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Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our services today here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. If you would all please find your seats as we begin with our congregational singing this morning. We'll begin by turning to hymn number 262. Number 262, the light of the world is Jesus, number 262. Once you find your place, we'll start on that first verse. The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus, number 262. The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus. Like sunshine a new day has glory shown in. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light that's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon thee. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. The darkness that we grew in Jesus survived. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light that's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. He dwellers in darkness with sin-blinded eyes. The light of the world is Jesus. Don't wash at his wedding and life will arise. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light that's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No need of the sunlight in heaven were told. The light of the world is Jesus. The Lamb is the light in the city of gold. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light that's shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. The light of the world is Jesus. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 293. Hymn number 293, as they're all on the altar, hymn number 293. On this first verse together, number 293. You have longed for sweet peace and for faith to increase and never to sleep fervently prayed. But you cannot have rest or be perfectly blessed until all on the altar is weighed. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid, your heart of spirit controlled? You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield your body and soul. Would you walk with the Lord in the light of His Word and have peace and contentment always? You must do the sweet will to be free from all ill. On the altar your heart is not slain. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid, your heart of the spirit controlled? You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield your body and soul. Oh, we never can know what the Lord will be so of the blessings for which we have prayed. Till our body and soul keep the fold in control and our all on the altar is laid. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid, your heart of the spirit controlled? You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield your body and soul. Who can tell all the love He will send from above and how happy our hearts will be made? On the fellowship suite we shall share at His feet when our all on the altar is weighed. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid, your heart of the spirit controlled? You can only be blessed and have peace and sweet rest as you yield your body and soul. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 10 30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at six. Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study. This week will be in Ezekiel chapter 16. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms. Pay attention to the fact that some of those soul-winning times have switched to four o'clock because of the fact that it gets dark early. But the Wednesday time is still at five o'clock. So that stays the same. So just notice those changes. Across the page next Sunday morning is the week that we have the doughnuts and coffee before the service in honor of those celebrating their birthday in the month of December. Next music emphasis night will be held this Thursday December 2nd at 7 p.m. We've got Mexico Mondays every first Monday of the month. So that's coming up also on Monday December 6th. And the transportation and meals are all provided. Sign up if you want to participate. Talk to brother Segura if you would like more details about that. And then also we've got a ladies' wreath decorating event on Friday December 10th at 7 p.m. This is for ladies, teen girls, and also a nurseling is welcome. But please don't bring a bunch of other children to this particular event. And that's again Friday December 10th at 7 p.m. Hot and cold drinks will be served. Speak with Mrs. Suzanne Forte for details. On the back, Christmas caroling. This is going to be on Tuesday December 21st. Meet here at 5 30 p.m. so we can get organized and split up. And we'll be rolling out of here by six o'clock sharp to go caroling for about an hour. And then we'll come back to the building and get hot cocoa. And so if you have any questions about that feel free to ask. But you know don't worry about it if you're not a big singer or something because you know you should still come out and experience this. Because you could always just kind of fade to the back of the group. Because we're going to go in groups of like 30 people. So you're not going to have to be put front and center in the spotlight. You could kind of fade to the back and just kind of you know. As long as we have some strong singers in every group then it's going to be great. So please participate in that. You won't regret it. And then we've got the cookie bake-off on Sunday December 26th at 4 30. And then just a note about this. We are treating December 26th as sort of the Christmasy service. So that'll be the day that on Sunday morning I preach a Christmas type sermon. Probably Sunday night as well. And we'll have the cookies and everything like that. So usually we would do it before Christmas. But because it's just right the day after we're just going to keep things going into the 26th. And so make a note of that. And that's about it for announcements. Below that is just a couple of other events that are coming up. Small town soul winning trips have resumed. And so we've been doing those. And all the information and the sign up for those is here to my right. So with that let's go ahead and sing our next song. All right you should find the insert of the two-sided sheet with the birthday of a king. And come that long expected Jesus. We'll start with the birthday of a king. If you don't have one please raise your hand. We'll start the birthday of a king in the little village of Bethlehem. There lay a child one day. Again singing Christmas songs. Birthday of a king. Let's sing it out. In the little village of Bethlehem there lay a child one day. And the sky was bright with a holy light for the place where Jesus lay. Alleluia, how the angels sing, Alleluia, how it reigns. And the sky was bright with a holy light. Twas the birthday of a king. Twas the humble birth place, but oh how much God gave to us that day. From the manger man, what a land that's led, what a perfect holy way. Alleluia, how the angels sing, Alleluia, how it reigns. And the sky was bright with a holy light. Twas the birthday of a king. Amen. If you flip that sheet over we'll sing my favorite Christmas song. Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. Let us find our resting place. Israel's strength and consolation, home of all the earth Thou art. Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. For Thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King. Born to reign in us forever, Thou Thy gracious kingdom bring. By Thine own eternal spirit, rule in all our hearts alone. By Thine own sufficient parent, praise us to Thy glorious throne. Give me that good singing. All right, we've got the fast offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to James chapter 3. James chapter number 3, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads James chapter 3, starting in verse number 1. In James chapter 3 the Bible reads, My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in horses mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessings and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? Either a vine, figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Father in heaven, thank you for this chance, Lord, to be in church. We just ask you bless the preaching, Lord, and bless everyone here. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Men, the title of my sermon this morning is agree with your adversary quickly. Agree with your adversary quickly. If you look down at your Bible in James chapter 3 here, it says in verse 14, but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. We as Christians should desire to be peacemakers. We should not be characterized by strife and contention. And the title of the sermon again is agree with your adversary quickly. This comes from Matthew chapter 5 where the Bible reads, agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison, verily I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. And what we see in Matthew chapter 5 is how something small can sometimes just keep escalating until it becomes a big deal and it becomes a big headache. He's just saying, look, just agree with your adversary quickly before it escalates to the point where, you know, you go before the judge and you're going to court. Next thing you know, you're being taken away in handcuffs. You're going to jail because you're just fighting some battle that doesn't even need to be fought. Just try to get along with people, agree with your adversary, don't fight every battle. Now in James chapter 3 where it's talking about how we should be peaceable and we should not be contentious and striving and so forth, if you go up a little bit to verse number 5 there, it says, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell. So in this scripture we see how just blowing off our mouths or saying stupid things can sometimes cause great problems. Again, that escalation that we saw in Matthew chapter 5 of just a little tiny spark of an argument or saying something stupid or fighting with someone over nothing can sometimes just blow out of proportion into a big forest fire. I mean how many married couples have had just a huge fight, just a blow up, knock down, drag out fight and maybe were even angry for days or even weeks and it probably started with something tiny. Start with something really small and sometimes they can't even remember what started the fighting because it was just something insignificant and minor and so we as Christians should strive to be peaceful people that avoid these type of confrontations and the way that you avoid this is just by agreeing with your adversary quickly and not dying on every hill and fighting every battle and righting every wrong. It's a bad habit when people want to just argue about everything, fight about everything and they just have to be right all the time. We need to learn to choose our battles and know when to just let things go. Now is there a time to argue and fight and die on that hill? Absolutely. You know the Bible says we should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. The Bible talks about the Apostle Paul disputing, but what was he disputing about? You know, he's disputing about whether Jesus is the Christ. He's not disputing over dumb, insignificant, small things. And so we need to be people who don't just seek out an argument, argue over every little minutia and just have to right every wrong in the world and how dare anyone say anything incorrect in our presence and how dare anyone accuse us of making a mistake ever in our lives. We have to just prove that we're right and argue. You know, you're going to live a miserable life if you have that bad habit of just fighting with everyone about everything. Just let it go. Who cares? If someone says something that's wrong or incorrect, just ignore them. If it's something that doesn't matter, if it's insignificant, let it go. If somebody says something you don't like, let it go. Be a person who makes peace and seeks for peace, not someone who's looking for someone to make a mistake so that you can argue with them or fight with them. We need to be peaceful people as Christians. Go through Ecclesiastes chapter 10. This is especially true when it comes to authority in our lives. You know, if an authority figure comes down on us, if an authority figure corrects us or tells us that we did something wrong, it is especially true that we need to just submit to that, yield to that, and not make a big deal out of it because it's only going to hurt us if we seek to just defend ourselves every time an authority figure tries to correct us. You know the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 4, if the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place, and I want you to pay special attention to this last phrase, for yielding pacifieth great offenses. He's saying look, if the ruler is mad at you, if the ruler comes down on you, if the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, yielding pacifies great offenses. If you just yield, then you can pacify him, and it can be over like that, instead of that little spark growing into a giant forest fire, right? Instead of just that little argument along the way, next thing you know, people are in court, next thing you know, people are in jail, over something stupid, right? You need to learn to just take correction from authority and not turn it into a big arguing, contentious strife. You say, well, you know, but my authority is wrong. You know, my husband's wrong, my parents are wrong, the boss at work is wrong, so I've got to fight back, I've got to argue, I've got to contend with them. Look at the next verse. In verse 4 he says, yielding pacifies great offenses. Look at the next verse. There's an evil which I've seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler. Oh wow, do rulers make mistakes? Do errors sometimes proceed from rulers? Absolutely, but still, yielding pacifies great offenses. You know, there are a lot of things that the government does that I don't like, but am I just going to spend my life fighting the government on everything that they do that I don't like, because that would be a full-time job, that would just become my whole life. Just resisting everything that the government lays on me that I don't appreciate or that I don't like or that I think is wrong, right? Now look, if the government messes with me in a way that prevents me from living my Christian life or serving God or harm, you know, they actually harm me in some way, then yeah, there are obviously times that we need to deal with that, but I'm not going to sit there and just worry about every little thing and fight every battle because it's not worth it, okay? It says here, yeah, evil is out there in this world. The ruler is going to proceed from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity, verse 6, and the rich sit in low place. I've seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth. That's life, okay? Life isn't fair. Everything in life is not going to be exactly how you want it to be. It's not always going to be fair. There's injustice. There are idiots that are elevated to high station in this world. There are wise people, smart people, virtuous people who end up being at the bottom in the company or in government or wherever. You know what? It doesn't matter. If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, you know what? Just yield because it pacifies great offenses. Now look, this may not be the type of sermon that people like to hear. This isn't the big amen button sermon of rah rah, but you know what? It's true. It's true. I'm up here preaching how you can have a happy, productive, Christian life that pleases God because you are not going to be happy if you have to fight everything that isn't right that you come across. I mean, in the course of my day, everything I come across that isn't right, if I fought that battle, I mean think about it, it would just be like walking through the grocery store just kung fu fighting every aisle. I mean think about it, everything that surrounds us in this world is not perfect. The world is a fallen place full of sin, people say things that aren't true, people are incorrect. Not just out to just right every wrong, fight every battle, shut up every liar of this world. That's not the way life works. And especially when God has placed authority over me in my life, whether that's a child with their parents, whether it's a wife that has her husband as an authority, whether it's people at work with the boss or whatever, God has put these authorities in our life and as much as is possible, we should strive to live peaceably with all men and we should just obey the rules at our job, obey the rules in our house, whatever. And people say, well the rules aren't fair. Of course they're not fair. This is the world that we live in. Human beings are sinners. No one is righteous, no not one. And so of course none of the rules are going to be perfect or fair, but we need to strive to live our lives by the rules because if we buck every rule, because if we argue and fight over everything that we don't agree with, then we will not be able to serve God with our lives, we'll just be the truth warrior that just never stops fighting for truth, justice and the American way like every 30 minutes of every day. It doesn't make any sense. It's not biblical. We do not need to fight every battle. Now if you would go to Ecclesiastes 7 since you're already in Ecclesiastes, if I had you turn there, go to chapter 7, the Bible tells in verse 20, for there's not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Also, you know, I mean look, everybody's a sinner, right? Also, verse 21, take no heed unto all words that are spoken. You don't have to react to everything that you hear. You don't have to react to all the words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee. Oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise has cursed others. You know, you hear that somebody said something bad about you, you know what you can do? You can just ignore it. You can just let it go, you can just forgive that person, you can just not make a big deal out of it even though you heard them say something bad about you because guess what, you've said bad things about other people in your life too and sometimes you were wrong. Sometimes you did that unjustly. So just let it go. Don't fight every battle. You don't have to right every wrong in this world. Give a peaceful life. Don't be a contentious person, a person full of strife and battling everyone and everything that comes your way. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. This is not a virtue to be argumentative and especially as a woman this is not a virtue because the Bible emphasizes that the most annoying force on this planet is a contentious woman. That's what the Bible says. It says, you know, a contentious woman, a brawling woman, right? These are terrible attributes but I'll submit to you that men shouldn't be contentious either. You know, obviously the Bible brings that up specifically about women in Proverbs but all throughout scripture God is telling both men and women to be peaceful, to get along, not to be contentious, not to be filled with strife and so forth. Now again, is there a time to contend? Yeah, you know, I'll contend for the deity of Christ, I'll contend for the Trinity, I'll contend for salvation by faith, I'll contend that Jesus is the Messiah but I'm not going to sit there and argue and contend with people over every little thing. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 5, I speak to your shame. Is it so that there's not a wise man among you? No not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren but brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there's utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Now look at those questions at the end of verse 7. Is it a sin to just let someone do you wrong and just let it go? Now the context of this passage is that we should not bring lawsuits against our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should just deal with those things within the church, we should just deal with those things on an individual basis just between us and not involve the heathen court system in strife between Christians. This is talking about civil lawsuits. Obviously people that are criminals, that are, you know, murderers and child molesters and whatever, obviously yeah they would be delivered over to the government to be punished for their crimes because obviously we don't punish people for things like that in the church. But this is talking about civil matters. This is talking about disputes between people that would be adjudicated in a civil court. He's saying don't go to court before the heathen, just, you know, keep that within the church and have the wise people of the church decide. But he says, you know what, preferable to going to court is to just suffer wrong. Just allow yourself to be defrauded. Just kiss that money goodbye. Just let it go. Now again, people don't necessarily like to hear this, but what the Bible is saying is that it's more important that we do right and that we don't cause strife and problems for no reason. It's almost better just to just take the loss than to fight everybody. There's nothing wrong with being defrauded and just taking it. In fact, God looks down and he'll bless you for that when you do that, okay. Now go if you would to Jeremiah chapter 28, Jeremiah chapter 28. What's the sermon about? Well, the title of the sermon is agree with your adversary quickly. You know, when people want to argue with me, I often just say to them like, okay, all right. People contradict me. No, it's actually like this. I'm just, okay. If it's not something that matters, if it's not a big deal, if I don't really care, you know, I'll just say okay. All right, just agree with them quickly and just, or you know, somebody claims that I did them wrong, then it's okay, I'm sorry. Sorry about that. You know, just don't fight every battle, especially when it comes to authority. You know, if authority comes and says, you know what, I don't like your attitude, you have a bad attitude. Instead of trying to prove that you have a good attitude by arguing, no, I don't, I have a good attitude, you know, I was just minding my own business, that's it, wouldn't it be easier to just say, you know what, sorry, I'll work on having a better attitude. And then boom, it's over. You know, look, I remember when I was a teenager, I didn't like getting lectured by my parents for two hours straight, but there were some times that I got lectured by my parents for two hours straight, just the whole evening. Just this is the activity this evening, you know, just get lectured for an hour, get lectured for two hours. But you want to know why? It's because I was arguing with my parents. And here's the thing, they were doing 90 some percent of the talking, of course, but it was that little 10 percent that I did that provoked the 90 percent. You know, I argued with them and then they spent a half hour telling me I'm wrong and then I still argue and then okay, now here's another 20, you know. And I used to hate getting lectured like that. I used to hate it. But you know what, I was bringing it upon myself. I was doing it to myself because I wasn't just saying, okay, mom and dad, you know what, you make the rules, fine, we'll do it your way. Just let it go and not make a big deal out of it, okay, yielding pacifieth great offenses. Why not if someone in authority over you doesn't like your attitude or doesn't like your work performance, why not just say, okay, you know what, what can I do to make it better? Right, or hey, sorry about that, I'll fix it. Instead of arguing and fighting and just creating more problems for yourself is what you're doing. When you argue and fight, well, I just don't want them to think that I was wrong. You know what, you'd much rather have your boss at work think that you made a mistake when you didn't than to think that you're a jerk that won't take correction and that wants to argue over every little thing. And here's another thing, when somebody corrects you, don't argue minutia with them either. Like here's another example, you know, somebody will say something like, you know, I've been waiting for you for forty-five minutes, you're late, it was only thirty-eight minutes. But that's the kind of stupid things that people say, well, it's only thirty-eight minutes, not forty-five. Does that really change the essence of what we're talking about? It's meaningless. But it's just an argumentative, contentious person and all they're doing is just bringing more wrath upon themself. It's not like, oh, thirty-eight, well shut my stupid mouth, do you think your boss is going to say that? No, because it doesn't matter. It's not even the point, okay. Agree with your adversary quickly. Yield to authority. Let things go. Don't fight every battle. Don't die on every hill. Try to get along with people. As much as is possible, dwell peaceably with all men. This is what the Bible is teaching. You know, you hear somebody say something bad about you, just ignore it. Let it go. You've said dumb things too. We've all done it. Let it go. Forgive. Move on. But, you know, another aspect of this when it comes to agreeing with your adversary quickly or not striving to no purpose and fighting and contending for no reason is that, you know, I don't want to argue with heretics over doctrine either. You know, when I go out soul winning, I'm not interested in arguing with unsaved people or arguing with heretics. I already know that I'm right and they're wrong. I don't have to prove anything by showing that I can beat you in an argument, okay. And that's why the Bible says a man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition reject. Tell him once, tell him twice, see ya. A man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he is such as, is condemned and subverted, excuse me, knowing that he that is such as subverted, it says he's condemned of himself, right. It's his problem. When I walk away from the door of that damnable heretic, he's the one who's on his way to hell, not me. So it really doesn't matter whether I won the argument or proved him wrong. You know, I'm out there to win souls and I'm interested in preaching the gospel to people that are receptive, that want to hear the truth, that actually have a sincere heart and are receptive to what God's word is saying. If I, if someone is stuck in false doctrine and a heretic and I give them a verse to prove them wrong and they don't accept it and I give them another one, then it's just like, all right, see you later. And I'll even sometimes tell them, hey, have a good day, bye, and just walk away because I'm not, I'm not trying to even leave on a sour note. I'm just not going to waste my time fighting with that person and arguing with that person. They're a victim in most cases. Usually we're not knocking on the doors of the false prophets themselves. We're knocking on the doors of people who've been deceived by false prophets that hopefully might eventually get saved down the road. And so might as well just leave a, you know, leave them with those couple of thoughts and hopefully leave a good taste in their mouth and see you later, bye, have a good day because hopefully down the road that person is going to get saved and hopefully we planted a seed. You know, I was just out soul winning yesterday and, and, and ran into a guy and this guy was a total heretic, you know, and he went to this, uh, church called the Potter's house. That's a total cult garbage church that it's based out of Prescott, Arizona. And a pastor burzins, you know, preached whole sermons against them and everybody I've run into and do from this place is not saved. You know, so this guy's from the Potter's house and you know, he's, he's basically telling me that you can lose your salvation, which basically means he's trusting himself and his own actions in order to stay saved. He doesn't believe that what Christ did is sufficient. So here's what he does. He told me, well, you know, Judas Iscariot is proof that you can lose your salvation. I pulled out the Bible and I showed him John chapter six where Jesus early in his ministry says that he knew which of them believe not, right? He said that he knew who it was that believed not and he knew who it was that should betray him and he knew that from the beginning, the Bible says, and he said, have not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil saying, I've chosen you 12, one of you is a devil. He knew from the beginning who believed not. He knew from the beginning who would betray him. How in the world can anyone walk away believing that Judas was somehow a believer who was saved and they lost his salvation? That's stupid. It's ridiculous. It's absurd. It's right there. It, look, if I could show someone that right in front of their face and they just reject it, just meh. There is no hope for that person. If I can just show them clear scripture and they just disregard it, then why would I waste my time spending an hour with that person arguing? Now maybe down the road, hopefully that person will get saved. They'll soften their heart. They'll open their mind that the, to the fact that they're, that they're, you know, believing lies and that they don't actually trust Christ as their savior. They trust in their own good works and turning over a new leaf and repenting of all their sins and cleaning up their life to get them to heaven. But you know what? If that guy is not getting saved today, if I can sit there and show him a scripture that says right here, and this is, this is what he responded with. He said, well, no, no, no. Cause the proof is that Judas was going around and, and you know, cause he was, he was, uh, casting out devils, you know, and that proves that he was saved. Well, first of all, first of all, there's nothing specifically about Judas personally casting out devils even mentioned in scripture, number one. But number two, so that the first admonition was I showed him, I said, well, look, what the Bible says right here is that Judas believed not, that's his problem from the beginning. Well, you know, but he's casting out devils, whatever. And I said, well, what about this scripture in Matthew 7, Lord, Lord, if we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name of cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works, and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Did he say, I used to know you, I never knew you. And he said, well, these people are lying. They didn't really cast out devils, you know, but Judas, you know, yeah, he was great. This guy's been hanging around with Manly Perry or something, you know, Judas is a big time soul winner apparently. But the point is, you know, this guy, you know, my conversation with this guy lasted a total of less than two minutes. And you know what, I wouldn't have given this guy three minutes. I'm not going to give this guy four minutes. I don't want to give this guy five minutes. Why? Because it's a total waste of time. Because the guy did not care what I showed him. I showed him just point blank, Judas did not believe from the beginning that didn't even register with him. I showed him I never knew you and he still thinks it's people losing their salvation. You know, at that point it was just like, alright man, see you later, happy Thanksgiving, bye and walk away. Why? So we can get down the street to somebody who actually has an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying through his word. I don't want to argue with some heretic and just waste time with some false teacher, false prophet guy, you know, or even somebody like that who is deceived by a false religion and won't listen when you show them clear scripture, okay. Jeremiah chapter 28 is a great example of Jeremiah's dealings with false prophets and false teachers. It says in Jeremiah 28 verse 5, then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the Lord, even the prophet Jeremiah said, amen. Now let me give you the context here, okay. Hananiah has just gotten up and preached a lie because he's gotten up and preached and said that, oh, the Babylonian captivity, it's not going to be a thing. You know, God's going to break the yoke of Babylon within two years, right. As Jeremiah's preaching, Babylon's going to destroy Jerusalem, you're going to go into captivity, it's going to last for 70 years, so get comfortable. This guy comes and preaches this junk that he made up out of his own heart where he just is preaching this positive message, oh, it's all going to be over in two years, it's going to be great, don't worry about Babylon, it's not even going to be a thing. Look at Jeremiah's response. In front of all the people he says, amen, the Lord do so, the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied to bring again the vessels of the Lord's house and all that is carried away captive from Babylon into this place. Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears and in the ears of all the people. The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms of war and of evil and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known that the Lord had truly sent him. So here's Jeremiah's response, his response is basically, hey man, what you're preaching sounds great, I really hope it happens, that'd be great if two years from now this is all gone. Hey, that'd be great if all of those things that have been taken captive into Babylon, all the vessels from the house of the Lord come back, hey, amen, I'm for it, it's great. But let me just tell you something, every biblical preacher has preached negative sermons. They're preaching against kingdoms, they're preaching against countries, they're preaching about war and pestilence and famine and doom and gloom and fire and brimstone. And when you've got this prophet of peace that comes along, preaching how everything's going to be great, you know what, we better wait until we see it to believe it. Because that doesn't seem to be the message of all the prophets that have come before us. Look at all the right prophets that came before me and look what they preach, they're preaching against sin, they're preaching against wickedness, they're not preaching this message that basically everything's going to be great even though you're living in sin. So I'll believe that when I see it, he says. So that's his answer. So he basically gives, he gives a response. He basically tells this guy why he's wrong or, you know, in front of everybody makes it clear why he doesn't believe what this guy's saying and that he does not believe it's the word of the Lord that this guy's preaching. So I mean Jeremiah's response is pretty gracious considering that this guy's a total liar. I mean he basically, but he basically just proves the guy wrong in front of everybody but he's not really interested in arguing with the guy. He basically just says, well here's why you're wrong and I guess we'll see what happens because it's only going to take two years to see that you've lied so let's just wait it out. So then look what Hananiah responds in verse 10. Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and break it. So Jeremiah had like a visual aid where he's wearing a yoke on his neck which is like a wooden apparatus that's used when animals will pull a plow or pull something. The yoke represents bondage or being enchained or imprisoned in some way. So this false prophet Hananiah comes up and just breaks Jeremiah's visual aid. I mean that's not very nice, right? I mean here he's wearing this yoke and this guy just comes up and basically assaults Jeremiah, right? Physically attacks him in a sense because I mean if I'm wearing a yoke I don't want some guy coming up and breaking it off of me. You know that was my stuff. And so he comes up and breaks the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people saying, Thus saith the Lord, even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And look at Jeremiah's response. The prophet Jeremiah went his way. The prophet Jeremiah went his way. Now let me ask you this. Is Jeremiah the kind of guy that just argues with everybody? He fights every battle. He dies on every hill. He'll spend hours arguing with the Catholic priest. He'll spend hours with the Mormon missionaries arguing. He'll spend hours with the Jehovah's false witnesses arguing. He's going to spend hours with the heretic preacher. Is that what he's doing? Look the guy's wrong. He explained why the guy's wrong. He's preaching the truth. This guy's preaching lies. He tells him why he's wrong. The guy even gets physical with him and breaks his sermon illustration. And what does he do? He just walks away. He just goes his way. And you know what? This shows me that Jeremiah is a humble man. He's not so proud that he has to win all the time. He has to look cool in front of everybody. I mean think about it. All the people that are around them, you know what they're going to say? They're going to go home and say, boy, Hannah and I really showed Jeremiah, didn't he? You really took him to task. He really showed him. I mean Jeremiah didn't even have anything to say. He just walked away with a broken yoke. But you know what? That doesn't really matter, does it? Because today we know who is right. And God knew who was right. And so again, we don't have to always prove that we're right. I frankly have better things to do with my time when I'm out soul winning and I run into somebody who wants to argue or some false prophet and I have better things to do with my time. I'd much rather just walk away and move on and preach to people who want to hear the truth. This is why I'm not into debates. You know, I don't like listening to debates. I don't like participating in debates because of the fact that I have no desire to argue and strive and contend with people that are wrong, that are heretics, that are fools. It's just a big waste of time. I'm not interested. Jeremiah wasn't interested. These things are vain. They're unprofitable. We should avoid these things. And the Bible says this in Proverbs 13, it says, only by pride cometh contention. But with the well-advised it is wisdom. Only by pride cometh contention. You know, when we have to argue all the time and prove that we're right and win every argument, die on every hill, it's because of pride. We just can't stand just walking away, just silently letting things go and just saying, okay, whatever, fine. You know, and people can argue about some of the dumbest things. You know, they make a big deal about tiny things. And you know, there are all these cliches about marriage or something where they'll talk about like, you know, oh hey, the toilet paper is going the wrong direction. Is it supposed to go over the top or under the bottom? Now look, the debate's settled. It's over the top. You know what I'm saying? Like this under thing, it makes no sense. But you know what? And obviously my wife sees reason on this as well. But you know, what if my wife, you know, she's just always installing it the other way? You think I'm just going to every day just keep changing it and just complain about it, fight about it, make a big deal? Who cares? You know, and these are the jokes like, you know, where do you squeeze the toothpaste from? You know, do you squeeze it from the back or do you just kind of just do whatever's the quickest to get some toothpaste out, just squeeze it in the middle or the front or whatever? I mean, can you imagine just arguing and fighting and bickering with the people that you love over something so stupid as whether, you know, pineapple is a pizza topping or something? You know, be a little more open minded. You know, my wife puts green beans and corn on pizza. So you know, you're talking about pineapple? I'll put potatoes on pizza. Okay, yes. And Mod Pizza or one of these places is finally starting to catch up and offer potato on pizza as a topping, you know, but the point is, it's like, you know, these things don't matter. Obviously these are silly, stupid examples, but people argue about the dumbest thing sometimes, you know, or they argue about politics. Let me just settle politics for you. All the politicians are evil. Done. Any questions? Okay, I'm done talking about it. Let's talk about the Bible now. Okay. It's actually interesting. I'm just saying, you know, we don't have to argue and fight with people. You know, I'm constantly confronted with people who say bizarre things to me or wrong things to me or false doctrines to me and I just smile and okay, you know, I'm not there to just correct every single wrong thing somebody tells me. I mean, look, we have visitors to our church every single week. There is a first time visitor at our church every, almost every single service. We have first time visitors at our church and, you know, these people that visit our church, you know, some of them are very newly saved. Some people have been saved for a long time. Some people have a Baptist background, some people have other backgrounds, you know, and so sometimes people come up to me and they say some pretty wild things to me that are completely wrong about the Bible. Now, here's the thing, you know, if somebody comes up to me and starts preaching to me another gospel, then I'm going to stop them and say, hey, wait a minute, you know, salvation is by faith, it's by grace, it's not of works, you know, and I'll get in that argument because of the fact that I don't want to just stand by and let somebody tell me a false gospel, you know, because that's actually something big, something important. But, you know, if people come up to me and tell me, you know, things that they believe about the Bible that aren't right, if it's just secondary issues that, you know, let's say they have a different view on the end times than I do or something, you know, they come up to me and let's say they're pre-trib or even if they're, you know, one who, what's it called, preterist or something, you know, which, you know, I think preterism is absurd, okay, as far as, you know, and that's a whole other sermon, but people come up to me and, you know, I'm not just going to sit there and just fight with them and argue with them and prove them wrong. You know, to me it's just, it's not the most important thing. I'm not going to make a big deal out of everything. I mean, as a pastor, obviously I spend my life studying the Bible, right, just thousands and thousands and thousands of hours studying the Bible. Every week I'm just hours and hours and hours in the Bible. You know, if somebody comes up to me that's a new believer and is confused on some biblical ideas or something, I'm not just, well, actually, you know, and just shut down everything that they say, just shut them down and prove them wrong. You know, I'm probably, if it's something that I'm, that's not a big deal, I'm probably just going to smile and just listen to what they have to say. Should I go, okay, yeah, uh-huh, mm-hmm, yeah, oh, hmm. You know, and find common ground with that person, talk about stuff that we do agree on, right, maybe teach that person something that can edify them and help them, but I'm not really interested in just saying, you know, everything that you've said for the last three minutes is total, you know, junk. Let me show you what's really going to happen in the end times. And I hope you understand what I'm saying this morning because we don't want to just be argumentative people who are just out to fight with everybody and prove everybody wrong. There's a time to contend for the faith and there's a time to just get along with people and understand that different people are at different levels of growth and different people have different levels of knowledge. And you know, it wouldn't really be fair for me at age 40, having been saved for 34 years, to just really shut somebody down who got saved six months ago and is on their first read through of the Bible. You know, I'm not there to just show how much smarter I am and to, you know, if they believe something that's a little off, I'm probably just going to let it go. And people, people come up to me sometimes after my sermons, like I'll preach a sermon and people will come up to me after the sermon and basically just tell me that everything I preach is wrong, that the whole sermon was wrong. You know what I'm saying? Like, and this, this happens a lot. This is not rare where I'll preach a sermon and somebody will come up to me and just be like, pastor, what you preached, you know, and then they'll, they'll want to argue with me and it almost never works because usually what I end up saying is like, hey, I see where you're coming from. I see what you're saying, you know, or, or maybe I'll even say, you know, I used to, I used to think that way, but for the reasons I gave in the sermon, you know, now I see it this way or I see where you're coming from or I understand, but, but typically what I'll end up saying to these people because they, they'll sometimes want to argue with me is I'll typically just say to them, you know, well, you know, I really said everything that I wanted to say in my sermon. And so if you're still not convinced, that's okay. Let's just agree to disagree because you know, if, if I had an hour to prove this to you and I didn't prove it to you in that hour, I'm probably not going to prove it to you in the second hour either or the third hour. People will email me and, and want to argue with me about doctrines or, or they'll contact me by phone or whatever and they'll want to argue with me and I'll typically point them to a sermon and say, listen, you know, here's where I preached on that. And if you're not convinced by that sermon, I'm probably not going to be able to convince you. So, cause that, that's all I got. Everything I got, I put into that sermon. So if you don't agree with me, fine, because you know what? We don't have to agree with, with everything. You know, there, obviously we need, if we're going to have a functioning New Testament church, we have to agree on the essentials. We better all have the same Bible and we better all have the same Holy Spirit and the same gospel and we better have the basic teachings of the Trinity and eternal life and so forth down in order to have some common ground. But do we have to agree with everything about our end times doctrine or everything about Israel or everything about the Jews or everything about homos or something? Now look, if, if you want to bring homos to church, we're going to have a problem, but you know, people come up to me and want to argue with me all the time and say, you know, well, I believe homos can be saved and I, I always tell them the same thing. Go out and get as many homos saved as you want. Just don't bring them here. That's what I say to them. I'm not going to sit there and argue with you. You know, I've, I've preached the sermons. I know what I believe. I've got the scriptures. I know what they say. I have no doubt about what I believe, but I'm not going to sit there and argue with people who don't see it that way. And I, and look, I guarantee you that almost everyone in this auditorium has certain things that they don't agree with that I preach. Everybody in this auditorium agrees with every single word that has ever come out of my mouth. None of my pastor friends agree with every single thing that I preach. I don't agree with every single thing that any of them preach, but we don't get together and fight and argue and bicker about these things. We just say, Hey, you know what? Let's agree to disagree because it's not a big enough deal. And again, things that are a big deal we'll fight about. I mean, think about it. You know, what if, what if, uh, my wife were hanging around with other men or something? Am I going to fight about that? You know, she's pounding around with other dudes or something to be like, Whoa, we have, you know, that's going to be a major point of contention and rightly so, right? That's a big deal. But am I going to fight with her about stupid, dumb things that don't matter? No. You know, and vice versa. You know, I mean, what if I were not going to work and the bills are unpaid and I'm not going to work, you think my wife's going to get upset about that? Yeah. I mean, but that's something that actually matters if she's saying like, Whoa, what are we doing here? Where's the money going to come from? Why aren't you at work? Are you going to work or what? Are you going to do something? You know, that actually makes sense. But to sit there and just fight over dumb little things and preferences and, and minor things of who left the toilet seat, how or, or, or whatever, it's just, it's, it's vain. It's unprofitable. It makes no sense. Did I have you turn to Romans chapter 12? Go to Romans chapter 12 then in the New Testament, Romans chapter 12. What's the sermon about? Agree with your adversary quickly, right? Agree with your adversary quickly. So if somebody, and that's what Jeremiah did. He just, you know, made short work of that conversation. Agree with your adversary quickly. When somebody wants to, to argue with me about doctrine, I typically just tell them, Hey, that's okay, we don't have to agree. You know, I'll be glad to explain to people what I believe. But typically it's after they hear a sermon of mine where I spent an hour explaining what I believe. So why would I, I'm not going to explain it again in person. We already, we already done this. You could go in circles forever like that. Agree with your adversary quickly. When the boss at work comes down on you and says, I don't like your attitude. You know what you do? You say, Hey, I'm sorry, I'm going to have a better attitude. And if that bothers you, it's probably because you're prideful. You're not humble enough to just say, you know what, yeah, I can take some correction. I'll, I'll fix things. I'll, I'll get better. Agree with your adversary quickly. Do not let arguments escalate into knock down, drag out fights over stupid little things. Just let it go. You don't have to write every wrong in the world. You don't have to correct every person who's wrong about something. And if you're the type of person who lets this bother you, you're going to be a miserable person because the whole world is so full of injustice and sin that you will just torture yourself every day trying to fix it all instead of just being happy, praising the Lord, living your life, doing what you can to make the world a better place. Preach the gospel to every creature, right? Teach good doctrine. But you know, I mean, look, and look, false doctrine makes me mad. I mean, you know, you want to know the religion that makes me the maddest? The Mormons. It's the number one most irritating religion to me in the world is Mormonism, okay? It's just me personally, it drives me nuts. I get so mad. And so I have to be careful when I go soul winning in these Mormon neighborhoods. I have to be careful to control my spirit because I just want to lose my temper so bad. The way that they just lie and the way that they're just, they're just so insincere and they just waste so much of your time and it just drives me insane. But you know what? I have to control my anger because you know what? And I've literally just daydreamed about like, I want to destroy Mormonism in my lifetime. Like how can I just eradicate Mormonism in my lifetime? I fantasized about this and just thought about how, how like, like, but, but, but here's the bottom line. You can't, you can hardly even get one of them saved. You think you're going to eradicate Mormonism in our lifetime, but man, but I'm telling you if, if, if I allowed that emotion to just consume me, I'm going to live a very unhappy life just fighting Mormons all the time. You know, I, instead I've just realized, hey, you know what? They're duped. Let's go reach the people that we can reach. Let's give the gospel to the people that want to hear, that want to hear the truth, that want to get saved. And you know what? Let me, don't get me wrong. People are leaving the Mormon church by the droves right now. They are leaving the Mormon church by the droves, but they're not getting saved. They're becoming atheists and agnostics by the droves. So it's not that they're not leaving the LDS. It's that the LDS has so poisoned their minds that even when they realize how stupid the teachings of Mormonism are, they've been so poisoned against the truth. They've been so poisoned against God and the Bible and the truth of Jesus Christ that they, they just typically end up being an atheist or an agnostic. But you know what? I'm not going to spend my life fighting that and, and, and, and, and just arguing with Mormons and because, because I don't want to be an angry person. You know, I need to just control my emotions. And when I go out soul winning and I run into the, and I knock on the doors of Mormons, I'm nice to them. I'm friendly to them. I try to give them the gospel. I go through it. I will. And, and you know what? I don't argue with, when they want to argue, I'm just like, yes, an excuse to leave. Why? So I can go talk to somebody who's actually likely to get saved. We don't want to be argumentative people. It's a waste of our time and it's a waste of our energy because we get so worked up and upset and angry and it's just not healthy. Romans chapter 12 says this in verse 17, recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as life in you, live peaceably with all men. Try to live peaceably with the people in your neighborhood, at work, at school, right? At church, in every sphere of your life. Try to get along with people. Do not just constantly be fighting with, don't be Ishmael where your hand is against every man and every man's hand is against you. Live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." There's nothing in the world wrong with saying you're sorry when you're right. Just saying, you know what? I'm sorry anyway. I'm going to change. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with just suffering yourself to be defrauded. There's nothing wrong with doing good to those that hate you and doing good unto your enemies and loving your enemies and just not being overcome by evil, but overcoming evil with good. You know, try to be at peace is what the Bible is saying here in Romans chapter 12. Don't be a person who's just constantly fighting, okay? And look, I get it. There's a time when there's a good fight to fight. Contend for the faith. Fight the good fight. I get all that. But you know what? That's not talking about your neighbor's Christmas decorations or something, you know. That's not talking about dumb little, it's not talking about, you know, people's music is a little too loud or something. I'm not out there to just police my whole neighborhood and police everything that everyone around me does and demand that all of my church members believe exactly like I believe and everybody needs to do what I do and agree with me on everything, you know. I have strong opinions about a lot of things, but you know what, the world's never going to just agree with me on everything. It's just not the way the world works. So I'd rather just drop things. Okay, I mean what did Jeremiah say? Amen. Yeah, great. Sounds great. Bye. Do not be an argumentative person. And you know what? You children and teenagers, when your parents come down on you, learn how quickly the lecture ends when you just agree with your parents and give a sincere apology and say, what do I need to do to fix it? But you've got to be humble to do that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and I pray that people would heed this advice. It's so easy to get caught up in the habit of just correcting every person who says something wrong around us, fighting over every little minutia. Every time someone tries to correct us, just lashing back with why we're right, going out soul winning and instead of actually winning souls to Christ, just wasting time arguing with false prophets and heretics, Lord, help us to be people who make peace and are gentle and are not contentious, Lord. Help us to have the humility and the self-confidence to realize that we don't have to fight every battle and die on every hill. And Lord, give us the wisdom to know which battles are truly worth fighting. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Take your hymnals, please, and we'll be dismissed as singing number 116. Hymn number 116, He leadeth me. Number 116. Let's sing it all together on this first verse, number 116. He leadeth me, O blessed God of words, with every comfort drawn. What e'er I do, where e'er I be, still is God's hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand. He leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. Sometimes it seems a deepest gloom, sometimes where Eden's flowers bloom. I want a silver troubled sea, still is His hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand. He leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. Lord, I would last thy hand in mine, nor ever burn, nor refine, content whatever thought I see, since it's my God that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand. He leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. And when thy chest on earth is done, when by thy grace the victory's won, in death's holy life will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand. He leadeth me, His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me by His own hand.