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Hey guys, what's going on? We are glad that you are back with us. Tonight's sermon is going to start very quickly in Ephesians chapter number four, and we're going to go to Luke chapter number 10. We're going to break down who our neighbor is and who our neighbor is not. Now, the other day I was looking at a bumper sticker that said, Jesus put thee every in every one. Love thy neighbor as thyself. So I figured, well, this might be a good opportunity to go ahead and smash that little saying. I know a lot of you guys have seen that or have been told that. You can't preach against these people because you're not loving your neighbor as yourself. Look, here's what you're going to learn. You're going to learn a lot, but one thing that I want you to focus on and remember is this. You cannot love thy neighbor as thyself until you put the world on a shelf. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is setting it aside and understanding who we are in Christ and that we are members one of another. When that's clear and you really understand that, you really begin to go through that, what's going to happen is you're going to realize, okay, we're in the world. We're not of the world. My brother and sister in Christ come first. Then, and only then, can you really begin to truly love thy neighbor as thyself. Now I'm not saying we shouldn't do good to our fellow man. There's tons of verses in the Bible about providing things honest in the sight of men. Nobody's doubting that. You know, I get that. But you know what? Not everyone is your neighbor. Context matters. Words mean things and the sense of words mean things as well. So I hope you enjoy this. I hope it blesses you. Great to see you guys. God bless. Ephesians chapter number four, Ephesians chapter number four, beginning in verse one, the Bible reads, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every one of you, every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Brother Ryan, would you please pray for us? All right, amen. Ephesians chapter number four, look down to verse number 25. Verse number 25 says, wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Now keep your place there and go to Luke chapter number 10. So I titled this sermon, Love Thy Neighbor, Not Thy Gabor, okay? So what we're going to be talking about this morning is who is our neighbor? Now just like every other English word in the English language, you have to pay attention to sense, okay? Obviously, sometimes we use the word neighbor to talk about the person right next to us or the people that live right next to us, or maybe on an international stage, like our neighbor, country Canada and Mexico and things of that nature, okay? But the other day I was driving down the street and I saw this bumper sticker and it said, Jesus put the every in everyone. And then it said, love thy neighbor. Guess what the colors were of that whole sticker, sodomite rainbow colors. So I figured, okay, you know, it's probably time to revisit the subject. This is one of those things I like to bring up every so often every year or so, every couple of years, because I think it's important. I watched a YouTube debate, I guess it was several years ago, and this dispensationalist guy was taking on another pastor who was post-trib and used these verses, you know, love thy neighbor as thyself, use Hebrews chapter eight, and the context of neighbor in there. And he used it in a way, and I'll get back to this here later on, but he used it in a way to try to say that there's like a third covenant coming and that because we're told in that passage, and you'll see it later, that there's coming a time where we won't give the gospel to our neighbor. And he said, since everyone's our neighbor now, we haven't reached that spot yet. So therefore, and then he just makes this leap that the Jews are God's chosen people. So I want to make sure that everyone in here understands how to respond to those types of accusations, if you will, and be better equipped. So hopefully this will help you in that endeavor. So we're going to start off here in Luke chapter number 10. And this is the parable of the good Samaritan. And I don't have the time to do a full dig on this. Okay. This is not teaching that you have to work for your salvation. And that's where I'm going to leave it. Okay. Everybody in here knows that and understands that, but it starts off with this certain lawyer and he's asking Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. Of course, he's asking that because he thinks he's a pretty good guy. He believes in his heart that he has done enough to inherit eternal life. He wants to hear it from Christ himself. So let's start off here because this passage is going to tell us something very, very important about who our neighbor is and who our neighbor is not. Okay. So we're going to start reading here. Verse 25. Well, Bible says this says, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying, master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And of course, this goes back to the religion of human achievement. Okay. This is how their operatives operate. This is their thinking. This is this type of things that they say. Okay. Notice here that the narrator is speaking here. Okay. And the narrator says, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up kind of giving us some context to the type of person that this is. Okay. But notice what the narrator tells you that he's doing to Jesus. Okay. He's trying to test him. He's trying to tempt him. Okay. Saying, master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Okay. So this guy is not really serious. He's not really wanting to know this. Okay. Look at verse 26. He thinks he's pretty good and you'll see that here later. Look at verse 26. He said unto him, and so this is Jesus now, what he says, look at this, says, what is written in the law, how readest thou? Okay. So how do you understand? So Jesus takes him right back to the law since this guy is a lawyer. And since he thinks that following the law in his way, the way he interprets it, okay, is going to get him saved. We're going to get him into heaven. So kind of interesting here that Jesus takes him to the law. Now we're not going to take the time to go through Leviticus 20 and all of that stuff, but you know, everybody wants to quote, okay, love thy neighbor as thyself. You have to love everyone around you, every human, every human being everywhere. And so therefore, if you criticize anyone or you come against anyone or you see a certain group of people should not exist or whatever, okay, what do they do to us when we take that stance? Well, you know what they do. They try to come after us and say, you don't have love. You're not Christ like, you know, Jesus wouldn't be okay with you, this, that, and the other thing, okay. But they never take the time to actually go back and read honestly what the law says, do they? Because if they would, they would go through Leviticus chapter 19, where that saying love thy neighbor as thyself is quoted from, okay. And of course, everybody in here knows their Bible very well, and you know what chapter 20 is about, okay. Now what does chapter 20 say, especially if you hover around verse 13? Well, it says that your neighbor doesn't exist, okay. So therefore it's impossible that that person is my neighbor. That's easy though. That's the gravy, okay. I just threw that out there for extra credit. Look down at verse number 27, okay. And so it says this, and he answered, so this is lawyer boy here, and he answered and said, thou shalt love, I'm sorry, this is, yeah, he said, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thy self, okay. So he's got it, okay. Jesus obviously knows that he's familiar with this, okay. So this lawyer here, he says, okay, here's what you got to do, verse 28, and he said unto him, so this is what Jesus says, says thou has answered right this do, and thou shalt live. Now again, I don't have time to break this down in all portions of the gospels, but I've done this before where I've proved that Jesus is not telling him that he has to do anything for salvation, okay. I just got to keep saying that, okay. But Jesus says, okay, you've answered right, okay. Verse 29, but he, now pay attention to this again, because this is the narrator telling you something about this lawyer, okay. It says, but he willing to justify himself. So what is his motive? Okay. Well, he comes up to Christ to tempt him, and now we see in his heart, he wants to justify himself. So what does he do? Well, verse 29 said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor, okay. So he wants to know this to justify himself, and probably because he's thinking, well, okay, I love this person, that person, that person's trash. I know I extorted this person for money, for my client over here, but you know, that doesn't matter, but I want to know who is my neighbor, okay, who is my neighbor, because I've loved a lot of people. That's what I envision this guy's probably thinking, and you know, we deal with people like this all the time out soul winning, people that want to justify themselves, and so you know the type, there's no need to really go on any further, but let's look at the answer, because that is a good question, and that's what this sermon is about, who is my neighbor, okay. Who is my neighbor? Now, if everyone was your neighbor, okay, if Jesus put the every and everyone in that context, and everybody was your neighbor, and no judgment, okay, no using scripture, no calling people out, no preaching against people, okay, it would probably just stop right here. There would be no need to answer the way he's going to answer, so just think about that as he gets into this parable here about the Good Samaritan. Now, look down at verse number 30, so he's going to answer the question with the parable, okay. Verse 30, let's see who your neighbor is, and Jesus answering and said, 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. Verse 31, so we see the picture here, okay. We got a guy on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem, and he's been robbed, he's half dead, he's not doing very good. Look at verse 31, and by chance, there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side, okay. Now, a couple of things here real quick, so we've got a guy, a certain man going from Jerusalem to Jericho, and we're told in this parable that a certain priest has passed by, okay. That means that those two people, the priest and this certain individual that just got robbed, just got mugged, okay. They are both part of what is left of the nation of Israel, okay. So contextually speaking, they are physical neighbors, okay. They're physical neighbors in that sense, but Jesus here is getting ready to tell us who our neighbor really is, and I want you to pay attention to this last phrase of verse 31, okay. Let's read the verse again, and by chance, there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by, now pay attention to this, on the other side, on the other side. So he crosses the street, okay, and he's like, yeah, I don't want to know part of that, okay. I don't want anything to do with that, so I'm on the other side. So picture here, okay, you've got half dead man over here, and then on the other side, you have this Levite, this priest, okay. Look at verse 32, and likewise, a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed on the other side. Okay, so you've got a priest, and you've got another Levite here in verse 32. So both of these guys, what does it say? Are on the other side. Interesting that he uses that language, that terminology, they're on the other side. So again, here we have it, okay. We've got three people in this parable. We've got the half dead guy, and then you've got the priest and the Levite on the other side, okay. Now let's enter in number four here, verse 33. It says, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. So now we have a Samaritan who would not be looked upon and called a Jew, especially during this timeframe, okay. Unless he was an actual convert, unless he had been converted, but that's not the case here. It's a certain Samaritan, okay. So now you've got this half dead guy who's a Jew from Jerusalem, okay. And then you've got a Samaritan, so a Jew and a non-Jew together, okay. Now what does that mean? Well, let's keep looking here. Look at verse 34. It says, and went to him, okay. So he's not on the other side with the Levite and the priest. He went to our friend who has been mugged, okay. 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. Kind of a little side note here, I remember somebody, stupid long time ago, he said, you know, I actually tried to pour some real wine into a wound that I had, and I thought I was going to die and have to go to the hospital. So don't try that, okay. It's a whole nother ball of wax here. You're not going to just go to the store and get their, you know, modern day wine and start pouring it into your wounds and get healed, okay. There's something else going on here. I ain't got time to get into it, but I was just thinking of that. Verse 34. So he 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. Okay. Verse 35. 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, whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Okay. Verse 36. So now Jesus puts it back on this individual here, back on this lawyer, okay. And he asks him, which of these three, so priest, Levite, and then the Samaritan. So he says, which of these three, okay, thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves. Okay. So understand the picture here. What Jesus is saying is that two people were not the neighbor and one person was the neighbor. Okay. Verse 36. Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves, among the thieves, verse 37. And he said, he that showed mercy on him, then said Jesus unto him, go and do likewise. So you say, why bring us here? What's the point? Okay. The point is not everyone is your neighbor. You have to pay attention to context when you are reading the Bible, when you are studying the Bible. Okay. Now what I'm not saying is I'm not saying that you shouldn't be nice and do nice things and help people that aren't saved. Okay. That's a whole different ball of wax. And I'm going to cover that at the end of this sermon. Okay. But what I am trying to say here is that Jesus never said that every single person alive on this earth, regardless of their background, regardless of what they have done is your neighbor. Okay. That is not what he's saying there. You know, and then look, I'm telling you, I've seen people more times than I care to admit, get their clocks cleaned out here because they don't understand how to read these verses. Okay. Go back to where we started, go back to the book of Ephesians chapter number four. Now, obviously also, you know, in that parable, I see a picture. I see like a deeper level there. I see a deeper meaning. I see like the Samaritan almost being a picture of Christ and taking care of the wounded man. Who's been wounded and robbed by the world. Okay. And what does he do? He just picks up the tab and pays his way pays for him. But of course I don't have time to develop that. It's just something, you know, some food for thought there. The point being very clear, not everyone is your neighbor. Hey, this lawyer asked and Jesus answered him. Okay. He said, Hey, it's the one that actually came and took care of him. It's the one that helped him. And people misread that. And they say, see, you're okay. I'll play your game. And they'll say, well, see, because I've helped you or because I did this for you. And I did that for you. Then I'm your neighbor, even though I'm not saved. That's not what he's saying there. Okay. You're going to see in this next verse here, where we first started that we are members of Jesus Christ. We are a part of him, a part of his body. Okay. And so by really understanding even that deeper level, meaning that deeper picture that I just told you there, you can see how that fits. You can see because the Samaritan picks up the tab. Doesn't require payment. Okay. No questions asked. Hey, you're in need of help. I'm going to help you. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to heal your wounds. I'm going to pay for your care. I've got you. Okay. And whatever the end has to spend after I'm gone, I'm going to pick up the tab. Okay. That's what Jesus does. He takes away our hurt, takes away our pain and obviously takes away our sin or unrighteousness. Okay. So we see that there. So you're not going to be able to use that and say, well, you know, the Muslims and the Buddhas and all these other people, they're our neighbors too. They, they do nice things for us. They, they do nice things for, for the community. So we ought to look at them as neighbors. No, that's not what he's saying here. Okay. What he's saying here is that he and those that are in him are neighbor, meaning nigh, meaning close next to one another. Okay. Look, you cannot love thy neighbor as thyself until you learn how to put the world on a shelf. And what I mean by that is we have to learn how to put the world aside. Okay. Again, we're in the world. We're not of the world. Okay. There are certain aspects of the world that we use daily. Okay. It's okay to use the world, not to abuse the world. And when you really understand this, okay. And you understand that we are sanctified from the world and the world is out there. It's on a shelf. My main priority and concern is the health and welfare of believers. Okay. When you understand that, then it opens you up to be able to properly love your neighbor once you really know who he is. Okay. So back where we first started Ephesians chapter four, look at verse 25 again. So Paul says, wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor. And then here it is for we, who is that we? Is it just everybody? That's the every and everyone, every man, woman, and child in the whole entire world. All those people bowing down to gold statues in Japan on the high places. Those are your everybody. Those are your neighbors too. We ought to love them and just do anything you can for them. No, that's not what he's saying. For we believers, us Christians, those of us who have been born again for we are members, one of another. Okay. Notice that language there. He says, speak every man truth with his neighbor. Okay. So what does he say next? Okay. Speak truth with your neighbor for we, us neighbors are members, one of another. Go to Romans chapter number 12. So just go back in your New Testament a little bit. Go to Romans chapter number 12, but we're going to go back to Ephesians one more time here in just a minute. I just want to show you this here. Romans chapter number 12, look down at verse number four. So the Bible says this, Romans 12, verse number four. So Paul says, for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office. And again, don't have time to go through the whole chapter, but he's talking physically here. You've got your fingers. You got your hands. You got your elbows. You've got your shoulders. You got your knees. You got your feet. Okay. We have many members, physical members in our body, but they don't all have the same office. Okay. They don't have the same function. That's what he's talking about. Each members for a different purpose, but yet still part of the same body, obviously. Now look at verse five. So he equates that with something. What does he say? So we, okay. Now who was the we there? Is that everybody? Is that the whole entire plan? That's everyone. That's everybody. You go up to Cathedral of the Rockies here on Maple Grove and Lake Hazel and guess what? They're going to tell you this. Yeah. It's everybody. Everybody's your neighbor. You can't be saying things like you do there at that church. You don't love your neighbor. Really? Okay. Well, the last time I've checked, we put our selves aside from you. We've put the world on a shelf. Therefore we do love our neighbors. So he says, he says, so we, verse five, being many, okay. Many Christians, many believers. So we being many are one body in Christ. Okay. In Christ, is everyone in Christ? No, absolutely not. That's ludicrous. Okay. That's Mormon speak right there. Okay. That's not true. So we being many, our one body in Christ and every one members, one of another. Now go to first Corinthians chapter number 12. Okay. So we're starting to understand this here. Paul says in Ephesians chapter four, we, okay, we who are members, one of another, we are neighbors. We are nigh, meaning close unto each other. Romans chapter 12. He says again, so we being many, our one body in Christ and members, one of another. Okay. Here it is again. First Corinthians chapter 12, look at verse 27. So he says, now ye, now who's the ye there? Okay. Pay attention to words. The Corinthians, the Christians, the saved in Corinth. Okay. And obviously this applies to us, but that's specifically who he's talking to. This is not just written to, you know, anybody, Oh, you, you know, you, you Muslims over there in the middle East, you know, this is you too. No. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. Okay. Members in particular. That is so important for you to understand that we who are saved are part of the body of Christ. We are neighbors one to another. Look at, go back to the book of Ephesians. Last one on this verse 30 Ephesians chapter five, go back to Ephesians and go to Ephesians chapter five. Now actually in first Corinthians 12, it just goes crazy on this. I mean, it's just over and over and over again, just members of the body, just, just, just a ton of verses on this. I'm just going to give you one more cause we got to move on. Ephesians five, look at verse 30. So for we, again, Paul says it for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. So I think it's pretty clear now if you're saying, if you're a believer in Christ, then guess what? Your brother, your sister is your neighbor. Okay. That is so important for you to understand, especially if somebody tries to throw this hard ball, Hebrews chapter eight at you, which I want you to go to now go to Hebrews chapter number eight. And we're going to break this down here. I just want to make sure, so we got to, we got to no one left behind program at this church. And I just want to make sure that everybody gets this. Everybody understands Hebrews chapter number eight. Now I don't have to say this, but I will. Everybody knows in here. Okay. There's not a new covenant coming after the one we're in now. Okay. Just so you know, because there's people out there and I mean, a lot of people out there that are starting to bubble up with this. Well, there's a new covenant because the Jews are coming back. Yeah. How the Jews are coming back and there's going to be a different covenant for them. And they're going to have to do this and this and this, and you're going to be able to serve them. Okay. And it is because, you know, a large part of it, maybe not so much of a large part of it, but it definitely a part of it is because they don't understand English words. They just are handed down this tradition. Love that name. Okay. It's just everybody. Okay. I mean, you're about to say this type of stuff. Okay. You got to read the Bible and you have got to study it so that we don't get carried away with these goofball things and get smashed out here. Given the gospel Hebrews chapter eight, we're going to start in verse number eight. So I'm just going to say Paul, cause I believe he wrote Hebrews. I'll eat crow on that later. If I'm wrong, says this for finding fault with them. And obviously those of the old covenant Israel and talking about God for finding fault with them. He's sayeth behold, the days come, sayeth the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Now, remember you're reading through the new Testament here. First Corinthians chapter 10 is what that gives you a definition of an Israel and that's Israel after the flesh people from physical Israel, just born there. Okay. Remember there was this mentality and this mentality is still alive today that, well, if you're just of Israel, just from there, well then you're Jewish and you're automatically God's chosen child and you're going to heaven. There's nothing anybody could do about it. In fact, they're better than everyone else on the planet. There are Sunday school teachers that teach that doctrine every single week in this nation and throughout the Western world. And what does he say here for finding fault with them sayeth behold, the days come, sayeth the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Obviously you see this throughout the gospels. Hey, Jesus came unto his own and his own received him not. So what did he do? He took away the oracles of God from them. Okay. He took away their fruits and gave them to us. Okay. We are the nation after God, Galatians 6 that bears the fruit like they were supposed to. Hey, look at verse nine and we're going to get to where he's quoting. He's quoting from Jeremiah 31, which we are going to look at here, but we got to break this down first. Hey, look at verse nine. It says, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, sayeth the Lord. So what people will do is they'll throw verse eight at you and say, see, God made this covenant with Judah, the house of Israel. And so all tribes are coming back to Israel. That's what's happening right now. And God knows who they are. He knows who the Asherites are. He knows who the Danites are. He knows who the Ephraimites and all these other rights. He knows who all of them are, all 12 of them. Okay. And then they're going to all turn to Jesus. And then we're going to get the privilege to serve them. And they use this as a proof text to say that. Okay. Look at verse 10, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. The question is, what are those days? Okay. Well, it's the days in which Christ came to do verse eight. Okay. So he says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, sayeth the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. And it's going to make even more sense when you read it from Jeremiah's perspective. Okay. But back on topic here, look at verse 11 and they shall not teach every man, his neighbor and every man, his brothers saying, know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. What I heard this guy say was he put it like this. He said, okay, so you go soul winning. And then the guy doing the interview was like, yeah. And he's like, see, this hasn't happened yet then has it? And he didn't know what to do. And I don't, I'm not hating. I'm just being honest. He didn't know what to do. Didn't know what to say. You know, I thank God that somebody showed me this a long time ago. Okay. That that's not what he's talking about here. But when your definition of neighbor is just everyone, your next door neighbor, we're knocking doors. We're knocking all the neighbor's doors. That's what we're doing. Okay. So therefore this has to be a third covenant. Okay. If you don't understand neighbor and you come to this verse, you have two options, third covenant, or this means something entirely different in the Greek. Those are your options. Okay. If you don't understand that, but when you know who your neighbor is, it's your fellow brother or sister in Christ, for we are members one of another, then it makes sense. Wait a second here. Where are the other verses about this so-called third Jew bootleking covenant? Okay. Where are they? They don't exist. Do they, they do not exist. So when you read it properly and they, it says this verse 11 and they shall not teach every man, his neighbor and every man, his brother saying, no, the Lord for all shall know me from the least of the greatest. You understand, wait a second. The entry requirement into the Israel of God is to be saved born again, which is also referred to as the Lord Jesus knowing us. You say, prove it. Go read Matthew chapter seven. I'm not even going to turn there. You already know already know what is he doing there to people in Matthew seven who have come out of hell and are standing at the great white throne judgment saying, look, what about my works Lord? What about me casting out these devils and all these wonderful things I did? What about that? What did Jesus say? I never knew you. And he says, depart from me. Ye that work iniquity. Okay. Well, where do they depart to? They go to Detroit. Hell. Okay. Lake of fire. That's where they're going. Okay. So since we know the Lord, okay, we don't like, I'm not going to go. This is why we don't preach salvation messages every single service. You've got that. It's day one, man. It's easy. We, we, we, we understand that. Okay. I'm not constantly going around like, Evan, John, are you guys saved? Hey, I want to teach you how to be safe. Come on. I want to give you the gospel. You already got it. Okay. So I don't have a need to do that to my neighbor. Now I do have a need to do that to my physical neighbor who's out here. That's obvious. That should go without even saying. Okay. Verse 12. Look at this. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Okay. Now if this is like some third covenant and the millennium, I mean, that doesn't even make sense. Okay. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities. Will I remember no more? Okay. He's obviously talking about the new Testament, which is the better Testament. Go to Jeremiah chapter 31. I had this guy come visit. They came, came like three or four different times. And his whole goal was to just change the whole church. Everything about it. Okay. Changes to pre-trib changes to Zionism. He wanted to, you know, I don't mind. He brought these constitution packets. That's cool. Whatever. You know, I'll give them out to people. I got, I got no problem with that with constitution, but you know, he calls me up like during the week and he was like, yeah, I heard you say that the new covenant's the better covenant. And I've been looking at my Bible and I don't see it. Think we might need to do some study. Call me back. Okay. I never called him back because I was just going to lose it, man. You know, I know when, I know when I need to just be quiet. Sometimes I know that it was time to stop. It says that so many times, I'm not even going to take you there. You know, that's what it says. We studied through the book of Hebrews a couple of years ago. In fact, we were doing that when he was here. It's like, did you not even pay attention? Maybe if you put away that new King James, you'd actually see it and actually learn something. Okay. But I'm going to stop ranting about that. Let's read from where Paul was quoting from in Hebrews chapter number eight. Okay. So Jeremiah chapter 31, we're going to begin reading in verse 31. Okay. So, you know, the story here, Northern kingdom of Israel is gone. And this is the time period in which the Southern kingdom of Judah is about to be carried away in three different ways by Nebuchadnezzar. Okay. So Jeremiah is prophesying. He's preaching a message from the Lord. Look at verse 31. And it says this, behold, the days come, saith the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Okay. That covenant is the new Testament. That is what that is. Verse 32, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. Okay. So again, you know, on your own time, read through this and then read Hebrews chapter eight, and just kind of think and put these things together and it'll be a blessing to you. But look at verse 33. It says, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. Okay. So again, after he comes to make this covenant with the house of Israel, the house of Judah, obviously when Christ comes and begins his earthly ministry, okay, that's what verse 31 is in reference to. 33 again, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law and their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people. So if this is third covenant, all about Jews coming up in the future, what does that leave us? It excludes us. Therefore it's blasphemy. It's an attack on Christ. Okay. By even saying that you are blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you're doing. Full on assault. You are assaulting Christ by saying that because how many times does the Bible say that we are members of his body? Look at verse 34 again. They shall teach and they shall teach no more every man, his neighbor and every man, his brother saying, know the Lord. You know why it says it like that? Because during this time that is exactly what they had to do. Okay. Just because you were born in Jerusalem, born in the Southern kingdom of Judah, born in the Northern kingdom of Israel, or just because you were born during the time of Eli, Samuel, did not automatically graft you. Salvation. Okay. Physical birth has never granted anyone salvation. It has always been by calling upon the name of the Lord. So it looked like this. God had his chosen people in the Old Testament, the Hebrews, the nation of Israel, 12 tribes, and guess what? They still had to get saved. They still had to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. They had to talk to their physical neighbors, their brothers in their nation and get them converted. And I'm going to prove that to you. Let's finish the verse. They shall teach no more every man, his neighbor and every man, his brother saying, know the Lord. For they shall know, I'm sorry, they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Now go to Genesis chapter four. Okay. Let's just, I just want to give you a couple of things very quickly to think about here. And you know, I was just going to start with the time period of Israel, but let's just go pre-Israel. Okay. Let's just go pre-Israel here. And I know you're familiar with this, but let's look at it now. Okay. If anybody says, well, they didn't, it's not like back in, you know, Adam's day, they actually went soul winning. I didn't go around with a Roman's road and tracks and invites, you know, but they still talked about the Lord. They still tried to convince people and to convert people to turn unto the Lord. And you can see that right here, Genesis four, verse 26, it says this, and to Seth, to him also, there was born a son and he called his name Enos. Now look at this, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. By the time you get to chapter number six, you have two seeds. You have the sons of Adam, which are just a reference to the sons of man, just people without Christ. And then you have the sons of God, people that have called upon the name of the Lord and have been granted salvation. They are God's children, two different seeds. And of course you're going to mix in the Belial sons of Belial, but that's for another day. Okay. Go to Psalm chapter number 51. And of course, I mean, what about Noah? The Bible says Noah was a preacher of righteousness. So even before the nation of Israel was formed, guess what? People still had to go out and get people saved, still had to go preach to their neighbors in that time. Psalm chapter number 51 here, and we've gone over this. It's been probably a good solid year, but this is David here speaking. And I want you to look at this here, verse number 12. Okay. So David here, obviously, you know, not enjoying salvation too much after the whole Bathsheba incident. He writes this, he says this, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He doesn't say restore unto me my salvation. Okay. But the joy of it. Okay. And why is that? Well, because when you quench the spirit, okay, and you're just out on the world, you've taken the world off the shelf, so to speak, and you're just doing your own thing and you get bit by the serpent, you get bit by the consequences of your actions, it hurts. Okay. You're not exactly waking up every day like, man, I'm glad I did that. You know, Hittite needed to die anyways. Okay. That's not the case. So what does he say? He understands that he did wrong. He says, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Okay. Look at verse 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. I didn't have time to do this. We studied Samuel, first and second Samuel, a couple of years ago, and we went through and highlighted how David had even gotten Philistine saved. Okay. There are a good number of actual Philistines, people born outside of the physical nation of Israel, that we believe that he actually got saved because they said things like calling upon the name of the Lord and things of that nature. We'll have to study that at another time, but go to second Chronicles chapter 19. But anyway, that's just proof right there. Okay. That in Israel, during that time, they had to go around and actually get their neighbor saved, their Leviticus 19 neighbor. They had to go and get that person converted. Okay. And David saying, restore unto me, Lord, the joy of thy salvation. Why? Because when you have that joy, okay, of your salvation and you know, you're, you're thinking like, man, this is good to go. I'm saved. Okay. That does make you want to make a difference. It does make you want to tell other people, Hey, I want to share this joy with you. Right. And that's what David saying. He's saying, once this joy comes back and you restore this, then it's going to be easier for me to get transgressors converted unto thee. Okay. Meaning saved unto thee. Second Chronicles chapter 19. We're going to look at just one verse here, but just to give you some context here, this is talking about Jehoshaphat. Now, Jehoshaphat had a problem buddying up with the Northern kingdom of Israel. He was friends with Ahab, yoked up with him, yoked up with his sons. And God kept sending prophets like, what are you doing? Like, stop doing this stuff, basically. However, God used it for a very good soul-winning opportunity later on in his life. One verse right here. Look at this verse four. It says this and Jehoshaphat, so this is after he gets rebuked by the prophet Jehu and says, Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem. Okay. And he went out again through the people. Now look at this from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim and brought them back unto the Lord God of their fathers. Beersheba to Mount Ephraim. Jehoshaphat was a king during the time of the division of the nation of Israel. There was the Northern kingdom of Israel. They had Samaria as their capital. They had their kings. They had their new evangelical religion. Then you had the Southern kingdom of Judah, which had Bethel. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Not Bethel. Good grief. Jerusalem. Okay. And that's where the temple was obviously. And they had the right religion. They had the priesthood and all that stuff. Okay. So that's where Beersheba was. So Jehoshaphat took the liberty to go from the Southern kingdom to the Northern kingdom and do what? Bring people back to the Lord. But these are Hebrew people. These are his physical neighbors. These are his Leviticus chapter 19, love thy neighbor as thyself people. Okay. And he still had to go get them saved. Times are different today. Why? Because we are no longer that Israel. We are the Israel of God. Once you know the Lord, your brother, your sister is your neighbor. Okay. We're almost done here. I got one more for you. Go to Romans chapter number 12. So I don't want to leave this here without talking about how we should treat people that are not saved. Okay. You know, people say, and they'll sometimes email and say, Hey, you know, pastor Jones, if you saw, you know, I don't know, just some freak off the side of the road, needed a tire change. Would you do it? No, no. The answer is no, I'm not. I'm not helping you. You think I'm going to go help somebody that advocates for death, that goes and advocates for pornography in libraries, that wants some less kids? No, I'm not helping you. Oh, you're a well-done neighbor. Hey, look, I'm also not stupid either. And what happens if somebody sees you do that? Oh, well, you've endorsed that person and all that's about that. Okay. Now, if I see somebody else, yeah, I'll help them out if I can, obviously. Okay. But the question is, can we do good to the unsaved? And of course the answer is yes. Okay. The answer is yes, but it's not the same love that Jesus is talking about in the commandments, which apply to us. Love thy neighbor as thyself. I don't care who you are, who's antagonizing you with this. Okay. They don't love everyone in their subdivision, the way they love themselves. You go around mowing other people's lawns. You go walk in the street and say, hey, I noticed you need your gutters clean. Let me go help you out, brother. Do you do that? No, you don't do that. You don't even take care of your own gutters. Okay. Don't lie to me. Romans 12, look at verse number 17. Here's some wisdom for those situations. The Bible says recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. Okay. Very clear. Okay. We're not supposed to retaliate evil for evil. We want to provide things that are honest in the sight of men. Why? Because it matters. That's why. It matters how we treat the world. And I'm not talking about the sons of the devil either. Verse 18. This is why he says this. If, and that's an if, that's a maybe. Okay. If it be possible, meaning what he's about to say is not always possible or wise. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Okay. That is serious wisdom right there. Okay. As much as possible. Okay. We are called to live peaceably with all men. Verse 19, dearly beloved avenge, not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay saith the Lord. Now, do we all fail on this? Of course. Okay. We're human beings. I get that. I understand that. However, we are supposed to give place unto wrath, meaning we will experience wrath. Okay. Wrath belongs to the Lord. He delivers. He will set us free. Okay. Verse 20. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, this feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shall heat coals of fire on his head. Now, does that sound real loving? Does that sound like you like, Oh, this is loving thy neighbor. No. Somebody's neighbor in trouble. I'm just kidding. Okay. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger. So we're getting wisdom here though, the real way to deal with those out in the world that want to have beef with you, that want to start trouble. Okay. Now there are many ways to deal with that, depending on the severity, depending on the situation. It's all a case by case basis. Okay. But the idea here is if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shall heat coals of fire on his head. Okay. Verse 21, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Okay. So as much as possible, this should be the idea. And there's many reasons for this. Okay. One, you never know. Like, look, let me just say this. Okay. If we were to go back in time and meet the apostle Paul before he was the apostle Paul, when he was just solved. Okay. And he was there cheering on the stoning of Stephen. Everybody, like I'm telling you, okay. There is at least a time in all of our lives where we would have been like, he's a reprobate. A hundred percent. He just killed one of God's people. Done. Written him off. I, to be honest, if I were to go back there and see that even now as being a pastor, I, my mind would still be like, it might be just undercover. I don't, you know, it would be hard to watch. Okay. It would be hard to watch. And that's obviously an extreme case, but there are people that are enemies that aren't saved, that haven't done half that. They just haven't got there yet. You know what I'm saying? And we don't want to be the ones that push them over the edge or, you know, because we want to ignore this advice, ignore this wisdom. We want to try to live peaceably with them when possible, because you don't know how this situation could turn out. It could be that you, you know, somebody's just having a really bad day and they're just not with it. You do something like this for somebody and they remember it later on. Like, man, I've been really mean to this guy at work. I've been trying to push his buttons and this is what he does. Okay. He's going to feel about this big and it's going to change the relationship possibly, depending on the person, okay, for the better. So we don't want to be overcome of evil. That's why he says be not overcome of evil, which is hard to do. Look, I've been wronged a lot. You've been wronged a lot and you know, we want to get back. Okay. If you're like me, it's like, I'm thinking of ways. I'm rehearsing fights in my mind. Like, if I could just get them to swing, you know, justification, you know. Anyway, I think like this, that's the carnal mind though. That's not the right way to behave. And I know that I get that. But again, I still have this, this old man on me. Says be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. So should we do good to the unsafe? Of course we should. Okay. And look, Paul's even just saying this about your enemies, people that aren't saved, that are just coming after you or whatever. You know, if you can do something good for them, you know, you got to give it a shot. Okay. And again, when he's not talking about sons of the devil, he's already, he's already demonstrated what he does to people that are of the devil, people that try to stop salvations. What does he do? He smokes them with blindness. He really comes after them. Okay. That's a whole separate issue. We're just talking about the sons of Adam, the sons of men, people without Christ. And you say, well, I've got enemies in the body of Christ too. Yeah. And we've got sermons for that too. Okay. But we, we don't want to get too far off track. The point is, if this is how we're supposed to treat just some ordinary person, unsaved, doesn't like us, then of course your next door neighbor, you can help them out. Of course, is that an act of love? Sure. I'll give that to you. Okay. But you know what? If I don't help every single poor person that comes in here and wants money that's not saved, I'm not violating the commandments. I'm not violating love thy neighbor as thyself. Like they like to say and accuse us of, oh, you don't have a food bank and you don't donate. You don't donate to the inner face sanctuary right off of Broadway. What's wrong with you? You're full of hate. Well, I mean, I don't know. I got love for the right things and I've got hate for the right things and that is how it ought to be. So we're going to go and stop it there for tonight. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much Lord for this truth. I just pray that this would help us all to understand Lord that we cannot love thy neighbor as thyself until we put the world on a shelf and understand that it has to be put aside so that we can see who is in front of us Lord and take care of each other and also apply the wisdom you taught us to the world for your glory in Jesus name. I pray. Amen. All right, so we're gonna have one more song here and then we will be dismissed. Sing that out on the first. Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed. He invites His chosen people come and dine. With His manna He doth feed and supplies our every need. O too sweet to sup with Jesus all the time. Come and dine the Master calleth, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now come and dine. On the second, the disciples came to lend the soul paying Christ's command. For the Master called unto them, come and dine. There they found their hearts desire bread and fish upon the fire. The sea satisfies the hungry every time. Come and dine the Master calleth, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now come and dine. On the last, soon the lamb will take his pride to be ever at his side. All the hosts of heaven will assemble thee. Boats will be a glorious sight. All the saints and spotless wine. Then with Jesus they will feast eternally. Come and dine the Master calleth, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now come and dine. All right good singing everyone. Let's bow our heads and dismiss ourselves in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you for this time we had to hear your word be preached. I ask you please help us to remember these things and apply them to our lives. I also ask that you bless the fellowship after the service as well as everyone's travels home this evening. Did you see me pray? Amen. We're dismissed.