Amen, okay, we are in first Corinthians chapter number three and look down at your Bible is a verse 16
It says no you not they ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you if any man defile
The temple of God. I want you to notice this him shall God destroy
For the temple of God is holy which temple ye are and time I sermon this morning is him shall God destroy
Him shall God destroy another way of saying that is that God will kill you
God will destroy you God will take away your life if you defile the temple of God
We're gonna come back to 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and just a bit but turn with me if you would
Go to if you could go to go to chapter 11 go to chapter 11 of 1st Corinthians
Let me start off by saying the fact that you know the Bible teaches that God does judge his people
But not just his people. We obviously know that God judges the world. He judges the unregenerated
And one constant, consistent theme that we see in the Word of God is that we should fear God.
We should be afraid of God.
Of course we should respect Him.
Of course we should reverence Him.
But the Bible specifically teaches that we should be afraid of the Lord.
And there are many benefits to fearing God.
This is something that we see consistently throughout the Word of God.
In fact, let me read to you from Deuteronomy 32 verse 39.
Listen to this.
It says,
I kill and I make a life.
I wound and I heal.
Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
So I hope that sinks deeply into your ears
and into your hearts when he says I kill and I make a life
and there's no one that can deliver out of my hand.
That's just strike fear in the hearts of God's people
and just people in general, right?
Because God is specifically saying I'm the one that can take your life. I'm the one that can keep you alive
No one is going to be able to deliver you out of my hand showing us that we should never be God's adversaries in any way
Right Bible also says in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 9
Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy
With them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations
So he's saying here that he will be merciful. He will love those who love him
He's gonna show mercy to a thousand generations
But then he follows up with verse 10 and repayeth them that hate him to their face
The Bible says he says to destroy them
He will not be slacked to him that hated him, he will repay him to his face.
Now, this actually goes against a lot of what modern preachers talk about in churches.
They want to only display and talk about the fact that God is love,
that he's gracious and kind, and you know what, we agree with that, right?
We know that God is merciful, we know that he's long-suffering, we know that he's gracious,
we know that he's kind, we have tasted of the goodness of God.
However, that's not at the exclusion of this other side of God,
where he specifically says,
if you hate me, I'm going to repay you to your face.
You know what that shows me?
It shows me that God is a vengeful God as well,
that he will judge and do justice.
And here's the thing is that, you know, people say,
well, this is only to the unsafe, but here's the thing,
Deuteronomy is written to God's people.
This is written to believers this is written to a nation of people who believe on the Lord
And he's giving them a warning if you hate me if you go against me
I will repay you to your face. What does this mean?
It means that when you get judged by God, you know that it's God who's doing it
He takes credit for the evil that takes place in the lives of people when they go against God. We should fear God. Why?
Well, fearing God
Causes us to live a long life
All right, the Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 10 verse 27 the fear of the Lord
Prolonged days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened the Bible also says in Proverbs 16 verse 6 by mercy and truth
Iniquity is purged and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil now
The message that a lot of these liberal type preachers will often give is they'll say,
well, the only motivation that we should have for serving God is that we love God, right?
We love God and because of God's mercy, because of His grace,
that should be the primary motivating factor and incentive to serve God.
And to that I say, yeah, that is a primary motivation to serve God,
but again, not at the exclusion of fearing God.
And here's the proof, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged.
By the mercy of God, iniquity is purged, recognizing that God is good to us, that He's gracious to us,
causes us to cleanse ourselves and to be purged from iniquity, but then it follows up with,
and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.
So it sounds to me that the grace of God, the mercy of God, causes us to get right with God,
but at the same time, fearing God, causes us to get right with God.
Showing us that it's both, right?
You know, the goodness and forbearance of God leadeth thee to repentance, the Bible says.
You know, when you think about the fact that God has been good to you, that he saved you,
that he's blessed you, that he wants to do good to you, it causes us to want to stay on the right path.
To stay right with the Lord, to keep reading the Bible, to keep winning souls to Christ, to keep going to church, by mercy and truth,
the Bible tells us that iniquity is purged.
But you know what? In the same token, the flip side of that coin is that when we fear God because of what he could do to us,
it causes us to depart from evil as well. Both work.
And we never want to preach one at the exclusion of the other. That's an in-balance view of God. It goes on the same verse 17.
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil,
he that keepeth his way, preserveeth his soul.
And the soul there is referring to the body.
Often soul in the body in the Old Testament specifically
is often used interchangeably to describe the body itself.
And one way that you can preserve your body
from destruction, from evil, from the judgments of God
is by keeping the ways of the Lord.
The Bible's telling us there.
The Bible says in Proverbs 3 verse 7 be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and
depart from evil.
Matthew chapter 10 because a lot of people will say well that's Old Testament.
The God of the Old Testament was a lot meaner, but the God of the Old Testament is a lot
more fearful.
Well actually the God of the New Testament destroys a lot more than the God of the Old
Testament.
Okay.
Now obviously I'm being facetious here because it's the same God.
And it's not like well the God the Father was the one who's doing all the judging in the Old Testament
And then Jesus Christ is the God of the New Testament
No, in fact Jesus Christ is the I am that I am of the Old Testament
And he specifically says this in Matthew chapter 10 verse 28
Fear not them which can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul
But rather fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body and hell
Now obviously we don't have to fear hell if we're saved if we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
But this is obviously accentuating the power of God and he's saying here if God has the capability of
Tossing a soul and a body into hell
You know he has the power to destroy your life as well
And so we should fear the Lord now the first thing I want to mention this morning is that and it's the most obvious
And that is that God punishes the wicked
He punishes the unsaved, he punishes the wicked.
Those who are not saved, those who are unregenerated,
God brings judgment upon their lives.
And, you know, I'm not going to spend the whole sermon
going through all the examples of the Old Testament
and even the new, just kind of explaining some of the examples
of people who have died at the hands of God.
But let me just name a few.
Ur and Onan in Genesis 38 verse 6,
the Bible says that God slew them.
The Bible literally says, the Lord slew them, right?
He hated them and he slew them.
Hoffney and Phinehas, 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 22,
the Bible says that he would slay them,
meaning that his will was to kill Hoffney and Phinehas
because they were evil in the sight of the Lord.
The New Testament records Herod dying
because he did not give glory to God
and his body was eaten of worms.
Why? Because God judged that man.
He destroyed that man.
And you say, why would God do such a thing?
Well, Psalm 139, verse 19 says this,
Surely, that will slay the wicked.
Oh God, depart from me therefore ye bloody men.
The Bible is saying here that God will destroy,
He will slay the wicked.
And this should be a warning to those who are not saved to get saved.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, have your sins forgiven,
become a child of God, be at peace with God through Jesus Christ because if not, a damnable
destiny awaits you called hell.
But this morning I want to talk about the fact that he not only punishes the wicked
and the unregenerated, he punishes his children as well.
Okay, and what I mean by his children because you know in the world in which we live especially with mainstream Christians
You know people have a tendency to define the children of God as just being everyone
They say, we're all children of God.
If you believe in God, you're a child of God.
If you're a created being, you're a child of God.
But the Bible specifically defines a child of God
as someone who believes on Jesus Christ.
John 1-12 says, but as many as received him,
to them gave you power to become the sons of God,
even unto them that believe on his name.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called the children of God.
The Bible says that we have been adopted as children.
He becomes our heavenly Father once we place our faith
in his Son.
So we're his children and God is our heavenly father.
And the Bible consistently teaches that he does punish his children.
We never want to be deceived by these liberal watered-down preachers out there
that want to convey this message that you can just live however you want.
You can sin and nothing will ever happen to you.
Now we obviously know that if we're saved we're not going to go to hell.
We have eternal life. We're not going to go to hell. We will never suffer damnation, you know, on the other side
We will never experience hellfire
Because of the fact that Jesus Christ is our perpetuation. He gave us eternal life. We shall never perish
I mean, there's countless promises in the Bible that talk about us having everlasting life through Jesus Christ
And then we shall not come into condemnation
We will not suffer eternal punishment for our sins because we place our faith in Jesus Christ
Now there's a segment of Christianity that says okay, the message stops there then
You know, we'll never suffer punishment. Therefore. Hey, go ahead and eat drink smoke run with those to do and nothing will ever happen to you
Right, you can just sin because it's all paid for the blood of Jesus Christ has already covered that you're forgiven
God's not gonna punish you. Well, go ahead and live that way and just call me on about six months and tell me how that goes for
You and the last time I checked the Bible says don't tempt the Lord thy God
You know someone who is constantly preaching this false message that you can just live however you want and nothing will ever happen to you
They're tempting God because so many countless promises in the Bible that warn us not to live in such a manner
Folks, I'm here to remind you that God will judge you.
He will punish you.
You know, a couple of weeks ago, our priest was sermon on the rewards of Christ and how
one incentive that we have, a motivation for serving the Lord, is the fact that we're
going to get rewarded on the other side.
God's going to bless us.
He's going to reward us.
There's going to be a payout day.
For our service for God and you know what that is a great incentive for us to go out and preach the gospel
To do good into others to serve our brethren to live the Christian life knowing full
Well that we shall receive a full recompense for our labor
God is not unjust and unrighteous to forget our labor love the Bible says he's keeping track
Behold my reward is with me to give to everman according as his work shall be right. He's keeping tracks
He has the receipts. He knows how many souls you've won
He knows the deeds that you've done in order to pay you when you die at the judgment seat of Christ
He's gonna reward you for your labor and you know, that's a great motivation to serve God, but another great motivation
To serve God and not to get involved in sin is that we don't want him to punish us
Okay, he punishes Christians. This is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith
Okay, and I want to say a fundamental doctrine of fundamental Baptist
But quite frankly a lot of non-the-non churches teach us to maybe not as hardcore
Maybe they're not as vocal about it, but they do believe this
Okay, this should be a non controversial point here
Like we as Christians should just be like that makes sense
That's in the Bible
Fearing God is biblical
God can punish you and I'm not here up here to talk semantics with you
You know what it means to be punished? You know what it means to be chastised?
You know what it means to suffer the consequences of your sin you like well
I thought Jesus paid for those he paid for the eternal consequence
But folks, we commit sins on a daily basis, and the Bible specifically teaches us that
if a person remains an unrepentant sin, then God will chastise that person.
And let me give you some reasons why God punishes Christians.
Now look, we should not walk out these doors wondering, am I going to get punished today
or something.
Okay?
Obviously, we need to recognize that when we examine our lives, and if we are clear
If you're serving God, you're in church,
you're reading the Bible, you're winning souls to Christ,
you're doing the best that you can,
you're clearing yourself of sin,
you're living a life that's pleasing unto the Lord,
then you know what, you don't necessarily have to worry
that God's gonna chastise you.
Now keep in mind though,
that if you decide to get up, veer off the path,
if you decide to get involved in sin,
yeah, you can die.
Now look folks, I'm not saying that the moment you get involved in sin that God's gonna strike you dead
But do you want to roll the dice with that though?
That's the dangerous part like well, you know is God really gonna punish me if I just go out and like drink and smoke
You know, I thought he was gracious. Yeah, he is but do you do you want to roll the dice on that though?
Do you want to risk being the byword in the proverb that God uses?
To me to be made an example out of okay
Now let me give you a couple of reasons why God punishes Christians, and this is a biblical
concept.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the first point I want to make here is that God punishes
Christians for not judging themselves.
If you don't judge yourself, God will judge you.
You see the Bible exalts judgment regardless of what other Christians say, oh, judge not,
lest they be judged.
You know, they'll often quote that out of context, of course, and not even appropriately.
But the Bible actually says that we're not only supposed to judge others, but we're actually also supposed to judge ourselves and
The consequence of not judging yourself the consequence of not examining yourself is that God will examine you
God will end up judging you look at 1st Corinthians 1128 of course this is referring to the Lord supper
We talked about this a couple weeks ago
It says but let him and examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body."
So essentially saying that if a person takes the Lord's supper unworthily, as we talked about a couple weeks ago,
this person is running the risk of damnation upon himself.
And it's not referring to eternal damnation, damnation in the Bible also just means punishment.
He says in verse 30, for this cause, what cause?
The cause of taking the Lord's supper unworthily,
many are weak and sickly among you
and many sleep, the Bible says.
Now, what does it mean when it says that many sleep?
Doesn't mean they went to go take a nap,
they just have, you know, narcolepsy,
you know, they're just falling asleep.
Sleep means they're dead.
And what is the Bible saying?
The Bible is saying that because they take the Lord's Supper unworthily,
God ends up judging them, some of them to the extent that they die.
Some people are just where they just are weak and sickly.
They have some sort of sickness and illness that they cannot recover from.
Others are judged so harshly that they're actually killed.
That's what it means.
Verse 31,
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Isn't that interesting?
So what does God say?
Hey, if you could just do the job of judging yourself,
examining yourself, making sure you're keeping yourself
clean from sin, God doesn't have to intervene, step in,
and clean up your life by judging you.
Because you know what, when God judges us,
we do examine ourselves.
When everything goes wrong in your life,
you start wondering, man, am I right with God?
We all know that.
When we experience a financial crisis, a health crisis,
you know, some sort of circumstantial problem
that is affecting us in a very negative way,
the first thought that comes to our mind is like,
is God judging me?
What, am I doing something that is displeasing the Lord?
You know what we're doing?
We're clearing ourselves, making sure like I'm not guilty
of something that's causing the wrath of God
to be poured upon me at this moment.
Well, here's the thing.
We should just judge ourselves regularly
so as to not be judged by God.
Because the reason, and I'm gonna get to this point later,
the reason God ends up judging Christians
is because they're oblivious to their sin sometimes.
Or they become so desensitized to their sin,
they become so hardened to righteousness,
God has to shake them and wake them up
by allowing some trial to come into their lives
and they're just like, oh man,
all right, I gotta get right with God.
This isn't right, God's not pleased with this.
So he judges us,
if we don't judge ourselves.
Meaning that the incentive that we should have
to avoid the chastisement of the Lord,
the damnation of God, is that we judge ourselves.
Well, I think you're taking that out of context.
You know, chastisement is not the same as judgment.
Verse 32, but when we are judged,
we are chasing of the Lord.
That we should not be condemned with the world.
So it sounds to me like,
chastisement, judgment, damnation,
going to sleep, being sick, and weakly,
It's all in the same category.
And look, chastisement, folks, the word chastisement
means a whoopin, that's literally what it means, okay?
And in fact, the word in Spanish is castigar,
that's the word that we use for punishment.
And that's the word that we get chastisement from.
Chastis, castigar, castigate, these are all same words.
That means punishment.
Because when someone is chastised, when they're whooped, when they're scourged, when they're beaten, they're being punished.
The Bible is telling us here that God chastens those who do not judge themselves, my friends.
Go to Hebrews chapter 10, if you would. Hebrews chapter 10.
Why does God punish Christians? I'll tell you why.
Because they're not judging themselves.
And you know, obviously we don't want to wait until the last minute to judge ourselves.
We should judge ourselves on a daily basis.
When we are going to the perfect law of liberty, reading the word of God and praying, we should examine ourselves, confess our sins before Him, see if there be any wicked way in me, and be cleared of any wrongdoing.
Lord, examine me, clear me, forgive me. You know, meditate upon the things that maybe you've done this week that may have caused God to be upset at that. You know, God does get upset with these people.
Don't believe this liberal nonsense out there that tries to promote this ideology and this narrative that God is just always happy with you or something
Obviously if we're living a life that's pleasing unto the Lord, he's pleased with us
Obviously for eternal life when he looks at us he sees Jesus Christ
But let me just remind you do you're still in this corruptible flesh that does not please God
And in fact the Bible says that it's not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be and it's always at enmity with God
So in order to avoid that, what do we have to do?
We have to subject the flesh.
We have to be spirit-filled.
But can we all say with the 100% honesty
that we're just always spirit-filled?
No, there's instances where we're fleshly.
And you know, when you're in the flesh,
you do things that are displeasing unto the Lord
and therefore we have to get that right.
That's called progressive sanctification.
Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25.
And look, this is why I preach.
You should be in church all the time.
And look, in our church, we only have three services.
Like back in my old church, it was just like four,
what was it, four to flourish.
You know, we have three to thrive to have four to flourish.
Like you gotta be in Sunday school class
and Sunday morning, Sunday night, Thursday,
throwing a soul winning time there.
I mean, it was just like be there
as much as you possibly can.
And I'm for that.
Even though we don't have Sunday school class,
we don't need it.
But you know, I'm four, three to thrive.
I promote three to thrive, and the Bible promotes three to thrive.
The Bible promotes being in the house of God as much as you possibly can.
No, it doesn't. Look at verse 25.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.
I'm talking about those who don't go to church all the time.
He says, but exhorting one another, and so much the more.
As you see the day approaching meaning go to church even more as we approach the end, right?
Because you can only benefit from more more preaching you will only benefit from more fellowship
You'll only benefit from being in the house of God that much the more and
I think it's great when a pastor gets up and says you need to come back to a Sunday night church
You need to go to a Thursday night Bible study
And you know, the pastor who undermines that says,
no, we shouldn't say that, is the pastor
who's probably not growing his congregation.
Or probably doesn't even have anybody coming on a Wednesday
night.
So it's just easier to say, don't come, right?
Like we get it. We have a pretty good group on Thursday
It would be remiss for me to just come up to before the congregation and just say hey
You don't have to be here on a Thursday night. Sunday is good enough for you wrong my friends
We should exhort what does it mean to exhort means to build you up to make you better to challenge you and
Exertation is not just an encouragement. It is a challenge to you to be better
You know and and you know what we can all attest to the fact that we've been challenged when we come to this church
Like I'm challenged to come back to a Sunday. I'm challenged to go soul-winning. I'm challenged. That's how it should be
Not this wall. No, no, we shouldn't do that. We shouldn't push people to do those things
The Bible says that the words of the wise are as goats
What does it do they prod you?
There's just constantly pushing you to be a better Christian
Now I think we could all we can all say that going to church a lot is a good thing
And the Bible says he that knoweth to do good and doeth not to him it is sin
Now notice what it says in verse 26 for if we sin willfully
After that we receive the knowledge of the truth. There remained no more sacrifice for sins
But a certain fearful looking for a judgment and firing indignation which shall devour the adversaries
He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. So what is he referring to? He's talking about the Old Testament
Under the law of Moses, if someone committed a crime that was worthy of death, they were punished under two or three witnesses.
They violated the word of God. They committed a capital crime that merited the death penalty.
And the Bible says here that that person was fearful because they were looking for judgment and fire indignation that came at the hand of the two or three witnesses that stoned them with stones.
They knew they were going to die, right?
Suppose he, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under the foot of Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace, for we know him that hath said,
vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, sayeth the Lord, and again, the Lord shall judge his people.
The Lord shall judge his people.
So just as the Lord judged his people at the hands of Moses
and the two or three witnesses in the Old Testament,
in like manner, the Lord shall judge his people
in the new as well.
Well, I just don't think it's good to preach that.
You're gonna scare people away from God.
No, we're actually scaring people to stay
in the will of God by doing so.
Look what it says in verse 31.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God.
Amen, Paul.
Amen to that Paul saying you know you're actually worthy of more of a punishment in the New Testament
For disobeying the laws of God because you have more to work with
The person who suffered at the hands of two or three witnesses for violating the word of God
They didn't even have the completion of the Old Testament. They just had the law, right?
That was given at Mount Sinai, but that was it. We have all 66 books
We have the entire word of God
There's so much more that we possess as New Testament Christians and to whosoever much is given of him shall be much required
So the Bible actually says is teaching that God holds us accountable for what because we have more information
More of the Bible. We're actually blessed more than those of the Old Testament
Therefore, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
So a person who just willingly disobeys the word of God, they get involved in fornication,
adultery, they get involved in theft and murder, they get involved in railing, all the while
having a Bible that clearly condemns those things, that person is going to fall into
the hands of the living God and will be sorely punished for those things.
And again, I want to emphasize the fact that verse 30 says that the Lord shall judge his
people.
Well, you know, how does this how do we interpret this if if we are never judged of God if we're never punished by God if
We're never going to go to hell well obviously because of the fact that it's not referring to salvation
It's referring to the fact that God can judge our flesh
You can destroy us just as the person was physically destroyed in the Old Testament out of the mouth of the hands of two or three witnesses
In like manner the New Testament Christian can be destroyed physically because of their sin as well
Now we have examples of this in the Bible
Multiple examples probably the most clearest and the most popular example of this is King Saul
No one can say who's within Christendom that God did not judge King Saul
God judge King Saul
Well, you know technically King Saul killed himself. Yeah, because God was gonna kill him
And if he didn't kill himself, he would have died anyways because he was sorely wounded of the archers, the Bible says.
You understand that?
So he was already wounded in battle, and the reason he even took his own life is because he didn't want to be abused of the Philistines,
which ended up happening anyways.
They ended up decapitating him, dismembering his body, pinning his body, his torso to the wall,
and just completely desecrating him and not even giving him an honorable burial for a king.
And all at the permission of God, by the way.
Because he was adversarial towards God.
He got away from God.
He fought against the man of God.
He ended up going to a witch at Endor.
He's practicing necromancy.
He's practicing rebellion.
He's not getting right with God.
He's committing murder.
He's doing all these vile things.
And God told Samuel to tell Saul,
tomorrow thou and thy son shall be with me.
That's called God judging Saul.
Turn with me to what's the second Chronicles chapter 35 second Chronicles chapter 35
Now there's this narrative that's being pushed out there was just like well, that's just people suffering the consequences of their actions
It's not necessarily God punishing them. It's them suffering the consequences of their actions
Those are just built-in consequences to the decisions they made. We can't really accredit that to God, but actually
Suffering the consequences of your actions is God punishing you
You say, well, how so?
Well, because of the fact that he's not delivering you.
It's God punishing you by mere virtue of God not delivering you from that punishment.
Because there's something called the hedge of God.
All of us have a hedge about us hedge of protection that God places about us
And there are instances when you sin you're unrepentant that God removes the hedge and allows Satan and
Others of this world to destroy your life. That's God punishing you by proxy because he allowed it
So call it what you want. Oh, it's just you suffering the consequences of your actions. Yes, but it's also God punishing you though
Because it's not like God's looking you suffer the consequences of your actions like oh, man
I didn't think that was gonna happen. Sorry about that. I guess my head is a little too low there. Oh, man
I didn't realize I put a breach there. No, he obviously allows it because he wants you to suffer the consequences of your actions
Well, who's another person who suffered like that uza?
Violated the word of God touch the cart the Ark of God died immediately
Why because he was judged of God and that's not even like you know
Right, you know, you can look at Saul and say, oh, it's the Philistines who were wounding him
It's the Philistines who killed him. They're the ones who did it. Yeah, but who did it to Uzzah though?
I'll tell you who God
You know, it's funny you a lot of people in churches are like, you know what only God can judge me. Yeah
You're right, and he probably is gonna be the only one who judges you or it's just like people are like only God can judge me
God holds my life in his hands
He's the one that really yeah, you know what sometimes he just takes it away as
With uza how about King Josiah look at 2nd Chronicles 35 now King Josiah
I don't want to say too many bad things about it because he's just a really righteous king and I really love King Josiah
He's really awesome
But like with everyone else in the Bible that you know, it's perfect, right?
He did a lot of great exploits had one of the biggest if not the biggest Passover observances in the Bible in the Old Testament
super righteous came remove all the sodomites just like a really good
resume you know the line in heaven to meet Josiah is probably gonna be a little
longer than lot or even than soul right Josiah is pretty cool it's an awesome guy
But again like with everyone else he made mistakes and look what it says in verse 20
After all this when Josiah had prepared the temple
Neco king of Egypt came up to fight against Kharkimish by Euphrates and Josiah went out against him
But he sent ambassadors to him sent and saying what have I to do with the thou king of Judah?
So the Neco king of Egypt is sending messengers to Josiah saying what are you doing here?
My beef is not with you
Why are you coming to fight against me? What have I to do with you? That's what he means now king of Judah
I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war for
God commanded me to make haste for bear thee from meddling with God
Who is with me that he destroy thee not?
So the king of Egypt is like
Don't get involved, it matters that don't belong to you.
God is sending me to go and destroy this nation.
And look, we can see this consistently
throughout the Old Testament,
where God will use a foreign heathen nation
to punish another nation.
And eventually he ends up punishing that nation as well, right?
This happens a lot of times throughout the Old Testament,
where he uses them as a tool
to bring judgment upon the nation.
He ordains them, he uses them as a servant
to judge other nations.
And so this is what the King of Egypt is doing.
And we don't know exactly how he knows this.
Maybe a prophet of the Lord came to Egypt and told him,
hey, the Lord had sent me for you to judge this.
And so go do it, right?
And so he's telling Josiah, don't get involved
because if you get involved,
you're gonna be meddling with God.
You're gonna be fighting against God
and you know what's gonna happen to you, Josiah.
You're gonna be destroyed.
Because that's what he means that he destroyed the knot look at verse 22
Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him
But disguised himself that he might fight with him and harken not into the words of Neco King of
From the mouth of God and came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo and the archers shot at King Josiah
The king said to his servants have me away for I am sore wounded his servants
Therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem
And he died it was buried in one of the sepulchres of his father's and all Jude and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah
He said well archers are the one that judge Josiah. Yeah by the mouth of God though
God is the one who allowed Josiah to be wounded of the archers
because he was getting involved in business that did not belong to him.
What happens there?
We see that his actions had consequences,
but those consequences are directly related to the punishment of God.
So regardless of how you want to dice it,
if you suffer the consequences of your actions,
you can easily translate that and interpret that as being God judging me.
Because God is allowing that to happen. It is accurate to say that God is judging you
But it's also accurate to say that you're suffering the consequences of your actions
You know another example is the nameless prophet who was deceived by the old prophet, right?
He ends up disobeying the word of the Lord and then the old prophet comes and is like oh man
You shouldn't have listened to me. You're gonna die
And then the Bible says that he goes on his way and the lion meets him and destroys him and kills him
He is suffering the consequences of his actions
But it's also accurate to say that he's being judged by God because he sends he sends forth a lion
To kill him and you say well, baby, you know, it's just at the Middle East, you know, you run into lions and stuff
But but here's the thing the lion didn't eat him though
He didn't eat him and he didn't eat his donkey
Like when people were walking by the highway the lion is just sitting you know just kind of standing next to the carcass
Not hungry you just killed him why because at the end of the day God sent forth that lion just like he sends forth Satan
Who walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour in order to judge people as well
What's the point that I'm making the point that I'm making is this judge yourselves before God judges you
And you know what made this instill fear in your hearts toward God to keep you right with God to keep you serving God
Oh, I don't think that's right. Well, I'm looking at a crowd who are pretty fruitful in their ministry
They love the Lord they win souls to Christ
They take the things of God seriously and this preaching hasn't changed for the last eight years
I think that's a wrong motivation.
It's a biblical motivation to stay right with God.
And like I mentioned on Thursday,
you know, we all keep the laws of the land
because we don't want to suffer the consequences
of breaking them.
And I use the bad illustration because I said,
you know, the reason you don't speed on the freeways
because you don't want to take it,
but probably most of you speed,
so I don't know if that really is a good illustration.
You know what I mean?
But you know, I think a good illustration that I used
was the Street Sweeper, though.
You know we may completely disagree with that law, but you know we keep it because we don't want to pay the consequences of that
Fear is a great motivator for us to obey the law and more specifically the laws of the land
okay
Why does God punish Christians because they are unwilling to judge themselves?
And you know what when a Christian gets out of church they start getting involved in sin
They start doing things that are displeasing unto the Lord living a worldly godless impure life
And if they choose not to correct themselves,
God will correct them.
And let me just give you a personal testimony to this.
You know, I had a friend that I went to Bible college with
years ago, okay?
And this man, I looked up to him.
He was younger than me, but I looked up to him spiritually
because he was in the Lord far longer than I was.
I learned a lot from him.
Him and I were great friends.
We went to school together.
We went soul-winning together.
We served in the bus ministry together.
I mean, we served the Lord together.
And there came a point that he became offended,
he became disillusioned with the ministry,
and he ended up getting out of church.
He got out of church, he became very backslidden,
and, you know, but he became, you know,
successful in the eyes of the world.
Like he ended up working for Google,
and Apple, and designing for them,
making lots of money, traveling all around the world.
He's very young.
And, you know, he basically ended up living
somewhat of a godless life.
To the point where you couldn't really look at him and you know person couldn't really tell if there he was a Christian or not
I know that he was saved because I remember talking to him and we went souls together
But he was just really backslidden and he was in that condition for years
Just succeeding in the world making tons of money and you know and you know people could look at that and say well, you know
Look at this guy. He's enjoying life
He's making all this money.
He's traveling all around the world.
Nothing's happening to him.
Yeah, but hold on a second.
You know, God doesn't work off your timetable, though.
God's not a microwave.
You can push the buttons and say,
I need judgment to come on this person
in about three minutes or less.
And then you try to open the door
before it beeps or something, you know?
It's not the way it works.
God is the one who judges when judgment comes.
And God knows the hearts of men.
He knows what it takes.
So for this guy, you know, he was out for a long time.
And then, you know, I think he's, like, early 30s,
just didn't wake up one day.
You know, he's sleeping at his brother's house,
and it's not that he was, like, unhealthy.
One day, there's just like,
oh, he's not getting enough from bed,
let's go check on him.
And they went to go check on him, and he was cold.
And they're like, I think he's dead.
And he ended up dying.
You know and and you know that it was they say it was under suspicious circumstances, but they don't really know
But the reason is suspicious because it's like the guy had no health problems
He just ended up dying, but I'm gonna tell you right now. God took him home
You know why because sometimes people when they get become backslidden they become a liability to the gospel not an asset
They're unwilling to get right with God
They're unwilling to judge themselves and it's not like that guy didn't have a long period of time to get right with God
You know God was very long suffering towards him
He was long suffering. He was patient
He was merciful and I promise you he probably had people from the church that he attended
Reaching out to him telling to come back to tell them to come back to church telling him to get right with God
Exhorated them trying to be a blessing to him and he probably just they didn't want nothing to do with it
Do you know what God says?
Okay, then why are you even here then?
And you may think to yourself, well, man, that's sad.
Well, not really because now he's in heaven.
You know, the new man who's in heaven
is probably thankful for that.
Because he didn't further destroy his life.
But let me tell you something,
the reason that happens to him
is because he didn't judge himself.
And that's why my friends,
it's important for you and for me
to keep short accounts with God.
Keep short accounts with God.
Confess your sins on a daily basis.
Get right with the Lord every single day.
May this be a reminder to you to get right with God
if you're not right with God in your heart.
Cause it's not worth it.
It's better to just humble yourself,
judge yourself so you can stay within the good graces of God,
be used of God, be rewarded of God, be blessed of God.
Folks, life is beautiful when you're serving the Lord.
Life is such a wonderful thing that we have as Christians.
I mean, you're like, I don't know,
you sound kind of angry up there, you know?
Yeah, but I'm not always like this, though, you know?
I'm angry now, because I'm talking about getting judged.
But here's the thing is that life is just a beautiful thing
when you're serving the Lord.
When a man's ways please the Lord,
he make it even his enemies to be at peace with them.
And you know what, I wanna experience life serving God
because there's so many benefits to come with serving God.
But there's so many people out there that just well, I got salvation
I'm just gonna live however I want and then they become emboldened like well
I guess nothing's happening to me, but then one day they just never wake up
And you know what this same guy and again he was a Christian we went soul-winning this same guy
You know his funeral was a catastrophe. Let me just put it that way folks when I die. I want a Christian funeral
You know hymns to be sung. I want scripture KJV to be read
You know you come up here and talk about how I bless you and all that stuff, you know
Talk about the stories of soul winning
Talk about the sermons
You know honor my death honor me in my funeral, right? We want to be honored as someone who serve God
This guy had like Buddhists coming up and just like they're like I know you believe in heaven
But we don't really believe in that stuff and so you know you just went to be one with the earth or something
And I'm thinking to myself like man if I was in heaven I could hear I'm like shut her up
No, you know, I mean that's a shame
But you know that's part of the punishment though we say how do you know I mean look at Saul
He didn't even get an honorable funeral
Folks it's in the Bible for like thousands of years now
Desecrated dismembered whereas David is just like you know
He's just sleeping got a hit list
He's you know, he's good to go
Why does God punish Christians because they don't judge themselves, but not only that and I kind of already mentioned this
But it's worth talking about again, and that is that you know, he punishes them as an object lesson for others
So you know he punishes Christians because they become a liability, but he also punishes them go to act chapter 5
He also punishes them in order to warn you
Because they that sin rebuke before all that others may fear
God is in the business of making an example out of people my friends
And look you have a choice you could be a good example or a bad example
You could be an example of someone who God is blessing.
Therefore, people want to follow in your footsteps
to inherit the blessings that you have
because of your faithfulness, because of your service,
or you could be used as an object lesson
of what not to do.
Sorry Saul, you are an object lesson for us all.
I didn't mean to rhyme that, it just came out that way.
You know that happens in the Christian life.
My friend, he's an object lesson to me.
Because you know you think he's the only one who feels disillusioned in the ministry sometimes we all do from time to time
You think he's the only one who's ever experienced discouragement
Disillusionment and just you know being being ripped off or whatever. We all feel that way from time to time
But you know what his end reminds me. Yeah, you know what? I'm just gonna be thankful for whatever it is that I got
And not be a little baby
If I get defrauded or disillusioned with something, you know, God's all this is just a cherry on top
And God loads me daily with benefits
And if this is all I had for the rest of my life, I'm happy with it
It works as an object lesson look at Acts chapter 5 verse number 1
But a certain man named Ananias and stuff with his with sapphire his wife sold a possession and kept back part of the price
His wife also being privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the Apostles' Feet.
So let me explain what's going on here.
They're taking a collection,
somewhat of an offering, and prior to this, Barnabas brings a very large offering, and it's of my
eyesurmised that what's taking place here is the Ananias and Sapphira.
You know, they like the acclamations that Barnabas is giving. Therefore, they are committing to giving a certain portion.
And they won't kind of everyone to know about it.
So they sell their possession,
but instead of giving the full price
of what they claimed they were gonna give,
they keep back part of it.
So obviously it's not done in sincerity.
They want the acclimations and the praise of men.
But obviously, you know, the disciples and the apostles
don't know about this, right?
God knows about it.
And it says here in verse 3, Peter's given this revelation,
Peter said, and in I.
Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost
and to keep back part of the price of the land?
While it's there remained, was it not thine own?
And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?
Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
And what Peter's saying is like, why even do this?
Why would you even commit to giving such and then lie about it?
What's the issue here?
Why are you lying to the Holy Ghost and being deceptive?
Verse 5, and Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost.
Now giving up the ghost means that he died.
So as he's telling them these things Ananias is just like it just falls over and just dies, right?
You know, this is not gonna happen on May 11th.
At least I don't think so, right?
I'm gonna give this one, then you just lie to the Holy Ghost.
But I will say this, if it did,
a lot of people would be fearing.
And this doesn't necessarily happen
if you don't tithe either, okay?
But I can't say for sure, because I'm not God
and he might do something like that.
Can't speak on that.
We just have this example.
He says in verse six,
and the young man arose, wound him up and carried him out
and buried him.
And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
And Peter answered on her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much, and she said, yea, for so much.
And you kind of wanted, like, Peter, why'd you have to ask that way?
Because he's asking in such a way to, like, see if she'll be deceptive towards him.
And obviously she ended up lying.
Then Peter says the coldest line here. Then Peter said to her
How is it that ye have agreed together to attempt the spirit of the Lord behold the feet of them
Which have buried thy husband or at the door and shall carry thee out like man. That's cold right there, right?
Then she fell down straight way at his feet and yielded up to ghost and the young man came in and found her dead and
Carrying her forth buried her by her husband. So this is a pretty extreme example here in the New Testament
But God is killing them
And you may think to yourself, well, it's a little extreme.
Folks, the judgments of the Lord are right,
and rights are sold together.
We should rejoice at the judgments of God.
And, you know, people might look at Peter and be like,
hey, this is a little extreme.
You're not gonna get people to serve God this way.
This is the wrong motivation to serve God,
because they don't wanna die or something.
Well, look at verse 11,
and great fear came upon all the church
and upon as many as heard these things.
So what does that mean?
You know, everyone heard about him, they're just like,
I'm not gonna do, you know,
I was thinking about doing the same thing.
I was only gonna keep back like 25%.
Honey, just give the full amount.
You know, he's just like, honey,
did you hear about any nice in Sapphira?
Yeah, just give the whole thing.
Just, we'll figure it out, you know?
Just do it.
Why?
Cause fear,
Comes upon them because Ananias and Sapphira became the object lessons for everyone else now obviously
You know this is an extreme example, and it's not something that consistently happened throughout the New Testament
If someone kept back part of the price, but you only need one example
You only needed to happen once
Right like I promise you people in the New Testament talked about this all the time
Because all they needed is once
You know you probably have preachers getting up and they're talking about this and he's just like remember Antonis and Sapphira
Like oh, maybe they didn't know about it folks. They're saying remember lots wife
They know about it
The point that I'm making here is that they become a byword and a proverb for everyone else
And you know what God judges people obviously because they don't want to get right with God
But often he'll do it for the benefit of others so that they don't follow in the same footsteps of the disobedient rebellion believer
rebellious believer that does not want to get right with God
You know it doesn't it causes us to have fear in our hearts to say I don't want to suffer the same consequences as that person
I'm gonna stay right with God go to first Corinthians chapter 10 first Corinthians chapter 10
God will punish his children
God will punish his children because they're not judging themselves
God will punish his children as an object lesson for others look at first Corinthians chapter 10 in verse number five
First Corinthians chapter 10 verse number 5 and let me just say this you know when when a sermon is preached
Where it's like, oh, you won't be judged. You'll be fine. You shouldn't talk about those things
You often produce very excessively sinful people
Who because you know when you fear God you're very careful about your Christian life
Right you walk circumspectly
not as fools, but as wise and
You're very sensitive towards breaking the commandments of God and that God is pleased with that
And it ends up creating an atmosphere where the standard is high and where we reverence the Lord.
So those who say, well fear is not reverence, well the ones who actually fear God because they're afraid of Him are actually the ones who reverence God.
And the ones who say, well you should only reverence God and not fear God often are the ones who don't reverence Him.
They actually become sacrilegious, borderline blasphemous in their dealings in service for God.
Because the atmosphere becomes very loose.
It becomes very just kind of you know, you can call God whatever and act however you want doesn't really matter
Your tongue becomes a lot more loose
You are not afraid of what you say whereas the Bible teaches discretion and
Discretion is a result of fearing God because you want to think before you talk
You want to think before you act because you know that God is keeping it in account, right?
Look at 1 Corinthians 10 verse 5,
but with many of them, God was not well pleased,
for they were overthrown in the wilderness,
referring to the children of Israel in the wilderness.
Overthrown means that they were destroyed and they were killed.
Verse 6, now these things were our examples to the intent
we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
So God wants us to look at the Old Testament where God destroyed people for fornication
Where he destroyed people for idolatry where you destroy them for tempting God?
And he wants us to look at them as an example of what not to do so that we don't lust after evil things
Understand what I'm saying
It sounds to me like he wants us to be afraid of the outcome of these actions
He says hey, they're written for our admonition
They're written for our example so we can look at that and say you know what fornication is not as appealing anymore
Because I don't want to suffer the same fate that the children of Israel did in the Old Testament.
He says in verse 7,
Neither be ye idolaters,
as were some of them, as it is written,
the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play,
neither let us commit fornication,
as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
Now look, you know,
I don't think this is saying that every time someone commits fornication in their Christian,
they're just going to fall over dead.
But obviously, you know, there's this percentage where we're like, but I don't know, you know, it happened here and
It got executed at his discretion
So the sheer volume of people that died on this is kind of meant to kind of instill fear in you
That you can be a part of that number as well
Neither let us commit fornication as some of them can been in fellow one day three and twenty thousand
Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents
What does it mean to tempt Christ to tempt the Lord thy God?
It's to say, you know God said this but that's not really gonna happen
That's called tempting God
Yeah, I got you know the obviously there's examples in the Bible people getting leprosy, but that doesn't mean it's gonna happen you
That's called tempting God
Now shall not tempt the Lord thy God
Tempted to do what to judge you?
Verse 10 neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. What does it mean to murmur to complain?
So, you know, this is even trying to like warn you just don't be a little murmur and a complainer
Don't be a complaining person don't complain about the coffee don't complain about the decoration
Don't complain about the lighting don't complain about the song leader don't complain about the preaching just don't be a murmur
Why because some people murmured in the Old Testament, and they were just they were destroyed of the destroyer
And you know as you read this you're just like okay, I need to make sure I'm not a complainer because I don't want to be destroyed
Now all these things happen unto them for examples, and they are written for our
Admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come and here is the key verse in verse 12
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth meaning the person who thinks they can tempt the Lord their God
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall
Now what does it mean to fall it means what Hebrews 10 is talking about fall into the hands of the living God
Because every single one of these people tempted God by fornication, by idolatry, by murmuring, by tempting Christ,
by doing things that were displeasing unto the Lord, and all of them fell into the hands of the living God.
Well, you know what? You should give heed as well.
Lest you should fall into the hands of the living God as well.
Yeah, but we're already saved. We're already moved past that. Of course we're saved. If we believe on Christ, that's already done for.
But we still have this corruptible flesh that is still subject to the punishment of God and
Look if God, you know didn't punish his children then why is this even here then?
Let's just fall from what fall from grace fall from salvation fall from what?
Fall tripping. What are we talking about here?
This is not addressing non-believers this is talking to Christians
And he's saying don't do the things that people did in the Old Testament because you're gonna suffer the same consequences of them into the
Old Testament, but I'm already saved though
Yeah, you're not gonna fall into hell
You know the Bible tells us that
That God will uphold you with his hand
But hold on a second
Here's a warning that says that if you don't give heed you will fall and the context is you will fall into destruction
You will fall into the hands of the Lord God will judge you because that's what he does go to Psalm 78 if you would Psalm 78
Psalm 78 the title of the sermon is him shall God destroy
Why does God punish Christians for not judging themselves?
Why does God punish his children as an object lesson for others?
Why does God punish Christians number three to bring them back to the fold?
You know what?
God issues judgment upon believers to get them right with God.
Christians who get out of church and they're living a godless life, a life that's not pleasing
unto the Lord, God will allow punishment to come upon them to kind of wake them up, to
get them back on track.
Look what it says in Psalm 78 verse 30, it says, they were not estranged from their lust
But while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble.
When he slew them, then they sought him.
And they returned and inquired early after God.
So it's just like you know when God ends up punishing you then you then what are you doing?
You're like you know I wake up in the morning read my Bible
God what does this verse mean? You know you just start inquiring
You start praying you start having pleasant thoughts you start thinking upon the things of God
Verse 35 and they remembered that God was their rock and the high God and the the high God their redeemer
So it kind of helps them to get back on track
And you know, I've never been in a situation where I got out of church or anything of like of that nature
But you know, there's been times and I'll be transparent with you where I was backslidden in my heart
I think anybody could attest that there at one time or another were backslidden in my heart
We go through seasons where maybe we're not on fire for God
Maybe we're cold towards the things of God. We're apathetic towards the things of God
You know what? There's been season in my personal life where I was just backslidden in my heart
Maybe I had sin in my heart
You know things that I was struggling with personally and never got on me at a church because I just built in certain disciplines
It just will always keep me in church
You know and of course I'm a pastor, so you know someone's got preach, you know
Every Sunday, but you know I'm not I'm not the exception to the rule
There's been times when I've been back slitting in my heart
And you know what when I think upon when I go through those seasons. There's times where God chastises me
He allows certain things to happen to me and it reminds me like you know what I need to inquire once again
I need to pray once again.
I need to make sure that I am reading my Bible more.
I need to make sure that I'm getting right with God.
Why?
Because those punishments kind of remind me like,
hey, you're kind of drifting a little too far.
You're getting away, right?
And there's been times in my personal life
where I feel like I've drifted
and God allowed something in my life
and it's just automatically I know this is from the Lord.
This is God punishing me.
And it kind of caused me to be like, all right.
I need to get back on track.
Lord, forgive me.
Lord, create within me a clean heart.
Renew within me a right spirit.
Help me to be zealous for the things of God.
Help me to love souls.
Help me to love people.
Like change my heart.
Help me to take the things of God serious again.
Why?
Because punishment causes us to come back to the fold.
Go to 1 Corinthians 3 where we started.
1 Corinthians 3.
This is a great incentive to stay right with God is the fact of God to punish you and you know if anybody disagrees with this
Then show us how it's done
If you disagree with what I'm saying if you disagree with the verses I just showed then go ahead be the alternative let's take a look
show us
Show us how you're just right. Just go do the most godless thing
Because according to your theology nothing will ever happen to you
Go drink a beer, run with those that do,
commit fornication, adultery.
Go just commit the most heinous things
because according to you, nothing will ever happen.
Just show us.
You know, it's just like these fake healers out there.
They're like, oh, we can heal.
I was just like, well, go grab a black mamba real quick.
Not one that's been put in the refrigerator
for a long period of time either.
Probably one that's just a live awakened enthusiastic.
and allow yourself to get bitten by one of those
and let's see, show us how it's done then.
But it's funny how they wanna preach this
but they never wanna actually live it, right?
They wanna claim all these things
but it's because at the end of the day
they're false prophets, that's why.
They're deceivers who are casting a stumbling block
before others.
Folks, I'm gonna preach the fear of God in this church
to the day that I die.
Because it works. It's biblical. It's what's pleasing unto the Lord and you know what we're we're just not going to have a church here of
lasciviousness of
concupiscence of
Just where sin just permeates is where just a little leaven just leavens the whole lump
People don't respect the things of God. This is the house of God. This is the surface of God. We need to fear God
Why does God punish Christians?
Well, let me say this to spare us from shame at the judgment seat of Christ
You know sometimes God takes people home early because like I mentioned they become an
Liability rather than an asset
But really it spares them
From shame at the judgment seat of Christ because if a person is allowed to just prolong their days in sin
I
Mean their their shame is going to be that much the greater at the judgment seat looking for Corinthians 3 verse 16
Just skip down to verse 17 says if any man defile the temple of God him shall God destroy for the temple of God
Is holy which temple ye are now go to chapter 5 if you would chapter 5 look at verse number 4
So in first Corinthians 3 it says that you know if you destroy the temple if you defile the temple God's gonna destroy you now
You know first Corinthians 3 doesn't give any specifics though
Right he doesn't say this is what I mean by defile
If you do all these things, if you, you know,
do drugs, if you drink alcohol, if you,
it doesn't really specify, but that's on purpose, though.
Because he just wants us to just make sure
we just strive for holiness.
But I think we can tie this into 1 Corinthians chapter five,
look at verse four, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when you are gathered together and my spirit
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to deliver such an one unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh.
So, the context here is that a man is committing fornication with his step-mom, believe it or not,
and he's committing this, it's known in the church, and the Apostle Paul is saying,
this person needs to be delivered unto Satan, meaning they need to be excommunicated from the church
so that Satan can destroy that person's life.
So, that's synonymous with God destroying them in 1 Corinthians 3.
The person who's defiling their temple could be likened to the person who's committing fornication.
They're unrepentant. They shall be destroyed by Satan. That's the destruction of the flesh
But it says here that the spirit may be saved in the day of our law of the Lord Jesus
Now this is a very enigmatic verse here that a lot of people, you know, there's just well if you save
Why does he need to be saved in the day of Jesus Christ by being excommunicated?
I personally believe that this is referring to being saved from shame at the day of Jesus meaning the judgment seat of Christ
And this is a consistent teaching in the New Testament my friends
The Bible tells us in 1 John 2 28 and now little children abided me that when he shall appear
We may have confidence and not be shamed before him at his coming
The Bible also says in Mark chapter 8 verse 38
Who's over there for shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him
Also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with his holy angels
We can't suffer shame at the judgment seat of Christ
You know what sometimes God takes people home early so you don't suffer more shame
The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that we shall suffer loss if we if our works are burned up yet
We ourselves shall be saved yet. So as by fire
You know, this is one of the reasons why we constantly promote doing works for God
Winning souls to Christ saying in church so that you have a good judgment seat of Christ and the judgment seat of Christ is not for salvation
The judgment seat of Christ is like, you know, it's payout day, and we don't really know exactly how it's going to look
We can always surmise and come up with you know, you know different illustrations of how it's going to look
You know the most common one that I've stated is that at the millennial reign of Christ the inauguration of the millennial reign
We all make our pilgrimage to Jerusalem where Jesus Christ is reigning from and
Supernaturally, there's like a fire there where God tries our works that we've done for him
And you know some people who've served the Lord they've been winning souls to Christ
We don't exactly know how they're gonna look, but they're gonna be put on that fire
And if it's gold silver precious stones, you know, you got a great reward
And obviously it's like synonymous with the crowns that you receive the gold silver precious stones
You know liken unto the crowns that you get at the judgment seat of Christ, and it's just like here's your crowns
Be thou ruler over ten cities, right?
But then there's others
Who you know
Turn the grace of God until the civiusness
Who think you could just him God or something?
Saul
Manassee
You know lot
Probably although we don't know right. We're just surmising
You know, they're gonna come to the Judgment seat and their works are gonna be burned and it's just like wood hates double
And he's like here's a broom
Now look, I'm not saying that people are not going to be rejoicing over the fact that they're going to be rejoicing, of course they're going to be rejoicing.
We're in the new man, that's already settled, of course we're going to be happy that we're in the millennial reign, of course we're going to be happy that we're in the new heaven and the new earth.
That's obvious, but that's not the exclusion of the fact that we're going to suffer shame when we're judged at the judgment seat of Christ.
I'll tell you why, because you're going to see everyone else get a crown and you're not going to get a crown.
You know what, you're going to be like, man, I wish I had done more.
Because when you see your buddy who you made fun of ruling over 10 cities, and here's the thing, doesn't the Bible say that there are some that are going to be the least in the kingdom of heaven?
I wonder why God put that there?
I'll tell you why, so that you strive not to be the least.
Because the idea there is just like you're just gonna be at the bottom of the the barrel there. You'll be saved yet
So I was by fire
But you're just gonna be at the bottom of the barrel. You're not gonna get anything
Of course, you're gonna get eternal life, but you didn't earn eternal life though. I was given to you
Right, but you wasted your life just serving your own lust making fun of preachers
You know they're telling you to fear God, and you just live a godless life
You're just involved in fornication. You're involved in drunkenness, and now you get woodhand stubble
You know and look there might be pastors out there who are gonna fall into that category, too
And there's gonna be church members who never became a pastor never were became an evangelist or a deacon
And they're going to be ruling over that person,
over that pastor.
Like, hey, I remember you.
Oh, you remember?
Yeah, now you miss a spot, right there, you know?
Now again, we're going to be grateful to be there.
Of course we are.
But hold on a second.
There is shame.
And you know what?
You can see why God took Saul home early,
because he was being a liability to Israel.
But also, I promise you Saul is grateful
that he went home early.
Because the new man has probably rejoiced him
because he could have done more destruction
to himself later on.
That's a fact.
You know what, my friend who's in heaven right now
who I was just talking about,
I promise you he's happy about that.
Because he's probably thinking to himself like,
you know, I just didn't want to get right.
I'm so thankful that I'm here now.
I don't want to suffer shame
at the judgment seat of Christ.
I want to be rewarded and enjoy my rewards.
I want to know that my labor, it was worth it.
I hope to see thousands of people
that I led to the Lord in heaven, Lord willing.
I hope to see people whose lives were changed,
who I've never met.
I hope that when I get to the judgment seat of Christ,
God says to me, well done,
thou good and faithful servant.
Not just.
At least you're saved.
Right?
There's going to be a lot of those tickets being handed out.
Just like, hey, at least you're saved.
At least you're saved.
And people will be happy, but let's just be honest.
When you see people just walking away
with a bunch of gold, silver, precious stones,
yeah, I got put in Russia.
Like, I got to go, I'm going to rule over Russia or something.
That's exciting.
You know, I get Africa, I get, you know,
or you get Antarctica, like, you know.
I got the North Pole.
Oh, great, man, you know.
I get, you know, I want to be a part of that.
And you know what?
Obviously, look, let me just say this.
There's people in this world who will be more rewarded
more than us here.
There's people, for example, people in the Philippines
are probably gonna, Christians who are in the Philippines,
And in Belize and in areas that are really receptive who are just spending their lives winning souls to Christ there
They're probably will get rewarded more than us
Because they've dedicated their life to live in a place like that
In order to win souls to Christ
fact
You like what do you say?
Are you saying we should move to the Bahamas or the Philippines or Belize?
You can if you want or you can just kind of just go do missions while you're here
Right and just kind of make up for the rewards
that you can't get while you're here because you're not living in a place like that and
Here's the thing. There's no there's no measure in the Bible that tells you this is what you have to do to get the most rewards
You just got to keep serving God and
Be in this thing for the long haul
Point that I'm making here is that you know, don't be a liability be an asset
You know the last time I checked the Bible says that those who have separated themselves from certain things shall be a vessel unto honor
Sanctified and meet for the master's use. I
Want to be used of God?
To turn people to righteousness to baptize people to get people saved to convince people to serve God to convince people to fear God
I want to be used of God in that manner
And not be ashamed before him at his coming go to Hebrew chapter 12 Hebrew chapter 12. This is my last point when I'm done
Why does God punish Christians? I'll tell you why lastly to purge us and refine us
to purge us and
refine us
Now look folks, you know God doesn't have to give us an answer
When evil comes upon us we've all asked Lord why
And there's never an audible voice,
and if there is, you got a problem.
There's never an audible voice that comes to you and say,
hey, you know, this is why this is happening to you.
Don't tell anybody I told you, you know?
Often we're met with silence.
All we have is the word of God, right?
But God doesn't need to give us an answer.
Because often when we go through a trial,
he wants to take us through the stages
of examining ourselves, judging ourselves,
you know, making ourselves better.
And you know what, there are instances, listen to me, where you will suffer chastisement
of the Lord, not because you're involved in sin, not because you aren't right with God.
But I'll tell you why, because it humbles you and it humbles me, and when we get humbled,
we end up producing more fruit.
And sometimes God chastises you, not because he's angry with you,
but as a form of refining, as a form of purging, because you are fruitful.
So when you're a fruitful Christian, sometimes God has to purge you so you can bear more fruit.
You know what purging is? Humbling you.
But you know what humbles you? Trials.
Difficulties.
Because it kind of, you know, a trial shows you that you're not all that you thought you were cracked up to be.
I'm such a good Christian. I read so much Bible. I win so many souls and I go to church this many times
And God just kind of pulls around rug from out from under you. And you know, I'm not as spiritual as I thought I was
Lord forgive me and then God refines you. He purges you and you end up producing more food
Look at Hebrews 12 verse 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children
My son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou are rebuked of him now chasing again means beating
whooping, and he's saying that this is an exhortation.
Verse six, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeeth every son whom he receiveth.
Now there's a pastor out there that says,
well scourge doesn't mean like scourge like a beating
or anything like that, or like a whip in.
Then what do they do to Jesus when it says
that they scourge them?
What does that mean then?
It's like, what are you talking about?
So, you know, and this is, false prophets are notorious
for this, listen to me.
The notorious for telling you what something doesn't mean,
but they will never tell you what it actually does mean.
And let me tell you why, because they don't know.
Scourging doesn't mean like whooping them or something.
Oh, so what does it mean?
Well, it doesn't mean that.
Oh, OK, so what does it mean?
So then what do they do to Jesus?
Well, that's a different scourge.
That scourge does mean whip.
Scourge means to whip, my friends, whom the Lord loveth he chastendeth, and scourgeeth
ever some whom he receiveth.
If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chastendeth not?
So if someone is telling you, hey, you don't have to worry if you're involved in sin, nothing's
God's not gonna chastise you. He's not gonna punish you this side of eternity
You're not gonna nothing's gonna happen to you because you're already saved and
If that actually does happen to you where you don't get punished
You're not being whooped. You're not being scourged. That's actually not an indication that you're saved
That's actually an indication that you're not saved
Which is crazy that someone would say something like that
You're saved, so nothing's gonna happen to you.
Whereas the message of the Bible is,
no, if you do those things, something will happen to you.
Now let me prove it to you.
Look what it says in verse eight.
But if you be without chastisement,
we're of all our partakers,
then are you bastards and not sons?
So you say, look, if you don't suffer
any chastisement in your life,
then that's just an indication
that you're not a child of God.
And not just that, the Bible says that you're a bastard.
illegitimate child you think that you're saved but you're actually not I
Mean this is literally what the Bible says and any Christian who's been a Christian for a lengthy period of time
Who's been serving the Lord has suffered chastisement of the Lord and we all know like this is confirmation that God is chasing me because he's my father
So look if you ever hear a preacher telling you live higher you want nothing will happen because you're saved run screaming in the
Opposite direction because he's literally saying something different than what the Bible says
Now if you're saved and you get involved in sin regardless of what he says you're still gonna be chasing
But once you get chasing just realize oh wait Hebrews 12 8 says that I'm a child of God
Okay, but if a person is saying like I've never been chasing I can live and see and I just nothing's ever happened to me
Well, then you're probably a bastard then
You're not you're not a child of God
Look at verse 9 says furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence
Shall we not much rather being subjection unto the father of spirits and live for they barely for a few days chasing us after their own
Pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness
Now no chastening for the president seem it to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of
Righteousness unto them which are exercised there by what is he saying?
He's like look when you're chasing you're not rejoicing like yes, this is great
I'm my finances are horrible right now my I'm gonna die. You know my health is horrible
You know, you're just like happy
It's not joyous
But then the result of that chastening is the peaceable fruits of righteousness meaning that God is a blessing you in the long run because of it
And he says in verse 12,
wherefore, because of this,
lift up the hands which hang down,
and the feeble knees,
and make straight paths for your feet,
lest that which is lame be turned out of the way,
but rather let it be healed.
In other words, in light of the fact
that you're being chased in, live a righteous life.
Make straight paths for your feet.
Go to the straight and narrow.
Obey God.
Look right before you.
You know, serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Get sin out of your life.
Let aside the weight and the sin
which doth so easily beset us.
And let us run with patience
the race that is set before us.
And if you're chasing,
here is the process that you need to go through.
When you get punished,
you gotta think to yourself,
well, do I have sin in my life?
Check no sin there. No sin there as far as I know. I'm in the clear
Lord examine me see if there be any wicked way in me and when you with the conclusion of that examination if you're like
I have no sin then you can just rest assure that you're being perched
God's allowing a situation in your life number one to show himself strong on your behalf
To increase your faith or because he's gonna bless you in the long run and he has to humble you before you get the blessing
Because look, if you've got no trials
and you get blessed, you become prideful.
If you get no trials, no tribulation, no affliction,
no chastening, and you're being blessed exceedingly,
the temptation there is to be prideful and arrogant.
But if you get chastened by the Lord
and then you get blessed, then you're like,
you know, I don't deserve this,
but God's blessing me with this.
You're kind of situating in such a way mentally,
spiritually, that you're able to receive that blessing
and not be prideful about it.
The Bible says in John 15 verse 1,
I am the true vine, and my father is the husband man.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit,
he take it away, and every branch that beareth fruit,
he never chasens, he never spanks.
No, he purgeeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit,
the Bible says.
So look, and I'm done.
When you are punished of the Lord,
when your chest, eyes, whatever you wanna call it,
Punished of the Lord the number one thing you should never do is get bitter towards God
Why is God allowing this no one else is suffering like this that's like the worst thing you could do
What you're supposed to do is just be like
Let me examine myself. Well, I do have this sin. Let me just purge myself of this particular sin
Let me get right with God
But other than that, I don't feel like anything else is happening
You know whom the Lord love if he chased in it and scourge at every son whom you receive it
Obviously God's allowing this in my life not because he's angry with me because I don't have sin in my life
But maybe because of the fact that he loves me and he wants me to produce more fruit
But at the end of the day he is chasing me. He's allowing evil to come upon my life
And he's giving me enough warnings in the Bible
what to do when the evil day comes upon me.
And the number one thing I should not do
is get bitter towards God.
And you know what?
It'll set you up for a blessing in the long run.
What am I saying this morning?
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
Fear God.
Be afraid of God.
Why?
Because when you're afraid of God
and when you fear God,
when you're in that moment of temptation,
When no one else is around and they can't see you and I'm not around your parents aren't around
Your spouse is not around your kids aren't around you know the fear of God is essentially practicing the presence of God
It's like knowing like God is here though
God can see me the eyes of the Lord run to and fro. He sees everything. He's omniscient
Therefore, I'm gonna stay right you don't want to keep Joseph right with God the fear of God
And so, you know, him shall God destroy.
God can destroy your life.
He will destroy your life.
Do not, listen to me, here's the last thing,
do not tempt the Lord thy God.
Stay as far away from temptation as possible,
far away from sin as possible,
and far away from any false prophet who tells you otherwise.
Because the false prophets in the Bible always told people God's people nothing's gonna happen to you peace peace
Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word
And thank you for the admonitions and the warnings of the Bible help us as your people to fear you and
Lord, we don't live in fear constantly afraid without joy
No, we live in fear of God knowing the consequences of our actions and the fact that you see all things your omniscient
Your omnipotent and omnipresent
I pray that you'd help us Lord
To think upon those things in times of temptation and times when we stray Lord that we may fear you because it
Causes us to depart from evil and it's the beginning of wisdom
It's the beginning of knowledge
And if we want to be blessed of God we need the fear of God in our lives pray the blessings as we go on our way
We love you. We thank you. Pray the things in Jesus name