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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Sunday afternoon again at 4 p.m. and then Wednesday nights at 7 we have our Bible study and this week we are in chapter number 51 of the book of Isaiah we've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month of April. Let's go ahead and count up any salvations for today. How did soul winning go today? Any salvations? Yes sir in the back 5 for your group you told me about that a little bit in the uh alright so brother Jesse's group got 5 1 here 2 here 1 here 3 here amen that's a good that's a good day that's great that's awesome so it's 12 salvations that's great I think we had like 6 last week so that's uh very good different locations I assume well I know not everybody maybe I know the apartment complex seems like it was very good um they either love us or hate us there apparently from what I've heard I got a phone call this afternoon too so um keep up the good work is all I say keep up the good work and um I'll bring this up because it doesn't happen very often at all but um if you ever have to deal with with police as far as you know someone calling the cops on you for preaching the gospel first of all as you know I mean our job is to go out there and preach the gospel to people and um if they're not interested just leave you know I mean we're not trying to force anyone out there trying to get in fights or anything like that so in general I mean we're definitely going out there peacefully right we're not trying to cause problems we just want to preach the truth anyone who's willing to listen great if they're not we move on so uh there should be no legitimate reason for police to be called on us and we do have the right to knock doors even in apartment complexes even if it says no soliciting even if it says you know whatever like no no trespassing even on like with apartment complexes you can go and knock on a door because the people that live there have rights that the even the landlord can't take away from the tenants that you have the right to go and knock on the door of those individuals there's case law for it I think we had some documentation on that I'll print out some more if you're interested in keeping that with you you can take a little piece of paper that kind of outlines a little bit of the law and the case law that establishes that freedom of our religion and um but here's the deal okay so I don't I let you decide every individual is going out not you know to to what extent you want to take it I'll back you up right if someone the cops come and tell you gotta leave and you say no I'm not leaving you know we're not doing anything wrong we're not doing anything illegal and then you end up getting arrested I will support you uh you know going and doing all that whatever and I'll bail you out of jail if that's if that's what if that's what needs to happen okay but you don't have to take that approach either if you decide you know what I'm just gonna you know we're almost done anyways I'm just gonna leave that's probably a wise decision to just to just do that right and then just come back another day and just in general that's that's fine as well I just you know you all decide what you want to do and I've said this before too you know some people are uncomfortable with you know they don't want to knock on a door if there's a sign or something like that if you know that's that's up to you I'm just happy that you go out and and you're knocking on doors and you're preaching the gospel you decide what you're you know what you're comfortable with I'm not gonna say you have to go and do this you know I knock on no soliciting doors we're not selling anything okay I've had plenty of people get saved at no soliciting doors and and you know things like that so it's not you know people have been very receptive it's just uh if we do things the right way in general just I mean we're going out there we're not causing any problems we just want to talk and you know sometimes people get mad they get mad okay sometimes we get phone calls we get phone calls people get upset they want to vent and uh that's fine let them vent let them you know uh but not not get caught up in that so it doesn't happen very often at all I mean it is it is very rare here especially I mean maybe maybe things will change I don't know but um so far that's kind of the way things go and if there's any buddy has any further questions on that you just feel free to talk to me later on I'd be happy to talk to you about that but like I said it's very rare that that any of those situations even happen something happened today but I mean it was already has been out soul winning for a while and it you know turned out just to the decision was made just okay well we'll just we'll just head out of here and I think I think brother Mike or someone stopped like somewhere else and got someone else saved anyways like like right in that same area so it was just like great you know praise the Lord so lot of people saved and you know sometimes there's opposition but keep up the good work we're not going to back down and um good job good job out there so now is there any other numbers to report I know brother Mo I got the numbers for Saturday every time they update them in the group I see that so I'll record those was there anything else to report for the week anyone didn't report any sort of salvation that was done earlier in the week all right very good very good continuing on here we've got the offering totals at the bottom of the page there for the month of April prayer requests we do have an addition I already mentioned this morning the additions that we have Debbie Pulsar is brother D.J.'s grandmother she has lung disease so we're praying for her and then nice grandmother Olga had that hip surgery earlier this week and that went well but she's still recovering so please pray for her recovery and we were um Mrs. Estrada added Kelly Ketcher said and she was in a car accident and she's young I think she I forget exactly what age she said like 16 or 17 something like that it was in a car accident or car rolled and has quite a bit of damage but she's been in a in a like a a drug induced coma so they've been keeping her you know they've done surgeries and other things and and now they're at the point where they're trying to get her out of that coma and it's and she's been in a coma I think for six six weeks is what she said here so that's quite a long time and they're trying to revive her and uh and get her back now um I think she's stable is what it sounds like other than trying to get her back out of uh out of the coma so obviously not not a good situation so please pray for for her and for her family it's a really big deal there's a lot of injuries to her face and other things so uh please pray for that young lady as well and I mentioned this morning I'm pretty sure everyone was here almost everyone's here this morning how Pastor Anderson has had his house swatted meaning someone called and made a false report about a shooter going a shooting going on in his house and the police responded with a with a SWAT team to come in guns at the ready into into his house and uh it was determined obviously thank God nothing nothing happened nothing bad happened no one got hurt no one got injured um but then it it happened again too so uh please pray for the safety for their family and for and for all pastors anyone uh anyone else who's who may have a target on their back for for preaching the truth you know these things will happen but just pray for for God to watch over and protect us um while we're trying to do our job so on the next page it's April challenge trying to spend a minimum of one hour every day doing something spiritual praying reading memorizing soul winning things like that Lord's Supper will be doing this as a church on Wednesday April 13th so if you could if you get off work early or something if you don't normally make it out here it'd be nice to get out here for Wednesday night this is the Wednesday to come and we're gonna be breaking bread and um drinking of the non-alcoholic wine to symbolize the body and blood of Jesus Christ and we'll be doing that this Wednesday um right around announcement time is when we we typically do that so hopefully we can see you out here so even if you're gonna be a little bit late you know you're gonna be 15 minutes late you'll still get here in time to uh to participate so I encourage you to come and uh love to have you here this Wednesday and then this Saturday is the soul winning marathon down in Macon Georgia so um I've heard from a few more people that are coming from longer distances so I will get those hotels booked please if you haven't already sent me something in writing whether it be text message or email please do so because my memory is not the best so um I do need things in writing to help me to make sure that I get everything handled and taken care of I plan on sending out the confirmations emails this evening so if by tomorrow if you don't have one of those reach back out to me if you requested a hotel stay either in Macon on that Friday night or up here on that Saturday night if you have not received an email confirmation by late tonight uh then let me know if you don't see something before you go to bed don't worry it still might be coming because I don't always go to bed early so um just be on the lookout for that by tomorrow morning and then if you don't see something and you know you've already asked me and you sent it in writing just reach back out to me and say hey passive versions uh can you please send me the confirmation or whatever and then I'll get that I'll get that taken care of so um all the details are here we're meeting up at uh 9 a little after in between 9 9 30 somewhere around there we'll have breakfast we'll have some Chick-fil-A breakfast for you at the park we will then pair up and you know get the maps distributed and go out and hit the streets come back for lunch around 12 30 and we'll have some pizza for that pizza and salad at the park again and then go back out and do some more soul winning and then anyone who's still sticking around for the long haul will go out to dinner somewhere locally and um looking forward to that I don't know what the weather is going to be like yet pray that the weather will hold for us it's always nicer to be able to go when it's not raining but if it is raining we still are going to have this event it's going to be rain or shine event um when you go to the park look for an area that has tables I saw online there's a shelter there of sorts so there's going to be some tables there I'm going to bring some extra tables from here cause it didn't look like there's a whole lot but we'll make do so just when you get there look for that area look for my van and um that should work out great so if there's anyone had any further questions you could ask me later or email me or something but uh that's the whole itinerary Bible memory passage Hebrews 2 uh we got a few weeks left for Hebrews 2 hopefully you're caught up on that and then the upcoming events the gold mine for the homeschool field trip in Dahlonega is uh lunch is going to be at noon the tour is at 1 the camping trip of course May 9th through the 14th we're looking forward to that and the church anniversary picnic is going to be on Saturday June 25th and then Pastor Anderson is going to be here on July 10th you can see the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries on the back that's about it for our announcements so uh we're going to go ahead and sing our next song ask Brother Peter to come up and lead us in that Alright church if you can open up your hymnals the song is number 375 Psalm 375 Word for the night is coming Psalm 375 On the first word for the night is coming Word through the morning hours Word while the dew is sparkling Word means bringing flowers Word when the day grows brighter Word in the glowing sun Word for the night is coming When man's work is done Word for the night is coming Word through the sunny noon Fill brightest hours with labor Rest comes short and soon Give every flying meeting Something to keep in store Word for the night is coming When man works no more Word for the night is coming Under the sunset skies While their white tints are glowing Word for day high fives Word till the last beat They need to shine no more Word for the night is coming When man's work is done In church while those offering plates are being passed around if you can open up your Bibles the book of Leviticus chapter 19 That's Leviticus chapter 19 and as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church we're going to read the entire chapter and I'm going to ask brother Devin if he can please do that for us Leviticus 19 And the Lord spake unto Moses saying speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel and say unto them ye shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy ye shall fear every man his mother and his father and keep my Sabbaths I am the Lord your God turn ye not unto idols nor make to yourselves molten gods I am the Lord your God and if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord you shall offer it at your own will it shall be eaten the same day ye offer it and on the morrow and if ought remain until the third day it shall be burnt in the fire and if it be eaten at all on the third day it is abominable it shall not be accepted therefore everyone that eateth it shall bear his iniquity because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people and when you reap the harvest of your land thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest and thou shalt not glean thy vineyard neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger I am the Lord your God ye shall not steal neither deal falsely neither lie one to another and ye shall not swear by my name falsely neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God I am the Lord thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor neither rob him the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning thou shalt not curse the deaf nor put a stumbling block before the blind but shalt fear thy God I am the Lord ye shall not do ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor thou shalt not go up and down as a tail bear among thy people neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor I am the Lord thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself I am the Lord ye shall keep my statutes thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with diverse kind thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woolen come upon thee and whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bondmaid betrothed to an husband and not at all redeemed nor freedom given her she shall be scourged they shall not be put to death because she was not free and he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation even a ram for a trespass offering and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him and when you shall come into the land and shall have planted all manner of trees for food then you shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you it shall not be eaten of but in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal and in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof that it may yield unto you the increase thereof I am the Lord your God ye shall not eat anything with the blood neither shall ye use enchantment nor observe times ye shall not round the corners of your heads neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor print any marks upon you I am the Lord do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore lest the land fall to whoredom and the land become full of wickedness you shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary I am the Lord regard not them that have familiar spirits neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them I am the Lord your God thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man and fear thy God I am the Lord and if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land ye shall not vex him but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thyself for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt I am the Lord your God ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment in meat yard in weight or in measure just balances just weights a just ephah and a just hen shall ye have I am the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt therefore shall ye observe all my statutes and all my judgments and do them I am the Lord Let's pray. Brother Lindsey, can you pray for us? Dear Lord, thank you for having us here again today. Please be my pastor Brodman as he preaches to work this week and let us have some ears for Jesus. Amen. Alright, so if you were here this morning, you were here for the first half of this sermon where we were covering what the Bible says in Mark chapter 12 when Jesus was asked, you know, what's the great commandment and he said to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy strength you know this is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it that namely this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself there is none other commandment greater than these so this morning I preached on loving God with all your heart and soul and might and this afternoon I'm going to preach on that ladder the second commandment which is to love thy neighbor as thyself and we started of course in Leviticus chapter number 19 and I want you to keep your place here turn if you would to Matthew chapter 22 put a book marker here we're going to come back to it in a little while but I definitely started in Leviticus 19 intentionally because as many of you already know if you don't know this is where this is the part of the law that Jesus is quoting because when he was asked about the great commandment he's quoting Old Testament law he's literally going and quoting Deuteronomy he's showing what's you know he's saying what's already been stated and as we read in Leviticus 19 it tells us there to love your neighbor as yourself but there's a lot of things in Leviticus chapter 19 and the reason why I started with that is because you know today people will say oh yeah loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself that's the Christian way which it is it is right I'm not saying it's not but people are have no problem with that teaching and saying oh yeah that's great that's fine but then other parts of Leviticus it's like well why are you picking and choosing why is it that loving your neighbor as yourself in Leviticus 19 is okay but what about the rest of Leviticus 19 what about chapter 18 and chapter 20 what what about those chapters are we just going to piecemeal and just start picking and choosing and be like well I don't really like that one so we're not going to do that hey love that sounds good let's let's let's cling to that ridiculous it's nonsense it's hypocritical right if you're going to believe something and believe there's the word of God let's accept all of it for what it says let's receive it and embrace it and say this is the word of God and if you don't believe it's the word of God then what are you doing in church what are you what are you doing here what's the point this isn't a book study this isn't a book of month club we're not on the Bible now going oh yeah well that's a pretty good book it's got some interesting stories no it's the word of God we accept the whole word for what it says and we love it so you know that's one we're going to get back to this 19 there's a lot more we're going to learn from that chapter but that's one of the reasons why I just wanted to start off as we read an entire chapter before the preaching to see all of that you've got love your neighbors yourself right in there in the mix of it so if people there's so much deception out there there's so many false prophets there's so many other agendas there's so many false teachers that are interested more in money than they are in man so they can get a crowd they could tickle people's ears they could bring in the crowd and bring in a lot of money by not telling people the truth and just telling people things that sound good and picking and choosing their piss piecemeal out of the Bible what they want to preach what they don't want to preach I'm going to leave this out might offend people this might offend people but they're withholding truth from people and when you actually read the Bible for yourself you're going to see the consistencies between the Old Testament and the New Testament with some obvious differences and as far as the you know bring us up every time the animal sacrifices and things like that which are clearly spelled out in the New Testament that those particular aspects of the law are no longer in practice because of the priesthood being changed there's a made of a change also of the law but it all had to do around the Levitical priesthood not around the laws that Jesus said he did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill and he said that one jot or one tittle showed no wise paths from the law until all be fulfilled and guess what all has not been fulfilled so we need to go back and forth and that's why there's so many quotations from the Old Testament too by the way I mean the Old Testament is quoted over and over and guess what that was scripture when the holy men of God are speaking when the apostles are speaking when the apostle Paul is writing his letters when Jesus is walking around teaching you know what they're doing they're using scripture from the Old Testament proving what they're saying at the present I mean literally they're backing up Jesus was backing up these commandments and being true and they're coming from the Old Testament I mean Jesus is New Testament his teachings I mean shouldn't we be following the teaching of Jesus I think so but does Jesus have to reiterate the entire Old Testament for it to still be in practice no no he doesn't have to say something about not forcing a man forcing a woman like you don't have to say anything about that for that still to be assumed that yeah no that's that's still part of the law because I don't think he mentions that but oh I guess I guess since he didn't say anything about it I guess we just forget about it no no no no no no that's not the way it works anyways Matthew 22 is a parallel to what we saw in the statement we saw in Mark chapter 12 we read Mark 12 this morning so we're not going to go back there but he did say there's none other commandment greater than these the two to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself Matthew 22 look at verse number 39 this is where he's repeating both of those commandments he says in the second it's like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself verse 40 says on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets these two commandments are so great that all the rest of God's law can really be summarized and contained within those two great commandments you say wow how is it why do we even have all these other laws well obviously it gets a little more specific but everything else falls under the umbrella of loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself turn if you would to Romans chapter 13 Romans 13 explains this pretty well especially from the aspect that we're going to hit tonight of that second commandment loving your neighbor as yourself we're going to see how is it possible that all the law can hang just on those two commandments I mean it seems pretty simple and it is pretty simple and really you know even though the Bible is not a huge book it's it's a decent size but God's law especially is not very complicated it's straightforward God's not trying to confuse us with the law and make things ambiguous and I don't know what's right what's wrong he tells us pretty clearly what's right and wrong the people who want ambiguous laws are those that want to break the laws right I mean you look at man's laws and look at all the books that we have of man's law it's not very clear but you know what God's word is clear it's not that hard to figure out what's wrong and what's right according to scripture verse number 8 in Romans chapter 13 if you're there look down in your Bibles verse number 8 the Bible says oh no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law so this is basically saying this similar statement here that if you're loving one another you're you're already actively fulfilling the law whether you realize it or not by just loving one another you have fulfilled the law verse 9 says for this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet so he's listing off here the latter part of the 10 commandments right and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself so how can all this fit in there because it says in verse 10 love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law so when it comes to things like committing adultery well if you love your neighbor you're not gonna you're not gonna have relations with his wife right if you love that person you're not gonna go and commit adultery with his wife if you if you love your neighbor you're not gonna kill your neighbor if you love your neighbor you're not gonna go and steal from your neighbor if you love your neighbor you're not gonna bear false witness against your neighbor right see all of these things would be actions against somebody that you can't say you love them if you're doing these things to them this is how it can summarize the whole of the law and then you think of other aspects of the law hey I'm the Lord thy God you should have no other gods before me well if you love God with all your heart you're not gonna have any other gods you're not gonna build any other idols you're not gonna take the name of the Lord in vain you're not gonna do any of these other you know break these other laws that have to do with God specifically you've got laws about God and laws about man and if you love God and if you love man that's it I mean it's that it's comprehended that simply as just a big umbrella of how can you make sure that I am obeying the commands of God love God and love man turn if you go to Galatians chapter 5 we're gonna see one more reference Sarah sit up Galatians chapter 5 verse number 13 the Bible reads for brethren you have been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another so you know when you're loving one another you're also ministering to them which also is going to fulfill the law if you know you know to him that know what to do good and do with it not to him and his sin well when you love someone not only are you not gonna transgress against them but you're also going to be ministering to them and helping them so on both sides of the coin as far as sins of commission sins of omission when you love someone you will be doing things for them so you'll be fulfilling the law on both sides of that and then it says in verse 14 for all the laws fulfilled in one word and notice this when the Bible says one word it's not saying it doesn't mean one literal like so many letters word it's talking about a statement even in this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself that's one word according to scripture here I just want to point that out I mean it's obvious right but we do need to be careful that we don't get to too much of a microscopic zoom on our Bible reading and comprehension and this is going to be important as I get to my next point because people might try to and if we go back I told you keep your place in Leviticus 19 if we go back to Leviticus 19 people make an argument or may try to make an argument I know it's been made in the past an incorrect argument but they'll go to a few verses and I'm going to show them to you first and then and I know this is still probably pretty obvious to you especially those of you that know the scripture a little bit but we're going to go through this process anyways because it's a good you know it's a good way to make sure that we are interpreting or understanding the Bible correctly and what I mean by that is let's look at these verses verses 17 and 18 in Leviticus chapter 19 the Bible says thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself I am the Lord so here's that reference to loving your neighbor as yourself and what people want to do with loving your neighbor as yourself is to try to define neighbor as only including certain people now I could make the argument from this passage that no no no when it says neighbor it only means your brother ok now and follow along with me because if I decided to preach this way it could be convincing especially to people who don't know scripture very well ok look down at verse 17 it says thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart colon thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor so notice brother equals neighbor and then in the next verse verse 18 the children of thy people not bear any grudge against the children of thy people which would be your brother but shalt love thy neighbor as thyself so see and look I'm not telling you that this is exactly what this means here I'm doing this pretentiously saying that this is how people can portray this because there's a reason why this is not true that it does apply to a broader spectrum than just like your physical brother or brother in Christ to loving your neighbor as yourself ok just I want to make sure I'm clear about that but how easy it can be for a preacher to stand up and say see look brother neighbor brother neighbor and there you go when the bible is talking about your neighbor it's just talking about your brother in Christ and you can do that see you could make these associations and then keep going on and then we can say ok well what about we could confirm this in 1 John chapter 4 and you don't have to turn I'll read this for you 1 John chapter 4 verse 20 says if a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen and his commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also see this is talking about you got to love your brother you love God you love your brother in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 22 seeing ye have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth in by forever you can take these statements a preacher can someone who's out to deceive especially or someone who's just deceived because they see look the Bible's talking about just loving your brother and you got to love your brother and look you do have to love your brother of course you do but it could be easy for someone to manipulate the word of God because people do this all the time and we need to be you need to be aware of that that you can take scripture or someone else can take scripture and have it manipulated to get you to believe a false doctrine and people who are unstable and just not grounded especially like a lot of new believers that just haven't had a lot of learning can go along with teaching like that because they don't know better but there are people out there lying in wait to deceive but turn if you would to Luke chapter 10 because Jesus actually clarifies this so that's why I said to me this is a very simple doctrine it's easy to disprove what I was saying about well no that's only talking about like your brother or something like that it's not talking about just anybody I mean it's definitely not talking about your neighbor I mean who is this really talking about this situation actually comes up and see this way of thinking about things like well who really is my neighbor this was a pharisaical view of things as I mentioned this morning they were always looking for ways around having to be bound to the law of God I mean they're always looking for the loophole they're always looking for the instance what can we do to not have to follow this so there's a man that even asks Jesus about this and he wants to justify himself by redefining who is his neighbor instead of the common understanding your neighbor is your neighbor right like I have neighbors at my house and they're not all saved you know I don't know if any of them are saved whatever I talk to them but like I don't think I have any we've got one neighbor that I think is saved you know it's just kind of like I've got a lot of neighbors in my neighborhood but they're not all brothers in Christ and they're not even all blood like if you want to go to ancestry or something like that like like like physically right there's nothing we've got all different types of people in my neighborhood that we consider my neighbors and obviously there's one race but I mean you know where I'm going with this it's not like any type of ethnicity thing either there's no way of saying that like these people are your kindred the way that some people might want to interpret that um but they're still my neighbors look at verse number 25 of luke chapter 10 the bible says behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying master what shall I do to inherit eternal life he said unto him what is written in the law how read is thou okay he answers the question with another question he's asked well hey what do I have to do to be saved what do I have to do to inherit eternal life and there's a lawyer and Jesus just says okay well what does the law say he got to do right and he answering said thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself so he references the two great commandments right now look first of all if someone were to keep those two commandments completely keep them would they be saved yes if they never broke them right because they would be perfect if they love the Lord their God with all their heart all their mind completely if they truly 100% did that and love their neighbor as theirself they would be Jesus Christ right they would be I mean because that's what Jesus did the problem is that nobody fits that bill so he gave he gave a right answer because that's the only other way to be saved would be to never transgress the law but then you're not really saved you just were never guilty because you need to be saved because you were guilty so you're saved from that punishment you're saved from going to hell you're not even saved you're just innocent right but as I already mentioned this morning it's impossible for us in this sinful human body to completely fully love the Lord our God in our mind in our heart just 100% all love to God and all love to our neighbor just all the time we can't do that we're not we're not capable of that so but this is what the answer was right and he said unto him Jesus says thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live go ahead yep you do that you're going to live but he is willing to justify himself he wants to justify him instead of saying see the right answer well why would Jesus say that well it's true but here's the reason why is because the first step for somebody to get saved they have to realize they're a sinner so if this guy is trying to just justify himself instead of saying well I broke that I can't do that what do I do then Jesus probably would have told him the truth and not that he didn't tell him a lie but he told him the truth still here but I'm saying he would have told him how do you know like okay you're right now you haven't found that so you got trust in the son of God you got you got to trust in the Savior and put your faith in Lord that's what he would have you know had to tell him but this guy is not willing to admit that so instead he's trying to justify himself and he's thinking back going like yeah maybe I haven't loved my neighbor well wait a minute who is my neighbor right so who is that he's thinking about people he's done wrong to and people he hasn't loved very much and he goes well well who is my neighbor so Jesus answers this question with this story with this parable we're going to read this verse number 30 and Jesus answering said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead so this guy gets mugged and he's laying half dead in a ditch on the side of the road and by chance there came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side and likewise a Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side so you've got two people that are supposed to be these religious spiritual people you've got a priest and you've got a Levite they're walking down the road they see this guy laying in a ditch probably groaning oh man you know and they look at him and they're like yeah I'm just going to walk over here you know I don't want if he's got something festering there I want some infection I don't want anything to do with that I don't want to get blood on my shoes or whatever they just walk over on the other side and just go about their business right and do nothing for him he says but a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on him and went to him and bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him and on the morrow when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again I will repay thee so this guy takes him he gets off his own ass he puts him on there and he's guiding him back brings him to an inn tries to nurse him back to health takes care of his wounds and puts him up for the night and just gives a little bit more money to the keeper saying you know what continue to get this guy better and just go ahead and and whatever you need to do spend it and when I come back I'm going to pay you back for whatever you have to do for this guy right I mean really nice guy here but he's a Samaritan now if you don't if you never caught this before in the scripture the Samaritans were from the northern kingdom of Israel where their capital city at one point was Samaria and the Samaritans were looked down upon by the Jews that dwelled in Judah right of Judea and even Jesus said you know that that salvation is of the Jews right the Samaritans don't really know what they're talking about they got all screwed up the northern kingdom of Israel got into that idolatry very early on with Jeroboam the son of Nebat and they were always kind of much farther straying away from the Lord than the southern kingdom of Judah were just just throughout their whole history as a nation and then they got taken away captive earlier and they mingled more with the with the heathen and became these Samaritans that just were much more devoid of the truth than the Jews of Judea so the Jews would generally look down on the Samaritans and that's why he brings up hey well you've got this priest and this Levite you know they just walk by on the other side but then the Samaritan comes down and treats this person well and he says which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves and he said he that showed mercy on him then said Jesus let him go and do that likewise right so given the context first of all of a Samaritan doing this to some random person that we don't even know like anything about that person that fell among the thieves but the Samaritans in general were viewed on people who didn't have the truth they were like this unsaved group and even are referred to as the dogs you know that you're like hey the dogs eat of the crumbs of the master this is what this woman was saying to Jesus and he says you know what for that saying go that way she had great faith but he's talking about the Samaritan being a neighbor not someone that's that's of this specific lineage and this physical brother where Jews rejected the Samaritans he was a neighbor so I think very clearly because this guy's trying to justify himself and if you're thinking well I only need to love my brothers in Christ no you do need to love your brothers in Christ absolutely 100% but that's not all you need to love that's not where that commandment stops and you can see how what I was saying earlier about neighbor brother you can't just do that and say that this is always going to mean that when it's saying your neighbor then it has to just be only your brother in Christ Jesus clarified that I mean if you didn't if you still you know it's like Jesus just said who your neighbor is and besides that we could look at other usages of the word which is why the general context matters not you know the very specific context matters a lot but you also got to get the broader context as well so if you're going to make a claim saying that like neighbor equals brother and just make a sweeping claim like that you know well the word neighbor is used a lot in the Bible in Exodus 3 verse 22 the Bible says but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and you shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters and you shall spoil the Egyptians this is right before God delivered the Hebrews out of Egypt and what they have to do they had to borrow of their neighbor well who are their neighbors the Egyptians they were living among the Egyptians they're saying okay borrow stuff from them because I'm going to deliver you out and you're never going to have to pay them back because they're going to be gone right I mean that's that's what happened he was spoiling them God was blessing them with the substance of the Egyptians and told him to borrow of her neighbor Exodus chapter 20 verse 16 this is you know by the Ten Commandments thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor so does that mean it's okay to lie about anyone else unless it's your neighbor's your brother in Christ but anyone else you could lie to does that make sense even that's okay to lie to everyone else except for your brother in Christ again that sounds like a Pharisaical attitude saying well and you know I've heard but I you know I can't I haven't been able to confirm it but it wouldn't surprise me if there's at least some Jews out there that have that belief that are like in the Talmud and and kind of you know I've heard a lot about this teaching of the Goyim the Gentiles and and how they treat them different I don't have any specific examples to bring up because I don't I'm not an expert in Jewish theology right but I do know what the Pharisees believed in Scripture and I like I mentioned this morning they're always trying to find these loopholes and it's easy to see and we also can see that even the disciples had problems with the mentality of thinking that like they were somehow better superior to other people and other Gentiles and they wouldn't even eat with with a Gentile you know and kind of started getting these these traditions and these other doctrines that did not come from God and were enforcing those we see that through the book of Acts that they were that that even the you know the disciples had a problem with that problem because of their their own culture and and what what they what they did and you know that culture still exists today to some extent of people who want to elevate the Jews to be some you know superior group of people or somehow get a free pass into heaven just because you're you're so-called God's people which they're not anymore God took the kingdom of heaven away from them and took the oracles away from them and gave it to another nation as bread and the fruits thereof but anyhow this you know bearing false witness against your neighbor well that used that's used in ten commandments just like not coveting your neighbor's house so you know so it's okay to covet you know some unsaved person stuff but not your brother in Christ like that's ridiculous the coveting is the sin it doesn't matter if your neighbor is is literally right next to you or you know a brother in Christ or something that's that's not that doesn't matter at all 21.14 the Bible says but if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile thou shalt take him from mine altar that he may die so it's only bad if you you know if your neighbor is a brother in Christ you see where I'm going with this like that word is used a lot the word neighbor so you can't just say like well you know loving my neighbor I mean that's only for saved people no that's not true even in the context of Leviticus 19 that word is used quite a bit the biggest 1913 says thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor neither rob him the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning verse 15 says you shall do no unrighteousness and judgment thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor just judging righteously right judging your neighbor righteously thou shalt not go up and down in verse 16 as a tale bearer among thy people neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor I am the Lord all these references neighbor you can't tell me that yep that's talking about your brother in Christ I'm not buying it sorry Jesus already handled that but you can see how that can get kind of dangerous with a teaching like that because then it's going to embolden people to start sinning by doing things because they're classifying people differently based on whether or not they're a brother and if you just looked at that you know took that microscope on those verses you could say see look this is what this means exactly you got to take the broader context and say does this hold water and verify what you're saying or hearing and what you're being taught is being true turn if you would to Luke chapter 6 Luke chapter 6 that's why Jesus had to he had to give that explanation because people at the time were even asking hey I'm trying to justify myself you know he didn't say that but he's trying to justify himself so he said well who is my neighbor because people are always looking for a way to justify themselves according to God's law and make themselves not a sinner but this teaching another teaching from Jesus in Luke chapter 6 verse 27 it should mark our attitudes towards all people in general because loving your neighbor as yourself goes beyond just your brother in Christ it's a general attitude that we should have look at verse 27 the Bible says but I say unto you which hear love your enemies do good to them which hate you bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you this is the attitude that Christ is teaching that we ought to have unto people who do bad unto us and unto him that smite at thee on the one cheek offer also the other and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy cloak also excuse me coat also verse 30 give to every man that asketh of thee and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again and as ye would that men should do to you do ye also to them likewise this is essentially the same teaching as loving your neighbor as yourself it's a golden rule people call it golden rule that hey the way that you want to be treated you treat other people that same way right and this isn't talking about just your brother in Christ this is anybody right you want to be treated with respect treat other people with respect you want to be dealt with fairly deal fairly with other people you don't want to be lied to don't lie to people right I mean the way that you want to be treated you deal with everybody else that way verse 32 says for if you love them which love you what thank heavy like what how what is the big deal is that if you love people who already love you like it doesn't take very much effort to love someone else who's already loved you he says for sinners also love those that love them I mean essentially everybody loves them that that's already done something you know you do something for me then I'm gonna love you back right and if you do good to them which do good to you what thank heavy for sinners also do even the same everybody does that and if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive what thank heavy for sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again but love ye your enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the children of the highest for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil so being a child of God means you're different yeah the children of this world they're only going to do good to people who do good to them generally speaking right I mean this is just you know very common that yeah you love me I love you back it's great you do something good for me I'll you know you scratch my back I'll scratch yours everybody does that the world does that but God is different just as I mentioned this morning God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us he went above and beyond and loved us even though we weren't loving him he went in it so if we're going to be God-like if we're going to be Christ-like if we're going to try to be different and try to be better then we need to have that same level of love to be able to love people that aren't going to love us back be willing to give to people aren't going to give you anything back to you be able to do things for people that can't ever pay you back or do anything back for you that is the love of God that is the love that you have for your neighbor loving your neighbor as yourself being able to go above and beyond regardless of any benefits specifically to you and the Bible says that if you can do that and if you have that attitude if you go out and love other people love your neighbors or love your enemies even and do good the Bible says that God will reward you for that be therefore merciful verse 36 as your father also is merciful judge not and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned forgive and you shall be forgiven give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom for with the same measure that you meet with all it shall be measured to you again now really really briefly if you would to Psalm 139 I'm gonna close on the sermon but I wanna just make this one point I brought it up earlier this morning but I'm gonna just give a little bit more evidence this evening these are very broad teachings right this is how we should be in general in God's word you may have some specific instances and some unique situations that come up where God's gonna give you know there's gonna be some clarification on some things and maybe some fine tuning of saying okay well here's a situation like thinking about this right that Jesus Christ came and paid for the sins of the whole world no doubt he died for all the sins of the world but you know what there is a sin that the Bible mentions that doesn't have forgiveness the Bible says whosoever so it doesn't make the broad statement untrue that Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world and everything else it says but you know if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost you never have forgiveness so it's highlighting that and saying this is this is kind of a special case okay if you're gonna blaspheme the Holy Ghost then forget about it so it's still true because it's speaking as the broad I mean you think there's so many different sins in the whole world Jesus died for all the sins of the world but you know what if someone blasphemes the Holy Ghost you don't have forgiveness for that it's it's a fine tuning of the broader scope the broad scope is love your neighbor as yourself right we ought to be known as people who can love and help people and even your enemies and do good to people and overcome evil with good that is the way we ought to be known as that's how we ought to live and that's why I mentioned before you know we shouldn't be known as like hateful people and even though by and large vast majority you know we are going to be loving unto our enemies there is an instance or condition to which it's appropriate to hate Jesus was already ecclesiastes he says a time of love and time to hate if there was never a time to hate that wouldn't make any sense and I preach entire sermons about this but I just want to just show you a couple verses real quickly here psalm 139 is one of them verse 19 the Bible says surely thou wilt slay the wicked oh God depart from me therefore you bloody men for they speak against thee wickedly and thine enemies take thy name in vain who's the psalmist talking here to? God they the wicked take thy name in vain they speak against thee wickedly he's not saying they're speaking against me wickedly they're taking my name in vain no he's saying they're doing this to God right these are God's enemies and then he says in verse 21 do not I hate them oh Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies see they weren't his enemies directly but they've made themselves enemies of God and he's saying you know what now they're my enemies search me oh God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting this is scripture this is the word of God which means this is confirmed as word of God and we take it as such this isn't just David's thoughts this isn't just a song this is scripture and it's backed up by multiple other places like I said this isn't the whole scope of the sermon tonight but I wanted to throw a couple verses out there to show you this is the exception to the rule this is definitely the exception to the rule because the rule is hey we love our enemies we're gonna bless them that curse us we're gonna do good to those that despitefully use us you know we're gonna pray for them and and and just be known to do good on the people okay but these children of the devil that make themselves enemies of God yeah you know what I'm not gonna love them in fact we see Jehoshaphat gets rebuked for helping people that hate God in 2 Chronicles chapter 19 this is the last place I'm gonna reference so you can turn there if you'd like or not 2 Chronicles chapter 19 verses 1 and 2 Jehoshaphat had yoked up with the king of Israel Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah yoked up with wicked king Ahab and it says in Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem so he went off to battle he went off to war and then he comes back in peace right he he comes back alive and uh but now he's gonna get rebuked by a man of God verse 2 says and Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to king Jehoshaphat shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord he's saying should you love those people that hate God is that right should you love them that hate the Lord well here's his answer therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord because you love them that hate the Lord because you are helping them out now God's wrath is on you and he goes on to explain he's like look overall you're a great guy Jehoshaphat but this is a big deal don't go loving them that hate God and look there's more scripture I'm not gonna get into all of it this evening it's just here's a taste if you haven't heard this doctrine before you can see that this isn't uh you know this is definitely isn't just the thoughts of my own heart this is something that the Bible teaches albeit it is the exception because by and large throughout the scripture you're gonna see that that love prevails and that doing you know doing good and overcoming evil with good definitely is the way that we ought to be known it's what we ought to do it's what should dictate our life in general but these you know there's a few cases where you say you know what these guys I'm not gonna love them I'm not gonna love those that hate the Lord people just coming out hating God not gonna happen okay so but thankfully I mean it's not like there's a lot of these people out there in general there's a lot of unsaved people out there the majority of people are unsaved but they don't all just hate God a lot of people just don't know maybe they've never heard the gospel that's why we're getting people saved you at one point weren't saved I at one point wasn't saved you know it didn't mean I hated God I was a sinner I was a transgressor I might have been a blasphemer but I was I didn't hate God I didn't love him I wasn't keeping his commandments I wasn't you know I wasn't doing what's right but I also didn't hate him and a lot of people are in that same condition out there they don't love them they don't hate them they're sinners they need to be saved and we're gonna love them and if any of those people become our enemies our personal enemies you know what we're still gonna love them if your brother in Christ becomes your enemy you're still gonna love them right the vast majority of the world becomes your enemies you still love them but those that are marked as an enemy of God sorry I'm not gonna love them you can't love I mean people who want to love people that are hated of God are you like better than God somehow like I could be more righteous or holy than God if God's saying you know that they're rejected then who am I I can't I can't do anything for that I'm definitely not gonna love and hate and help them but you know just wanted to point that out as I brought it up earlier this morning and it's something to reconcile anyways in scripture but you know loving the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind strength and loving your neighbor as a self I mean if we can if we could try to just keep that I mean those are two main principles keep with you for the rest of your life if you're trying to decide right and wrong it all will wrap up under that umbrella and that should help guide you very generally of saying does this fit how does this fit under loving my neighbor as myself or as loving God because that would be the right answer of what you need to do if you're ever uncertain what's right well how does this love how do I love God how does this show my love for God or how does this show my love for someone else that's it briefly comprehended alright let's have a word of prayer dear heavenly father Lord we thank you so much for your word we thank you for keeping things simple for us not complicated while we do struggle with our flesh and we struggle doing what's right dear Lord we thank you for not making things just very complicated that your laws your commandments are very simple for us to understand help us to just gain control over our flesh and be able to show our love for you by doing your works and keeping your commandments and also to love our neighbor as ourself and be able to go out and do good to people and see how can we minister how can we serve Lord help us overcome our own laziness to our own flesh our flesh is going to want us to just do nothing but help us to make opportunity to be good neighbors Lord and to help minister unto people and we love you dear Lord in Jesus name we pray Amen Amen Alright we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed this evening Brother Peter please lead us Alright church if you don't love your hymnals the song number 410 Song 410 Faith is the Victory Song 410 Alright church let's sing this song the first He camped along the hills of life He messaging soldiers rise and press the battle where the night shall fail the glowing skies against the flow it fails below let all our strength be heard faith is the victory we know that overcomes the world faith is the victory faith is the victory oh glorious victory that overcomes the world His over us is the our sword the word of God we tread the road the saints above with shouts of triumph by faith they like a world with threats when part of every fear the faith by the conquered death is still our shining shield faith is the victory faith is the victory oh glorious victory that overcomes the world on every fight drawn up in dread array let tense of ease be left behind and onward to the phrase salvation's helmet on each head with truth offered about the earth shall tremble neath our head and echo with a shout faith is the victory faith is the victory oh glorious victory that overcomes the world to him that overcomes the world why reign it shall begin before the angels he shall know his name confessed in hand and onward from the hills of life our hearts with love of blame will vanquish all the host of night in Jesus offering faith is the victory faith is the victory oh glorious victory that overcomes the world great singing church thank you so much for coming you guys thank you