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Right, Romans chapter 1, probably a memory chapter for many, we've probably heard some preaching of Romans quite a bit. Okay, we're a new church here, and as a new church, there's a lot of stuff we need to sort out as a new church. Everyone here is new to being part of what we all consider to be a good church, yeah? All of us, every single person here is getting used to that. Some have maybe been a bit more part of bad churches than others, some have maybe visited some good churches, some have maybe even spent a couple of weeks at good churches. But there's a big difference, isn't there, between being part of a church week in, week out, and being a core part of the starting of a church. Now, if you haven't noticed, which I'm sure you have, I'm preaching sermons, I feel, to help us as a church. Okay? I've been preaching a lot on that because I think it's really important, especially in the early days, and because of that, I can imagine that for some people it might feel a bit rough sometimes, and it might feel, when you feel that Holy Spirit hitting you, and maybe you feel like I'm picking on you, and you're sitting there thinking, man, like, you know, is it just all just going to be preaching at sin, preaching at sin? And it won't be, you know, and it's not always, obviously, but there is a lot of stuff that I feel is being laid on my heart that I need to preach about, and I need to preach about it, I've got to preach about it, because I want this church to be a success. I not only want it, I desire, I am determined that this church is going to be a success. So because of that, instead of a disclaimer that you might hear me sometimes say, well, I'm not preaching at anyone in particular, I am preaching this at everyone in the room. Okay? I'm not preaching at everyone in the room, because we've all, everyone in this room has been guilty of this particular sin at times, okay? Everyone in this room has been guilty of this particular sin, I don't know how much since the church started, but throughout our lives, because it's such a temptation. We've all done it, we'll sadly, we'll probably continue to do it now and again as well. Now look at Romans 1, verse 29, Romans 1, 29. Talking about the reprobate, it says, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers. And the title of my sermon today is, don't be a whisperer, don't be a whisperer. What is a whisperer? Is it someone that just walks around whispering a lot, you know, always playing little whispering games and always talking to people in quiet tones? Most people are annoying, aren't they? People when you can never hear and you keep having to ask, in the end you stop, just pretend you know what they said. Well, yes and no, but the word whisperer or whisperers is only used twice in the Bible along with the word whisperings once. And I'll show you the other use in a minute, which doesn't really explain it, but I believe the dictionary is true to it. The dictionary, when talking about a whisperer, says, one who whispers, number two, a tackler, one who tells secrets, a conveyor of intelligence secretly, and number three, a backbiter, one who slanders secretly. So basically it covers tackling or tale-bearing, telling secrets and information on others secretly, backbiting, which is slandering the absent, and secret slander, which is to defame, meaning to injure by maliciously uttering a false report respecting one, to tarnish or impair the reputation of one by false tales, maliciously told or propagated. Okay, you get the idea, it's not always lies and it can be really subtle too, but it's never for a positive outcome, okay, because there's a big difference, isn't there? There's a big difference to me being maybe concerned or someone at church is concerned about someone and just saying, oh, is everything all right with them? You know, that's different, isn't it, to whispering. Okay, why am I preaching this? Firstly, like I said, because of we being a new church, this is such a common sin. This is such a common sin in life. It's a common sin in the workplace. You see, anyone in the workplace will have whisperings about people in the workplace, telling little tales, little gossips here and there, family, I mean, all of us probably have heard people whispering about their family members to you or other family members whispering about each other, friends, even best friends, all of us have heard it, haven't we? Best friends whispering about each other and sadly all of us have probably done stuff like this at some time. Okay, but more importantly, it can destroy a church, okay? It can and does destroy a church and every church which has been split and had major issues and major problems, I'll tell you, every single one started with whispering. Every single one started with whispering. Okay, we want to build an amazing church here. I want to build an amazing church. I hope everyone here wants to build an amazing church here. Okay, but we're not building an amazing church to then tear it down, are we? We're not building an amazing church to tear it down. What would be the point of that? And if we don't nick this in the bud or make sure it never happens in this church, then it will be teared down. I'll think about an analogy with this because it's something that always used to amuse me. My kids with Lego and Lego towers and blocks here, they will sit there on the floor, my older kids, on a perfectly easily to reach table of my little bulldozer son Charlie and they'll do this intricate tower and they'll spend all this time and all this effort building this perfect tower and then not only the disappointment but the shock that the one-stroke-two-year-old has just smashed it down at some point. And you just thought, why did you do it in the first place? But in the same way with the church, why on earth would we spend all this time and effort? And it's a lot of time and effort and heartache for most people here but a lot of time into this to then just smash it down, to then just knock it down. Okay, so like I said, it is a waste of time until we get rid of this sin. How destructive is it? Well turn to Proverbs 18. Turn to Proverbs chapter 18. There's quite a lot of Proverbs on this. I don't want to always preach to you on Proverbs. I said this to someone the other day that sometimes, you know, I don't want to be called to Proverbs preaching but on a lot of these sins, the book of Proverbs just talks so much about all these issues that I think affect churches, affect people. Okay, Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 8 says exactly the same word for word as chapter 26 and verse 22. And it says, the words of a tale-bearer are as wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Okay, so that is some deep wounds, aren't they? And you know what? Deep wounds often never heal, do they? They never heal fully and tale-bearing can cause real deep wounds. When deep wounds don't heal, that becomes a problem, doesn't it, in the church. Now this one's the other, while you're in the book of Proverbs, this one is the other use of whisperer. Go to Proverbs 16 and verse 28 and it says, a froward man soweth strife and a whisperer separateth chief friends. Okay, relationships are ruined, they're ruined by whispering, aren't they? We know that and we know that when people are being whispered about and then people find out other people are whispering and stuff, it just ruins friendships, ruins relationships and you can't have that. This is a church family. Obviously, we don't want that in a church and we see it in the world so often, don't we? And people with things just getting destroyed by it. Okay, again, in Proverbs, go to Proverbs 26 and verse 20. Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out, so where there is no tale-bearer, the strife ceaseth. Now look, you're going to get strife in it, you're going to get strife. If you get a group of people together from different backgrounds, different walks of life, you're going to get strife, aren't you? Okay, that goes without saying. But when there's a tale-bearer, the strife continues, doesn't it? And when we have strife, we just want it to be dealt with in the right way, move on. But it's the tale-bearer that keeps the strife going and again, can pull apart and does pull apart churches. Okay, now you might be sitting there thinking, okay, yeah, well, that's serious stuff but a little gossip. Is it the end of the world, a little gossip, a little talk here and there, a little moan about someone, there's someone else at church, got to get it off my chest, don't I? Well, turn to Leviticus 19, Leviticus 19 and verse 16, thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people, neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour I am the Lord. Okay, thou shalt not, it's pretty clear, isn't it? That is a clear judgement, do not be a tale-bearer, said God, okay, thou shalt not. That's not something where we need to put together a few verses, work it out, do not do it. Don't do it, it's clear, isn't it? Now, I've been thinking about the different motivations for whispering, okay? And the first one for me is just carnal enjoyment, really. A lot of people just enjoy it, people enjoy it. And again, I'm sure everyone here could probably relate to this at some point in their lives, that there is just some enjoyment, it appeals to the flesh, doesn't it? Appeals to the flesh, whether it's a little bit of tale-bearing, a little bit of gossip, a little bit of whispering about someone else, putting them down slightly, maybe subtly. And you know why? Because it makes you feel better than the person you're whispering about, doesn't it? Often it makes you feel that little bit better about them. And when you're criticising someone else, however subtly, you're often lifting yourself up, aren't you? You're lifting yourself up, either in your mind or to the person that you're whispering to, yeah? Okay, Matthew 23.12 says, And whosoever shall exhort himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Right, don't be a whisperer, because you'll just end up being abased, because you will. And it's a funny thing, isn't it? Because, see, this is the problem, is the people you're doing it to and around will start to recognise you as a whisperer, won't they? They'll just look at you and start to think that person's a whisperer. And how many times, I've known, when I hear people whisper about someone else to me, and I'm not saying I haven't done it as well before, when people whisper to me, in my mind I'm thinking, I bet you talk about me as well. I bet you talk about me. Because that's what people do, don't they? When they whisper about someone, it ain't just that one person. Sometimes it is, and we'll look at that in a second, but often they're going to be whispering about you. Now here's the thing, so the people who are always whispering to you, straight away you know that they're doing the same thing, yeah? You know they're doing the same thing about you most of the time. So it's kind of ironic if subconsciously, or consciously, they're doing it to lift themselves up. Because really, you're just looking at them going, you're a whisperer. And even if they're trying to lift themselves up against that person, it's kind of bizarre. Turn to James chapter 1 verse 26. James chapter 1, and verse 26. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. So look, you can seem like the most religious person in a church, the one who's got his Bible reading down, or her Bible reading down, you're soul winning every, you know, every week, twice, three times, four, five, whatever it is. If you can't bridle or control your tongue, it's empty. Your religion's vain. It's empty. Because you're just going to cause more trouble than you really do. Like I said to you before, you can be saving. You could have more than the average I was saying, you could be doing more than the whatever it is I was saying to brother Max, I'm not looking at Sarah there, but when brother Max sitting there, I was saying say he did two a week, and say it was, you know, he was saving 100 people a year, but then if your tongue is just tearing apart a church, you're into the minus numbers, aren't you? And look, whispering can be a big problem for some people, okay? And this sermon isn't just to tell everyone you're all whisperers. Because I also, for the people when it's just like, it can be that carnal thing, it can be like I said, we're all new to a church here. Some things people don't really maybe realise as whispering either, maybe, and things can be misconstrued. But turn to 1 Timothy 5 and verse 13, okay, and this is just talking about widows here, and with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. And that's what we don't want to do, do we? Give an occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, which is badly of us, of yourselves, of other people. I'm going to start causing that division. Now, I'm not just picking on women here, although some would say well this is more of a problem with women, maybe, there is an issue with not being busy enough as well, and that could be all of us. I'm not just saying, well I go to work, I'm busy, well no, because not always, and I preach about that, I'm not going to repreach that, but not being busy can be a problem, and yet can be a bit of a problem among women. Why is that? I don't know, but maybe there's a few reasons, maybe the way that men and women are wired differently, but maybe with men as well, it's because if you're just blatantly whispering about someone, maybe there's a bit more of a risk of just getting punched in the face or something, you know, there's just that little bit extra cost there, maybe a bit of an extra risk puts you off, because when people are whispering about you, it can wind you up, can't it? When you know someone is whispering about you, that winds you up. Now, we can all be built guilty of it, so like I said, keeping busy I think can help, but I also think that it might help remembering that this sin will block your walk and your fellowship with God. Okay, so like I said, you can be as religious as you like, you can be saving souls, you can be doing all that, but it will block your walk, your fellowship with God. Have a look at Psalm 15 here, go over to Psalm 15, we'll just read the Psalm quickly. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contempt, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth through his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. Okay, so to be close to God, we need to walk uprightly, work righteousness, be honest. Now look at verse 3 there, it's saying here, no backbiting, no doing evil to our neighbour. And he goes on to say there in fact, nor taketh up a reproach against thy neighbour. So obviously to walk with God we shouldn't be backbiting, we shouldn't be doing evil to our neighbour, and we can do that a lot through whispering. But taking, he says, nor taketh up a reproach against thy neighbour. Now I think, I believe, looking at that, that that's basically not to receive a slander against your neighbour. So I believe we all, or everyone, has a responsibility not to encourage whispering. That's what I would say, we all have a responsibility, we can all help each other, and you know it's not just, that's not just to then help the person who's being whispered about, it's also the person doing the whispering. Because it is destructive, it is going to affect their walk with God, and they are going to get chastised for it. Okay, so how do we do that? Well, Proverbs 11.13, you don't have to turn there, but it says, a tale-bearer reveal of secrets but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. So firstly, don't pass it on, don't, don't go ahead and start encouraging it, talking oh well did you know that they said that, because that's just going to encourage it anyway, in a church setting especially, is what we're talking about here. And that's not just, you know, big tales, it could just be a little bit of info, a little comment about someone. Okay, even better is just to cut them straight off, isn't it? Especially if it's about church members. Just cut them off, don't take up a reproach against our neighbour, cut them off. So I don't want to hear that. Done. Okay, turn to Proverbs 25.23. Proverbs 25, and verse 23. The north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. So like the north wind drives away rain, so does an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. If someone is backbiting in this church and you hear it, you see it, they say it to you, you should have an angry countenance. Now what's an angry countenance? Basically give them a look, give them a show, you should be annoyed. We should all be angry when we hear it, that's how it should be. If we hear people talk about other people, we should get angry and give them a look. Now I'm not going to give an impression of what sort of look, but I'm sure you can imagine what sort of looks and just make it clear. That just stops people in their tracks. Like when you have people who are just silent, and you know what, it's funny isn't it, because when people do whisper and backbite and then someone doesn't respond, I think a lot of the time that kind of puts them off talking to them again, doesn't it? Because the flesh likes to enjoy it with someone else. Give them an angry look and that will make them check themselves. Now with that, I'll explain other things for that in a second as well. But my sermon is don't be a whisperer, reasons for whispering. Number one was carnal enjoyment, I think that's closely linked with pride. Like so many things in life are linked with pride. Number two, revenge. Number two is revenge. This is when you've had someone annoy, anger, upset you in one way or another, and you want revenge. You want revenge, so you slander them in one way or another. Now if there's a problem at church, I'm not saying you have to keep silent, you come to the church leader. You come to the church leader, if you feel uncomfortable with that as a lady, you come to my wife. And just quickly on that, you know, I know we have some stuff in place, obviously, to be sensible. I'm not going to be in there in a locked room with a lady to have a private discussion about some problem. But on the same side, you are able to talk to me, ladies, if there's a problem you needed to discuss. You don't, got to get your husband or whatever else. Okay, just to make that clear, some people may be a bit unsure about that. You are welcome to talk to me in a public setting if it's private, obviously bring my wife in, or your husband if it's someone married, if not, that's fine, yeah? Just make it clear. Obviously, we don't want to put anyone in situations which can then be talked about. Okay, but coming to a church leader or his wife isn't whispering, okay? Just make that clear. Going to your boss at work isn't whispering, okay? If there's a problem at work and you see a problem, going and talking to them isn't whispering. Kids going to your parents about something serious, yeah, isn't whispering because how often do kids go to their parents about something that's not serious, and they are whispering then, aren't they? Okay, if it's something serious, it's not whispering, okay? Going to another church member, however good friends, colleague, brother, sister, at home or whatever else it is, is whispering, okay? That's it, it's whispering. There's no reason to go to anyone else. The only caveat I'll give to that, the only one where I'd say maybe not would be if it's your husband or wife, but you've got to make sure the spirit's right there. If I'm just going home every week, it's just, ah, that person, that is whispering, isn't it? That's backbiting. But if you're discussing something, that's okay, that's different, okay? And that's one of the benefits of being married, but that's, oh, well, I'm a man, I'm going to talk to my best mate about it or whatever else, or kids, I'm just going to talk to my brother or sister or one of the other kids, no, that's whispering, okay? Right. Turn to Romans chapter 12 and verse 16, because, like I said, revenge, revenge is one of them. And look at verse 16 here, from verse 16. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as life in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink. For inside doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Now, obviously, I would hope that people don't have people in the church which they consider their enemies, okay? But the principle at the beginning there, well, firstly, just have a look at verse 16. It says, be not wise in your own conceits. Basically, your own ideas or imaginations. Proverbs 26, 12, we don't have to turn there. It says, seest thou a man wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him. So we can often think, we have the measure of someone, can't we? We can often think. We have the measure of someone by one thing they've said. Or even worse, by something else, someone else has said they said. And I'm going to talk about that in a second as well, okay? So we can often get wise, saying that we know exactly what they're thinking, what they're, oh, I know, you know, they've got a problem with this or that. And then it starts to justify our whispering, doesn't it? But be not wise in your own conceits. Okay, verse 19 there, it says, still in Romans 12, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Okay, it's not for us to seek revenge, and that's so often what whispering is. They've offended you, they've upset you, they've angered you, defaming someone because they've hurt your pride, okay? And it happens a lot, and it happens in churches all the time. Okay, now we already saw the result of that with a pride. Here's a reminder, again, you don't have to turn to Proverbs 29, 23 says, a man's pride shall bring him low, but honour shall uphold the humbling spirit. You're just going to end up, it's going to affect you more than anyone else. Now verse 20 to 21 here, it's still in Romans 12. It's talking about if an enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirsts, give him drink, for inside doing that shall eat coals of fire in his head, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Okay, basically, we should just focus on being nice, even to your enemy, okay? That's how we should focus, just be nice. If you feel wounded, your pride's wounded, like I said, if it's something serious, come to leadership, otherwise, just be nice to people, and it's such a great way of dealing with problems and dealing with stuff, and it's not, oh, what a mug, you know, they talk like this about me, and I'm just going to be nice to them, yeah, yeah, that's what the Bible says, don't avenge yourself, and that's the same, like I said, if you're on the receiving end of the whisperings. Now turn to 1 Peter chapter 3, I know we're going to a lot of Bible verse here, but I want to make it really clear from the Bible here about this. First Peter chapter 3 and verse 8, from verse 8, finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing, for he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile, let him askew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. So even if we're on the end of the railing, don't do it back. And verse 10 here, guile is cunning deceit, if we want to love life and see good days, we need to avoid those cunning little comments, because that's where it can go, it's a cunning little comment, just a little comment here, little one there, just to sow a little seed in someone's head about someone else, we need to avoid those, that's guile. Now sometimes though, the revenge can be caused by envy, the revenge can be caused by envy. People can get so hateful due to envy, can't they? What's the problem, angry is cruel wrath, angry is cruel wrath is outrageous, but who can stand before envy? I think I got that right. It can be a big problem, envious of their job, their house, maybe their looks, maybe their popularity, whatever it is, there's many things people get envious of. But of course they don't admit that, like I said before, rarely do people admit they're envious, they don't admit their hatred, they just slander the person instead, they slander the person instead. Now that could be subtle like I said as well, Proverbs 10 18 says, he that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth the slander is a fool. So they lie about them to hide their hatred, don't they? They lie about them to hide their hatred and give a so-called reason to slander them then. So you can create a little bit more out of something someone said, just change it a little bit, now you've got a reason to slander them. Now obviously the hypocrisy there should be obvious, shouldn't it again? If someone's whispering about someone else's sin or mistreatment of them or whatever it is, because they're being a hypocrite by whispering, aren't they? They're being a hypocrite. If it's in a church, come to the church leader, if it's important enough, come to the church leader. Proverbs 11 9 says, an hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour, but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. They want to destroy their neighbour for revenge, and like I said, revenge can often be due to envy, can't it? Often due to envy. Now turn to Matthew 27, okay, Matthew 27, and from verse 17, Matthew 27 17, therefore when they were gathered together Pilate said unto them, whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, which is called Christ? We know that obviously I think everyone here would be familiar with this part of the story of Jesus Christ, it's before he died, for he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down in the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him saying, have thou nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. So that's why they destroyed Jesus. Verse 18, he knew that for envy they had delivered him, not that he thought, he knew. And those wicked Jews, they did both whisper and openly slander our Lord, didn't they? It was, there was whispering and there was open slander. Now there was a lot of them, weren't there? There was a lot of them. David said in Psalms 41, 7, again you don't have to turn there, all that hate me whisper together against me, against me do they devise my hurt. Okay, and that's talking about more than one person. It's not always just one person, there can be a group of people. What's the answer? Proverbs 17, 9 says, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth the matter separateth very friends. Just leave it be. We can just leave it be. If it's that important, if the problem, if the offense is that important, in church come to the church leader, in a workplace, to your boss, to your parents at home. But if it's not that important, why are you whispering about it? Why are you whispering about it? Okay, don't be a whisperer, reasons for whispering. Number one, carnal enjoyment, closely linked with pride. Number two, revenge, and that's often caused by envy, as much as people don't admit that. Okay, turn to Proverbs 6 now. Turn to Proverbs 6, and from verse 16. These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Okay, keep a finger there, keep a finger in Proverbs 6, and turn back to where we started in Romans 1. Turn back to Romans 1, okay. So he said six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination to him. Okay, verse 17. A proud look, look at Romans 1.30, hates a God despiteful proud, okay, this is obviously talking about the reprobate here. A lying tongue, have a look at Romans 1.29, in Romans 1.29 it says deceit, full of deceit. Hands that shed innocent blood, look at Romans 1.29, murder, murder, full of murder. Okay, verse 18 here in Proverbs 6, and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, look at Romans 1.30, inventors of evil things. Okay, feet that be swift in running to mischief, I see that Romans 1.30, disobedient to parents there, disobedient to parents, feet that be swift in running to mischief. Verse 19, a false witness that speaketh lies, a look at Romans 1.30, backbiters, and he that soweth discord among brethren, and Romans 1.29 calls that whisperers. No wonder the Lord hates these things. All of these things are part of the makeup of a reprobate. Now interestingly, the sixth and seventh of Proverbs 6 go hand in hand, and I think he separates them to emphasize them, because what did he say at the beginning? He says, these six things, says the Lord, seven are an abomination to him, and then at the end he splits these two, which like I said all cover, I think are all covered by whispering. Okay, so reasons for whispering, number three, to sow discord among brethren, to sow discord among brethren. Now I've just preached about two others, and I hope that anyone here that's ever guilty of whispering can look back at the first two. Number three is to sow discord among brethren, which is basically causing problems in a church, purposefully causing problems in a church. Okay, and now we're into reprobate behavior, okay? Right, you might say to me, wait a second, reprobate, so you're talking about flaming homos with rainbow flags on their heads, standing outside churches protesting, or the rest of it. Well luckily I don't think we have any of those here, I hope not, I might start searching the bags on the way out for rainbow flags, but, but I'm talking, I'm talking about the God hating, and I mean God hating, church dividing, sneaky reprobate that subtly works to destroy God's people from the inside, okay? And a term that we coined this morning is the reprosnake, the reprosnake, okay? And they act differently to your flaming homo, which is what we seem to focus on a lot, don't we? So we focus on a lot because of them in the public eye, these queers everywhere trying to push their sodomy on us and everything else, and then we forget about the ones that we're constantly warned about in the Bible, the reprosnake, okay? Surely we don't have any of those here, surely we don't. If we don't, yeah, and again I'm not trying to create a witch hunt here, I'll talk about that in a second, but if we don't we would be an anomaly, we would be an anomaly amongst NIFB churches, yeah? We would be an anomaly. Now, I was talking to brother Huna about UK soul winning a little while back, how many was it brother in the first, the first mega marathon in London? 54 soul winners turned up to the first one a few years ago for UK soul winning. In between then and now there's already been a few people exposed, okay? A few people exposed as infiltrators, just in that time. Now when 54 people, and am I right in thinking brother that that was the biggest outside of the States, okay, when 54 people turned up in Woolwich to go soul winning in the UK, do you think, do you not think that that would have possibly got the devil's interest a little? I think 100% it would have done, for sure. Do you think that only, only the problems have been exposed so far? Okay, I'm not asked for answers, don't worry. I would be surprised because that means he's failed, because he must have known, he must have seen that and gone, they're going to have a church here eventually, they're going to have a church here now, again. To come into this church new and infiltrate would take years, wouldn't it? Would take years. And you might think, well wait a second, surely all these other churches, it's not that they've been there from the beginning, no. But you know what, if I started a church in my back garden or in my front room, then it's completely different, isn't it? Because what work are we doing at that point? And the devil can take time. But we've come here and we have 60 people in and out of these doors, and of 60 people in and out of these doors, everyone's going out soul winning, and we have already, what was the number this morning, 180, 90 something, wasn't it? So far in a year, do you think the devil wants that? And do you think he might have maybe, he's wiser than you and I, do you think maybe he saw that coming after 50 odd people turned up in London? Okay, because of that we could have, we could have, and again, I'm going to explain, I'm not saying, I want everyone, because I want love here, I want love here, but we could have a whole bunch, we could have a whole bunch here, seriously. Okay, and I'll tell you why seriously in a minute, because I'm going to show you from the Bible. Now, I do want to love everyone here, okay, I want to love everyone in this world, I want everyone to love each other here, and I preached that last week, didn't I? I preached that at the end of 1 Corinthians 8, I think we're in, preached that about that love. Turn at Acts 20, turn at Acts 20, and verse 28, okay, this is Paul talking to the Ephesian elders, the pastors of the Ephesian churches, okay, Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them, therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one night and day with tears. Okay, verse 29, among you, verse 30, of your own selves, these aren't you true false prophets, these aren't repent of your sins IFB pastors, is it, these are ravening wolves in the church in sheep's clothing, okay, among you, okay, in the church, that's who they are. Paul 31, he says he's warned them night and day for three years, how likely do you think he felt it was? With tears for three, he knew what was going to happen, he knew it was going to happen. Oh, but we know false doctrine, we know false doctrine, no one's going to con me with false doctrine here, maybe you say that, how do they draw disciples after them? We're not going to be conned by that, are we? I'll tell you how, through rebellion, by whispering, by sowing discord, poisoning minds through subtlety, that's how it happens, turn to Jeremiah 6, Jeremiah 6, first use of the word reprobate, in the Bible, verse 28, and by the way, I could have gone to so many, so many passages here, 6 28, they are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders, they are brass and iron, they're all corruptors, the bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away, reprobate silver, shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them. Look, we don't have to start distrusting everyone in the church here, that's not how it works, okay, we're not all just sitting in a church looking, ironing each other up, is that one a reprobate, is that one? But I do want there to be some awareness too, because if we're all naive, we're going to get destroyed. There's already here 60 odd people coming in and out, I can't keep an eye on every conversation, people are meeting up separately, people talk to each other, people are going out soul winning, I can't turn up to every soul winning, because I've still got to basically lead a church and provide for my family at the same time, so I can't be there, and I'm not saying it's going like soul winning, but there's so much, there's a big church here, okay, so I need the rest of the church to be what 1 Peter 5 says, which is be sober, be vigilant, that's not talking to leaders, that's talking to Christians, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Okay, not just pastor leaders, that's everyone, that's Christians, at that point he's gone through some separate bits for different groups, then in 1 Peter 5 he then talks to everyone. Okay, so what are we being vigilant for? What are we being vigilant for? Secret vile affections? Well yeah, yeah we should be vigilant for that, because reprobates, that is what sets them apart, doesn't it? Secret vile affections, yeah, we're family integrated here for a reason too, aren't we? And if you think that you can trust every single person in a church, again I'm not trying to sow problems here, but if you think that, you're living in a dream world, okay? So yeah, we're family integrated, that means obviously keep an arm where your kids are, they should be alone with people, adults in this church, okay. But the covetous church psychopath, which is what they're often referred to, is usually cleverer than to reveal that, they're usually cleverer than to reveal that, and truthfully they also seem to be, if this is the way you want to look at it, covetous church sociopaths too. Okay, the covetous church sociopath, now the difference being that they're not necessarily then reprobate and have some level of empathy, albeit not in normal amounts, but they're still used by the devil to destroy the church, okay? Now, how do we spot them then, how do we spot them? And this is, regardless of the rest of the sermon, this is important stuff, don't you think? This is important stuff, considering what Paul was saying. Okay, so how do we spot them? Turn to Jude chapter 1, turn to Jude and chapter 1, okay, in verse 4. For there are certain men, crept and unawares, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, as set forth were an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also, these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. So look at verse 4 there, they crept in unawares, crept in unawares, jump forward to verse 8, they despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. Translation, they hate leadership and they whisper about leaders, okay? And that's the giveaway, the hatred for and the whispering about leadership in the church. That's one of the big giveaways, obviously the vile affections, but you ain't gonna know that. Okay, and you might think, oh wait a second, he's just trying to, you know, just say anyone whispers about himself. Well have a look, let's have a look again, let's have a look at 2 Peter 2. Second Peter 2, verse 1, 2 Peter 2 and verse 1, but there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, shall be, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. They don't necessarily do that straight away, and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. Okay, verse 1, shall be false teachers among you. Verse 2, many, many shall follow them. Many follow them. And this has happened in so many churches, many follow them. Okay, verse 3, notice the feigned words, they're fakes, the people are fakes, you're not going to spot them, oh he doesn't know his doctrine, that must be a reprobate, no, they're fake, they'll fake you, they'll pretend they're something they're not, they're wolves in sheep's clothing, feigned words. And they're often fake about a lot of things, they're insincere people, if you've got someone you think they're, I don't know, I would say keep an eye on that. If you're starting to feel something nag at you, someone's a fake and they're insincere, they shouldn't be behaving like that in a church. Okay, jump forward to verse 10 though. Jump forward to verse 10. But chiefly, them that walk off the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Again, they hate leadership and are not afraid to whisper about leaders. You see a trend here, yeah? Okay, notice how they're not afraid, why are they not afraid? What should they be afraid of? Well, you don't have to turn there, Romans chapter 13 says, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Normal people should be afraid to speak evil of the leadership that's ordained of God in a church. They should be in fear of that, not in fear of the leader, in fear of God. Okay, now in most churches that's the pastor. We're a bit different, aren't we? In this church, our pastor is Pastor Thompson, he's ordained of God, isn't he? And he's given me the responsibility of leading this church. Right, so am I saying that anyone in this church that ever whispers about me as a reprobate or at least a sociopath? No, what I'm saying is that anyone in this church who whispers about me, my family, Pastor Thompson, his family, and I would add to that positions, key positions in this church, like the music leader who also, by the way, has amazingly provided our church building, and his family is definitely not right with God and has gone straight from carnal or revenge whisperer to a possible reprobate. Straight away they've gone up to the possible, okay? Clearly, clearly. And if you have heard or hear anything like that here, you should be marking them and coming straight to me. Understood? Because if you're not, you're becoming a problem as well. Do you understand that? Okay, why did I say family too? Why did I say family too? Well, their families aren't our leaders, you know, because in effect is whispering about the pastor or leader, you do understand that, yeah? Okay? It's just attacking from another angle, okay? And that includes the little toddler whispering, or the wife, or whoever it is. If you're whispering about, and I'll add, because you know what, when we started this, do you know what happened? The first thing I got before the first official day was I got a YouTube comment that then got deleted whispering about Pastor Thompson's family. First thing I got the day before this church opened. Then, straight after, a week or two later, I got personal YouTube comment basically caning me and my family. Yeah? Within a couple of weeks. That's how these people operate. Now, sometimes it's obvious, sometimes not. I don't care if it's your best friend, how lovely they are. But they're just so great. How much they flattered you, and I'll talk about that in a minute. I don't care about any of that. Do you want this church to be destroyed? I would hope that everyone here does not want this church to be destroyed. Right, talking of flattery, this is another telltale giveaway, okay? And it feels so good, doesn't it, when people flatter you. Doesn't it feel good? Okay. Now, see, the church infiltrators, they don't always show obvious animosity. They don't always show it, okay? They're quiet about it. They're subtle about it. Turn to Psalm 5. Turn to Psalm 5, and verse 9. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulchre. They flatter with their tongue. Destroy thou them, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against thee. They're rebelling against God, okay? Firstly, they're rebelling against God. All that wickedness he just described there, there's no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulchre, but they flatter with their tongue. They flatter with their tongue. You don't have to turn it, Proverbs 26, 28 says, A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. Okay, I'm not saying you have to be mean to everyone in the church to prove that you're not a flatterer, okay? Just set that straight here. Okay, but you know what, yeah? There's a lot of hatred in lying about people, but however nice a flattery seems, it always causes problems. It's always negative in the Bible, every single time. Flattery is negative. Turn to Proverbs 29. Proverbs 29 and verse 5, it says, A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet. A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet. See, these people are cold and calculating. They're cold and calculating. Now, you might be thinking, whoa, brother Ian, this is a bit far. This is a bit far. People aren't really like this, are they? People really like this. Look, the Bible says this time and time again, and if you're thinking that, that's a good sign. If you're thinking that, that's a good sign, because that shows that, you know, you don't have them thoughts, and maybe you haven't been around people, or you haven't at least had people exposed to you like that, which is good, really. You might be thinking, I'm just creating an extreme to threaten people who don't like me or my family, but, you know, it's not about me. It's not about me. Matthew 5.11, you don't have to turn and say, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely for mine sake. If I'm getting whispered about, I get blessed. I'm all right, if my family does, we get blessed. It's fine. It's the flock that isn't spared. It's the flock, it's the church. That's who they really want. It's the church, and I want you guys to be vigilant too. I really do. I want everyone here to be vigilant. Now, look, some of these people are subtle. I'm not saying anyone that said something that's had a gripe about me, my family, Brother John, his family, Pastor Thompson, his family. I'm not saying that they're all these evil, wicked reprobates, but some people are subtle. They will encourage you to be the whisperer and come out smelling of roses every time. Do you understand that? They'll come out smelling of roses every time. A little comment here, a question there. David said in Psalm 38, 12, they also that seek after my life lay snares for me, and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. Okay, Psalm after Psalm after Psalm, he's saying exactly the same sort of thing. He says, they wet their tongue like a sword. Their arrows are bitter words. You're thinking, David, is he like, you think he must just always be talking about the warfare, people trying to kill him, everything else. No, he's always talking about the whispering, or mostly. Sharpened tongues like a serpent, adders poison under their lips. Psalm 27, 12, again, one of my favourite Psalms, false witnesses breathe out cruelty, he says. And this is what we're battling. This is what the spiritual battle is. Mainly it's not the person, yeah, there's the stumbling blocks when we're out soul winning. Yeah, there's people that will try and malign our church. There'll be a bit of bad press and everything else, but the battle is on the inside. That's where it really rages. That's the spiritual battle. That's where the devil, time and time again, we're warned in the Bible, will be, shall be, sending people in. How long is it going to take a new person to infiltrate here, to get to that point where people aren't alarm bells straight away? It ain't happening. Now, again, I hope and pray there is no one on this list in here. I really do. I'm not sitting here thinking, I really can't wait to expose someone and smash their head through the door and send them down the stairs, which I will, but I'm not, I'm not sitting here going, I want that. I don't want that. I really don't. So what do you do if you feel like maybe you have been manipulated by one of these people? What if in the future, maybe there will be, maybe there is someone, maybe someone will come in and infiltrate, maybe it's five, six years down the line and you look back to this sermon. No, I'll probably preach it every couple of weeks anyway. Okay, well at church, you should go to the leadership, obviously, shouldn't you? Look, that ain't whispering. If you're suspicious, look, I'll judge that, okay? I'll judge that and if I have to go to wise counsel, I'll go to wise counsel about that as well. If you're thinking, well, I don't know, he's just going to cause problems, look. I'm not going to jump into anything hasty, what, they said what, get them out, okay? But you come to the leadership. Why? Why should you come to the leadership if there's anything like that? For the reasons I've just given you, I've given you a lot of reasons, haven't I? But also, Proverbs 17 four says this, a wicked doer giveth heed to false lips and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Do you want to be grouped together with them? Do you? Do you want to be the wicked doer that's given heed to false lips? Do you want to be that person? Do you want to be the liar that's given ear to a naughty tongue? Surely not. Okay, separate from them two. Separate from them as well. Come to the church leadership, separate from people like that. Proverbs 20 19 says, he that goeth about as a tale bearer, reveal of secrets, therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips. Keep away from the flatterers. Don't get involved with the whispering. Because here's the thing, yeah, no one here today who watches this in the future can say that they haven't been warned, can they? No one can say that they haven't been warned about what is this telltale giveaway sign of someone trying to destroy this church? And this church could go on to some great things, couldn't it? Okay. My job is to protect this church. Our job is to protect this church. Yeah? If people are whispering or trying to discredit any of the leadership here, and like I said, that includes families too, I'm going to have to conclude now after this that they're causing division and kick them out. I have to, won't I? Surely I can't. I can't just, having preached this and then I start to see it, I start to hear it, someone else starts to notice. And you know, you know when people, and I'm not some paranoid wreck here, but you know when people are whispering about you or your family. You know. You can tell, you tell with accountants. You can tell with all of it. You know, okay? And when that happens, yeah, okay, I'm not just going to, I can tell. It comes out. It all comes out. God will reveal it, okay? And I'm going to have to conclude. That's all I can conclude. Well, what if they were encouraged into it? What if they were just in the flesh? Maybe they were bearing a grudge. That's a risk I'm willing to take. Because if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, seriously, what is it? It's a repress snake. Yeah? And if it's not, if it's not, at least I've been vigilant and diligent and I've at least averted what could have become division and a problem in the church, okay? And maybe they're not. Maybe somebody's just got a real gripe, a real problem, a real covetous problem for someone in leadership or something else. Is that going to help our church? No way. And you know what? That happens a lot at churches. And just on that, just on that as well, at these churches, it's not always one person. And this is a weird thing. And again, look, I hope and pray there's no one like this here. A lot of time it's couples as well. If you've noticed, if you look back at the people, the more famous ones in our group, man and wife, man and wife, man and wife, a lot of the time there are singles as well. I'm not saying it's always, oh, if you're married, that's it. But what I am saying is there's some bizarre thing. It's like, I think it's like queers, that this is, someone said this to me, that they just seem to know that the other person's a queer. And when they, for some reason, or the devil maybe does something, they just put them together. So a lot of the time you're thinking, well, no way could both of them be actually trying to destroy a church. Yes, yes, yes, that happens. It's happened time and time again at churches. It's happened at churches that didn't start off with 50, 60 people, where there's no other church in the country. We've got nearly 70 million people in the UK. Okay, and we're going out and getting the gospel out. This is going to grow. We've been in lockdown and we're already up to nearly 60. We're up to 60 who are in and out of here, who come maybe not every week. Okay, if you think that we're not going to get there, you think that that's not going to happen at some point, then, wow, like how naive do you have to be? The Bible's warned us time, and I've just gone to a few, I've only gone to a few places for the sake of time and not just having you flick through time after time in the Bible, throughout the Psalms. They're all, all these works of iniquity, it's with their mouths, it's with their tongues and it's subtle and the flattery, the flattery, to get you off guard. And the little, little hints here, the little stuff there, when some of it's more blatant, but you know, it starts at Absalom. What about the story of Absalom? Now, some say he's a sociopath, some say he was a reprobate. I would say he seemed to have some empathy for his sister, didn't he? He did seem to have some empathy. Okay, what did he do? He was basically trying to butter them up on the side and try and basically cause a division and cause a mass exodus. And any of that here, you're out. Yeah, and anything like that, what, what? We just made them go, oh, well, they could, because they're just a bit misguided. No, you've been warned now, it's clear. We're all new, like I said. Some stuff that's probably happened already, some whispering, some stuff that I would be amazed hasn't happened, we'll put that down to, sadly, a lot of people probably just don't know how to behave with a church, how that works and what the risk is, and obviously, what you're gonna be looked at as being if it's against leadership. You're like, well, that's all right for you, brother Ian. You get to have a bye, no one, no, because they still will anyway. And you know what, it's a tough job and you know, you know. But regardless, regardless, it's not about me, it's about the church, that's what they want. And that's when that happens. And the reason I'm saying this, like I said, because there are, I believe, fortunately the most common reasons for whispering are number one, carnal enjoyment, closely linked with pride. Number two, revenge, but that can become a big problem, be a divider that has to go. And that's often caused by envy. But number three, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number four, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number five, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number six, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number seven, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number eight, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number nine, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 10, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 11, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 12, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 13, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 14, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 15, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 16, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 17, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 18, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 19, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 20, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 21, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 22, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 23, the Bible warns us time and again, it's to sow. And number 24, the Bible warns us time and again,