Jesus Christ, amen.
Amen.
So here in chapter six,
we're kind of continuing the thought
that was left off in chapter five
of the idea of being reconciled unto Christ.
And I wanna just remind ourselves,
it's been a few weeks, verse 18 that says,
and all things are of God
who have reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ
and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation
to wit that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them
and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us,
we pray you in Christ stead be reconciled to God.
Now this is interesting in verse 20
because he's telling them a direct commandment
to be reconciled, but then he already told us previously
that we've been reconciled.
It says in verse 18,
and all things are of God
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
So why would the apostle Paul say,
hey, you've been reconciled to Jesus Christ,
now be reconciled?
That sounds contradictory on the surface.
And I think that this is something
that's very important for us to unpack,
especially regarding the chapter we're gonna roll into.
But really, I tried to give a lot of thought
to an example of how I could articulate this
in another word.
And I think another word that is similar
to what we're talking about here is the word freed.
So if you think about someone that's a slave,
someone that's been in bondage, someone that's been a slave,
they could be legally freed,
and yet they choose not to necessarily take advantage of
the freedom that's been granted to them.
So someone that's been freed,
they have a legal status of being freed.
They're a free man, but they choose to still live in bondage.
They still just choose to live in that same state
and work for the same master and work in the same field
and still do all the same things.
And so someone that's been freed legally,
you could still say to them, hey, be freed.
Meaning, hey, now that you are legally free
and you're no longer in bondage to this master,
you don't have to serve in this manner.
Now act as a freed man.
Now go and be freed.
And so in the same way,
I believe the Bible is trying to articulate to us
that even though you've been reconciled in a legal status,
by identity we've been reconciled to God,
that we're no longer gonna have our trespasses imputed
unto us, as the Bible is saying here,
that we should still then act on that reconciliation.
And while we have the status of reconciliation,
we should act like we've been reconciled
and be reconciled because the sins,
as a lot of libs would say,
we've been separated from God,
but that's a true point.
There is a true separation in the sense that
when we're dead and trespasses and sins,
we're alienated from the life that is in God.
And so we weren't really serving God.
We had dead works.
We weren't doing anything with God.
We didn't have fellowship with God.
People that say they have a relationship with God
and they're not saved,
unfortunately they're deceived and they don't realize
they don't actually have a relationship with God.
And so the point is, hey, now that you have been reconciled,
then be reconciled and actually join with God
and draw near to God and come close with God
and act as someone who's been reconciled with God.
Now you have this opportunity to have that relationship.
You know, you could think of,
and this isn't necessarily the right example,
but it illustrates the point is when David
kind of refusing to see Absalom.
And so there's kind of this separation.
But if hypothetically, David said, hey, I will see Absalom.
So it's possible, but then he chooses not to.
Well, then you can see, hey, you've been reconciled,
so then go ahead and be reconciled to your father.
In the same sense that, hey, we've been reconciled,
we can now have a relationship with God.
We can now draw near to God.
So then we need to exercise that opportunity
that's presented to us to be reconciled.
So there's a difference between the state
of, hey, having the identity of freed
and then acting as if you're freed
and taking opportunity of being freed
in the same way that you've been reconciled,
but then that doesn't mean that you're now
in perfect fellowship with God
and that you've reconciled all aspects
of your life with God.
And so he's trying to tell them to be reconciled.
Now again, this is important as we're gonna get into
chapter six and another point,
but I just really want us to kind of grasp
the thought that's being communicated here.
When he's saying to them, hey, be reconciled.
So you've been reconciled, so then be reconciled, right?
As ambassadors for Christ, verse 21,
for he hath made him to be sinned for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him.
One of the aspects of salvation now
is that we would then live better,
that we would then walk in newness of life,
that we would be ambassadors for Christ,
that we would exemplify the righteousness of God,
that we would exemplify the attributes
of the Holy Spirit, the peace and the joy and the love
and that we would love the brethren
and that we would go out and we would love the lost
and that we would be good examples
of Christ in this world.
And so we want to exemplify the righteousness of God.
We don't want to be a bare minimum Christian.
We don't want to be someone that's getting in
to the kingdom and has no reward,
has nothing that we've ever done for God.
In chapter five, it's really motivating us through reward
and the fact that we will one day stand before God
and our works will be judged,
whether we've been laying up wood, hay and stubble
or we've been laying up gold, silver and precious stone.
And not only this, but we are the ambassadors of Christ
and we are to have a reconciliation with God now.
We'll be eventually in heaven.
We'll eventually be in heaven
and we'll eventually have a unique relationship
with God than we do now.
Our faith will become sight.
But before you get to heaven,
you can still have a relationship with God now.
And so he's saying, hey, have a relationship with God now.
Be reconciled now.
Do it now.
This is the time to be reconciled.
This is the time to draw near unto God
and to be the righteousness of God.
Crisis freed us from sin.
We're no longer servants of sin.
There's a lot of language you see in Romans
that it'll talk about in chapters number six
and seven and eight.
You're really trying to drive home the point that,
hey, we should walk in the new man
and we should not fulfill the lust of the flesh
and we've been freed from sin.
And because we've been freed,
now we need to act freed
and we need to serve God and not serve mammon,
not serve ourselves, not serve carnality.
And we need to be good ambassadors.
We're representatives of Christ.
So it's a shame if every Christian
was a bare minimum Christian,
because then they would say,
oh, well, what's the point of being saved?
Everyone acts the exact same.
But you know what?
That's an embarrassment to the cause of Christ
if those who are saved don't act different,
if they don't actually reconcile themselves with God,
if they don't actually walk in newness of life,
if they don't actually walk in the righteousness of God,
that's a shame and embarrassment to the cause of Christ
and we as ambassadors should behave ourselves
as good ambassadors for Christ.
Just like if you were nominated
to be an ambassador for Texas
and they're like, oh, you know,
hey, this is great, make me a Texas meal.
And they're like, all right,
here's chili with beans in it.
It's like, no, be reconciled
and make a legitimate Texas chili.
Or hey, it's like, hey, make me a meal
and they just make you an Italian dish.
And it's just like, what, this is,
I thought you were from Texas.
You know, you would kind of think
that you would have adopted,
you know, if you're an ambassador for Texas,
you would think you would kind of embody
something from Texas.
You would actually, you may wear the cowboy hat,
have some cowboy boots on,
that you'd be a little rough, you'd be a little tough,
you'd have the chili right,
you know, you'd have something right.
You wouldn't be afraid of guns or something.
You know, you would embody Texas.
And you know, it's a shame,
it's like people come and visit Texas
and you know what they see?
Muslims, they see Hindus.
You know, they see Hindu statues.
They were gonna put like all these foot washing stations,
like $300,000 worth of foot washing stations
in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
It's like, what does that have to do with Texas?
You know, it's like, it used to be,
you don't mess with Texas
and now you walk all over Texas.
And you know, it's embarrassing.
It's embarrassing when you have a reputation,
when you have a specific aspect of culture
that's just not being embodied.
In the same way that it's like, hey, you're a Christian
and yet you don't follow the Bible,
you don't believe the Bible,
you're not walking in the midst of life,
you don't talk like Jesus,
you don't reference the Bible,
then it just kind of seems like a mismatch.
And so we as Christians should be good ambassadors of Christ.
He says in verse one,
we then ask workers together with him,
beseech you also that you receive
not the grace of God in vain.
He's saying in coordination to what we just said
about being an ambassador of Christ,
we are the workers with God.
We're the ones that are gonna do the work.
Jesus isn't gonna come down from heaven
and do the work for us.
Jesus isn't gonna come down
and Jesus isn't gonna force you to do the work.
You know, we have free will, we have autonomy.
The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.
You are in control.
And so therefore if the work of Christ
is gonna be accomplished,
it's accomplished through us.
Through us allowing obviously the Holy Spirit
allowing God to work through us and with us.
But here's the thing,
we have to be a willing participant as well.
And we should not receive the grace of God in vain.
What would that mean?
Meaning it was kind of meaningless
that we were saved and we didn't do anything with it.
Hey, you've been reconciled.
You've been made an ambassador
and then you didn't really do anything with it.
Well, then it's kind of meaningless.
It's kind of in vain.
It didn't accomplish anything.
And we shouldn't be ones
who've received the grace of God in vain.
Because he could have just took it straight to heaven.
But he left you here
not so that you could selfishly live
the remaining days of your life,
pleasuring yourself,
but rather serving God.
Rather serving the Lord
and not having a vain conversation, a vain lifestyle.
You know, the Bible talks about the widow
that she's dead while she lives in pleasure.
Okay, because that's not the point.
The point of us being a Christian
is not to serve ourselves.
It's not to live for ourselves.
It is to work with Christ.
It is to serve God.
Oh man, these smaller churches,
they always try to put me to work.
Good.
You're supposed to, you know,
you don't go to church to be entertained.
You go to church to be prepared to go work,
to be motivated to go work.
Oh, they make me feel bad that I'm not doing anything.
Good.
Because we don't want you
to receive the grace of God in vain.
Now, of course,
why is this important to go to church
to be motivated to work?
Because since we realize that salvation is not by works,
we don't have motivation
to do works to get to heaven.
So then we go to church to be reminded of,
hey, the reason why is so that you're a good ambassador.
So you don't make things look bad
because you're gonna reap what you sow.
There's all these different,
because you wanna be rewarded
because you don't want Christ to be ashamed of you
at the judgment seat of Christ.
You know, there's all these different reasons why we work,
but at the end of the day,
you know, it's not to go to heaven,
but that doesn't mean there's no motivation.
That doesn't mean there isn't any consequence.
And of course, you know,
why do you want Christianity to just look bad?
Don't be someone that received the grace of God in vain
where you didn't accomplish anything.
It was wasted on you.
You wanna be someone that actually accomplishes
something for Christ.
He says in verse two,
for he said,
I've heard thee in a time accepted
in the day of salvation.
Have I suckered thee?
Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Now this is a parenthetical statement
that's being alluded to.
It's actually referenced in the book of Isaiah.
You can keep your finger here.
Go to Isaiah chapter 49
if you wanna look at it real quick.
But this is actually a quote from the Old Testament.
Isaiah chapter 49.
And look at verse number eight.
The Bible says,
Thus sayeth the Lord,
In an acceptable time,
have I heard thee?
And in the day of salvation,
have I helped thee?
And I will preserve thee
and give thee for a covenant of the people
to establish the earth,
to cause, to inherit the desolate heritages,
that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth to them that are in darkness,
show yourselves,
they shall feed in the ways
and their pastures shall be in all high places.
Now, one thing that kinda helps you
when you find some of these quotes
is notice that in verse eight,
it says I have helped thee.
In the New Testament quotation,
it says I have suckered thee.
The word sucker there means to help.
So that's what it means.
It's a parallel word.
It's a synonymous word, okay?
So it means the same thing.
And it's saying God helped them
and what was it that they were gonna do then
that thou mayest say?
So notice God helped them
so that they could then say something.
So the help was so that they could then preach something.
And what is it that they're preaching?
They're preaching to prisoners
and what are they teaching the prisoners?
Go forth.
So they're liberating their freeing
other people that were prisoners.
And of course, what is the illusion here?
The illusion here is to salvation itself
and the fact that, hey, you're a captive of sin,
you're a captive of the devil
and when you preach the gospel to people,
you are giving them the chance to be freed from that
and to have liberty.
And that's the whole point of being an ambassador of Christ
is to preach the gospel and to get people saved.
And of course, to draw people out of darkness
as it says here.
Notice that it said to them that are in darkness.
Of course, we call them to light.
Those that are not saved are in the darkness
and of course we called them to light.
This draws back the imagery
in 2 Corinthians chapter four.
If you look at chapter four again
and look at verse number three,
2 Corinthians chapter four, verse three,
but if our gospel be hid,
it is hid to them that are lost
and in the God of the sort of blinded,
the minds of them, which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine under them.
For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord
and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
So all these things are illustrating the same point
that God helped us, why?
So that we could then preach to others
so that we could say to others that are in darkness,
hey, go forth and be free and get out of the darkness.
And we're telling to the prisoners
to no longer be prisoners and be captives of sin
that they themselves can also be freed
and it's through the preaching of the gospel.
And if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to them that are lost, that are in the darkness.
And we don't wanna be those that have received
the grace of God in vain
where we don't warn others in darkness,
that we don't liberate other prisoners
that have been taken captive,
but rather we save as well.
Now, some important points about verse number two
is number one, notice that salvation,
according to the Bible, happens in a day.
It doesn't say this is the week of salvation.
This is the month of salvation.
This is the lifestyle or lifetime of salvation.
It's a day, meaning that salvation happens in a day.
Like there's a day that you get saved.
And of course we all believe that.
And notice there's a time in which you get saved.
It says now, so that sounds immediate.
So when does someone get saved?
A certain day at a specific moment, right away.
And of course, the Bible teaches that there's no delay.
You know, when someone asks me or when someone responds to me
when I'm soul winning, like, hey, I'll pray later.
I wanna do this later.
It's like, no, the Bible says now.
You know, modern versions will say today
is the day of salvation.
And I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad phrase,
but it's not accurate because this says now.
It doesn't even say like later today or today.
It's like, hey, now, now is the except the time.
Now is the day of salvation.
You need to respond now.
You need to have an immediate response to the gospel
and you need to get saved right now.
Now, of course, I do believe that the illusion here
of verse two is clearly to just being saved, right?
And we can make that illusion.
But I also think that we have to understand
that the broader context
and what we're really talking about here
isn't about us being saved, okay?
In the sense of the identity and us going to heaven.
It's talking about what we mentioned earlier
of the reconciliation.
We were already reconciled,
but then the Bible is telling us to be reconciled.
And I use this example of, hey, someone that was freed,
they need to then act freed, okay?
So I believe it's the same context that we have here
in this idea of salvation that he's saying,
hey, you're saved, but you need to act saved.
You need to be saved.
And again, what is it that we're saved from?
We're saved from sin, okay?
Sin is what takes us to hell.
And we've been saved from sin.
We've been saved from our iniquities.
So here's the thing, if I've been saved from my iniquities,
what does that mean?
Well, again, if we go back to Romans chapter number six
and seven and eight, the Bible makes it clear
that we're no longer a servant to sin.
We don't have to serve sin.
We've been saved from sin,
meaning we can act different.
We don't have to be in bondage to sin.
We can be saved.
And so you're saying, instead of just continuing
to be in bondage to sin, you need to be saved.
And you know what?
You need to do it right now.
Meaning you need to act saved
and you need to get away from that bondage
and you need to get away from that sin.
Now again, what is the sin that we're talking about?
There's a couple sins that are highlighted
in this chapter that he's trying
to get them saved from right now.
And one of them is idolatry specifically.
Look at verse number 14.
Let's just skip to verse 16 for sake of argument.
And what agreement at the temple of God
with idols for year the temple of living God
has God has said, I will dwell on them
and walk in them and I will be their God
and they shall be my people.
So what does he want them to do?
Well, I know you're saved and you're going to heaven
but you know what you need to do?
You also need to save yourself
from idolatry right now.
You need to be saved right now
and get out of that idolatry.
And again, he's going to elaborate on this
as we get further in the chapter
but I'm just trying to explain
why he's using this language
is because now is the day of salvation.
You got saved from idolatry.
So you know what you need to do?
Walk away from the idolatry.
It's like you got someone saved at the door
that's a Catholic and they're wearing the crucifix
and it's like, hey, I know you're saved
but you know what?
You need to get saved from this crucifix
you have and throw it in the trash.
Hey, you need to get saved
from this Mary stat that you have
and throw it in the trash.
Hey, you need to get saved
from this Catholic church you've been going to
and come with me to a Baptist church.
Okay, and it says when right now?
Why?
Because hey, you want to be a good ambassador
for Christ, you want to be reconciled to God
and look, you're not going to be reconciled to God
when you're still involving yourself in idolatry.
When you're still hanging out in the temple of idols.
When you're still part of this pagan culture
you need to save yourself from that.
You need to get away from that.
You need to act like a saved Christian
and then be reconciled to God.
Be freed from that.
And that's the whole point
that he's really emphasizing and driving here.
Okay, I'm not saying that you can't take verse two
and make spiritual illusions.
I'm not saying that there can't be double meanings.
I'm not saying that he isn't using this in that way
but the real context is he's trying to get them
to understand that they need to be saved
because it says behold now is the accept the time
behold now is the day of salvation.
Why is he telling them to save people that?
He's saying right now is the time
to walk away from idolatry.
Right now is the time to be saved
from all this wicked stuff, okay?
And God already saved us, we get it.
God's already reconciled us, we get it.
But you know what?
You need to also walk away from idolatry.
And again, that's the main call of this chapter.
The whole point of this chapter
is to separate ourselves under God,
to be reconciled under God,
to be good ambassadors under God
and to act like good Christians.
He says also in this passage,
it says in verse 14,
be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
So you wanna not have fellowship with unbelievers.
These are sins that they are guilty of.
The church at Corinth is clearly
dealing and struggling with idolatry.
It's all over the pages.
It's a constant issue.
And 1 Corinthians chapter number five,
it's brought up as a sin.
In 1 Corinthians chapter, I believe 10,
it's like nine and 10,
he's happened to deal with the fact
that this church is misunderstanding that,
hey, that which they're sacrificing in idols.
I know it's just a rock,
but you know what?
They're sacrificing unto devils.
And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils.
And he's trying to help them understand
the spiritual implications of involving yourself
with demonic spirits, with devils,
with pagan idolatry.
You know, the Roman Catholic Church
is part satanic because of the idolatry.
You know, you can't mix Christ with the demonic.
And look, the statues are demonic according to the Bible.
The idolatry is demonic.
And look, even if someone was saved,
which is a statistical rarity in the Catholic Church,
that they're not gonna be fruitful
being a part of that fellowship.
They're not gonna be fruitful.
If you got saved and then you decide
to just join the Catholic Church somehow,
I don't know how,
but just say, I don't know,
you single guys, you find a really cute
Catholic girl or something, I don't know.
You just follow her into that den of iniquity or whatever.
You're gonna not be very fruitful as a Christian.
And someone can say, hey,
you need to save yourself from that girl.
You need to save yourself from that false religion.
You need to save yourself from that idolatry.
He's not saying go to heaven.
He's saying, hey, you need today.
And he's like, when should I do that?
Today.
And in fact, right now.
Now is the accepted time to get out of that.
Now is the accepted time to quit.
It's like, hey, you got someone saved to the door
and they're like, hey, when should I switch churches?
Now.
Come with us right now to church.
There's not like a delay,
because the Bible talks about in acts and stuff.
In times past, God winked at these things
or God was maybe a little bit more gracious,
but now he commanded all men everywhere to repent.
Meaning like, hey,
I'm not gonna tolerate that idolatry anymore.
You need to get right with God right now.
You need to get away from this.
You even see what Naaman, I believe,
isn't it Naaman, he gets saved.
And then he's just like, hey, can I still like,
when I go back, can I like kind of do this?
I'm gonna bow down to this one pagan God.
Please just say that it's okay now.
It's just like idolatry is a big issue.
Okay.
And again, for us as Americans,
especially if you're not Catholic
or we're never raised Catholic,
you may not necessarily realize
how much idolatry plays a role in many people's lives.
But for those that have been Catholic
or maybe even other religions,
idolatry is still a major component of this world
and a false religion today.
And for those who are saved,
they need to save themselves from that idolatry.
But even if you've never experienced idolatry,
it just don't have best friends that are unsaved.
You need to save yourself from bad friends.
You need to save yourself from worldly influences
and not have them be your closest buddies
and your closest friends
and be doing all the things with them
because they're gonna drag you down.
Evil communications corrupt good morals.
And at the end of the day,
evil communications corrupt good habits
and good works and everything.
I mean just everything that you could think of,
good manners as the Bible literally says,
but it's just like anything that you do
can be corrupted by bad friends.
And so therefore you need to be careful
to not have these relationships.
You need to save yourself from them.
When, now.
When, today.
This is the day.
God saved you so that you wouldn't be friends with them.
God saved you so you wouldn't have to be
in the pagan house of idolatry.
God saved you so you wouldn't be Catholic,
so stop being Catholic and be a Baptist.
That's the whole point that he's trying to drive in here.
And again, it's a parenthetical statement
because he doesn't want you to receive
the grace of God in vain.
Someone who got saved and then stays
with all their unbelieving friends
and stays with all the idolatry.
It's like, well, you're not really doing anything with this.
You're not really being reconciled to God.
You're staying with the wrong crowd.
You're not really being freed.
You're staying as a servant of sin.
You're not really being, you know,
you're not being saved from those sins.
You're just continuing in those sins.
And should we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
Okay, now can you do that and still go to heaven?
Yes, can you do that and have reconciliation
with God, be a ambassador with God,
be freed from your sin and being saved from your sin?
No.
And so there's a difference between your legal identity
and your actions and behavior.
Yeah, that's right.
You can be freed and act like a slave.
You can be reconciled and act like an enemy.
You can be saved and still act like you are corrupted
and adaptive of sin.
And so he's trying to command them
and instruct them and encourage them,
hey, do this, why?
Verse three, giving no offense in anything
that the ministry be not blamed.
Hey, why would I get saved from all this stuff?
It's so that we're not blaming the ministry.
So we don't make the ministry look bad.
So it'll make Christianity look bad.
Okay, you have to interpret verse two
in the sandwich of everything else
that's being communicated.
And it's very clear what we're talking about,
being reconciled, not receiving the grace of God in vain.
Number three, not giving offense in anything
that ministry be not blamed.
Notice verse four, but in all things approving ourselves
as the ministers of God and much patience
and afflictions and necessities and distresses
and stripes and imprisonments and tumults
and labors and watchings and fastings.
Now this is a long sentence, okay?
It's like verse three.
I think all the way to verse 10 is one sentence.
So we'll kind of unpack it here in chunks,
but he's saying, hey, I don't want the ministry
to be blamed.
We need to approve ourselves.
Who are we approving ourselves to?
To God as what?
The ministers of God, meaning we're the servants of God.
And as the servants of God,
we're gonna go through difficulties.
Okay, what are some of these difficulties?
Well, there's a lot.
We have to be patient sometimes.
We have to go through afflictions, necessities,
distresses, stripes.
Of course stripes would be like literally
getting beaten for the cause of Christ.
He says imprisonment, tumults, labors,
watchings, fastings, you know,
times where you're not eating.
And again, the apostle Paul experiences this to an extreme
that most of us have never experienced
and probably will never experience.
But he's being shipwrecked.
He's literally going without meals,
skipping meals, being hunted down,
having been beat with rods,
having been stoned five times I believe,
being shipwrecked a night and day in the deep.
I mean, he's really going through it.
And so when he's saying this, it's not hyperbole.
It's not exaggerative.
It's not bombastic.
It's literal.
And for those that are gonna be
on the front lines of Christianity,
I believe that you're gonna see these type of things
being more literal.
You know, if you're just a,
I go to church on Easter and Christmas,
you probably won't have to be shipwrecked
a night and day in the deep.
Okay, you probably won't be imprisoned
for your Christianity.
You probably won't go through some of these things.
You know, if you go to the Liberal Fund Center,
you probably won't have to experience this
because you're already filled with heresy
and you're basically accomplishing nothing anyways.
So what's the point?
Yeah, those that are on the front lines,
actually getting a lot of people saved,
they actually face opposition.
They face persecution.
They face difficulty.
They have problems.
They get evicted.
They have protests.
They have people bomb their church.
They have people shut them down
and cancel all their finances.
And in fact, in places in this world,
there are some Christians that are even being beaten,
put in prison or killed.
And of course that threat is real
for those that are on the front lines.
But you know, we're not supposed to,
according to the Bible, live unto ourselves,
but hey, even the Apostle Paul is putting his life
on the line and he doesn't want to be the only one.
He wants everybody else to join him
and hey, to live his Christ and to die his gain,
as the Apostle Paul would say.
Now, of course, what should be our attitude
while going through this?
Verse six, by pureness, by knowledge,
by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost,
by love unfamed, by the word of truth,
by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness,
on the right hand and on the left.
So we go through this difficulty,
but then what should we be like?
Well, we should keep ourselves pure.
We should be pure from idolatry,
pure from fellowship with unbelievers,
pure from the iniquities and sins
that so easily doth compass and set us around about.
And according, we should have longsuffering.
We should tolerate people
and we should allow people to do us wrong and harm
and we should be patient with them.
We should be kind.
That should be our normal disposition
is we should be kind to people.
Should be nice people.
And of course, you read about us online
and you think, oh man, they're scary,
but hopefully when you visit,
you're like, wow, they're actually pretty nice,
they're pretty kind.
And of course, that should be our natural disposition,
kind, nice, longsuffering, you know?
Unfortunately, when I first came to Steadfast,
it was told me, I didn't really experience that much,
but other people told me
that there's a little bit of hostility
if you visited our church.
You'd show up and you're kind of grilled
about why you're even there,
if you're an infiltrator, if you're a rapper,
and you just like all these weird questions,
you know, just like an interrogation.
And again, I'm not saying
that we shouldn't try to figure out
if people are saved or not,
but we should try to be kind.
And even if they're not saved,
not being like, well, you're just a heretic freak,
or you know, I can't believe that you're unsaved
and you would visit our church or something,
you know, be nice, try to get them saved,
try to give them an opportunity.
That should be our disposition,
even when we're in the world
and we're around people that are sinful.
Oh, that's you too as well.
Don't, let me remind you.
You're around sinful people,
that's called anyone, all right?
It's like, hey, they're not dressed right.
Well, we're not gonna sit there
and make fun of them.
We're not gonna sit there and criticize them
and tear them apart.
We're gonna see people doing things that are wrong
and doing things that are sinful.
And we have to pick our battles there,
but for our general, you know, disposition,
we should still be kind to them,
trying to give them the gospel,
trying to give them the benefit of the doubt,
try to be nice to them.
You know, we live in such a wicked and evil,
you know, generation that obviously,
I'm not gonna get mad at a Christian
standing for what's right or speaking truth,
but in general, we should be kind about it.
And we should try to pick our battles there
and try to be nice.
Of course, according to the Bible,
we should be kind to the brethren,
and I think that's where we really see
a lot of these attributes as the most important.
What is your disposition to the saved and to the brethren?
We should be kind to them.
Even if they don't, you know, love your enemy,
you know, not necessarily just the people
that are kind to you, everyone does that.
You know, it's funny, I saw this,
there's this like popular thing on the internet now
where they have a podcaster or an influencer
do this like one-on-twenty debate style event
where they have like 20 liberals or something,
going on to one conservative or something.
And it's kind of popular, and I saw one,
it was like a woman that's a female podcaster,
she's like a Christian, Ali Beth Stuckey.
Does anybody know who this is?
A few people might know.
This is like a Christian woman podcaster.
And she's like doing an entire show
with like 20 fags or something.
I don't know, it's just like, really?
Like, you know, and so like half of them
are like in ministry or something like this,
so like one of them is like a pastor or something like that.
And they're debating about all this stuff,
and this like, sodomite freak pastor
is there just explaining about,
well, if we were so bad and we're not Christian,
then how come our church, you know,
models all the different fruits of the spirit?
Because you know, at our church,
everybody's so kind, everybody's so nice,
and everybody seems so loving, and whatever.
And it's like, look, the Bible does not teach
that being kind just means you're of God.
Okay, the Bible teaches that everyone is kind
to the people they like,
and the people that are kind to them, everyone.
Even the most wicked, evil, you know,
disgusting people on this planet are kind to some people,
and kind to some people they like.
I mean, even Herod and Pilate were friends.
Are they now exhibiting the attributes of the spirit?
Because Pilate, oh, they made up forgiveness.
Look, they're modeling the fruits of the spirit.
We see forgiveness and kindness and friendship and love
between Herod and Pilate.
You know, that's stupid, okay?
That's not what the Bible's teaching.
The Bible is teaching that you have kindness
toward those that don't love you,
and that don't accept you.
And let's see, do you think the fag community
is the ones that are the most tolerant
of people that disagree with them?
They're the most kind and the most loving and compassionate
and they're the most filled with the fruits of the spirit.
Look, it's alive from the pit of hell.
You know, when people are not saved,
they always point to things that the Bible doesn't bring up
to try and justify how they're saved.
It's like fags, you're like, oh, we're kind, nice,
and we're just so sweet and whatever.
And it's like, you're a child molester.
How are you sweet?
You're not sweet at all, okay?
Or it's like, hey, you look at the Mormons,
and it's like, hey, look at the Mormons.
They have such nice families, right?
Oh, look, they have such nice families
and they're all productive in society.
That must mean they're of God.
That doesn't prove you're of God, okay?
You know, the Bible isn't saying like, hey,
you wanna know if it's a man of God or not,
look if he has good children or not,
or his children like him or not.
It says, hey, we know them by their fruits.
And what's that fruit?
It's what they preach, my friend.
Are they preaching a right gospel or a false gospel?
Are they preaching the right doctrine
or the false doctrine?
And look, the right doctrine and the right gospel
will yield positive Christian results,
getting people saved and bringing people to Christ.
And the false prophet will be dragging people away
from Christ into heresy, into lies, into false doctrine.
It doesn't matter how sweet and nice they are about it.
Okay, so when we're talking about kindness here,
let us not get this weird, worldly idea of,
oh man, the tranny at Starbucks is so nice
when he hands me a coffee, he must be of God.
He must be saved because he just has such a smile on his face.
Look, they're not kind, they're not kind,
just use the wrong pronoun.
They'll show you, they're not long suffering.
They'll show you that they're not filled
with the spruits of the spirit.
It's silly to think.
Like, and of course these things
are always kind to dogs and animals, right?
They just love animals and they just love
their little pet and they love their little doggie
and stuff.
That doesn't prove that you're saved, okay?
Now, look, if someone is not even nice to their own pet,
if they're not even nice to their own family members,
well then that's probably an issue, okay?
Obviously, serial killers are like harming animals
and like they hate everyone and I get that.
But look, being kind to your own family
and your own friends and those that are your own circle,
that's just default for everybody, okay?
If you're not even at that level,
you're something wrong with you, okay?
Cause everybody should be at that level.
But what is the Bible describing?
Hey, it's kindness to other brothers and sisters of Christ
that aren't kind to you.
It's kindness to people in this world that are lost
and they don't even necessarily like you
or care about you and you're kind to those people.
That's where we really see the fruits
of the spirit being embodied and really played out
and a major and important role.
And yes, Democrats are not kind to take your tax dollars
and give it to other people.
That doesn't make them kind, okay?
So don't get confused on what the real fruits
of the spirit are and what this is talking about,
by kindness, by the Holy Ghost.
Hey, you know, if your kindness is in opposition
of what the Bible is actually saying,
it's not really kind.
It's not really love.
It's not really what the Bible is saying.
We should be doing things with the power
of the Holy Ghost, through the power of the Holy Ghost,
through the knowledge of the Holy Ghost.
By love on faith, notice this,
not by something that's fake.
There's an insincere, sincere love.
There's a fake love.
There's a flattering type of love.
And we as Christians should not be fake.
I just can't stand fake people.
And you know what, just be honest.
Let's be honest, honest people.
We're the pillar and ground of the truth.
We should love the things that we say that we love.
We should mean what we preach.
If someone's getting up and they're never meaning
what they preach behind the pulpit, that's a problem.
And we should love the Word of God.
When we say we love something, we should mean it.
When we say we hate something, we should hate it.
We shouldn't get up and say I was young and immature
and didn't really mean it.
We shouldn't say we're just riling up the base.
We shouldn't just say, you know, again,
I'm not saying that we can't exaggerate a point.
I'm not saying that people don't sometimes,
stretch something a little bit.
But in general, we should be meaning what we're saying.
And we should be people that really are not loving
for gain.
You know, the Pharisees are giving money away.
First Corinthians chapter 13 talks about people
letting their body be burned and giving all their goods
to the poor and that you don't even have charity.
Many, you could actually give everything you have
to somebody and still not even love them
because you're not really doing it for them.
You're doing it for yourself.
You're doing it for attention.
You're doing it for other ulterior motives.
And so when we love somebody, we need to do it sincerely.
You know, it would be sad to give all this money away
and you didn't even mean it.
You know, it did that and it's this viral.
They gave a lot of money away
and then God killed them for it
because they weren't doing it of sincerity.
They were doing it for attention seeking.
They were doing it for a name or for accolades
or position in the church or whatever motives
may have existed at that time.
It was not a sincere motive.
It was not a love for Christ and a love for the church
and a love for doing things right.
They wanted either attention or praise of men.
And so they said, oh, we gave our entire land,
which it's silly because when you read the story,
it's like they still probably gave
an extraordinary amount of money.
It's just that they wanted like a full credit.
You know, they just want all the attention.
They're like, yeah, we gave it all.
I gave it all.
But you know, you didn't do it in charity,
you're nothing, you're nothing.
And so of course, when we talk about our Christianity,
we wanna actually love people and be sincere about it.
Not be fake.
And I say this because, you know,
I've been in a lot of churches, even Baptist churches
and a lot of people, they're fake.
They're fake.
And they're really fake about how they love
all the people in the room.
And you know, what's the wind of the ways
that it appears that someone's fake
is they talk nice to your face,
but then they talk behind your back.
They talk behind your back.
And you know, when they criticize other Christians,
they're not doing it because they want them
to actually get better or they love them.
They just have a hateful, mean spirit about them.
And they just wanna see other people's lives destroyed.
And they wanna see other people dragged down.
You know, we shouldn't have this kind of
a hateful attitude about ourselves.
We wanna be people that are sincerely loving.
And look, we all struggle with negative thoughts
or being mean or the flesh.
But you know, when we have those thoughts,
we just suppress them, not say them, not bring them out.
When other people say them, we should shut them down.
We should not encourage that behavior.
We should be people that love and love sincerely
and love the Lord and love God.
I don't wanna be in a fake church with fake people.
You know, it's just, life's too short to have fake friends.
Verse seven, by the word of truth, by the power of God,
by the armor of righteousness on the right and on the left.
So, you know, everything that we do should be doing
with spiritual weapons, spiritual warfare.
And what is our spiritual warfare?
It's the word of truth.
It's the word of God.
And it's by the power of God.
Because I don't get people saved
because I, Jonathan Shelley, came up with clever ways
to get someone saved.
I just preached what this said.
Okay, you know, I don't wanna build a church
because Jonathan Shelley is funny.
You know, or Jonathan Shelley is charismatic.
Or Jonathan Shelley is just a great orator.
Or I just love the sound of Jonathan Shelley's voice.
You know what?
I want this church to be built because people heard
the word of truth and the power of God
coming off the pages when they showed up at church.
That the message was of God and that's why they came.
Because you know, you can build a church
on lots of different things.
You can build a church on race.
I mean, how many churches a day are literally
just a demographic, just homogenous center.
It's all white or it's all black or it's all Asian
or it's all Indian or it's whatever.
It's just a demographic church, Asian church.
Or it's a geography church.
It's just everyone's five minutes
from the specific location.
Now again, we get that geography is gonna play a role
but in some senses, you know, that shouldn't be
the only reason people are there is just because
it's the closest proximity to my house.
You know, some people are gonna build a church
on the fact they have a roller coaster inside.
And that's not even a joke.
Some people are gonna build it on the fact that,
you know, it's just, it's really nice and comfortable
to lie to them or whatever.
You know, there's all these reasons for a church to grow.
You know, there was a preacher that I was listening
to when I was younger and he was hilarious.
I mean, like every sermon he just started the sermon
with a joke and it was kind of funny.
Like it wasn't like a bad joke.
Like a lot of times when someone tries to be funny,
they're not.
And this guy's obviously trying to be funny
but it was actually funny.
Like he was good and it almost seemed like
it was a comedy routine wrapped around a sermon.
And I mean, I'm like, I guess if you're getting
people to listen, go for it.
And look, I'm not against someone using humor
in a sermon if they can.
And God bless you.
If you could tell a funny joke every sermon, go for it.
But you know, at the end of the day,
I don't really want to build a church on comedy.
Gateway, you know, with Robert Morris,
they had a guy basically on staff or,
I don't know if he was literally on staff,
but at least was in coordination with them.
Was always in the church, pretty much
on their payroll in some way, whether it's 1099 or not.
That was a Christian comedian just by train.
Like that was his gig.
And he would just go to all the big nom-the-noms
and just do a comedy skit.
And then like, he would come and preach for them
on a regular basis.
And it wasn't really preaching.
It was a comedy skit.
And he just did, he just did a comedy routine.
And I mean, I remember going to church
and it was a comedy routine, literally.
Like it wasn't a sermon, there was no Bible.
We were opening our Bibles.
It was just some black guy on stage
giving a comedy routine.
And I'm just thinking like, you know,
I like Dave Chappelle and all, but you know,
I don't want, not a church, you know?
Like that's not where we're building our church on.
It's not a comedy routine.
That's a comedy club.
And look, we're not building comedy clubs here.
We're separating from the fellowship of the unbelievers.
We're separating from the idolatry.
We're separating from the unbelievers
and people that don't have a commonality with us.
We're coming together for the word of truth.
We're coming together for the power of God.
We're coming together for the unity of the gospel.
And that's what our church should be built on.
There are churches today that are just built on,
the non-the-nom church is built on virtually nothing.
Just, we're gonna try and make it as kind
and as palatable.
Lake Point with Josh Howerton, you know?
Just make it as comfortable and smooth and nice as possible.
Josh Howerton and Lake Point,
it's somewhere over there in Garland or something like that,
becoming one of the biggest churches in the world again.
It's just, I guess the DFW just has to build up
some false prophet somewhere.
And I mean, this guy, I was listening to him speak,
he was saying something like it's 17 or whatever,
that he was just, he knew he had to be,
he knew he was gonna be a pastor or something.
And he like, he has this big elaborate story
about going to the most famous preacher
in the United States and going,
getting advice from him on how to become a pastor
and he's just planning his whole life
around being a pastor.
But you know, the reality of Josh Howerton is,
God told him he's gonna be a pastor at 17
and he's already mapped up his entire life to be a pastor
and then something didn't happen,
him ever having a kid, zero kids.
But he already knows he's gonna be a pastor.
So then what is, oh, so then him and his wife
adopt like three kids, just three Randos.
And of course it's a virtue signal, they're all black.
So him and his wife that are pale white
have these three black adopted children
because God called him to be a pastor.
Now look, I'm not against a white person
adopting a black person, but I don't think it was sincere.
I don't think that Josh Howerton is like,
you know what, I just sincerely love black,
this black child, I wanna get it.
I think it was virtue signaling.
I think that he wants to just show how loving he is
and how awesome he is.
And look, I've been in these cultures
and I've been in these churches
where they almost act like killing your kids
with birth control and adopting a black kid from Africa
makes you more righteous than just having kids.
Because you show up at church and you're like,
hey, here's my six, seven, eight kids
that I had with my wife and they're like,
when are you gonna stop, man?
But then it's like you kill all of them
and adopt a kid from Africa and you are a superstar.
Wow, you're so godly.
Wow, you're just so amazing.
And look, I'm not against adoption.
Don't hear me wrong.
I'm not against adopting a black kid.
Go for it.
Adopt as many as you want.
But you know what, you better do it
if you love them.
And you better not do it just so you can have
a little trinket to put on yourself
so that you can say, now I can be a pastor
because I adopted these kids or whatever.
You know, if God wanted to be a pastor so bad,
why did you have to resort to adoption to become one?
And of course, they preach his Lordship's salvation
in a false gospel and use the false Bible version.
And he's just, he has women preachers
at his church all the time,
but this is just who America loves.
You know what, they're not building a church
by the word of truth.
They're not building a church on the power of God
and again, he admitted that during the 2020 COVID
and all this stuff, he would preach things
he didn't even believe because he was infected by wokeism.
Let me explain something.
You're still infected with lies.
And what kind of a preacher gets up and admits
he was preaching lies and things he didn't even believe.
And then just, oh, but now I'm not.
Oh, now he's not going to do it.
Yeah, you've been faked from the very beginning.
And you know what, we don't want to build churches
on these kinds of people.
We need to build churches on the word of truth
by the power of God and by the armor of righteousness.
Hey, God will protect us in our lives
if we do what's right,
but we're going to face that opposition that he brought up.
Now, in verses eight through 10,
I believe that we understand this through context, okay?
Cause he says like two diametrically opposed ideas
or two conflicting things.
He says here by honor and dishonor.
Well, those are the exact opposite.
How is that possible?
I believe that we understand all these things
as saying like there's going to be a group of people
in this world that look at you with honor
and there's going to be a group of people in this world
that look at you with dishonor
when you do the exact same thing.
You upload a sermon, some of them are gonna be like,
that's an honorable sermon.
The same sermon.
So this is a dishonorable sermon.
It's just like, it's just what context you have.
And you know, serving God,
you're never going to be loved of all.
You're never going to be liked of all.
By evil report and good report.
Some people are gonna say, hey,
this guy's an awesome guy, good reputation.
This is when you look at the Google reviews,
five stars and one stars, right?
Evil report and good report.
As deceivers and yet true.
Meaning, hey, there's gonna be a lot of people
that say, oh, this guy's a deceiver.
This guy's a false prophet.
This guy's a false teacher.
And then there's gonna be other people.
This is a true guy.
This is a good guy.
This guy's preaching the right gospel.
You're gonna have conflicting testimonies.
Who are you gonna believe?
He keeps going and says,
specifically as unknown yet well known.
You know, I think we realize that,
especially considering how many people
on this planet today,
there's gonna be a lot of people
that are just not paying attention.
There's a lot of people that don't even know
what's going on with Christianity.
There's a lot of people that have no idea.
I mean, we knock on doors
that are just a stone's throw
from our building that's being protested
every single week.
They have no idea who we are.
Yet there's the knock on the next door
and they know exactly who you are.
You're well known.
Oh, you're the pastor of that church, right?
There's gonna be people, you know,
the apostle Paul is unknown to some.
You know, at Rome, in the book of Acts,
towards the end, when he shows up there,
the Jews, they're kind of like,
we don't even know any of this.
We've not heard about any of this.
Like Paul's showing up kind of thinking
like they've heard about all the stuff
that's been going down and they know a situation.
And they're just like, we haven't even heard about this.
And like, tell us all about it.
Yet you go to some places and it's like,
hey, these are the guys that have turned the world upside
down hither and come hither also.
They've turned the world upside down with the gospel
and they're come hither also.
So it's like, to some, you're gonna be super well known.
And it's like, look, to the Baptist paying attention,
Steadfast is known.
But you knock on the random door over here,
they have no idea what Steadfast is.
They can't even spell it, all right?
And it's just, that's kind of the reality, you know?
It's just like, there's gonna be this variance here.
There's gonna be this difference or confliction.
He says, also as dying and behold,
we live as chasin' and not killed.
So of course you're gonna have just these varying contexts,
these varying situations.
Hey, in some ways, it seems like we're dying,
but hey, we live.
You know, the death, the fall of the new IFB.
Yeah, we live, you know?
It's like, hey, you know, oh, they're chasin'.
But hey, we're not killed.
You know, and of course,
everybody has their own interpretation of the events
of what's going on, but it doesn't really matter.
Verse 10, as sorrowful and yet always rejoicing as poor,
yet making many rich as having nothing
and yet possessing all things.
Now some of these, I think as we get in verse 10,
maybe change a little bit to where they're both true.
It can be true that, you know,
we're sorrowful in the persecution,
like we don't like the persecution,
but then we rejoice that we were persecuted
for the cause of Christ.
Or we're gonna experience sorrow for losses
and hardships, but at the same time,
we're gonna have the joy of getting people saved
and the fellowship of the brethren
so we can have these different opinions.
You know, we can be poor in a carnal sense
and yet rich in a spiritual sense.
We could not have money,
we could have our money stolen,
yet we're rich with the blessings of God
and with the doctrine of God.
And so, you know, you can have some of these things
being simultaneously true.
It's just context, it's just perspective.
It's just how some people look at it.
You know, the Catholic church would look at us
and say, oh, you guys are so poor.
Look at, look how small your building is
or look how, you know, gross your building is.
And yet we have the riches of the gospel
and we have the riches of the King James Bible.
And so they're the ones that are actually poor,
blind and naked.
And we're the ones that actually have the riches.
And if you think about it from a spiritual bank account,
we're the ones that are rich
and they're the ones that have nothing.
They're the ones that are destitute and without.
You know, the non-the-dom church looking down on us
and saying, oh, look, we have a $60 million budget.
Yes, Gateway publishes their finances
and say they have $60 million annually.
That would go pretty far, wouldn't it?
And it's like, look at our budgets, it's embarrassing.
But you know what?
Let's look at their spiritual bank account
and let's look at our spiritual bank account, okay?
And so, you know, it's all context,
it's all how you look at it, you know,
which kind of framing.
And it says, in having nothing
and yet possessing all things,
you could lose everything in this world,
but you know what?
You're gonna be in charge of 10 cities
and the millennial kingdom.
Hey, we're gonna have everything.
The meek shall inherit the earth.
The Christians, oh, they didn't get everything.
The Jews have it all, but guess what?
Nope, the Christians are gonna have everything
and the Jews are gonna have nothing.
And so there's all kinds of different ways
that we could look at these different contexts.
Verse 11, oh, you Corinthians,
our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
Yet, I'm sorry, ye are not straightened in us,
but you're straightened in your own bowels.
Now, for a recompense and the same,
I speak as unto my children,
be also enlarged.
Now, this is a really difficult language,
but I wanna make it clear what he's saying.
In verse 11, he's saying,
our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
He's saying, I have professed my love to you.
I'm making it known, like I'm opening my mouth
to tell you how much I love you guys
and how much I'm proud of you guys
and how pleased I am with y'all.
But then he's contrasting this in verse 12,
ye are not straightened in us,
but ye're straightened in your own bowels,
meaning you guys aren't reciprocating our love.
Like, you're not telling us that you love us back
in the same way, you're not as proud of us in the same way,
but it's not because we didn't express our love to you,
it's because you just don't feel that way.
In some way, your affections are not
matching our affections.
And so then he's asking them in verse 13,
now for a recompense and the same,
I speak as unto my children,
be also in large,
you're saying I want you to love me back.
Now, I would say in one aspect,
this is a couple of ways I wanna look at this,
go to 2 Kings chapter 10 for a second,
but with your children,
you should not necessarily expect
for them to love you back
the same way you would love them initially.
And one of the ways that this looks like
for me practically is we try our best as parents
to tell our children that we love them
daily, and especially before we put them
down to bed or something,
that would be a specific timing.
Now we say it more than that,
but I'm just saying on a regular basis,
we're just saying, hey, love you or whatever.
And I'll just be honest, our kids don't reciprocate.
Now they do, but not every time, okay?
Well, there's lots of times where you're like,
you just say love you, and they're just like,
just walk away or whatever.
And it's like, my mouth is opened unto you,
my heart is enlarged toward you,
but you're not necessarily always saying it.
But the goal is, God willing,
that by constantly loving your child
and affirming them and telling them that you love them,
that at some point when you say it, they'll say it back.
They'll say, hey, I love you too,
or hey, I love you back, or whatever.
And that's special, and of course my kids do reciprocate
and they do tell me this, but it's not automatic
and it takes time, and sometimes you have to,
sometimes it feels like with some kids,
you're telling them and they're just going through a stage
or then they become a teenager,
it's not cool to love back or whatever.
But it's like, hey, you're hoping that they'll get,
snap out of that cool teenager phase or whatever,
and they'll actually just say they love their parents.
God forbid you'd actually love your parents, right?
You'd actually communicate that verbally.
Like, I'm a big believer in expressing
how you feel verbally regularly.
Husbands should tell their wives that they love them
and that they're beautiful daily and regularly.
And I think vice versa, and I think that parents
should be telling their kids that they love them
and kids should be telling their parents.
We should be expressing ourselves verbally
on a regular basis, and of course the apostle Paul
has no problems.
I love the Corinthian church.
I love the church at Corinth.
I love these guys.
They're my homies, you know?
It's like, hey, I love First Works Baptist Church.
I love those Mexicans over there,
and I'm just kidding.
I love those gangsters over there, right?
They know how to roll.
You know, they're super cool.
I'm not afraid to say I like them.
I'm not afraid to say I like Faithward Baptist Church.
I'm not afraid to say that I like Anchor Baptist Church.
You know, I'm not afraid to say that I love
Pastor Matthew Stuckey and I love
soul-winning Baptist Church.
You know, I'm not afraid to say that I love people
and that I love other Christians.
And look, I'm not gonna sit here
and give a testimony to all my friends
because there's so many other churches
and friends that I love, but you know what?
I wanna be open and honest and say I love them.
You know, I love Pastor Aaron Thompson.
He's one of my best friends.
I'm not afraid and embarrassed and ashamed
to say that I love these people.
And you know what?
It's possible for you to like someone
or really love someone
and they don't necessarily feel exactly the same way back.
And that's okay.
But especially from a Christian perspective,
he's loved this church and done good on this church.
So he's saying, you should kinda love me.
But they're hesitant.
They're not necessarily wanting to proclaim their love.
You know, it's like Paul, it's like, yeah.
Yeah, we know him, but you know.
It's like, no, they wanna be like, we love Paul.
You know, we're not embarrassed of Paul.
We're not ashamed to be friends with Paul.
No, no, no, we love Paul.
We embrace Paul.
And it's similar to what I would see in Second Kings,
chapter 10, I had you turn there for a moment.
But look at Jehu kind of saying,
the same thing Paul's saying in verse 15.
He says,
and when he was departed thence,
he lied it on Jehonadab, the son of Recap,
coming to meet him and saluted him and said to him,
is thine heart right as my heart is with thy heart?
And Jehonadab answered, it is.
If it be, give me thine hand.
And he gave him his hand
and he took him up into the chariot.
So it's kind of like this love test
between Jehu and Jehonadab.
He's saying, hey, is thine heart right
as my heart is with thine heart?
Saying like, I love you, I'm with you.
We're buds, I'm loyal to you.
Are you the same way, you feel the same way to me?
And we want to have love unfaigned.
We don't want to say things that we don't mean.
And he's asking and he's like, it is.
And he's like, all right, then prove it
and get in here and go with me to the battle
and go with me to the work.
And it's like, hey, you love me.
You love the apostle Paul.
All right, then get in that chariot
and let's go to work and let's get people saved
and let's stop fellowshiping with unbelievers
and let's stop fellowshiping with idols
and let's stop playing games here
and let's be reconciled to God.
And you know, we need to do that right now.
Just like Jehu's saying, hey, here's my hand.
Get in the chariot and let's go.
If your heart's right,
then you have no problem getting in the chariot.
But if you're gonna say that you love me
and then you're not getting in the chariot,
well, there's a problem.
It's like all these pastors, they love Jesus
and they love the Bible and they're such good Christians.
Well, then where's your soul winning right now?
Where's your missions right now?
Where's your good sermons right now?
You know, if you really love these things,
then let's show it right now, okay?
It's the heart check that he's asking them for.
He'll be good back and we'll finish this chapter.
But we've been making some good points here
and we're just trying to emphasize this idea
of being reconciled, being a good ambassador
for the cause of Christ and, hey,
recompensing in the same.
Now, again, no one is forced to just automatically
love someone back, but obviously children
should love their parents back.
Obviously a spouse should love their spouse back
and obviously, hey, the guy that got you saved
and is leading you to the things of Christ
and is a follower of Christ,
you should love that guy back
because he's a brother in Christ
and the Bible says they were supposed
to love the brethren, okay?
So there's certain relationships
where there is an expectation of reciprocal love
and that we should reciprocate.
You know, we love God because he first loved us
and in some cases we have to love someone first
before they would reciprocate.
It says in verse number 14,
be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness
and what communion hath light with darkness
and what concord hath Christ with Belial
or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel
at what agreement hath the temple of God with idols
for year the temple of the living God
as God has said, I will dwell in them
and walk in them and I will be their God
and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them
and be separate, sayeth the Lord
and touch not the unclean thing
and I will receive you
and will be a father unto you
and ye shall be my sons and daughters,
sayeth the Lord almighty.
So we finish with the general idea of separation
and of course this is where
most independent fundamental Baptist will go to
if they wanna teach the doctrine of separation
or to be sanctified,
to set yourself apart from this world.
Now, what does that look like?
Not having your best friends
and your closest friends being unbelievers,
not having anything to do with idolatry
and false religions, being ecumenical.
We as Baptist believe that we should be having
our closest fellowship with those that are saved.
Those that are not only just saved
but apart from things like idolatry
which is clearly forbidden
in the church discipline chapter
of 1 Corinthians chapter number five.
And so we would have to separate
from those type of things.
This is what we believe in in separation.
Now again, I think some people can take separation
to an unhealthy extreme
where it's like if you don't agree with me
on all of my standards
and all of my personal preferences
and my specific friends list
that you're not separated,
I don't like that kind of stuff
and I don't agree with that kind of stuff.
I think everybody has their right
to preferences and friend lists
but at the end of the day,
the only separation that the Bible is demanding
is that from unbelievers, idolatry
and the clear church discipline issues.
And even from a test of fellowship,
if a church was King James only
and right on the gospel,
that's pretty much always been my litmus test
of my boundary for who I had fellowship with.
If they're right on those two things
then I could consider potentially
having fellowship with a person.
I'm not saying I wouldn't consider other things.
I'm not saying that if they are hostile
towards me I wanna be their friend.
I'm not saying that if they have a woman preacher
I don't know how that's possible.
They have a woman preacher with a church that's right
and has the right Bible.
I wouldn't fellowship with that, okay?
So I'm not saying that I wouldn't have lines.
I'm not saying that I wouldn't have boundaries here
but you know, I'm not gonna say like,
oh, they don't have a shirt and tie
so I wouldn't have any fellowship
or any relationship with them.
I also don't think that we should have this attitude
that when we're outside of church itself
that we can't be friendly to save people
who are involved in various denominations, okay?
You know, if I were out at the supermarket
and I run into a guy and he's Calvinist or something
and we strike up a conversation
I'm not gonna be like, oh, you're a Calvinist.
Get away from me or something.
Or you know, hey, I'm working with a Calvinist.
I'm like, I don't even know if I can work with you
because you're a Calvinist.
You know, that'd be silly.
That would be weird.
Now again, are they wrong on doctrine?
Absolutely.
Are they kind of being prideful
and arrogant with their doctrine?
Absolutely.
You know what, in meekness I should instruct him
and hope that he would come to the knowledge
of the truth on this issue and come to our side.
I'm not even saying that he's not saved.
I'm sure there's plenty of people
and other denominations that are saved
but you know what, when it comes to church
and it comes to this institution
we're gonna have some boundaries
when it comes to the fellowship.
I'm not gonna let somebody get up here
and preach a sermon to you
that's not gonna use the right Bible.
I would never let someone get up here
and teach to you that is not saved.
So that's just your guarantee
that you won't have a Jew get up here
and never preach anything, okay?
I'm not gonna let someone get up here
and you know, just completely contradict
the core doctrines of our faith
and the core doctrines of our beliefs.
But on secondary issues,
we've had people that are pre-trib
preach for us before.
We've had people that are Zionists
come and preach for us before.
And if I would let a Zionist and a pre-tribber,
I mean, that's pretty liberal already.
I mean, what do you want?
But you know, at the end of the day,
I think that we can stretch across the aisle
and love other people.
So we're not trying to say here,
you have to be a part of our church
and our friend list and our group of standards.
You know, God standards, God standards.
And then this is what they'll call you.
Oh, you're deceivers.
Oh, you're a cult.
No, we're just Christians.
Okay, you can call us whatever labels you want.
This is what the Bible demands with the Bible commands.
And of course, notice in this language,
he says that I'll be a father unto you.
We understand this exactly like we understand everything else.
We were reconciled the moment we got saved,
but then we need to be reconciled, okay?
We were freed the moment we got saved,
but then we need to be freed from our sin.
We were saved the moment we believed,
but then we need to be saved from that sin
and separate ourselves from these evils.
And when we believe in Jesus Christ,
God became our father in identity and relationship.
But he wasn't necessarily,
we're not necessarily benefiting
from the functions of the father
when we're fellowshiping with unbelievers,
when we're outside of the church,
when we're hanging out with idolatry.
But here's the thing, when you come into the church,
God is gonna be functionally acting like a father unto you.
And again, what does a father do?
A father provides, a father protects, a father guides.
And so when you're in church
and you're drawing near to the father,
he's gonna respond by what?
Protecting you and providing for you and guiding you.
When you decide to walk away from the things of God
and you hang out with idolatry and you hang out this stuff,
well, he's not gonna be functioning as a father for you
because you've left his guidance and his provision.
It's similar to the prodigal son.
I mean, the prodigal son,
he didn't lose his identity whenever he left the house.
But then he left what?
The provision, protection and guidance of his father.
Whereas the other son was receiving the provision,
the guidance and everything from his father.
But when he came back,
remember he was saying like,
I'm no longer worthy to be called thy son?
But guess what?
He came back and his father continued his role
and function as father for him
and slaughtered the fatted calf
and treated him like a son again
and provided for him, provided a blessing for him.
And so when you go to church,
you're allowing God to provide for you
and to be a blessing unto you and to protect you.
You know, it's kind of like when you're a teenager
or a young adult and you live at home.
In many cases, sometimes dads will pay in the bills for you.
You know, I don't know.
Some of you have like a rent agreement.
I don't care if you do or not.
I mean, you can do whatever you want.
But in some cases,
you're probably still getting a good rate, right?
And I guarantee there's some things that he's providing.
You know, when I was young married,
I was poor, okay?
I was super poor.
We didn't have anything hardly.
I would sometimes go grocery shopping
at mom and dad's house,
because I lived really close.
So, you know, for you, the kids that live close at home,
I would just talk to my parents
and she'd be like, yeah, just go home.
I'm just going in the cupboard.
I'm like, oh, like, this cereal looks good.
And oh, they got some ground beef, sweet.
You know, I'm gonna get this ground beef or whatever.
And not only that, like I would go to church
with my parents.
I was married.
Me and my wife were married.
We'd go to church with my parents.
And then after church,
they would always take us out and they would buy dinner.
And it was Jason's deli every time, okay?
Every, you know, but I loved it.
You know, we really loved it.
It was great.
Then I noticed there was other family members
of our that were going.
And I think they were sick of Jason's.
So what they did is their kids
would magically ask to go somewhere else.
You know, we were always kind of suspicious of like,
who came up with this idea or whatever.
But they'd be like, can we go to Outback?
You know, grandpa, can you take us to Outback
or whatever.
But it was like, hey, there's some benefits
to hanging around mom and dad.
There's some benefits to having a relationship
with mom and dad.
And the same as with God.
It's not like, oh, I go to church
and there's no benefit to me.
It'd be the same as if I'm just not going to church
and just living my own.
I'm having church right now at my house.
False.
It's not out works.
No, you come to church so you can get some groceries.
You know what I mean?
You can shop, get some groceries.
You can get some Jason's deli.
You can get whatever.
You know, maybe in Outback throwing in
every once in a while.
But it's like, hey, God will bless you
and provide for you.
He's like, I'll be a father under you.
Okay.
If you're King Saul, you're still saved.
God's not treating you like a father.
He's gonna discipline you and even be your enemy
in some cases and fight against you.
And he's not gonna act like someone
that's protecting you and guarding you
and everything like that.
And so, you know, the way that God responds to us
is how we respond to him in many cases.
And you know what?
You kids out there, I guarantee your parents' response to you
is often how you're responding to them.
You follow their rules.
You do good.
You draw night of them.
You're gonna have a good relationship with mom and dad.
You're always obedient.
You roll your eyes at them.
You're stubborn.
You're difficult.
And you're like, oh, they don't ever treat me
like the favorite, you know, the favorite kid.
And it's like, is the favorite kid more obedient?
Is the favorite kid like talk to the mom and dad more?
And this is like, the favorite kid's just better at hiding,
you know, their transgressions or whatever.
Well, then they're just better at hiding then, okay?
Then hide your transgressions more.
I don't know.
But it's like, I guarantee you the favorite,
there's probably a reason why they're the favorite.
You know, and again, it's like,
oh, you're just God's favorite.
Well, there's gonna be a reason.
You know who's God's favorite?
Abraham.
He was called the friend of God.
You know why?
Because he did the works of God.
And so, hey, you wanna be justified
in being called the friend of God?
You want God's blessing, you want God's favor?
Draw a line to him.
Get away from idolatry.
Get away from unbelievers.
You know, be reconciled unto him.
Hey, when?
Now.
Now's the accepted time.
Now's the day of salvation.
And hey, you've been struggling with sins.
Now's the time to get rid of that sin.
Now's the time to get rid of that temptation.
Now's the time to make that change.
Now's the time to get right with the Lord.
There's never been a bad time to give up sin.
It's a good time right now.
And so, what's the point of this chapter?
Hey, draw a night of God and he'll be a father unto you.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for your provision
and your protection and your love towards us.
I pray that we would not just take the grace of God
and be in vain.
We'd not waste the opportunity we have to serve you now.
We wouldn't waste the opportunity to have a relationship
with you now.
We wouldn't waste the opportunity to go to church now,
but rather we would serve you now
and we'd draw close to you now
that we'd separate ourselves from the evils of idolatry,
of false religion,
that we wouldn't be fellowshiping with unbelievers
but rather be fellowshiping with believers
and with Christians and those in church
and those that love God.
And I pray that whatever afflictions
and difficulties we go through,
we'd still be motivated
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And I pray you would help this church
to be a bright and shining light to such a dark world
that you've suckered us so that we could say
and preach the gospel and pull others
out of captivity and out of darkness.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.