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and Let's see December 23rd. We're gonna have a candlelight service here on our regular Thursday night and then December 31st, we're gonna pray the new year have a game night and a ping-pong tournament and play whatever games and We're gonna probably get some pizza. I have some pizza delivered or something like that and Let's see January 1st. We're gonna start the New Testament challenge that begins The first nine chapters a day for 31 days Gets you the whole New Testament read in 30 days. So it's a hard challenge, but I know you're up to the task So if you've never done before it's a good challenge to challenge yourself with, you know, it's spiritual All right, it's time to get spiritual and read the Bible. Amen And the sign up. Let's see. I already got that in there Let's see one more thing. Oh, yeah We're we have a trip that's planned to the border and we're gonna have a combined service with sure foundation Baptist North and our church and whoever else wants to come but there's only seating for a hundred people so First come first serve. I can only have so many people so If you're going I need to know for sure We'll probably have to put a sign up in the group or something like that. So And if you're going it needs to be like a for sure kind of for sure thing. So Anyway, for sure. All right, and we're a family integrated church that means the children infants are welcome during the church services, please utilize the mother baby rooms and dad baby room for your convenience and Make sure the rockers are being used for pregnant or nursing mothers or elders only No, men are allowed the mother baby room or vice versa. No unattended children in the building No food in the assembly area, please unless we're having a special event and silence your cell phones if you would at this time please or put them in airplane mode and That night if you need an escort to your vehicle the ushers are available They're the guys with the pins on their coats that say usher There's a couple different donations giving the online and text giving you can do the offering totals are there at the bottom of the page and We've sang all the birthdays for the month unless somebody else has a birthday Anthony when's your birthday? Okay, we already did it anybody else trying to hide I will find you out. I Have a special skill for that. So, all right. I think that's all we got for announcements. Let's sing another song Page 431 silent night. Holy night green hymnals page 431 Silent night, holy night Page 431 singing out loud with me on the first Silent night Holy night All is calm All is bright Round yon virgin mother and child Holy infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace Silent night, holy night Shepherds quake at the sight Glory stream from heaven afar Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia Christ the Savior is born Christ the Savior is born Silent night Holy night Son of God Love's pure light Radiant beans from my holy face With the dawn of redeeming grace Jesus Lord at thy birth Jesus Lord at thy birth On the last Silent night Holy night Wondrous star Lend thy light With the angels let us sing Alleluia to our King Christ the Savior is born Christ the Savior is born May grace sing this evening. At this time we'll have our offering. Brother Sean Harrington, can you bless your offering for us? Dear Jesus, thank you so much for this day, Lord. Thank you so much, Lord. You're going to come out to your house and work for us, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Have a mighty work of this offering, Lord. Bless this offering, Lord. Bless the gifts on the gift of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Great job, ladies. All right, well, it's time to go to the Lord in prayer, so let's bow our heads together tonight. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the opportunity to come to you in Jesus' name, and we just ask, Lord, for prayer for our ladies in our church that are pregnant, Ms. Kylie and Ms. Alana, and pray that you would just bless their pregnancies and help them to be healthy and safe in their births and help give Kylie comfort. Right now, she's just dealing with a lot of discomfort, Lord, and we pray that you would watch over Brother Alex's wife, Mary, help her to improve, help her to heal, her mind to heal, and I just pray, Lord, that you would just take care of Brother Alex and his family and give them grace while they take care of Mary, and also, Lord, we pray for Steadfast Baptist Church and the trials that they've been going through. Just pray that you would bless their church, Lord, bless Pastor Shelley and help them to lead the church by the Spirit of God and by your grace, Lord, and we pray for Brother Robert Alcorta as he lost his father last week, and we just pray that you'd bless him and watch over him and his family, and just pray that something good might come out of that, that people would be saved in his family or they would think about you, Lord. We pray for Baby Lydia, that she would start to eat, be able to eat better and gain some weight, and also an urgent unspoken for Kyle and Elena, for Kylie and Remy. Remy's working a new job. I pray, Lord, that you would just help him as he breaks into his new position. Pray you'd watch over and answer Brother Steven's unspoken prayer, and for Ms. Sarah Miller, pray that you would help her. She has an unspoken, Lord, concerning her job, and also for Amanda, we pray for her mom, Pat, for wisdom and guidance to make some decisions, and also for a hedge of protection about their family. For Chris and Sarah Luwai, pray that you would just help them get an answer on their job transfer back here to Washington State, and for my wife, Ms. Sherry, just pray that her hands would feel better. Lord, she's been having a lot of trouble with them. I pray that you'd help her and her hands to get better, and Lord, we ask that you'd watch over all of the churches that we are associated with, and Lord, also for our church plants in England, and Lord, we thank you for the trip to Geneva that was successful, Brother Ian, and we also thank you for his family and for our church family there in England, and we also pray for our brethren up in Canada, and also, Lord, for our church in Spokane, we pray that you would bless and watch over all those that are in leadership. Lord, it's a hard job and sometimes thankless, and I just pray that you'd bless their families. Lord, bless our congregations and help them to grow. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, will you turn with me, please, to the Book of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 2. The Book of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 2. As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter. Follow along with me as we read 2 Corinthians, Chapter 2. 2 Corinthians, Chapter 2, there it is. In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 2, the Bible reads, but I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears, not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many, so that contrary wise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia. Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth up to us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. Brother Alex, Berea, would you pray for us? Dear Lord, thank you for this service tonight, and. Amen. Thought there was a little bit more there, huh? It's like, that's a short chapter. All right, well, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter number two, and let's look down at verse number one where the Bible reads, but I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. Now, remember last week, if you remember last week, Paul was talking about how he wanted to come again to them and visit them again, and his plans to do that. So, but Paul is talking about, he didn't want to come back to them again in heaviness, because Paul was disappointing this church quite a bit and sharing his judgment, of course, in the first book of Corinthians, he's basically correcting them a lot. So, now he's talking about, and he's gonna have to correct them in this book, too, but this book's a little more advanced, like I've told you before. Can you fix the, do you guys, is there a ring? Can you? Anyway, all right, so, anyway, so number one tonight, I just want to look at church discipline and restoration, because that's kind of what it's talking about, so, and you might think, well, pastor, you talk about this a lot, well, we're in a Bible study and it's just coming up. I didn't pick it, okay? But anyway, so Paul's saying, and remember, Paul loves this church, and when you love people, like, we've been a family, most of the people in this room have been here for a long time, and we're like a family, you know? And so, when I have to come down and hand out discipline or correct people, it's not fun, you know? It's not something I enjoy doing. It's not like I just can't wait for somebody to step out of line so I can smack them or something. That's not how I am. I think you guys know that. You know, I preach some strong sermons from the pulpit sometimes that people get a little queasy about, but like, when it comes to discipline and correction, you know, I just preach what the Bible says, and if that steps on people's toes, it's not always comfortable. It's easy to go to another church and rip some face because you don't know those people that well, you know? But when it's your own people and you know that what you're about to say is specifically gonna step on someone's toes, whether you plan to do that or not, it does get uncomfortable, and that's the job of a preacher, though. It's my job. It was Paul's job as the spiritual leader over, you know, overseeing these churches, so to speak. He wasn't the pastor, but he was an apostle, so he did have authority, and he's the one that put those pastors in place, and he's the one that's handing down the judgment. He's teaching them the doctrine, and sometimes that's hard, and Paul loved this church, and so a lot of times, people, when they, you know, a minister, when they love the people, which they should, they should love the people, although if they don't love people, then what are they doing being a pastor, being a leader, because you have to be able to show love, but Paul, he says, I determined this with myself. It would not come again to you in heaviness. He doesn't want it to be, you know, this heavy, awkward, you know, situation where he's having to come down on people. It says in verse two, for if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears, not that I should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. So he, you know, sometimes when people love you, they're gonna give you the hard truths, and Paul didn't shy away from that. You know, remember Romans one, Paul wrote that, right? And some of the gnarlier chapters in the Bible, Paul wrote, and he wrote to those people not because he hated them, he loved them. Paul loved people, Paul went all over the world suffering multitudes of beat downs and all kinds of, you know, being in terror. In the last chapter it talked about how he was pressed without measure and without strength, and he basically had a sentence of death upon him. That's a scary thing to walk into a town and everybody wants to kill you. You know, and we don't really have to face that, so it's tough, but that just shows how much love Paul had for people because even though those people might kill him, he still went and preached the gospel to them because he was called to preach the gospel. Now, he's talking about here, about the affliction and anguish of his heart, and with many tears, you know, it's hard to correct people, but have you ever heard of that saying called tough love? Tough love is when you tell someone the truth even though it's gonna hurt. And, you know, sometimes you have to shun people out of tough love. You know, some family member that's out of line that can't quit doing drugs or stealing from people or whatever, at some point you have to shun that person out of your life because if you don't, they're just gonna, you're helping them destroy themselves and you're not helping them by helping them. It's kind of like the homeless that, you know, in the richest country in the land that we live in, just abusing, I mean, you can look down any place in Portland, it's just disgusting. I mean, rats are everywhere, there's garbage strewn all over the place, and it's here too. And look at how much that's helping them by giving free handouts every single day and people just supporting them and helping them when they should be working. They should be standing in line getting a job. There's lots of help wanted signs out there. Clean yourself up, man, and go get a job. Just like we do, just like we have to work for our food. Hey, you need to work too, that's what the Bible says. But a good minister of God does not like kicking people out of church. They don't like applying church discipline. We like to be liked. As a pastor, I like to be liked. Who doesn't like to be liked? You know, you probably wouldn't be here if you thought nobody liked you. You know, I mean, seriously, if nobody liked you here, would you still come to this church? You probably wouldn't. So everybody likes to be liked, but there's a point where you have to put that aside and just say, hey, I gotta take care of this business because if I don't, then it's gonna infect the rest of the church, it's gonna cause problems with other people, because people will start fighting because if there's no discipline handed down, there's no correction handed down, then people will just do whatever they want and or just do things that they shouldn't be doing and that's why people need correction. So let's look over at Galatians chapter four verse 15. Galatians chapter four verse 15. Of course, keep your finger in 2 Corinthians chapter two, but turn over to Galatians four verse 15 and you know, it's a good thing to follow along in your Bible. Maybe you don't use a Bible, maybe you use a tablet. I just wanna hear you tapping that pad or something and then turning in your Bible because if you turn in your Bible, that's how you learn your Bible, you know? So Galatians is in the New Testament. Anyway, Galatians four 15 says, where is then the blessedness you spake of? So Paul's asking the Galatians, he's like, remember when you would have gave me your own eyeballs? Remember when you talked about how great I was and then he's telling them he's afraid of them because they were Judaized and told that you have to have works and keep the law of Moses to be saved? He's like, where's the blessedness you spake of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? And that's the thing that's hard to deal with sometimes. Sometimes people will get mad when you preach something and they might not come out and say it to you, but you can tell. You can tell people are mad, but you know, that's a good thing to ask. Is there, am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Some people don't like to hear the truth. You know, Jack Nicholson said in this stupid movie, you can't handle the truth, you know? And some people just can't handle the truth. It's just a fact. And you know, when someone tells you the truth, it's like you act like that person is the one that said it. But this is God's word, people. It shouldn't, if it's offending you, if it's stepping on your toes, that's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to correct you. When you're out of line and all of us get out of line, why do you think we have three church services a week? Because we get out of line. Because we need to be corrected. We need to be swayed back over. We need to be with the light because we've been out in the darkness all week long. And so we get back together again and give us a reboot and get, so we can get spiritual and be around the children of light because we've been around the children of darkness quite a bit in the world, right? So sometimes the preacher has to tell the truth and sometimes people can't handle that. So let's go back to 2 Corinthians chapter two verse five. It says, but if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted by many. Now what is Paul talking about? Well, he's talking about in 1 Corinthians chapter five when he told them to kick out the man that was fornicating with his father's wife. And so they said, he said to kick that guy out, right? And he said that basically they were puffed up because they wouldn't kick this guy out. They're making the wrong decision. They should have shunned him, thrown him out, turned him over to the destruction of the flesh because God judges those that are without. When someone gets kicked out of a local church, then Satan can have his way with them. And look, that's so that they could be corrected and brought back in. It's not like we just laugh and go ha ha ha, Satan's destroying them. You know, I'm talking about saved people right now, by the way. Because saved people quit churches too. Saved people do stupid things and get kicked out too. But there's also those enemies that we'd never want to come back. And sometimes those are hard to differentiate. Sometimes you're just like, I'm not really sure, but they're acting just like those other people that left and it's tough sometimes. But you know, it says, Paul says sufficient to such a man is this punishment. So what's he saying? He got what he deserved. He got what was adequate as the punishment and they did throw him out apparently. And it says, sufficient to such a man as the punishment, which was inflicted by many. See, when we kick somebody out of the church, if I kick somebody out of the church, then that person is to be shunned. That's what the Bible teaches. Okay, it doesn't mean you go out to coffee with them and try to make all nicey-nicey with them or whatever. If that person's thrown out of the church, then you're to have no dealings with them. Okay, if now, the pastor can restore those people and the people, someone, the Bible says ye that are spiritual restore such a man. But you know, you gotta be careful with that situation. I'll show you a scripture here about that here in just a minute. But look at verse number seven before I get there. Verse number seven says, so that contra-wise, you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. So what's Paul saying? He's saying we need to bring him back in. He's gotten it right. He needs to be forgiven. It says, you know, now that after he's suffered his punishment, which was inflicted by many, and what was inflicted by many? See, it's not just me that kicked someone out. You guys have to back the decision up. And you have to shun that person because if you do, then that person is bound to get right, not every time, but sometimes they will. Sometimes they'll say, you know what, I really screwed up. You know, I've been out getting beaten by the devil. It's time to come back, you know. But it says, so once that happens, if a person comes back and they get it right, whatever the thing is that got them kicked out, then they can be restored. And so Paul's saying this guy's restored. You need to forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. So we don't, once someone's forgiven, we forget it. All right, you bring them back in, you forget it. You don't keep holding it over their head and talking about them behind their back and saying, well, I wonder if they're gonna do that again. You know, we get forgiven for all of our sins. Why can't we forgive other people? That's what Christians are supposed to be like. So what was Paul worried about? Paul was worried about him being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow, so much sorrow. And look, this happens in church, that people can't get past something and that person feels that, and then they end up leaving again because that person wasn't forgiven. And that's wrong, that's wrong. And it leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. It makes people bitter. When you won't forgive someone that should be forgiven, it makes you bitter. And then it also, in turn, will make that person bitter also. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter five and we'll go back to the story of this man who was kicked out. And actually, it's not a very long chapter, so we'll go through it real quickly. In 1 Corinthians chapter five verse one, it says, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. So this guy is fornicating with his father's wife. He, you know, it's such a bad sin, you don't even hear it among unsaved people. Look at verse two, it says, and you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. So at this point, they haven't kicked him out and Paul's correcting them and saying, look, you need to get this guy out of here. He's leavened in the church. Look at verse number three, it says, for I barely as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed. So Paul's saying, I know what he's done, he needs to get kicked out. He's not even there, he's just writing a letter and saying this guy needs to go. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together and my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So he's saying when you kick this person out, they're given over and Satan basically destroys them. Your glory is not good, know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So when you have leaven like this in the church, it spreads, it grows, it's like a virus, it's a parasite that will infect the church and one person's fornicating in the church and what is fornicating? It's the acts that you do that you're supposed to do in marriage but you're doing it outside of marriage. When you do that, it's called fornication, it's a wicked sin and it will get you kicked out of church. So that's not something that God allows. If you're saved, you ought not to be doing that, it's not right and it will get you kicked out. So if that's something that you're doing, you need to stop and you need to separate yourself from that person or get married if you can or whatever but at this church, if I find out someone's doing that, they basically got a two-week time period before they get married or you get out and so that might seem harsh or like, that's really judgmental, I know, it's called judging. You're supposed to judge. There's a whole book in the Bible called Judges. You know what, they judge the people. You know, God is a God of judgment and it's like, well yeah, but God is, but what about you? No, he left people here to judge also. That's again, a book called Judges, okay and God tells us to judge. People just like to take the term judge and they say judge not but they don't read the rest of the verse, do they? Jesus said it's not right to judge. No, actually he said judge righteous judgment, didn't he? So anyway, let me move on here. So it says purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as your unleaven for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice or wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters for then must he needs go out of the world but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat. So this is a list here of sins that you cannot commit as a member of this church or a person that comes to this church if you're a fornicator, covetous, an idolater, a railer, a drunkard or an extortioner. We're not even supposed to eat together. You're not supposed to have dinner with them. So that's what I'm saying. So once they get kicked out of the church then you'll see people like go out to dinner with them and stuff. What are you doing? Hey, we're just going out to coffee. It's like okay. Well the Bible says you're not supposed to eat with them so I don't understand what you're doing. But anyways it says but what if I do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within? See it's saying we judge, okay? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So God says, the Bible says that those are the types of people that we kick out of the church. Now obviously people can get those things right and they can stay, they can come back. But we can't allow that kind of stuff to run rampant into our church because it's like leaven. And a little leaven, leaven at the whole lump. So once that person comes in and infects the church with those kinds of things, you know if someone's covetous they can spread that covetousness amongst the people and then everybody in the church is covetous. Or everybody else is idolizing the Seahawks. Or everybody else is, you know, whatever, being a fornicator or you know obviously married that's not possible but, or an extortioner. You know extortion is one of those things that can get you kicked out of church also. So it says therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So God says there are people that we need to kick out. Now you're not gonna hear that preached at many churches. As a matter of fact I can't even remember a time being a Baptist that I ever heard that preached before. Have you brother Eli? Did you ever hear that at any local church? To kick out these types of people? I mean we went to the same church at different times and that was a dragon slain supposedly Bible believing Baptist church. I never heard that come out of their mouth. As a matter of fact I was saved for a long time until I heard Pastor Anderson actually preach that and I was like amen. Where was this my whole Baptist life? I mean, but that's the truth. So when we hear the truth we should just accept it as truth because everything in this book is truth. And we need to believe it. Now return to Romans chapter 16 verse 17, Romans 16 verse 17. Now we're talking about restoring someone but why would you restore someone? That's why I'm showing you these verses. Obviously I'm not gonna be, just go like a whole sermon on it but there's things we need to see in here. So look at Romans 16 verse 17 says, now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. So would you say that the Bible says that there's certain people that we need to mark, we need to point out? See it says mark them. It doesn't say pretend that they're not there and don't say anything to them. It says mark them. Which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned. If someone came in here and they believed the pre-trib rapture, I wouldn't care but here's what I would care about. I would care that they were spreading it to the other church members when they know that's not what we believe. Or if they're teaching preterism or partial preterism. You know just, we've been in tribulation for the last 2,000 years, didn't you guys know that? Good night. Anyway, the 70th week's already been fulfilled. No it hasn't. No it hasn't. Okay and it says seven years. It's seven, a week, remember I just went over this like not too long ago. I showed you in Genesis what a week is. Fulfill her week. You know Jacob worked for his wives, one each a week. That's seven years. Alright so that shows us that in the Bible it's talking about one week that means seven years. It's the 70th week. 70 weeks. Anyway, I can't preach that sermon right now but I just, man I can't believe that. But anyway, so it says we need to avoid those people that cause division and teach contrary doctrine. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ with their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil. So look, we don't need to know everything about the evil. We want to be simple concerning evil. We don't want to know every single thing that the Masons do. Every little wicked thing that they do behind the scenes. We don't need to know all the different sins that people commit when you start studying into these pedophile rings. All it's gonna do is defile your mind. So just know that it happens. Trafficking exists but once you go down that rabbit hole you don't want to get into that stuff. We need to be simple concerning evil and wise concerning good, right? So, but when a person comes back after being kicked out we should forgive them. We should restore them. We should forget it and not bring it back up to them again. But again, not every person that leaves or gets thrown out is allowed back. There are some that are never welcomed back and these would be false prophets or reprobates. If we found out someone's a child molester, out. Never coming back. If we find out someone's a queer, out. Never coming back. If we find out someone is a false prophet teaching a false doctrine on salvation and they're gone. Because they're the worst scum on the face of the planet. False prophets are the worst scum on the face of the planet because you know what? They are, their intention is to send people to hell. They pretend like they're the light but they're really dark. You know, they creep into churches and overturn churches. I mean you have Baptist preachers that preach some of the weirdest stuff and still call themselves independent Baptists. I mean the weirdest stuff. You know, dispensationalism is a weird doctrine. The preacher of rapture is a weird doctrine. It really is, it's a false doctrine. It's heresy. Is it damnable heresy? It's not damnable heresy but it is heresy. So, but a false prophet, you know, they're gonna preach something different about salvation. You know, it might get past you for a while. They might say all the right things like Billy Graham was really smooth and slick. You know, he could preach it right but then you'd hear him preach it wrong. He'd preach repent of your sins and he'd preach it to believe. But that's what a lot of preachers do today. A lot of preachers will give lip service to, like I was talking about it last week, grace. They say that they believe in grace. Their church is called Grace Baptist Church but there's no grace in that church because they don't know what grace is, you know. Grace is getting salvation that you don't deserve and then they say, well you gotta repent of your sins to get that. No, that's not grace my friends. That's you working for your own salvation. That's what that is. That's not grace. So look at Galatians chapter six, verse number one. Galatians six, verse number one. It says, and just keep your finger in 2 Corinthians chapter two. Galatians chapter six, verse number one, the Bible says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Now this doesn't necessarily need to be someone that's kicked out. It could just be someone that has a fault in the church. It doesn't say it's something that they're kicked out for but the point of me showing you this is that, you know, when you're spiritual, maybe you can help somebody, maybe you can come alongside them and help them with something that they're having a problem with but you also need to consider yourself because what good is it gonna do if you go to help somebody and then they corrupt you also and turn you back into a life of sin? You don't want to, you know, because some people believe some weird stuff or maybe they're just in a bad place and then you get down to their level and you don't want to get down to a level that especially you're having a struggle with your own self or that you've had struggles with in the past. If you're helping someone that can't stay away from the booze or whatever, you know, you don't want to tempt yourself and put yourself in a position where they're offering you a drink, you know? Just, you know, just something to consider and Paul wouldn't say to consider yourself, lest thou also be tempted. You don't want to be tempted to get involved with what they're doing but it says, ye which are spiritual restore. So when this person, this restoring person needs to be someone that's actually spiritual because it's even more of a temptation for someone that's not very spiritual. So I'm not saying if you're not very spiritual don't help people, I'm just saying you might have a harder time with this temptation than somebody else whether it's actually a little more spiritual. So to restore means to bring something back to its former state. There's a lot of people that buy like old furniture nowadays. I know that's like some trend, right? And they redo the furniture and paint it a different color or whatever. And it's called restoration, right? Isn't that what it's called? You restore old furniture. You sand it down, you put a new coat of whatever, paint it, put some varnish on it or whatever and then resell it. I think Kylie actually has made some videos about that but there's, you know, people that do that but you could restore it back to its former state. Like people like, men like to take old muscle cars from the junkyard and restore them and make them look, you know, it's a 66 Mustang, it's all rusted out and then you take it and do it all up and make it look nice. You're trying to restore that to its former state. Now when you restore someone in church that's kicked out, you restore them to their former state. So now they're just as much a member as they were before. They're just as much a member as you are so we have to remember that, that if they're restored, they're restored, if they're back, they're back and so we need to treat them as such. Not as some leper in a leper colony. Not like they're the only ones that didn't take the vaccination or something, okay? Like they treat you at work. I've heard in other countries right now that they're making you like, I don't know if this is true or not, this is just what I heard from someone that saw it on the internet, that Austria is making you fly a flag in front of your house or something that shows that you're not vaccinated and that Germany is actually, instead of putting you in hotels, they're putting you in concentration camps. They just can't get away from the concentration camps, can they? I don't know if that's true, that's what I heard so you can fact check me if you want, I'm not saying it's a fact. Huh? Australia? Austraelia, Austria, could've got convoluted, I don't know. It's probably both, so Hitler was from Austria, right? Anyway, so yeah, I mean, we shouldn't treat someone like they're the only person in the church that smokes or you know what I mean, like, you know how people treated people when smoking became the bad thing or whatever, they're like, get out of here, scum. You know, but that's not how we should treat people that get restored to our church, that we shouldn't treat them like second class citizens or that they're not good enough to be here because if they're restored, they're restored, right? They're back to their former state that they were in. Turn to Matthew chapter 18, verse 15, Matthew chapter 18, verse 15. Matthew 18, 15, now this is the famous verses that people always like to do, like, when I preach a sermon against some false prophet, they're like, did you call him? Did you call Ravi Zacharias and talk to him about what you believe about? It's like, number one, he wouldn't have taken my call. Number two, he's a false prophet, I don't care what he thinks. You know, and number three, you know, he's dead, yeah. Too late, reprobate, right? So, but like, this is for the local church. I can't go and, you know, church disciplines somebody from another church, okay? We're not a universal church. I don't have authority in somebody else's church. There's other Baptist churches in this town and I have zero authority over those churches. We're not like some kind of denomination, even though we get accused of that. Matthew 18, verse 15 says, moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and everybody else in the church. Is that what it says? No, it says between thee and him alone. Now, a lot of people break this one here. A lot of people gossip and talk behind other people's backs and that's not good, you know? What's wrong with, if you have a problem with someone, you know what would be better? Is if you walked up to that person and rebuked him to their face and, you know, got it settled right there and maybe they hate you forever, but at least you're not breaking this, what Jesus said to do. Didn't he say go between thee and him alone? So it didn't say call the pastor. Now, if it's something that's from the list that I should kick somebody out for, see, you would tell me in a situation where I have to take action in that situation, but if it's just like a squabble over money or work or you owed somebody something or somebody broke something of yours or they didn't say hi to you when you came into church, some kind of offense like that, that's what it's talking about. So it says if he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother. So you go between that person and you alone, you tell them I got a problem with you, here's my list of grievances. Number one, you're ugly. No, I'm just kidding. Well, whatever it is, you just go to them and talk to them about it between you and them alone. Now look at verse 16, it says, but if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. So basically if someone's offended you so much that you can't let it go and you need to get somebody else involved, those people are to be witnesses to what's said between the two people and they're supposed to judge that situation, okay? So they're there to establish every word. Now in our church I would think that I would probably be one of those people but it doesn't have to be me but it's probably a good idea so that I know what's going on. And it says if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. See, then it goes in front of the whole church. So that's, so step one, you try to work it out amongst yourselves. But these rules work good in the workplace or anyplace else. You know, if I have a problem with someone at work, I'll say it straight to their face. You know, and sometimes people can't handle that but that's just the way it is. And then I try to work that issue out with them and I can tell you there's lots of times when I've, you know, me and another coworker have had issues but I go to that person. I learned a long time ago, you go to the person, you don't go to the boss. Now if the boss needs to get involved, you go up to the next level, the next boss, you know, your immediate supervisor or whatever. That's the right thing to do. You don't go to the president of the company, okay? So anyway, that kind of works with church stuff too. So look at verse 17, it says, if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church, but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. So what does that mean? That person is kicked out of the church because the two, it was, every word was supposed to be established between the two or three witnesses, the situation is judged, and then the person still won't take the correction and then it needs to go in front of the whole church. Now it's not your individual job to just take over a church service and say, pastor, we gotta tell this to the church. Now you would go through me, okay? Step two, you go through me. Step three, you go through me, okay? That's how that works. So, but then as a church, you know, I would make the decision to kick that person out and then everybody else should be behind me, you know? Otherwise pick somebody else to lead because if you don't trust my judgment, then what am I doing as a leader here? So it says, verily I say unto you, whosoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So that's an interesting scripture there and it's directly in context with these other three verses that I just read. So I believe that this is talking about if I kick somebody out of church and we're supposed to treat them as a heathen and a publican, then God takes what was done in this church because look, I just talked about this on Sunday. What are the spheres of God's authority? God is the authority and then the home and then you've got the government, okay? But in the church is where God, you know, does his work. That's where soul winners get sent out. That's where the Bible gets preached in the church. So I believe that God, when he is talking about binding things on, and you know, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, I kick that person out, that's bound in heaven also. I believe that God holds to what that judgment was done onto that person and then if you loose it, that means you're like, okay, well you can come back. Then God takes and protects that person inside the church as a regular church member once again. That's what I believe it's talking about. It's directly in the context and I'd be definitely interested to hear if you have something different about that. Number two tonight, Satan's devices. Now, we have to understand that in all this, Satan's devices are something we need to be aware of. It says in verse 11 in our text here, it says, lest Satan should get an advantage of us. So we're supposed to forgive these people, lest what? Lest Satan get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. So what are his devices? Well, there are things that he uses to trip us up. There are things that he uses to ensnare us. There's things that he uses to divide our churches. There's things that he does, these devices he does, are things he does in order to get a foothold in our church and try to destroy it because, see, we're already saved. We can't get unsaved. So what's he do to Bible believing churches? Well, he goes in and he sends his tears into them and he tries to overtake them. He does all types of different things. He has all different types of devices that he uses to do that. The Bible says he's like a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. I mean, that doesn't sound like he's our friend, does it? Lions like to devour things and if, you know, I don't want a lion to devour me and that's what Satan is. He's just waiting for his chance to be able to gobble us up, all right, and he's got teeth. So when someone's thrown out of the church, what's gonna happen? The devil is gonna torment them. The devil's gonna ruin their life. And, you know, we saw with Job, Job didn't even do anything wrong, but God allowed him to touch his life, didn't he? He said don't kill him, but everything else was in his hands. So he messed up his health, killed his children. He turned his wife against him. He took everything that he had. Everything was stolen, taken, and he was just there and his health was bad. He had boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. And he was scraping boils with a pot shirt. So, I mean, that's just a taste of someone that God, that he was the greatest man on the face of the planet at that time. So imagine if you're that wicked person that gets thrown out and that's where it's just like, man, if that person's saved, they're in a world of hurt right now. That's scary. That's a scary thing to think about and you don't ever wanna get put in that position where you're thrown out of the church and Satan has his way with you. So it says in verse 11, lest Satan should get advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. But you know, some people are ignorant of his devices and so I just kinda wanna go down a list of some of the things that Satan does. And number one, he lies, doesn't he? He lies, he tells lies, the people that he empowers, they lie also. You know, they talk about psychopaths and narcissists, that's a big topic today. And it's just now, science is just now catching up with what the Bible said for a long time, that there's people out there that are just, they're gone. They're totally psychotic, sociopaths, they'll lie, cheat, steal, turn people against each other. I'm sure you've worked with people that are like that. You know, you're like, why is this person always causing problems at our workplace? Because they're a psychopath. Now, be careful just saying, you're a psychopath, you know. There's a psychopathy checklist that works pretty good, but you know, if they hate God, that's a big clue that they're probably a psychopath. But Satan uses lies and he's a liar and he's the father of it, that's what the Bible teaches. I don't have time to go through all the verses, but I'm just gonna kinda hit some highlights of what Satan does, the devices he uses. He lies, he lied to Eve, he lied, he's, you know, the Bible says he's a liar and the father of it. The Bible also says he's a murderer. So he murders people whenever he gets a chance and he causes people to murder other people. So when you cause someone else to murder somebody else, you're an accomplice to that, right? And when, you know, just if you think about like mobsters and things like that, these, you know, people that are in the mafia or whatever, well, they would just make the order and someone would get killed. Isn't that the same thing as killing them? Because you gave the order. So I forget what they call that, it's a, I forgot what the actual crime is called, but I mean, you're still committing murder, right? And so Satan commands people to be murdered, he murders people, the Bible says he's a murderer from the beginning and he's also an imposter. He transforms himself into an angel of light and he, his ministers are also transformed into ministers of light, right? So his ministers are children of Belial, they're the sons of the devil. So just like God has his people that are saved, the devil has his people that are unsaved and that can't be saved. So we're unable to lose our salvation, they're unable to gain salvation. So they're polar opposites, right? And so he has his impostors, he's an imposter, he started all these religions, he started all this worship of him and these devils and all this stuff. People actually carved statues and overlay it with gold and silver, it's called idolatry. And people bow down and serve a piece of wood that they carved themselves, that they overlaid with wood. How weird is that? It's like, oh, I serve you God. It's like, well, you made that God, what are you talking about? I mean, that's how deceived people are by the devil, but he transforms himself into an angel of light. So it's no, it shouldn't surprise us when he sends in his ministers of deceit also into our churches. And in churches like this, it happens a lot. Churches like Pastor Anderson's church, Pastor Jimenez, all of our friends, they always get some kind of bozos and weirdos, right? And they're always constantly fighting us, stalking our channels, stalking us, sending people to do all kinds of weird stuff. Steal money, I mean, just falsely accuse to the max. But that's because when they get found out, they get kicked out. See, they would be able to ride in a church like that. A pastor would probably still let those guys in there, even after doing some of the weird stuff that they do. They're just like normal church members in a lot of churches. It's like, okay. Sitting there teaching all kinds of different doctrines, and the pastor's just like, it's all right, as long as he puts his tide check in the coffers or whatever. So what else does he do? Well, he causes division. He sows tares among the wheat to cause strife and division. He also likes to plant doubt in people's heads. So, and people that are his ministers, they like to just sow seeds on the side to people. They'll say little weird things. But here's the thing about Christians, is that we love other Christians, and when we see somebody do something that's really weird, or say something that's just really weird, or some strange doctrine, we kinda look past that, don't we? We're like, as someone that's left, it's like, I remember the time that they said this, and it's just like, but I just, I love that person. So when you love somebody, you look past their moles sometimes, right? But we'll learn as we go over the years. I'm sure we'll be able to pick people like that off a little bit sooner, but there's just people that you think that they're on board, and then they've showed signs the whole time that they were against us, and then they're like, surprise, surprise, not surprise. We shouldn't be surprised anymore, right? But the devil has his devices, and I talked about physical destruction, he wants to destroy our flesh, he wants to kill us, and not forgiving, that's what he's directly talking about right here in this verse, where it says, lest Satan should get an advantage of us. What's he talking about? Well, about not forgiving that person, letting that person be overcome with overmuch sorrow, that's directly connected to this verse right here. So obviously, that's something where Satan works into the church where he's like, gets people to not forget people. He influences people to talk about that person, and to make that person just never get over it. Sometimes people won't come back to a church because they know they can't get past what they've done with the people that go to the church, and that's not right. We need to be forgiving. I'm all for hard preaching, I'm all for dragon slaying, Bible, you know, fire walking, whatever, word of God, you know, getting crazy, whatever, but I'm also for love, you know? But sometimes, you know, there's some people you just can't help. But not forgiving people can make you bitter, it can make that person get to such a low point that they feel like the punishment was too much. Because Paul said, you know, what he was punished with was fitting to what he did. But that's why he's saying, he's coming to them again saying, hey, you need to forgive this guy and move on. And so, we don't want to be people that are bitter or holding things over people's heads that go to this church that have done something wrong. And that could just be, maybe they never got kicked out. Maybe there's just someone in this church that you need to forgive that you haven't forgiven and you're holding a grudge against that person. That's not right. It's not right to sit there and hold grudges against people and not like certain people. Yeah, I'm not saying you have to be best friends with people, but you could be cordial, you could be nice, you can say hello, and you know, you shouldn't be talking smack about people behind their backs. That's not right. Look back at Matthew chapter 18 again. Keep your finger in 2 Corinthians chapter two, Matthew chapter 18, verse 21, Peter here is talking to Jesus Christ and says, then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven times? So, how many times should a brother or sister in Christ sin against you before, you know, you should just stop forgiving them? Jesus said unto them, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times seven. So, and that's not the magic number, okay? I think Jesus is just saying, hey, you forgive them whenever they ask, basically. That's 490 times. Has anybody in this church asked you to forgive them 490 times? Well, then you need to forgive them again, okay? So that's what he's talking about. So, is it wrong to not forgive someone that asks you to forgive them? It is. That's a brother in Christ, he's talking about a brother in Christ here. Now, if someone murders your whole family, I would say you don't have to forgive that person. I mean, I wouldn't forgive them, you know? Because if someone's willing to do that, I mean, obviously, that's an extreme example, but if someone's just like a total God-hating reprobate, I wouldn't forgive them for anything like that, but this is talking about a brother in Christ. See, people always think, you know, you'll see it these murder trials where Jeffrey Dahmer's killed all these people and put them in vats and whatever else he's done, all this weird stuff, or Ted Bundy, and they always try to act like they got saved. Some charlatan will always go to them in their jail cell and say, oh, it converted Ted Bundy, and then they make a video about it, and then people will say, oh, yeah, Ted Bundy got saved. Ted Bundy did not get saved. Are you crazy? He said he would do it again. Jeffrey Dahmer said, I would do it again, that if you let me out, I'm going to go kill people. So, he's not saved, okay? He didn't get saved, he was a queer, number one, and he was a serial killer, you know? He had no conscience, blank. He was done. So, it says, how oft shall my brother sin against me? Doesn't say some reprobate, okay? Now, number three tonight, our triumph in Christ. Look at verse number 12 in our text, it says, Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, a door was opened unto me of the Lord. Now, we already talked about how there's great doors that are open. Well, Paul's talking about one of those doors that opened to him in a town that he visited called Troas. I had no rest of my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from thence to Macedonia. Now, thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. This is a great, great scripture right here, because we should be thanking God, because we always triumph in Christ. Now, does that mean you're always gonna win everything that you do in this life? You're gonna enter the marathon, and you're gonna win? No, it doesn't mean that. It says in Christ, we triumph in Christ, the things that we do for Christ, and actually, if you never did work for Christ at all, you're still gonna triumph in Christ, because you're still saved, you're still gonna go to heaven when you die, but it says he always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest, that means he shows, you know, that the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. Now, a savor is like a smell of a salty meat, right? When God did the, when God instituted the animal sacrifices, it was a sweet savor unto the Lord, and if you look up savory in the dictionary, savory is not, it says a sweet savor, but it's not necessarily sweet like a candy that you're smelling, it's like a salt, you know, when you smell salted meat cooking, because they didn't put sugar on it, okay? They put salt on it, didn't they? Every sacrifice was sacrificed with salt, not sugar, sweetie, okay? So, it was with salt, but so that means that every, so he's talking about this savor of his knowledge by us in every place, so when we go and preach the gospel like Paul, he takes the open door, he goes, he preaches the gospel, it says we always triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. So, every place that gets the knowledge of Christ, that's a good thing, whether it's bad or good, whether the person gets saved or whether they don't. When they get saved, it pleases the Lord. When they don't get saved, his will is done, right? Because not everybody gets saved. We had 10 people out soul-wanting today, and two salvations, okay? Did everybody get saved that you knocked on their door tonight? No, they didn't. But still, the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ was still put forth in those people, wasn't it? So, God, you know, people use that verse in Isaiah, and I don't know it by heart, but it talks about how his word will go forth and it'll accomplish that what it means to do. I know that I butchered that verse, but people use that a lot to say that's gonna get people saved, but it doesn't always get people saved, does it? But it still accomplishes what it's supposed to do, doesn't it? So, whether that person believes or whether they don't believe, the knowledge of Christ has still gone out, and the Bible says that he will draw all men unto him, right? Doesn't the Bible say that? That if the Son of Man be lifted up, he'll draw all men unto him. So, everybody gets a chance. So, every time we go out and preach the gospel of Christ, the savor of his knowledge by us, it's a sweet savor to Christ. I've always wondered about those verses in Mark how it says every sacrifice is sacrificed with salt after talking about how people go to hell. Those people are sacrificed with salt also. So, the Christ, the salt of the earth was still poured upon those sacrifices also, and those people burn forever and ever, don't they? And look what it says in verse number 15. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved and in them that perish. So, that's an interesting verse, isn't it? In them that are saved and in them that are perished. We are a sweet savor of Christ, because we're going out and we're making our bodies a living sacrifice and going and preaching the gospel to people, and we're always gonna win because of that, and Christ is always gonna win. It says to one, we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other, the savor of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things? So, when we go to someone and they don't get saved, it's still the savor, it's the savor of death, right? And to the other, a savor of life. So, regardless of whether they get saved or not, we're still a sweet savor of Christ into that person. It's kind of a weird thing to think about, but it's true, because it does accomplish, you know, if we only went to the doors that we knew the person was gonna get saved and we skipped all the other ones, we're still not accomplishing what we're supposed to accomplish, because those people need to hear it too, because on the judgment day, they're gonna be judged according to their works. We're not gonna be judged according to our works, we're gonna be judged according to the fact that we believed on Christ or not, but they will be judged by their works. And that person that told Brother Sean that he was gonna go to hell tonight, you know, he's gonna think about this day. He's gonna think about the day that he messed with a bunch of soul winners and got in their faces and tried to cause a big ruckus, the child of the devil that he was, and he's gonna think about that for all eternity, about the day that the sweet savor of Christ came to his door and he rejected it and persecuted them. And so the gospel and God's word performs its intended purpose. Turn to Romans chapter 12, verse one. See, because God said that we're supposed to be a living sacrifice. We don't sacrifice animals at a temple anymore. The temple of God is God in us. So we are the temple of God now. The Holy Spirit, you know, resides within us, and when we all meet together, we are the church, we are the congregation of the Lord, but each individual person here, we don't sacrifice ourself on an altar, but we're supposed to be a living sacrifice. It says in Romans 12, one, it says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So the Bible says to sacrifice our bodies, to be holy, to be acceptable to God. What was a holy sacrifice to God in the Old Testament? It was a set apart. It was like a pure lamb without blemish, without spot. It couldn't be, you know, blind. It couldn't be deaf. It couldn't have weird looking gnarly horns or whatever. It had to be, it had to look nice. It had to look good. It had to be acceptable. So you couldn't just take any old, you know, three-legged dog or whatever and sacrifice that on the altar some three-legged lamb that was blind. You know, you wouldn't serve that to your house guests. So why would you serve it to God? So he's saying in the New Testament, we don't sacrifice animals. We sacrifice our bodies as a living sacrifice and it should be holy, acceptable unto God. That's our reasonable service. And it says to be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So our mind needs to change. We need to renew that with what the Bible says and what our life is supposed to be is written in this book. That's why we come and get edified by the preaching. That's why we read our Bible every day. That's why we go to the Lord in prayer. And our petitions before him and thank him for the loving kindness and the mercy because you know what? We get mercy beyond words, don't we? We're so sinful. You know, the thought of foolishness is sin. And how many foolish thoughts do you think in a day? Probably a lot. You're daydreaming. You're like, I just can't wait to get home because Pastor Thompson's preaching too long. I can't wait to get home to dinner. No, but I mean, we probably, we couldn't even count. We can't count iniquities. We can't even count them. So, but you know, the better we are at being not conformed to this world but being a living sacrifice, renewing our minds, proving that which is good. That's what the Bible says, that we may prove that which is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. So we're supposed to be getting better and better and better, not worse and worse and worse. We don't go good and then go back. Backsliding is never a positive thing in the Bible. Going back to where you were. You know, it's like when you're playing checkers and you try to go back or whatever and you get other checkers. I don't know, it's been a long time since I played it. I still get the concept though. But you know, when you go back, that's usually a good thing because you're king or whatever and you can move around more. Is that right? Am I right about that? Or in chess, don't you, if you get to the end or something? Isn't there some special rule? You get your queen back or something if she's dead? I don't know. But anyway, we don't wanna go backwards in the Christian life, okay? And we don't wanna be conformed to this world. We're supposed to be a living sacrifice. And so if we're a living sacrifice, do you think that's a sweet savor unto the Lord? It is a sweet savor unto the Lord because you're doing what he intends you to do in your life. Now, in Isaiah, I'm not gonna have you turn there. I'll have you turn back to our text. But in Isaiah 54, verse 17, it says, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. So we win. Ultimately, no matter what happens, whether we get killed in the tribulation that's been going on for 2,000 years or what, we triumph regardless. Because if you die as a martyr, you get a better resurrection. Now, that doesn't sound fun at the time. I'm sure the people that got martyred in times past didn't enjoy that. But once it's over, it's over. And then you have a better resurrection. What that means, I'm not 100% sure. But better sounds better than worse, doesn't it? Better is good, right? Better resurrection, right? So now, no weapon of war formed against, no weapon that's formed against us is gonna prosper. So regardless, even if it seems like we've lost a battle, guess what, we still win the war every single time. That's what the Bible says. In the end, we win. We're in heaven, we're in paradise. We're with God. And whether you believe our mansions are our eternal bodies or whether you believe we have literal mansions, which is what I believe, but I haven't listened to Pastor Mendez's sermon yet, so. But, I'm still, I'm being carnal. I want that aug of Beishon bed, so. Anyway, so number four, this will be the last one. It'll be a quick point here before we go. There's a legit conspiracy to corrupt God's word. And that's the truth. In our last verse, it says, for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as in sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God, we speak me in Christ, excuse me. So the Bible says, Paul is saying, we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. Why are we King James only? Why is it such a big deal that we're King James only? Well, I'll tell you why, because the King James Bible is not corrupt. So, we use this Bible because it's perfect. It's a perfect translation of the original Greek and Hebrew. There's no mistakes in it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's the two-edged sword of God's word. I got saved out of the King James Bible. And, you know, I can testify of its power. But when I read an NIV, it's like, you know, some queer wrote it or something. Because, oh wait, they did. They translated it. But some queer was on the translating committee. And probably more than we know. You know, so, here's the difference between the King James and the other versions. The King James is translated from the Texas Receptus, the books of the Bible that were passed down and guarded throughout time. The different text is a Frankenstein of fragments that were found in trash cans and other places in the world, and spliced together. And none of them agreed with each other. They took the ones that they liked and they called it the Nestle's Greek. That's a really basic way of explaining it. But basically, they might have a good translation from a bad text. So we got a good translation from the incorruptible word of God, the good text, and all the new modern Bible versions are not Bible versions, they're perversions. And even back in Paul's day, he said, we're not as many which corrupt the word of God. So already, at this time, and I'm sure before the New Testament even came about, there was probably corrupt manuscripts going around. But I'll tell you what. Paul flat out says right here, there's many that corrupt the word of God. People will go, you guys are a bunch of King James only conspiracy theorists. Well, how many NIV only churches do you know? How many NASB churches only do you know? How many New King James Version churches do you know? There's only, you know, it's either the modern versions, you accept all of them, they're all the word of God. Including the King James just doesn't have the best newest manuscripts available when they translate it or whatever, which is not true. But they have the new perversions that they found in some cave somewhere from some cult from a couple thousand years ago, you know? And it's, do you think that God's word was hidden in some cave for thousands of years before we found it? It's like, oh, nope, you didn't really have God's word. We found something that was newer and it says something different, so that must be God's word. So you're telling me that God's word was hidden in a monastery for a thousand years, and then all of a sudden, some guy just happens to go looking for the lost manuscripts of the Bible, and lo and behold, he finds them in a trash can being used for a fire starter. Or in the Vatican, where the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth is. Oh yeah, that's where the hidden, that's where the Bible was the whole time, man. I wish we would have had the word of God. No, this is the word of God. This is the word of God. This is not corrupted. Why do we use it? Because it's not corrupted. So the true Bible cannot be corrupted. Now people could make corruptions, but the same thing holds true. You can go anywhere right now and get a King James Bible. Be thankful for it, because it hasn't always been that way. It hasn't always been where we had a perfect modern English version. Now, in 1 Peter chapter one, verse 23, it says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now, on the surface, you would say, well, that kind of seems to contradict itself, because it says we're not as many which corrupt the word of God. You're saying that it could be corrupted. Well, and then this says, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. Well, that's because there is a Bible that's incorruptible. And to say that we don't have the complete Bible unless we have the original autographs is insanity. We don't have the original 10 Commandments. You know what, God wrote that with his own finger, with his own finger, and you know what? Moses walked down off the mount, and he was so mad, he threw him down on the ground and broke him. Oh, man, I wish we had the original 10 Commandments. Maybe it says something different. That's stupid. We don't have to have the original autographs. Well, I read to you about how Jeremiah pronounced the words to Baruch the scribe. Baruch wrote them down. He read them in the ears of the people. The princes took it to the king. The king's guy cut the original manuscripts up and threw them in the fire. And then God said, rewrite it. And he rewrote it. And guess what? It was exactly the same as the other one, except for he added more stuff to it that he intended to put in there. So you cannot destroy the word of God by burning it in a fire. You cannot destroy the word of God by throwing it down on the ground and breaking it because the word of God liveth and abideth forever. Forever is it settled in heaven. It cannot be corrupted. It can be corrupted by bad manuscripts or whatever, but you notice that the TR is the one that brought this one forth. This is the best-selling book of all time. This is the greatest, this is the most read book of all time. That's, as far as I know, it's the most read Bible, even currently. It's not the best-selling Bible anymore because they pump out the NIVs and all that stuff, but nobody reads that trash. They don't even know what it says. They don't even know. There was a person that came to our church, and I showed her after church, I showed her that one of the verses was missing, and she said, I've been reading this for 50 years. She's been reading the NIV for 50 years and never noticed that verse 38 was missing out of Acts chapter eight. The modern versions take stuff out. That's called corruption, and you know what that verse says? If you believe with all your heart, thou mayest. You can get baptized as long as you've believed in Jesus Christ with all your heart, so why would they take that out? Because that's the Catholic version, the New International Catholic Bible. I mean, it's inspired from the hellhole of the Vatican, and it says that you, so basically they take that out so that you can just be baptized, and then you count that as your salvation. Well, baptism doesn't save you, and so is that Bible corrupt or not? Yes, it is, but this one doesn't say that, does it? This one has the right verse in there, so we're not many as corrupt the word of God, because we believe the truth. We believe that this is the inerrant, infallible, inspired word of God. We don't apologize for it. As a matter of fact, we're King James only, baby, and we're gonna stay that way. Till kingdom come. Until you shit me off out here as the pastor, till I die or whatever, but I hope that when that happens that you guys get another King James only pastor that believes the right gospel. Anyhow, let's close on Psalm chapter 12, verse six. We'll be out of here. So remember, the new modern versions, they translate those out of a different text. It's corrupted, it has mistakes, it has verses missing, and they take those and they make all the modern versions out of that, and all those versions say different things. So things that are different can't be the same. I mean, that's pretty common sense stuff, right? How can they all be the word of God if they say different things? That doesn't make sense. The words are inspired. So Psalm 12, six, this should wrap it up and prove it for us. The words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, O Lord. So again, whose job is it to keep the words of God? Him. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. It's his job, and guess what? He takes it serious, and he does what he says he's gonna do. Unlike us, God does what he says he's gonna do, and he says he'll preserve it from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. And I'll just say this, when the vilest men are exalted, who are the vilest men that are being exalted today? Well, what about the false prophets that use false Bible versions? They're exalted, they're the great, John MacArthur, the great teacher and theologian. You know, he's gonna split hell wide open. He's gonna die and go straight to hell, and you know what, he's one of the vilest men because you know what he teaches? False lordship, salvation. He teaches that the blood of Christ isn't enough to save you, it doesn't have anything magic about it or whatever he says. And he just teaches a bunch, he teaches you can take the mark of the beast and still be saved, teaches all kinds of crazy stuff. But if he's friends with Ray Comfort, that should just tell you all you need to know. If he's friends with answers in Genesis, Ken Ham, that should teach you all you need to know. So people like him because they think that he's so smart or whatever, but the vilest men are exalted. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. So it's not great Bible teachers that are exalted in the land today, are they? It's the people that are the vilest men. The worst Bible teachers ever. What's that lady's name? Joyce Meyer, but the other one with the long hair, she's blonde, Paula White, yeah. Paula White out. Yeah, I mean, they're counted as the great theologians of our day. All women ordained Donald Trump and said that, remember when he got prayed over as all women or something? I mean, the vilest men are exalted. The vilest women too. So we gotta make sure that we stick to the old path and trust in the book that got me saved, book that got you saved. If we reach you at your door, guess what? We use this book too. Because it's the King James, it's the word of God that saves. Not any corrupted versions, all right? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this great chapter in the Bible and we pray that you'd, Lord, just take care of us, bring us back safe as we come back on Sunday. Lord, I pray that you'd just help our soul-wanting tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to just reach those people that need to be reached in our area. And Lord, that we'd have a great Sunday together in fellowship and just enjoy ourselves in the house of the Lord. And we pray that you'd dismiss us and take care of us now. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen. On our green hymnals to page 425. Singing the last song for the night. Page 425. No room in the inn. Page 425. Page 425. No room in the inn. Page 425. Sing it out loud with me on the first verse. No beautiful chamber. No soft cradle bed. No place but a manger. Nowhere for his head. No praises of gladness. No thought of their sin. No glory but sadness. No room in the inn. No room, no room for Jesus. I'll give him welcome free. Blessed you should hear at heaven's gate. There is no room for thee. No sweet consecration. No seeking his part. No humiliation. No place in the heart. No thought of the Savior. No sorrow for sin. No prayer for his favor. No room in the inn. No room, no room for Jesus. I'll give him welcome free. Blessed you should hear at heaven's gate. There is no room for thee. Oh, alas. No one to receive him. No welcome while here. No balm to relieve him. No staff but a spear. No seeking his treasure. No weeping for sin. No doing his pleasure. No room in the inn. No room, no room for Jesus. I'll give him welcome free. Blessed you should hear at heaven's gate. There is no room for thee. Man, great singing this evening. Brother Bill, can you end us with a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the service in the way that has helped us to put your words to our hearts. Mountain moon and mountain following yonder star. We three kings of oriental, bearing gifts we travel so far. Fields and fountain moon and mountain following yonder star. We three kings of oriental, bearing gifts we travel so far. Fields and fountain moon and mountain following yonder star. We three kings of oriental, bearing gifts we travel so far. Fields and fountain moon and mountain following yonder star. We three kings of oriental, bearing gifts we travel so far.