confused me for a long time.
In James chapter 4, verse number 4.
This verse confused me, and I looked at it, and I stared at it one day,
and I just stared at it and I just said,
I cannot figure out what this verse is talking about.
It didn't make a lot of sense to me, and then it clicked in my mind
and it made perfect sense.
God revealed to me what this verse means.
I had a word of knowledge. No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, James chapter 4, verse number 4.
The Bible reads, ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
You see, I always wondered when I read this verse,
this is what confused me about the verse in James 4.
I looked at that and said,
why is he starting out the sentence by saying,
ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
It may have made more sense to me if he would have just said,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Why is he talking specifically to adulterers and adulteresses?
That didn't make any sense to me.
But I figured out what he's saying.
He's saying, look, if you are friends with the world,
you're committing adultery against God.
That's what he's saying.
He's saying if you're a friend of the world, if you're worldly,
you are an adulterer against God.
See, in the Old Testament,
God constantly is using a picture of marriage between him and his people
and also in the New Testament.
And he says, I am married to you, O Israel.
And so God is married to us.
The Bible says we are married unto God that we might bring forth,
or I'm sorry, we're married to Christ
that we might bring forth fruit unto God, the Bible says.
And so we're breaking that relationship, that marriage that we have.
We're committing adultery when we spend more time
and more of our love and affection goes to something other than God,
when it goes to worldly things.
I mean, if I know all the stats of every baseball player in major league history
and I can quote them off to you,
but I can't even tell you the characters of the Bible,
the key characters and their attributes,
but boy, I know all about Nolan Ryan.
I know all about Jose Canseco.
I know all about Mark McGuire.
You're an adulterer, if that's you,
because all your love and affection is going to an idol
that you worship of major league sports.
Or, yeah, that's just an example.
It could be your car.
You love your cars and your motorcycles and your toys and stuff.
And if that takes place, and none of those things are wrong, of course,
but if that takes a place above God,
you're going to take the boat out on Sunday because that's your God.
That's what you want to worship.
He says that's adultery.
That's adultery because I love you and I want to spend time with you, God,
saying, but you'd rather pal around with some other God.
You'd rather pal around with the God of this world.
You'd rather pal around with the world and be the friend of the world.
And he says being a friend of the world puts enmity between you and I.
He says you and I have enmity between us because you're so worldly.
And he says I consider it adultery because, look,
I don't want my wife going out to eat with some other guy.
I don't want to call home when I'm out of town and say,
hi, honey, how you doing?
And she says, oh, I'm just out to eat with so-and-so.
Good night.
You think that that's going to fly?
There's no way.
There's no way in the world.
Because I'd say, hey, listen, adulterer, you know, adulteress,
get home and quit being a friend of the world.
Quit being a friend of Bob and Phil and John and all these people.
Hey, be my friend because I'm your husband and I want all your love
and all your affection right here.
And God's the same way.
God said the Lord thy God is a jealous God.
And he says I'm so jealous of my wife that I will not allow my wife
to be friends with the world because I just want her to be my friend only.
That's why my wife doesn't have any male friends.
And God's saying I don't want you to have any other gods before me.
He says I want you to be an adulterer, an adulteress,
that pals around with the world.
And he says eventually you're going to be my enemy
because whosoever therefore be the friend of the world is the enemy of God.
That's why the Bible says if any man loved the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
You can't love both.
And you're committing adultery against God when you pal around with the world.
But let's put it back in the physical realm.
You're committing adultery against your husband
when you're palling around with some male friend and saying,
Stan can understand me when I talk to him at the office,
but my husband does not understand.
And then with man it's usually more of a visual thing.
But it could be the same thing, some woman that they pal around with.
If God says it's adultery for you to look at a woman and lust after her,
I'll guarantee you it's adultery to wish that some other woman was your spouse instead of her
because you like to talk to her so much and get along with her so much
or vice versa, male, female.
And so look, out of the heart, proceed.
You say, not my heart. I'm not like that.
Look, the Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
Every one of us has a sinful flesh heart.
Now, yes, we have the new man, which is renewed day by day.
Yes, we have if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature,
old things have passed away, all things have become new.
But listen, he says the new man, he says our inward man is renewed day by day.
See, day by day we have to put on the new man, the Bible says.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall not obey the lust of the flesh.
He says walk in the Spirit, put on the new man.
Paul said I die daily.
Daily you must decide to put on the new man.
And if you don't put on the new man, yes, you will be capable of doing all seven of these things.
But yes, these seven things will rear up their ugly head in your life, all seven of them.
All seven of these will characterize a life lived by a person who lives in the flesh.
And if you don't put on the new man, if you don't open the Bible when you wake up in the morning,
if you don't walk with God throughout the day, if you don't walk in the Spirit,
if you don't put on the Lord Jesus Christ, these seven things will characterize your life.
Evil thoughts will characterize your life.
You'll always be mad at somebody.
You'll always be wanting to vindicate yourself against somebody.
You'll always be wanting to take revenge on somebody.
Evil thoughts.
You'll always be a participant of murder.
You'll be hateful.
You'll be participating with the abortion crowd.
You'll be participating with IVF and birth control pills or whatever else who commits abortions,
however early on they may be.
And so these things will characterize your life.
None of us is above it.
As soon as I stop reading the Bible, as soon as I stop walking in the Spirit, these seven things will show up.
So number one, evil thoughts.
Number two, murders.
Number three, adulteries.
Number four, fornications.
Fornications is physical wrongdoing, male and female.
It's improprieties between male and female.
I don't really have time to go into that.
It's a whole other sermon in and of itself.
But that's all the touching between people that aren't married and everything like that.
It's wicked.
It's fornication.
It's wrong.
And so we'll talk about that another time.
Number four, fornications.
Number five, thefts.
Stealing.
Boy, people in our day are thieves.
And all of us have the capability to become a thief if we're not walking in the Spirit.
How so?
Well, you know what?
If you go to your job and you're not working the whole eight hours that you're getting paid for, you're a thief.
If you're taking money payment for work that you did not do, you were sitting around, you were pounding around,
you're smoking a cigarette outside when you're supposed to be on the clock.
That's one thing that irritates me about working with people that smoke.
They take a break to smoke all the time.
And they're constantly taking all these breaks.
It's like, I don't get those breaks.
I talked to a guy one time.
I had a friend and he told me that he took up smoking because he worked at a restaurant
and you would not get a break between the hours of, I think it was between the hours of 2 and 5.
It was the only restaurant in town that was open all night.
And so when the bars would close at 2 o'clock, this place would just fill up.
And he said the only way that you got a break between 2 and 5 a.m. was if you smoked.
Because you could say, oh, man, I've got to grab a cigarette.
And that was okay.
But if you just said, man, I need to take a break, they'd say, you can't take a break.
You know, we're busy.
We're working.
So he took up smoking just so that he could say, hey, man, I've got to take a cigarette.
Cigarette break.
And then he would get a break.
And he smoked for years and then he quit smoking.
But it's funny that that's so typical in the workplace.
And you know what?
That's stealing.
You're a thief if you're taking a bunch of breaks that the boss did not tell you you could break.
You know, he didn't, you know, you got the one that you're allotted by law or whatever.
But taking extra breaks, it's a sin.
It's wrong.
It's stealing.
And that's just an example.
We could go on all day with examples of stealing that we don't really think of sometimes.
But it's still stealing.
It's still wrong.
Of course, robbing God by not paying a tithe of 10% of what you receive at the hand of God.
And not giving it to him, he said, well, the man robbed God.
But where have you robbed me?
In tithes and offerings.
And so that's stealing.
And so on and on.
So number one, evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness.
What's a false witness?
That's when you lie.
That goes back to the 10 commandments.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
False witness is when you say, I saw thus and so.
And you did not see anything.
False witness is when you say something that is not true.
And you claim that it's true, but it's a lie.
So we're talking about lying.
But you know what else is false witness?
The Bible says if there's no resurrection of the dead, then are we found false witnesses of Christ.
See, when you preach something or teach something that's not biblical, he says you're a false witness.
That's why I don't call them Jehovah's Witnesses.
I don't call them the JWs.
I call them the JFWs, Jehovah's False Witnesses.
Because I'm a Jehovah's Witness.
I mean, I'm a witness of the real Jehovah.
But they're a Jehovah's false witness because they're going around lying and telling people that Jesus and Jehovah are two different people and that Jesus is not God.
And so that's a false witness.
And then lastly, blasphemies.
And blasphemies is the big one.
Whenever you have a list in the Bible, I find that the last thing is usually the big one.
Whenever God lists off a bunch of things, he'll list off four things, five things, 16, 17.
The last one is usually the big one.
Because we kind of emphasize the first one sometimes that he lists.
But I find that the last one is usually the big one when I'm studying the Bible.
Okay, look at the last one.
The whole thing we're talking about is what people say.
The whole thing we're talking about is the things that proceed out of somebody's mouth that come from the heart, that defile them.
And so we get to the last one and he just directly, the other six were indirect.
But now we just have directly somebody speaking with their mouth and blaspheming.
What is blasphemy?
Well, blasphemy is when you take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Blasphemy is when you cuss God's name.
Blasphemy is when you're irreverent toward God.
Now, I don't understand why Christians will sometimes use slang from the world that's blasphemous.
Like they'll say things like this, oh my gosh.
Now I'm against saying that.
Because all you're doing is you're taking, oh my God, which is a blasphemous expression that the world has.
You know, some teenage girl, she's not thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
She's just with her friends, oh my God.
That's blasphemous. She's not talking about God. She's not talking to God.
She throws around God's name like it's some kind of piece of trash or something.
Oh God this, God that. That's blasphemy.
It's blasphemy to throw around God's name and cuss God's name or you hurt yourself.
Oh my God.
Oh man. And whenever I hear somebody at a church or a so-called Christian that'll say, oh my God,
I mean it's just, oh I cringe.
I mean it's like, oh why are you saying that? What are you doing?
You know? And it bothers me.
And then it also bothers me though, oh my gosh, because all it is is this.
You're just toning it down. You're pretty much just saying the same thing.
I mean gosh has no meaning.
Gosh is just God in another format.
Or people will say, geez.
And maybe they're not thinking about what they're saying, but really it's just sort of saying, oh Jesus Christ.
Because people cuss and say, Jesus Christ.
And when they say that, they're blaspheming.
And God does not have a good attitude.
We say, oh what's the big deal?
Cussing Jesus' name, cussing God's name, what's the big deal?
God says it's a very big deal.
God, look at the Ten Commandments.
Nowhere in the Ten Commandments will you find some kind of a threat by God.
Where he's threatening you, except the one about taking God's name in vain.
There's the one, remember he said, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise.
That thy days may be long and it may be well with thee on the earth.
He's saying, look, the first commandment in the Ten Commandments that gives you a promise,
is honor thy father and mother.
Because if you do, then your days will be long on the earth.
But what's the first commandment that has a curse with it?
It's the third commandment.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
He says, I will not hold him guiltless that taketh my name in vain.
You hear that?
He says, I will not hold him guiltless that taketh my name in vain.
Why did he emphasize that in the Ten Commandments?
It's because it's a serious thing to him.
He says, look, it's evil, it's wicked, it proceeds out of the heart of you, of a man,
it exposes what's in his heart when he blasphemes God.
Because it says right here, it comes out of the heart, it comes out of his mouth,
when you blaspheme God, you're exposing something about your heart.
And he says, I will not hold you guiltless for that.
And so you be very careful about picking up the slang, because why would you even want to sound,
even if you're not blaspheming God, why would you want to sound like you're blaspheming God?
Why would you want to be anywhere near sounding like a person who blasphemes God
by throwing his name around and cussing his name?
And so that's the list of the seven things.
If you want your life to be listed in these seven things, then just be in the flesh.
Don't read your Bible, don't come to church, and you'll start to see these things pop up in your life.
These are the things which defile a man, Jesus says in verse 20.
But to eat with unwashing hands defileeth not a man.
And it says in the next verse, then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Zion.
And I'm going to have to skip this part, because I'm running out of time.
I'm going to skip this whole story.
I'm going to skip down later in my message here.
I'm going to skip down to the end.
Verse number 32, because I'm going to have to skip that part of the message.
Verse 32, the Bible says, then Jesus called his disciples unto him and said,
I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.
And his disciples say unto him,
When should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to feel so great a multitude?
So here, look, remember last week we just learned about the feeding of the 5,000?
Well, here we are in the same scenario, and it boggles my mind how the disciples, again, just have no faith.
I mean, they've already seen him in chapter 14 feed the 5,000.
Now they have 4,000. They have 1,000 less people.
I don't know, Jesus must have preached some kind of sermon that made people mad.
It must have been that sermon about what comes out of your mouth defiling you.
1,000 people took off, so now he's down to 4,000.
And it says, And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? Verse 34.
And they said, Seven and a few fishes.
Now, remember in the other one, we had five loaves and two fishes?
Now we have seven loaves and a few fishes.
Now, to me, a few, I may be wrong about this, but I believe that a few is three or more.
I mean, I don't think that two would be considered a few.
So we're probably looking at, like, seven loaves and three fishes,
because he never gives the number later. He just calls them fishes.
And so seven and at least two fishes, probably three.
So he has more food to work with here, because last time he only had five loaves and two fishes.
But look what he's going to do. He feeds 4,000 people.
And the Bible says in verse 37, And they did all eat, and were filled,
and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.
So in chapter 14, he fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes, not counting women and children.
And then he has 12 baskets left over.
But now he feeds 4,000 people less people.
He only has seven baskets left over. He got less food left over.
But he had more to start with. Isn't that interesting?
I mean, when he has less, he does more. When he has more, he does less.
And see, God is not limited by our supply or what we have.
In every case, they gave him everything they had.
They gave him everything they had in 14. They gave him everything they had in 15.
And both times, everybody was full. Everybody got what they needed.
God did more when he had less and less when he had more because it didn't matter how much he had.
All that matters is that he's God. He can do anything.
So sometimes we look at so-and-so that has so much to offer.
Boy, they're intelligent, they're good-looking, they're talented,
and then you wonder why they're not used greatly by God.
And then you find somebody else that's ugly, they're dumb, they're backward, they're awkward,
and they can be used by God greatly.
Because God says he's chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
Because God can take something. He says, my strength is made perfect in weakness.
He says, I'm better at doing a miracle when I have less to work with.
I'll have 12 extra baskets when I'm done because I can do more sometimes when I have less and less when I have more.
And you say, well, I'm not talented, maybe, or I don't have everything going for me.
It doesn't matter what you think you have going for you.
Give it all to God. He'll multiply it.
And sometimes, and I've noticed sometimes, the least likely people that you think,
God will never do anything with this person, this person is not going to be used by God.
They will be mightily used by God.
And then usually the person that everybody looks at, you know, in the Christian school or whatever,
and they look at somebody and say, this person is going to be used greatly by God.
Look at the talent. Look at their mind. Look at the ability.
And they'll just flop and do nothing because they'll just chase after that talent.
They'll just chase after that ability that they have and they'll just say nuts to the things of God.
So don't ever examine what you have and say, I don't think I have enough to offer.
Just whatever you have, just give it all to God. Doesn't matter how much it is.
God will get the job done. He will use you to change the lives of 4,000, 5,000, 10,000 people.
He could use you to change their lives if you'll just give it all to God.
Doesn't matter whether it's five loaves, seven loaves, means nothing.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for the word of God and thank you for this chapter
and so many great truths that we can learn from the Bible.
And God, help us to never be Pharisees. Help us to never sit around and figure out ways.
Well, I mean, the Bible doesn't really say it's wrong. Maybe it's okay. Maybe we can do it.
God, help us to have a heart that's right and a heart that says, I want to obey exactly what God commands.
I'm not looking to add any commands and I'm not looking to take away any commands.
I just want to do what's rivaled by God.
And Father, please just help us to walk in the Spirit so that those seven things that we listed.