Okay, please tell me your words, Excuse Chronicles 24.
Excuse Chronicles Chapter 24. Excuse Chronicles 24, starting at verse 1.
Joab was seven years old and began to reign, and he reigned forty years to Jerusalem.
His mother's name also was Zebiah of Beersheba.
And Joab did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
And Jehoiada took for him two wives, and begat sons and daughters.
And it came to pass after this that Joab was minded to repair the house of the Lord.
And he gathered together the priest and the Levites, and said to them,
Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather up all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year,
and see that he hastened the matter, how yet the Levites hastened it not.
And the king called to Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him,
Why has thou not required that the Levites bring in, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, the collection,
according to the commandment of Moses the son of the Lord,
and of the congregation of Israel for the tabnath of a witness?
The sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God,
and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord, and made a stove upon Balaam.
And at the king's commandment they made a chest, and tepid without it the gate of the house of the Lord.
And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, bringing into the Lord the collection that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness.
And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into their chests, until they had made an end.
And it came to pass that at what time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of the Levites,
and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and high priest's officer came and emptied the chest,
and took it, and carried it to his place again, because they did, day by day, and gathered money in abundance.
And the king and Jehoiada gave them such as did the work of the servants of the house of the Lord,
and hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the Lord, and also such as brought iron and brass to mend the house of the Lord.
So the workmen wrought, and their work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in his state, and strengthened it.
And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada,
whereof they made vessels for the house of the Lord, even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels of gold, and silver.
And they offered five offerings in the house of the Lord continually over the days of Jehoiada.
The Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died, and a hundred and thirty years old was he when he died.
And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, for he had done good in Israel, both towards God and towards his house.
But after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made a besance to the king.
Then the king hearkened unto them.
And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served rose and idols.
And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem, for this their trespass.
Yet he sent profit to them, to bring them again unto the Lord, and they testified against them that they would not give ear.
And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood above the people, and said unto them,
Thus saith God, why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that he cannot prosper?
He hath forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you.
And they conspired against him from stone to stone, at the command of the king, in the court of the house of the Lord.
Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son.
And when he died, he said, The Lord was upon it, and required him.
And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syria came up against him.
And they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them to the king of Damascus.
But the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great toast into their hands,
for they had forsaken the Lord to one of their fathers, for they executed judgment against Joash.
And when they were departed from him, they left him in great diseases.
The very servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the freak,
and slew him on his bed, and he died, and they buried him in the city of David,
for they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings.
And these are they that conspired against him, Zebath the son of Shimeah and Hamanites,
and Jehoiada the son of Shimeah and Moabites.
Now concerning his son, and the greatness of the burdens made upon him, and the repairing of the house of God,
behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings, and Amaziah his son, reigned in his stead.
Now brother Alex, can you please pray for this Alex?
If you have any partner who is afraid that you can leave us, we are here to listen and to learn from the world.
Afraid that you can leave us, we are afraid that you can leave us. Amen.
Amen. Right, 2 Chronicles 24. A bit of background for you guys.
So in chapter 22, Ahaziah the king of Judah is counseled by his wicked mother,
and ends up basically a wicked king.
He gets killed and his mother, Apheliah, then tries to kill all his heirs to keep the kingdom herself.
Now Joash, the king here in this chapter, he's saved from being killed, he's the heir to the throne,
and raised by his auntie and her husband Jehoiada the priest for six years.
So in chapter 23, Jehoiada flots plans and basically succeeds in the retake of the kingdom for Joash from his evil grandmother.
So it's kind of a great victory really against evil, sort of male worshipping.
Okay, so chapter 24, our chapter for today.
Okay, look at verse 2, chapter 24 verse 2 of 2 Chronicles.
And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
So during the days of Jehoiada, the priest that saved him, that basically raised him,
and was his mentor, he does good in the sight of the Lord.
So I believe that he's a saved man of God.
But like we see many times in the Bible, his life goes downhill.
His life goes downhill, we'll see that later in the chapter.
Now have a look at verse 4.
And it came to pass after this that Joash was reminded to repair the house of the Lord,
and he gathered together the priests and the Levites and said to them,
Go out unto the cities of Judah and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year,
and see that ye hasten the matter, how bit the Levites hastened it not?
And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him,
Why hast thou not required the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the collection,
according to the commandment of Moses the servant of the Lord,
and of the congregation of Israel, and the tabernacle of witness?
For the sons of Afterliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God,
and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim.
And at the king's commandment they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of the Lord.
The Joash has got good intentions here, hasn't he?
And even to the point where he's correcting Jehoiada, it seems, but you can read it that way,
and not that he's giving him a snow of beauty, saying, Why haven't you done this?
And at this point in time you're thinking, Wow, what a good godly king when you're reading this chapter.
Right, have a look at verse 14.
So he's got a good background, a good start in his life,
and at that point, if you compare it with 2 Kings, I think it's sort of 20 years later that he's done that.
So this is just like a flash in the pan.
20 years later that he started arranging this collection to rebuild the house of the Lord.
Okay, verse 14.
And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada,
whereof on made vessels for the house of the Lord, even vessels to minister,
and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver,
and they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord between all the days of Jehoiada.
So again, he doesn't start siphoning off all this excess money.
He's putting it to good use.
And like I say, just from the start, just a few highlights of mercy,
so you've got a pretty righteous king.
Okay, Jehoiada then dies.
Jehoiada his mentor, Jehoiada the priest that raised him, Jehoiada the man of God.
He dies at a good old age as well.
Okay, now have a look at verse 17.
Jehoiada made obeisance to the king, then the king hearkened unto them.
Okay, so these are the leaders of Judah.
Basically, they made obeisance, they flattered him to some degree.
In 2 Kings 12, you don't have to tell him, it says that he reigned 40 years.
At this point, this is to the end of his reign, he's within his 40s now as well,
because he started reigning from a young age.
But he's still hearkening to them.
So he's been under this priest, this man of God.
He's been doing some great things for God.
He's a man of God, yet he's hearkening to these men, these leaders,
princes, principles, these leaders of Judah.
Okay, now have a look at verse 18.
And they left the house of the Lord God and their fathers,
and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem
to this excess part.
Yet he sent prophets to them to bring them again unto the Lord,
and they testified against them that they would not give ear.
And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest,
which stood above the people and said unto them,
Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord
that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord,
he has also forsaken you.
And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones
at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord.
Thus Jehoiada the king remembered not the kindness
which Jehoiada his father had done to him,
but slew his son.
And when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it and require it.
And the title of my sermon today is Dealing with Review.
Dealing with Review.
Turn to Isaiah 58, quickly.
Turn to Isaiah 58.
Keep your finger in 2 Chronicles, though.
Isaiah 58, verse 1.
Something we as people who preach the word of God,
something that I believe this is a command,
not just for Isaiah but for all, it says,
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgression,
and the house of Jacob their sins.
So, preaching, and I'm going to go to some more verses in a minute.
Come to church.
We should be, as people behind a pole,
obviously there's other things that we should be doing as well,
but a big part of it is crying aloud,
sparing not, and showing people their sins.
It's not just reading sins, it's showing us.
It's showing us from the word of God how that applies to their lives.
Now, it's not that every sermon,
every service has to be what we know of as hard preaching,
but we have all come, we have all, every single person here,
there's not a hard preaching church in this country,
at least it's not preaching the truth, anyway,
they've got the gospel right.
So, we have all come from churches which don't really preach hard.
Now, not only that, and don't get me wrong,
I believe that it's been a problem probably throughout history, isn't it?
We see this in this chapter, we're going to go over it in a minute,
but we especially now, I think it is a snowflake generation, isn't it?
People can't take rebuke, they can't take being told they're wrong,
they can't take sins being pointed out in their life.
Now, this isn't a kind of, right, you've got to deal with it,
I'm going to start shouting at you on this service,
it's not the point of this,
but I want to show you the results of this as well,
and try to encourage people from this, because it is hard,
it's really hard, because we come from nothing like this,
and yes, I've mentioned this before,
all of us have listened to hard preaching,
everyone who's here has come here because they've listened to preaching,
everyone who's here has got so much sin out of their life,
it's really because of hard preaching.
I know the word of God convicts us, it does,
but we have all heard hard preaching,
and we've heard hard preaching 1,000 miles away,
and it is a big difference when you're sitting in a room,
it's a massive difference,
and when it's 1,000 miles away,
you can kind of pick and choose a little bit,
you can decide what you want to apply to your life, what you don't,
and I'll tell you what, don't get me wrong,
compared to the joker church we've had here,
everyone in this room, they're overcoming to a degree,
not just having overcome by the faith in Christ,
but they are overcoming a lot of trials and tests
and temptations for sinful lives,
but I dare say, if all of us here suddenly just went out
to one of the good churches in the States
where they've been preaching like this for many years,
we would all realise where we really want to be getting to.
I'm not saying everyone in there is sinless,
I'm not saying that, but I'm saying that there's a big difference.
Because these people are getting preached at,
week in, week out, and it's much different.
Now, you might think, whoa, wait a second,
I'm not really on the receiving end,
I'm the one doing the preaching,
but I tell you what, I have been on the receiving end,
to some degree.
I've been on the receiving end at churches
where they're basically preaching false doctrine at me,
which is pretty hard, and I managed to keep that as well,
and keep my head down.
And sometimes, even throughout that,
and when they're preaching on pride,
because you dare to make sure you can go soul with it,
and you know that preacher, sometimes it's not always that,
and sometimes it is.
And we're going to talk about that in a minute as well,
but you still through all that stuff,
the word of God will still speak to you.
And I've had the word of God speak to me,
it's really true, I've been looking back now,
false prophets, but something in that word of God
I've still thought about, and listened to,
and dealt with that.
And I fall short in many areas,
so it's not trying to say, look, come right down.
But what I'm saying is, I understand to some degree,
and I'm not sitting here every week,
and the last, the reason I preached is
because the last few sermons have been pretty rough
for some people, I would imagine, if you're listening,
because they have been,
they've been preaching on sin in our lives,
and we're not used to it.
We're not used to being in a room
and having it preached at you,
and then starting to wonder,
has he actually been talking to someone,
and we can all feel like that,
I'm not saying everyone does,
maybe some people are just like,
you know, he's preaching the Bible,
but some might start to wonder,
is he thinking about me here, is he talking about me?
I've had people ask that as well,
and I'm not, obviously I'm not,
and every preacher will say the same,
that after preaching sermons,
have people come up and say,
is he mad at me, is he angry at me,
does he know about me,
come up to him or his wife or other people,
but it's not the case.
Now, like I said, we've been in bad churches,
and life hard preaching is very different,
and obviously it's difficult to like,
and it's not, I promise you now,
I don't, unless it was,
unless it was literally someone who's preaching heresy
around the church, or it was something that,
that was a particular individual
that they really need to preach on,
to be honest, they're more likely to be kicked out,
or at least it maybe might be something
that I notice with someone.
You know, most of the time, it's not,
I pray a week for the spiritual,
I don't write my sermons till the end of the week,
you can ask my wife that,
because I'm praying a week just to be guided
on what to preach on,
and sometimes I think,
I don't really know what I'm going to preach on this week,
and then I just pray and pray and pray,
and I preach on it,
and yes, yeah, dang everyone,
people will come into my house,
and I wonder if that's going to affect them,
or help them,
or going to rebuke them a bit,
but that's not why I preach a sermon,
and that's it,
that person really needs preaching at,
and start writing a sermon on it,
and then pretending it's not happening.
But you know, a lot of people feel like that's the case,
and I don't know if anyone here feels that,
but I know from other churches,
and having heard other preachers talk about this,
that they do.
People in churches start to feel like
they're just being preached at.
Okay, now, with that in mind,
with that in mind,
like I said,
I have been on the receiving end of that zionism
I've been on,
I was at church for literally five years,
being preached at about zionism,
for a year or so,
having mentioned that I didn't believe in zionism,
and that's rough,
but when it's stuff in your life,
when it's stuff that affects you,
and it's sin,
we want to take the positives,
we want to respond to that in the right way,
and that's what I'm going to preach about today.
Now, like I said,
the Holy Spirit should be guiding me,
but the Holy Spirit also rebukes you.
Now, I'm not going to try and go so spiritual that,
hey, every time I'm saying anything,
it's just the Holy Spirit.
Look, I have the flesh as well,
and I'm not going to try and pretend that.
What I will say is that the Holy Spirit does definitely,
definitely rebuke you,
does definitely convict you of things,
and it's how we deal with that.
Now, we do,
we talked about this,
and I'm going to use this a little bit,
we were explaining this the other week,
we were talking,
so Brother Alex kind of came up with this a little bit,
and then we went off on it,
is sometimes you will find in a service,
that you will get what we were calling
a spiritual slap around the face.
Anyone felt that before?
I've felt that before in service,
and I've felt that thousands of miles away,
as well as these things,
when you get that spiritual slap around the face,
and it can be pretty, pretty aggressive,
that slap around the face,
darn it,
you can be sitting,
listening to a song,
and then suddenly it's just like,
boom, you know,
it spits something out of your mouth,
there's a bit of blood, baby,
on the lips,
and you're just,
whoa,
and sometimes you get the back hand off,
you're reeling for one,
and then the next spiritual slap comes across your face,
and it can be tough,
darn it,
and you kind of think,
wow,
that just hit me,
and the trick is,
obviously,
is to accept and acknowledge that it's a word of God,
that's being preached at you,
and it's not that person behind the pulpit
who's picking on you.
Now,
like I said,
there might be,
no one needs to hear this,
I don't know how many churches talk about this stuff,
about the problems with life,
why do you think most churches in this country
don't preach hard?
They don't preach on specific sin,
they don't name it,
they don't shame it in a way,
because a lot of people can't take it,
and they can't deal with it,
and we don't want to be like that,
so why do we need the spiritual slap?
Why do we need it?
Sometimes it's,
like I said,
it's a spiritual slap,
and a spiritual back hander as well.
Well,
2 Timothy 3.
And verse 16.
The Bible says,
All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof,
for correction,
for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
So basically,
what those two verses are saying,
is that the reproof,
the correction,
the instruction in righteousness,
is so that the man of God is perfect,
complete,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
And that's got to be a good thing,
isn't it?
The point in it is so that,
we're thoroughly,
wholly furnished to all good works.
We want to do good works,
we want to be encouraged by the word of God,
and you know it's hard to do good works
when you've just got deep sin in your life.
It is, isn't it?
It's hard to do that.
You might be able to counteract it now and again,
but that sin starts to overpower things,
and you're not in the spirit,
and it's hard to really fulfil God's will
when you've got blatant, open sin in your life.
So it's for our benefit,
which is why a preacher is commanded
to administer the slap.
And you know,
it can be a fun job sometimes,
but it's not always.
You know, sometimes it can be a tough job,
because you're there preaching,
thinking, I know this is going to affect some people.
I know they're hoping and praying
that they're not going to be gnashing on me with their teeth,
at least spiritually,
sitting there just,
and it can be a funny position to be in.
It's a funny situation.
Some people think,
ah, just high and mighty.
People do, don't they?
They start hating on preachers.
I'm not saying that's happening with me.
I hope it's not.
But it does happen.
It happens with churches around the world.
They start hating on the preacher
for delivering the message of God.
And we see that in that chapter
that we're going to go back to in a second.
Now have a look at 2 Timothy 4 and verse 1.
I charge thee, therefore, before God,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
and shall charge you quick,
and the dead it is appearing in his kingdom.
Preach the word, be instant,
in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, absorb,
with all long-suffering and doctrine.
For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts
shall they keep themselves teachers,
having it in years.
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth,
and shall be turned unto fables.
Okay, he said I charge thee.
Now this is basically,
you know, they're called these like
preacher or faster epistles.
And he's charging, he's commanding Timothy.
So it's a command from Paul
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
And he says there in verse 1,
he says that before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge you quick,
and the dead it is appearing in his kingdom.
Now, as we know,
we're not talking about heaven and hell,
but we have talked about the judgment seat of Christ
for the last couple of weeks, actually.
So it's for your own good, isn't it?
Because you are going to stand before Jesus Christ
and there will be an account for the works that you've done,
and you're going to be given rewards based on that.
But that's why the preaching has to be like that
to improve you and help you
to get those eternal rewards
and all the eternal rewards you can get.
And when you're standing in front of Jesus,
you're not standing there having literally done nothing.
You've just taken salvation,
turned up the church,
and lived the life of sin.
If you've even managed to turn up the church,
how many don't?
Okay, verse 2 says here,
Preach the word.
And it's got to be the word, isn't it?
There's no point just using a verse,
springboarding and then just giving
my thoughts and opinions.
And that's not just me.
And a lot of britches do that, don't they?
And yeah, of course,
we're going to try and explain things
and try and apply it to our lives,
apply it to people's lives in the congregation.
But really, the main thing has to be the word, doesn't it?
And he says here,
Preach the word.
And then he goes on to say,
Be instant in season and out of season.
Now there's a couple of ways you could look at it.
Some people say it's in and out of fashion.
I would probably go with urgent.
So preach the word, be instant, that's urgent,
in season and out of season,
being in time or after a problem.
So in season, so when you're preaching something
that needs to be preached,
in time before it becomes a problem,
or preach it, after it's become a problem,
still preach it.
Don't shy away from it.
By the way, however you want to look at that,
you should be preaching the word,
whether it's going to go down well or not.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort.
Reprove is a gentle rebuke.
Reprove is a stern telling off.
Exhort is an encouragement, isn't it?
Incite by words or actions to good deeds.
And that can come from a rebuke sometimes as well,
but it's not all just shouting and screaming at people.
And some people want that.
And it's not just about that, obviously, as well.
I think most probably wouldn't.
Like I say, it's different when you're listening online
to when you're in the church.
Okay, then he says here,
exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
Doctrine here is just something taught.
It's the teaching.
There should be teaching.
And again, that could be hard for people as well
because a lot of people here, they know their Bibles well.
It's like, well, you know,
is this guy standing up here teaching me?
And the ego can get up there and apply.
And I don't think I'm some great idol.
I've got this great idol knowledge.
But what I do do is I spend hours and hours
trying to prepare a sermon.
I'll get stuff wrong.
Don't get me wrong.
We'll talk about that in a second.
I do get stuff wrong.
But at least it's good to at least take advantage
of a subject, a chapter, a verse, whatever it is,
having been studied out,
you might not necessarily have done.
Maybe you have studied the exact same thing
that I've pictured.
It's still interesting to hear that, isn't it?
And try and let the Word of God teach you.
At least you're hearing a lot of verses.
And no good preaching should be literally just void of verses,
should it at all, a void of anything in the Bible.
Now, verse 3 says,
For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after old life shall they eat themselves,
teachers having itching ears.
So they're teachers that fit in
with their own sins and lifestyles.
That's what people end up going towards, don't they?
They're going towards the preacher
that preaches hard on the stuff
that they've already sorted out.
A lot of the time,
what if they are going to have preaching?
So I like this preaching
because he preaches hard on something
that I've already got out of my life.
But when they start preaching the stuff that affects them,
then they start going off that preacher.
Or they just go to literally just worldly,
liberal nonsense
when they're just preaching about how great you are
and everything else, you know,
a child of God, how amazing you are.
Okay, and preachers have done
it a lot of the time,
and they want those ears itched.
They don't want them boxed, do they?
They want those ears,
do you remember that old term,
boxing your ears in?
It's got a bit out of fashion,
I don't think you said you said that one.
It's a bit of boxing your ears in,
but yeah, it's an old school term.
But yeah, they want them itched, the ears,
and just, you know, just a little bit here,
rather than just getting smashed
by that spiritual slap or work.
In verse 4, it says here,
they shall turn away their ears from the truth.
They shall be turned out of tables.
Now, they turn their ears away,
but you know, you can still be in church
and turn your ears away.
And I think many people do that.
I'm trying to look around sometimes,
see the glaze look up the eyes,
and think about what's going on next week or something.
You know, I'm saying, we can do that,
I'm not saying,
it might be just because I'm really not boring them,
but you know, it can be, it can be,
because people just don't want to hear it, do they?
They don't want to hear the word of God.
If something affects their ego or their pride,
then you see the eyes just going out,
and they shut off.
And we see that when we're soul winning, don't we?
Where people, suddenly the eyes glaze over
and they're not interested anymore.
Okay, so back to 2 Chronicles 24.
So this is what Joash did, didn't he?
In verse 17, 2 Chronicles 24, verse 17,
it says, now after the death of Jehoi,
there came the prince of Judah,
and made a basis to the king.
Then the king hearkened unto them.
Okay, so he hearkened to the ungodly instead, didn't he?
It'd been, this is like 14 odd years later,
at least it's somewhere between 20 and 40 years later,
that he's hearkening now to these people.
He's hearkening to the leaders of Judah.
And I believe they are the ungodly.
At least their advice and what they're doing
creates, makes him ungodly.
So at least they're giving the counsel of the ungodly.
Now look at verse 18.
And they left the house of the Lord God
of their fathers, and served bros and idols,
and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this tresspus.
I was thinking about this as well.
I was thinking, people can be in church,
like I just said earlier, but maybe their heart isn't.
Maybe their heart's not.
Maybe their heart's in the world, really.
They're in church, they're ticking a box,
they're turning up.
And again, I'm not preaching at anyone here,
but it can happen.
But really, they're serving the world in sin.
So they're coming, they just want to keep up appearances,
maybe husband or wife, or parents,
and forcing them to, but they don't really want to be here,
the heart's somewhere else.
Okay, now, have a look at this, verse 19.
Yet he sent prophets to them,
to bring them again unto the Lord,
and they testified against them,
but they would not give in.
Okay, so God sent them prophets for their own good.
For their own good.
The preaching is for their own good.
That's the love of God, isn't it?
He's long suffering.
He hasn't just gone, right, that's it,
he turned to this, you know the truth.
He's sending people, he's encouraging people
to preach the word to them,
but they don't want to hear, do they?
They would not give ear.
And the love there, the love is telling them their thoughts.
The love of those people, those people going out there,
it's not easy, it's not easy preaching to people.
I'm starting to learn about this.
I'm no expert, but I'm starting to learn.
It ain't easy preaching people's thoughts to them
because the Holy Spirit's feet are on your heart,
and you feel like, look, I need to convict people,
I want to help people, I live for God,
and it's not easy.
But these guys going out and doing that,
they would not give ear.
Okay, and in Proverbs 27, five,
don't worry about that, it says,
open rebuke is better than secret love.
Open rebuke is better than secret love.
And that's something we need to remember as well.
It's all well and good tickling ears,
and being there telling people how great each other are,
but it's more loving,
and I'm not trying to say what a loving guy,
I'm just trying to preach the word.
And so all the preachers across the world,
they're preaching the word, but it is out of love,
and God's putting that on their heart,
and it's coming with the love of God
to preach to people,
not just to be kicking everyone out of church
who's got clear, open sin,
and of course there's certain sins
where the Bible says you have to,
but the point is it's to help people,
it's to encourage them.
And that says they would not give ear.
And like I say, when the word of God rebukes us,
we need to listen, we need to respond.
Not just listen, oh yeah, that was good, yeah,
fair enough, yeah, yeah, anyway, let's crack on.
We need to respond.
We need to respond to it.
Now, verse 20, have a look at this.
And the spirit of God came upon Zechariah,
the son of Jehoi the priest,
which stood above the people and said unto them,
Thus saith God, why transgress ye the commandments
of the Lord if ye cannot prosper?
Because ye have forsaken the Lord,
he hath also forsaken you.
Zechariah is spirit-filled,
he's preaching the word of God,
he's showing them, isn't he, that it's affecting them.
And this is what preachers are doing in church,
week in, week out.
They're preaching the word of God,
showing how it's affecting them,
showing how they're suffering because of it,
because of sin, which we all know affects us,
affects our walk with God, affects our lives.
Ye cannot prosper.
And he says because of it, he hath forsaken you.
He's showing them the result as well.
He's preaching the word of God.
Now, you would think, wouldn't you, you would think,
and it's the same at churches,
good churches around the world,
you would think, the answer might be,
oh, thanks, Zechariah, thanks.
We really need to hear that.
I really need to hear that.
Or, wow, at least you're doing God's will
because you're spirit-filled there,
you're preaching the word of God,
you're preaching what God says.
Well, it's for our own good.
Thank you, Zechariah.
You've just shown us how it's affecting our lives,
affecting the nation.
Or thank God for someone speaking the truth.
Thank God that he's arranged it,
that he's worked it out and made things happen
that someone is preaching the truth to her.
But no, verse 21,
and they conspired against him and stoned him with stones
at the commandment of the king
in the court of the house of the Lord.
They killed him.
They killed him at the commandment of the king.
And what have we just read?
Zechariah was the son of Jehoiada.
So I don't know if they grew up together,
maybe they did, maybe they didn't,
but it's the son, it's basically his adopted brother,
you know, it's the son of his mentor.
And Jehoiada saved Judah from after the lie.
And at his commandment, he's killed him.
And you're thinking, well, how does a saved man of God do that?
Verse 22,
Thus Jehoiada the king remembered not the kindness
which Jehoiada his father had done to him,
but slew his son,
that when he died he said,
The Lord look upon it and require it.
So basically, forget all that Jehoiada had done.
How dare he speak the truth?
How dare he speak the truth,
because how dare he rebuke us?
And I think at the end of there,
I think it's Zechariah saying,
that's how I read it,
the Lord look upon it and require it, the he.
And it's to call to account for it.
He's saying the Lord called to account for this.
Which he does, doesn't he?
Now, when Joash and the people killed Zechariah,
do you think they just admitted their evil?
We don't want God's man telling us the truth.
We don't want the word of God being preached at us.
We don't want that.
Do you think they said that?
I'm sure they didn't.
What do you think they said?
I reckon they probably found fault in him.
They probably looked for fault in him, found fault in him.
They probably, maybe amongst us, maybe not.
Maybe individually, maybe this starts growing.
Maybe they convinced themselves they were in the right.
Convinced themselves, well, you know,
did God really send him?
Is he really meant to be preaching this?
Well, you got that bit wrong.
I don't know if that was exactly how it was meant to be preached.
I'm sure they started coming up with reasons,
and reasons to justify their sin
and to not have the word of God preached at them.
They probably lifted themselves up as well.
Probably lifted themselves up as well.
Maybe Joash was just thinking, well, you know,
I'm a better man of God than Zechariah is.
I was the original one now.
I've done this, or I've already done that.
Maybe there was that.
Now, maybe they also found fault with Jehoi
and the rest of Zechariah's family.
Look at verse 25, and I miss this the first time already.
And when they were departed for him,
for they left him in great diseases,
his own servants conspired against him
for the blood of the sons, plural, of Jehoi the priest.
The sermons barely died.
Sons plural.
Now, we're only talking about Zechariah.
I don't know if maybe some of those earlier prophets
and messengers were sons, or maybe not.
But either way, he managed to go against his whole family,
didn't he?
Because there's more than one son here of Jehoi,
that's being killed basically at the hands of Joash the king.
Like, what on earth?
And again, this happens, doesn't it?
This happens.
This happens around churches around the world.
There are churches around the world,
and you hear from, they'll talk about,
I've spoken to a couple of pastors about this,
like before all of this, and this kicked off,
a couple of pastors in the States talk to them
about stuff that happens and will happen,
does happen in their churches.
You're wise, you're wise.
You're wise, your wives will get grief.
They'll be bitchiness, they will say.
I'm not saying this is happening,
but this is, I'm just saying to you,
what I was warned would happen.
They'll be whispering, they'll be nastiness.
Your kids, people will be trying to find fault in your kids.
They'll be trying to find anything they can.
They'll try and discredit you to discredit the message
because they don't want to hear the message.
They'll try and find fault in you.
They'll try and discredit you in some way or another.
They'll try their hardest to try and find something
to disqualify you or something else.
So this is what will happen, and you're ready for that.
That's what I was being asked.
You're ready to deal with that.
And they said 100% this happened to all of them.
I was hearing stories about stuff that happened
to their wives, family members, et cetera.
It goes on and still goes on.
Every pastor, you guys listen to them.
They get it.
From their congregation, the same people
who just attacking them, finding fault,
finding meaning because they don't want to hear.
They don't want to hear it.
They don't want to hear the word of God preached.
And yet they come to church.
They know they need to come to church.
And this is what happens.
Now, I'm not saying this is happening.
The thing is, it's likely to.
I just hope it's not going to be in many of you guys.
But the Bible says, at least when you start looking
at the stories and seeing the testimonies,
and the men of God who have experience say
that this will happen and this does happen to all of them.
Now, you know what I'm talking about?
Matthew 13, 55.
You remember they said about Jesus.
He's not the son.
He's not his mother called Mary and his president,
James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas.
And he's talking about the prophet being without honour
except for his own.
Sorry, not being with honour in his own town, basically.
But they were hearing the word of God,
but they were trying to find fault, weren't they?
Trying to find fault in the messenger.
Who is he?
Who seemed to tell me what the word of God says?
And sadly, this is what happens.
Now, listen, I'm not saying that myself or any of the preachers
that we listen to are above reproach.
I'm not saying that we're perfect.
I'm not saying that I'm far from it.
I've just started this journey,
and I don't know when that's going to end.
And I know that we do make mistakes.
And I've already made some mistakes.
I made quite a mistake the other day.
So I was preaching 1 Corinthians 5 to you,
and I was preaching about the sins that get you kicked out of the church.
And I got onto railing,
and what I shouldn't have done is I went straight to the dictionary definition.
Now, I let that then shake my mind,
and I preached to you what the dictionary definition is.
I should have gone to the word of God first.
Now, someone politely actually just asked me afterwards,
really politely just asked me,
oh, are you sure?
Because railing isn't it when they talk about railing accusations.
And I didn't really preach that right
because then I was thinking about it afterwards.
I was a bit unsure when I was preaching it
because it didn't match up then with what we just talked about,
reproving, rebuking, because you could maybe call that railing, didn't you?
But railing has an element of dishonesty.
Every time in scripture,
there's something just slightly, subtly dishonest about it.
And I didn't preach that properly,
and that was a mistake.
And I'll make more, I'm sure I'll make mistakes in front of you.
But then I'll think about it,
and then I'll forget about it.
I'm a busy person right now, I've got a lot on.
And then I listened to Pastor Thompson preach a sermon on Thursday,
on 1st Corinthians 5, and I said, well, listen to this.
And he preached on differences,
and he's preaching because he's at this church
where right now it's like rebellion going on,
and he preached on railing and was showing,
the dictionary doesn't do it justice.
You've got to go to the word of God and see every time,
there's just slightly that the accusation,
there's a bit of dishonesty with them.
It's not just outright blatant lies all the time, but it's subtle.
Sometimes it isn't subtle, but it's a dishonest accusation.
And I'm sure that's just one that was a blatant one
that I should have really kind of made up,
because when I was looking at the dictionary definition,
yeah, because I've heard them talk about it as being accusations,
that doesn't line up.
And it's not like this new only biblical word,
but I should have really gone to Bible first,
because then when I looked at different examples in the Bible,
I was then already had on my mind
kind of the counsel of the ungodly, didn't I?
I had the dictionary definition on my mind,
because I wasn't really seeing the dishonesty
with each example in the Bible,
and it's subtle in some of it as well.
For example, with Nadab, with David,
it was in 1st Samuel, he's been from Saul,
and I think that's the first time he's used.
But anyway, so we do make mistakes.
That's cool. That will happen.
That happens throughout churches.
Any preacher is going to make errors,
but that's not a reason to then discount
when the word of God is clearly convicting you of sin.
And that's not a reason to then turn on the preacher, obviously, as well.
But by all means, if you think you can question something,
by all means, talk to me afterwards.
As long as it's done politely and not done in a funny way.
No problem with that at all.
And that was done politely.
Okay, so what people do is they want to find a way
just to find their sins.
So instead, they'll then just discount
everything someone's preaching.
Start to, like I said, find fault in them.
Lift themselves up in comparison to it.
And, like I said, find fault in their family.
Now, here's a question.
Now, you might think, well, these preaching disguises
really try to preach against this happening.
The church keeps going and, you know,
and Pastor Toxin's happy with every guy.
He just wants an easy life.
He doesn't want it to happen.
Well, who do you think the Bible says
is going to affect most?
Who's it going to affect most?
You guys.
If that happens here, it's going to affect the people
who are doing that, who are guilty of that,
guilty of turning the preacher,
guilty of shutting their ears,
guilty of not listening to the rebuke of the word of God.
Okay, so why do people do that then?
Why do they do it?
It affects them.
Why do they do it?
Well, turn to Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12.
Hebrews 4, verse 12 says,
For the word of God is quick and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even for the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow,
and is a deserter of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
So sometimes it's not just the spiritual slack.
Sometimes you get off easy,
and sometimes it's a two-edged sword coming at you.
That could be pretty rough, doesn't it?
Imagine that.
So, you know, when the word of God is preached properly,
there's no hiding.
It's a two-edged sword.
You might think, well, I've got a bit of armour here,
and maybe you do when you get your armour in place,
the armour of Ephesians,
but maybe you swerve that first sword swing
but it's two-edged,
and then it just comes back up with the other side.
It comes back and you get caught with it.
I don't know.
But, like I say, you could swerve.
I was thinking about this, for example.
Maybe you listen to the preaching,
and maybe the preaching on the TV.
I've kicked out my TV.
It's like, you know, you spend your last preaching on,
and I know because I've done a few quite close to Mark
and maybe some people serve him,
preaching about sins in the evening
and stuff people do.
Well, I don't watch the TV.
I don't watch junk on TV.
And then I mentioned, oh, I was sitting on your phone
just staring at a junk YouTube video.
It's like, that's the second edge comes back in.
You just swerve the first, you know, on the TV.
It's like, oh, no, YouTube videos, of course.
And I thought, I'm so righteous.
I'm in that TV.
Oh, okay.
And, you know, there's many ways that happens, isn't there?
But, you know, what hurts most is the pride.
It's the ego.
That's what hurts most.
It's pride and ego, because we lift ourselves up.
We all do it.
Even the most sinful people, and not necessarily even in the world,
very few of them admit that they're just so sinful.
And all they do is lift themselves up
and focus on the things in their life
and the parts of them that they think they've got exalted.
And the pride is massive.
And have a look.
Well, I'll tell you what.
Have a look at Proverbs 13, 10.
Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 10.
And it is, it's the pride that gets here.
And then what happens?
You end up with contention.
Proverbs 13, 10 says,
only by pride cometh contention,
but with the well-advised is wisdom.
So only by pride cometh contention.
Like I said, the contention comes in many different ways.
It can come to preachers, family members.
It can come to them.
It might not ever get verbalized,
but you can maybe see it.
You see the countenance changing of people
because of what you're preaching.
It's what you've got to understand is that,
again, I'm not saying you've got to understand.
I know so much more,
but this is something I want to make clear anyway.
The preacher's not telling you he's better than you.
When I'm preaching on sin, I'm not up and going,
you guys, I'm so much holier than you.
But people start to see that.
They're like, you hear it.
You hear them talk about preachers.
And I'm not saying people are looking at me.
Maybe they are like that.
But you hear about what they say about preachers.
Preaching, like Pastor Anderson in the beginning,
used to get all that stuff, how arrogant he is.
And that means he's preaching on sin,
just preaching hard on sin.
And people start to find thought in you.
And that's the contention you need to just be in their head,
in their heart.
You see it on the countenance a lot as well, I think.
You start to see it with people.
And I'm not just talking about here.
In many areas of life and walks of life
where we used to coach people,
even like just coaching people.
This is a funny one here.
People used to come to me to be paid.
They paid me, sorry, how to be good at Thai boxing.
But it's like they come to you and they think they're good.
A lot of them are atrocious, but they think they're good
because they've been at some junk rubbish club somewhere
and they've been told they're good.
So you try and teach them a new technique
or teach them to do something different.
It's like they hate you.
They pay you to be taught.
They're coming and giving you some of that good money
for like private lessons, you know, for the average person.
And they don't want to be told anything.
They just want their ego massaged.
They just want to be told how great they are.
They want to be told how well they've got it sorted.
It's like, you think you're rubbish.
But you don't say that, obviously.
You've been quite bad coaches.
I wasn't going to tell you to do that.
But you're trying to show someone just something simple.
And then you see the captain that's trying to hate you.
They hate you because you've tried to delicately say,
yeah, I don't think you're really, you know,
you're throwing a punch like a bit of a girl, you know.
So you maybe don't say that, but you say, you know,
try and turn some hip into it.
And then it's just, you can see the just the anger.
How dare you tell me I'm not perfect.
And maybe I don't think that's just in that walk of life
and that sort of thing.
I think we see that everywhere again.
We're a snowflake generation, aren't we?
Like everyone says.
Now, OK, what's the result?
Like I said, the result really is you now.
Maybe myself.
Maybe I'll get spiritual stoning.
Maybe passes around the world get spiritual stoning now and again.
Maybe if you guys really had a stone,
maybe you would want to throw.
Maybe eventually with time you will.
Maybe like Ezekiel, I was the son of Jehoi.
Maybe like his brother, it seems.
At least one brother or more got killed as well.
Maybe families will get that as well.
And you know what I think about this?
Because the problem is, what are too many snowflakes, mate?
Snowmen.
Snowballs.
They make it in a snowman, yeah.
They're in a snowball.
Too many snowflakes make a snowball.
I don't know if you ever had Mean Kids when you were young.
They make snowballs and they put stones in them.
You see that?
For Roxy, I'm not putting ideas in any context,
but that's rough when you do that.
You have three snowballs and they've got rocks in them.
But too many snowflakes make a snowball.
You've got too many snowflakes.
Suddenly you've got snowballs getting touched.
It can hurt, actually.
Someone's got a good firmament.
That could be pretty horrible to be on the receiving end.
Now, okay.
Second Chronicles, Chapter 24, we're in here.
And have a look at verse 23.
And it came to pass at the end of the year
that the host of Syria came up against him.
They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed
all the prince of the people, among the people,
and sent all the sport of their much-licking into Damascus.
For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men,
and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hands
because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers.
So they executed judgment against Joash.
And when they were departed from him,
for they left him in great diseases,
and his own servants conspired against him
for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest,
and slew him on his bed, and he died.
And they buried him in the city of David,
but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings.
And these are they that conspired against him,
Zebed the son of Shimea, the Navinites,
and Jehozabat the son of Shimrin, the Moabites.
So who is it?
So the judgment comes.
So it's them that were affected.
Yeah, it might be that the preacher gets grief.
It might be that his family gets grief.
So really it's them that the judgment comes upon from God.
And who is it at the hands of?
The ungodly, who is really who they turn to, haven't they?
As you can see, I'll give you the analogy for a church,
people in a church here,
where really they're turning to the sin of the world.
It's like they want their sin.
They don't really want to get breached out on certain things
and start getting their backs up and everything else,
but it's that sin that ends up being their destruction.
And here it's the worldly people.
It's the son of Shimea, the Ammonites,
Jehozabat the son of Shimea, the Moabites,
who is at the hands of them that he ends up being killed.
The people that, in a way, he's turned to, isn't he?
Turned away from the godly.
And that's what happens in...
If you turn to chapter 36 of the Second Chronicles,
well, I'll read Proverbs 29.1.
Proverbs 29.1 says,
He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck,
shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
So you get the warning, you get the rebuke,
you get the chastisement, and then it's destruction.
And the Second Chronicles, chapter 36.
Have a look at verse 16.
In fact, now, let's look at the start of verse 14.
Moreover, all the chief of the priests and the people
transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen
to loom to the house of law, which is hallowed in Jerusalem.
The Lord God their Father sent to them by his messengers,
sent to them by his messengers, rising up in times of sending,
because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words
and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord
arose against his people till there was no remedy.
Okay, there was no remedy at the end.
Again, it's about there being no remedy.
But once he gets that point, it's done.
And like I say, verse 16 there,
he's mocked the messengers of God.
I bet there's loads of pastors around the world
that are getting mocked by this thing,
mocked probably by their congregation,
amongst themselves, maybe amongst family members,
maybe insulting a little bit, mocking them a bit.
Really, because they've reached the word God at them
and they can't deal with it.
It's the ego, it's the pride.
Can't handle it.
Despised his words and misused his prophets.
They're misusing it.
It's always killing them.
It's just taking liberties with them.
Misuses prophets until the wrath of the Lord
arose against his people till there was no remedy.
Okay, so that's clearly an example
of how not to deal with reproof, rebuke, correction.
And again, it could be nothing wrong with that.
It could be a funny sermon.
You've got to deal with reproof, rebuke,
and then just rebuke everyone
and how they might be feeling,
how they might have actually turned out.
It's quite ironic, quite good.
But I want to also show some examples
of how it should be done.
So let's kind of look at some good examples
of how we should deal with the reproof,
the rebuke of the Lord through men of God
preaching the word of God to him.
So turn to 2 Samuel 12.
2 Samuel chapter 12.
Okay, so David's just committed adultery
and then he sent Uriah to his death.
I mean, wicked, wicked as hell, isn't it?
2 Samuel 12 and from verse 1.
And the Lord sent Nathan unto David,
and he came unto him, and said unto him,
There were two men in one city,
the one rich and the other poor.
The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds,
but the poor man had nothing,
say, one little ewe lamb, which he had bought
and nourished up,
and it grew up together with him and with his children,
and did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup.
Then lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter,
and there came a traveller unto the rich man,
and he spared to take of his own flock,
and with his own herd,
he dressed for the way fairy man had come unto him,
but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for them.
The man was come to him,
and David's aim was greatly kindled against the man.
He said to Nathan,
As the Lord liveth,
the man that has done this thing shall surely die.
He shall restore the lamb fourfold,
because he did this thing and because he had no ditty.
And Nathan said to David,
Thou art the man, thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
and thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
I anointed thee king over Israel,
and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul.
And I gave thee thy master's house
and thy master's wives into thy bosom
and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah.
If that had been too little,
I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord
to do evil in his sight?
Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword,
and hast taken his wife, the being thy wife,
and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house,
because thou despised me,
and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,
or take thy wives before thine eyes,
and give them unto thy neighbour,
and ye shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
But thou didst it secretly,
but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.
And David said unto Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord,
and Nathan said unto David,
The Lord also put away thy sins, thou shalt not die.
Albeit, because by this deed I has given great occasion
to the enemies of the Lord's blaspheme,
the child also that is born of thee shall surely die.
Okay, so David after that goes on to pray and pass through child,
but he's got angry, hasn't he, at the hypothetical man,
and then he's got rebuked.
He's got rebuked hard there.
But everyone is the king of Israel,
and Nathan's just rebuked it,
and it's strong what he says to him.
But look at verse 13.
What do you say in verse 13?
If David said unto Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord,
his response straight away wasn't the anger,
wasn't the how dare you speak to me,
how dare you come in here talking to me, telling me.
And most people, let's be honest, would, wouldn't they?
They would find fault in the man telling it.
They would not want to hear it.
And instead he's straight away.
If David said unto Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord, straight away.
And that's how we should respond
to the word of God about sin in our life.
I have sinned against the Lord.
We see there's many, many examples in scripture.
We won't go there.
That I thought was a really good one.
James 4 says, but he giveth more grace,
wherefore he said, God resisteth the crowd
that giveth grace unto the humble.
And David is humble there, isn't he?
And that's the whole point.
That's how we deal with it is by being humble,
by being humble to listen to the word of God,
by letting it be applied to our life,
and by responding in the right way to it.
That's how we should all do it.
And you know, obviously it's not just by preaching.
We should get that when we're reading as well.
But preaching especially, preaching it,
you know, a lot of the time it's preaching
that really convicts us.
Because we don't always want to apply things to our lives.
And a lot of the time when we read,
we're not really dwelling on verses so much.
Okay, turn to Psalm 51.
Now this was written right after Nathan had come in
and told him it was written by David.
Psalm 51, it says at the beginning,
for the chief musician, a psalm of David,
when Nathan the prophet came unto him
after he had gone into Bathsheba.
So that's pretty much straight away.
It didn't even say after, it says when.
It's almost like after Nathan said this,
he just wrote a song.
Maybe he said it, maybe this was his prayer
and it was preserved, inspired, written down.
And like I say, this is a word of God.
This is inspired as well by the Holy Spirit.
But let's see what the prayer was.
And this is how we should be responding.
And I'm not saying, you know, about just,
well, I might have done this wrong
and then it's just, oh, I can't believe it.
This is obviously a big, big sin.
But it's a great example.
It's a great example.
So have a look.
Psalm 51, Psalm 51.
Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to thy loving kindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercy,
blot out my transgressions.
And the mercy is according to God's tender mercies, isn't it?
Not according to our own goodness.
Oh, look what I've done for you, so have mercy on me.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
And that's what we should be desiring, shouldn't we?
To be washed, to be cleansed from our sin.
Not just forgiveness and then crack on with it again.
But acknowledge my transgressions
and my sins ever before me.
Against thee, thee only have I sinned
and done this evil at thy side.
That's a good point, isn't it,
that so often we're worried about how people would react
or how they'll know or if we've sinned against them.
But it's God that we should be most worried about.
It's an effect on God.
It's in front of God.
God's eyes are everywhere watching us behave as we behave.
Against thee, thee only have I sinned
and done this evil at thy side,
that thou mightest be justified when our speakers
can be clear when our judges.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and it sinned in my mother conceiving.
Behold, thou desire's truth in the inward parts
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
That should be our desire.
Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities.
And he's acknowledging more than just that one, isn't he?
Creating me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
What a desire that we should have.
Cast me not away from my presence
and take not my Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of my salvation
that hold me with thy free spirit.
And we have the joy of our salvation.
I think when we think about it a lot,
I think it does help us to behave.
It helps us to not want to sin,
to try and put away sin when we're thinking about that salvation,
then will I teach transgressors thy ways
and sinners shall be converted unto me.
And you know it has a knock-on effect, doesn't it?
It's not just us, it's not just the church,
it's not just our families.
It's about getting other people saved as well.
Deliver me from blood-giveness, O God,
now God of my salvation.
My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
O Lord, open now my lips.
My mouth shall show forth thy praise.
That our desire is not sacrificed,
O God, give it.
Now the light is not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise.
That's that humble heart we should have.
Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion,
build thou the water Jerusalem.
Then shall I be pleased with the sacrifice of Christ,
which was burnt off him,
and whole burnt off him,
then shall they offer birth upon my leadership.
Okay, how often are you guys praying to God like that?
How often are any of us?
How often do I pray to God like that?
We should be, shouldn't we?
We should be praying to God.
He could have just turned on Nathan, like I said.
Many people would have done.
Just turned on Nathan, rebuked Nathan,
out there he maybe killed Nathan.
He had the power to do it.
What job Nathan had to do that?
Didn't he want to do that?
I'm sure he didn't.
He could have found fault in him,
got competitive, couldn't he?
He's gone, who are you, Nathan?
How many songs have you written?
You know?
And I don't know how many have written at that point.
Maybe done a few by then, I don't know.
But he could have, couldn't he?
Like, who are you to tell me?
Who are you to tell me?
I've read the Bible more than you.
You know, you know, whatever the version,
what they had up to that point.
Read more scripture.
I know, I've, you know,
I've been inspired more times by the Holy Spirit.
And there's, you can see there's equivalence,
aren't there, to how people all go through our wicked minds.
And we've all, we've all been guilty of this.
I'm not just saying you guys here,
I'm saying church again where I serve myself as well.
Okay, although Nathan was a bank god,
it's for David's own good, wasn't it?
It's for David's own good.
And have a look at, turn to Proverbs 28.
I'm going to read Proverbs 25, 12.
So Proverbs 25, 12 says,
as an earring of gold in an ornament of fine gold,
so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.
So, but it's upon an obedient ear.
It's not just a wise approver's like that.
It's upon an obedient ear.
You've got to be an obedient ear.
You've got to be someone that wants to hear it.
As an earring of gold in an ornament of fine gold,
so are riches, but it's a wise approver
upon an obedient ear.
This is a, this is a wise approver.
I'm not saying I'm the wise one, but this is.
And when the Spirit, if the Spirit kills me,
I might have someone to do it.
Proverbs 28, 23, verse 23 of Proverbs 28 says,
he that rebuketh the man afterwards shall find more favour
than he that flattereth with the tongue.
So again, it would be easy to be up here
for myself and for preachers around the world,
just flattering people, sending them out greatly.
Oh, that's much easier.
But no, it's a rebuke, isn't it?
That should find favour, it should, shouldn't it?
Shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.
And the rebuke is, oh, I'm good.
And that's something we've got to remember.
We've got to remember, because like I said, this is new.
This is new to everyone, to actually be week in, week out
in a church that actually preaches on sin.
Week in, week out, a church where you're one of 40, 50 people
getting preached at.
And it won't be every week,
but I think we do have some catching up to do.
And I'm not saying I'm looking at everyone,
all of you guys are so sick, but all of us,
all of us have just, like, otherwise,
what's the point in hard preaching?
If, what's the point in going to church
if we could just put it on YouTube?
And maybe have a little meet up with our mates,
do a bit of soul-winning and stuff.
No, because it improves you so much more
when you're there sitting there, the Holy Spirit's in the room.
Like I said, slapping you around the face,
cutting you with a two-edged sword.
But we haven't had any of that.
So we can't expect to suddenly be above it.
Oh, well, I've listened to St. Pastor Anderson's sermon
for the last few years, I've got it all sorted.
Well, of course not.
I wasn't listening to his church, probably just sit at home
and put it on YouTube.
And it's been there, it's so different,
but we haven't been there, so we all need to learn and grow,
which is why, you know, there is,
I think the Spirit's going to,
I think the Holy Spirit is going to commit me
to preach some hard sermons for people
because it's for everyone's own good,
because we want to get to that point, to that level,
and it might be rough,
and it might be that people just get sick of this
and go back to, you know, repent of your sin practice
or whatever it is somewhere and just go back there
and you could just look like the holiest person there
because you're the only one that homeschools
or whatever it is, you know,
because you don't solve winning and no one else does,
and it's pretty cool there, isn't it?
You feel pretty good about yourself.
What a beautiful Christian I am.
And it's not, when it's been preached, probably,
and like I said, it's not that I'm doing a shout at you
every week, I only just, you know,
I've just thought about this the last few weeks.
There have been some pretty, you know,
I don't think they've been that hard,
but there's been some stuff that's quite personal
and I could just see that quickly changing people.
I think that could happen.
People start to just hate me, hate my family.
Maybe they do already, maybe for good reasons.
And I'm not saying that I've seen that,
but I've said this is what happens to all these other preachers,
every single church they also say, that's what happens,
and like I said, but it's not going to profit the people that do that.
And it's not going to profit the church either.
So, interesting with that, you see Nathan in the courts of the king
when Nathan's an old man, don't you?
He's mediating with Solomon, becoming the next king.
Okay, so the rebuke benefited David,
and God's rebukes and even chastisement are for our own good, aren't they?
Have a look at, let's go to Hebrews 12,
and a lot of us will go to this one with soul-wearing,
maybe quote a few verses of this,
but do you ever really think about Hebrews chapter 12?
Okay, Revelation 3.19, by the way, says,
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Be zealous therefore and repent.
God loves you, he's going to rebuke you and chasten you.
And if you're getting a rebuke with your father,
you're drifting off or whatever,
then he's going to basically convict me
and something's going to work out
when I'm going to want to preach something that needs to rebuke you.
Okay, but it's out of love, because God loves you.
You're getting rebuked, you're getting chastened.
Have a look at from verse 5.
If ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as underchildren,
my son, despise not now the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint, when thou art rebuked of him,
for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourges every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as his sons.
For what son is he, if the father chasteneth not?
If ye be without chastisement, one of all the partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh,
which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the fathers of the spirits that live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us
after their own pleasure, but he for our profit
that we might be partaken of his holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,
but grievous, nevertheless after it,
it yieldeth a peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down
and the feeble knees, and break straight past
for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
Okay, so firstly, if you're not getting rebuked
and chastened, then you're probably not saved, are you?
You're not saved, and obviously if you think
you've got no seed, you're not saved either,
and I know the enemy here thinks that,
but if you're not getting chastened by God,
well, there's something up there, isn't there?
Then are you fastened to death, it says.
But in verse 10 there, it says,
for they verily for a few days chastened us
after their own pleasure, but he for our profit
that we might be partaken of his holiness.
And the rebuking's a warning before, isn't it?
Then the chastening comes, but it's for your own good,
and it's a partaking in his holiness.
That's a good thing.
We want to be holy like that, don't we?
Verse 11 says, now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless
after it, it yieldeth a peaceful fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
It yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness.
That's a great fruit, isn't it?
That's what we want yielded.
That's why we're getting rebuked.
That's why we then get chastened.
Verse 12, wherefore lift up the hands
which hang down the people's knees.
That just gives you a sort of like a sulky teenager,
this sort of thing, isn't it?
It's like, lift up, straighten yourself up, deal with it.
When you can say that, you know,
I didn't want to kind of preach harm to this,
but it's like, any people that might feel like,
you know, maybe somebody struck a chord with you,
it's like, straighten yourselves up, deal with it.
How can we not deal with rebuke and reproof?
Well, what we should be dealing with is eternity in hell.
Like, deal with it, deal with it.
And, you know, that goes for all of us.
We need to be able to deal with it.
Don't be like a sulky teenager.
Verse 13 says, and make straight paths for your feet,
lest that which is lame be turned out the way,
but let it rather be healed.
And we should let ourselves be healed.
We should want to be healed by the Word of God,
by hard preaching.
Okay, last bit now.
Turn at first, sorry, turn to James, just over the page.
James chapter one, verse 19.
Wherefore, my beloved, let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to rap,
for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
So we want to be swift to hear,
but slow to speak, slow to rap.
It's easy to hear something and get angry,
quickly start complaining, moaning about the church,
moaning about whoever it is complaining,
moaning about the church.
Now, we see that, by the way.
All I'm preaching here, it goes on.
All these churches, all these saved Christians,
the ones that are saved, who hate churches like ours.
Why is it? Why is it really?
Because it reproves them, because it rebukes them.
Even if they're not even listening to the pictures,
in fact, without solving them, and they don't,
it reproves them.
And then they gnash on us with their teeth, don't they?
Or the fact that how dare we actually read our Bibles
and know our Bibles well enough
to be able to see that the free trip rapture is a total fraud.
And it's ridiculous. How dare we?
And really, it's just because it reproves them,
it rebukes them, because they can't even explain it.
So they get angry.
The anger gets up because they can't really explain it
and justify it, because they've got no verses to go to.
And the rest of it.
And the fact that we preach hard,
when they do any of the preaching,
they just get angry.
And we don't want to be like that,
because we're here, we've earned it, we're part of it,
we know the truth, let's be part of it,
and let's sort ourselves out and make sure
that we can deal with it.
Last bit, if you turn the psalm,
we'll finish on this.
Psalm 119.
Say it again?
I've already pulled that joke out,
so I thought I'd end with this.
I'll try it next time.
Psalm 119 and verse 165.
119 and verse 165.
Great peace have they which love by law,
and nothing shall offend them.
And we should just love the word of God,
love the rebuke, love the reproof from it,
love the fact that it corrects us,
love the fact that it improves us,
love the fact that we get the peaceful fruit
of righteousness from it,
love the fact that it will improve our lives,
it will make us happy, it will give us more,
it will make us be able to earn more awards in heaven,
and we should love that,
and not just be sitting here ready to throw the stones.
And I'm not saying anyone's like that,
but what I am saying is that that happens at every church
around the world, so good churches are for each other,
and let's make sure that that's the thing.
So with that, let's close.
Thank you, Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the reproves, the reviews that come through.
Thank you for the chastisement,
the chastening which changes our lives.
Thank you that you show us, for example,
to do things that didn't happen,
how not to do things,
but also how we should do things,
how we should behave, how we should react to your reviews.
And thank you that all of us here,
we want to hear the word of God,
we want to hear it preached to us.
Thank you, thank you for this great group of people
that help us to all just be more like you,
to live more like you.
My days go well, please help me,
to be productive as well,
and to self-discover a great service in you, Jesus.
Amen.