Welcome here to our morning service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne. And once again, welcome all those in tune with us via internet all over the world. It's over 100 countries already. Thanks God for that. Please open your hymnals to number 106. 106. Tell me the story of Jesus. Number 106. Tell me the story of Jesus. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus sung as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest, peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus, brighten my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Fasting alone in the desert Tale of the days that are past How far since he was tempted Yet was triumphant at last Tale of the years of his labor Tale of the sorrow he bore He was despised and afflicted, homeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tale of the cross where they nailed him, grinding in anguish and pain. Tale of the quiver Tell me the story of Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Before we go to prayer, I'll just give a little update on my health issues. I was at the doctor this week. and they have confirmed that I do have a growth on my left kidney, and they want to do surgery to remove the kidney and the growth. It's in the flesh of the kidney, not in the tube, and that apparently is a better place for it to be. They're 95% sure it's cancer, but not 100%. So till they know for sure, I still leave room for options there. And tomorrow I have to go to Portage for ultrasound on my legs. I guess they're still trying to figure out where the blood clots are coming from. So that's tomorrow afternoon. I go for that and then The urologist is supposed to be consulting with my cardiologist to see whether I'm fit to have the surgery, whether my heart is good enough to have it. So, November 14th is my next appointment with the urologist and we'll see what they have determined by then. So, that's where we're at right now. So, possibility is there for me to have surgery to remove a kidney and then recover from that. That's the latest so you can continue to pray for the doctors for wisdom, and for wisdom for my wife and myself as we make decisions on this, as well as for the church, the needs of the church here, that the Lord's will would be done. So let's go to prayer. Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we have the great God of heaven and earth that we can come before, the God who knows everything, And none of this that's going on in my life right now is a surprise to thee. Some of it has been a surprise to myself and my wife, but we're thankful that we can trust in thee. And we do pray for the doctors that they would have wisdom and make wise choices. And we'd also have wisdom in knowing how to analyze what they tell us and the choices that need to be made in this matter. We pray for this church and we pray that this church would be strong and true to thee, that it can be a light for thee for some time to come yet. And we look forward in the meantime as well to the return of thy son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that that will put an end to this current dispensation we're living in. And we want many more people to be saved in this time as we know that that is thy will. So we pray that we'd be faithful in reaching out and seeking to encourage people to trust in the true God, the true Savior in these days of grace. We know that we are living in a time of great deception. Most people are shocked to hear someone warn them of the deception and they take offense. We pray, Father, that people would be broken and see the importance of taking thy word as their authority and not just the opinions of some people or their own opinions. So we pray that we can be a help both here locally as well as across the world as we broadcast into other countries. We're thankful for that opportunity, thankful that at present our government cannot stop that avenue, and we pray that it would remain there and that we would be bold and make that word known without apology so that others can come to know thy peace and blessing. So may thy will be accomplished here today and this morning. May we exalt thy name, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And over to 323. Three, two, three. More love of thee. More love to thee. Number 323. More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee. Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea. More love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee, More love to Thee. Once earthly joy like green, Soft peace and rest, Thou the alone I seek, give what is best. This all my prayer shall be, for love of Christ to Thee. More love to Thee, more love to Thee Let sorrow do its work, send grief and pain Messengers with their reprieve When they can sing with me More love, O Christ, to Thee More love to Thee More love to Thee Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise, This speed of parting cry my heart shall raise. This day let's prayer shall be More love, O Christ, to Thee More love to Thee More love to Thee And over to 326 326, more about Jesus. Number 326. More about Jesus would I know. More of his grace to others show. More of his saving fall in sea. More of his love who died for me. More, more about Jesus. Jesus, more of his saving policy, more of his love who died for me. More about Jesus let me learn, more of his holy will discern. Spirit of God, my teacher, Showing the things of Christ to me More, more about Jesus More, more about Jesus More of His saving fallen sea More of His love who died for me More about Jesus in His Word, All in communion with my Lord, Hearing His voice in every line, Making its faithful, saying, Mine. More, more about Jesus, More, more More of His saving folly see, More of His love who died for me. More above Jesus on His throne, Riches and glory all His own, More of His kingdom's sure win, Flaming brains of peace More, more about Jesus More, more about Jesus More of His saving fall is seen More of His love who died for me Take your Bibles and turn to Luke's gospel account of the Lord Jesus Christ, chapter 12. Looking there this morning at verses 57 to 59. Luke chapter 12, verses 57 to 59. We'll stand please for the reading of God's word. Beginning there at verse 57. Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? When thou goest with an adversary to the magistrate as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him. lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last mite. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning again for thy word, thankful for reminding us that we are supposed to judge, We should judge ourselves first of all, and we should be careful in our judgment that we are using righteous judgment, that we can be making sure that we are believing the truth, walking in the truth, and helping others to do the same. We're thankful for reminding us as well of the importance of humility in our walk with thee, and that we need to keep in mind that we have a merciful and gracious, loving Heavenly Father, who is judging us, but with mercy and grace and righteousness and love. And we have the privilege of coming before this true God and repenting, first of all, in being saved, and then of being taught and being chastened and growing in thee. We're thankful for the privilege of being a child of God. Pray for anyone listening this morning that's not saved, that they might see that they are not presently thy child. They are answerable to thee, and they're in trouble right now. Pray that they would see their need to humble themselves in repentance. Know thy forgiveness and peace by trusting in thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for their salvation. May thy will be accomplished as we look into these verses. May we allow thee to direct our thoughts that we would not allow anything to distract us from receiving that blessing that thou wouldst have for us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this morning is God's Justice is Sure. God's justice is sure. Critical thinking is important. Critical thinking is not the idea that we should always be looking to criticize others, that we should always be looking for faults in others, but we should always be screening what other people are saying based on what the Word of God says. When we look at news, if you pay attention to the news, you will very seldom find truth on the CBC. That's critical thinking. That's a state-run broadcaster. I call it the Communist Broadcasting Corporation because that's basically what they are. And you listen to CTV or CNN, and most of those, you're not going to get the facts. And so that's in the secular world. The sad thing is that in most religious circles today, most churches today, you're also not going to get the facts. And so it's important that you have a Bible. And as I've mentioned here many times, it's important that you open your Bible when you are listening to a preacher preach. you need to be sure that what the preacher is saying is what God says. And so that's very important. And so it's work. When you attend a service, it's work for you. It's work for me in preparing the message and it's work for me in delivering the message. But if you're going to protect your heart, it's going to be work for you to follow along and to consider carefully, not on your own, by the Word of God and with the help of the Holy Spirit, if you're saved, you are going to be able to determine whether what you're hearing is the truth. And that's important for you, you need that. So the first thing that we see here is that true judgment is required. It says in verse 57, yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? So true judgment is required. A lot of people, they know just a few verses in the Bible, but one of the verses that they know, and when they quote that verse, they are being hypocritical. But a lot of people, they know a flavor of Matthew chapter 7 and verse 1. And in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 1, it says there, judge not that ye be not judged. So anybody that wants to quote that verse to you, right off the top, they're judging you. Otherwise, they wouldn't quote that verse. And so right there, they have silenced themselves. They don't think they have, but they have. And so that verse has a context. Matthew 7 verse 1 is not the only verse in chapter 7. And Matthew chapter 7 follows after Matthew chapter 6. And in Matthew chapter six, Jesus used several illustrations to show that man is of greater importance to God than the rest of creation. And shows how that God will look after us. And then it says in Matthew chapter six in verse 33, which many of us have memorized, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. What is that? That's judgment. How do we know what the kingdom of God is? We have to judge based on the word of God. What is the kingdom of God? But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So God, Jesus, in chapter seven, verse one, he does say, judge not that ye be not judged, but then he qualifies that statement in the following verses. And what he is dealing with is hypocritical judgment of thinking that we have arrived and we're going to judge everybody else by our standard. That's what the Pharisees did. They didn't use the word of God as their judgment. They distorted it. They corrupted it. And then they used their own theories to judge the people. And of course, that's never the right basis for judgment. And so they were in trouble with Jesus Christ, with God, because of their false religion, and that they were trying to cram that down the throats of everyone else. So Jesus reminds the people here that judgment is required, and he says, why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? So that's important to judge what is right, but we need to have a basis to do that from. What basis do we use to judge things? And most of the time, we as people, the basis that we have is a corrupt basis. We go to school. We learn things in school. A lot of the things, unless you're homeschooling, the things that you were taught in school are contrary to God's Word, and so you have a wrong philosophy from your youth. In homeschooling, the children have the opportunity of, if it's a good program, they have the opportunity of being grounded in the Word of God as the foundation. When we started homeschooling our children, we had some parents that heard about it and some of them wanted to talk to us about why we made that choice. And one family came over, well, I don't think the husband came, but the mother came and she said the reason that she wanted to homeschool was because she didn't think her daughter should have to get up so early in the morning. And we told her that's the wrong reason for homeschooling. And so you see some people, they have strange ideas, even when it comes to that. So it's important for us to have something to base what we're doing and how we develop our thinking. How do we develop that? And so we need to make sure that the Bible is our foundation and the Bible is our authority. And so Jesus is talking here to the Jews. And the Jews were known in the scriptures to be stiff-necked and stiff-hearted. And we see that throughout the Bible. In the Gospels, the Jews were constantly interfering, trying to interfere with what Jesus was doing. And the good news is that amongst the Jews, there were some that chose to believe in Jesus and follow him. But the Pharisees were a very hard people. They had developed their religious system over many years, and they were convinced that they had the truth, and they were going to use their false teaching as the standard by which they would judge everything else. And so, Jesus standing there in their midst, they were not willing to recognize him as the Messiah. He didn't fit their idea for who the Messiah should be. And that was a problem then, and that's a problem today. New Evangelicalism today has a very wrong way of looking at everything spiritual. They have a wrong view of God, they have a wrong view of Jesus Christ, they have a wrong view of the Holy Spirit, and they have a wrong view of biblical separation. So New Evangelicalism is a poison. It's a danger that true Christians need to stay away from. If you have people in New Evangelicalism, you need to encourage them to get out of there, because they're not growing in the Lord in those places. Billy Graham was one of the men that was very instrumental in promoting New Evangelicalism. Harold Auchinclay was the founder, the one that was credited with the term New Evangelicalism. But that philosophy was around long before that. Billy Graham started out as a Southern Baptist, and there were independent Baptists who spoke with him when he started his public ministry, tried to encourage him to stick to the word of God in his preaching, but Billy Graham said he wasn't interested in that, and he chose a path of compromise. Very popular man, traveled across the world, gave many messages. He did use salvation, but again, his salvation, if you do some research on his organization, his salvation was a very confused message. We tried to be involved in one of his crusades in Alberta when I was pastoring there. At that time, I still thought there was some good in his organization. So I went to one of their meetings in regard to being a counselor at the crusade that was going to be held in our city. And we were told at that meeting that when the people come forward at the end of the meeting, at the end of the crusade, then we are to ask them what their religious position is. Are they Lutheran, Catholic, Presbyterian? And then we were not told that we could not have our own religion, but we were supposed to find a counselor that would agree with their religion and send that person to that counselor. That's what we were told to do. So that was an eye-opener for me and showed me a little more about what that organization is all about, but he had a lot of influence on a lot of people. And a lot of people take great offense to anyone that would dare to suggest that there was something wrong with Billy Graham's approach and with his message. But that's the problem. New Evangelicalism has a very strong hold on many people's lives. In our camp, in the Fundamental Baptist camp, Jack Hiles was a very prominent man, and he is still highly revered by certain groups in fundamentalism. Peter Ruckman is another man that was and still is held very high amongst some Fundamental Baptists, and both of those men are dead now, but both of those men were false teachers, and yet they had and still have a lot of influence on a lot of independent fundamental Baptists. Paul Chappell is still alive today, pastors a large church in California, and he also has a lot of influence in fundamental Baptist circles, but he is a man who is very dangerous. who is encouraging people to take CCM music and modify it and use it in their churches. And he is not speaking out against the Emergent Church, which is another branch of New Evangelicalism. So there's a lot of individuals that have come to be held higher than God's word and then God himself. And so Jesus is reminding us here, and again, you know, everybody has the right to judge me. Look at what I'm saying, look at what I'm doing, and you want to criticize it, go ahead. And if you have some criticism you want to give to me, that's fine, go ahead. I'll listen, and if it's valid, I need to listen, and I need to change. But if you just want me to become like the New Evangelicals, years ago pastoring a church in Ontario, a bunch of Mennonites that I knew, they came to our service, or they came to me one time, and they said that they liked what I was doing, but they thought I was going a little too far. And they wanted me to go back to where my home church at that time, because I was in my hometown, they wanted me to go back 20 years in that. And they thought back then the church was still pretty good. And I said to them, I said, that would be pointless because if I went back to that place within a year or two, we'd be right back to where your church is now. Why is that? Because 20 years that church was already not following God's word. If you don't build on a sure foundation, you can't stand. You're going to drift. And in our world today, drifting happens quicker than it did in the past because the pressures the Bible tells us that there'll be a great falling away in the last days and that's where we are. And so we need to judge But we need to judge based on some authority and that authority for Christians must be the Bible. That's what we need to take as our authority. So again, if you're saved, you need to be reading your Bible. You should be reading your Bible every day. And you should be going through your Bible at least once a year. A long time ago, a number of years ago now, I was in a conference and the speaker was talking about Bible reading, how important it is. And he said that. He said that you should read your Bible through once a year for every year you've been saved. And this is a number of years ago. Back then, I did not read through my Bible once a year. And so that was a challenge to me, that I needed to do some catch-up work. And for me, it's not a matter of bragging rights. I read my Bible this many times. How many times have you read it? That's not my purpose. I just want to know God better. And so I read my Bible and I read my Bible through more than once a year because I want to know God better. I don't know how many times I read it. It doesn't matter. I don't have a chart. I don't want to know that because I don't want to be bragging about it. But my goal is to know God better. The only way I'm going to know God better is through his word. Same for you. The only way you're going to know God better is through his word. The more time you spend in God's Word, and that's talking about spending time actually paying attention to what you're reading. The more time you do that, the better you're going to know the God of the Bible. The better that is for you. That's the first person that needs to be helped is you. So as I read my Bible, I want to learn. Because if I'm not walking properly with God, I can't help anybody else. So it's very important to make sure that when we are judging, and we need to be judging, we need to judge ourselves. Yea, and why even of yourselves? Judge ye not what is right. So we need to have a righteous standard to go by. We have the word of God. And when we talk about the word of God, we're talking about the King James Bible. That is the word of God. and we don't accept anything else as the word of God. And that's the standard that we need to take and judge ourselves according to what God's word says. And then the second point Jesus makes here is when we are judging amongst ourselves, when we are looking at what's going on, we should try to settle matters privately. It says in verse 58, when thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. In 1 Corinthians chapter six, Jesus, or not Jesus, the apostle Paul, directed by God, talks about the matter of disputes amongst believers. And we would be wise to pay attention to that. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 1, it says, dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren, but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. And Paul goes on in that passage and teaches on the importance of dealing with disputes amongst ourselves for those that are saved. And the situation amongst believers is not going to be the same as it is amongst unbelievers. At least it certainly should never go that far. And so, as Paul writes there, we should be willing, even when we're dealing with another believer, we should be willing even to be cheated at times. Someone gives a crooked deal, we should be willing to accept that. Not that we condone it, not that we're happy with it, but rather than taking that person to a secular court, we should just say, well, okay, there's a judgment coming that nobody will miss out on, so everything will be straightened out there. Years ago, when we left the farm, We had an auction sale, and at that sale, generally at an auction sale, the auctioneer is in charge of making sure that people pay for things before they leave with it. We had several things that were taken off of our yard, pieces of equipment, big pieces of equipment that were taken off the yard, and I was busy with things. I didn't see it leave. The auctioneer obviously didn't see it leave, but later on, when I got all the paperwork, there were those things that were not paid for. And I knew who the person was that had bought a couple, had bid on a couple of things. And so I went to talk to him and he knew me. And so when he saw me come on the yard, he disappeared. And so I tried a couple of times to meet with him and never could. And so I finally just wrote it off. I said, well, I'm not going to get anywhere. Yes, I could go to court, but what kind of a testimony would that be? And so I just wrote that off. that man will stand before the Lord, and the Lord's got the records. And so it's going to be taken care of. And so you see, we need to look at our testimony. And as we look at our text, if we have done something wrong and our adversary has taken us to court, and that's what it's talking about here, we'd be better off to settle the matter privately. If you haven't done wrong, then you can make your point known. But if the other person insists that you've done wrong, sometimes it's better off to just settle the score and be done with it rather than get dragged into the courts. The secular courts are not the friend of Christians. They're not there to help us. If you listen to the news this week, finally someone in politics was willing to speak the truth a little bit. and they convinced or they spoke out and said that Mr. Trudeau had broken the law when he was in government. And the response of the media is that, yeah, but he's not the prime minister anymore and that happened a few years ago, why bother with that now? So what they're saying is that because it happened a few years ago and because the man is no longer in a position of authority in that way, the crime doesn't matter. That's very much the way the world looks at things. If you have power, you get away with things that the ordinary person does not get away with. That's our secular system. So as Christians, we need to govern ourselves under a different method. And we need to avoid the courts as much as possible. Now, if someone else wants to drag us there, that's their choice, and we may not have an option. But we need to try to avoid that, especially amongst ourselves. If we have a dispute, Matthew chapter 18 tells us how to deal with that. And we can deal with it, try to do it as private as possible, then invite a few others to get involved to try to help the situation. But leave it at that. Don't go into the secular system and make a bad testimony for yourself. And also in the secular system, now you're subject to their interpretation of the law. And as it tells us here in this passage, that you could end up in prison. Now that's a possibility. When we were fined a few years ago for keeping our church open when the government didn't want us to, I had to go to court. I didn't know if I would end up in prison or not. There were other cases where the pastors had been in jail and where they had been fined. And I had a fine, but I wasn't intent on paying it. And so I had to go to court. And so I went to the court. And God was merciful and I stated my case briefly to the prosecution and they said, well, your case is, we're not going to go any further with it. We're going to dismiss it. And so that was, I thank God for that. And that was the end of it. So sometimes we don't have a choice. We need to answer to the authorities, but we need to have an answer. And my answer, I told them who was in charge of the church. It's not the government, it's God. And I told them that they didn't have the authority to tell a church when they can be open and not be open. And so it's important for us to be willing to speak the truth. People need to understand, even the justice system needs to understand who has authority in what place. And so that's very important for us to know what we believe and why, and seek to remind others of what's going on. So again, when thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him. So you're going to court, or the person is calling you to go to court, if you have opportunity to talk to them, see if you can resolve the matter before it has to go to the judge because once it goes to the judge now you're at the mercy of a secular system and when it comes to Christians there are a lot of things that the secular system does not understand about Christianity and Christians need to have a good testimony. It's a very bad testimony when Christians take one another to court. That's what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6. How can we witness to the lost when we can't get along with one another? When the Bible says that Jesus offers his children a peace that the world doesn't know anything about and can't have under their system. So how can we witness to others when we fight amongst ourselves? So we need to resolve these things, and we need to be taught from young on that our word needs to be trusted. So if I tell you I'm gonna do something for you, unless I get sick or something like that, I need to do it. If I break something of yours, if I borrow it and break it, I need to replace that. I can't bring it back to you broken and say, I'm sorry I broke it, but that's the way it is. No, that person uses that equipment, depends on that equipment, he's kind enough to borrow it and loan it to you, make sure it comes back to him so he can continue to use it. And if there was something that you needed to fix on it, let him know. I had to fix this on here so he knows, okay, this has been tampered with. Make sure that it's in good shape. So we need to try to be forthright and honest with one another so that we build that trust that there needs to be amongst God's people. And as we do that, that's how we can testify to the lost around us, that we work under a different set of rules. And our set of rules is superior to what the world has to offer. Well, that's important. Jesus taught that here amongst the people. And of course, the Pharisees, they were very authoritative and they tried to force people into their system and they didn't have much mercy for anybody that didn't want to follow what they believed. Then the third thing we see is that worldly justice shows no mercy. Worldly justice shows no mercy. So in verse, in the last part of verse 58 and then in verse 59, it says there, lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last mite. So one of the things that Jesus points out here is that if the court puts a judgment on you, And let's take for simplicity's sake that you owe somebody $1,000 or you owe the government $1,000, you're not going to get away with paying $900. If the fine is 1,000, it's going to be 1,000. And so you are now stuck with that. There's not going to be any mercy there. You can plead with the person you owe the money and say, well, I don't have that money. Well, it's too late now. You are now... written up that this is what you owe and it needs to be done and here in our text it's talking about being put into prison until it's paid of course if you're in prison you don't have the opportunity to make money so how would you ever pay you'd be at the mercy of other people to settle that that fine whatever it is whatever that judgment is and then you'd have to pay them back when you get out so It's best to avoid that step, to avoid that place. Don't get into that position where you're stuck behind the judge. And the judge, if you're a Christian, he may even deal a little bit more harshly with you than he would with an unbeliever. So Jesus is teaching here important practical truths that are important for God's people to consider. And very important for us to keep in mind as we go through our lives. In the New Testament, we have the privilege of being forgiven for our sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. And the ultimate teaching of Jesus here is in regard to spiritual matters. If a person wants to go through their life as a lost person and they want to remain that way and be steadfast in that, there is a judge that everyone will face and that judge is Jesus Christ. And the person who decides that he's going to go through life as a lost sinner, never dealing with their sin, never repenting and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, in the end, there is no escape. You cannot pay the debt that you owe to God. The lost person is going to go into the lake of fire. That's for all of eternity. There's no escaping that judgment. You can't plead with Jesus at that great white throne judgment. It's too late. And so it's very important to settle that matter now. We can't pay off our sin. We need to turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save us. That's the only way of salvation. So if you're listening to me today and you're not saved, again, don't think that you can somehow sweet talk God into accepting you after you die. It's not going to work. You need to know God's forgiveness now. And the Bible has made it very clear how you can be forgiven. It's not difficult. It's not hard at all. But the problem is pride. That's what keeps a person from turning to God for salvation. Pride. I'm not that bad. Yeah, maybe lied a little bit here and there. Maybe I stole a few things, but I'm not that bad. There are other people that are worse than I am. That's very common for us as people to compare ourselves with other people. And it's not that hard to find someone that's just a little bit worse than you are. And if you listen to the news again, you know that our government is famous for that. Our country is in a mess. But they can always point to some other country and say, but they're worse than we are, we're still pretty good in the G7, so we don't really have much to worry about, and so they carry on with their corrupt ways. That's the world system, but that doesn't work with God. When we die, we stand before a holy and just God. Those that are saved, we have a home in heaven, it's not a question. You're saved now on this earth, you have a home in heaven, but you're still gonna stand before the judge, and that judge is Jesus Christ. You will be judged as to your faithfulness to God, so will I. How faithful have I been with what God has given me, with the truth? How faithful have I been with that? And so there will be, the Bible says, there will be many Christians that will stand before the Lord and they'll be saved, those by fire. Lose any opportunity for rewards because of their unfaithfulness. Still saved, but unfaithful. And that, I believe, is at best, that's where people in the New Evangelical camp will be. People in our camp can be there too. But New Evangelicalism is built on compromise. You can't find compromise in the Bible. So people in that camp definitely need to get out of there now. But even in our camp, amongst the independent Baptists, I need to be careful. Hypocrisy is hated by God. And so we cannot be involved in compromise and think that, well, there's other people that are doing the same thing or they're worse than me, so I'm okay. We need to use God's word as our standard when it comes to how we're going to judge ourselves. And we've talked about it before, but you can go back in your Bible to Psalm 139. And as we're considering our lives as Christians, in Psalm 139 and verse 23, it says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So if as a Christian, I'm willing to subject myself to that standard, I'm willing to ask God to search me and to know what's going on in my heart then if I listen to him, and that's again the important thing, it says there in verse 24, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So the psalmist here is talking about wanting to be led the right way. So I'm asking God to search my heart, show me what's wrong, and then I want to do what's right, I want to fix it. How do I fix that as a Christian? Well, 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's to Christians, that's not to unbelievers. 1 John 1 is not written to unbelievers. And so it's Christians that need to confess their sin. Unbelievers need to turn to God in repentance and be forgiven and saved. But once we're saved, we still sin. So when we sin, we need to make sure that we bring that to God, ask him to forgive us. And of course, if we're asking God to forgive us of our sin, that means we want to stop sinning. It's not the Catholic confessional where you go and confess the sin and then go out and do the same thing again. Christians, when they sin and confess that sin to God, they want to stop sinning. They want to build in that safety that God has put in place that can help them to avoid that trap the next time around, because we want to grow in the Lord. It's Christians, the psalmist writes about that he hates every evil way and that hatred starts in the Christian life. So the true Christian hates sinning. Yes, the flesh loves it, but the spirit does not. And so when a Christian sins, he doesn't want to remain in that place. He wants to be forgiven and put in a right standing with God so that he can continue to grow and continue to be a blessing to others as well. So it's very important. So as we look at this passage, it's important for us to judge what we're doing. Judge yourselves. And then it's important that if there is a problem, to fix it. And our first responsibility is to make sure we're right with God. And so when we are going through our lives and God points out a sin in my life as a Christian, I'm wise to go to him and ask him to forgive me and ask him to help me to put in place that guard against that sin that I don't commit it again. For the lost person, if you're gonna end up in God's prison in the lake of fire, there's no exit. There's no way out of there. You can't pay your way out of hell, out of the lake of fire. The time to get forgiveness is now, in this life, to ask God to forgive you, to know his peace and joy in your heart now. That's the way to live your life, is to know God's forgiveness, to have his peace, not to fight against the truth, not to try to find someone that will agree with your position. When I was in Bible school, there was one of the students, I was one of the older students there. I was a married man already. And one of the younger students, I don't know why, but he tended to want to come to me and bounce his ideas off of me. And he was in the charismatic camp. And so he would bring some of his ideas to me and I would tell him what I thought of them. And he eventually quit coming to me because he didn't like my answers. But I wouldn't have been any help to him if I would have just said, hey, that sounds like a great plan. Just keep going. It'll all work out good for you. that wouldn't have helped them at all. And so it's important that we get advice from other people. It's important that we make sure that the plans that we have are right plans and that we judge amongst ourselves. Is this a good thing? Is this a good plan for our church? Is this a good plan, something we should be doing as a church? Is this something I should be doing as a Christian? And to make sure that we're not putting a stumbling block before others by the choices that we make. We want to see lost people saved. We want to see lost people growing, coming to know the Lord and then growing in Him. We want Christians to be growing in the Lord. We can't do that when we choose a path of compromise. So choose carefully what you're going to follow if you're saved. If you're not saved, you need to get right with God. You need to turn to Him and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation and begin to walk in truth. That's the only way you're going to know God's peace and blessing in your heart. And God wants you to have that. But life is short. Time is short. You don't know how long you have. Neither do I. And so we need to take this day and let God use us and work in our hearts today what he wants so that we can know his blessing in our hearts. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have thy word, thankful that we can examine ourselves and we need to do that. That we can judge ourselves and see where we're at. I'm thankful that we have a standard that we can use to judge ourselves by. And that standard is not man. We're thankful that thou has preserved thy word, thou has given us thy word and then preserved it so that we can look at what we're doing look at what thy word says, and see if it fits. And we're thankful that we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us if we're saved, and he is in our hearts to guide us into the truth, to help us to see what thy word says, so that we can know thy peace in our hearts, and we can be a help to others. So may thy will be accomplished in each one of our lives, and those that will listen in the future, that each one would See the importance of taking thy word seriously and making sure that they are aligning thyself with truth and not with error. May thy will be accomplished in each person's life, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.