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Okay, so Philippians chapter 2, we're going to come back to that later on. I'm still going through that series, the works of the flesh. Obviously I don't want to be reading Galatians 5 every service, so I'm just thinking other passages where my notes will lead me. But you can stay there for now, I'm just saying Galatians 5, 19, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations. So we've gone through all of that so far, and what continues in verse number 20 is wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. So the title for the sermon this afternoon is works of the flesh part 3, and we're going to be looking at wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. So we're just going to follow that same order that we have in Galatians 5. Now when we talk about wrath, I think we merely think of anger. We often, in fact, you know, quite often in the Bible, you could alternate between anger and wrath. And when we think of wrath, we often think about maybe, I don't know what you think, but I guess sometimes we think about excessive anger, like anger to the extreme. But I was doing a bit of reading just in preparation for this sermon, I was just kind of looking at different passages, and I did notice something quite different between wrath and anger, okay? And this is the idea that anger is essentially an emotion we feel, you know, when something is ungodly, unrighteous, and it's an emotion God, it's a God of emotions, and, you know, we're made in the image of God, and so we obviously share many of the same emotions that God has, and so we can get angry as an emotion. But one thing I started to observe as I'm going through the Bible, is that wrath is the action or the outpouring of that anger. So for example, like we could get angry about something, but then we don't really take action about it. Like we get angry, okay, and we get over it. But when we experience wrath, we're actually doing something in action. So often when we talk about, we've been going through the book of Revelation, we don't say, we generally don't say God is pouring out his anger. We say that God is pouring out his wrath, okay? And, you know, even the vile judgments of God, the vials of God's wrath that's been poured out upon the earth. If you can come with me to Genesis 49, I just want to show you this, in Genesis 49 and verse number 5, Genesis 49 and verse number 5, and we did look at Genesis 49 in the morning sermon about that cryptic prophecy of Judah. Well, there's also a prophecy for Simeon and Levi in Genesis 49, verse number 5. Genesis 49, verse number 5 says, Simeon and Levi are brethren, instruments of cruelty and in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly mine honor be not thou united. Now notice this, it says, For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they dig down a wall. And look at verse number 7, Cursed be, cursed be their anger, for it was fierce and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. So what Jacob is speaking about, you may not, I don't know if you know, Genesis 34, you can read about in your own time, is that their daughter Dinah went out and made friends with the daughters of the land. She met a young man called Shechem and they committed fornication. Okay, and of course that was contrary to God's ways. When it comes to Simeon and Levi, they both became very angry about the situation. Jacob's trying to sort things out. Jacob, you know, obviously encouraged Shechem to be circumcised in the flesh, of course being a picture of the circumcision of the heart. So the young man, you know, symbolically got saved. And the idea was that he would be able to marry Dinah because obviously the fornication that took place. Well, when it comes to Simeon and Levi, they decided they were so angry about what happened to their sister, they go and they kill Shechem and they kill all the people of the city. Okay, so Jacob is essentially speaking of the anger and the wrath of Simeon and Levi. And I just wanted to show you that in verse number 7, like how he speaks of cursed be their anger, for he was fierce and their wrath, it was cruel. Okay, so you can see that just both elements are being broadcast there by Jacob as far as these two brothers. Come with me to another passage. Come with me to 2 Kings 22. And again, just like this morning sermon, I've got a lot of references. You don't need to turn to everything if you don't have time. But 2 Kings 22 verse number 16. Obviously, we want to talk about our Lord God and God has also anger and our Lord God has wrath. And of course, we're talking about the works of the flesh. And like I've covered before, look, if we get angry about something God gets angry about, that is righteous. But there is an anger or a wrath that can emulate from our flesh, which is contrary to what God wants. But look at 2 Kings 22 verse 16. 2 Kings 22 verse 16. It says, Because they have forsaken me, they have burned incense unto other gods. So obviously, they worship in false gods, look at this, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. So God is provoked to anger because they worship in false gods. Then he says this, Therefore, my wrath shall be kindled in this place and shall not be quenched. And so God's response from his anger, he says he's going to pour out his wrath or his wrath will be kindled in that place. And so often you can see how the Bible uses both the words anger and wrath. And again, as I kept exploring this, it appeared to me that anger is that emotional reaction. And then wrath is the response to that emotional anger that we all kind of can experience. But coming into another passage now, come with me to Psalm 37, and while you're turning to Psalm 37, I'll read to you from James chapter 1 verse number 19, which says, Then it says this in verse number 20, Now we know God's wrath is righteous, but there's the wrath of man, or the wrath of the flesh. And our wrath does not work the righteousness of God. And so when we're going through the works of the flesh, and we've seen all these different sins laid out, obviously the wrath that we, the reaction we may have when we get hot, you know, hot tempered, when we get angered, we may act in a certain way that is not according to the righteousness of God. All right. Now, here's the key to this. I don't know if you're, you know, hot tempered, short tempered. I don't know if you're someone that can't help but respond. I don't know if you're someone that is slow to anger. I hope you are. I hope over the years that you've been saved, you know, you know that God, that vengeance belongs to God. And you know that many times you're just going to have to deal with persecution and hatred from other people. And I hope you've grown to the point where you can say, Lord, I'm not going to let that bother me. I'm going to stay focused on your work. I'm going to have peace in my heart and Lord, I'm going to let you take over and I'll let you pour out your wrath. I'll give space to your wrath, you know, so I can just be focused on your kingdom and serving you. But in Psalm 37, verse number 7, I love what it says in Psalm 37, 7. It says, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. You see, when we take out action, the action of wrath, you know, the wrath of man or the wrath of the flesh, it's because we've not waited patiently for the Lord. We need to understand that God's timing is not our timing, but the Lord sees all things. The Lord sees the evil you've done to others and the Lord sees the evil others have done to you. And look, if the Lord has not stepped in and chastised you for the wrong you've done, God has given you time to be humbled, to seek forgiveness, to make things right. You know, you don't have to wait for God's chastisement to fall before you take any action to correct that measure. But God also sees the things that has been done to you. And we need to learn to wait patiently upon the Lord. It says there, fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. He says, don't worry about it. Don't, like you said, look, they've treated me badly. They've done wrong to me. It seems like they're getting away with it. The Bible says, don't fret yourself. Don't worry about it. Just let it be. It's hard for us as human beings. We want to see justice straight away. Look, our God is a just God. He's going to let justice come to pass. But again, in his timing, it says in verse number eight, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. God says, you don't have to repay them with evil. But notice, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Again, we understand that if we're going to get angry where God gets angry, that is righteous anger. Obviously, the context of this is doing something foolish, something evil in return for the evil that has been done to you. You know, Jesus Christ tells us not to render evil for evil. Then he says in verse number nine, for evildoers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Look, God promised evildoers are going to be cut off. God's going to judge them. Look at verse number 10, and yet for a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Isn't that nice? Like we're going, oh, the wicked governments and the wicked politicians and whatever it is, the wickedness of people that have attacked me and persecuted me. God says, oh, it's just a little while. Don't worry about it. It's just a little time, okay? The wicked will be cut off. The wicked shall not be. It says, yea, they shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. He goes, if you're just carbon, you just get on with business. At some point when you remember, oh, that person that's been persecuted me and hated me, you start looking, where are they? What's happened to them? Oh, they're not here anymore. God has judged them. You know, God has balanced the books. In verse number 11, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Look, I've learned to rejoice in the abundance of peace. I want to be a peaceful man. Look, are the times that I get angry, concerned, fearful? Of course. But by and large, I think if you know me well enough, I want to be at peace. You know, I want as much as I can to believe peaceably with all men, okay? But of course, peace will not override what is righteous and what is godly. And if I, as a man of God here at church, preaching God's word, if I have to preach things that do not bring peace, if I'm preaching something from God's word that might be controversial, I'm going to preach it. I don't care. I want to serve my Lord God first and foremost. But once I've done that, my goal is to be at peace with as many people as I can. I don't want to be someone of wrath and anger. You know, that's not going to be, I want to just have a happy life essentially, okay? So the first works of the flesh is wrath. And that's something that you need to overcome. I don't know where you stand on that. Like, there are people that have a hard time holding their temper. You know, I've kind of learnt to control, I'm not this wonderful, amazing person, but you know, I've learnt to control my emotions. I know when I was much younger as a teenager, I had a short temper. You know, if someone mocked me, if someone teased me, I'd get angry about it very quickly. These days, I don't care. It's like, I realise God sees it. God, justice is yours. Vengeance is yours. Wrath is yours. I don't know how to pour out wrath properly because I've got the flesh. I don't know. I think I just want to get even with people. So that's probably the wrong thing to do. So I'll just leave it with you, God. You know exactly how to take care of things. So I'm not going to allow myself to, you know, have the works of the flesh and allow wrath to be a prominent figure in my life. But that's wrath. Let's talk about strife. Can you come with me to Genesis 13? The next one on the list is strife. Genesis 13 verse number 5. Genesis 13 verse number 5. The reason I bring up this passage, it's the first time the word strife comes up in the Bible. So let's see the reaction between two men here that have gotten themselves into a bit of a strife. In Genesis 13 verse number 5, it says, And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them, they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. So this is, of course, Abraham and his nephew Lot. The Lord's blessed them with abundance, with riches. They've got all these herds, they've got all these servants, but there's not enough space to have them both in the same location. And of course, that's going to generate strife. Okay, that's going to generate, whenever you bring people together and you step on each other's toes, it's going to develop strife. Okay? Now, verse number 7. And there was a strife, there it is, and there was a strife between the herd men of Abram's cattle and the herd men of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. So you've got this argument, not so much between Abraham and Lot, but between their servants. Now, the common reaction of the flesh will be, well, this is my space, you get out of the way. And you're like that, and so am I. You know why? Because when we're driving peaceably and someone cuts us off in the lane, we get a bit of that road rage. How dare they cross my path? How dare they step on my toes? But how does Abram respond? I love how Abram responds, you know, when there's a situation of strife. Verse number 8. Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herd men and thy herd men, for we be brethren. Should we have strife in our church? For we be brethren. Why would we have strife in our church? I won't show the reaction of a mature man of God like Abram. He goes, why? We don't need to strive, we don't need to argue. We love each other, we're brethren. Then this is what he does. And look, wouldn't you say Abraham is the leader in this family? That Abraham is the one that God has gone to and said you need to leave your land? And God promised him, you know, the land and the blessings and all that to come with it. But look how he responds. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. That is maturity. You know what Abraham doesn't go, well, God spoke to me, I'm going to say exactly where I am Lot and you're the one that needs to go. He wants peace. He goes Lot, whatever you decide. You go right, I'll go left. If you go left, I'll go right. I don't want to cause strife. He gives Lot the opportunity to decide what he prefers. And we're going to see as we keep going through this sermon that that is an important part in your Christian life, is the ability to let go of your personal needs and desires and just let someone else do what they need to do. You're the mature one and you'll go the other way. You know, you're putting the needs of others first before you think of your own needs. So that is the first time strife is in the Bible. And I want to show you how a mature believer responded to this situation. Come with me to Proverbs, Proverbs 17. And the book of Proverbs has too many references on strife. I can't have them all in my notes, but I do want to read some of them. Proverbs 17 and verse number 1. Proverbs 17 and verse number 1. Proverbs 17 verse 1 reads, better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife. The Bible is saying, instead of having a household full of strife, it's better to just have a small portion of bread and be at peace, quietness. Like God is saying, you're better being poor and not much to eat, you know, but you have peace in the house. Then to have excessiveness, I guess the sacrifices there might be a reference to, obviously the sacrifice that were offered in the Old Testament, the Levites, that would be the food source for the Levites. Okay, so they would have, you know, the barbecue meats and all that kind of stuff, right? And like, okay, that might be nice having the, you know, the meats and the sacrifices to eat of rather than a piece of bread. But if that comes with strife, you're better with the household that has peace and just a little bit of bread. Okay, so this is how important living a life without strife is, according to God's word, it's better that way, you know, than having all the things that you can eat and having strife with you. Look at verse number 14, Proverbs 17, 14. The beginning of strife is as when one letseth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. The idea there is that, you know, like for example, if this is a cup of water, if I were to, you know, pierce the bottom of my cup and the water starts to flow, that's like the beginning of strife. Like once the water starts to flow, it's hard to get it back in the container, okay? And once strife begins, it's hard to make peace, okay? That's why it says therefore leave off contention. You have no part of it. You know, our instruction is don't get involved in strife. Don't get involved in contention between one another. Come into Proverbs 10. Proverbs 10, verse 12, Proverbs 10, verse 12. Proverbs 10, 12 says, hatred stirreth up strifes. Say, pastor, why is there sometimes strife in church, contentions in church, one brother with another brother, because there's hatred, that's why. It says here, but love covereth all sins. You know what that means? If you sin against me, instead of losing control, oh, I can't believe brother, I did that. You know what? I need to sometimes be like, you know what? Like, okay, let's turn around. Let's say it's me, because I say stupid jokes, stupid sarcastic things, and I'm gonna offend you one day. Can I see a show of hands to everyone that I've offended so far? No, I'm just kidding. Thanks, sister, thanks for all your honesty. Appreciate it, appreciate it. But if you say, look, I love my pastor, you know, he's just being stupid and silly and trying to have a laugh. I'm just gonna overlook, I love him. You know what? That's the right approach, okay? Love covereth all sins. Now, look, if I've offended you bad enough, come and tell me, I'll say sorry, okay? But look, honestly, like, we can't expect, we're going to step on each other's toes from time to time. We're gonna say something stupid, something insensitive from time to time. I've said it so many times, you know? I, look, when I preach God's word, I'm gonna preach it with conviction, you know? But there are times that I finish preaching and I go home and I'm a bit sad. You know why? Because I'm thinking, oh man, I might have offended brother or sister so and so with that sermon. But my heart is to preach God's word regardless, okay? And, you know, we need to understand that, look, when we're, as God's people, we're not these wonderful, amazing, perfect, righteous people all the time. We mess up sometimes, okay? But I'm not gonna get offended every time someone forgot to say hello to me. Offended every time someone didn't come and say, pastor, that was a good sermon or something like that. Thank you for your service, pastor. Who cares? I honestly, I love my church. No, I love the brothers and sisters and I love the children in our church. And I love that I've been given the honor to serve in the house of the Lord. And brethren, if you've been given a ministry, whatever it is, whatever it is, you know, even bringing food for morning tea or sharing lunch together or cleaning the toilets, if someone forgets to thank you or, you know, doesn't appreciate what you've done, you just gotta say, look, I'm gonna let my love cover whatever sins may have been caused against me. We can't be so thin-skinned every time something happens. Oh, I can't believe it. That's gonna destroy our church. Strife and contentions. Proverbs 15, please, verse 18. Proverbs 15, 18, a wrathful man, let's join a few of these things together, wrath. A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. You know, again, I don't wanna be the hero of my stories. I try to tell myself to the villain when I can, but just saw one in yesterday, like I was with my boys and there was a woman there that was trying to press our buttons, okay? And she had to vent and, you know, she was having a go at the church and, you know, I'm offended that you've come to speak to me and your sons aren't even adults and you're forcing them to, you're forcing religion on your sons and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Look, I could have responded in an angry manner. Was I tempted to? Absolutely. Absolutely, I was tempted to respond in the same manner. You know what? I just try to be calm and I just try to let her vent in case I could turn that venting into an opportunity to give her the gospel. Cause I realized this isn't just someone that's angry at me. She's never met me. I've knocked her door. She doesn't know anything about me. She's not really angry at me. She's angry at God. And once she gets the vent, maybe I can show her the love of God. Okay, I didn't get to. She was too angry. But anyway, the point is, you know, we understand that at the end of that conversation was quite pleasant. She was rude. She was definitely rude. No one walked away saying that she wasn't rude, but it didn't cause any strife. Like we didn't walk away. It's argumentative. I thanked her for her time, you know, and she said, at the end, she said, I'm sorry if I come across aggressive or rude. I said, well, you're not that aggressive or rude because we've had worse. You have worse sometimes when you go do so, so winning. But look, obviously if I responded in the same manner, that could have blown up and been a massive situation. Proverbs 26, please. Proverbs 26, verse 17. Proverbs 26, verse 17. I know this is a favorite Psalm of many. Proverbs 26, verse 17. Hear that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. I like that one too, because you get a picture of it. There's strife. It's not my problem, but I can't wait to get involved. Come and tell me about it. What can I do? How can I slur the pot and see what plays out? And then you've got that meme with the popcorn and you're like, you're just watching back. You're in the popcorn, trying to see what happens. Well, you know, it says here, it's like one that takes a dog by the ears. If you get involved in strife, you're gonna get bitten. You're gonna get barked at. It's gonna fall apart for you. You know, the strife, if the strife doesn't belong to you, don't get involved. That's the teaching. Otherwise, yeah, it's like grabbing a dog by the ears. What is it gonna do? It's gonna bite you. It's gonna hurt you in return. Stay there in Proverbs 26. I'll quickly read to you from Proverbs 16, 28. It says, a froward man soweth strife, and a whisperer separateth chief friends. A whisperer is like a gossiper, okay? They want gossip. And did you know, sister so-and-so? Did you know, brother so-and-so said this about you? You know, I've had situations where I'm talking to, you know, a church member, a church member about a situation of their life. And then they've, because I may have mentioned somebody else in some of the situation, they've then gone to the other person. Did you know a pastor thinks that about you? It's like, that's not even the context of the discussion. Okay, and when you don't have the context, it loses its meaning. It can mean anything, okay? Like if I have something to say to you, I promise you I'll go up to you and I'll say it to you. Okay, I'm never going to say something about you or to you through someone else. Because I know what gossip and whispering is like. It can destroy churches. But be careful of whisperers. Be careful of gossipers. Be careful of people that come up to you and criticise this brother or that brother. Did you know they don't go to this church service or did you know they're not listening to online preaching? Did you know they're not out soul winning? It's like, why are you like that? Why are you so critical of the brethren? I don't understand. I don't understand that attitude. You're in Proverbs 26, look at verse number 20. When no wood is, there the fire goeth out. That makes sense. If the fire stop burns all the fuel, but then it says this. So where there is no tale bearer, the strife ceaseth. Where there is no tale bearer, the gossiper, the whisperer, they continue the strife burning. It could have run its legs. It'd be over, but there's so much. They love the gossip. They love the confusion. They love the strife. They want to separate chief friends. They want to cause church divisions. Verse number 21 says, as coals are to burning coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a tale bearer are as wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. I want you to notice that the words of a tale bearer are as wounds. You know when there's a situation and you want to listen to gossip, because that's the flesh, the flesh wants to listen to gossip. You may not realize how much damage it's causing you. Receiving the gossip, receiving the whispering, it says it are as wounds to you. They go down into the innermost parts of the belly. It hurts you, okay? Because you may have liked brother so-and-so. You may have gotten along with brother so-and-so. They've been a friend to you. You love them. They love you. You get along just fine, but you listen to the, it's affected you. Now you don't want, don't even like them anymore. Why? Is that gossip even true? Is it even in its right context? No, that gossiper is trying to cause division in our church. Please be careful, church. Look, I'm the same. If there's gossip, I'm, huh, huh, huh, what's that? Well, but it's, it causes wounds. Like what kind of idiot wants to just go and hurt themselves? But that's when we chase gossip and we want to continue strife to burn. We're doing that to ourselves. We're damaging ourselves in this process. Can you come with me to Luke 22? Come with me to Luke 22. Luke 22, and while you're turning to Luke 22, I'm gonna read to you from one other proverb. Proverbs 22, 10. It says, cast out the scorner and contention shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease. Cast out the scorner. You know, many times when there's strife in church problems and arguments, did you know it's usually just like one person that has caused all the problem? Maybe one, maybe two. But usually it's the very few. But they've gone around putting words in your ears, making you think bad of that person. Think of that bad of that person. Okay, did you know? Of course, we're all sinners. Of course he did something wrong. Of course she's done something wrong. Of course they did not live a godly life this week. Of course they sinned against the Lord. Of course, because they're sinners in need of a savior. But some people, they want to take that and did you know this and that, blah, blah, blah. Sometimes when that squatter leaves the church, it's at peace. It's like, hold on, where did the strife go? Ah, that's where it went, okay? It was one person, it was two people, it was a few people, just very few people that caused strife, division in the entire church. You're there in Luke 22, look at verse number 24. Let this never be in our church, please. I don't want this to ever happen in our church. Luke 22, 24, this is the disciples of Jesus. And there was also a strife among them, among the disciples of Jesus, why? Which of them should be accounted the greatest? Which one does Jesus love more? Which one does, you know, in the eyes of Jesus, I think I'm doing better than you are. Comparison, look what I'm, you're not doing what I'm doing. And what's causing strife? Comparing one another. It's ridiculous, why? Again, why, why do we compare one to another? It happens, you know, when someone criticizes a brother sits in the Lord, they're saying, I'm better than they are. That's what they're doing. Oh no, I'm just concerned for that. No, you're not. You want to cause strife. You want to cause contentions. You want to cause divisions. Look at how Jesus responds, verse number 25. And he said unto them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them. And they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so. He goes, the unsaved world is like that. Yeah, the one that is the greatest gets all the service and the reputation, right? Or whatever it is. He goes, but ye shall not be so. But he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger. And he that is chief, as he that doth serve. That reminds me of Abraham with Lot. He's the, he is the greater. He's the mature, he's older. You know, he's got Lot saved even. But he made himself the servant. He goes, Lot, you do whatever you want. No, I'll go the other way. Jesus Christ says, we need to serve one. You want to be great in the eyes of Jesus? Then you need to lower yourself and serve the other. That's how we ought to look at our church. You know, when we compare, are you doing as much soul winning as me? Are you doing as much Bible reading as me? You know what? I come to church. Like, I'm not joking. I come to church and I look at you guys and I think, Lord, what a great people. They're better than I am. Help me to serve my brethren as best as I can. Help me to preach a sermon as best I can to feed your so great people. I don't want to criticize you guys. Like, life is hard enough. Life has problems enough. You got your battle between the flesh and the spirit and it grieves you and grieves the Lord. You've got enough battles. The last thing I want to do is be there pointing and criticizing you and you know, you're not up to some standard. I want to serve you. I just want to, you're better than I am. And I hope you can turn around and do the same thing. Philippians 2, 3 says, let nothing be done for strife and vainglory. Let nothing be done for strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other, better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things. Look how good I am. But on every man also the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Do you have the mind of Christ this morning? You know, do you think of your brothers and sisters as inferior because they can't attend as many church services or they don't know the Bible as well as you do? Or they've not been saved as long as you have? Or their family standards are not up to your high holier than thou church family standards or what have you? Look that all of that kind of talk and comparison causes strife and contentions. You need to come in and say, everybody here in church is better than I am. And I'm gonna serve them faithfully as best as I know how. Cause that's a son of God. That's a daughter of God. That's part of God's Royal family. The blood of Jesus Christ has washed them from all their sins. And I'm gonna treat them as a child of God. Not as competition. The next thing on the list is seditions. Seditions. Now, I don't know if you know what that word means, but seditions is basically incitement or rebellion against governments. Okay. Or another definition is the disruption of public peace. Okay. But the incitement or rebellion against governments. And this is one reason I'm not a very popular preacher even amongst my brethren. Cause I feel you. I know the government's wicked. I know. But I kind of don't care. I don't care at the same time. Because I'm part of a different government. You know, I'm an ambassador for heaven, from heaven. And like when you, if an Australian ambassador sends an ambassador to Japan or something, like if the ambassador kept just bagging out Japan and you guys are a horrible nation in comparison to Australia, it's gonna cause war. It's gonna cause problems, conflicts. I'm an ambassador of Jesus Christ. I represent heaven. I represent the kingdom of God. And if the government of Australia is corrupt and yeah, I hate it. And I'll preach against it. But at the end of the day, I'm not trying to turn this church into some political force or to join some protests so we can change government hands. That's in the hand of God. We've seen before he raises kings, he takes down kings. That's in his hand, I'll leave it to him. You know? And, but that's what seditions are. Incitement or rebellion against government or just authority. And sometimes you can have incitement in church. I just got a text message before this service. A brother in the Lord asked me to pray for his church because there's a church split. Whenever there's a church split, you know why? They don't want, they don't like the pastor. Churches don't just split. Whisperers, gossipers, criticisms, whatever it is, okay? And are they seeing each other better than the other? Of course not. Okay, and then before you know it, I don't know the details. He just asked me to pray out another details. But I guarantee you, and it sounds like he's a good pastor from what I hear. A man who's saved and knows the gospel well and leads the church faithfully and preaches hard on sin and all that. But sometimes people come into churches because they just want to corrupt. They want to destroy. They want to tear down pastors. And I tell you now, I'm not some perfect man. If you find some issue in my life, I mean, that's nothing special. What? Like I can tell you so much more of the problems and difficulties and the things that I'm working through in my life. But that's what people do. Whisper, did you know this? Did you know that? And I'm not trying to defend myself. If I'm not a pastor, I just love God's house. I love the people of God. I love the local church. And I'm going to back my pastor, my old pastors. I've always backed my, even when I've disagreed with them, even when they've done something that I just think, I don't know if that was the right thing to do. But hey, that's my pastor. He's serving the Lord. He's feeding me God's word. I'm going to have his back, unless he does something significant where he disgraces himself from the ministry or something like that. But people that want to rebel against authority. It's not just authority in the church and authority in government. It can be authority in the home. You know, wives turning against their husbands, turning their children against the fathers, you know, causing marital breakups and all that. That's basically seditions. Just people that hate authority. And can you come with me to Ezra, please? Ezra chapter four. Ezra chapter four, please. Now the book of Ezra, of course, it's about the Jews coming back out of Babylon captivity. They're rebuilding the city. And this particular story here, they're rebuilding the temple of God, they're rebuilding the house of God. Now, obviously the generation that is building again, the city and the house of God, is different from the generation that God judged by the hand of the Babylonians, right? It's the children, it's the grandchildren that are coming through, they're now right with God and God's allowed them to come back to the land to rebuild the house of God. Now, I wanted to think about this because the house of God in the New Testament is the local church. It's New Life Baptist Church, if you're part of this church. And here in Ezra chapter four, verse number six, it says, Ezra chapter four, verse number six, and in the reign of Ahasuerus, Ahas, Ahas, I can't even say it now, Ahasuerus, Ahas, Ahasuerus. I can't even say it. Anyway, does someone know how to pronounce it? Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. So the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem are rebuilding the temple, rebuilding the city, okay? And they're writing to the king about this. In Ezra, drop down to verse number 13. So this is some of the contents of what they're writing. Be it known now unto the king that if this city be builded and the walls set up again, then will they not pay toll, tribute, or custom, and so shout out and damage the revenue of the kings. So the warning is, if you let these Jews rebuild the city and the temple, they're not going to pay you tribute anymore, king, okay? Verse number 14, now, because we have maintenance from the king's palace, and it was not meet for us to see the king's dishonor, therefore have we sent and certified the king. That search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers, so shall they find in the book of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city, the city of Jerusalem, and hurtful unto kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition, there's the word, okay? They have moved sedition within the same of old time, but which cause was this city destroyed? We certify the king that if this city be builded again and the walls thereof set up, by this means they shall have no portion on this side of the river. All right, so they're warning the king, if you allow them to rebuild Jerusalem, they're not gonna pay you tribute, they're not going to pay you, you know, whatever it is, the taxes, okay? Why? Because they're rebellious, because if you look back in the records, they've moved sedition against kings, and it's true. Like it's true what he's saying. And again, this is what makes me unpopular as a preacher, because when Judah was going to be taken over by Babylon and judged by God, we're using Babylon, using King Nebuchadnezzar, you've got Jeremiah, prophet Jeremiah saying, guys, surrender, give up, this is the judgment of God, just surrender to the Babylonians, surrender to some wicked foreign governments. And he says, things will go well for you. Jeremiah saying, if you fight back, if you try to, you know, push against Babylon, you're gonna be wiped out, killed and destroyed. That's what Jeremiah was preaching that. Jeremiah was not preaching sedition. He was not preaching, go and protest and fight against Babylon. But guess what the false prophets were doing? They were preaching, let's fight against Babylon. Crazy Jeremiah, don't listen to him. God has guaranteed us victory. If we just rise up against Babylon, we're gonna win, and we're gonna break the yoke off our necks. That's all the false prophets preached. And the people listened to the false prophets. That's exactly what happened. Jerusalem was under siege, okay? Things got horrible famines, all kinds of wickedness took place in the city, and then the whole city was burnt down, not just the city, but the house of God was burnt down by King Nebuchadnezzar. And people were killed, slaughtered, taken away into captivity in prisons and all that kind of stuff. So those that are invoking sedition, they ended up losing their lives, destroying themselves. You got Jeremiah going, look, this is just God's judgment. Just get on with it. And for those that faithfully just surrendered to Babylon, they were also taken into captivity, but they were treated well. And God instructed Jeremiah, look, write them a letter, tell them this is gonna go on for 70 years, tell them to just build their houses, just get married, get on with life, just settle down, it's fine, it's all under God's control, just get on with life. But those that are rebellious against governments and authority, they go, oh, you need to rise up, I need to protest. Look, I'm not against protests in and of themselves. But let me tell you something that a brother in the Lord told me a little while ago. He got involved, now look, am I against abortions? Absolutely. And if a people rise up against our governments, say look, this is ungodly, this is wrong, we can't allow abortion in our land, I understand the sentiment and I agree with that sentiment. Okay, but this brother in the Lord told me, I went to protests with abortion protesters in the city, I don't know how many there were, 5,000, 10,000, I don't know, okay, protesting against abortion. And he says, even though I'm in favor of what we're doing and the message we're trying to bring, but he says, when I was gathered with that 5,000, 10,000, whatever, I don't know what number he was, people, he says, something came over me that I just can't explain. He goes, you know, we have our own emotions and we have our anger toward abortionists and the killing of innocent children. But when that anger is numbered with 10,000 people, other people, he goes, it's like you get swept away, you get swept away in this rush and this anger, and he goes like, it's not even me anymore. Like I'm in this big group, fighting against governments and he goes, I just did not feel right with the Lord in the middle of this situation because it wasn't my emotions, it wasn't my feelings. I'm not even acting the way I would normally act, but I'm with a group of people and it's like, it just all builds up and now like, I don't have peace and I don't, you know, I'm frustrated beyond what I normally would be. And again, of course we're against abortions, okay? But he kind of woke up to himself and go, you know what? This idea of protest can quickly get out of control. When you've got that much anger amongst that many people. And that's why people, you know, I believe it's true where governments might send in a sleeper agent in the midst of a protest, just to rile people up, start throwing bricks at, you know, police cars or start burning down buildings or what have you. And before you know it, people that would not normally get involved in that kind of situation, they get swept up in it with the emotion and the anger and all of a sudden you've got tens of thousands of people doing, you know, horrible things on the streets. We don't see that so much in Australia, there's more control, but I've definitely seen that in other places like Chile or, you know, countries that are poorer, where they might be protesting something that is right, but then they get swept up and some sleeper agents gets in there, causes violence and then it gets out of control and it's defeated the whole purpose of what that protest was all about. But seditions, you know, it's something that our flesh can get involved in and want to topple down governments and this and that and I'm just encouraging, like, I haven't even finished my thought here. You're still in Ezra, come with me to Ezra 4, verse 23, drop down to a few verses. And look, it's correct. You know, Jeremiah's, the first prophets in Jeremiah's day was telling the people, we need to rally against this foreign government and then in Ezra 4, 23, it says, now when the copy of King Artaxax's letter was read before Reham and Shimshi, the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, look at this, and made them to cease by force and power, then ceased the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius, King of Persia. Look, they were trying to do something good. They're trying to rebuild the house of God. They're getting busy for God. But what happened? The past of the Jews caught up with them, their seditions, their rebellion against government, their rebellion against judgments. Now that horrible testimony they had, caused them to stop the work of the house of God. And the reason New Life Baptist Church is not gonna get involved in some, look, you can do whatever you want in your own life. I'm not gonna command, I'm gonna tell you what to do in your own life. You wanna go out there and protest about this and that, you go for it, but New Life Baptist Church is not going to go officially and be part of some protest. Because I don't know what kind of mark that might leave for us in our past, when we're trying to do the work for the house of the Lord, and how that might prevent us from serving God to a full capacity. Seditions. You don't know how that affects your life in the future. You don't understand how that affects and leaves a bad mark on the house of the Lord. Can you come with me to Luke 23? Luke 23, verse number 16. Luke 23, verse number 16. Look, I just, I'm not a protester. It's not that I'm afraid, I just, I can't get the Bible to line up with that. I just can't twist scriptures to, I think we need to protest in a situation like that, and be amongst tens of thousands of people and just work up our anger and our frustration where things might even get to a point where it gets out of control. But we're looking at the crucifixion of Jesus. And in Luke 23, 16, Pilate says, I will therefore chasten him and release him. Because he found nothing wrong with, he says that Jesus is innocent and doesn't deserve being put to death. But then he says in verse number 17, but of necessity he must release one of them at the feast. And they cried out all at once saying, away with this man and release unto us Barabbas. Now let's learn about this Barabbas, verse number 19. Who for a certain sedition made in the city and for murder was cast into prison. So Barabbas, yeah, we know him as a murderer, but did you know he's also rebellious against the Roman governments of the day, right? I mean, the Roman government was a foreign power. It shouldn't be the power on the land of Judea, right? But we see that Barabbas is someone that got so angry at the Romans causing some kind of uproar, some kind of rebellion. And in that rebellion, he murdered somebody. And the Jews are like, oh, we'd rather Barabbas. Verse number 20, Pilate therefore willing to release Jesus spake again to them, but they cried saying, crucify him, crucify him. I wanted to show you the comparison with Jesus and Barabbas there. Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Is Jesus really under the power of the Jews, really under the power of the Roman Empire? He's above all of that. And he was willing to go to die as an innocent man for you and I, okay? People were constantly asking Jesus about the kingdom. When are you gonna bring in the kingdom, right? They're expecting as he came on the donkey, on that final week of his passion, they're like expecting him to take over and take down the Roman Empire. That's not how Jesus behaved, okay? His kingdom is coming. We've been looked at this morning, okay? It's coming, don't worry about it, okay? But now's not the time to fight some physical war. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. And so I can't see, like I look at Jesus, he functioned, he preached the gospel, he did the works of God under a foreign power. Barabbas tried to cause seditions, rebellion, protest, who knows what, ends up murdering a man, but you'll find that the Jews preferred that. We're like that, that's the kind of man we want. Someone who's gonna rebel against the Romans, we're rather that than the innocent man, Jesus Christ, who's just going about his business, not causing any problems, pointing people to salvation through his blood. So, look, if you ever asked a pastor, can I go to this protest, or what do you reckon? At the end of the day, it's your decision, or whatever you want, whatever you think is right, but I just don't, I can't see the Bible saying this is a good idea, okay? Can you come with me to 1 Corinthians 11? 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 11. The last one on the list was heresies, heresies. Now very quickly, heresies is just a false teaching. It sounds horrible, like that's a heretic, that's a heresy, but you know, there's no one in this church that agrees 100% on everything, and when you and I have a different idea on some issue or some doctrine, one of us is in heresy, or we're both in heresy, like if it's a contradiction of ideas, okay? That's all it means, it just means it's a false teaching, okay, but heresy is a work of the flesh. So if I'm, look, I'll tell you how this works. I've gotta prepare two sermons for Sunday, and then Wednesday, and then Thursday, then I'm blessed up at the church, and I'm putting my thoughts together, I'm working, I'm studying God's word, and of course, I'm expecting the vast majority of my sermons going to be correct. As best as I can line up with this flesh that I have, the limitations that I have of knowledge, I'm gonna do the best I can to expound God's word, and if what I'm preaching is correct, that's the work of the spirit. And if I say something incorrect, that's the work of the flesh. And have I ever said something incorrect when I preached? Never, of course I have. And you know what? That was a time when I was weak in the flesh, it got into my notes for some reason, okay? Am I trying to be some horrible false prophet when that happened? Of course not. But the flesh gets in the way of our understanding of God's word, and you need to understand that, okay? And I'm fine with that, because I realize that we're all sinners, we all have the flesh, we all have this battle, we all have preconceived ideas and biases that it's hard to get rid of, okay? I understand that. So don't think as soon as you think of heresy, that's it, that's a false brother, that's a false prophet. It can be, but anytime we disagree, one of us is in heresy, okay? Or both of us are in heresy. Maybe we're both wrong, but we can't always both be right when something contradicts. But 1 Corinthians 11, verse number 17. Now in this, that I declare unto you, I praise you not that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. Paul is saying to the Corinthian church, I'm not gonna praise you for this. When you guys come together, it's not better, it's for worse. Like when you get together for church, this is getting worse and worse, like church ought to be a blessing, something good. Fellowship, friendship, because it's getting worse for you guys. Verse number 18, for first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there'd be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. Look what it says in verse number 19. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. What he says there, there must also be heresies, and what he's saying is that heresy can lead to division. And look, some people get bothered when another brother or sister doesn't believe like they believe. I don't get bothered, I'm fine. Look, obviously if you're coming and you're saying, salvation is by works, that's gonna bother me, okay? If you're trying to preach at that church, get out of church, okay? This is not the church for you. Obviously if you're saying the blood atonement of Christ is not the sacrifice for our sins, I'm gonna have a problem with you. If you're saying the virgin birth was not legitimate or something, I'm gonna have a problem with these major doctrines, these things that are black and white. Look, if you believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, I have no problem with you whatsoever. You're welcome to this church. Now I hope my church will feel the same way. We have some who walk in, they like the preaching, they agree with the majority, but they just, I still think it's pre-trib rapture, I love the Lord, I wanna go soul winning, you know, I wanna be a brother, I wanna be a blessing, they're welcome to this church. Is it heresy? Yes, it's heresy, but it's my brother the Lord. I don't get bothered if you have a different, and I like hearing different views. It might be teaching me something, okay? And I hope if I say something and you know, and you may not, you may, I don't necessarily believe, do you mind like, as your pastor, who has studied God's word, has been saved for a long time, that's been proven and ordained to be your pastor, could you at least say, you know what, I don't agree with my pastor, but I'm willing to consider where he's coming from, at least, and challenge my thoughts to see whether that's right or wrong. And if you still disagree with me, I'm fine with it too. Okay? But that's what heresies leads, like all of this is sort of the same, you know, rafts, seditions, heresies, it all causes divisions, especially amongst God's people. Come with me to second Peter chapter two, second Peter chapter two, and verse number one, second Peter chapter two verse number one. Now we're going to, we're still talking about heresies, okay, but I'm not gonna fight you over a different opinion. I'm not gonna fight you over your different interpretations or certain passage, which doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, okay? Like my pre-treat brother is still gonna get raptured at the post-treat pre-raft rapture. It's not gonna change, okay? But second Peter chapter two verse number one, it says, but there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you. So now we're talking about some major issues. We're not just talking about a difference of opinion here. We're talking about false prophets, false teachers. Look at this, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the law that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. Look, I believe any false gospel is denying the law that bought them. Salvation is God bought me. It's, you know, he did the work, he paid the price. As soon as you're like, bah, you have to do your price, you're denying the law that bought you. This is a damnable heresy. This isn't just a difference of opinion. This is a teaching if you believe, we'll send you straight to hell. That's why it's damnable. It damns you before the eyes of God. A false gospel, you know, a false Jesus, a different spirits. You know, I'm not gonna have some Pentecostal preach come up here and speak in their gibberish garbage. That's another spirit, that man is damned. Hope he gets saved. But he's damned as he is. Look, there are damnable heresies and notice people are going to creep in privily, privately. I know pastors said salvation is by grace for faith alone, but don't you think like they've got to meet this standard before we can count them as a brother in the Lord? What standard is that? Oh, I don't know, just some works. You know, faith alone. Don't you know faith without works is dead? We've got the works, gotta do something. That's just what I think. Don't tell the pastor I think this, just whisperers, gossipers, it's all the same. Strife, seditions, rebellion, damnable heresies. And let's keep going, it says, verse number two. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. So by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. So we say salvation is by grace through faith and the finished work of Jesus Christ. Ah, easy believers then. They speak evil of what we believe. Ah, they think if they just get someone to say a prayer, they're saved and of course we don't teach such a thing. We say they must believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. But isn't it interesting that people who have damnable heresies will say what we believe. It's all done in Christ Jesus. All we have to do is put our faith and trust on him and they'll speak evil of that. Ah, he's given them license to sin. He just doesn't want to turn from all his sins. That pastor just wants to live a wicked life. That's what they do. These damnable heretics. And then look at verse number three. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. Now come with me to another passage. Come with me to Acts 24 and I'll be done with this passage. Acts 24 please, Acts 24. Now I'm not trying to stand up here and defend myself and my beliefs. I believe God's word defends what we teach and believe in this church 100%. Okay. But sometimes these people that have damnable heresies, you know what they're gonna say about us? Oh, they believe in damnable heresies. They believe in heresies. That's a false preacher. That's a false pastor. And Paul faced the same type of accusation. In Acts 24 verse one, it says, and after five days, Adonaias the high priest descended with the elders and with a certain orator named Tertullius, who informed the governor against Paul. And when he was called forth, Tertullius began to accuse him saying, seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence. Drop down to verse number five. For we have found this man, we have found that's Paul, a pestilent fellow, and look at this, and a mover of sedition. Hey, this Paul that we brought before you, King, he's a man who's trying to cause rebellion against the Romans. A mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. So he's like, oh, he belongs in a cult. He's part of a cult. People have said that about our church. That church is a cult. Like, what are you kidding me? Like, I don't have that much charisma where I mesmerize you guys and, man, and you guys can leave and go whenever you want. This is not some cult. But that's what they say. The sect of the Nazarenes who also have gone about to profane the temple, whom we took and would have judged according to our law. Drop down to verse number 10. This is how Paul responds. Then Paul, after the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, For as much as I know that thou has been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more chiefly answer for myself, because that thou mayest understand that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship, and they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the city. He says, they've not seen me do any of these things that they accuse me of doing. Verse number 13. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way, look at this, but after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believe in all things that are written in the law and in the prophets, and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. What is he saying? He says, they're saying that I believe in heresy. He says, all I believe is what I've seen in the scriptures. All I believe is what is written in the law and written in the prophets. And notice what that heresy is, that he believes in the resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. What we call the rapture. Paul's teaching the rapture. Paul is teaching the resurrection of the dead. Ah, that's heresy. Isn't it interesting that our position on the end times, you know, our post-treat pre-raft position, other pastors will say, that's heresy. I just believe what the Bible says. We just simply believe the timing of the rapture is according to the chronological events that we see in the book of Revelation, and in other books like Matthew 24. We believe the writings of the prophets. We're not going to the Bible college and believing the writings of the Bible college. All the writings of John Nelson Darby, all the writings of C.I. Schofield. That's not where we base our position on the rapture. We base our position on the rapture, according to the law and according to the prophets. So don't get unsettled if you ever hear someone say, that position is heresy. Paul got called out for the same issue. And he goes, yep, that's what I believe. I believe exactly what God says. And he says, I've got a clear conscience before God and a clear conscience before men. He was never involved in sedition and rebellion. All right brethren, works of the flesh part three. Wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. All right, let not these issues ever become, cause us to create a division in our church, or a church splits. Look, you need to understand that people are gonna sometimes have a different opinion to you. But what do we see with Paul? He said, I've got a clear conscience before God and man. And brethren, if you have a different opinion to me on something, a different position with me on doctrine, let me just say, have a clear conscience before God and man. We can get along, we can be at peace. We can serve our Lord Jesus Christ together. Boy, I truly wanna protect new life at this church from the works of the flesh. Let's pray.