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No, not one, Jesus, knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There is not a friend like the Lord Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. No friend like Him is so high and holy. No, not one, no, not one. No friend like Him is so high and holy. No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There is not a friend like the Lord Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. There is not an hour that He is not near us. No, not one, no, not one. No one so high but who's long been to us. No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There is not a friend like the Lord Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There is not a friend like the Lord Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There is not a friend like the Lord Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. ... ... ... ... ... Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here tonight. If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started. And once we've found a seat, go ahead and grab a hymnal, and for tonight's first song, we will go to song number 263. Song number 263, barely, barely. Song number 263, oh what a savior that he died for me, from what a nation he hath made me free, he that did he with heartless sons give me, and everlasting life. Barely, barely, I say unto you, barely, barely, lest we ever knew, he that did he with heartless sons give true, and everlasting life. All my iniquities on him were laid, all my indebtedness by him was paid, all who believe are in the Lord have said, and everlasting life. Barely, barely, I say unto you, barely, barely, lest we ever knew, he that did he with heartless sons give true, and everlasting life. Oh, for in thee I can trust the Lord, though he is sinful, I believe his word. Oh, I message every child of God, and everlasting life. Barely, barely, I say unto you, barely, barely, lest we ever knew, he that did he with heartless sons give true, and everlasting life. Oh, all unworthy, yet I will not doubt, for in the coming he will not cast doubt, he that believed with hope of good news, shout, and everlasting life. Barely, barely, I say unto you, barely, barely, lest we ever knew, he that believed with hope of good news, shout, and everlasting life. Great singing, everybody. Let's open up the service now with a word of prayer. Lord, we love you and we just want to thank you again for this awesome church and the awesome people gathered here and just the awesome preaching we're about to listen to, Lord, and the awesome songs we get to sing, Lord. We just ask that you fill us with your spirit and bless this church and everything that it does, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 10. Song number 10. One of my favorites, song number 10, Near the Cross. Song number 10. You're really singing out on the first. Cross. Till my rapture soul shall find rest beyond the river. And mercy found me there, the bright and morning star, sheds its beams around me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Near the cross, O Lamb of God, bring its seeds before me. They'll be long from day to day with its shadows, Lord, be in the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Near the cross, I'll watch and wait, hoping, trusting ever, till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. On the front, we have our bio memory passage. Any kid that can quote the verse of the week can get an ice cream treat immediately following the service. On the inside, we have our service times, several soul winning times, church-wide meet here at the building, and then regional meet at a different spot throughout the Dallas-Forth area. The general areas are kind of listed there on the right, so if you'd like to go out there. Down below is our salvation and stats for the year, and we've really been doing a great job, and so keep up the great work. January is one of the best months that we've ever had, and then we did even more with February. We ended up having 209 salvations for our missions trip on the cruise, and so thank you so much to all of those missionaries that went on that, and we heard some great testimonies. Check out Sunday night's sermon, and you can hear Vanjesser Fir and Brother Marcel give a testimony, and also thank you to the ladies who participated. We had great results from that particular event, and so if you ever have an opportunity to do one of these cruise missions trips, I highly encourage you to do so. If you have interest, you can email us. I think probably towards the end of the year next year, I'm sorry this year, maybe in the fall we might organize another one, but we don't have the exact date or anything planned yet. On the right, we have our expecting ladies upcoming events. We're having a Spanish soul winning marathon. Do we already have this? Yeah, we have a sign-up sheet out here in the foyer. Who's planning on coming to that just so we have some kind of an idea? Okay, yeah, and then there's a sign-up. Please make sure to sign up with whoever is participating so we can make sure to have the breakfast and lunch and everything planned for, and we're really excited about that. Spanish breakfast on the 9th, and we have some special flyers that you can hand out. Do we have the flyers yet or are they going to be Sunday? We have the flyers, so if you want to start handing out flyers, it is in Spanish, so of course it's for Spanish speaking people, but we do have those available. And then kids choir is going to, God willing, start March 2nd, this upcoming Sunday. Just pray that my wife feels better. She's been struggling with the with, I guess, the flu or something. I think a lot of people got that, and so just pray that she recovers quickly and that should be starting Sunday. Also, Evangelist or Bannock is going to be preaching for us March 12th, so that's a Wednesday night service. Highly encourage y'all to come and participate for that particular service, even if you don't normally come on Wednesday nights. I'm preaching to the choir here, but for you Wednesday people, please show up. And then we also planned that following Sunday, it's not in the bulletin yet, but March 16th, we're going to have a barbecue luncheon after the service to celebrate Evangelist or Bannock being with us, and so we're excited. It should be a big service. It should have a lot of people here, and so really excited for them to come out and make sure to thank Evangelist or Bannock for the work that he's doing and encourage him when he comes out here to visit us. Also, we have our spring recital coming March 22nd. Down below is some church reminders. On the back is our prayer list. We'll kind of go over that quickly. We've been praying for the Naim for their grandmother. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother. We've been praying for Ms. Miller's friend's mother. We've been praying for the Scotts. Continue to pray for Brother Horace, also Ms. Grace, and then also pray for Brother Tony's health. We've been praying for the Foley's, and are we getting closer? Getting closer, okay. Pretty soon we're going to have a praise report on that, I believe, but we'll keep praying. And then we're also praying for the Goodwin's friend, Ms. Sarah. We're praying for Brother Nick's mother. Also, if you'd pray for the Afsols, pray for Brother Billy, and also if you'd pray for Ms. Ginger, her brother had passed away. So we'll just be in prayer for them. Let's go ahead and say a quick word of prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for our church. Thank you so much for this evening. I pray that you just bless all these expecting ladies. Please be with those who have lost loved ones. Please also help our church family that's struggling with serious illnesses. I pray that if possible, you could just give them full recovery, give them health. By miracle, I pray that you'd comfort them. You'd give them peace while they go through their affliction. I pray those that are also sick with just minor illnesses, that they would have full recovery and quickly recover so they can get back into church. I thank you so much for the opportunities you've given us to go out soul winning and our missions trips. I pray that you continue to bless them. Please bless our evangelist, Urbanic, as he travels to come back safely and that we could enjoy great fellowship with them. And I pray that you just continue to use our church to get many people saved. And we just thank you for all you've given us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So go ahead and sing Holy, Holy, Holy. If you turn in your special binders, we have Holy, Holy, Holy. And it should be, I think it's the first one in our list or the last one, the last one in our list. All right. That was Holy, Holy, Holy and your black binder. Holy, Holy, Holy. Let's all sing it out together on the first. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God almighty, early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, Holy, Holy, all the saints adore thee, casting out their golden crown, the crown of the classy sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, which word and honor evermore shall be. Holy, Holy, Holy, love the darkness by thee, golden eye of sinful men, thy glory may not see. Holy, thou art holy, there is none beside thee, perfect, empowering, love and purity. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God almighty, all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. That's the book of Matthew chapter number 12. So Matthew chapter number 12, the Bible reads at that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were in hungered and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisee saw it they said unto him behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he said unto them have you not read what David did when he was in hungered and they that were with him how he entered into the house of God and did eat of the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat neither for them which were with him but only for the priests where have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless but I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple but if he had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless for the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day and when he was departed thence he went into their synagogue and behold there was a man which had his hand withered and they asked him saying is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days that they might accuse him and he said unto them what man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep and it if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day will he not lay hold on it and lift it out how much then is a man better than a sheep wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days then sayeth he to the man stretched forth thine hand and he stretched it forth and it was restored whole like as the other then the Pharisees went out and held a council against him how they might destroy him but when Jesus knew it he withdrew himself from thence and great multitudes followed him and he healed them all and charged them that they should not make him known that it might be fulfilled which is spoken by Isaias the prophet saying behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased I will put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles he shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets a bruised reed shall he not break and smoking flax shall he not quench till he send forth judgment into victory and in his name shall the Gentiles trust then was brought unto him one possessed with the devil blind and dumb and he healed him and so much that the blind and dumb both spake and saw and all the people were amazed and said is not this the son of David but when the Pharisees heard it they said this fellow did not cast out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils and Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand and if satan cast out satan he is divided against himself how shall then his kingdom stand and if I be and if I by Beelzebub cast out devils by whom do your children cast them out therefore they shall be your judges but if I cast out devils by the spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come unto you or else how can one enter into strong man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house he that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scatterth abroad wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the holy ghost shall not be forgiven unto men and whosoever speak of the word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the holy ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world neither in the world to come either make the true tree good and his fruits good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his fruit oh generation of vipers how can ye being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment for by thy words thou shall be justified and by thy words thou shall be condemned then certain of the scribes and of the pharisees answered saying master we would see a sign from thee and he said answered and said unto them an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the well's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none then he sayeth I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he has come he findeth the empty swept and garnished then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation while he yet talked to this people behold his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with them then one said unto him behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee but he answered and said unto them unto him that told him who is my mother and who are my brethren and he stretched forth his hand towards disciples and said behold my mother my brethren for whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven the same as my brother and sister and mother let us pray heavenly father lord thank you for this church thank you for allowing us to be here again i just pray that you bless pastor shelley as he preaches your word unto us lord help us to receive what is preached and apply into our lives praise in jesus name amen amen matthew 12 a very long chapter and so we're going to just try and go through it pretty quickly um but the bible says here in verse one it says at that time jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn as disciples weren't hungered and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat but when the pharisees saw it they said on them behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day and he said unto them have you not read what david did when he was in hungered and they that were with him how he entered into the house of god and did eat the showbread which is not lawful for him to eat neither for them which were with them but only for the priests or have you not read in the law how that on the sabbath days the priests and the temple profane the sabbath and are blameless but i say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple but if he had known what this meaneth i will have mercy and not sacrifice you would have not you had not have condemned the guiltless for the son of man is lord even of the sabbath day now this is a day that's you know in the old testament something that you're not supposed to do what the bible calls servile work and it's essentially just the concept of the idea that you're supposed to take a day of a day off it's not necessarily something that's supposed to be a burden but it's really to be that you just don't work that day that you don't go to your job you're not doing your normal tasks your normal labor and so it was really just supposed to be a genuine day of rest it wasn't supposed to make your life harder it was supposed to make your life easier you know just imagine you show up at work and your boss says hey just go home for the day but i'll still pay you you wouldn't think of that as a burden you would think of that as a blessing like oh sweet i don't have to go work today so you get this day off now the day taking off you know and resting was to picture salvation how when we believe on the lord jesus christ we simply just trust what he already did for us and it gives us a free salvation that's easy it's not a burden and what we do is we simply enter into his quote rest rest meaning that we cease from our own works we're not trying to work our way to heaven but we simply receive his free gift of salvation but this specific day of the sabbath is supposed to be observed very strictly the bible talks about someone presumptuously going against the sabbath day in the old testament and then they're put to death for having gathered sticks presumptuously on the sabbath day basically someone's saying no i know i'm supposed to rest today and i know it's not supposed to work but i'm just going to do it anyways because i don't really care i don't want to observe god's law whatsoever and so they're just presumptuously ignoring the sabbath day that would be a picture again spiritually of someone essentially trying to work their way to heaven saying no no i i know the bible says salvation by faith but i'm going to do the works because i think the works is what actually saves me or i think it's faith plus works and this is really what you'd see is the catholic religion day which is a religion of death that is picking up sticks presumptuously and thinking that they're sacraments thinking that their extra is going to get them into heaven when it's false in this particular story the pharisees seem like the good guys because they're trying to bring up this old testament law like what's going on i mean why would your your your disciples not observe this really important law well again jesus when answering them notice in verse three says have you not read now that's typically what jesus always responds to is he rebukes people for having a lack of knowledge of the bible and having not read the bible and kind of being incredulous at their responses thinking well if you've read then you wouldn't bring this up you must just not understand the bible or you must not have read the bible and he brings up a couple examples one is david and this is in a story where david is running away from saul he comes on to a bimelik the priest and essentially needs some food they don't have any he eats the showbread which is only for the priests then additionally jesus brings up another example and this one's kind of more interesting in my mind just because the bible didn't necessarily tell us that what david did was right or wrong but jesus is obviously interpreting that for us and saying he didn't do anything wrong you know technically it's wrong by the law by the letter of the law but by the spirit of the law he didn't do anything wrong but jesus just brings up this is obvious you know what would be like a contradiction in the law of the sense that no one's supposed to work on the sabbath day but the priests work on every sabbath day and he's just trying to point out like how do you not understand that the priests literally profane the sabbath meaning they defile the sabbath meaning that they're breaking the sabbath all the time and yet there's nothing wrong with them breaking the sabbath so he's trying to say like there's nothing special about the sabbath where we just all have to make sure that we don't break it there was a context upon which breaking the sabbath was wrong doing servile work obviously that was wrong right there's exceptions though clearly for the priest and then there's obvious other exceptions that jesus brings up in the context of helping someone or helping your animal or just doing something that's common sense because again he's not god didn't try to make commandments to be grievous unto us his commandments are not grievous but at the end of the day you know it's not to say that the commandment doesn't have effect it's just you're making a bad application out of this because notice he says that the temple sorry is the priest of the temple profane the sabbath and are blameless he says specifically in verse number seven you would not have condemned the guiltless so he's comparing saying the priests are guiltless david is guiltless and his disciples are guiltless and they're condemning them for having eaten some food again the disciples weren't just presumptuously saying you know what i don't really care about the sabbath i just want to go work on the sabbath day no they're starving and as they're walking through the field they just kind of grab some food right imagine you're just walking somewhere and just grab an apple off the tree and you eat it or something that's not really you quote working that's just you simply satisfying your appetite or whatever so it's kind of silly to get so nitpicky over this to try and condemn his disciples but you know that's exactly what the pharisee attitude is is they're really nitpicky and they're always trying to condemn people and they don't really have the right kind of attitude because what would the pharisee really want does the pharisee really want the disciples to not eat like does the pharisee just really want them to just starve and just go without food the reality is the pharisee doesn't care at all the pharisee has no opinion on the on the status or the well-being of the disciple the reality is the pharisee is only just looking for something to accuse them for he doesn't really care about any of that he doesn't care about the law he doesn't care about the disciple he doesn't care about what's right he just simply wants to find some way to accuse them and to nitpick them and to attack them but they're not even thinking about it from a practical perspective because it's like look if these people are hungry what are they supposed to do on the sabbath day just starve just go without food and then he kind of brings up this this concept of specifically in verse number seven i will have mercy and not sacrifice if someone has to technically break the sabbath in a minuscule way in order to satisfy their hunger wouldn't that be a good thing and instead of looking at what they were doing and saying you know what i'm glad that they're eating something and you know let's be merciful to them that they're on the sabbath they don't have food and they need some food no they would prefer that they would have sacrifice now again it's not sacrifice because they just love the bible or the law so much they just simply want it to appear like they would make the sacrifice or that they're better than everybody because the pharisees were holier than they wanted to make it clear that they were better than everyone and that they were more righteous than everyone even though they weren't they just wanted to make it seem like they were so they would always nitpick on the smallest tiniest grievances things that weren't really a big deal they would blow out of proportion make a huge deal about to try and condemn them to try and make themselves look good and what you'll notice about pharisees often is they'll try to find some little nitpicky transgression and they'll just blow it out of proportion they'll repeat it for years they'll never let it go because they just want to make it clear like they're better than you and they would have never done this even though they have their sin they have their issues but they just want to hyper focus in on just minor grievances minor transgressions little nitpicky things and so we should always try to understand who the pharisees really are they kind of miss the spirit of the law and they misinterpret the intention of the disciples i mean do you think the disciples were just walking through the field just like how how do you think we should just transgress the law today what's a good way to just piss god off today or something and they're just like oh let's pluck some corn because we don't really care about the bible do you think that was their attitude do you think that that was their intention do you think that they were really trying to do that or were they just simply hungry and they just wanted to eat right if we really think about their intention if you really think about the purpose of why they did what they did it would be silly to sit here and try to attack them for something so so reasonable you know i mean it's pretty reasonable to think like someone's gonna want to just eat some food when they're hungry and you're gonna attack them over that and you know often again the pharisees they're not thinking about what actually happened the context the situation or trying to be reasonable trying to put themselves in someone else's situation they just simply condemn to try and make themselves look better and so we want to make sure that we don't have this attitude where we use the letter of the law to condemn people not thinking about the spirit of the law not thinking about what's the real intent behind these commandments what's what is god really trying to get at and honestly you know i think that it's easy to misinterpret the bible when you have kind of a hateful attitude because notice they didn't do anything wrong they did something wrong in the pharisee's mind and they used the bible to try and justify their reasoning but according to jesus they're guiltless according to jesus they didn't do anything wrong meaning that they're just not interpreting the bible correctly and that's another thing i've noticed is that a lot of times when these pharisees want to condemn you that they they're using verses but they're not using them accurately and they're not thinking about the spirit of the law they're not thinking about the intent and they're not even thinking about what's really going on you know one one example i could think of and i use this often just because it's just it just it makes so much sense for this passage but you know imagine if someone used a bad word about somebody you know and someone got really mad at them and started getting really nitpicky over that even though there's no verse in the bible that brings that up and even though they'd probably even agree with the spirit of what was said but then they attack that person and lie and rail at them and then all the while use a verse saying like let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth seems like a total pharisee move it seems like you're missing the whole spirit of the law and you might even be condemning the guiltless because you are misinterpreting that verse but then you yourself are using that to condemn people it's just kind of crazy when you really think about it but you know that's just one thought that i had we'll move on the bible says in verse nine and when he was departed thence he went into their synagogue and behold there was a man which had his hand withered and they asked him saying is it lawful to heal in the sabbath days that they might accuse him now again they asked this question is it lawful to heal in the sabbath days not because they want to know they have no intent in and like understanding the bible better they're not there to learn grow they're not sincere whatsoever and even think about what's even kind of being asked like hey should we heal people like should we do good things not so that they can end up doing it so that they could what accuse him and so you have to understand like some people they're just not sincere people they talk to you and they'll get information from you not because they actually want to learn not because they're curious about the answer because they want to have more things to tack you with you know i've talked with people where you know i'm trying to explain myself or or help them understand a situation and maybe they're a little antagonistic and then i start realizing like this person's not reasonable this person doesn't want an answer this person doesn't want to hear like why these things happen they just simply want more information to be used against you and you gotta have to just say like i'm done with this person or i need to be careful about this person you know and of course jesus had to be very careful because there was many enemies that were trying to trap him and use his words against him and it's kind of crazy that it's all like being brought up about the sabbath day and they're just so obsessed with the sabbath day isn't interesting that the pharisees are obsessed with the sabbath day and it spiritually represents salvation so they're like hyper focused on the sabbath and yet they never even understood the whole point of the sabbath right i mean isn't that ironic that they're just obsessed with observing the physical sabbath but they don't want to know what the spiritual picture was of salvation and actually getting saved and so you know it's just kind of crazy how much they they search the scriptures and they can't find jesus christ how they rest the scriptures how you know they they just basically have the word of god but they just can't figure out that puzzle they can't get it because they're not spirit filled they don't have the spirit of god and you have to humble yourself often for god to actually reveal the great truths of the bible to you and so these people want to earn it through pride not through humility so they don't understand and they hate people i mean they don't they don't want anybody healed they don't want anybody to be eating on the sabbath i mean think about this they don't want anybody eating on the sabbath they want to be healed they just simply want to be praised by men they want to be looked at as being the best they are the greatest men to walk the face of the earth verse 11 and he said unto them what man shall there be of you that shall have one sheep and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day will he not lay hold on it and lift it out how much then is a man better than a sheep wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days so you know in verse number 11 he's kind of pointing out the hypocrisy he knows like hey when your animals fall you guys pick them up and you know i don't know exactly you know my i have a couple ways of interpreting that in my mind but i guess you could say maybe this pharisee there's a bunch of pita activists or something like they just really love animals or something you know it's like they could care less that a man is hurt but they just care so much about an animal i think it's more reasonable though they probably lifted the animal out because of it's their own profit right it's their own money and so they're just kind of it's just a selfish thing they don't want to lose that animal or have any harm to their animal just simply because that would damage their profits or money or something like that so of course they're willing to help themselves out but they're not willing to help someone else out and think about this they're willing to help themselves out financially even though they wouldn't allow someone else to be helped out physically right and i mean that's really selfish to think about this guy is more worried about losing a little bit of money than this guy having a serious health issue or physical ailment or problem needing you know physical repair that just kind of shows the heart of the pharisee which is similar to the good samaritan example where you know the levite and those would walk by and they don't want to lose any money to help out the good samaritan because they don't really care about health or healing or doing anything it's just really about self-preservation and their money now in verse 13 then jesus saith he unto the man stretched forth thine hand and he stretched it forth and it was restored whole like as the other then the pharisees went out and held a council against them how they might destroy him now this is just crazy it's just like there's a guy that's crippled jesus heals them right before them and their immediate response is let's kill this guy like how are we going to kill him and they just they go out and they form this little council together and they want to destroy him and you would kind of sit here and think like why like wouldn't you think like oh that was cool or wouldn't you think hey we you know that we need to bring more people here we need to get more people healed like this is awesome or wow god has you know come unto us given us a great prophet even if they didn't understand he was the son of god yet just realizing like this has to be someone of god at least like Nicodemus did but you got to think like in their minds the first thing they see and think about is this is undeniable the pharisees are consistent in their understanding that when jesus performing miracles like this they recognize this is undeniable since it's undeniable then everybody's going to believe it and if everybody's going to believe it who are they going to follow jesus and who are they not going to follow them and so therefore what is their initial reaction we got to get rid of him before he gets rid of us and so again it goes into self-preservation mode of how they need to destroy jesus because they're afraid of losing their what power wealth fame and really the charade that they're in on because they understand they're doing a charade here folks they understand they're devouring widows houses they realize that for a pretense they're making long prayer they realize that they're just going out and making a grand show of things and blowing a trumpet when they give money into some person their alms and they they they disfigure their faces whenever they do a fast and they just realize that they're fake they realize that they're not real they realize that it's insincere and so they know wow if this guy is the actual power of god and has something like this there's no way we compete we have to get rid of him we have to kill him and so of course that's what they are trying to figure out how do we destroy him now of course this directly applies lord jesus christ i think it also can have parallels into modern day christianity where sometimes preachers or pastors or individuals could see a real church doing real things for god and say we can't compete with that and so their goal is just simply to destroy them say i can't preach sermons like that so let's destroy that preacher so that there's no more competition i can't really get people saved like that so let's try to cancel them let's try to shut them down you know i can't grow a youtube channel so i might as well try to you know falsely report that youtube channel and get it taken down because i can't compete with them and you know there's a lot of people that'll do these kind of things just simply out of envy sake out of the fact that they can't compete so they have to shut down the competition of course a lot of people do this they get rid of your bank accounts they get rid of all your access to online stuff credit card processing social media accounts i mean you just can't say anything online because they recognize what the real truth is and they know that the truth is so much more powerful than lies today and so they have to try and shut you down and try to destroy you because they realize the truth is powerful and you can go out and you start preaching the gospel and you start preaching the king james bible and wow the catholic church starts looking like the cult that it is and you start preaching the king james bible and the word of god and boy jews don't sound so cool anymore zionism isn't that awesome when you're reading what the bible actually says about the synagogue of satan and revelation and it's like you're not even allowed to say these verses you know the the government would love to pass legislation to where we can't even say verses in the bible because of how detrimental it is to the false doctrine of zionism today and so they have to just shut you down and form a council like the adl or something to try and figure out how to destroy you and how to hire people to come and harass you and show up at your building and show up at your house and make signs and get loud and threaten you and do all kinds of evil against you because you know what they can't compete so they have to shut you down because think about it if you're so much better if you're so much smarter just just show us you know again like a lot of these people try to say like oh there's all these other better people out there or better sermons or better pastors or better thoughts or whatever it's just like okay then just show us just prove it right i mean wouldn't that wouldn't it be so obvious you know and i mean some people that even get mad at us for the things that we've done you know it's like how can i compete against the truth right i mean like some people get mad they'll leave our movement they'll be like oh they're a cult and oh you know they're going bad and you know i guess maybe we used to have a peak season i don't know when that was right but we used to be doing better or something and it's just so funny because i'm just thinking like okay if i'm wrong who am i to compete against the truth like i'm not i'm not a special gifted preacher i don't have like a special voice i'm not i'm not like six foot five and and you know some tall guy like craig groeschel of life church or something like that looks like a football linebacker or something or played professional baseball or something i i don't have some great accolades if i just got up and started preaching lies i could not overcome the truth the only thing that gives our church any kind of power is this is right here it's the truth and the only reason why our church stands out against a lot of churches these days is because we'll actually say what this says in a lot of places and and we try to say all of it too not just the really good parts or the good parts all the parts and you know what that's what makes churches stand out today it's a shame that churches stand out for just simply being willing to read verses out loud and yet that is why our church stands out that's why people drive literally an hour to come to church that's why people are driving from all over the dfw area just to show up at church because not only do we read them out loud but we also try to do them and we emphasize going soul winning and preaching the gospel and getting people saved and you know you can't stand against the truth but let me tell you something people will want to destroy you when you do something good you do something good you know i said this to some of our leadership and i'll just reiterate this i don't know if i said it to the church or not but we're doing a lot of soul winning this year like a lot we've already done so much and we have so many big plans and so many big works i said there's gonna be some opposition this year like i said i don't even know what it is i don't even know what's gonna happen i just know that it's gonna happen because you can't just sit here and just take the devil by storm and just go out and get tons of people saved and you not face at least a little bit of persecution and so sometimes you just have to say you know we're gonna buckle up buttercup because pastor shelly's driving he drives furiously and you know what we're gonna make it just just don't pay too much attention all right to how we get there it's gonna happen okay close your ears every once in a while and just let's go right i mean that's that should be our attitude is just realizing hey if i'm going to do a big work there's going to be some opposition but so be it you know and there's going to be people that try to destroy us but unless god wants it to happen it's not going to happen so that i can just be confident in my faithful creator i can just put my life into his hands and just say you know the lord's will be done you know whatever he gives the lord gives the lord takes blessed be the name of the lord like whatever let's go verse 15 but when jesus knew it he withdrew himself from thins and great multitudes followed him and he healed them all and charged them that they should not make him known that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by his eyes the prophet saying the old my servant whom i've chosen my beloved and whom my souls will please i will put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the gentiles he shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets a bruised reed shall he not break and smoking flax shall he not quench till he send forth judgment unto victory and in his name shall the gentiles trust so this is a quote from isaiah 42 says basically the same thing keep your finger go to john 3 for a second it says about a bruised reed he should not break a smoking flax he should not quench this is kind of understood by most is just the idea that jesus is not coming to judge harshly he's not coming to condemn he's just simply coming to be a deliverer be be someone that saves and so you know jesus ministry is not really filled with condemnation or judgment it's filled with ministering he he came not to be ministered to but to minister and to give his life a ransom a bruised reed a reed by itself is already something that's really weak i mean the bible talks about a reed shaken with the wind because it's just it's like flimsy little uh plant that basically has no real you know stamina it doesn't have any strength it's not going to stand upright very stiff and if you think about a bruised reed i mean it's talking about something that's just just ready to basically just snap i mean this thing is just like about as close as it could possibly get to being destroyed smoking flax that's not going to be quenched you could possibly think about this as like a fire that you're trying to start and you've got just like a little bit of a spark there and you know if you just quenched it then it'll go out so you can just argue that these are both an idea of like something that's just barely hanging on for life or something that's just got a little bit of hope jesus wasn't coming around just trying to like get rid of people's hope or or knock someone down when they were at a weak spot you know he was someone that was going give deliverance under the world and then allow the gospel to go the whole world and then god was going to bring in a lot of judgment okay you could think in the book of acts at the times of this ignorance god winked at but now commendeth all men to repent so it's almost like god is just kind of being like extra gracious to the gentiles for a for a season to allow the gospel to just spread everywhere and then eventually after hearing the gospel for a long period of time and rejecting it or whatever then then comes the hammer even with the jews themselves it kind of works this way because they had a long time about 35 years or so to get things right and hear the gospel but by 70 a.d well now comes the hammer that's the romans in god's hand and they literally knock the entire temple off of the temple mount and so you basically have what jesus said that not even one stone was left upon another they were all thrown down and so that that matches exactly what we have in the reality today even unsaved jews will say like yeah this has fulfilled exactly what jesus said in the book of matthew and so there was judgment but in the time of christ there wasn't that judgment jesus was there to save them right john 317 look at this for god sent not a son of the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved so again jesus coming to the earth was not to condemn people he wasn't walking around just like you're a whore you're a harlot you're a drunkard you're evil like he wasn't just going around just condemning everybody he was simply actually allowing the prostitutes to come on him and giving them the gospel he was allowing the publicans to come unto him and giving the gospel he was showing up to nicodemus and saying hey i'm gonna come to your house and you know or yeah just all kinds of different publicans harlots different people he's just going around and hanging out with them having fellowship with them to some degree but ultimately trying to get them saved and you know we could think about this in our lives when we go outside of the church and we're in a soul-winning environment we're not out there to condemn anybody we shouldn't be going out there to try and break bruised reeds and we shouldn't be going out there trying to quench any smoking flax or anything like that we should try to be giving help hope unto people and trying to heal people and give grace unto people and give them the gospel but obviously there's a time and place too to come to church and to hear what the harsh truths are of the bible and to help people grow and even sometimes even exercise church discipline but you know what i'm not going to exercise church discipline on someone when i'm trying to give them the gospel right there's a time and a place for each one of these and so jesus christ also didn't come to just judge everybody and condemn everybody but rather was there to try and save and minister unto them first and then later we have that application of you know growing and judgment and everything like that so we don't want to get mixed up on the timing of jesus's judgment go back if you would to matthew 12 and the bible says in verse number 22 then was brought unto him one possessed with the devil blind and dumb and he healed him insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw and all the people were amazed and said it's not this the son of david now again if he's the son of david that seems like they're kind of thinking like this is the christ that's kind of what they're alluding to by saying he's the son of david verse 24 but when the pharisees heard it they said this fellow doth not cast out devils but by beelzebub the prince of the devils and jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand and if satan casts out satan he is divided against himself how shall then his kingdom stand and if i by beelzebub cast out devils by whom do your children cast them out therefore they shall be your judges but if i cast out devils by the spirit of god then the kingdom of god is come unto you now there's a lot to unpack in this but i'm just going to make a few quick thoughts number one is they're accusing when jesus does a miracle him doing it by a demonic spirit not by the power of the holy ghost jesus doesn't really respond to that directly he kind of just brings up a logical question like okay if i'm casting out devils by a demonic spirit then wouldn't that be the devil fighting against himself and then how would that work how would that make sense why would the devil be attacking himself you know if you do that you're going to end up being destroyed you can't really attack yourself you can't be divided against yourself so we see the importance of unity and we see just the the logic that people that are doing things of god are not on the devil's team and then people that are doing the things of the devil are not on god's team these things just don't match so when you see someone doing great things for god he's not on the devil's team and when you see somebody doing a bunch of demonic things and devilish things well he's not really on god's team right now and you have to understand that when we talk about god's team and the devil's team it's not just strictly saved and unsaved now i would say this on god's team you have to be saved i mean you basically have to be saved but here's an exception to this sometimes god uses unsaved or wicked people to fulfill his role but often he uses the unsaved wicked people to do some damage to someone if you notice like he'll bring Nebuchadnezzar he'll bring someone in to like hurt someone or destroy someone they're not really on his team they're just a tool being used by him on the other side someone that's attacking the work of god this could be a saved or unsaved person of course unsaved that are of the devil really easy to figure that out but even king Saul is on the devil's side in a sense being influenced by the devil you see even peter at one point is being rebuked by the lord jesus christ because he has the wrong spirit the wrong attitude at one point in his life and so christians could be influenced by heresy demonic forces bad influences to basically go against the work of god and to be an enemy of god in a temporary state king saul was the enemy of god and he was fighting against david and attacking david and you know what that's a dangerous place to be in david said to king saul specifically that he said let the lord judge between me and the and the lord avenged me of thee you know he's saying hey i'm not going to hurt you let god do it you know let god avenge me of thee and you know saul is saved but that doesn't stop you from being an enemy of god an enemy of the work of god and look it's one thing to just be a sinner it's another thing to be an enemy of the work of god and you know when you're an enemy of the work of god i don't care if you're saved or not you're in a dangerous place and god may punish you very severely we should not be attacking or hindering the work of god in any way and it just makes no sense whatsoever but what's really clear is when someone just did something that's obviously for god a work of god and then you're gonna say that that's a demonic spirit or a demonic force or somehow of the devil you know this is where it kind of gets into this idea of a blasphemy of the holy ghost and it's going to bring this up in in a moment but it just doesn't make sense to try and accuse the work of god to the devil he says here in verse number 30 he that is not with me is against me and he that gathers not with me scatter the broad jesus is basically just saying like hey if you're not with me you're against me period hey when you're fighting against the works of jesus you're just not on the right team verse 31 wherefore i say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the holy ghost shall not be forgiven unto men and whosoever shall speak a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the holy ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world neither in the world to come well that's got to be hard for modalists to chew on that verse because how in the world can the son of man and the holy ghost be distinct here when they're the same person you know but yeah obviously there's a distinction between the holy ghost and the sun you know why would why would one be forgiven and the other not i think that what it's trying to bring up is the idea especially when jesus is on the earth especially and even beyond this and you just maybe you were in your flesh or you weren't saved you had like a bad thought about jesus and you just he you thought negatively about jesus or you didn't really believe in him or you said something that was wrong about him that could be forgiven because you're just kind of attacking the person but when you're attacking the holy ghost you're attacking a work done by the holy ghost so you're seeing someone getting healed and then you're attacking that well there's no way to deny that that was a work of god right it's possible that you saw jesus or whatever you didn't hear about jesus before and you just say something wrong about him because he just didn't know imagine how many people live in this world growing up in a household that's hindu or growing up in a house that's muslim or bringing in you know all kinds of other religions and they grow up hearing about jesus and perhaps they just say something negative about jesus or they think negative things about jesus or whatever that could be forgiven but if they actually saw jesus or they saw a miracle of god performed before them and then they denied that that's a whole new extreme right that's a completely different scenario that's being brought up and so it's saying like yeah you could technically be forgiven of some kind of blasphemy against the son of man but not blasphemy like usually let's just say you use jesus name as a cuss word right but someone that's gonna see the work of the holy ghost and then just deny that and attribute that to the devil this is what he's bringing up as blasphemy of the holy ghost now this is a dangerous thing because notice it says it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world neither in the world to come a lot of people bring this up and a lot of people so i'm going to take a second to answer this a little bit more but revelation uh chapter 22 for a second go to revelation chapter 22 you know i heard a preacher say this and i think it's probably a pretty a pretty good litmus test i don't know that it's perfect but i heard a preacher say you know if you're worried about being a reprobate it's because you're not and i kind of tend to agree with him that that's mostly true i guess it's possible that someone could even be a reprobate and just kind of be like i'm worried i'm a reprobate but you know for the most part i mean people that reprobate just they just have a visceral hatred for god they want nothing to do with them they don't want to retain them in their knowledge they they speak very contemptuously and proudly against him so i don't think that you know those people are are typically going to be in that category but you know i've heard some people they'll say like oh you know when i was young or foolish or stupid i just said something mean about the holy ghost or something i don't think that that's necessarily blast what the blasphemy of the holy ghost is describing i certainly don't want to try it though you know and i've seen there are videos where people just go online there was like this atheist challenge where people go online and they would try to blaspheme the holy ghost and the and the way that they knew how and you know that is that is horrible that is worse than suicide i mean i'm just being honest and the suicides right there but i'm just saying like trying to tempt people to become reprobate is just the worst thing imaginable it's super evil super satanic but at the end of the day like i do believe that the true blasphemy of the holy ghost if you think about the spirit of it is taking the work of god and attributing it to the devil okay so they saw jesus performing a miracle and then they denied it now we personally don't have this opportunity to deny physical miracles in front of us of the lord jesus christ and look it's not as denying the pentecostals going around slapping people okay folks it's not it all right but there could be works of god that we still see in miracles of god that then people deny and attribute to the devil and i would say boy they're really in dangerous territory you know one of the ones that i've seen and it's just crazy to me is where they attributed somebody who's gotten just scores and scores of people saved they said they were an unsaved judas and they were saying judas got more people saved than all the other apostles and like when i was thinking about this like they're looking at literally hundreds and yay thousands of people that are saved that they know they're saved and then attributing that work to the devil in a sense by saying judas got them saved and it makes me worried like that seems like you're blaspheming the holy ghost i'm just being honest like that's a really really dangerous position to take that you're going to try and attribute all the salvation work and the work of god to someone that's unsaved another application of this though too is the king james bible is a work of the holy ghost holy men spake as they're moved by the holy ghost okay now the king james bible is the word of god for sure and i believe that the underlying greek and hebrew is as well but when someone looks at the word of god and then just attributes to the devil or attacks it in a very vicious way that makes me nervous that this person has blasphemed the holy ghost and would be reprobate basically well reprobation is also attributed in the book of revelation with the same attitude look what it says in revelation 22 verse 21 uh verse 18 for i testify on every man that hear the words of the prophecy of this book if any man shall add unto these things god shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy god shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book so notice someone taking away from god's word or adding to god's word the bible is saying this person's doomed as well but if you think about it it's kind of the same vein as taking the work of the holy ghost and attributing it to the devil or taking away or destroying it and so it's basically attacking the obvious miracles and the obvious works of god and so you could also go to romans one go to romans one for a second i'll show you again when we have this idea or concept of someone being a reprobate the bible brings us up in a couple different contexts one is blasphemy the holy ghost number two is the idea of adding or removing from god's word but a third one that's kind of brought up here in romans chapter one look what it says in verse 25 it says who changed the truth of god into a lie now think about that verse in context of they perform jesus performs a miracle and heals someone and they change the truth of that being a work of god into a lie and attributing it unto the devil or they're taking the word of god the truth and either adding or removing from that changing that truth into a lie again and so you know you you kind of have the rest of this verse it says and worship and serve the creature more than the creator is blessed forever amen you know you could argue this is even like some extreme forms of evolution or darwinism you know basically attributing our creation to just a big bang and we all just came out of nothing and just just this insane stuff you know these are things not to mess with we don't want to mess with you know falsely accusing the works of god we don't want to get to where we're messing with the bible and we don't want to mess with god's creation and god's truth the truth of the gospel because it is possible for someone to become reprobate who has never forgiveness in this life or the next and the bible is really clear on that now again someone who's saved is never going to do any of these three someone who's saved is not going to see the works of jesus christ and think that the devil did that they're not going to mess with the bible and of course they're not going to change the truth of god or the gospel into a lie and so us that are saved we don't have to worry about this but at the end of the day we could still give these warnings to others and maybe they would be make the decision to get saved and be if they get saved then they don't have to go down this road because notice what it says in verse 26 for this cause god gave them up unto vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lusts one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat so what the bible says is because you hate god because you change the truth of god into a lie not only you reprobate he makes them a homosexual yeah right i mean the bible says why does someone become a fag or a lesbian or a dyke or the lgbtq why did they become that it's because they changed the truth of god into a lie they weren't born that way they changed because notice what it says in verse number 26 it says for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature so at some point they changed not only that in verse 27 it says and likewise also the men leaving the naturist so at some point they left they left our team and went and played for the other team and you know what now we don't want you back once you leave you're gone you know what i mean and they're not coming back because they hate god god even gave them up look at verse 28 and even as they did not like saying god in their knowledge god gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient look if god gives up on you why in the world would i have to win you back over i mean that doesn't really make much sense that if god doesn't want you that i would want you but you know some people think they're more loving than god some people will say like oh well you know just come as you are and i'll take you and it doesn't matter what you've done like i'll be your buddy you know what if god doesn't want them i don't want them go back to matthew chapter number 12 go back to matthew chapter 12 so again you know some people would say they'd falsely accuse us our church they say oh you think that being a homosexual is the unpardonable sin no not believing in the lord jesus christ or if you want to get technical blasphemy the holy ghost is the unpardonable sin but why is someone gay they weren't born that way they hate god it's that simple if you hate god long enough and you do it in a repetitive way and you change the truth of god into a lie he may punish you with being gay and look that is the worst punishment i mean like if god said hey you know let's say i wasn't saved which praise god i am and i don't deserve it but if i wasn't saved and god says all right i'll give you another 20 years as a fag or you can go straight to hell i'm pressing straight to hell you know what i mean just let me burn you know i don't want to burn in that way you know the men burning after one another that's disgusting that's filthy i mean you read john chris's stone he says that is the worst punishment to ever be threatened with you could be you could be threatened with like hell ten thousand times over and it would be better because it's so disgusting and filthy and you know that should just prove that god exists that someone would be given over to something that's so disgusting and look as much as i hate indian food it is not disgusting like this is i would eat indian food right now okay in comparison to this and probably enjoy it you know but like that is a whole nother level of insanity disgusting punishment it is evil it is it is unimaginable it is unimaginable if we didn't have people that hated god we wouldn't even think about it it wouldn't even be a thought that entered into our mind because it's so perturbed and disgusting and filthy yet our country just wants to celebrate it and prance it up and down the street and you know what praise god that they've kind of lost a little bit of steam in the last year or so they need to lose a little bit more we need the supreme court to take up some of these uh these bad rulings of the past specifically lawrence versus texas all right can we please get that one overturned because you know we'd immediately have a trigger law and being a fag would be illegal in the state of texas immediately look at the texas penal code right now currently i think it's 21.06. i don't know why i remember this but i just do okay i'm pretty sure texas penal code 21.06 homosexuality is still a crime on the texas books but they have this little asterisk above it it's like lawrence versus texas or whatever it's like let's get that blotted out and look you know obviously we can work on the punishment being a biblical punishment but just making it illegal is good enough for me so far you know i'm ready let's go back to matthew 12 that was a short little commercial break but again you know blasphemy the holy ghost is not something that a christian could ever do obviously we should never even test test god or tempt god we shouldn't be you know messing around with that kind of stuff but it's not it's not something i don't think it's like you just accidentally slipped and said the wrong thing and now you're reprobate or something this is a purposeful willful action to deny the miracles of god who hates god and wants nothing to do with him and the pharisees and the jews did this many of them and then later in the book of john jesus basically says like you guys can't even believe anymore like you guys are already gone you guys are done and it's probably because they've had blaspheme the holy ghost at this point because look if you've already seen a miracle of jesus and denied it what's going to change your mind after that i mean if you've just seen the the obvious miracles of god and you've heard the gospel clearly testified unto you and you wouldn't believe why are you going to believe randomly later basically at that point you're just done so that's why he's just basically saying hey you're done if you can't if you can see literally jesus perform miracles in front of you and you can't believe him well what what else what else can i do for you at that point even if i even if he just showed up in his glorified state they still wouldn't even believe in him now we keep reading it says in verse number 33 either make the tree good or his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his fruit oh generation of vipers how can ye being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringing forth good things and evil man out of the evil treasure bringing forth evil things but i say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment for by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned now again this is a concept that was brought up in matthew earlier we talked about it a little bit we compared with a lot of other verses i believe a lot of times when it's talking about the fruit it's talking about what you what you say and of course it's pretty evident in this particular passage because it's saying um how can ye being evil speak good things it's like how can someone that's unsaved preach really good things out of the bible how can they preach the gospel they can't like it's just not going to happen just like an apple tree isn't going to produce oranges or an oak tree an oak tree isn't going to produce any kind of fruit because it's a non-fruit bearing tree okay so again non-fruit bearing trees can't produce fruit so someone who's not saved can't get people saved and another thing is a tree that's not planted in good soil and is not being watered cannot produce fruit you know when we talk about like the reason why in the parable of the sower some trees are not producing a lot of good fruit it's because they have bad soil or they're not getting enough water or something and and this is what's crazy is you'll see some christians just producing crazy amounts of fruit and then someone attacking them and thinking like they're not of god somehow and it's like well this person couldn't even get a bunch of fruit if they weren't plugged into good soil and weren't being watered and weren't on the right path like that's just not even possible i mean you're not going to pluck up a tree and throw it on the ground and it's just going to grow a bunch of apples now if the tree is outside of the soil and not getting water it's not going to produce fruit a tree that's producing fruit is plugged into the ground in good soil getting good water and then it's going to produce lots of good lots of good fruit and of course we could look at this fruit in two different ways one would just be simply getting people saved in their converts another one i believe is also just preaching good sermons spirit-filled sermons and producing fruit in people's lives and you know what people that are filled with the spirit of god are going to preach great sermons because you know why the spirit of god is awesome think about think about i mean don't you believe that the holy ghost is amazing is awesome like oh there's this guy that's filled with the spirit of god but his sermons are lame and and nothing is really resonating in the bible like you're almost like then accusing the holy ghost of being kind of lame again right like don't you believe the holy ghost exists somewhere and is in somebody and is doing something yeah it is and it's out there and you know what when you see it it's just weird to start attacking it and acting like it's bad or there's something wrong with it you know there's probably something wrong with you right and of course you know when you can't preach good sermons and when you're not getting people saved what what's the problem is it the problem with other people or the problem with you you know if you want to be if you want to judge people harshly for their fruit maybe we should judge you for your fruit right and of course you can't a good a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringing forth good things someone that's good is just going to say good things someone that's evil is going to say evil things so that's why it's a red flag you know and i do this i judge a lot of people like other pastors and ministries based on what they say and what they preach and you know when you start hearing weird stuff and you start hearing heresy and you start hearing junk you have to start realizing there's something wrong with that person because you can't hide and you know especially in the independent fundamental baptist world it's really hard to hide you know if you went to a non-the-nom church it'd be a lot easier because they preach about a 15-minute sermonette and they have so many traveling preachers coming in and out and they usually don't even write their own sermons they're literally a skillful presenter of someone else's sermon i remember so i visited this church um it's not this piano but it's the one we got before me and brother oz we went to some big non-the-nom church we didn't know it was a church we just went online and found a piano and we're picking it up right and i'm just chatting up the guy that was working there he actually was saved so that was good but i kind of we were just kind of asking him about sermons and stuff and he said oh yeah we have this like pastor's team and he and i was like what does that mean like yeah they meet because he was on the worship team and he was asking us about how our worship and i'm just like we just pick random you know hymns and just put them out there he's like they're we're trying to tie like team up like the song with the sermon and stuff he's like our pastor team will write their sermons like 12 weeks in advance i'm just thinking like wow mine's like 12 minutes no i'm just kidding 12 12 weeks and he's like yeah we have the one pastor who writes the sermons and then we have the other pastor who like delivers them or whatever and i'm thinking like this is just weird like it's just weird that you have somebody like writes the sermon and then you have like the little council to like decide if the sermon's good or not and then they have the one guy that delivers that sermon that they all thought of or whatever and i'm just like this just doesn't seem very natural so yeah i could see how someone could hide right because really you could just literally just hire a celebrity actor to show up for your sunday morning sermon and just repeat the lines of whatever was given to them and okay we don't know what this guy believes because he's just a skillfully prepared actor but you know when you're an independent photo Baptist preacher and you preach three times a week it's real hard to hide what you believe it's real hard to hide what's really going on in here and you know it's also nervous for me when guys are just reading off a script i've gone to a church where the pastor literally just read a sermon i've seen other people they just they really cannot venture away from their notes and you just kind of wonder like why like why are you so afraid to walk off from the notes because you know what does it say in verse number 35 a good man of the good treasure of the heart bringing forth good things i'm not too worried about it because i know i'm a good guy i'm not going to just slip and teach heresy or something i'm not going to just accidentally fall and start preaching islam or something like that you know like i'm gonna keep preaching the word of god that does that mean i'm perfect no does that mean that sometimes when i ad lib i say weird things yeah i have okay i've said a lot of weird things all right in fact one time i was making an analogy on the fly and i'm like we got to be like the titanic you know and and be you know steadfast when we go out there and then i'm like wait a minute this doesn't fit at all because we say you know just like okay that was a fail analogy right yeah sometimes i might say something a little off but at the end of the day like generally speaking 90 some percent of everything i'm saying is going to match what the bible says because you know what a good guy is going to preach good things a corrupt guy boy the corrupt stuff is going to start pouring out of his mouth eventually and you can figure out who they are and you know what we should judge people on is their words again by their words that shout they'll be justified by the words that begin now this this every idle word let me put you at ease i do not believe this is for saved people because we don't have to give an account for all of our sins okay but at the end of the day we're still going to be judged by the words that we speak and of course god's still judging us so we need to be careful about everything that we say and often what we say kind of indicates our heart about things and we will have to stand on the judgment seat of christ and we will have to give an account of the works that we did good or bad and it's possible the things that we said or did may somehow impact our rewards and what our intent was in our heart because the bible says if you sound trumpet you're going to lose on some of your awards so look we should still be very careful of what we say but you know these pharisees will have to literally give an account for every single idle word that they spoke before god and then we'll find out if you ever cussed you know what i mean verse 38 then certain of the scribes and the pharisees answered saying master we would see a sign from thee but he answered and said of them an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet jonas for as jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of jonas and behold a greater than jonas is here the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of solomon and behold a greater than solomon is here now this is kind of interesting i'm not going to spend a long time on this number one jesus is talking about jonas as himself how jonah went in the well's belly for three days and three nights is how jesus went to hell for three days and three nights but just as the whale spit out jonah jesus christ was risen again from the dead but great proof text on the fact that jesus literally went to hell a lot of people fight you on that but it's you know who fights you on that is usually preachers not people almost no people that i talk to struggle with this it's just a handful of like weirdo preachers especially jonathan puris which is the most irritating person boy he just you know if i could be a striker man i can't but i don't know is it i don't know if it's right can a pastor's enter into a boxing match and not be a striker i don't know i would i would allow it personally all right notice that the queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with his generation and shall condemn it so we're going to be at the judgment and we're gonna we're gonna hear god's word being delivered and we're gonna agree with god's word and we're gonna say yep that's what the bible said yep you were wrong yep that was wicked what you did verse 43 when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeketh rest seeking rest and findeth none then he saith i'll return into my house from whence i came out and when he has come he findeth an empty swept and garnish then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first even so shall it be also under this wicked generation now this has been something that i always struggled with i didn't know how to interpret and i i'm not going to say that i i for sure figured it out but a new idea i has kind of entered in my mind on how to interpret this passage and and i think what's really being brought up is think about this jesus came unto the children of israel and he healed all of them cast out all of these demons from every single person all the demons were cast out all the devils they were completely purged from that but we can't necessarily take from that that they all got saved so some people would have had a literal demon or demons cast out of them but they didn't get saved and they ended up not still believing in lord jesus christ and then he's saying well late when i'm gone that devil's going to come back but boy it's going to be even worse than it was when you first had it and it's just kind of like when you have that opportunity to get saved and you choose not to take it boy it could get way worse for you down the road and i think that even applies beyond salvation this principle but again this is a specific principle i think of salvation second peter chapter two also brings up the concept of false prophets kind of learning the way of righteousness and just kind of cleaning themselves up a little bit but because they didn't end up getting saved they end up falling even harsher victim of those sins and go after them even more and do even more wicked or evil things later down the road because they didn't actually get saved and so i think that's the right way to kind of interpret this passage is just because god delivered them of the demon or the the devil doesn't mean they got saved and if they choose not to actually get saved well a worse punishment's coming you know you could see this specifically when jesus heals the man and and heals the blind man and tells him to go and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee and so you kind of have that idea of like hey while there's an opportunity to get saved you better do it because then things might get worse and let me give you my warning here's my warning to the new i of b here's my warning to the x new i of b boy you might have cleaned up your lives from actually hearing some good preaching and actually going to church and reading the king james bible and let me warn you if you walk away boy a worse thing might come unto you you might have lived kind of a hard life or had some problems or had some adversity or whatever but you clean yourself up do not walk away because boy boy god might come onto you harder and bring even more trouble and more tribulation when you walk away from the things of god do not walk away from the things of god do not think that oh wow god has delivered me from this evil now my life's good i'm gonna go back to the world and enjoy again no a worse thing might come upon you just like the children of israel they get delivered of egypt they walk through the red sea and then they're like no i want to go back to egypt oh boy man a worse thing might come on you now that you want to go back to the world you want to go back to your old life you want to get away from the things of god and i've seen it repeatedly i've seen people going to a good church for years then they decide you know what now i'm going to just go and live my life make money have fun do my thing whatever just get out of church they're not serving god they're walking away and boy just it's a country music song that their life turns into i don't even like country music i don't know anything about it i just know it's bad all right you lose you lose your wife and your car and your dog and everything right i mean it's just and then you're drinking and it's just it's just like a complete train wreck of a life and now you're listening to country music which is the worst part about it okay i'm just saying man you laugh but it's serious and i'm not saying you have to come to our church to serve god but i am saying this do not stop serving god and if you can find a better church please go but don't downgrade either don't downgrade on god don't downgrade on on the word of god don't go from the king james to the niv don't go from soul winning to lifestyle evangelism don't go from skirts and dresses to feminine pants what does that even mean don't downgrade on the things of god don't downgrade on us for no more you know from a full quiver to us for no more don't downgrade on these things don't downgrade on the suit and tie on sunday morning to your hooters t-shirt at the nom the nom church or whatever don't downgrade the hymns to hillsong don't downgrade three services a week to your once on easter don't downgrade the things of god because you know what there will be an impact you will reap what you sow in fact become more spiritual not less the bible says this in verse 46 while yet talked to the people behold his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with them then one said in them behold thy mother and thy brother and stand without desiring to speak with thee but he answered and said unto him that he that told him who is my mother and who are my brethren and he stretched forth his hands and he said stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said behold my mother and my brethren for his search will do the will of my father which is in heaven the same as my brother and sister and mother i love the fact that it tells us again that the father is specifically in heaven i like that it's always clear that he's he's somewhere he's in heaven right and anybody that does the will of god is in his context a spiritual brother sister or mother and so jesus christ cares more about hanging out with his spiritual brethren than his physical brethren there's nothing wrong with hanging out with physical brethren i love it but you know what he gives more preeminence to his spiritual brethren and there's nothing wrong with him being both you see jesus hanging out with his mom quite a bit she's probably the most spiritual of his of his family of his kin but at the end of the day you know his mom's not always there his mom's not always doing the spiritual things and so sometimes he's hanging out more with the 12 or hanging out with his disciples and everything like that and so you know we need to make sure that we're giving our primary attention to our spiritual brothers our spiritual sisters our spiritual mothers the spiritual brethren that we have in this room you know those are the people that we should really care about you know there's nothing wrong with serving god with your brother that's a blessing or with your with your sister or with your mom and dad or with your kids or whatever but the reality is that you're going to be the exception not the rule most of us in here you know that our adults do not have blood kin in this room with us okay now you children you're you're forced to be here with your other brothers and sisters and your mom and dad we'll see what you're like when you grow up hopefully you'll still stick around but you know all of us adults we get to choose where we're going to go and what we're going to do with our lives and for the most part a lot of our brothers and sisters and mom and dad and even adult children sometimes are not going to necessarily serve god with us and that's for you to decide what are you going to do how are you going to serve what are you going to and you know i would love it i mean there's nothing more that i would love than my whole family to go to church with me i've i've been so close with my family my whole life it was the most important thing to me and i've drug so many of them out soul winning i've drug them to church i've drug them to all kinds of different things and you know i've noticed when you stop dragging people they stop coming you know what i mean isn't that kind of annoying when you when you don't offer barbecue brisket for lunch people don't always show up okay now when we have barbecue brisket you know a lot of people come out for that right jesus knows about that and you know sometimes there's a time and place for that meal right and there's nothing wrong with that there's there's time to celebrate and serve god but there's also a time to separate and say hey we're here to just serve god and whoever's here that's the real that's the real thing that matters plus you know it it's not fun to necessarily have relationships change where maybe you're really close with a certain individual and that relationships starts to become less less important or maybe less close but you know in relationships that i've kind of it's not that i've lost them but they just kind of become more distance not as close as they once were just as a result of life and time i've gained in spiritual relationships where i would say man there's people in this room that i have so much more meaningful conversations with and hang out with i mean even now today if i were to hang out with a lot of family it would be so superficial the conversation that we would have and we can't really talk about much and if i even bring things up it's like so taboo and we can't really talk about it and it's like you know i can't bring up verses i can't be like did you watch the sodomite deception you know it's like i mean you can't really like get excited about the same things and it's like hanging out with you know you guys it's like it's a lot different we can talk about a lot of the things in the bible and we're excited about these things i mean i've never seen you know church where people are so excited to hear what the bible says and bring up the bible after service someone actually i've heard this and i believe it but i heard that somebody that was coming to our church was kind of critical of it because they said well the thing i don't like about steadfast is that after the service everybody just wants to talk about the bible like they don't they don't really they don't want to talk about other things they're just kind of like they just kind of like only want to focus on like what the bible says and talk about those kind of things and i'm thinking like wow what a terrible testimony you know hey i've been in the exact opposite situation i've been in churches that i went to and i kind of wanted to talk with people about the bible afterwards but it was only about the dallas cowboys it was only about you know football and work and whatever and look i try to strike a balance if you talk to me after church i'll try to talk to you about both i'll try to bring up your work your hobbies your interest where you live different you know you know what's going on in your life your kids your birthday parties you know i like to talk about that stuff with you and then i also hey i mean tons of people come up to me and we have all kinds of conversations about the bible many times it's the sermon 2.0 okay and i'm thinking like i just preach for an hour and a half you want to talk to me more you know i'm just kidding i'm just saying like i like it both but boy if someone was gonna get mad at us like man they just talked to you about the bible i'm just thinking like praise god you know that's the kind of people i want to be around all right let's go some prayer thank you heavenly father so much for giving us this chapter and for helping us to understand the spirit of the law thank you for giving us spiritual brothers and sisters and mothers to supersede some of the carnal relationships that we have they're just kind of carnal and they're not really have much substance thank you for giving us deep and meaningful relationships when we serve god and and we come alongside other brothers and sisters in christ i pray that you would just help us to be motivated to have the right attitude and that we'd follow the right kind of fruit trees the people that are speaking the truth i pray that you would help us to continue to produce great fruit for your honor and for your glory and this is jesus name we pray amen all right in closing let's go to song number 259 song number 259 jesus saves song 259 let's all sing it out together on the first we have heard the joyful sound jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus give the wins rejoice great singing everybody you were all dismissed you