Maybe I'll get you to turn to 1 Samuel, I'll get you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 25, 1 Samuel 25 verse 2.
We won't start there immediately, but at least you'll turn there. 1 Samuel 25 verse 2.
And I'll be honest, tonight I don't have a good title for the sermon tonight, so I'm gonna
hope that you guys can come up with a good title. Okay, something controversial,
something, you know, something that's going to get me in trouble. Whatever the best title is,
that's what we'll give the sermon. Otherwise, if it's just up to me, it's going to be called
the sin of railing. Okay, now this is sins that will get you kicked out of church, part four.
Sins that will get you kicked out of church, part four. I was going to preach on something
else tonight, but I thought, no, we haven't talked about this series for a while. I'll
just read to you 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 11. But now I have written unto you not to keep
company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater,
so those are the first three things we spoke about. Part four, or a railer. Or a railer. What
is a railer? Have you guys even thought what a railer is? Or a railer or a drunkard or an
extortioner with such and one no not to eat. So the sin of railing, or if you've got a better
title, we'll give it that title on YouTube or whatever. Now, I found this one a little bit
challenging. I must be honest with you. It's, you know, it's not, I guess it's not that
controversial. People generally understand what railing means. They understand that it's
been critical toward another person. They know that it's been harmful or, you know,
using bad language or just tearing someone down. They think of that as railing. But you know,
there's only nine references in the Bible. I mean, this is this is a sin that will get
you kicked out of church. But there's only nine references to railing in the whole Bible.
So it's difficult to get a real biblical picture of what railing is. I'm going to do the best
I can. Okay, and we are going to look at all those nine verses tonight. Okay,
but I just looked up a definition on the internet, sorry, a definition on the dictionary.
And I'll just read to you the two main definitions on the dictionary. Number one,
it's clamoring with insulting language, uttering reproachful words. Okay, the second one is
expressing reproach, being insulting. Okay, so insulting someone, mocking them, okay,
using insulting languages toward another person. That's in a general sense, yes,
that is what railing is. But the thing is, so is it ever wrong for us to rebuke someone?
Is it ever wrong to speak badly of someone? You know, that's the thing that's challenging,
right? Because we know that Jesus Christ, if you want to use that word,
railed against the Pharisees. You know, we know that he rebuked sharply,
use some really strong words, you know, words that if I said behind the pulpit, people think,
well, that's not Christian. And yet those are words that came out of the mouth of Jesus Christ,
you know. So when do we know? How do we determine what, you know, what's wrong as far
as railing is concerned? What kind of sin will get you kicked out of church? But what's also
true and good? You know, how can someone stand behind the pulpit and speak badly of sins
to rebuke false prophets, to rebuke false teachers? How do we do that if we need to
be careful about railing as well? Okay, so I'm hoping that the lesson tonight gives you
some clarity of thought. But the only way that we can really explore this is to go
to all the Bible passages, okay. So I've got you to turn to 1 Samuel 25. 1 Samuel 25,
we'll begin reading in verse number two. Now, this is the first mention of railing in
the Bible, the very first mention. So you're pretty deep into the Bible by now, you know,
1 Samuel 25. And this is the first mention of railing. Now, I'll just give you a quick
history before we read this passage. So you guys know the story where King David's been,
well, David is not really the king just yet, has been selected to be the king of Israel.
And you know, the former king, King Saul, wasn't very happy about that, right?
King Saul was persecuting King David. King David had to flee out of Jerusalem. He had
to protect himself. He had a number of men that went with him, and they were hiding, okay.
They were afraid that King Saul would kill them. But at the same time, David did not want
to fight back because he knew Saul was the king of Israel. He knew Saul was chosen by God himself.
And so King David was just waiting for God to sort it out for him, right? But this is one
occasion when they're hiding with his men, with his army, and they've run out of food,
they've run out of resources, okay. And now they need to feed themselves. They're a number
of men, it's an army, and they find, well, let's pick up verse number two here.
First Samuel 25, verse two, and there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel,
and the man was very great. So he was a very well-known man, and it's also talked about his
possessions, so he was very rich. And he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and he was shearing
his sheep in Carmel. So he had a bunch of sheep, he had a bunch of goats, he had enough food
to feed this army, he had enough food to feed David and his army. Verse number three,
now the name of the man was Nebel, and the name of his wife Abigail, and she was a woman
of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was churlish and evil
in his doings, and he was of the house of Caleb. So notice that his wife is a good woman,
okay. It talks about her appearance there being beautiful, but she's also a woman of good
understanding. She's a wise woman, okay, she knows the things of God, she knows what's right,
but her husband it says is evil in his doings, okay. Now, so what happens is
David says, well this man's got a lot of possessions, I'm going to send some of my men
to go and ask, hey can we eat, can we have some of your sheep, can we have some of your
goats, can we replenish our supplies, can we feed our men? And he goes in peace, he goes
blessing this man, this evil man, right. Let's pick up the story in verse number 10, drop down to
verse number 10. So these men of David go to Nebel, I don't know if that's the best way to
pronounce his name, Nebel, and ask him, hey can we partake of some of these possessions,
you know, with David's blessing, who's going to be king eventually. So you know if this man
blesses David, he's going to be blessed by the king of Israel in the future, but look at
verse number 10, and Nebel on a bell answered David's servants and said, who is David,
and who is the son of Jesse? There'd be many servants nowadays that break away every man from
his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my
shearers and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be? Now that sounds legitimate, right,
if someone comes to you and you don't even know who they are, it kind of sounds legitimate,
like should I even give it, I don't even know who you are, you know, would I give my
possessions to you, wouldn't I give it to my shearers, wouldn't I give it to my workers,
but we'll soon see he knew very well who David was, okay, I mean remember the king of Israel
was persecuting this David, right, I mean this was no secret, the whole nation knew what was
going on, this man definitely knew who David was. If we drop down to verse 14, you'll see this
soon, but one of the young men told Abigail, okay, so one of the men came to Abigail, his wife,
Nabel's wife, Nabel's wife, saying, behold David sent messages out of the wilderness
to salute our master, but he railed on them, he railed on them, so he knew very well who
King David was and he did not like him whatsoever, okay, they come saluting him,
They come in peace, they come blessing him, but he rails against them, he rails on them.
The first thing I want you to notice, the first mention of railing is railing toward
a man.
Okay, so when you rail, you can rail toward a fellow man or a fellow woman.
You can rail toward man, is the first mention.
Notice verse 15, but the men were very good unto us.
So King David's men were very good to them, and we were not hurt, neither missed
we anything, so they didn't take anything that didn't belong to them, as long as we
were conservative with them when we were in the fields.
They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping
the sheep.
Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do, for evil is determined against
our master and against all his household.
What's the next phrase there?
For he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him.
So this Nabal, whatever his name is, is called the son of Belial.
What's that?
A son of Satan.
This man is a reprobate.
This man hates King David, but he hates the God of Israel.
This man is a son of that.
I know I've not preached on reprobates just yet, okay.
I will at some point, but I want you to understand that if someone's called in the
Bible a son of Belial, or children of Satan, or children of the devil, they have been
rejected by God.
They cannot become sons of God anymore, they've chosen their path, and their path is to
be a child of the devil.
Now I just want you to notice that, because the first mention is someone who's a reprobate.
Someone who's a child of the devil, and as you'll notice the rest of these references,
you'll notice a common theme.
You'll notice that this sin is a sin of a reprobate.
This is a hallmark of a reprobate.
This is a hallmark of someone who's a child of the devil.
So first thing I want you to notice in that is you can rail against man.
The next thing I want you to notice is that we can rail against God.
Turn to 2 Chronicles, so just a couple of books across from where you are.
2 Chronicles 32 verse 7.
And we pick up a story of King Hezekiah.
King Hezekiah was one of the truly godly kings of Judah.
If you remember, his father was worshipping false gods, he came, he broke down the altars,
he wanted to worship the Lord God of Israel, and he's the one that took the brazen
serpent.
Remember that story of the brazen serpent of Moses?
Well they were worshipping, they were burning incense, I've preached about this before,
to that brazen serpent, and he's the king that destroyed that serpent.
Yeah, that brazen serpent.
So he was strongly against idolatry.
This was a godly man, the king of Judah at this time, and then we had King Sennacherib,
king of Assyria, coming to make war against Judah.
Coming to make war against Judah.
And I want you to pick up verse number 7, 2 Chronicles 32 verse 7.
These are beautiful words, these are words of King Hezekiah.
Because obviously if there's a nation coming to make war against Judah, the people are
afraid, right?
I mean you can lose your life, you're going to war, you know you could be taken captive,
you could be destroyed, but these are the words of King Hezekiah, he says in verse 7.
Be strong and courageous, be not afraid, nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor
for all the multitude that is with him, for there is more with us than with him.
So he says more, is he talking about his army, is he saying that his army is more
than their army?
No, look at verse number 8.
With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to
fight our battles, and the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king
of Judah.
Great words, the people rested themselves, they had peace, that's what makes a great
leader.
When a great leader can say these words, when he can call upon the Lord as his defence,
as his strength, and the people are rested under that.
Well that's a great leader, he's showing great leadership skills.
Now drop down to verse 17, verse 17, because this king of Assyria tries to unsettle them.
Because he's won many battles, he's won many battles against many nations.
And now he's going to Judah, and he's talking about how he's defeated, you know
he's heard about the God of Israel, and he's saying look I've defeated all these
other nations, I've defeated all these other gods, what makes you think that I won't
be able to defeat you and your God?
Now he tries to unsettle the people, he tries to make the army of Judah weak and
afraid.
And look at verse 17, this is the second mention of railing, he wrote also letters,
so this king of Assyria wrote also letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel.
Okay so he's mocking the God of Israel, what does it say?
And to speak against him saying, as the gods of the nations and other lands have
not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his
people out of mine hand.
He says no gods can stand before me, right?
Not even the God of Hezekiah can stand before me, and he's railing against God.
So you can rail against man, and that's going to get you kicked out of church, but
if you're here and you rail against God, guess that's going to get you kicked out of church
as well.
Okay so you can rail against man, you can rail against God.
Okay now I'm not going to go into the rest of the story, but that's what I want to draw
out to you, okay?
There's two ways to rail, against man or to rail against God, you can see that he's
mocking the God of Israel, and I believe, I personally believe these guys will reprobate
as well.
I mean for someone to just be blaspheming God like this, okay?
Now I don't know that for a, you know, but I'm just saying hey, there is a theme
here, you'll see it soon.
Now turn to Luke 23, Luke 23.
So we're going to all the passages about railing, because we want to get an understanding
of this, right?
We've seen that railing, we can rail against man, we can rail against God, we know that
railing will get you kicked out of church.
Okay, Luke 23 verse 39.
Because some people will say well railing is making false accusations, right?
If I just come and I just, to Jason I just start mocking him, I start dragging his
name through the mud, I go around the church and saying how bad Jason is, and I'm
making up all these false accusations, and people say oh you're railing, yes I am railing
if I'm doing that, but people think railing is just when you make false hoods up, okay?
But hey, if it's the truth, right?
People say this, if it's the truth, then I can rail on them, right?
If it's the word of God I can stand and rail against that person, but hold on, is
that true?
Can I take the truth and still rail upon people?
We'll see this, look at Luke 23, we pick up the story when Jesus is on the cross,
when he's crucified, okay?
Notice this, and one of the malefactors, that's one of the one of the themes that
were crucified on the cross, which were hanged, railed on him.
So this thief on the cross is railing against Jesus Christ, right?
Saying, if thou be Christ, now was he Christ?
Yes, that's the truth.
If thou be Christ, save thyself and us, and I just ask you the question, was he
Christ?
Yes.
Could he save himself and could he save the thieves on the cross?
Absolutely, he's God, he's God Almighty, he can do whatever he wants, right?
Now I should have got you to turn to Mark, maybe you can turn to Mark if you want,
Mark 15 verse 29, Mark 15 verse 29, and I just want to show you another gospel where
they're railing on Christ again on the cross, the same story, I'm sure this is taking
place at the same time, but Mark 15, Mark 15 verse 29, Mark 15 verse 29.
So we see one of the thieves on the cross are railing against God, against Jesus Christ,
but then look at Mark 15, 29, and they that passed by railed on him.
So those that are just walking past, seeing Christ crucified on the cross, they're
railing on him, they're mocking him, they're accusing him, wagging their heads
and saying, ah, thou that destroys the temple and buildest it in three days, how are they
mocking him?
How are they railing upon him?
Words that Jesus Christ spoke himself, didn't Jesus Christ say if you take down, you
know, destroy this temple in three days, I will rise it up?
Those are words of Jesus Christ, right?
Is that the truth?
It's the truth, but the Bible says, even with the truth, they're railing on him.
You see that?
Even with the truth, they're railing on him.
Verse 30, save thyself and come down from the cross.
Likewise also the chief priest, mocking, said among themselves, and you guys know again,
full well some of these chief priests will reprobate, right?
You know that, right?
Because Jesus says, hey, you know, you're children of the devil, right?
So we know some of these, yeah, reprobate, so just again, just showing you that again.
Mocking said among themselves with the scribes, he saved others, himself he cannot
save.
So they're mocking him.
They're railing on him.
But is it true that he saved others?
Absolutely.
He saved them from their sins.
He resurrected the dead to life.
These are true statements.
And yet even with the truth, they're railing on Jesus Christ.
Verse 32, let Christ the king of Israel descend now from the cross that we may see
and believe and they that were crucified with him, reviled him.
So was Jesus Christ the king of Israel?
Yes.
But notice they're mocking him, calling him the king of Israel.
But it's the truth.
All right.
My point is this.
If you misapply truth, okay, there's someone that maybe is deserving of being rebuked,
but you take the truth and take it out of context, you misapply it, then you're
going to be railing on that person as well, okay?
You can be deceptive even with truth.
I mean, that's what Satan does.
Satan takes the truth of the word of God and deceives us, just subtly changes things
a little bit.
We think it's the truth of the word of God when we go with it, but we deceived.
He takes the truth and twists it.
You've got to be careful because railers will take the truth.
They'll have seeds of truth and you'll be like, yeah, that's true.
But then they've twisted it to make someone look worse than what they are, right?
I mean, was Christ going to raise that temple, his body, in three days?
Yes, he was, but the time was not now, right?
What Jesus said was the truth, but they were mocking him.
They were reviling him, okay?
They were railing upon him, but the time was not yet.
So it was true that he was going to raise that temple, his body, in three days, but
they twisted it.
They misapplied.
They took it out of context and they mocked him with the truth, okay?
It wasn't the truth.
Or that he could save others.
Yes, he could save others.
Yes, he could save himself, but he came not to save himself.
He came to die on the cross, to be that sacrifice for us, right?
That was his mission, but yes, he could save himself, absolutely, and he did.
He rose himself from the dead, the Bible says, right?
He rose himself from the dead.
So be careful because people can be deceptive.
People can take the truth and still rail on someone by twisting the truth.
Let me give you an example of this.
You know, I preached to you guys, and this is not a real example, this hasn't happened
to me, but I can see how this can happen.
I told you guys that if you disobey God in the New Testament, that God cannot curse
you, right?
Because Christ became the curse, he became our curse for us.
Now God will chastise you, but here's the thing, that's a true statement, that's
something I said, that's something I believe, that's something that I teach this church.
But can't someone take that and run with it?
Well Kevin said God can't curse his people in the New Testament.
That means he's saying, hey, we can live a life of sin, he's saying that God will
not chastise us, he's saying there's no consequences, so we can just go ahead
and sin all we want.
Well, hold on, they've taken truth of what I said, but they've taken it, they've
twisted it, and now they're railing on me, right?
That's what I'm trying to show you.
It's not just falsehoods, it's taking the truth and twisting the truth, okay?
Because yeah, do I believe God can't curse you?
Yes.
But can he chastise you for being a sinner?
Yes.
Can he correct you?
Can he discipline you?
Even to the point of death, if that's God's fit in for you, yeah.
But being chastised is a blessing.
To be chastised by God is a blessing of God.
It's loving.
It's something we deserve.
As a father who chastises his children, it's the right thing to do.
But a father's not going to curse his children, right?
A father's not just going to go and kill his child, light him on fire or something,
right?
That's what cursing is.
When you get thrown into the lake of fire for rejecting Christ, guess what?
You've been thrown into the fire.
You've been cursed by God, okay?
But he will never curse a believer.
He will never curse his own children.
I just want to show you how someone can take anything and twist it.
Anything you teach from the Bible and make arguments and twist it and rail upon you.
So you need to be careful.
You can rail with falsehoods.
You can rail with truth, okay, if you've twisted it.
Now turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 1, 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 1, and I want
to show you where the sin of railing comes from.
Where does that come from?
If you know a railer, where has that come from, right?
1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 1, let as many servants as are under the yoke count their
own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
So it's saying hey, if you're a servant, you've got a master, you've got a boss,
honour them.
Hey, do the work, honour them, respect them, okay?
Now look at verse number 2, and they that have believing masters, so if your master
is a believer, your master is saved, your master is a Christian, let them not despise
them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful
and beloved partakers of the benefit, these things teach and exhort.
So what is Paul telling Timothy, hey, teach your people to honour and respect their
masters and even more so if they're a believer, even more so if their masters
are believers.
He's teaching to honour and respect all masters, being under the authority, right?
Not rebelling against authority, okay?
Now there are many masters, if you've got to work, if you're an employee, you probably
have a boss, that's one of your masters.
If you're a wife or if you're children, you've got a master, that's the father,
that's the head of the home, the person who God's putting authority in your house.
In church, that's me, I've got the rule over you in the church, right?
Now look at verse number 3, 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 3.
If any man teach otherwise, so if someone teaches you not to honour and to respect
the masters, right, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the doctrine which is according to godliness, okay, so teach otherwise is to not honour,
not to respect, but to dishonour and rebel against that authority, right?
To rebel against authority, rebelling against your boss, rebelling against your father,
rebelling against the church bishop, whatever.
Verse number 4, notice where it comes from, verse number 4.
He is proud, okay, someone that tells you to rebel against authority, he is proud
knowing nothing, what's knowing nothing?
Being ignorant or being stupid, but doting about questions and strifes of words,
whereof cometh, notice this, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisions.
So where does railing come from?
Who makes up the railer?
What is that person according to the Bible?
They're a rebellious, proud and stupid person, okay, rebellious, proud and ignorant,
stupid, they don't know, okay, that's what a railer is, that's who they are, that's
what makes up, that's why they rail against people, because that's what they are, okay.
Now look at verse number 4, because we're going to look now at what do, sorry, we'll
read verse 4, but we're going to read it again.
What do railers spend their time doing?
Verse number 4, for he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes
of words.
So he's looking for words and phrases.
What did you say?
What did this person say, right?
Oh, let me go and listen to Kevin's sermon on you, what did he say?
What can I use to rail against him?
That's what a railer is.
Even with making strifes of words, words, they can't, look, they're trying to find
problems in anything, okay, because they're stupid, whereof cometh envy, what's envy?
That's like, kind of what we use today is jealous, but it's not right, because jealous
is actually a positive thing in the Bible, but you know, being envious of another person's
success, being envious of the work of another person, right, so you've got to put
them down, you've got to speak bad of them so they look good, they puff themselves up
when they put other people down.
Strife, what's strife?
Always fighting, always getting arguments, always battling, and when they're not fighting
they're telling you about stories about how they were in fights, okay, it's always
strife.
Railings, okay, always accusing other people, always speaking bad of people, whether we
falsehoods or with truth.
Evil surmises, what's evil surmises?
I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget.
Making conclusion without evidence, right, making conclusions about someone without the
evidence, they just think this is what the person's like, and that's how they conclude.
They surmise these things, okay, but evil, evil surmising, okay, and if they're stupid
without knowledge, are they going to surmise well?
Ah, they're going to make poor judgment calls, okay.
Verse number five, perverse disputions of men of corrupt minds, just disputions arguments,
and destitute of the truth, destitute of the truth, they don't have the truth,
okay, supposing that gain is godliness, they think if I rail against someone, if
I make them look bad and I gain from that, they think that's godliness, hey, I'm godly,
because I've made them look bad, hey, look, I've gained something from that.
They think that's godliness, they think they've done well, they think they're pleasing
god, they think this is an attribute of god, okay, and then it says this, notice
the next words, are you guys in verse number five?
From such withdraw thyself, because we're talking about kicking people out of the
church.
This is confirmation, hey, withdraw yourselves from these people that are like this, okay.
Now, let's go to 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 10.
So we've seen what railers are like, we've seen what they spend their time doing, and
look at this, look at 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 10, because this isn't just something
for man to be careful of, you know, we as men and women, we need to be careful
of railing against people, but let's look at these passages, 2 Peter chapter 2 verse
And if you guys know your bibles, you know 2 Peter chapter 2 is about false prophets,
you know that it's about reprobates, okay, yeah, look at verse number 10.
But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise
government, remember we talked about rebelling against authority?
These people despise governments, again, they rebel against authority, they hate authority,
presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
So speaking evil, that's railing on someone, right.
Verse 11, look at verse 11, whereas angels, which are greater in power and might.
So now we're referring to the angels in heaven who are greater in power and might,
okay, they obviously know more about government than we do, they know more about the
corruptness of government than we do, right, they've got the knowledge, the heavenly
knowledge, right, they've got God, in God's presence, they know what's going on,
but notice them, in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before
the Lord.
So even angels in heaven are careful not to rail against corrupt governments, right,
even angels who are greater in power and might than us.
So if this is good enough for angels, this is good enough for us to be careful
of, right.
Now look at verse number 12, but these false prophets, these reprobates, but these are
natural brute beasts.
What are brute beasts?
Stupid animals, right, because they're ignorant, that's what it says, right.
Made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not,
again just the lack of understanding, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.
So again, railers, rebellious against authority, this is a hallmark of a reprobate false
prophet, okay.
This is a hallmark.
Now I'm not saying just reprobate to rail, we can rail, that's why these lessons are
in the Bible, because we can fall into these things, but I'm just saying this is
a hallmark of a reprobate as well, okay.
Now turn to Jude chapter 9, okay, still in the New Testament, Jude chapter 9, well
not chapter 9, Jude verse 9 I should say, Jude verse 9, Jude verse 9, because notice
this as well, because Jude is also preaching about these false prophets, Jude is also preaching
about these reprobates, okay.
Notice this, and you'll notice the connection very clearly here, yet Michael the archangel,
you guys are in verse 9 right, Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil,
he disputed about the body of Moses.
So somehow after Moses passed away, I don't know all the details here, but for some
reason Michael the archangel is fighting or disputing or arguing with the devil over
the body of Moses, I'm assuming the devil wanted to take that body and maybe possess
it or something, I don't know, right.
But notice the next words, does not bring against him a railing accusation.
So even Michael the archangel, and I believe an archangel has authority over other angels,
even he, against the devil himself, would not bring a railing accusation.
He did not come railing against the devil.
So what did he do instead?
Notice the next words, but said, the Lord rebuke thee, the Lord rebuke thee.
Do you notice how the angels do not want to rail against man, do not want to rail
against government, don't even want to rail against the devil for fear that they're
doing wrong, for fear that they're sinning against the Lord, okay.
But instead, and this is what we learn, this is what we're going to learn from Michael
the archangel, is that the Lord rebukes them, okay.
Instead of you railing against people, let the Lord take care of business.
And that's what Michael the archangel did, but look at verse number 10.
But these, talking about the reprobate false prophets, notice the similar words here,
but these speak evil of those things which they know not, again they're stupid, right.
But what they know naturally as brute beasts, stupid animals, in those things they corrupt
themselves.
Do you notice how similar that was to 2 Timothy chapter 2, okay.
So we see even the angels, even Michael the archangel is careful not to get into
the sin of railing.
So how do we overcome railers?
How do we deal with railers?
Well first of all, if it's in this church, we kick them out, okay.
But should we rail in return?
Someone rails against you, should we rail in return?
No.
What did Michael the archangel do?
He left it in God's hands.
He took his power from the Lord God himself.
He let the Lord be just and righteous and let the Lord take care of business.
Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3 now, 1 Peter chapter 3, we're almost done.
So if you notice, we're just going through the verses that talk about railing and
we're just learning what we can from the Bible here, right.
So 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 8, because 1 Peter chapter 3 now actually tells us how
we can deal with it and we've already learnt the lesson from Michael the archangel.
1 Peter chapter 3 verse 8, finally be ye all of one mind, pay attention to that word,
be of one mind.
That is, you know, we're going through 1 Corinthians on Sundays and wasn't that
one of the main things, the church to be in one mind because they were so divided.
Be in one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.
I know sometimes you feel sorry for someone and someone says, you know, don't pity me.
No, we need to show pity, we need to be full of pity for other people.
Be courteous, that's how we ought to be toward our brethren.
Look at verse 9, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, this is the next
mention that we've got, or railing for railing, hey we don't rail when someone rails
against you, you don't get revenge, right, what did Michael the archangel do?
He left it in God's hands.
But contrawise, verse 9, but contrawise blessing, so instead of railing against someone, bless
them knowing that ye are there unto God, that ye should inherit a blessing.
So you want to inherit a blessing?
Then let someone rail against you and just be nice to the person, just bless them back
and God will bless you in return.
Verse 10, for he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue
from evil.
Your tongue's dangerous, it can be used for blessings, but it can be used for evil,
if you rail against someone in return.
And his lips that they speak no guile.
Verse 11, let him eschew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.
Pay attention to this verse, verse number 12, why can we do good to the railers?
Why can we do good to those that hate us?
Why can we do good to our enemies?
Verse 12, because the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.
God sees you, God sees your persecution, God sees when you're attacked and his ears
are open unto their prayers.
That's why we pray on Thursdays, okay, because God says my ears are open to hear
your prayers.
Go look at the rest of it.
But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, okay.
This gives me a lot of comfort as a Christian.
If I'm persecuted, if I'm railed against, if false accusations are made against me,
if people mock and take whatever I say out of context or whatever, I don't need
to run and defend myself all the time, right.
I can just bless them back.
I can be good to them.
I can speak well of them and just leave it in God's hands because it says here
the Lord is against them that do evil.
I'm just going to say, Lord, you're against them.
You're going to sort this out for me, right.
The Lord rebuke you.
Now turn to Romans chapter 12.
I want to end on Romans chapter 12 verse 16 because this passage in 1 Peter 3 just
reminds me very much to Romans 12 16.
This is how we ought to be toward our brethren, okay, Romans chapter 12 verse 16.
It says be of the same mind one toward another.
Remember that, the one mind that we read about in 1 Peter 3?
Be of the same mind one toward another.
Find not high things but condescend to men of low estate.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
Recompense to no man evil for evil.
Provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible as much as life and
you live peaceably with all men.
This is the opposite of railing, right.
This is the opposite of getting into strife.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written
vengeance is mine.
I will repay save the Lord.
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him.
If you thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on
his head.
Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good, okay, and again a lot of comfort.
I used to get frustrated a lot when I was younger.
I used to get offended when someone would tease me or mock me or laugh at me until
I came across these verses and I just rested in it and say, Lord, you're righteous.
You can see what goes on.
You can see who's doing wrong.
You can see who's doing right.
Maybe I'm doing wrong, some things myself, you know, but you know, Lord, you're righteous.
I don't need to go out and get revenge.
I don't need to go and rail against someone.
I don't need to make up false accusations or even if it's truth.
I don't need to take the truth and twist it and rail against people and make myself
feel better.
What makes me feel better is knowing that you can see what's right.
You can see what's wrong and I know you're going to take care of business and I rest
in that.
It gives me such joy.
It gives me such peace and I want the same for you.
If you're someone that gets easily offended or someone, you know, you feel like railing
against someone that's right against you, hey, the word of God, God says I'll take
care of business.
Even Michael the archangel said the Lord rebuke you.
I'm not going to do it.
The Lord rebuke you.
Saying to the devil, okay, a railer does the total opposite.
The railer.
And you can see this is why we kick these people out of the church because it's an
attribute of a reprobate.
It's the attribute of a false prophet.
You've got to be careful.
Christians can do this, all right?
Pastors can do this.
It's the flesh, right?
The flesh wants to revenge.
The flesh wants to rail.
The flesh wants to make people look bad so you look good, okay?
But this is a sin that will get you kicked out of church, all right?
Now let me just conclude.
We've gone through all the verses.
Let me just conclude very quickly now because this isn't something, like I said, this doesn't
say hey, you know, because we can all write.
We can all do it.
You know, if someone does it once to someone in the church, am I going to kick them
out immediately?
No, I'm going to give them time to repent and get things right.
We saw the process.
If someone, one brother offends another brother, what to do?
There's a process behind it, right?
But we could see that the railers in the Bible, they're evil, man, all right?
It's just in their makeup.
That's what they are.
And it's just, it's going to be obvious.
If we get someone that's a railer, it's just, I mean, the whole, they're just going
to be constantly fighting.
I'll talk about one of my previous churches, I won't name the name in case they're listening
on YouTube or something, but there was a guy that came into that church, okay?
And he started accusing other men of God, some of my friends, of being false prophets
because they taught that salvation's a free gift, believe it or not.
That salvation's just believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he started saying they're false prophets and trying to get people to join him and
he talked bad, he wasn't even a member of the church.
He just joined, he started to try to get people to listen to him and he'd talk
bad of the pastors, he'd talk bad of other men of God, someone would get up and preach
and he'd come up and ask them questions, not just questions, you know, hey, you
guys ask me questions sometimes and you just want more information, but it's questions
to just challenge them.
It's just questions to make them stumble over their words and things like that.
You could see immediately this man was a railer and then when they investigated further the
church that he came from, he caused a split in that church and caused a division in
that church.
That's what he, he's a railer, it wouldn't surprise me the fact that he could ever cause
a split in a church like that and then come into a good church and try to cause
another split, it doesn't surprise me if this man, and against the clear gospel, against
the gospel free gift salvation, which is by grace through faith, that this man's a
reprobate himself, would not surprise me, because that's what these men are like.
So we need to be careful, these are people that we need to kick out of the church,
but be careful because we can also, the reason why this is in the Bible is not that
just we're careful of railers, but that we're careful of not becoming railers ourselves,
okay?
That's all I've got for you tonight, let's pray.