The title for the sermon tonight is You Reap What You Sow.
You reap what you sow.
I have taught on this before, of course, that what we reap.
The world has this sort of idea.
I'm sure you're all familiar with the idea of the karma.
And they'll say, well, if you do good things, you know,
you expect, you can expect good things to come your way.
Or if you do something wrong or evil,
you expect evil things to come your way.
The issue with that, that obviously that karma idea
does have some elements of truth,
but it's based upon, you know, new age religion,
or it's based upon, you know,
Eastern kind of religion of Buddhism or Taoism
or this kind of idea, the yin and yang sort of mentality.
But there is, you know, well, that is,
there was a lot of stupidity with that.
I'm not trying to promote any kind of false doctrines
or false religions there.
There is this idea that if we do that which is good,
that God will bless us.
And if we do that which is wrong,
then God will make sure that we suffer the consequences
of the wrong or the sins that we do.
And so as I said, the title for the sermon tonight is
You Reap What You Sow.
Let's start there in verse number one,
Psalm 41 verse number one.
It does begin by saying it's the Psalm of David,
but it says, blessed is he that considerth the poor.
The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
And so you notice that the one that considers a poor person,
you know, if we take the direct application here
on time of Judah, time of Israel, of course,
you've got the people of God dwelling together.
You know, God had set up a system where, you know,
you've got governance over people.
People will all inherit their land from the family.
And God made sure that, you know,
even if you got in a bad place financially,
even if you end up selling all your property,
all your land, and you're just struggling with that,
that your family, at the end of 50 years,
the time of the year of Jubilee,
you'd receive all of it back.
So you were never at a point
where you were at a complete loss.
You know, you might suffer a great loss, you know,
in the time of your life, but eventually, you know,
at the end of that Jubilee period,
you'd get everything back.
And so look, as people of God, you know,
we should consider the poor.
There are people that are poor and needy,
and it would be right for us to do that,
which is good to those that are suffering.
But just like anything in the Bible,
you can take it to too many extremes.
And, you know, I don't give money to people
that just come up to me on the street
and saying, hey, brother, can you spare me some change?
You know, hey, brother,
I've got some medical bills to take care of.
Do you mind spending me some change,
or I need some fuel in my car,
or my car's broken down, I need to catch a bus home.
I get so many of that.
You know, we're located here in Sydney, in Fairfield,
near the train station.
There's often people coming up to you,
just asking for money.
It's the same people all the time, okay?
There is an element of homelessness in here.
I don't believe they need to be homeless.
They choose to be homeless.
And you know what?
I'm not gonna give my hand unto these people.
You know why?
Because they don't really classify as poor.
You know, they've decided for themselves to be poor.
They've decided to, instead of working a job,
they just want the handouts.
And so one thing that we also learned
when we were going through 1 Timothy,
you may remember in 1 Timothy 5,
look at how a church is to provide for the widows.
But it wasn't every widow.
And it wasn't even every widow in the church.
You know, there's a criteria that needed to be met.
Remember that?
Now, when we go into 1 Timothy 5.
Number one, you know, she had to be genuinely in need.
You know, there are some widows
that aren't in need as much as others, right?
Some widows might have done very well in life.
Maybe the man she married had provided for them
all the days of their life.
You know, obviously that widow, you know,
would not be one that the church would, you know, help out.
Okay, because she has everything she needs.
But hey, if she is a widow that's genuinely in need,
the next step was, well, does she have family?
And it's her family's responsibility, you know,
whether it's her children or her nephews,
to take care of that person.
Now she's genuinely in need
and she definitely does not have anybody to look after her.
It still wasn't the church's responsibility.
She would be then qualified, hey,
is this a woman that has been faithfully serving the church?
Has she washed the disciples feet as it were?
Has she been a help?
And will she continue being a help in the house of God?
And yes, if that person qualified,
then you would go and help that person in need.
Now this widow would be considered poor and needy
and we should look to bless those kinds of people.
Or you know what, we might find a brother in the Lord,
a sister in the Lord, a family in church
that has gone through a major suffering, major loss,
and they're in a bad place financially,
not because necessarily any wrongdoing
or just a lack of desiring to work from the man,
but they just generally fall into a bad place
and they could need some financial aid.
I believe it's good for brethren to come together
and give of their finances
to help support a brother in a desperate need.
I believe we can definitely apply all these things.
And when you do see somebody in need
and you do provide for them,
you do help them in a time of need,
the Bible says that you're going to be blessed.
In what way are you going to be blessed?
It says the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
You see, if you help people in a time of trouble
that are genuinely in a time of trouble,
then God's going to make sure that you are helped
in the time of trouble.
As I said, the title of the sermon tonight is
you reap what you sow.
You know, if you sow to the needs of the brethren,
then when you have needs,
God's going to make sure that you reap the benefits
of having helped your fellow brother or sister in the Lord.
And so let's keep going there in verse number two.
What other blessings does this man receive?
It says the Lord will preserve him and keep him alive.
And he shall be blessed upon the earth
and that will not deliver him into the will of his enemies.
You see, there's a lot of blessings.
There's a lot of reaping.
If you were to sow it and just look after one another,
love one another, you know,
see where you can support one another
in some type of help and need,
then God has so many blessings for you.
You know, what does it say here?
It says that he will preserve him.
All right, so God's going to help you
to continue soldiering on in the faith
that you remain faithful to the Lord
all the days of your life.
What else have we promised?
And keep him alive.
You know, God's going to make sure
that your days are extended upon this earth.
That, you know, no sudden, you know,
problem that that may cause you to lose your life early
would fall upon you.
That, you know, if God sees you and he wants to reward you,
you've sown to righteous things,
God's going to preserve you even in your life.
It says, and he shall be blessed upon the earth.
God's going to make sure that you are abundantly,
you receive all, you know, your abundant needs
upon this earth that you'll never go without.
And that will not deliver him
unto the will of his enemies.
God's going to make sure when the enemies rise up
against you, that God's going to deliver you
out of that enemy's hands
before they do too much harm upon you.
These are great blessings, right?
If you do that, which is right.
If you look out for the needs of others,
and God's going to make sure he looks out for your needs
when that time comes.
Can you keep your finger there?
And please go to Proverbs 11.
Go to Proverbs 11.
And I'm going to read to you from Matthew 7.
You go to Proverbs 11.
I'll read to you from Matthew 7.
I'm going to read to you one of the, you know,
I would say this is one of the top five verses in the Bible
that even the unsaved world is familiar with, okay?
And in Matthew 7, 12, it says,
these are the words of Jesus.
Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them,
for this is the law and the prophets.
Jesus Christ is basically teaching another way
of reaping what you sow.
If you want things done to you a certain way,
you want to be treated properly,
you want to be respected,
then you need to treat people in the same way.
This is a teaching of Jesus Christ.
You know, the world calls this the golden rule.
In fact, you know, sometimes people
take this verse and they say,
well, do unto others.
They kind of minimize it to do unto others, right?
You go door to door, soul winning.
Hey, what do you think you have to do to go to heaven?
Well, just do unto others.
You know, be good to other people.
And if God sees you doing good to others,
then God will take you to heaven.
Of course, that's a false gospel.
Of course, they're taking this verse out of context, okay?
But even though salvation is not based
on what good we do for other people,
you know, living our Christian life,
this is a commandment that Christ wants us to consider
that we should do good to other people.
We should consider, we should treat others
the way we would want to be treated.
Because then Christ says,
for this is the law and the prophets.
You know, the whole Bible, the whole scriptures,
all the prophets, the point of the law
is that we will treat each other in the right way,
in the right manner, okay?
And if we do that, which is good toward one another,
to our Christian brothers in the church,
to our outside community as well,
then God's gonna look down
and he's gonna make sure
that when you go for a time of trouble,
that he's going to take care of you.
He can prolong your life.
He can help you have an abundant life.
You know, God will look down and bless you
if you do that which is right to other people.
And so you reap what you sow.
You're there in Proverbs chapter 11, verse 18.
Proverbs chapter 11, verse 18, it says,
"'The wicked worketh a deceitful work,
but to him that soweth righteousness
shall be a sure reward.'"
A sure reward, right?
Now the wicked, you know, the wicked do wicked things.
They work a deceitful work.
That's their reward.
They're going to live a life of deceitfulness,
of wickedness.
Wickedness was gonna come upon them
because they're gonna reap what they sow, brethren, okay?
But you, you that which is righteous, it says,
"'But to him that soweth righteousness
shall be a sure reward.'"
You know, why should I do well to others?
Why should I consider the needs of others?
Why should I be kind and courteous to other people?
Because God says, you're going to receive a sure reward.
You're going to reap what you sow
and God's gonna reward you as well.
He's gonna bless you, you know, in your life.
Please go to Psalm 126.
Psalm 126.
Psalm 126 and verse number four, please.
Psalm 126 and verse number four.
This is another familiar passage probably to many of us,
especially if you're a soul winner.
And I do believe we can apply this passage
to the soul winner, but there's actually,
the soul winning is not the primary application
of this verse, okay?
Let's have a look at it here in Psalm 126
and verse number four.
It says, "'Turn again our captivity, O Lord,
as the streams in the south.'"
Verse number five,
"'They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.'"
Psalm 126 is about the captivity of either Judah or Israel
when they were taken into captivity
by the Babylonians, for example.
And they're asking that God will turn their captivity,
that they would be let go free.
We know that they were taken into captivity for 70 years
and they would return to the land, okay?
Now, when they return back to the land,
it says, "'They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.'"
Hey, you wanna have a joyful life?
You wanna reap in joy?
You know what, brethren, you need to do?
You need to get busy for the Lord.
The Lord delivered the Jews out of Babylon,
brought back to the land, okay?
The land is destroyed.
The land hasn't been farmed or used.
And so what they do, they come in tears,
they come to work hard,
they realize we've been given a second chance here
and they go and sow and then they'll reap
and they're full of joy.
You know, you can't expect God's just,
God's gonna bless me,
God's gonna make everything well for me
if you don't go and sow to righteousness yourself.
You know, if you don't do the works
that God has left you to do,
how can you expect God to just bless you,
abundantly bless you?
And how are you going to reap that which you don't sow?
You know, we all have to get busy.
If we wanna reap rewards,
we wanna have the blessings of God,
we need to go out there and sow, sow unto righteousness.
Let's keep going.
This is in verse number six.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.
You see sometimes maybe doing that which is right
and sow into righteousness,
may become weary, it's hard work.
But there's a guarantee here
that shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.
You know, those that worked the farm
and they were released out of the hand of Babylonian,
they worked hard, they sowed in tears.
You know, the Lord said, you're going to be blessed,
you're gonna have plenty, you're gonna be full of joy.
And that's what our Christian life ought to be.
And yes, we can apply this, of course, to soul winning.
All right, we take the precious seed, the word of God,
you know, the gospel message to this lost and dying world,
and you will reap,
you will see people come to believe on Jesus Christ.
And hey, what a blessing it is
when people call upon the name of the Lord,
they believe on Jesus Christ, yeah?
Not only the rejoicing of a soul saved
that's going to enter heaven,
but you know, you'll see them for all eternity.
You know that Christ is looking down upon you
and he's gonna bless you.
You know, he's going to, you know,
show his appreciation towards you
for doing the works that he has left us to do.
Can you please turn to Galatians chapter six,
turn to Galatians chapter six and verse number seven.
Galatians chapter six and verse number seven.
And so I'm talking about sowing unto righteousness
and God will bless you, okay?
As we saw, hey, he may even bless you
by taking you out of the hands of the enemy,
as he promised, okay?
Extending your life, you know,
giving you what you need in abundance.
But Galatians chapter six and verse number seven,
we can also sow to wickedness, yeah?
We can also sow to carnal things.
And it says in Galatians six, seven,
be not deceived, God is not mocked,
for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Now look, if you decide to sow to wickedness,
sow to the pleasures of this world,
sow to this disgusting flesh that we all live in,
the sinful flesh that we live in, okay?
You're not going to, God's not gonna be mocked.
He's gonna make sure that you reap what you've sowed unto,
even if it's unto wickedness.
It keeps going there in verse number eight.
For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption.
You see, even a Christian can live a life of corruption.
Even a Christian who is saved
can destroy his life in this world,
can live a miserable, hopeless life.
That's if you sow to your flesh.
Hey, and within your flesh is no good thing.
You know, sowing to the flesh
is giving into the temptations of sins.
You know, it's loving the wickedness of this world
instead of setting your eyes upon Jesus.
It's not prioritizing the kingdom of God.
When you do these things,
brethren, you're sowing to the flesh.
When you give into the carnal desires that this flesh has,
you're sowing to the flesh
and you're going to reap what?
Corruption.
Here's the, you know, the sad thing about sin,
the scary thing about sin,
it's actually pleasing for a moment.
There's actually joy in sin for a season, right?
This is why we sin.
But then you're actually going to end up
with greater consequences.
You know, when the Lord judges you,
you're going to face the corruption
that comes with your decision to sow to the flesh.
Let's keep going there in verse number eight,
or I didn't finish verse number eight.
For he that sowed to his flesh shall reap of the flesh,
to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.
But he that sowed to the spirit
shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.
Amen.
Okay.
If we sow not to the flesh, but to the spirit,
we walk in the spirit,
we walk in accordance to the new man,
we walk in accordance to God's commandments,
God's will, then we're going to reap life everlasting.
You're saying, is this teaching how we get saved?
Of course not.
We know that being saved is not based on how good we do.
Being saved is based on believing on Jesus Christ.
The point is, now that you are saved,
we have been given everlasting life, okay?
And we can either reap for this temporal corrupt life,
or we can reap in the future in our life everlasting.
And so if we walk in accordance to God's will,
according to his spirit brethren,
then we're going to reap rewards in that life everlasting.
God's going to reward each one of us
for the works that we do for him on this earth.
Let's keep going to verse number nine.
And let us not be weary and well-doing
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
As we have therefore opportunity, look at this,
let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
So this ties in, you know, yes, we should do good.
We should do good to those that are poor,
those that are needy.
It says, especially unto them
who are the household of faith.
You know, if we're going to be doing good to anybody,
we're going to show a love and appreciation to anybody.
It ought to be to the people in your local church,
in the house of God.
And it's such a sad thing
when people in church can't get along.
Okay, because we're commanded to do good unto each other.
You know, this pleases the Lord.
This helps us, you know, reap great rewards
into life everlasting
and to sow in the right places brethren.
You know, this flesh gets in the way so many times
and what we see here in the Psalm,
if you go back to Psalm 41 now,
we do see this concept of you reaping what you sow.
You know, do unto others, as people say, right?
Treat people the way you would like to be treated.
Give to the poor and needy
when the opportunity arises.
Qualify that they are definitely needy.
Okay, they're not just taking advantage of you.
They're just lazy.
No, if they're definitely poor and needy,
we should stretch our hand of generosity toward them.
Let's go to verse number three.
Psalm 41, verse number three.
What are the blessings?
What else can we reap if we sow to righteousness?
Verse number three.
It says, the Lord will strengthen him
upon the bed of languishing
that will make all his bed in his sickness.
So God says, look,
even when you go through a time of sickness,
God's gonna be there to strengthen you
upon the bed of languishing.
That bed, of course, when someone's sick, you know,
especially if you've got like a bad flu or something,
you might find yourself in bed.
You know, you might have a high fever,
tossing and turning, sweating,
you know, going through the chills.
You guys know what it's like.
Well, you know what, in that state of weakness,
of sickness, you know, part of reaping,
what you've sown is that God will strengthen you
so you can recover out of your sickness.
But not only a recovery out of your sickness to health,
it says in the second part of verse number three,
that will make all his bed in his sickness.
Now it's kind of strange the word in there,
but it's saying that God will make the bed of the sick.
So, you know, the idea there is, you know,
when we make our beds, you know,
you can sleep in there and then you fix it up
or, you know, you might change the sheets.
Doesn't it feel a lot better once you've done the bed,
you've made the bed, you've changed the sheets.
And when someone is sick, you know,
it's a good idea to change the sheets on a regular basis.
So, you know, the disease or sickness doesn't spread.
And so it's that kind of idea that God will continue
to comfort us even in a time of sickness.
That's part of reaping what we've sown,
not only to be restored to health,
but that God will comfort us,
that he will make our bed as it were
in the times of trials and sickness.
Let's keep going there, verse number four.
I said, Lord, be merciful unto me, heal my soul,
for I have sinned against thee.
How many times when we've been going through
the book of Psalms do we see the Psalmist
confessing his sins to God?
Again, is he doing it to get saved?
No, you don't have to confess your sins to God to be saved.
You have to confess that you're a sinner.
Hey God, I'm a sinner, I've done wrong,
I can't save myself.
But truly, there are some people that teach
that you've basically have to confess your sins to God.
Truly someone that has just understood the gospel,
they don't even understand all their sins.
I recall getting my wife saved, gave her the gospel.
I think she was 19 about when she got saved.
And as she started to read the Bible,
she started to understand, wow, these are sins.
Like she had no idea.
Things that are just part of a natural life,
she had no idea that was sins.
How can she go and confess sins to be saved
when you have no idea what some of those sins are?
Because you don't know the law of God,
you don't know the Bible as a whole.
But generally speaking, everybody can identify,
yes, I'm a sinner, I've done wrong, I'm not perfect.
So this is not about salvation once again,
this is about a Christian, a believer.
And notice that again, the book of Psalms,
because it's a constant prayer to God,
that we see through the book of Psalms, it's a song book.
Someone's opening their heart unto God.
You will see constantly in the book of Psalms
that the Psalmist goes and confesses his sins to the Lord.
And whenever I come across this,
I always highlight it in my sermons.
Because if I'm honest, I would say that
I don't hear a lot of preaching on this subject.
It's like going in church in my life,
I never really heard a lot of preaching
that we ought to go and confess our sins to God.
Okay, again, this has nothing to do with salvation.
This has to do with our walk with God.
To keep a close friendship and fellowship with our Savior,
okay, we ought to confess on a regular basis.
And you see the Psalmist here
confessing his sins to the Lord, all right?
Now, if you keep your finger there
and go to Matthew chapter six, this is really important.
Matthew chapter six and verse number nine.
So the Psalmist is seeking God's forgiveness.
He has sinned against God, we sin every day.
The Psalmist sins every day.
Okay, King David, he's sinned every day.
And so we need to go on a regular basis
confessing our sins to the Lord, okay?
Please make this a habit of your life.
Again, I haven't heard much preaching
in my churches growing up.
It's something that I had to come to be aware of
as I read my Bible.
And I don't know why this doesn't preach too much.
It seems like it's such a staple part
of the Christian life to me.
But Matthew chapter six and verse number nine,
we're looking at the model prayer,
the Lord's prayers it's known, right?
When the disciples come to Jesus
and ask him to teach him how to pray.
And I wanna take this thought of you reap what you sow,
all right, as well as how does that play into
seeking God's forgiveness for the sins
that you've committed in your daily life.
Or in Matthew chapter six, verse number nine,
Jesus Christ says, after this matter,
therefore pray ye, our father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Look at verse number 12, and forgive us our debts.
But then it says this, as we forgive our debtors.
Wow, I mean, that's huge, right?
We used to go into God and say,
God, please forgive me my debts.
Please forgive me for my sins.
Luke 11, four puts it this way,
and forgive us our sins, okay?
So forgiving our debts is the same thought
of forgiving us for our sins.
God, we're going before you, we've sinned against you.
Please forgive us for our sins, forgive us for our debts.
But then, as it said, as we forgive our debtors,
as we forgive those that have sinned against us,
I want you to think about that.
So basically, this is the prayer,
and this is reaping what you saw.
If there are people that have wronged you,
and they've apologized, right,
and you just refuse to forgive them,
and then you go to God in your daily prayers
and your daily sins, you say,
God, please forgive me for my sins,
then he's not gonna forgive you for your sins.
You're going to reap what you sow.
Hey, you sow unforgiveness,
you're going to reap unforgiveness.
Hey, if you sow forgiveness, brethren,
then you're going to reap forgiveness, okay?
I mean, this is clear in the Bible.
We're gonna look at another passage as well.
Again, this has nothing to do with salvation.
This is about our fellowship we've got.
I don't want you walking away thinking,
all right, you know, anytime someone has done me wrong,
and I've treated them badly, or whatever it is,
I've not forgiven other people,
that I can just go to God and ask him for forgiveness,
and it's all gonna be good.
No, not if you've treated others wrongly, okay, badly.
Not if there's been a need of a brother,
and you refuse to help that brother.
You know, God's gonna limit how much he forgives you.
You know, you're gonna have to deal with the brunt
of your sins at some point,
because he hasn't forgiven you in your daily sins,
because you've not forgiven others, okay?
This is a major issue that we read about in the Bible.
Please go to Matthew 18 now.
Go to Matthew 18.
You know, this is a teaching that cannot be ignored.
A teaching that cannot be ignored.
I wanna be sure that every time I go to God for forgiveness,
that I'm gonna receive a full pardon.
That God's gonna be merciful to me.
That I'm not going to have the need of chastisement
because of something that I've done before,
where maybe there's a brother who's wronged me,
and I've not forgiven them.
Or, you know, I'm just holding bitterness
about something that's developed in the past,
and I'm just constantly angry,
and constantly bitter about people in the past,
and then I go to God, and I'm looking for his mercy.
You know, it doesn't work that way, Brethren, okay?
Matthew 18, verse number 21.
"'Then came Peter to him and said,
"'Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me,
"'and I forgive him, till seven times?
"'Jesus saith unto him,
"'I say not unto thee until seven times,
"'but until 70 times seven.'"
Are you ready to forgive someone 70 times seven?
Brethren, it's too hard.
I'm being honest as a pastor here.
It's even too hard for me, okay?
But hey, you know what?
Even if it's hard, that's what God expects.
That's what Christ wants from us,
to be able to forgive somebody 70 times seven.
You know, sometimes people can wrong us once,
and we can't forgive them, okay?
God wants a higher standard, 70 times.
Look, if he can forgive a brother seven times,
that's pretty good.
I mean, the disciples thought,
hey, that's a high standard,
but it wasn't high enough for Jesus.
It had to be 70 times seven.
And then Christ gives us this parable,
this illustration here in verse number 23.
"'Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened
"'unto a certain king,
"'which would take account of his servants.
"'And when he had begun to reckon,
"'one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents.
"'But for as much as he had not to pay,
"'the Lord commanded him to be sold,
"'and his wife and his children,
"'and all that he had, and payment to be made.'"
So this man, he owed his king 10,000 talents.
He can't afford to pay it.
He's borrowed too much, okay?
And so the king says, all right,
let's sell these people off.
Let's sell them into servitude
so they can pay off the debt, all right?
Now, obviously you would not want your wife and kids
to be sold like that into servitude
because of your errors and your mistakes.
So I understand where this man comes from.
It says in verse number 26,
"'The servant therefore fell down and worshiped him,
"'saying, Lord, have patience with me,
"'and I will pay thee all.'
"'Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion
"'and loosed him and forgave him the debt.'"
Well, this man just sees, hey,
he comes humbly for the king, bows down, says,
look, I'll pay it all, just be merciful to me.
And the king's heart is moved with compassion and love.
He says, look, I forgive you.
Okay, I realize you love your wife, you love your kids.
You seem like a man who's trying to do that, which is right,
but you've just fallen in a bad place.
I'm gonna forgive you.
You don't even have to pay back, you know, the king says.
Well, let's keep going there.
Verse number 28,
"'But the same servant went out
"'and found one of his fellow servants,
"'which owed him 100 pence.'"
Okay, so this is much less than 10,000 talents.
"'And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat,
"'saying, Pay me, let thou orest.'
"'And his fellow servant fell down on his feet
"'and besought him, saying,
"'Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.'
"'So his servant does the same thing that he did
"'to his king, and he would not,
"'but went and cast him into prison
"'till he should pay the debt.
"'So when his fellow servants saw what was done,
"'they were very sorry and came and told unto their lord,
"'all that was done.
"'Then his lord, after that, he had caught him,
"'he said unto him, O thou wicked servant,'
"'look at this, I forgave thee all that debt,
"'because thou desirest me.
"'Shouldest not thou also have had compassion
"'on thy fellow servants, even as I had pity on thee?'
"'Listen, I've been pitiful toward you.
"'I forgave you for much more,
"'and you can't even do that to your own servants.'"
You know, now the kings realize this is not a good man.
This is a wicked man.
This guy's, you know, full of hypocrisy.
You know, he's got double standards.
He's got one standard for himself,
and not a standard for his own servants.
Verse number 34,
"'And his lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors
"'till he should pay all that was due unto him.
"'So likewise,'" now this is the lesson,
"'so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you,
"'if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother
"'their trespasses.'"
Wow, okay.
So Christ is definitely teaching us a lesson here.
If we don't learn to be forgiven,
we don't show mercy and compassion and love
to those that have wronged us,
then God's not going to,
well, God's not gonna show you love and mercy, okay?
He's gonna throw you amongst the tormentors.
You're gonna go through difficulties and trials.
Listen, sometimes we don't know.
We go through tribulations.
We go through trials.
We go through hardships.
We don't always know why that is.
You know, is it just the devil that's prosecuting me?
Could be.
Is it that I've sinned against the Lord
and I've refused to confess,
and, you know, I've just doubled down,
I've just been prideful,
and God's just chastised me.
It could be.
But you know what?
Another reason it could be
is that you've not been merciful or forgiven
to your brethren,
and now God's put you into the prison, as it were,
in the hands of the tormentors.
There could be various reasons why
we go through trials and tribulations,
but what I always say,
it's not always clear what that might be,
but I always say,
just stop, think about where you are,
what trial you're going through,
and see what lessons are there
that God wants you to learn.
You know, and this is just a self-examination.
People come to me sometimes with their problems.
I don't necessarily know
why they're going through that problem, okay?
I might have my suspicions,
but I don't want to be like Job's three friends.
They're all, you're going through difficulties,
therefore you've wronged God,
because there could be various reasons, you know, for it.
But within ourselves, if we examine ourselves,
we would know why we go through certain hardships.
And let it not be that you're going through a hardship
because you realize, man,
I've not been forgiven toward so-and-so,
and now God's not forgiven me
for the sins that I've committed, you know?
And so this is an outcome.
You reap what you sow, okay?
You reap what you sow.
Let's go back to Psalm 41, please.
Psalm 41 and verse number five.
It says, mine enemies speak evil of me.
When shall he die and his name perish?
So the enemies of the Psalm is saying,
hey, when's this guy going to die?
We can't wait for this guy to perish, right?
We're sick of this guy.
You know, David's reflecting upon this.
And again, why is David saying this?
Let's not lose the context of where it started, okay?
David's basically saying,
Lord, I've helped the poor and needy, okay?
I've done that which is good.
I've been righteous.
I've done righteous acts, Lord.
Now I need to reap what I've sown.
And now, Lord, I'm in the hands of enemies here, okay?
I need your help now, Lord.
I need to start reaping what I've sown in the past.
Now, I think that's completely legit, you know?
I think if we're going through difficulties and trials,
I think it's good to go to the Lord and say,
Lord, you know, Lord, I need your help.
I need your deliverance.
There are people rising up against me.
And Lord, I've been living for you.
You know, Lord, I've been preaching the gospel.
Lord, I've been serving you faithfully.
And Lord, I need your help right now.
Lord, I've done that which is righteous.
Lord, there's been brethren that are in need
and I've helped them, Lord.
And now I need your help, Lord.
I need to start reaping a little bit
of what I've sown in the past.
I think this is a good prayer to make, okay?
Verse number six.
Now, actually, as we go through this,
you're gonna start noticing
these aren't just the words of the psalmist.
These actually are the words of Jesus Christ, okay?
And primarily about Jesus and Judas Iscariot
that betrayed him, okay?
We'll start seeing the connection there
with the New Testament.
But verse number six,
And if he come to see me,
so if my enemy comes to see me,
he speak of vanity,
his heart gathereth iniquity to itself.
When he goeth abroad, he teleforts.
So, you know, this is really sad.
I think one of the most hurtful experiences
that you can go through is when you have someone
that you consider a friend,
where they seemingly, you know,
they make it out that they're trying to help you, okay?
But he speak of vanity,
meaning he's not really coming to help me.
You know, he's not uplifting me.
You know, his presence, his company,
my friend's company here,
is not helping me in whatsoever.
It's vain, it's empty.
Instead, what is my friend doing?
Or so-called friend.
His heart gathereth iniquity to itself.
The friend is trying to find out your weaknesses.
He's trying to find out your sins and your struggles.
For what reason?
To pray for you, to care for you, to lift you up?
No.
He go for abroad, he teleforts.
He wants to be a gossiper.
He wants to be a slanderer.
He wants to go out there lying about you
or showing you, you know, exposing your weaknesses,
exposing your sins to everybody
so people can turn against you.
You know, that's harmful.
That's very hurtful when you've got someone
that you thought was a friend.
And really, you know, they've come to you,
they've walked you, you've shared, you've opened too much.
And yes, you can open too much.
And they take that information
and there it is gossiping about you.
And you need to be careful about this brethren.
Please be guarded with the things that you have to share.
Please don't think everybody's just a friend
and they're just curious and they're just asking questions
because they just love you.
It's not always the case.
People ask questions, they wanna know about you
so they can expose you.
They're trying to find a time and a place of weakness
so they can attack you.
And, you know, these verses, of course,
they're about Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot
because Judas presented himself as a friend, right?
Even when Judas came and kissed Christ on the cheek,
Jesus Christ turned around and called him his friend,
you know, friend.
And, you know,
and so, you know, I guess some advice, you know,
don't be overly open with your struggles.
You know, if you're going for a trial,
it's fine to tell people, hey, please pray for me.
I'm going through a difficulty.
And maybe you wanna open up
and give a little bit of information,
but generally speaking, brethren, I would say be guarded.
Okay, now look, go to the Lord, open to the Lord,
you know, share your sins to the Lord,
share your weaknesses to the Lord.
He'll never betray you.
He'll help you.
He'll see that humble heart
and he'll be there to help you, okay?
But man is not always like this.
Again, we have our sinful flesh
and you have to be careful
with how much information you give.
Now, in saying that,
you'll soon see this is about Judas Iscariot, okay?
It's not like Jesus Christ was surprised
that Judas betrayed him, right?
I mean, Jesus Christ actually selected Judas Iscariot
as one of his apostles because he knew he'll be betrayed.
Jesus Christ knew that Judas never believed on Christ.
It's not a surprise to Jesus.
Hey, but it still hurt Jesus
because Judas was his friend during that period.
During his three years of ministry,
Judas became his friend, okay?
So it definitely hurt Christ.
But why did Jesus select Judas Iscariot?
Well, because prophecy required that to be the case, okay?
You know, this enemy had to go out there
and betray Christ to further the steps
where Christ would be delivered
into the hands of the priests,
into the hands of the authorities and to be crucified.
There was a purpose behind it,
but when Judas did it, he exposed himself.
You know, exposed himself not as a friend,
exposed himself to be wicked,
exposed himself to be an enemy, to be an adversary.
And you know, when we look at Christ's life,
he came and set us an example, okay?
And he set us an example.
And one thing that I can learn with this relationship
between Jesus and Judas is that Christ is actually teaching
us how to help manifest those
that are enemies in our lives, okay?
Because you probably have friends that are actually enemies.
You probably have friends that actually hate you.
And if they see you fail and fall and be defeated,
they'll rejoice and be happy about it.
How do you reveal that person?
Well, you know, let me just give you some thoughts here.
You know, if you've got an animal that's on a hunt,
you know, hunting for its prey,
you know, usually like, let's say a lion, for example,
they might be around,
they might be, you know, walking around,
let's say some deer, I don't know, okay?
Some zebras or whatever.
Okay, let's take it to Africa.
You've got some lions, you know, walking around some zebras
and you know, zebras normally they're just staying in there.
You know, they're strong creatures
and when they're in a group, they're very powerful.
But the lion's going to wait
until one of those zebras are alone.
Or they're gonna wait for one of the babies
that can't defend themselves to be at a weak place.
Yes, these lions, these creatures that hunt,
these creatures of prey, they wait to strike, you know?
And they're very patient and they wait for that weakness.
They wait until they can, yes, now we can attack
and take down this prey.
That's how wicked people are.
That's how your friends who are actually enemies behave.
They can wait very patiently until, you know,
they see weakness in you, they smell that
and now they want to go into the attack.
So what do we learn about Christ here?
How can we apply this to our lives?
Well, one thing that I've learned in my life
and I think it's a good principle to consider,
if you have some friends that you kind of are wary about,
you know, you're not sure, are they really my friend
or are they trying to backstab me?
It's fine to show some weakness, you know?
It's fine to show them that you're at a place
where they can go on for the attack.
And now look, if they do go on the attack
and they do try to take you down,
you don't want to show so much
that it's going to destroy you, okay?
Now here's the thing.
If you demonstrate a level of weakness
and you see that person come
and really they just want to support you,
they pray for you and, you know,
they're not there trying to share all your secrets
and sins and, you know, they're there to just lift you up
and guide you, you know what?
That proves that person is a friend, okay?
But if you see that they take that opportunity,
say, yes, this person is now weak.
I can use this against them.
Again, it shouldn't be information
that is going to destroy you, just to test them out, okay?
The saying is give them enough rope to hang themselves.
Judas Iscariot literally hung himself.
He was given enough rope by Jesus
and Judas himself manifested himself to be wicked,
to be evil.
He went and he betrayed Jesus Christ
and then he eventually did hang himself.
And so that's a great way, you know?
You know, I won't go into too much detail,
but I was dealing with something here in Sydney not long ago,
you know, some months ago where, you know,
I wasn't sure if certain people were my friend
or if they were enemies or they hated me.
I wasn't really sure.
So you know what?
I showed some weakness, not enough weakness
to destroy myself, but I wanted to see
what are they going to do with this weakness?
You know, are they going to go
and just lovingly support me and get behind me
or are they going to show their fangs
and manifest themselves to be wicked people out to get me?
And yes, that's exactly what they did.
They showed themselves to be wicked people
trying to destroy me, not a friend, trying to destroy me.
And then they eventually, they were given enough rope
and they hung themselves.
Like, I don't have to go out there
and, you know, tell everybody how wicked certain people are.
They do it themselves.
This is a good principle that we learn
in the life of Christ.
I think it's very valuable to help you determine
whether you really have friends
or whether those people that you thought were friends
are your enemies.
Let's keep going there in verse number seven.
Psalm 41, verse number seven.
All that hate me, now think about these as words of Christ.
All that hate me whisper together against me.
Against me do they devise my hurts.
An evil disease, say they, cleave fast unto him
and now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more.
Rise up no more, okay?
So they want to put an end to David here,
these enemies, right?
David, the Psalmist, but also the end of Jesus Christ's life.
Again, we know that Judas Iscariot
sought amongst the chief priests
to conspire against Christ and to kill him.
And I'm going to quickly read to you
from Matthew 26, verse 14.
Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot
went unto the chief priests and said unto them,
what will you give me?
And I will deliver him unto you.
And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver.
And from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him.
See, that's what they do.
They go out on their hunts.
They look for the opportunity and they're patient
and they wait for a time of weakness,
then they strike and they betray.
And Judas Christ definitely betrayed Jesus Christ.
He sold him for the 30 pieces of silver.
Now, verse number nine is what cements
that this is the words of Christ about Judas Iscariot.
Because in verse number nine, it says,
yay, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
which did eat of my bread,
have lifted up his heel against me.
Christ says, the one that betrayed me
was my own familiar friend.
Not some stranger, someone that I knew very well,
someone that caught himself my friend.
He even ate of my bread.
You know, I helped him along.
I provided his needs and he still betrayed me.
Now, keep your finger there
and please go to John chapter 13.
John chapter 13.
Matisse, can you give me a drink of water?
John chapter 13, please, in verse number 10.
John chapter 13 and verse number 10.
While you're turning down,
I'm just gonna read verse number nine again.
Yay, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
which did eat of my bread,
have lifted up his heel against me.
Now, we're going to John chapter 13, verse number 10,
and let's just read it together.
It says here, Jesus saith to him,
he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet,
but is clean every whit.
And the next words are important.
And ye are clean, but not all.
I won't go into all of this.
This is about the Lord's last supper
and when I saw of Christ who lowered himself as a servant
and washed his disciples' feet.
But at the end of verse number 10, he says,
and ye are clean, speaking to his disciples,
you're all saved already.
Okay, it's what he's saying.
But then he says, but not all.
There's someone here, not all, are saved.
One of my disciples are not saved.
One of my disciples are not clean.
Verse number 11, look at verse number 11.
For he knew who should betray him,
therefore said he, ye are not all clean.
So the one that wasn't clean is the one
that Christ knew would betray him, okay?
Now, please drop down to verse number 18.
Same chapter, John 13, verse number 18.
Christ says, I speak not of you all.
I know whom I have chosen, but look at the next words,
but that the scripture may be fulfilled,
he that eateth bread with me
hath lifted up his heel against me.
So when Christ says the scripture has been fulfilled,
what is this talking about?
The scripture found in Psalm 41, okay?
And so we know that that Psalm 41
is actually about the words of Christ
about Judas Iscariot.
Drop down to verse number 21.
When Jesus had thus said he was troubled in spirit
and testified and said, verily, verily, I say unto you
that one of you shall betray me.
Then the disciples looked one on another,
doubting of whom he spake.
Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom,
one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him
that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
He then lying on Jesus' breast said unto him,
Lord, who is it?
Verse number 26, Jesus answered,
he it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it.
And when he had dipped the sop,
he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
So Christ is saying, look, this one who I give the sop to,
okay, is the one who's going to betray me.
And he gave it to Judas Iscariot.
And so you can see how, you know,
Psalm 41 has been fulfilled.
Yes, it's happening to David from his life.
He's gone through difficulties.
He's had enemies, he's had friends betray him,
but really the larger impact upon Psalm 41 is about Christ.
The fulfillment of that passage is really about Christ
and him dealing with Judas Iscariot.
And so obviously Christ needed deliverance, okay?
And look, and here's the thing,
we know that Christ could have prayed
and he would have legions of angels to defend him,
but this was his mission.
He was to be sent to the cross and to die for our sins.
And Judas Iscariot was this important aspect of it,
the prophecy of the one that would betray him
would be his own friend.
And I'm sure we can all say we've all been betrayed
by friends in our lives, okay?
We've all been betrayed.
And that's what I love about Jesus
is because even the things that hurt the most,
you know, a friend betraying you,
it's something that Christ has gone through.
You know, we can go before the Lord and share our hurt
and share the wrong that has been done and Christ knows.
You know, not only has he experienced what we've experienced,
but don't forget all our sins
and all our consequences of sins
were laid upon him as well.
And so he felt it.
He's felt all the pain and suffering that we've gone through
because of this sin, curse, wicked world.
All right, back to Psalm 41, please.
Back to Psalm 41, verse number 10.
Psalm 41, verse number 10.
And I do believe this number 10
is still the words of Christ, okay?
We can apply it to ourselves, of course.
It says about thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me
and raise me up that I may requite them.
So I do believe we can definitely apply this to Christ.
We know when he'd be betrayed by Judas,
he'd be crucified on the cross.
He would be dead for three days and three nights.
And then he goes to the Lord,
Lord be merciful unto me and raise me up.
We know that Christ rose from the dead, okay?
And so this is Christ's victory, okay?
He's reaping, as it were, what he sold.
You know, Christ has done the great works of God.
He is God.
He's God manifest in the flesh
and he's come and brought salvation.
He gave his life for sinners.
He gave his life for me.
He's given his life for you.
Now, what is Christ going to reap?
He's going to reap salvation, resurrection from the dead.
You know, a new glorified resurrected body
and that power that rose Christ from the dead,
the power of that resurrected body,
he's going to give to you and I one day
at the time of the resurrection, okay?
And so this is how Christ is going to be rewarded,
the first begotten from the dead.
And, you know, again, we can apply this to ourselves
where, you know, we might be under the thumb of enemies,
people trying to harm us, people trying to hurt us.
And, you know, when the time comes for us to reap
what we've sown, then the Lord may very well raise us up,
take us out of the hand of an enemy and strengthen us.
Verse number 11, please.
By this, by this, by being delivered
from the hands of my enemies,
by this I know that thou favor'st me
because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.
Look, I'm sure the enemies of Jesus thought
they triumphed over him when he was crucified, right?
When his body was laid in that grave
and they put that great stone to cover the door.
They thought they finally had victory over Jesus Christ,
but no, they didn't, okay?
They did not have, they did not triumph over the Lord Jesus.
And you know what?
If you want to triumph over your enemies,
brethren, you've got a soul to righteousness.
You've got to do the works that God has left you to do.
You've got to live in holiness.
You know, you've got to lead your family
into righteous, holy living, brethren.
You know, love the word of God, love your local church,
love soul winning.
You know, if God sees that you're doing his works, brethren,
you're sold to righteousness,
then he's going to deliver you
out of the hands of the enemy.
This tells me that if you don't,
if you just live, yeah, I'm saved,
we praise God you're saved, but you just live for yourself,
you're sold to the flesh, you're sold to this world,
then when you do fall in the hands of your enemy,
how can you expect that God will deliver you, okay?
You want God's blessings, hey, sold to righteousness,
sold to the spirit.
Let's keep going, verse number 12.
And as for me, thou upholdest me in my integrity
and settest me before thy face forever.
The Psalmist says, look, Lord, I've had integrity, okay?
I've remained solid, I've remained grounded,
I've remained faithful, you know,
looking out for the needs of the poor,
doing righteous works.
But even though the Psalmist was doing that which is right,
don't forget that there came a time when he clearly sinned,
because we all sin, and you know,
his righteousness is also going to the Lord
and seeking his forgiveness,
being humble enough to admit that you've done wrong
and seeking the Lord's forgiveness in your life, you know?
And that's an important part of maintaining your integrity
before the Lord.
And then it says, when you do that,
you set us me before thy face forever.
The Lord's face will shine upon you forever.
The Lord's face will bless you forever.
One day when we go to heaven,
we're going to see the Lord face to face as well.
Praise God for that.
Verse number 13.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting
and to everlasting, amen and amen.
I love verse number 13 there, okay?
So the Lord God that we worship,
the Lord God of Israel is from everlasting,
meaning he's never had a beginning.
You know, God never,
there was never a time where God did not exist
and he came into existence.
No, he's from everlasting.
He's always been there, the Lord God, right?
But he's not just from everlasting, he's to everlasting.
God will, there'll never be an end to God, okay?
God, God, you know, Jesus Christ says,
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the ending, okay?
There is nothing outside of God.
God is all, okay?
He's from everlasting and to everlasting, amen and amen.
Now I love verse number 13
because it reminds me immediately of Jesus Christ.
And I'll just quickly read to you.
You don't need to turn there,
but we are approaching, of course, Christmas.
It's a month away now.
And you know, for Christmas,
we remember the birth of Christ.
We remember his birth in Bethlehem's manger, you know?
And you know, here's the thing.
Is Christmas important and good and right?
I do believe, you know, it's good, it's righteous.
We should remember the birth of Christ.
You know, God's recorded this stuff for us in the Bible.
But you know what, brethren?
We can remember Christ's birth every single day of the year.
Okay, it's not like we've got this one special day.
Hey, but hey, I think it's wonderful
because usually people have holidays.
Usually people are in good spirits during Christmas.
People are more receptive to the gospel,
I've seen during Christmas.
And so I do believe it is a good time to, of course,
celebrate that Christ came into this world.
But one of the prophecies about Jesus Christ
in Micah 5, 2, it says,
"'But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah.'"
So Bethlehem is where Christ was born.
"'Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
"'yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me,
"'there is to be a ruler in Israel,
"'whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting.'"
So did Christ just come to existence in Bethlehem's manger?
Was there ever a time when Christ just came into existence?
No, Jesus Christ, the one that was born
in Bethlehem's manger, is of old from everlasting.
So if Jesus Christ is from everlasting,
and in Psalm 41, verse number 13, it says,
"'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting.'"
Then who is Jesus Christ?
Well, of course, this proves, once again,
the deity of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Lord God of Israel.
Jesus Christ is the God that we worship.
Jesus Christ is not some lesser God.
Jesus Christ is not God B or something, right?
The Father is God A, and Jesus Christ is God B,
and Holy Spirit is God C.
That's not how it is.
There's one God that we worship.
The Lord God is also Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, the Son, the Father,
when we have the Holy Ghost, these three are one.
One God, the Bible tells us.
And again, there are people that just,
they don't believe that Christ,
you know, there are some extremes, right?
But so many people don't believe that Jesus Christ is God.
Well, if he's from everlasting,
he's the Lord God of Israel, amen?
In fact, that's on his cross.
They wrote, this is the King of the Jews, okay?
Jesus Christ was the King of Jews.
Yes, he's the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting and to everlasting.
All right, brethren, let's close there,
but don't forget, you reap what you sow.
Please, if you go into sow to anything,
sow to the Spirit, sow to eternity,
sow to the righteous works of God,
because I wanna see you reap great rewards.
You know, I wanna see you delivered out of difficulties,
out of sickness, out of hardships,
out of the hands of your enemy,
but you can only accomplish that, brethren,
and to have full forgiveness from God
in your daily Christian living.
You can only do that, brethren,
if you sow to righteousness, let's pray.