Let's go to the Lord again in prayer. Father, we do come before You seeking Your grace, Your mercy, Your strength, Your wisdom, and all that is needed in order to honor and worship You and to serve you as you would have us to do so. We know that you're God and that you're sovereign. We recognize that your ways are so far above ours as the heavens are above the earth. You have said that if any man lacked wisdom, let him ask of you, and we ask that you would give us wisdom and direction to know in every area of our lives what you would have, that we might please you as our Father who art in heaven. You have called us out of darkness into your marvelous light. And you have guided us unto this hour. And we ask, O God, that you would give strength and wisdom to continue to serve you. We thank you for the Holy Scriptures. We thank you that you have given great grace and great mercy. In the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We look forward to the day of his return. And can even cry with John on as he was on the Isle of Patmos. Come quickly. Lord Jesus, even so come quickly. We realize that there is change and decay in all around we see. We realize that things are getting worse and worse. We realize that the heavy hand of judgment is continually increasing. And we realize that without you, we can do nothing. Again, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures that you have not left us ignorant as to what you would have us to do. And I pray, Father, that you would move upon the heart of all that we might honor you and glorify you. Bless us now as we look into the Holy Scriptures. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. We are continuing looking at the judgment of God. And we have looked at the subject in general. We looked at the fact that Christ is judging and that Christ is the one that is going to be the judge and that He is going to judge all. But we want to look at the fact that He is going to judge all in more detail or begin looking at that today and try to break it down into a little bit more that we might get somewhat of a better understanding as much as possible. Though the unbeliever shall be judged according to his sins, the believer shall be judged according to his stewardship and rewarded accordingly. Now, don't ask me to list what the rewards are, because I don't know. But also, I can say this, that we don't deserve any rewards in and of ourselves. Our rewards are grace. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore what Scripture teaches regarding the subject. Now, first of all, we want to look at the fact that the believer Is not going to be judged for his sins. And we see this will begin in our scripture reading. In 2nd Corinthians. Chapter 5. We will come back to this later on when we look at the judgment seat of Christ, because it mentions the judgment seat of Christ with reference to the believer. But in the latter part of 2 Corinthians 5. We want to read a few verses here. First, we will begin at verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we are all dead. Or literally, they all died. I think this is kindly a legal verse of Scripture that is connected possibly with Romans 6 too, but how that we all died in Christ. But anyway, we will get into the exegesis of that. Verse 15, And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. And it says that he died for them. And all that he died for are the ones that are redeemed. Look at all the different theological aspects of this. But then in verse 18, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. He died for us. He rose again. He reconciled us to God. We can see that. And then we see in verse 19, To wit that God was in Christ, Reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Now, the world that he reconciled is the world that is saved. If he reconciled the entire human race, then the entire human race is saved. But we are not going to get into the fact that the word world Not does it always mean and hardly ever does it mean each and every human being that ever has lived or ever will live in the world. Just a general statement including all different kinds. But anyway, but we're looking at it from standpoint of judgment to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation." So He died for us. He rose again. He reconciled us. And He is not imputing our trespasses to us. I want us to make that plain. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ said, Be ye reconciled to God. And then verse 21, For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." So, I want it to be plain that the believer, Christ died for the believer, Christ rose for the believer, Christ reconciled the believer, Christ does not impute the sins to the believer, and here we see that God made Christ to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So I want that plain and clear that whatever judgment the believer undergoes, it is not for his sins. Christ paid for our sins. Christ paid for our sins. Let's look at Hebrews chapter 10. We want to make this statement large and clear. Hebrews chapter 10. beginning at verse 16, breaking in the middle of the sentence. Well, we'll just read verse 15. Wherefore, the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law into their hearts and in their minds will I write them. and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Notice that. Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Christ died for the sins and God has seen that and seen those sins removed as far as the east is from the west, as it says in another place, but He says, I will remember their sins no more." You say, well, I thought God was omniscient. He always knows everything. Well, He does from that standpoint, but He doesn't remember them against us. He remembers them as done away in Christ. But He doesn't remember our sins and our iniquities against us, not against the believer. Alright, 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. Verse 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." Here again, Christ suffered for sins. He suffered for sins in particular. He didn't suffer for sin in general. It says sins, plural. Christ suffered for sins. Every sin that the believer has ever committed, is committing, or will ever commit, Christ died for those sins, each and every one of them. He paid the penalty for the sins. So that ought to be clear from that standpoint. All right. Confessed sins of believers are forgiven. Look at 1 John 1. Confessed sins of believers are forgiven. In order to get to the judgment, I want to set the ground for the fact that believers are not judged for their sins. I want to make that loud and clear. Though believers are judged, it is not for their sins. 1 John 1, verse 9 it says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now notice what it says. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Have you confessed your sins to God? I didn't ask if you confessed you were a sinner. I didn't ask if you have said, God, I have sinned a lot of sins. But have you confessed sins in particular? I got mad today. I lusted today. I was envious today. I was hateful today. Or I was hateful a few moments ago. Whatever it is, it says if we confess our sins. Now, naturally, it's not just a top of the head confession. It is that real confession, which is contrition of heart. And you're really ashamed and hate the sins that you did and so on. But I'm not going to get into confession. That's another sermon or two. But here it says that if we confess our sins, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You are a rotten, stinking sinner. And you ought to go around with your head hanging down between your knees full of shame all the time. Christ has made a way and if we confess our sins, He forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness and therefore we don't have to go around hanging our heads down. We cannot hang our heads down. What do you mean we cannot? Simply because God's Word is true and we have confessed our sins and He has cleansed us from all unrighteousness because He is faithful and just. And we know in the head we are rotten sinners and we wonder, why is it we don't feel worse? It is because God is true to His Word. You say, well, I have confessed my sins and I still feel bad about it. Well, you don't believe God's Word. You need to confess your arrogance at not believing the Scriptures because God said here in His Word, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive them. So either you haven't biblically confessed them, or you don't believe the Scripture. And then you need to repent for your unbelief of the Scripture. You see that? It either means that or it doesn't mean anything and we have to make up something. And I'm not a psycho to go around like a psychologist making up stuff to try to make you feel better or feel worse. The Bible means what it says. And it says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Either you haven't confessed it, or you haven't confessed it biblically, or you don't believe the Scripture. Confess sins of believers are forgiven. Confess sins of believers are forgiven. Augustine, I don't quote the so-called church fathers very much, but Augustine was a very wicked man. His mother prayed for him quite a bit. And when the Lord turned him around, he said the sin that plagued him the worst, I mean, he was a whoremonger and a drunk and just about everything. But he said the sin that plagued him the worst was, I believe it was pears that he stole as a child. And someone asked about why that plagued him instead of all these other horrible sins. And he said because he stole pears for no good reason because he didn't even like them. In other words, it was a sin that was not even a sin that his flesh craved. And for a long time I wondered about that until some things were brought home in my own life with reference to my own youth before the Lord turned me around. And some things that I did, there was not even any good reason to do what I did just simply because of sin. Hardened sin. But even that sin is forgiven. Even that sin is forgiven. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I'll give a little bit of the background here, and we'll look at this. Here was a man that needed to be disciplined by the congregation, and the congregation disciplined the man. He was living with his father's wife, or sleeping with her. And the bad part about it, the church at Corinth was so bad, they were glorying in it. I mean, they were bragging about it. You say, well, how in the world could people do that? Well, we have people that live ungodly lifestyles today that brag about it and even parade in the streets about it. And so, they were to deliver this one unto Satan and to have no company with him. That is part of church discipline. Very few people know what church discipline is anymore. But notice what the purpose was in verse 5. To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now notice there. That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So you exercise church discipline in order to save people from their sins? No, not really. That is done by Christ. But what do you mean the Spirit is saved? I do not believe that it is the Holy Spirit or the Spirit that has been regenerated, though it would include that if they are a child of God. The idea behind church discipline is that somebody will repent and come back. That's the idea. That's what it's hoped for. Those who do not repent, do not come back, then that's pretty evident where they are. But notice this. Paul said, see in verse 2, he says, you're puffed up and haven't mourned instead of mourning about it. But he said that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. Then notice verse 3, 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. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ." Notice this spirit. Notice Paul says, when you come together, he said, I'm present in spirit. He says, I'm present in spirit. And he says, when you come together in my spirit, to deliver such one that the spirit may be saved. What's he talking about here? Well, this is what we might say an attitude or disposition. that an individual who has done wrong that the church needs to discipline, exclude, the idea is that when that individual is excluded that they might repent and come back and then they could stand in good conscience before God in the day of judgment having repented of that sin. That's all it's talking about. It's not talking about that you discipline people in order that they go to heaven. This is a hope that the individual is a child of God. And in this case, such was. Because in 2 Corinthians, Paul writes to that church and tells them to restore this man. Why? Because he has been caught up with overmuch sorrow. He has been weeping and mourning over his sin And in order that he not be caught up too much, restore him. That he not be overtaken by too much guilt to restore him. Sad today, you don't see much of that. You see some. An incident comes to mind right now that I witnessed not too long ago. But here we find that This is what it's all about. That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. This is what you hope for in church discipline. This is what you hope for in church discipline. And so even if it goes to such a degree as this, the sins of believers, confessed sins of believers are forgiven. You see that? Not only if we confess our sin from 1 John 1, 9, but even if it gets to the point that a man is out of sorts with God and out of sorts with the church, and he has to be disciplined in hope that he will repent and come back and not have to give an account for his lack thereof in the day of judgment, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of judgment, that he can stand there in good conscience in the day of judgment. Most people look at church discipline as a wrong thing, just like they look at discipline in children as a wrong thing. And the sad part about it is, most church discipline, I wonder, well, I won't go into that. We're not going to study on church discipline. Not only that, God will give the chastening rod to His children to wean them away from their sins. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 12. I know you all know this quite well, but it doesn't hurt to go over it again. God will give the chastening rod to His sheep that they be weaned from their sins. This idea that a man that is a Christian and a believer, that he is going to live in sin all the days of his life and not show any fruit, is contrary to Scripture. Because if you don't receive the chasing of God, you are a bastard. You are not His child. You are illegitimate. You are not the Lord's child. You are a bastard. That is what the Scripture says. We are going to read it right here. Hebrews 12, beginning at verse 6, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Every child of grace is loved of God and is chastened. That is what that verse says. You can't slice it. You can't diagram it. You can't move the words around and make it say anything else than that. If ye endear chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, Then are ye bastards, and not sons." See, that's what the Scripture says. You can't get around it. If you do not receive the chastening of the Lord, you're not His. The Scripture is plain about that. Well, why does He chasten us? Because He loves us. Well, what else? Let's read on. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? What do you mean live? Have a happy life. And I'm not talking about your favorite teen one. Not that kind of happiness. I'm talking about having a joyful life in the heart and soul. Having peace with God. You won't have peace with the world. You won't have peace with yourself. You won't have peace with Satan. You won't have peace with any of that stuff. But you'll have peace with God. You'll have happiness in soul and spirit. Notice, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they, that is, our earthly fathers, barely for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure. That doesn't mean they just had a good time and just delighted speaking us. They did it because they thought it's good for us. That's what it means by their own pleasure. They thought it was good for us. I can testify that I got a few from my parents, but I can also say I should have gotten more. I can say that. With all honesty, I should have gotten more. But I knew they meant what they said too. I tell you, I wouldn't even dare hardly think some of the things that I see some people say to their parents now. That's another reason God is judging our nation. Women and children are ruling over us. There's lack of authority on every hand. But anyway, let's get back to this. What's our point? Our point is that believers repent, and those that repent and confess their sins, they're cleansed of them, and then God chastens us that we be cleansed. You say, well, you haven't proved that yet. Well, I'm going to. Verse 10, Verily, for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He, that is, God, chastens us for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." You see that? God chastens everyone He loves that they be partaker of His holiness. And it says a little bit later on, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Man says, I'm a believer and he lives an unholy life. That's something wrong and it's not with the Bible. Either somebody has taught him a falsehood or he's come up with a falsehood on his own. Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. And I tell you, it is grievous when God chastens. I tell you what, every time my parents chased me, it was grievous. It hurt. It didn't only hurt physically, it hurt me in my heart of hearts because I had displeased my parents. It really hurt me that I had displeased my parents. Some children, you know, they just bow their back and grit their teeth and they're going to take it. Well, it hurts them physically, but it doesn't hurt them within their heart of hearts. By nature, you probably wouldn't know that if you didn't know me very much, but by nature, I have a very tender heart. And so it hurt me to hurt my parents. That's no brag, that's just the heart that God gave me. Some people have tender hearts, some people don't by nature. That's just by nature. Sounds like I'm a mean man, basically by the way I preach, but that's not the case. God knows that. People that know me know that. Anyway, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but rather let it be healed. Follow peace with all men in holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." And then notice what else it says. looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." See, it didn't say, well, okay, we're going to be chasing, God's going to be chasing, so I don't have to worry about it. No, we have to look diligently. We need to strive in order to live right and do right. Because we might be deceived like Esau. Esau repented and found no place for it. Esau, what did he repent of? He didn't repent of his sins. He repented that he lost the birthright. He was grieving over the fact that he didn't have the birthright. He wasn't grieving over the fact that he sold the birthright. They should have kept. A lot of people grieve over the fact that they get caught in their sins. It's one thing to be grieving over the fact that you get caught in your sins. Or it's also another thing to be grieving over the fact of the results of what the sin has caused. But it's an entirely different thing to grieve over the sin itself. That you have sinned against your Heavenly Father. So Esau didn't care about his parents because when he saw that Jacob was going to get the right kind of wife, Esau went off and married some of the women of the world. He didn't want to please his parents. He wanted to please himself. However, the believer is judged, and for all that he does, he must be judged. The believer is judged, and we are judged according to our lives and the way we live those lives before the Lord, but we are not judged for our sins. All right, let's look at some verses. Let's go first of all to Matthew. Believers are included in this, and we'll try to break this down a little bit more as we continue to go forth. But in Matthew 12, Jesus is speaking to those that were accusing Him of blasphemy. accusing him of having a devil. And then in verse 31, Jesus said, Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Now there are a lot of people that talk about what is this sin against the Holy Ghost. Some people think it is adultery and marital infidelity and all of that. So they try to make it that. I really think it is someone who saw the miracles of Jesus and said that those miracles were done of the devil. I really think that is what they are and the reason that I think that is because of the way that it is worded in Mark. Let me see if I can find that right quick. If I can, I will. If I can't, I'll go on. Look at Mark chapter three. And I won't read everything because I'm going to read a lot of this over there in Matthew 12. But in Mark 3, beginning verse 28, he said, Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath neither forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation, because they said he hath an unclean spirit. And I believe that the sin of the Holy Ghost is those that claim that Jesus had an unclean spirit. The unpardonable sin, I mean. But you'll hear all different kinds and read all different kinds of interpretations about that. I'm just throwing out my two cents as to what I really believe by it. But I want to set this in light of the context of the verse that I want to read. Let's go back to Matthew 12. Verse 32, And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his fruit, O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, he didn't say unregenerate men, he put all men in there, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. How you talk is a good indication of what your heart is. And people say, well, you don't know my heart. No, I may not know your heart. I cannot see your heart, I mean. But if anybody is fitting out a bunch of filth, crude, wicked, ungodly stuff, and that's what they always talk about, then you can rest assured that they're not just. They're wicked. They're always talking against Christ and the things of Christ. And always talking against God and God's people. They're always griping and grumbling and mumbling and have something about everything that's good, except what they think is right. Then they're in bad shape. And we need to realize that our speech needs to be somewhat tuned with reference to these verses as well. A lot of times we sit around and talk and our speech just pours forth a bunch of junk and it's of no benefit. Well, God is going to take care of all of that. That will have to do with your stewardship if you are a believer. It will have to do with your punishment if you are an unbeliever. There is loss, even for the believer. The Bible says so. We will get to that eventually. It says, he himself shall be saved, but he will suffer loss. That is what the Bible says. It is in Corinthians. And if I don't get to it, I think I've got it here. If I don't get to it, you hold me to it. I won't get to it today. You've got to do something with those verses or say they don't mean anything. I tell you, you're going to give an account for your life and it's going to have some bearing on your life after this life. It's not all the judgment now. Some people will say that's all now. Well, it says in the day of judgment. If you'll study the day of judgment, that doesn't indicate now. That indicates a time in the future. We've already read some about the day of judgment and Christ judging in that day and so on. I mean, we could extend this out a long time. We could take several sermons just on the day of judgment. You've got to do something with these verses of Scripture. And I'm not going to explain them away. I cannot in good conscience explain those verses away. Look in Ephesians chapter 6. Now I'm not going to read all of these verses, but I'm going to come down to the summary, but I'm going to give you a summary. The context really starts back in verse 21 of chapter 5. It talks about submission. It talks about wives submitting to their husbands. It talks about husbands loving their wives. It talks about children obeying their parents. It talks about parents bringing their children up in the nurtured admonition of the Lord. And it talks about servants being obedient to their masters. And then notice what it says in verse 6. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, The same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." Notice that. It says, whatsoever good thing a man does, whether he's a slave or whether he's a free man, whatever he does, and whatever good thing he does, he's going to receive it of the Lord. If a man is a slave all of his life, and he dies a slave, and he lives like this, what good thing does he receive in this life? Well, he doesn't get beat, and the owner likes him and so on. The owner may not like him. We don't know that. If you are looking for outward good things, if you are looking for natural blessings, I submit that you're looking in the wrong area. He will receive it of the Lord. God, when you read that last Lord's Day, I believe that God is not unrighteous to forget your labor of love. God's not going to forget that. God's not going to forget what you do. You'll forget a lot of things you do. I've had people sometimes to remind me of something that I did, not always bad, some of it was good, as we say with reference to relatively speaking. And I said, man, I don't remember that. But God does. God is not going to forget. the good things that you do and doing the things that you ought to do when you wanted to do the wrong thing. And just think, God paid for your wanting to do the wrong thing. And He worked in you to give you a will and to do, to want to do the right thing when you're wanting to do the wrong thing. And then He's going to reward you And all of that is of grace. I tell you, that ought to cause man to want to serve Him without failure every minute of the hour. But our hearts are so deceitful. Colossians 3. This is kind of the parallel of what we've just read, but I want to read that too. Colossians 3. This is talking about believers. Paul wrote this to believers. He didn't write it to unbelievers. Colossians 3 verse 23, And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. And you say, well, the reward is just being saved. That's the inheritance. Well, if that's the case, if that's the case, what did Christ do? I thought we received the inheritance of the Lord, that is, the salvation, because Christ died for us. This inheritance has to do with how we live. You see that? People either claim too much by saying that you shall receive the reward of the inheritance knowing that of the Lord if you serve the Lord Christ. There's some reward. Whatever that reward of the inheritance is, there is a reward. Salvation is not a reward of anything that I do. It is a reward of the work of Christ and Christ alone. My salvation has nothing to do with what I have done. It has everything to do with what Christ did. But here He says you live this way in order to receive a reward. You know what a reward is, don't you? Everybody knows what a reward is. Even a little child knows that. Sometimes a doting grandparent, a little child, you say, if you'll do something, I'll give you a quarter. Well, they know that's a reward for getting for what they did. God says, you live right, you'll be rewarded. Particularly, He tells these slaves. Of course in the context that would work with wives submitting to their husbands and husbands loving their wives and children obeying their parents and so on. They'll be rewarded. They'll be rewarded. They'll be rewarded by the Lord because they serve the Lord Christ. You're doing it because you're serving Christ. That is what the Bible says. That is what you know you ought to do. And so you do it. All right. The believer is judged, for all works must be judged. Even the believer is judged, for all works must be judged. Now the righteous shall be judged at the judgment seat of Christ. Now, we won't have time to fully go into all of this, but we want to introduce it. We'll start it. Look in Romans chapter 14. Romans chapter 14. I personally believe that the great white throne judgment and the judgment seat of Christ are two different events. Some people don't believe that. That's their prerogative, I suppose. But here in Romans 14, Paul is talking about eating meat or not eating meat. He takes this up in Romans 14 and 15. And he's trying to get these believers to not be judging other believers because they don't eat everything that they eat or drink everything that they drink. You say, well, that's silly. It is silly, but it goes on even today. It goes on even today. And some people say, well, I have the right to do this, and so I'm going to do it. I don't care what anybody says. That's not the Christian spirit. Paul said, if it offends my brother, and the word offend there means to make my brother sin, not that my brother doesn't like it. But he said, if it offends my brother to eat meat, then I won't eat meat as long as the world stands. He said that in the Corinthian letter. And Paul says it here, you don't rub it in everybody's nose. And that goes for those that think they have the right to drink. They shouldn't be publicly broadcasting it, in my opinion. They should keep it to themselves. That's what Paul says. You cannot say that it's a sin for somebody to take a drink, according to the Scriptures. But I believe that this whole concept of social drinking is sinful. And so I'll just leave that as it is. Because of the world in which we live and how the ungodly looks at a bunch of things and so on and so forth. But notice what he says in verse 7. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." Now, what Paul is saying there, this affects more than just you. People say, well, it doesn't affect anybody but me, that's what I do, and I don't care. Paul said, no, for the Christian. Now, a worldly individual, I can see why they'd say that, because they don't have any Christian sense. And what I mean by that, they don't have a heart to be a Christian. But he said, None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For this he in Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not, thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." Aha! So we're not supposed to judge anybody. That's not what he's saying in the context there. There are other passages that tell us to not cast our pearls before swine. And not to give that which is holy unto dogs. So you have to make a judgment if a person is a hog or a dog. You have to make a judgment. He's talking about believers here with reference to eating meat or not eating meat. That's all he's talking about here. Put it in its context. And Paul is saying, why are you judging what your brother eats or drinks? Because you're going to have to stand before God. They are too. For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but rather this, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. He says, later on, the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Well, I have the right to do this. If they don't like it, they can just lump it. No, the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. You see, this idea that I'm going to do what I'm going to do, and it doesn't matter what anybody says. I read some emails several years ago. This was before the internet really came on. It was on computer bulletin boards. There's a bunch of people, mostly Presbyterians, but there's some Baptists on there, too. I happen to be a Baptist. I did more reading than I did talking. But they were talking about the right to smoke and to drink and do all this sort of thing. Well, we have the right, and we're going to do it, and so on and so forth. Well, I shouldn't have even been arguing about it. I should have looked at Romans 15 and said, I'm going to bury the infirmity of the weak. If you don't think you should do this, then I won't do it when I'm around you. If a vegetarian wanted to come to my house and eat, I tried to fix a meal that was centered around their way of eating. I wouldn't put a bunch of meat on the table, virtually that's all that it is, and then force them into it. If I were a vegetarian and I went to a man's house and they didn't know what I believed and so on about that, and that's virtually all they had, I would eat it. Because the Bible says, eat what's put before you and ask no questions. And so that's the way it is. Y'all know that I'm kind of on a special way of eating. And I believe it's good for my health. It's been proved to be good for my health. And when I was over in Oklahoma not long ago, some of them knew about it. They said, well, how should we fix for you? I said, you don't worry about it. You just eat, go ahead. And I'll eat what I want to eat, and I'll eat around it, or I'll eat what's put before me. God will take care of that. And you know what? God took care of it. When I got back home, I got right back on a diet pretty well. My point is, either we believe God, either we believe God, and we believe these verses mean something, or it doesn't. We shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Father, give us a proper balance. There's a whole lot about this subject we don't know. But there are a lot of verses that we're looking at. We've got to do something with them. We cannot explain them away. I pray that you would bless. These verses. To grab our hearts and souls. And bless us. Bless us. To have more of a sense of awareness. Of how we ought to live before you. to honor you, and to serve you, and to put you first in our thoughts, in everything we do, each and every day we live, for we're going to give an account before you. In Jesus' name, Amen.