(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, John chapter five, so we're going to pick things up in verse, right around verse number 33, so we're looking at this situation that Jesus is in, he's in Jerusalem, he's talking to the Jews here, if you look up at verse number 18 really quickly, just let's get a context of who Jesus is speaking to, you know, basically verse 19 all the way to the end of John chapter five, if you have a red letter Bible, those are all red words, this is Jesus just speaking, and he's saying ye ye ye, and so he's talking to a group of people, let me, first of all, let me solve the mystery of the King James Bible for you real quick, everyone's like we can't understand the these and the those and the ye's and the you's, so the y's are plural and the th's are singular, there you go, now you can use a King James Bible, so that's how hard that is, alright, so he's talking ye, so he's talking to a group of people, look up at verse number 18, and clearly he's talking to these people before he starts talking, he says therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, so he's speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem here, and they've been writing him about the Sabbath day, they've been talking to him, you know, for healing the man on the Sabbath day, we talked about that, then we talked about how Jesus describes himself as the judge, we talked about that last week, but Jesus gets into something else here in verse number 33, but as he says ye, he's talking to this group of Jews, alright, which these leaders of the Jews, the scribes, the Pharisees, who he always had the most trouble with here, if you look at verse 33, Jesus says ye sent unto John and he bare witness unto the truth, talking about John the Baptist who bore witness of Jesus, but I received not testimony from man, but these things I say that ye might be saved, so he's trying to explain to them that I don't need the testimony from John, and he's going to explain why that is, he's got other things that testify of the truth of him being the Messiah, and he's telling them I'm telling you how to be saved, he's telling them I'm telling you the truth, I'm telling you how to go to heaven, and then he explains in verse 35 he was a burning and shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light, talking about John the Baptist again, but I have a greater witness than that of John, so he says there's something better that I have that is a greater witness of John the Baptist, so John the Baptist came to testify of the coming Messiah, he was this great prophet that testified his, he was there to make the path straight for Jesus, so people would be more willing to accept Jesus, look at verse 37, but Jesus says I have something better, I'm sorry verse 36, I have a greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father has sent me, so Jesus right there in verse 36 explains why we have the Gospels filled with miracles and filled with, when we go out sowing and we explain who Jesus is, he was this, he was born of a virgin, you know that was a miracle in itself, and you know he lived this perfect life, but then he actually did all these wonderful works, he did all these wonderful miracles, he made the blind see, he raised people from the dead, healed the sick, healed the lame, made people walk that were, could not walk, these works were what? They were to bear witness that Jesus was sent by the Father, they were to bear witness of who Jesus was, it was kind of a little boost, right, to help people along to realize that you know this is the Son of God, this is the coming Messiah, this is the Christ, look at verse number 37, so that explains, if people ask you why the miracles, that's why, it's to bear witness that Jesus was the Son of God and he was who he said he was, alright, it gives him credibility, the works that he did, those wonderful works that were granted by the Father for him to do, gives him credibility to the truth that he spoke, that's not hard to understand, look at verse number 37, and the Father himself which hath sent me, so that's the first, he's going to talk about two things that bear witness to him, the first one is his works, okay, the things that he does, alright, and that's going to be important towards the end of the sermon, the Father himself he says is a witness too, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me, ye have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape, so Jesus here is explaining to the Pharisees, the Jews, he's explaining, you don't hear the voice of God, you don't hear the voice of God, now I have three things in verse number 37, 38, and 39 underlined in my Bible, and I'm going to tell you tonight that God speaks to me, right, like not audibly, like we met a guy today that you know God literally audibly speaks to him and all kinds of weird things happen to him, but God speaks to me, and guess what, God speaks to you too, you say well what are you talking about Pastor, well look at verse number 38, it says, he's saying you have not heard the voice of God is what he says to the Pharisees, what is he talking about, look at verse 38, and ye have not his word abiding in you, so the voice of God that the Pharisees should have heard was the word of God, the oracles of God, the one advantage that they had being Jews, he said his word is not abiding in you, for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not, so the Bible Jesus is explaining to the Jews that the works that I do are witness to who I am, that's the first thing, I mean what did he just do, he just healed a man, he just performed this great miracle, and what did they accuse him of, those works didn't convince them, those works all it did was they get after him for doing something on the Sabbath day, so he's saying the works don't work, and he's saying the witness of the father doesn't work because the witness of the father is his word that you all have, he said you don't believe that, you don't have that word, so you don't have the voice of God, God does not speak to you is what Jesus is saying, that's not God's fault, they had the word, they had the voice of God, they just were not listening to it, and again in verse number 39, so the things I have underlined are his voice in verse 37, his word in verse 38, and the scriptures, those are all the same things, Jesus is talking about the same thing in all of those three things, so he's saying you are not listening to the Bible, you are not listening to the word that God gave you, because they testify of me, and if you would listen to the voice of God, you would understand, you would have that witness, look at verse number 39, search the scriptures, for in them ye think, ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me, what testifies of Jesus, the scriptures testify of Jesus, now look at verse number 40, he says, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life, so they are not listening to the voice of God, they are not which is the witness of the father, look this is the witness of the father that we have right here, they are not listening to the witness of the father, and they are not, they don't care about the works that they are seeing, he says that they won't, so they are not going to have life, but look at verse number 41, now it gets interesting, this is what I really want to point out, and this, I want to talk to you about a real danger, maybe the danger for the Christian today, maybe the danger for the Christian throughout history, but especially today, I want to talk to you about what Jesus brings up in verse number 41 and verse number 42, look what he says, he says I receive not honor from men, now he says something different, first of all you don't listen to these two witnesses, and he says I, meaning Jesus, do not receive honor from men, but look at verse 42, he says but I know you that ye have not the love of God in you, so Jesus says men do not honor me, and then he says you do not have the love of God in you, so they are not with God, and Jesus is not honored by men, alright, now look at verse 43, I am come in my father's name and you receive me not, if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive, look at verse 44, this is our key verse for tonight, it says how can ye believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only, so now you have to pair up verse number 44 with verse number 41 and number 42, what Jesus is saying is he is saying you receive the honor of men, he is saying you Pharisees, you honor one another, I do not receive the honor of men, but you do not seek the honor of God, but in verse number 42 he says you do not have the love of God in you, so here you have these men, you have Jesus who says I don't have the honor of men, the Pharisees who are seeking the honor of men and have the honor of men, they are honoring each other, but they do not have the honor of God, they do not have the love of God, they are against God, that's what Jesus is saying, look at verse 45, so just remember that contrast, do not think that I am come to accuse you to the father, there is one that accuses you even Moses in whom ye trust, and he says that in whom ye, he means whom ye say ye trust, because he says for if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me, but if you believed not his writings, how shall you believe my words, and I've preached on that many times before, he's basically saying you don't believe the Bible, which he just basically said a few verses up, because if you would have believed the Bible, that is what, the voice of God, that's the word of God, that's the scriptures, and that is the witness of the father of Jesus, but really what I want to point out tonight, is Jesus is saying that the Pharisees were obsessed with the honor of men, not so much the honor of God, they didn't really care about the love of God, but they were obsessed with the honor of men, they were obsessed with what people thought, they were obsessed with, you know, having, you know, the honor to themselves about, they were obsessed with what people thought about them, having that honor of men, you know, the testimony of man is what they were obsessed with, so turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3, this is the question for you tonight, this is the question for you tonight, should you have honor amongst men, should you have honor amongst men, that's the question I want to ask you right now, and this question I want to answer for you from the Bible, should you seek it, should you have it, does it make any difference at all, it's funny because this honor amongst men is partially a qualification for the ministry, look at 1 Timothy chapter 3 and look at verse number 7, moreover he, talking about a pastor, somebody's qualified to be a pastor, and look, I've said this before, let me just say it again though, all the qualifications of a pastor are things you should have, they're all things that every Christian should have, should do, I mean specifically every Christian man should have, these are all characteristics, all that it means applied to a pastor is if I don't have one of those things or some pastor doesn't have one of those things, that he's not qualified to be a pastor, but it doesn't mean that those aren't things that every husband, every Christian man should not possess, if you read through the list, I mean every single one of them is biblical, but the Bible says here in verse number 7, look at this, back to the point, it says moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil, so Jesus is kind of rebuking the Pharisees for seeking and having honor amongst men and Jesus says, I have no honor amongst men and here the Bible is saying that a pastor or even a Christian should have a good report, what does that mean? That he has honor amongst men, that he has a good name, that he has a good reputation of them and look, it's not talking about the people in the church, it's talking about them that are without, so the Bible is saying as a qualification for the pastor that the pastor should have honor of them that are without, people that are not in the church. Well, what's, you're like, hmm, what's the deal here? We have to dig into this further to find out the answer. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 2, so Jesus is kind of playing down the fact, he's saying, look, I don't have honor amongst men, of course, Jesus had honor amongst some men, the men that followed him, but he didn't have honor amongst the main religious leaders of the day, they were all or pretty much all against him. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 2, the mainstream Jewish religion and the leaders of it were against Jesus, he had no honor amongst them, but they all had honor amongst themselves, so the Bible says a pastor should have a good report or honor amongst men, so which is it? Let's look at the Bible tonight and find out what we can see here. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 2, look at verse number 26, and we get our first clue here, we'll kind of start to narrow down and kind of zero in on the target here. Look at verse 26, where the Bible says, and the child Samuel grew on, of course, the prophet Samuel, the last judge Samuel, and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men. So this is really the key, you start to see the key right here. So Samuel, he had favor with men, but who did he also have favor with? He also had favor with the Lord, and that is the difference between what we see with the Pharisees, the Pharisees did not have the love of God in them, they could care less about that, but all they sought was the honor of men, and here we see with Samuel that he had both, he had favor with the Lord and also with men. Turn to Joshua chapter number 22, turn to Joshua chapter number 22. So in Joshua chapter number 22, we see this story about how the tribes that kind of settled on the east side of Jordan, they didn't want to go across, they said they would fight with them, but they wanted to land on the east side of Jordan, and when they went to take their land, they went and they built an altar, and the people, the other tribes that settled in the promised land, you know, they flipped out, because they're like, oh, they're trying to start their own religion, they're going to start sacrificing over there, they're starting to, you know, they're basically starting their own nation, worshiping their own God, and they were seriously offended, and they were ready to go to war with, you know, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh and Reuben. Look at verse number 21 of Joshua 22. The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered and said unto the heads of the thousands of Israel, so they're responding, they're responding to them about, you know, hey, they've been accused that they're trying to build a separate altar, a separate temple, you know, start their own worship, where God doesn't want it to happen, they gave them this land on the east side that really wasn't even part of the plan, and here they're going to just make their own New Jerusalem or something, is what the nation of Israel thought. But look at what they said in verse 22. It said the Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods twice, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know, if it be in rebellion or if it is in transgression against the Lord, save us not this day, that we built us an altar to turn from following the Lord, or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meet offering, or if to offer peace offerings thereon, let the Lord himself require it. What they're saying is, this is not why we built this. They're saying we just built it for a memorial. They go on to say they built it for a memorial so their children would know the connection they have with Israel across the river, on the west side of the Jordan, but you know what they said? When they're being accused by men, they didn't have the honor of these thousands that came to accuse them. They're saying, you know what? God knows, and that's what matters. So in this case, we're seeing that in 1 Samuel chapter 2, Samuel grew in favor with the Lord and in favor with men, but when it comes down to it, all that matters is the favor of the Lord. All that matters is the view that God has. That's what really matters. That's what's important. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 30. So now we start to see that the problem, the problem is when what man and God think are different. The problem that's when we start to have a problem with honor from men, and now we start to see how 1 Timothy chapter 3 with the qualifications of the pastor and John chapter 5 can fit together. Look at verse number 6 of 1 Samuel chapter 30. So the problem arises when man and God think differently about a situation, about somebody, about anything. Look at verse number 6. And David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him. So there was this city and they had all these people kidnapped, including part of David's family. So the point I'm trying to get you to see here in verse number 6 is that David had no honor with these people. Like they wanted to kill him. And David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But what? He had no honor amongst these people. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. So it didn't matter. It didn't matter. At the end of the day, what you're seeing here at the end of the day is sometimes you're not going to have honor amongst men because you're with God. Because you're on God's side. So whenever the opinions of God or the way of man goes different from the way of God, you just need to make sure that you're not like, oh, I need to have honor amongst men. This is what the Pharisees were doing. The Pharisees had departed from God. They didn't care what his voice said, his scripture said, his word said, what his witness said. They didn't care about Jesus' works. They only wanted the honor from men. That's all they wanted. Go back to John chapter 2. Look, Jesus knew, Jesus knew this. Go to John chapter 2. Jesus knew this when we looked at this verse a few weeks ago. But Jesus knew that the opinion of man by itself was not reliable at all. Jesus knew this 100%. Look at verse number 24 of verse number, of John chapter 2. Verse number 24. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them. Why? Because he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. So it's not important what man's opinion is. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 4. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 4. Sorry, I'm showing you a lot of scripture here, but I really want you to see the methodology that we need to follow with this because it affects you. And I'm going to tell you how it affects you in just a few minutes, but this is a major effect on Christians today. This opinion of man. But whenever it's the opposite of God, you have to just stick with God. You see, it sounds simple. There are times, look at 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse number 13. So look, what do we see, what do we see so far? We see that, we see with the Pharisees that there are times, what we saw with Samuel, that there's times when the favor of man will match the favor of the Lord. Perfect. We see with David that there's a time where the favor of man will not match the favor of the Lord. And we go with the Lord. Then we saw in Joshua chapter 22 where Ruben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, all that mattered was the favor of the Lord. All that mattered was the Lord's opinion. And all the people were wrong. And guess what? Those people came over to the Lord's side, which is how it should work. But there are times when it will be opposite. But look at this in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse number 3. There are times when you will lose the honor of men because of God. Look at 1 Peter chapter 4 verse number 13. The Bible says, But rejoice in as much as ye be partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. You say, how could I be a partaker of Christ's suffering? What does that even mean? Look at verse number 14. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, that's how. Happy are ye for the Spirit, now this ye is you. This ye is talking to, you know, those that have believed on and trusted on Jesus. Happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. You see that? So the Bible here is saying is that because you are a believer in Christ, there will be times when you will be partakers of sufferings because of that reason. This is end times. But this is just persecution of Christians all together. You're persecuted because you're a Christian. So there are times when the honor of men will leave you because you honor God. Because you are with God. But be happy because the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. God is with you. So if ever man's honor leaves you because you are honoring God, you're supposed to rejoice and be happy in that. But that's a time, that's a time when men would not honor you. So there are times when men should honor you and there are times when you don't want their honor. And all the litmus test is what God wants. To be on God's side always. Look, another one of these is in Jeremiah chapter 1 in verse number 8 where he's speaking to Jeremiah and he's telling Jeremiah, you have to go and you have to say the words that I tell you to say. And in verse number 8 he says this phrase, he says, be not afraid of their faces. What he's saying is they're gonna hate what you say. I know people don't like the word hate today. That inspires this strong emotional reaction in people. What it just means is to strongly dislike. To strongly disagree. He's saying that you have to speak the words that I say and because of that they are not going to like you. Because of that people are going to be against you. Look, there was many people that hated Jeremiah. They wanted to kill him, they wanted to put him in prison, they wanted to make him suffer. Because of what? Because of Christ. So the Pharisees were seeking the honor of men, here was the problem, above all else. That's the problem. Above the honor of God. So we need to make sure as Christians, you're like this seems like a pretty simple message, we need to make sure that we have proper favor with man, but that it first aligns with God's favor. Because favor with man comes from God. So you can't just be like, oh I'm gonna just gain favor, I mean plenty of people do this. Plenty of people go and try to gain favor of men by doing illegal things, by doing unethical things, by stealing things, and you know look, sin in general is like this. You know that sin will gain you favor? Sin will gain you favor with people. People will be happy to sin with you. And you will gain honor amongst some types of men just through sin. Did you know that giving up sin and getting sin right in your life will make you lose favor with people? Yeah, it'll make you gain favor with some people, but the first thing that you will probably realize in your Christian life when you start getting things right in your life is that you're losing favor with certain people. And you need to pay attention to that. Look, it's gonna gain you, stopping sinning will gain you reproach. That doesn't sound right, that's reality. But happy are ye. If, if you're losing, so you need to understand why you're gaining favor and why you're losing favor. If you're losing favor because all your drinking buddies don't like you anymore, praise God for that. If you're losing favor because you've stopped doing unethical things in your life and the people that you used to gain from that, why do people do unethical things? Because people gain from it. People make money from it. It's fraud, you know, theft, it's just, all the stuff, I mean, everything's a scam today. Why do people do it? Why are there so many scams? Why is every piece of mail I get a scam? Why are the hundreds of emails that I get every single day a scam? Why? Because people gain from it. Like, who in the world would open up that email? I don't know, one in 10,000, maybe. And they still, you know, the number one scam today, not to go off on this, is still the Nigerian prince. Still, it's been like that for like 20 years. You're like, who doesn't know that the Nigerian prince wanting to give you 10 million dollars is a scam? Apparently there's a few still. Because it's still the number one scam out there. But this is why, you know, these, look, I didn't even know where I was going with that, but the point is, like, you know, stopping sinning will gain you reproach. Sinning will gain you favor. But it's not the right kind of favor. Because God, go to Genesis chapter 13, it is God that grants the proper favor. It is God that grants the favor that you want from who? From man. When you have the favor, the favor of God, God will grant you. Look, all favor comes from God. It's good. It's a good thing, and all good things come from above. So all favor comes from God. Look at Genesis chapter 39, and look at verse number 21. Look at Joseph. You ever wonder how Joseph and Daniel, they got such great positions in their life. How did they have all these kings and emperors just, you know, give them control of their kingdoms? How? Through God. That's how. Look at verse number 21. It says, But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy. How? Gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. So the Lord blessed, look, the Lord used man's favor to bless Joseph. But where did the favor come, where did the favor of man come from? The keeper of the prison? No. It came from, look at the first part of the verse, it came from the Lord. It came from the Lord. So, if you don't have God's favor, this is the problem with the Pharisees. They were, again, it's kind of like the sermon Sunday night. They were focusing in the wrong place. They were focusing on their fellow man, and focusing on having honor from them, to them, and from them, and they completely forgot about God. They didn't care about God. They didn't care about God at all. Proper favor. If you don't have God's favor, you will never get the proper favor from man. That's it. But you know what? Here's the problem. Here's the problem. Here's the problem with us, and here's the problem in my life, in your life, and this is a huge problem that every single one of us, at least at one point, I hope I don't anymore, but I certainly used to underestimate this. People don't care about God's favor. You know what they want? They just want man's favor. People don't care about God's favor. They just want man's favor. You say why. You say why. So, you can get stuff. So, you can get promotions. You can get money. You can get, I mean, think of a salesman. I mean, the best salesman is somebody who can get you to trust them, right? The best salesman, probably the best car salesman or the best anything salesman that is some salesman that's trying to get people to spend a bunch of money. You know what that is? That's somebody who's very good at gaining people's favor. That's somebody that's very good at getting people to trust him, honor him, and they'll do whatever they can. You know, many salesmen will go out and they'll just, look, this isn't against salesmen, but I mean, many salesmen will go out, they'll be dishonest to you, they'll flatter you, they'll do all kinds of things. Maybe they'll even bribe you. To what? To gain your favor. So, they can just get ahead. People will try to gain your favor so they can get ahead. Politicians, what are they doing? They don't care about God's favor. They care about gaining the favor of everybody so they can get power. They can't care, that's why all politicians care about is man's favor. That's it. I mean, we're coming up on an election year, so I'm trying to prepare you here. I mean, an election year. You know what they're going to do? You're going to see all these people, they're going to go out, these politicians, I don't even care what side they're on. They're going to go out and they're going to tell one group one thing. They're going to go to another group and they're going to tell another group that thing. This is the same person. They're going to go to a third group, tell that third group what they think they want to hear. What are they trying to do? They're trying to gain everybody's favor. Do they care about what's right? No. They don't care. They care about the Bible? Nope. As a matter of fact, some of them will play down the Bible to one group and then they'll try to misquote a Bible verse or something to another group. I mean, it is so easy to pull the Bible wool over people's eyes today because no one has any idea. We have this guy today and he's just misquoting all these, he thinks in his neighborhood he must have been a sage. But he's just misquoting all this Bible and I'm just like, oh, stop it. And you know what it came down to? He literally didn't even care what the Bible actually said. Like literally had no interest in it. But I mean, that's a false prophet right there. What's a false prophet trying to do? Trying to gain people's favor. Why? To lift themselves up. Why? To have the preeminence. Why? To make money off you, to make merchandise off you. They're trying to gain your favor. They don't care. That's why this false prophet today, but here, but here, but here. No interest in the voice. No interest in the scriptures. None. But has interest in the favor of men for the power. The politician will go out and they'll tell all these groups these different things, they'll get elected and they'll do nothing that has any of it, they'll just do something that is completely different than all of the things that they said. Why? For power, for influence, ultimately for money. It's like, you know, maybe there's a good one. I don't know. But that is politics. It's just gaining favor. Go back to John chapter 5. It's the Pharisees. That's what politics today is. That's what all these people that just want favor of men and could care less about the love of God, being in the love of God, what God thinks, they could care less. The Pharisees were so obsessed with this. Look at verse number 44 again. How can you believe, actually you go to verse number, you go to John 12. I'll just read for you verse 44. You go to John 12. The Pharisees were so obsessed with this. How can you believe which you receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from God only. They could care less what God thought but they wanted the honor amongst themselves. They wanted to be the big Pharisee, the big scribe, the big man on campus in their made up religion of works. Look at John 12. This was such, this was such a cancer amongst the Jewish leaders that even the Pharisees that got saved were still headed in them. Look at verse number 42 of John chapter 12. It said, Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also many believed on him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. So here you have some of the rulers that were actually getting saved. And they were so, they were so worried about the honor of men, they're just like, they just would not even admit the fact that they believe in Jesus. Because they were so, they had this disease of just needing this honor from men more than anything. You say, how does that affect me? It affects you as a Christian because you have to understand that man and you and me inherently we want acceptance from our fellow man. Nobody wants to be an outcast. Nobody wants people not to like them. That's why Jesus is just warning about all these things, about the persecution, about, you know, they're going to hate you for my name's sake. But man, people want acceptance. It's like wired into us. This is where peer pressure comes in. How does peer pressure work? Because people want acceptance. They want to be accepted by the group. So they enter into, you know, another term is like group think. They enter into group think. And they're influenced by the group around them. Why? Because they want the honor of man. They want to fit in. You know, kids, this is, I mean peer pressure is mainly applied, if you ever read about it and all these things, and people that study it, mainly applied to like school kids and all these things. Which is ironic because many Christians today believe that they should send their kids to the public school system so their kids can, those Christian kids can influence the 99% of the other unsaved kids. And then like you see this peer pressure thing that's real. It's like no, what happens is, is that those Christian kids are influenced by the 99%. Because that's how it works. And kids are not strong. It takes, look, adults struggle with what I'm about to tell you. Even adults, Americans, have had their country destroyed because of what I'm about to tell you. Because of what? Because of peer pressure. Because of group think. Because people want to fit in. People don't want to be the black sheep at work wherever they are. People don't want to do that. Look, peer pressure, peer pressure is real and it can be good or it can be bad. But peer pressure can be good too. Did you know that? The Bible even talks about it. Hebrews 10 25 talks about, you know, going to church and what, doing what. It talks about church people, you know, exhorting one another. It talks about church people, go to Hebrews chapter 10 and verse number 25. Look folks, this, this is very powerful. And Christians underestimate it. This is how entire organizations and entire communities are corrupted. Is by this idea of peer pressure, group think. Think of science today. Think of the scientific community in whatever field you want to bring up. It is total group think. Think about the environmentalist movements out there. You think about, you know, the global warming thing. There is literally no independent thought. It's not allowed. You're like, but what, but it's science. But it's university. Look, CO2 is .04% of the atmosphere of the air that we breathe. And the more CO2 that's in the atmosphere, the more plants use and the bigger plants grow and the more yield a crop will, will produce. Thus using up more of that CO2, if it bumps up a little bit, the plants grow more and it's almost like a balancing effect. Would this balance out? Has anyone done the math on this? You could never even bring this up. You could never even be in a university biology class and bring something like that up. You could never be in a, in an anatomy class or something like this at university. That's what university is trying to teach. It's, it's being, it's being marketed to people that, oh, we're going to educate you and give you this great mind and teach you how to think. You know what it's doing? Is it standardizing thinking. It's literally institutionalizing people. What if you were in anatomy class? A fourth year anatomy class or a fifth, six year medical student and you're like, this is, this human body is really complicated. Like, is it even possible that this could happen by accident? The professor would freak out. Is it? It seems like this could have been designed. What do you think about God? Is that a possibility? They would flip out. They would flip out. They would, they would, the entire class would attack you. Like, what are you, crazy? It's standardized thinking. It's group think. So what do people do? People don't do that. People don't bring those things up. Why? Peer pressure. People don't question the, the mainstream science of the day. Look, or their money's taken away and all these things. You know what they do? They shut up. So they can get the grants and they can get the research projects and they can get all these things. I used to play around in this world. That's exactly how it works. So they shut up. They don't, they don't, they don't bring up these things. They fit right into the group. So what? So they can receive the honor of man. You know what it does? It kills science. It kills, it kills the community of whatever it takes over. It's totally corrupted. But look, you need to understand as a Christian, this pressure, this pressure is real. It's real and it's everywhere and it stops progress. And you know what? It'll stop your Christian life. It'll stop your Christian life if you don't recognize it. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. I think I led you astray, but just turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. It says, it says exhorting one another in Hebrews 10, 25. You know what that means? You know what exhorting one another means? It means urging one another to do something. You know that? You know what? It's like, it's like pressuring people to do something. It's saying go to church and exhort one another. Exhort people to do what? Everything that you're hearing at church. The Bible is saying you go to church to get peer pressure, good peer pressure that is in line with the honor of God. You're going to go there and you're going to do godly things and get sin out of your life and do these things and take all this, you're going to lose all this honor on the outside world. You're going to come here and people are going to be like, good job, you shouldn't have been doing that anyway. Way to go, way to see, nice to see you at church. They're going to exhort you, they're going to pressure you to start implementing the Bible in your life. What's the point of church? Well, I don't need church. I don't need church. I have church in my basement or whatever, you know, with myself. I exhort myself. As you just, you know, just in sin and filth and all kinds of other things. No, the Bible says that's one of the reasons for church is that positive peer pressure because there's plenty of negative and it needs to be balanced. This is why the Bible teaches separation. Look at 2 Corinthians 6 17. The Bible says, Wherefore come out from among them? From who? And be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I'll receive you. Come out from among who? It's come out from among them that you would lose honor from by implementing the Bible. The Bible is saying you can't keep putting yourself in those situations because you're going to get influenced. You're going to cave. It's not going to work. The Bible is saying you've got to come out from them and come to ye. That's what the Bible is talking about. That's why it's not just trying to be mean and be like, oh no, you can only talk to two people. No, it's saying get in church, get with people that are aligned with God's love, aligned with the voice of God, the scriptures of God, the word of God, and come out from anyone that's not aligned with God. That's what the Bible is saying. It's called edification. And your family is the same thing. You know, your family is, like, I'm talking about your home, your house, your family. This is why, you know, as a father, as a mother, you are influencing your children. You are influencing them. You are putting peer pressure on them in one way or another. This is why what you do is way more important than anything that you say. Because your works, just like Jesus, your works testify what you believe. Your works testify and put that peer pressure on your children in one way or another. So if you say things and you're just like, yeah, but these things are just not that important for me to do them, you might as well not even say them. It would be better if you didn't even say it. Because then they're just going to think you're a hypocrite and you're a liar, the people that you're leading. Your family is an influential group. And look, this is one of the things that, you know, be not afraid of their faces. People hate saying this, but the man, the husband is supposed to be the most influential figure in that group. The man is supposed to influence the wife. Not the other way around. So you find some, you know, some husband that's like, I'm not able to influence my wife. What would you do? What do you do if I can't get my wife to, you know, follow my spiritual leadership or whatever it is? Well, I mean, she needs to see your works. That's how you do it. You need to testify of your beliefs through your works. So you just need to go to church every time. You take the kids to church every time. You need to just do whatever. I mean, you just need to do whatever you are trying to lead people into doing. Look, leadership is influence. Leadership is influence. Family influences can be positive or negative pressure. If you say one thing and do another, you are influencing things in the bad way, in a very bad way, in a negative way, and it's serious. Turn to Luke chapter 14. How about just like people around you or other family? Let me explain this verse to you that a lot of people are confused about and a lot of people have asked me about over the years. But look at Luke chapter 14. I think it's going to make more sense to you now that we've gone through this whole exercise this evening. Look at Luke chapter 14 and verse number 26. So the honor of man is good as long as you first have the honor of God. As long as those two things line up. So if I, as a pastor, I want a good report of them that are without, I'm going to go do a bunch of ungodly things to get people to like me? No. No. The Bible is saying that if you have the favor of God, you will have the proper favor with man. And some men you're just not going to have their favor because of the favor of God. Look at Luke chapter 14, 26. Remember what hate means. When you read the word hate, just don't go ahhh. If any man come to me. So that's the first part right there. That's the key to the whole verse. If any man come to me. If any man wants to align with me, what does he say by come to me means? It means be a disciple of Jesus. At the very end of the verse he says if any man come to me, this person comes to Jesus and wants to be a disciple. It's somebody that's saved and they want to do what? They want to follow Jesus. They want to be in honor with God. They want to be doing the works that God wants them to do. They want to be getting the sin out of their life. They want to be going soul winning, preaching the gospel, doing what God wants them to do. If any man wants that, look at this, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sister, yea even his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. Remember, what does hate mean? Hate means strongly disagree with. So Jesus is simply saying if being a disciple of mine means that you strongly disagree with your father, you got to choose me. Or you can't be a disciple. This doesn't mean just go hate your parents no matter who it is. That makes no sense. You'd have to kill yourself. Like you'd have to just commit suicide. You get to, you read the whole Bible and you get to Luke 14 and 26 and you're like oh man. What it means is if any man wants to be a disciple of Jesus and that puts him at odds with anybody, including fear for his own life, that you must choose the Lord. Or, or what? Or you're not saved anymore? No, you can't be a disciple. It's like you're not going to be able to do anything for the kingdom of heaven. You're not going to be able to do work that is profitable that I need you to do. Here's the thing folks. Following Jesus, being a disciple of Jesus, thank God this is not most people. Thank God that you being a Bible believing Christian that wants to serve the Lord with your life is not going to anger most people. Because guess what? Most people are just like, oh okay. Most people don't care that you go to church. People that aren't saved that don't go to church that are never going to go to church and never get saved that are just meh. I mean most people are not going to be against you because of this. And that's the favor that you have because you're going to have their favor. Why? Because you're kind. Because you're merciful. Because you're honest. Look, you're going to have favor at work because you're a Bible believing Christian because you show up on time. You're ugly. You stay late. You work hard because you're working for Christ. So you're going to have people's favor just because you're a Christian. And most people aren't going to hate you because you're a Bible believing Christian. That's not most people. Thank God. Thank God that everybody starts with a conscience and most people haven't completely destroyed theirs. But some people are going to. The thing you need to understand though is that the group is influential. The group is extremely influential and you need to be careful who is influencing you. And you also need to understand that your wife and your children are more influential, influenceable than you are. Or at least they're supposed to be. You're supposed to be stronger as a leader of your home and you need to be protective of that. You need to be protective of people that would break down the faith of your children. That would break down the faith of your wife. You need to be careful about those situations and come out from among them. What's the litmus test? The litmus test is that people are not in line like they're literally, you know, you being in line with God means that you are against them or they are against you because of that. Look, that's not most people. Thank God for that. But the group is influential and that's what you need to understand tonight. So look, influence all over has destroyed this country. And the reason that Christians are where they are today, even saved people that know nothing of the Bible, is the first thing is they know nothing of the Bible. So they don't even know when they're being influenced. They don't even know when they're bringing the media into their home and the media is just all these subtleties. You wonder like 20 years ago, and the only litmus test or the only measuring stick I have here is the opinion on gay marriage. Twenty years ago it was like 90-10 against. 80-20 against. Now it's exactly flipped. Something happened. You know what happened? Influence happened. Media happened. Lies happened. And it just got repeated and repeated and people didn't even know they're being influenced. Influence is dangerous. And that's why God says, look, God says turn to Mark. Turn to Mark. Let's end here. Turn to Romans 16. Romans chapter 16. That's why the Bible is saying you need to recognize when this bad influence is coming, you need to log it. You need to log it. The Bible says Mark them. Mark them. It says Mark them that what though? Look at the verse, verse number 17 of Romans chapter 16. The Bible says you need to take note, Mark them and avoid people that would be against God's plan, against what? Now I beseech you, brethren. Mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to what? The doctrine which ye have learned. The Bible is saying when you find somebody that is contrary and is causing divisions, this is exactly what I've been talking about tonight. This is the exact problem with the Pharisees. It's saying when you find somebody that's contrary to the voice, to the Scriptures, to the Word, you need to mark and avoid. You need to keep them away from everybody that is underneath your protective custody as a Bible believing Christian father and protect, mark and avoid those people. That what? That are contrary, meaning they're against it. And again, most people are not against it. Most people, you go out sowing, most people just don't care, unfortunately. Most people just have no interest, unfortunately. I believe the Bible. Most people are like, hey, cool. Most people that don't believe the Bible are never going to read the Bible will benefit from knowing someone, working with someone, working for someone, working with someone that does believe the Bible. Because that just means they're going to be treated well. That means they're going to have a good, they're going to have a good hand that they're working with. They're going to have a decent person that's not, you know, filthy and not, you know, getting into all kinds of garbage. They're going to have somebody that they can rely on. Hopefully that's what that means. So most people you should have favor with but not when they go against God. So look, be careful who's influencing you. And don't underestimate it. And remember that you will influence others whether you like it or not. Moms, you will influence your children. One way or another. Every single day. And look, you probably have the most influence on your children. You're spending the most time with them. You need to show them through what you do that you what you do that positive influence. Through what you do, not what you say. You're the main influence in that home. This is the problem with the Pharisees. They just, they didn't care about God. They only cared about each other, the honor amongst each other, and influencing each other. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.