be heard tonight good afternoon everybody welcome to steadfast baptist church great to see everybody
here this afternoon we can find our seats and then find a binder we'll start this afternoon
angels we have heard on high to be in your black binder with the laminated pages should be one
nearby because we have heard the back because we have heard on let's all sing that out together
this afternoon lord we love you so much and we just thank you once again for this great church
thank you for the birth of your son came and died for us lord we love you and we just ask now that
you fill this service with your spirit fill everybody here with it help us sing out to you
tonight lord and it's in jesus name we pray amen all right for our next song we're going to go to
going to go to our hymnals song number 434 song number 134 hundred and things i'll sing that out
together wouldn't just lift up your hand nice and high on the front we have our new bible memory
chapter romans chapter 10 on the inside is our service and soul winning times we do have a
spanish service on sunday mornings at 9 a.m you got some new invitations to hand out and i feel
like the spanish community is going to really appreciate that we're handing out free green
cards and so um they look really nice and they've got brother diego on the back i don't know why
that was so funny i'm just kidding and so uh they they turned out really nice and so in our spanish
bend you can check them out um if you'd like to hand them out hopefully by putting some color on
there it'll kind of help us to differentiate but also we have churchwide soul winning regional
soul winning church stats down below and then on the right expecting ladies list upcoming events
the cookie bake-off has arrived however we kind of just want to make sure that all of the people
that brought cookies that we have their information accurate on their cups and stuff for the event so
if you have not put your name on a cup or got that information for your cookies you can get up right
now and just go make sure also they were going to take a snap a picture of that cookie just so
people can remember like what cookies we eat all of them which is like i don't know what was here
and so if you if you didn't do that just go check real quick no problem and then we're hoping that
immediately following the service we're just going to go and enjoy we'll allow people i'll give some
quick announcements right before we enjoy so right after the sermon in our last song i'll
come back up and give a few other tips again but essentially we're just gonna have cookies for a
little while and then we'll give everybody some beads and they can vote so this is your one time
to vote so you don't want to miss it all right and you'll basically get some different color beads
you're gonna be voting for the best tasting you're going to be voting for the most creative and then
the best decorated and so you get to decide what that looks like we'll get some beads i'll give
some instructions again but uh it's a lot of fun and then we have some prizes for those who
uh win in those categories already looked through and there were some pretty cool looking cookies
and some pretty tasty looking ones so uh excited to enjoy and we get to have cookies before dinner
so that's even better all right um also other upcoming events this wednesday we have a candlelight
service men's pitching on december 31st so if you'd like to participate that as a man you just need
to basically wear a button-up shirt and tie and have a five minute sermon prepared and then we'll
probably just do popcorn preaching we'll just pick out random names and we'll have some pizza
afterwards marriage workshop is january 23rd to the 24th it's free just sign up steadfast vows.com
so it's just our church name vows.com and so uh excited about these uh the till death marriage
workshop it's a free event um really just the the goal of the event is to give some minimal
instruction but just allow couples to have some time to just work on some of the basics of just
marriage concepts working on communication and and different issues and things like that and so
highly encourage people to participate um if you can we have a do-it-yourself missions trip to the
philippines january 26th to february 4th uh evangelist fir is helping lead this charge and we
actually have a lot of people from our church that are attending i think nearly a dozen at least so
far and so very excited about this evangelist bannock is doing a big work in the philippines
we're also helping sponsor brother kenton knoll's out there he's been out there helping them
also a big blessing uh to our church and just great soul winner um there's a lot of people
in his church that are local family members friends brother james perry has also been
out there just anywhere and everywhere he actually told me uh brother perry sent me a message today
saying that he visited a church in korea and it was king james only church and had a really good
spirit and they were excited he said the pastor was excited to watch the preserved bible and
stuff like this so he was sending me all these messages so brother james perry is just anywhere
and everywhere um but uh he he was doing a lot of work out in korea as well and that part of the
world is just um it's definitely receptive part of the world uh where you can go and preach the
gospel so highly encourage you if you've never been to the philippines uh you can definitely
consider it it's usually pretty economical and overall it's a unique experience you'll never
really experience the population density of manila anywhere else that i've ever experienced and so
just having that sheer volume of people uh is frustrating when trying to be on the road
but it's great when you're a soul winner at the park so uh it just kind of depends i think that
it took me like one hour to travel one mile when i first went there um and most of the people
walking were going faster than me in the taxi but uh you know at the same time you know your
population density you think like this is a bad problem but for soul winners you're just licking
your chops you're just thinking like man this is awesome and so highly encourage you to consider
going to the philippines uh if you ever can most of the young people speak english pretty well
people are very respectful and everybody will call you sir about a thousand times so that's
you know uh what'll happen also uh expecting ladies tree if you didn't uh bring your gift
you still can but we were hoping to get those by the 21st thanks to those who participated
on the back is the prayer list please uh if you have any updates steadfast baptist kjv@gmail.com
and uh that's pretty much all i have as far as announcements we're seeing our psalm of the week
psalm 149 psalm 149 that was psalm 149 in your black binder or in your king james bible
psalm one psalm 149
the offering plates are being passed around go ahead and open your bibles to the book of
first john chapter number three that's first john chapter number three first john chapter number
three the bible reads behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of god therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not beloved
now are we the sons of god and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when
he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that hath this hope
in him purifyeth himself even as he is pure whosoever committed sin transgresseth also the law
for sin is the transgression of the law and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins
and in him is no sin whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever sinneth hath not seen him
neither known him little children let no man deceive you he that doeth righteousness is righteous
even as he is righteous he that committeth sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the
beginning for this purpose the son of god was manifested that he might destroy the works of
the devil whosoever is born of god doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot
sin because he is born of god in this the children of god are manifest and the children of the devil
whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of god neither he that loveth not his brother for this
is the message that she heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as cain who
was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore slew he him because his own works were
evil and his brother's righteous marvel not my brethren if the world hates you we know that we
have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren he that loveth not his brother abideth
in death whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him hereby perceive we the love of god because he laid down his life for us and we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren but whoso hath this world's good and seeth his brother have
need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of god in him my little
children let us not love in word neither in tongue but indeed and in truth and hereby we know that
we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him for if our heart condemn us god is
greater than our heart and knoweth all things beloved if our heart condemn us not then have
we confidence toward god and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight and this is his commandment that we should
believe on the name of his son jesus christ and love one another as he gave us commandment and
he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the spirit which he hath given us let us pray dear heavenly father thank you for this day
i thank you for the great work that jesus christ did coming into this world to pay for our sins i
thank you for the resurrection please help us to be mindful during this time of all that jesus has
done for us and i pray that you would please bless this the remainder of this church service
bless pastor sheldon he preaches to us in jesus name amen amen uh so we've been doing a doctrinal
statement series and i've already preached through our core doctrine it's essentially just doctrines
that we believe are the most fundamental to the faith doctrines which would be a fellowship issue
for us and then beyond that i kind of went to some more important doctrines last week i talked
about the post-trib pre-wrath rapture that you know is our church's viewpoint and tonight i want
to talk about the doctrine of sin and so that's the title of the sermon this evening is the doctrine
of sin and beyond this sermon i'm going to be going through several major sins that the bible
talks about and yet society thinks that it's okay society doesn't really agree and so i'll be going
through those one at a time but tonight we're just talking about sin there's the doctrine of sin what
is sin how does the bible describe sin the bible says in first john chapter 3 verse 4 whosoever
commit a sin transgresseth also the law for sin is the transgression of the law the bible defines sin
here in this passage that sin is a transgression of the law and this is very important doctrine
when we understand that even though christ has fulfilled the law and even though in a sense i'm
dead to the law and that i'm going to go to heaven that doesn't mean that the law is not still in
effect otherwise you could argue that i can't even sin because without the law there is no sin as
what the bible describes so the law is still in effect the consequence of the law is death for the
wages of sin is death the consequence of sin is death and so in that regard i'm dead to the law
meaning that i will not ever face the consequence of sin of going to hell because jesus christ has
already purchased that for me and i've died to the law i'm dead to the law i've been crucified
with him and so therefore i'm going to go to heaven that does not mean that i can't sin though
that doesn't mean that the law of god is not still applicable for us today the law of god is of course
applicable and those who do not believe in the lord jesus christ will be judged according to the law
and they will be found sinners the bible says for all of sin and come short of the glory of god
that can only be true if they have violated the law if they've transgressed god's law and that's
why it's important to understand that yes the law of god is still in effect and we're still
supposed to observe the law of god now we do not observe the law of god to go to heaven we observe
the law of god to be pleasing unto god you know when i talk to someone at the door going out
soul-winning i say following the commandments is how you get the the the happiness or the pleasure
of god that's how god's pleased with you is by following the commandments but going to heaven is
by putting your faith in jesus christ so if you want god to be pleased with you you keep the
commandments if you want to go to heaven you put your faith in jesus christ you cannot mix these two
concepts they're distinct concepts if i want my parents to be happy with me i follow their rules
but me following the rules or not doesn't determine who my parents are i can follow
someone else's rules or try to that won't make me their son in the same way i tell them hey if i
go to work and i follow all the rules at work am i now the son of my boss and they usually kind of
laugh because of the silly proposition the answer is no in the same way going to church and trying to
follow the bible's rules will not make you a son of god will not make you saved it's putting your
faith in jesus christ that gets you saved now if you want god to be pleased with you if you want
your boss to be pleased with you if you want your parents to be pleased with you you follow their
rules and so these are two important concepts that are very distinct from one another and when we
talk about the doctrine of sin it's important to realize that we sin so we need a savior and we
get saved but even though you're saved that doesn't mean that it's not important to follow
god's commandments it still is if you want god to be pleased with you when we break god's law
when we commit sin we're transgressing his law he is going to be upset with us for committing that
sin and he can still punish us our punishment though is no longer going to hell it is a
consequence in this life and so that's why it's important to follow god's law even after being
saved so that you don't suffer punishment on this earth the bible says from the lord loveth he
chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth and if he be without chastisement then are you
bastards and not sons so the bible is basically saying if you're getting away with sin all the
time you you're just not saved and if you are saved you will not get away with sin that is the
conclusion of the new testament we want to understand what is sin what is sin it is the
transgression of the law now our doctrinal statement makes this uh defined few sentences
this is the paragraph in our doctrinal statement it says sin is defined as a transgression of
god's law this includes the entire old and new testament except where the new testament expressly
states that there was a change of the law so our church believes that hey anything in the old
testament is up for grabs as long as there's not a new testament verse that explicitly states that
that was done away with and no look at first john chapter two verse one my little children these
things right unto you they you sin not the new testament is hammering the fact that we should
not sin we can of course sin after we've been saved and if we do if any man sin we have an
advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous now that doesn't mean that we won't face any
consequence but at the end of the day we understood hey i'm still going to go to heaven
and i can still have god's mercy in my life and i still may not receive the consequence i deserve
because if i'm repentant if i ask god hey please give me grace here he may still extend grace to
me but i also could get no grace and for as far as a temporal punishment if i have unrepentant
and just willing sin against god he may give me what i deserve in this life where i could receive
physical chastisement of of dying of getting sick of losing money losing relationships having mental
anguish just any kind of just suffering in this life i can receive justly if i sin against god
but i have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous he's sitting at the right hand
of god and according to the bible i can come boldly into the throne of grace to seek
mercy in a time of need but at the end of the day i have to do that i need to do that so there's
still a logistical reason to get on my knees every day and pray to god and say hey please forgive me
for this sin please be gracious with me for what i've done i'm sorry for transgressing against you
i don't pray that daily so i can go to heaven i pray that so i don't go to heaven sooner
i'm i'm praying that he delays my interest in heaven and you know it's not that heaven's a
bad place to go honestly there's been many days where i'm thinking like all right i'm fine with
it okay it's more just the reality that hey it's more needful for me to abide in the flesh and it's
more needful for you to abide in flesh why because we're saved and we can get people saved and that's
the whole goal so going to heaven early is not going to help anybody else it's a selfish thing
so i should not try to go to heaven early i should try to be here on this earth as long as i possibly
can in god's will i want to be on the earth in god's will if he wants me to die and go home
early then i need to do that too but i'm just saying in general god wants us to be abiding here
keeping his commandments and trying to pull as many people out of the fire until we are sent
home okay and that's that's what we're kind of understanding now i want to go to hebrews chapter
seven let's talk about this concept of the old testament and the new testament i think most of
us probably understand this but sometimes we have a hard time explaining it to family members and
friends so hopefully if you pay attention in the sermon you can kind of just learn some some verses
that help explain what we believe hebrews chapter seven says in verse number 12 for the priesthood
being changed there is made of necessity a change also the law now i think this is an extremely
important verse in this conversation that we're having why because it does not say that well the
priesthood changed so now the law no longer applies the law is thrown out the window there's no
such thing as the law it says there was a change in the law well if the law no longer applies why
would you even change it there's no point changing it if it doesn't even apply whatsoever the reason
why it is changed is because it does apply but there was changes to what applies just like the
priesthood changed we no longer have to serve under some kind of a levitical priesthood
we no longer have a temple with a levitical priesthood we have the order of milk isn't it
with the new testament church and we're under that particular system now in the new testament
we don't do some of the levitical sacrifices and all the different ceremonial practices
that they had but most of the law is still intact most of the law is still what we observe today and
we still apply so some laws changed most laws stayed the same and you say well what changed
okay well get chapter nine and look at verse eight the holy ghost this signifying that the way into
the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing
which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices
that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience so what
is the bible saying the bible is saying in the old testament they had a physical temple
they would come when they had sinned and offer a sin offering yet even though they did all of that
even though they follow the law to the t even though they did everything exactly right they
would come and offer their animal sacrifice there was still something left hanging they weren't
right with god yet because if you weren't saved you're not right with god because the blood of
bulls and goats cannot take away sin so it was just signify is it a picture a figure of what the
what the real sacrifice is going to be the way into the holiest what was the way in the holiest
that was the lord jesus christ ascending into the holiest place the tabernacle with the blood of
himself to put it on the altar to actually give us forgiveness that's the only sacrifice that
has ever counted the only sacrifice that is ever truly counted is the lord jesus christ blood on
the altar all the animal sacrifices were just picturing that and so you could not be saved
by doing an animal sacrifice so the conscience was not perfect okay it said in verse 10 which
stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and cardinal ordinances imposed on them
until the time of reformation what what is reformation something changing saying all this
applies until the time when things change when do things change well it says but christ being come
and high priest of good things to come so everything that they had in the old testament system was
supposed to be in in in place intact until the time of reformation the time of reformation is
we're changing from the old testament to the new testament from the old covenant to the new covenant
and then we have to have the death of the testator which is the lord jesus christ and through his
blood we entered into the new testament and so there was a change of the priesthood and there was
a change of the law since there's a change of the law well that affects something it affects sin
because what is sin it's a transgression of the law so we're not in violation of some laws in the
old testament because they've changed what are those meats drinks divers washings and cardinal
ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation meaning there were certain laws
that the people of god would have to observe until the new testament now in the new testament certain
laws are no longer enforced what meats drinks divers washings cardinal ordinances so this is why
we say in our doctoral statement hey everything in the old testament that's not meats drinks divers
washings and cardinal ordinances is still on the table for us so as someone were to tell me hey
that law no longer applies to me i would say okay show me in the new testament where it said that
that's now changed but they can't show you typically because they're wrong on that particular issue
okay jesus christ did not die on the cross so you can dress like a homo okay so you can be a
feminine in fact the feminine is a sin brought up in first corinthian still because that's a sin
cross dressing is still a sin according to the bible it's not a meat drink or divers washing
or cardinal ordinance it was it was just something that's just normal okay and so yeah the old
testament laws still apply unless they meet in this specific criterion you know praise god for
bacon the new testament is a bacon doctrine and i love i eat bacon all the time i love bacon you
know the bacon cheeseburger is one of the greatest inventions because it excludes muslims and jews
from eating it and i saw someone say that you know to solve our immigration problems it should just
be that you have to eat a bacon cheeseburger to immigrate to america and i'm just like man this
is this is good doctrine okay i like it and i like you know shake shack you know we should go with
them all right but at the end of the day hey praise god for the new testament where there's
no longer this prohibition on eating unclean beasts and so of course the pig was considered
an unclean beast therefore you couldn't eat pork or baby back ribs and look i love baby back ribs
i'm a beef guy but i'll just be honest i think pork ribs are better than beef ribs who agrees
with me as a doctor he has a lot of saved people in this room all right baby back ribs are really
really good i don't know there's something about them now when it comes to ham versus brisket i'm
more of a brisket guy but obviously hey i love you know canadian bacon i love bacon i love pork ribs
i'm all for it and if i have to i'll have pork too i'm not i'm not gonna shame it but at the end
of the day like i prefer brisket at the end of the day and you know but hey we're in the new
testament we get all these awesome things like we don't have to have dietary restrictions
obviously there's other aspects of the purit the the purification process that the children of
israel had to go through when they entered the temple certain cardinal ordinance as opposed
about the ceremonies going to certain feasts how they perform them all this stuff we would consider
the ceremonial laws they were fulfilled in christ because they're all picturing something about
christ and some of the things that the new testament has made manifest no longer is there
a separation between man of the clean man the unclean man such as the the children of israel
and the heathen now we're all made one in christ jesus so there's no longer that dietary restriction
all the animal sacrifices well jesus christ was that animal sacrifice so he fulfilled that
and the law all the cleaning up all the purification well we're washed in the blood
of christ so we no longer need those symbols anymore but the vast majority of the law that's
not in the ceremonial category is still in place today why because if you really understand sin at
a root level you would understand being being sinful is really just being selfish pretty much
just if you really understood what sin is it's just being selfish you know you lie because it's
personally advantageous to you you steal because it's personally advantageous to you you covet
because you want something for you you're being selfish about your own wants needs desires murder
theft adultery fornication you name it it's just being selfish on some root level obviously there's
some aspects that are just in defiance to god like blaspheming and things like that but just generally
speaking sin is just a selfish attitude and elevating self right elevating self above god
or just being selfish for your own desires that's really what sin is so it's silly when you point
out things in the old testament like hey you shouldn't do that and they're like oh no it's
fine why would it ever be fine to be selfish and really sin is the opposite of loving others
elevating others elevating someone else and so the law is loving sinning is selfish and these are
opposite the one the other so the bible often tells us that hey keeping god's commandments
that is what love really is now i want to go to a few more places go to colossians chapter 2
hebers 9 gives us this list of meats drinks divers washings and cardinal ordinances colossians 2
has a similar list we don't have just one place identifying the changes we have another scripture
that's pretty clear on this issue colossians chapter number two brings up a similar list it
also emphasizes one other thing that's been changed and that would be the feast days or specific
holidays so colossians chapter 2 look at verse 13 and you being dead in your sins and the
uncircumcision of your flesh had be quickened together with him having having forgiven you
all trespasses blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary
to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities and
powers he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or in the new moon or of the sabbath days
which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of christ so the bible again is saying that
we should allow people to judge us for meats drinks respect of holy days or specific sabbath
days why because those things have been changed no longer you have to observe certain holidays
and we shouldn't judge each other based on the observance of specific holidays or the lack
thereof of the observance of a sabbath day or whatever some new testament christians have kind
of fallen into this idea that you have to observe the sabbath literally i don't believe that now
again if what what was the observance of the sabbath it's basically just taking a day off
just like not working and some people suggested that hey i think taking a day off every week
is just healthy for you and that principle still seems to make sense i'm not going to say that i'm
not going to really argue about that i'm not going to say that that's necessarily bad but at the same
time if someone works seven days or five days or six days or four days or whatever you know i don't
think that that's necessarily it doesn't matter to me that much the biblical principle is six days
shout the labor and do all that work the priest worked every day though i mean you pretty much
read about the levitical priesthood there's they don't have this quote day off in fact the bible
says that they profane the sabbath day so they had to put in a double shift jesus christ worked
through the sabbath and you see him just kind of basically working a seven-day week i'm not saying
you have to work seven days i'm not saying anything i think you have complete liberty hey if you're a
trust fund baby you don't have to go and get a job at all i don't care as long as you're providing
for your family i don't think that you have to have a job per se but at the at the end of the day
if you if you were someone that was independently wealthy i would think you should find something to
do every day though you'd probably be busy doing something even if it's just a hobby even if it's
fun hey you go work out every day and build something that you just build like furniture
or something just for fun as a hobby at least do that because you know when you just do nothing
the idle mind is the devil's workshop and it's just not healthy it's not productive hey do some
extra soul winning would obviously be the the ideal thing if you really had the ability to just
go soul winning all the time i would just think that that's the best option you should just do it
but i don't think someone's doing something wrong by not having a job if they can provide for
everything that they need right so it's not necessarily that you have to work a certain
number of days but in the old testament you had to observe the Sabbath it was a physical
requirement you had to take that day off everybody observed the exact same day together
in the new testament we don't really do that but we come together for church and we basically take
the day off our church now the Sabbath again was saturday that was the day of rest and sunday is a
different day but the bible tells us in the new testament that the disciples met early on the
or they met on the first day of the week and so that's why we meet on sunday um and you know in
the midpoint of the week you could say hey the last supper was on wednesday night that's why we
have church on wednesday night some people have talked about the Passover without second on
thursday some people have church on thursday you know i don't really care when you have church as
long as you have church and you're going all right when it comes to the Sabbath you can do as you see
fit go to Romans chapter 14 go to Romans chapter 14 i think uh we played like a group or a team
sporting event and afterwards one of the teams that competed against us they were like trying
to teach all of their members like observe the Sabbath the next day or something like that
and uh it was super weird um it's not biblical it's not it's not what the new testament teaches
and the Bible so why because there was a change of the law because Christ is our Sabbath and the
true observance of Sabbath in the new testament is by putting your faith in Jesus Christ and
resting in his works his finished works for our salvation that's what the Sabbath was picturing
and that's what we do in the new testament okay Romans chapter 14 brings up another possible sin
that I haven't talked about and so what have we talked about what is the sin it's transgression
of the law okay anytime there's anything the old testament or new testament that says you have to
do it or not do it and you do the opposite that's a sin the bible brings up though another concept
of sin that's uh kind of a unique one it says in Romans chapter 14 look at verse 20 for meat
destroying not the work of God all things indeed are purer but it is evil for that man who eateth
with offense it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor anything whereby thy brother
stumbleeth or is offended or is made weak hast thou faith have it to thyself before God happy
is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth and he that doubteth is damned
if he eat because he eateth not of faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sin so the bible
also brings up this concept that if you think that what you're doing is wrong and then you go
ahead and just do it that that would actually be a sin too even if it wasn't technically wrong why
because you're basically again being selfish and you're just kind of violating even your own
conscience so technically you just shouldn't even do things that you think are wrong and you know
the bible talks about let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind you know we should
only do things that we have true conviction over and you should not do something you don't have
conviction over so again some things in the bible are very clear there's many things in the bible
that are crystal clear there's no way to argue with it unless you're just a catholic okay because
they're kind of like special needs but when it comes to other aspects there's some parts of the
bible that are a little vague and that's what romans 14 is about it's talking about doubtful
disputations things where christians are going to vary on their personal opinions exactly how to
observe these things what to do well then in that case you need to do what you're convicted to do
and you need to make sure that you're following your convictions because if you start doing
things that are not your conviction well that could even be a sin so what is sin is a transgression
of the law god wants us to walk by faith not by sight so when you do things that are not of your
conviction then you're not walking by faith so there's the sin the bible really takes sin to
such an extreme that if we were honest with ourselves we sin more than you realize the
bible says the thought of foolishness is sin wow you know anybody that could tell me they don't
sin every day that was the foolish thought you just sin by thinking that okay obviously looking with
lust is sin having the wrong attitude towards your brother could be sin and so if we were if we were
genuinely honest with ourselves we sin a lot more than we probably give ourselves credit or that we
recognize and it's important to read the bible often because what it'll do is it convict you
you read the bible and you realize oh wow i've had a bad attitude about this or i've had bad
thoughts about this or i've you know done this thing wrong or i've been making this mistake and
what the bible will do is it'll humble you this is why it was important for the king to read the
bible every day so that his heart would not be lifted up above his brethren so he would not think
of himself more highly than he ought to think and you know reading the bible sincerely and just
genuinely trying to figure out what god says will humble you fast and will cause you to recognize
hey man i have a lot of things i need to change and improve and work on how can we come to church
three times a week and not feel like we've arrived it's because we're just very sinful by nature
and we need constant reminder constant help and just like your children need constant reminder
and constant help even us adults still need it from god's word and god's law and we should always
be seeking to improve and get better and have more knowledge and drawing closer to the lord
none of us will ever arrive in our sanctification process but we should always be striving for it
and you know what sin is a destructive force it causes problems of course while we sin repeatedly
and and often and god allows us to have a lot of grace to sin and not necessarily suffer
consequences all the time we should never take that for granted and and the bible puts a major
emphasis on not sinning willfully that god will punish people very severely when they know what
they're doing is wrong and they just do it anyways god will sometimes very harshly punish those
individuals now go to roman chapter 6 it brings up this concept and we want to be christians who
don't like sin and this is what i think is funny or ironic is how people will criticize us for
believing that salvation is free people say oh you can't just give people a license to sin and
oh man what you're preaching if you tell people this they're going to just go you know ape wild
they're going to go chimp out you know on sin or something and you're just thinking like no like
they're already doing pretty good without me you know like we're going into some pretty simple
areas and i think they got a handle on it already but at the end of the day it's like you come to
our church then they criticize us for being too legalistic and trying to follow all the
commandments and it's like well how which one is it it's like well if we believe like you then we
would just live however we want but it's like if we believe like you then we wouldn't live at all
how we want what's like which one is it and isn't it interesting that the truth will set you free
though you know you get that free salvation but then you come to church and you want to follow
god's commandments not because you need that to go to heaven but because you actually just love god
and notice tell it's like oh but if you tell people that then they'll just be extra sinful okay but
you know what the catholic church does tell you that the catholic church does tell you that you
have to keep the commandments to go to heaven and then yet there's some of the worst sinners why
because if it's only the fear of going to hell it doesn't work people have to actually follow god
because they love god why because sinning is being selfish and keeping the law is actually loving
it's loving god and it's loving your neighbor as yourself and so if you want people to actually
sin less this is what you have to do you have to get them to love jesus that's why it's important
you if you don't have a love for jesus you probably will be a pretty sin like you'll be
a more sinful version of yourself than if you tried to just love jesus more the more you just
love jesus and the more you just love the word of god and the more that you just love church
the less you're going to struggle with sin the more that you get away from the things of god
and you're not reading your bible and you're not trying to love the lord jesus christ just the more
you're going to be tempted to sin and the more likely you are to fall into bigger sins just as
a result of what sin really looks like romans chapter six verse one says this what shall we
say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound hey if i can technically do whatever i
want pastor shelly and i'm still going to heaven should we do that and then what's the answer god
forbid you know just because i could technically do anything i want and go to heaven i should never
do that and that's a horrible idea god forbid i should ever do such a thing you know obviously our
church believes salvation is as free as it can possibly be but we also believe we should keep
god's commandments not out of necessity but out of appreciation for what god has done for us look
at chapter seven verse six the apostle paul says but now we are delivered from the law that being
dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the
letter so you have two mindsets one mindset is serving the law out of the oldness of the letter
the new mindset is serving out of the newness of spirit and the bible teaches that the newness of
spirit is always going to do better is going to yield better results than the oldness of the letter
you take the unsaved person trying to follow the letter of the law so as to go to heaven he will
not actually keep the law as well as the person that's already saved and serving in newness of
spirit and that's basically the essence of what the bible is trying to teach so you try to find
me a group of people that are actually following god's commandments that are better than saved
people it just doesn't exist and look it's not like there's tons of groups that aren't trying
i mean the mormons are trying really hard to follow all the commandments they think are right
the the nazarene church down the street they believe you have to keep all the commandments
go to heaven the church of christ thinks you have to keep all the commandments go to heaven
the catholic will say you have to keep all the commandments go to heaven the pentecostals the
holiness pentecostals a lot of a lot of them will look and dress like us they are very conservative
and they're trying to keep all the commandments go to heaven but you know what when you really
study those group of people overall any of them they're not nearly as separated and actually
caring what the bible says as fundamental baptist it just doesn't exist there is not a group that
cares more about following god's law than saved people serving in newness of spirit out of love
and appreciation and not out of the oldness of the letter it says in verse seven what shall we say
then is the law sin god forbid nay i had not known sin but by the law for i had not known lust except
the law had said thou shalt not covet so the way i kind of illustrated this in another sermon too
but it's like riding a bicycle a little bit you don't really need training wheels once you know
how to ride a bike once you know how to ride a bike you don't need training wheels if someone
thought i need training wheels you would think they don't know how to ride a bike in the same
way that when you're walking in the spirit you don't need necessarily this laundry list of old
testament laws and if you think about it any of us that know how to ride a bike you're not thinking
about like i need to move my right foot like this and i need to move my left foot like this and you're
like looking down and you're like you're just like trying to do this if you did that you'd
probably fall you'll probably run into something you know when you're riding the bike you're just
looking up and you're trying to think about where you're going you're not thinking about the
mechanics of riding the bike at all but you do it great if you actually slowed down and started
thinking about all the mechanics you would probably screw up and what the bible is basically saying is
that the person that's just motivated in loving jesus and loving god is probably going to keep
the commandments better than the person that's just trying to read the list and just trying to
follow the list it's like the guy that just loves his wife is probably going to be a better husband
than the guy trying to follow a list of what it looks like to love their wife and so at the end
of the day you know how do you stop sinning how do you how do you reduce sin in your life you got
You've got to increase your love for the things of God.
You've got to increase your love for Jesus Christ
and serve in the newness of the Spirit
and not in the oldness of the letter.
But obviously, if you read something in the law
and you're like, well, I'm not doing that,
well, then you're wrong, you're off.
You're not actually loving Jesus Christ.
And so you have to recognize
there's something off about my spirit,
there's something off about my love
for the Lord Jesus Christ, and you want to increase that.
You know, the more you go to church,
the more you read your Bible, the more you pray,
the more you go soul-winning,
the more you're going to have a desire
to just do everything this book says.
And many times you're just going to be doing it
without even trying.
The people that are really off,
they have something off with their spirit, okay?
Now, let's keep reading in this passage.
This is a great passage, Romans chapter seven.
He says, in verse seven again,
"What shall we say is the lost sin God forbid?
Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law.
For I had not known lust except the law had said,
Thou shalt not covet."
So notice, the sin of lust is because the Bible says,
"Thou shalt not covet."
It's not, he's making something up,
he's saying the reason why this is a sin
because the Bible says not to do it.
Notice, he's quoting the Old Testament law.
He's quoting the Ten Commandments.
How could you say the Old Covenant,
the Ten Commandments don't apply anymore,
why would Paul then bring it up?
Paul's bringing it up because obviously it still applies.
"But sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
rotten me all manner of concupiscence,
for without the law, sin was dead."
Meaning that sin cannot be enforced.
Now, you gotta think about it this way.
What if we went to a road and we illegally removed
all of the speeding signs from that road?
It's like right now the road says 55 miles per hour
is the speed limit.
What if we removed all of those posts legally
and we just took them away?
Is it illegal to drive 60 miles an hour on that road?
No, no, because the law has been removed,
so now sin, now being illegal, no longer exists.
In the same way that, hey, God basically
had a speed limit sign saying no pork, no bacon,
and then in the New Testament, He just removed that post,
and now you can just drive down that road
at whatever speed that you want.
In fact, in Texas, a lot of roads,
they keep increasing the speed limit,
and I'm like, praise God, you know.
They can't keep up with me, but I like them to try it, okay.
Hey, you know, this is my philosophy in driving.
Anytime I ever get a ticket, I already deserved it,
so I'm just like, I'm fine with it, okay.
It's like, yes, sir, I do know.
You know why you pulled me over?
I do, rise, you caught me.
Now, it says, let's keep reading.
It says, verse nine, for I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
Now, again, reading this verse,
beyond what it's actually saying,
some people have used this to interpret the idea
of like a baby can't really be held accountable
for any sins 'cause he doesn't know any better.
But once he understands the commandments,
and then once he transgresses that commandment
having understood, that's when they spiritually die.
And that's the justification for why babies go to heaven.
This is kind of like Eve, if you think about it,
transgresses first before Adam,
but then Adam is accredited as basically
being the first person to sin.
You know, you could argue that she was deceived,
she didn't even understand,
but Adam knew what he was doing was wrong.
And when he did that, it was accounted unto him as a sin.
And so sometimes there's things in ignorance.
That doesn't mean that anything and everything you do
and ignorance is not a sin,
but generally speaking from this perspective,
it's just bringing up this idea or this concept
that hey, when commandments come, sin is alive.
If there's no commandment, you can't sin.
A commandment brings sin into play.
And then you can receive the punishment, which is death.
Verse 10, and the commandment which was ordained to life,
I found to be unto death.
For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me
and by it slew me.
Wherefore the law is holy
and the commandment holy and just and good.
Was then that which is good made death unto me, God forbid.
But sin that it might appear sin,
working death in me by that which is good,
that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
So it's saying like, is there anything wrong with the law?
No, the law is good.
But because of the laws being in place
and me being a sinful person,
it just kind of made it clear that I'm a sinner.
You know, sin in and of itself
can exist without the commandment.
You can still be doing something wrong,
but essentially the punishment
isn't gonna really be enforced until the commandment comes.
And so the commandments are there
to help us understand what sin is,
make sin exceeding sinful,
and then ultimately we can recognize
what we're doing is wrong.
I wanted to go through this whole passage,
but for sake of time, I'm gonna move on.
But we have to understand that even when you get saved,
you're still gonna sin.
He says in verse 17,
"Though now then it is no more I that do it,
"but sin that dwelleth in me."
So he talked about the new man,
the old man in Romans chapter seven.
When you get saved, you have inside your spirit man,
but you have that old flesh.
When you got saved, nothing changed,
and your old man, only in your new man.
As a result of that, when you sin,
he's saying it's no longer the real version of me,
the spiritual version of me,
it's the sin that dwells in my old flesh.
And then he kind of brings it up in verse 18,
"For I know that in me that is in my flesh,
"dwelleth no good thing."
He says in verse number 20,
"Now if I do that which I would not,
"it is no more I that do it,
"but sin that dwelleth in me."
And then of course, he says in verse 22,
"For I delight in the law of God after the inward man,
"but I see another law in my members
"warring against the law of my mind
"and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin
"which is in my members.
"Oh wretched man that I am,
"who shall deliver me from the body of this death."
And I think God allowed this to be included in the Bible,
so when you recognize one of the greatest Christians
to ever live struggles with sin so much
that he says, "I'm carnal,
"I'm constantly doing things
"I would never allow anybody else to do.
"I'm constantly not doing the things that I want to do."
It helps us recognize that when we screw up,
we don't get so discouraged that we quit.
I think that he just wants us
to have a realistic aspect of life.
Realistically, we're gonna constantly do things
that we know is wrong and that we wish
that no one else would do,
and we're gonna constantly not do things
that we were like, "Man, I really wanna do this."
It's like, "Man, I wanna read my Bible tomorrow,"
and then you don't.
And, "Oh man, I wanna give up this sin tomorrow,"
and then you send that.
You commit that sin the next day.
And then Paul's just saying,
"Man, I keep finding myself doing this just like all the time.
"I keep just disappointing myself, screwing up."
But here's the thing that's good about Paul,
and what we should all strive to do
is that he just didn't give up, though.
Even though you may keep screwing up,
the just man falls seven times, but rises up again.
You just keep plugging away,
just keep trying to get that sin under control,
just keep trying to do what's right,
and just don't give up.
And it's not to make an excuse for it,
it's just to have a realistic expectation
so that you don't just ultimately quit or give up
when you recognize you're gonna screw up a bunch.
You're gonna make a lot of mistakes.
Verse 24, "O wretched man that I am,
"who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,
"so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God,
"but with the flesh the law of sin."
Saying, "Man, I'm so glad that at some point
"I'll be delivered and I'll actually be able to do
"what I wanted to do in the inward man
"and not do the things that I didn't want to do."
I want you to go to Galatians chapter number five,
go to Galatians chapter five.
So we're talking about the doctrine of sin.
We've learned that it's a transgression of God's law.
Things in the ceremonial law
no longer apply in the New Testament.
But if there's anything that you're doing not of faith
that you feel like is off or wrong,
that could also be a sin.
So anything the Bible's bringing up,
anything you're not doing in faith could be a sin.
You're gonna continue sinning, but we shouldn't.
God forbid, we shouldn't continue sinning.
We should try our best to avoid sin.
We're gonna do our best at avoiding sin
by just loving Jesus more.
The more you love Jesus and the more you walk in the spirit,
the less you're gonna fulfill the lust of the flesh.
And Galatians brings up this idea
that the law is fulfilled in loving God
or loving your neighbor as yourself,
that it's just really in love.
Galatians chapter five, look at verse 13.
"For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty.
"Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
"but by love serve one another.
"For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even in this,
"thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
So he's saying, hey, the entire law is just,
you could express the entire law in one word.
Love, loving your neighbor as yourself.
You know, the Bible says that the greatest commandment
is to love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength,
and to love thy neighbor as thyself as the second.
And Jesus Christ said upon these two
hang all the law and the prophets.
Every single law is under the subcategories
of loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.
And even the Ten Commandments are almost organized that way,
that the first five are kind of like loving God,
and then the second five are like loving your neighbor
as yourself, and this is the entire law is just love.
It's just loving, and loving is fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13 says love is the fulfilling of the law, okay?
Go to Ephesians five now, go to Ephesians chapter five.
Let's make a couple applications
of what we're talking about.
And again, when you talk about sin,
everything's on the table, right?
So, I mean, you can talk about anything,
but let's talk about what the Bible says
when it comes to love.
And let's understand love a little bit better.
Love is the antithesis of sin.
Being selfish is basically what sin looks like.
Now, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter number five,
and before I get there,
I'm gonna bring up a couple of verses.
The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he seeth, right?
Or whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth,
even as a son whom the Father delighteth.
So the Bible says that if you actually love your children,
you would correct them just like God loves us
and corrects us.
God gives us commandments and gives us the law
so that we won't sin because he loves us
and he wants things that are good for us.
We give rules to our children like don't touch the fire
'cause we love them and we don't want them
to harm their hand.
We tell our children not to play in the street
because we love them and we don't want them
to get hit by a car and to be injured.
You know, we try to get our kids to stop being prideful
and bratty and selfish and hitting their brother
and yelling and screaming and doing all these things
for their benefit and we're trying to love them
when we give them correction.
You know, the Bible says,
"He that spare this rod hateth his son."
You hate your child if you spare the rod
and you're sinning against God
and you're sinning against really yourself
and your children by not punishing them,
by not disciplining them.
If you love them, you're gonna chase in them
but times is what the Bible says.
"But he that spare the rod hated the son."
People think that allowing your children
to walk all over you is love.
It's wrong.
And let me say this,
God does not allow his children to walk all over him.
You cannot walk all over God.
He will bring the hammer.
Someone that's walking all over God,
take it to the bank, they're not even saved.
Is if someone is just an open blasphemy,
open heresy, just doing whatever they want,
teaching people to do whatever they want,
and they're not getting punished, they're not saved.
And of course, they're gonna get what's coming to them
on judgment day.
And we're gonna see you don't walk all over God.
God is not mocked.
"For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap."
But why would God even allow that?
Why would God allow someone to just walk all over him
in open defiance with no seeming punishment?
You know why?
'Cause he wants to challenge people on their faith.
Do you actually believe the Bible or not?
So he allows a couple bozos and a couple clowns
to just exist in this world,
to just kind of get away with murder as it were,
just to test you to see,
are you gonna follow their example
or are you gonna fear God and keep his commandments?
And so don't get led astray.
Don't be seduced by the prosperity of the wicked.
And let me tell you something,
do yourself a favor and punish your kids.
You should spank your kids.
The Bible says you should do it by times,
meaning early, okay?
You need to not spare the rod.
It's not spoil the child, it's you hate your son.
It's not loving to do this,
and it's a sin and it's not helping them.
You know what?
You should constantly be correcting your children
and you should constantly be disciplining your kids.
And let me tell you something, kids,
if your parents are not constantly correcting you
and not constantly disciplining you,
they need to love you more and do it.
And if they are doing this,
you should recognize that your parents love you.
Your parents love you when they're constantly correcting you
and constantly spanking you and constantly disciplining you.
And the lack thereof is a result of not loving that child.
And we should not allow our children to walk all over us
because you're not loving them.
But the liberal mindset today, the left would say today,
oh, I love my child too much to spank them.
Lies, lies, it's not true whatsoever.
In the same way, husbands have to love their wives as well.
Okay?
And it is not loving to just allow your wife
to just walk all over you.
The Bible says in Ephesians chapter five, verse 25,
husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it.
That he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word.
That he might present it to himself a glorious church
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh,
but nourisheth and cherisheth it
even as the Lord of the church.
For we are members of his body,
of his flesh and of his bones.
So what is the Bible saying?
The Bible is saying that husbands are to love their wives
just as Christ loved the church.
Okay, did Christ give any rules to the church?
I mean, if you read the Bible, God gave so many rules.
I mean, he's saying in first Corinthians
that you would even throw people out of church
if they break his rules.
He's saying in first Corinthians chapter number 11,
he'll kill people for not observing
the Lord's Supper correctly.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews
that the Lord Jesus Christ will chase and encourage
every son whom he receives.
God will do this unto us.
We have to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ
will chase in people, will correct people,
will punish people.
Read Revelation for a second.
The Lord Jesus Christ is making it clear
he's gonna punish those churches.
He's gonna kill the false teaching of Jezebel
for seducing people, to commit fornication,
and the ones that commit adultery with her,
he's gonna throw them and their children
into a bed of death.
It's just like, what in the world?
He's like saying, don't mess with me.
I'll remove your candlestick, I'll kill you,
I'll kill your children.
I mean, this is what the Lord Jesus Christ
is like to the New Testament church, okay?
And then today, you give your wife a rule
and people lose their minds.
And I'm not saying,
let's not take all of these hyper literally.
I do not believe husbands can kill their wives, okay?
I don't think that husbands can excommunicate their wives
or something like this,
but we should just take the principle, right?
The Lord Jesus Christ is saying there's church discipline.
The Lord Jesus Christ is threatening death
and is threatening all kinds of severe punishments
on the church when they don't obey him.
Then why would a husband not have the right
to enforce the rules of his household upon his wife
as he sees fit?
Real quiet in here.
Let me say this.
It's not loving your wife to let her walk all over you.
And it's not loving your children
and it's not loving society and it's not loving church.
None of us want to watch your wife walk all over you.
Because you know what?
The Bible says when your wife walks all over you,
it encourages other women to walk
all over their husbands too.
And to talk back to their husbands
and to be icy towards their husbands.
And look, no one's perfect.
None of us are perfect.
We all transgress, we all have problems.
But at the end of the day,
let me tell you something, wives.
If your husband gives you a hard time sometimes,
if your husband corrects you sometimes,
it's because he loves you.
It's not because he dislikes you.
A husband that allows you to do whatever you want
and walk all over him
is the husband that does not love you.
The husband that actually gives you some rules
and gives you some guidance
and tries to keep you in check.
You know, what is the Bible saying here?
That he might sanctify, what does that mean?
Set apart and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word.
You know, if my wife was doing something
I felt was not appropriate, you know,
the best thing for me to do would be say,
hey, this is what the Bible is saying.
I want us to change.
You know, I want us to, I want us to dress more godly.
I want us to go to church more.
I want us to read our Bible.
I want us to have this attitude
that the Bible is bringing up.
That would be to love your wife
and even potentially say,
hey, we're gonna do this different
or we're gonna change this or we're gonna, you know,
something's going to happen in our lives
and in our situations because I'm the God given authority,
the God given leader and I love you too much
to allow you to keep doing this.
And we're gonna change this is gonna be something
that is new, something that is different.
Let's keep reading this passage.
It says, for this cause y'all men leave his father
and mother and shall be joined to his wife
and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular
so love his wife even as himself
and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
You know, obviously we should be careful with our wives.
They're the weaker vessel.
We should love them.
We should be gentle unto them.
And we should treat them
as we would treat our own flesh, right?
Obviously you're not gonna do anything
that's gonna permanently harm your own body,
permanently harm your own flesh.
We would never wanna do something
that's gonna harm our spouse
or cause them any kind of suffering in that way.
But it's not that we don't cause ourselves suffering.
I mean, think about this.
If you become unhappy with your own weight, you may diet.
And let me tell you something,
you're gonna experience something, it's called pain.
If you on your diet do not suffer pain,
you're not dieting, okay?
Hunger is real and it is not fun.
Losing weight is not fun.
There is not an easy way to lose weight.
Obviously you can just cut parts of your body off,
but that's still gonna have consequences,
it's gonna have problems.
But let me tell you something, you know what?
Exercising is definitely a chore.
You know, working out, not eating, skipping meals,
whatever it is, eating only things that have no sugar.
Man, it's like the worst, right?
I love sugar.
But at the end of the day, you know, it's like,
sometimes you have to do that to yourself.
There's called self-discipline, fasting.
Let me tell you something about fasting.
It's not fun.
It's a form of self-discipline
that you may have to perform on yourself.
You know, self-discipline is real.
In the same way, sometimes you have to exercise
some kind of discipline on your own family
in a loving, careful, gentle manner
where you're saying, hey, we're not gonna,
you know, we're not gonna have this sugar, right?
We're not gonna have this cake or whatever.
And I'm saying this before we're gonna eat all these cookies,
but everyone's like, why'd you say that?
All right, Monday, we have to, hey, I'm gonna do that,
which I would not allow, right?
It's like Monday, we have to clean up our act from Sunday,
you know what I mean?
So yeah, I don't believe that a healthy marriage
is one where the wife is just telling her husband
what to do and henpecking him to death
and just walking all over him.
And he has to just, he has to be a good boy
for her to not blow up at him or to be icy or whatever.
You know, I think that husbands should be afforded
the right to rule their house as they see fit.
And that's what men need to do to really love their wives,
is to step up and be a leader,
make rules for his household,
keep his family responsible for these.
I'm not saying that husbands should treat their wives
like a child, they're not a child,
it's a different relationship.
Just like my boss doesn't treat me like a child.
But you know what, my boss has authority over me
and my boss has rules for me.
And there's consequences if I don't obey my boss at work.
Now again, those consequences are not the same
as my children, if my children disobey me,
they're getting spanked hard.
Praise God my boss has never spanked me, okay?
So I don't have to worry about that, right?
So I'm not saying that everything is an exact parallel,
but the principle is important, right?
That there could be consequences,
there could be something that is there in place,
and that's for you and your own discretion
to decide what you believe about that.
But let's go to Leviticus chapter 19,
go to Leviticus chapter 19.
And look, we should apply this to all areas.
You know, it wouldn't be loving for me
as the man of the house if someone broke in,
a robber broke in,
to just let him walk all over me and my family.
The loving thing to do would be what I would do
is pull out my gun and put several bullets into his head.
Why? Because I love my family and I love God.
Hey, it's important, even if it was by myself,
it would be loving, be loving to my church,
and it'd be loving to my family and my friends
to stay alive and not allow myself to be robbed
of my life and my livelihood
because people are counting on me.
The work of the Lord is counting on me to do things
and the work of the Lord's counting on you to do things.
You know, you should be safe, you should protect yourself.
You know, they would say like,
"Oh, how dare you kill an intruder."
You know, there's certain countries and places in Europe
that create crazy laws.
It's like, if someone's attacking with a knife,
you can't attack them with a bigger knife.
And I'm thinking like, that's not how Texas rolls.
Everything's bigger in Texas.
And if you come at me with a knife,
you're ending into a gunfight.
Wrong move, okay?
But you live in Europe,
you live in some countries in the world,
they've outlawed guns.
They've taken guns away from their citizens.
Not from the criminals, from the citizens.
Doesn't that make sense?
Isn't it interesting when they have gun laws,
they never take the guns away from the criminals,
they always have them.
They only take the guns away from the citizens.
That's just being a sitting duck.
You should never want to live in a country
where the citizens can't have a firearm, okay.
And that's a serious issue.
And it's not loving to take away guns from citizens,
that's unloving.
Making them a sitting duck, causing them a problem,
just like a husband saying, you know what,
I know you're robbing me, have at it.
Have at my wife and kids.
That's the same as when a country says,
oh, citizens, no guns.
They're just saying, hey robbers,
I know you have guns, we didn't take yours away,
we're gonna take the citizens away
so they can't protect and defend themselves.
That's not loving, that's hateful.
That is hateful to those citizens,
that's hateful to that group of people.
You know, it's not loving for the president
of the United States to allow Israel to walk all over him.
That is not loving, that is hateful to America,
that is hateful to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, it's not loving to allow leaders
to just be walked over by whoever's underneath them.
You know, it's not loving to go to work
and you have a coworker that's doing a bad job
that's putting your life at risk
and for the boss to not judge him harshly.
You know, some people's jobs,
they depend on their coworkers doing a good job
or they could die.
You know, you don't want people to be building the plane
and not doing a good job on all the components
of that airplane or the pilot.
You know, you don't want certain people that are there
just because their diversity higher.
You want them to have the merit to have earned that right
in that role and be in that position.
And you know, when you're just allowing people
to do these things and walk all over, it's not loving.
It's loving for authority figures to rule with authority
and do what's right.
And let me tell you something, you do what's right,
you're gonna piss people off.
But you know what, I'd rather you be, you know,
pissed off and I loved you than to just hate you
and allow you to do whatever you want.
And that's the reality, I love my wife too much
to just let her do whatever she wants.
I love my kids too much to let them do whatever they want.
I love this church too much to let the members
of this church do whatever they want.
And let me tell you something, people that start railing
in this church will be thrown out,
will be met with severe chastisement.
And it is not loving to just allow railers
to walk all over the pastor.
It's not loving for the deacons
to walk all over the pastor.
It is not loving for the deacons' wives
to walk all over the pastor.
And you know what, there's a lot of churches today
where the pastor doesn't get to rule with authority.
And you know what, that's not a picture of love.
They say, oh, this guy has a pastor's heart.
Wrong, he does not love.
The guy that rules with an iron fist is love
because his name's Jesus Christ.
And he's gonna rule and reign with an iron fist.
Read the New Testament.
Read Psalm two.
Hey, he's gonna rule with a rod of iron.
Why?
Because you know what?
Rulers need to rule.
You know, what do you think he's gonna do
with that rod of iron?
I don't know, but it's not gonna be fun.
It's not gonna be fun on the receiving end
of the rod of iron, okay?
That's why you're supposed to fear the Lord.
You know what?
We should respect authority again.
We need to get back to where we respect authority
because you know what?
That's part of God's plan
and how love is supposed to properly work.
And I'm just sick and tired of seeing people
rebel against authority.
And I'm sick and tired of seeing authority figures
not exercise their authority.
We need people to rule again.
We need men to rule their homes.
We need pastors to rule their churches.
We need presidents to rule their countries.
We need people to step up and take the authority
that's been given to them by God.
You know, we need soul winners to take the authority
given to them by the Lord Jesus Christ
and preach the gospel to every creature in every country.
We've been given this authority
and you know what the real love is?
Is exercising it.
I went to an old IB church
and I was talking to this pastor.
This is when I was not finding a good church in my area
and I said, "Hey, I really wanna be a part
"of the soul winning program.
"I wanna go out and preach the gospel."
And he said, "Well, if we go to the homes in our area,
"the HOAs are gonna kick us out.
"And if we go to the apartments,
"then the apartment managers are gonna kick us out.
"So we just don't do that."
Let me tell you something, that person doesn't love.
That's not real love.
Real love says, "Nuts to the care and apartment manager.
"I'm gonna still give the gospel
"to these people at their door."
And nuts to the Karen in the A2A, I don't really care.
It's always Karen, I don't know why.
Sorry if your name's Karen.
But it's just like, hey, the real love is,
Jesus Christ gave me the authority
to go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature.
And you know what, that's the real love,
is taking the authority that God's given me,
not saying, "Oh, well you're gonna piss some people off."
You know what?
We piss people off every week.
I get an email or a call from some Karen apartment manager
every week from you guys.
And I'm just thinking like, great.
You know, they're like,
"Do you know that your members are here
and I'm gonna call the cops the next time you're here
and blah, blah, blah."
Occasionally when I used to answer the phone,
I'd accidentally get these calls.
And I'm just thinking like,
"Why did I even answer the phone?"
And I'm just like,
"Oh, really?
Sounds like you're doing a great job.
Have, you know, bye."
You know?
It's like, I just wanted to let you know,
your members were rude.
They told me that I'm gonna go to hell.
Sounds like they did a great job.
You need to get saved.
You know?
Like, why are we afraid of pissing people off?
You know what?
We should be afraid of not loving people.
Stop worrying about pissing people off
and start worrying about just loving them.
That's what's important.
Look at Leviticus chapter 19.
Look at verse 17.
"Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.
"Thou shalt suffer, I'm sorry,
"thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor
"and not suffer sin upon him.
"Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge
"against the children of thy people,
"but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
"I am the Lord."
You know, we shouldn't just allow people to sin.
That's not the loving attitude.
You know, the loving attitude is correcting people,
rebuking people when necessary.
You know, you come to a church like this and you say,
"Oh man, the sermons or the preaching is hard,"
or there's a lot of correction.
That's coming from a pastor that loves you.
A pastor that will not piss you off occasionally
doesn't love you.
Hopefully I piss you off occasionally, okay?
If not, you're just not paying attention.
But at the end of the day, don't think like,
"Oh man, my pastor, he never offends me.
"He never steps on my toes."
He probably doesn't love you because here's the thing.
If you preach this Bible enough,
it will step on everyone's toes.
It's not like, "I'm special."
I'm not saying like, "Jonathan's jolly is so great.
"He's gonna step on your toes."
This steps on your toes.
So if you preach this faithfully, you will upset people.
And this is what everyone will say.
"You're preaching about me."
Yes, yes, because that's just how it works.
"Al, this sermon is about me."
Yes, it was.
Every sermon's about you and it should be.
And look, you don't have to dream up being offensive.
Just preach the Bible and it'll do its job.
But you know, as God's people,
we wanna make sure that we're being careful to not sin,
that we have a heart for the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And look, the more you love Jesus,
the less you're gonna sin.
If you feel like you've gone a little bit backwards,
if you feel like this year or in recent years,
you're struggling more with sin,
you gotta kick up your love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what, how about do a little bit more Bible reading,
a little bit more soul winning,
sing, maybe start singing some hymns or psalms
instead of whatever music you are listening to.
Just make some changes there and then see
if you're actually struggling with that sin the same.
You know, actually rule your wife,
tell your wife what to do
and see if you're struggling with sin as much.
Tell your kids what to do
and see if you're struggling with that sin as much, okay?
We need to increase our love for the things of God
and that'll help us decrease our sin in our lives.
But praise God, we're never gonna make it
and he already paid for all of our sin.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you heavenly father so much
for giving us the gift of your son and for his sacrifice.
I pray that we wouldn't go against the spirit of grace
and we wouldn't just sin willfully
and I thank you that even if we do,
we still have an advocate with the father,
Jesus Christ the righteous,
but I pray that you would help us to take sin seriously
and not just our own sin,
but those that are underneath our authority
that we would actually have the courage,
that we'd have the bravery,
we'd have the faith,
ultimately we'd have the love
to correct those underneath us and to help them not sin
and help them to have good attitudes
and help them to love the things of God.
And I pray that you would just help empower
those in authority to have the right mindset,
to be benevolent, to be gentle,
but also be firm where they need to be firm.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- All right, for our last song,
let's go to song number 433.
Song number 433, "Away in a Manger."
Song number 433.
Let's sing that out together, song 433.