Matthew chapter number 5, I want to read some verses here that may be used as a springboard to deal with the same issues or the same message we've been dealing with the last two Wednesday nights, but here Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount verse number 43 through verse number 48 is what I want to deal with tonight of this part of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter 5 verse number 43 through verse number 48. Matthew chapter 5 verse number 43, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. You may be seated tonight. we're dealing with major problems of new converts now this at times I know some of you have questioned why am I doing this and I've questioned my own self on that but I just seemingly can't go anywhere else I don't know why I just seem like this is what I need to deal with and I don't know exactly what it's for it might be for one or somebody or something out there and in no way And I'm trying as I deal with this am I trying to prop somebody up that doesn't have the real thing. You understand what I'm saying. Some people are they will try to do that to you sometime and I don't want to do that. I don't want this to do that. I want you to get honest with yourself about that. problems with new converts. In other words, and I think that even if you're not saved, you have a preconceived idea of what it's going to be like. Now, you say you don't do it, but I know you do. But because I was there, I know what it's like. You've got a preconceived idea of what it's going to be like. and how it's going to be, and I think the problems that we have, and if you're not saved, if for you, you say, well, I don't have to deal with that, that's not dealing with me, but it can be, God can whet your appetite for it, and say, I want to be able to pay the price that I might have that, even though I know these things are going to, I'm going to be confronted with these problems. Now, we've dealt with this a couple of Wednesday nights, and I'll just sort of recap the first two, because we've got the tapes and the CDs on that, First thing is we expect too much too soon. We expect too much too soon, not only of ourselves, but we also expect it of others. When somebody says they're safe, we really expect too much. We expect them to have instant understanding. We're living in a day of instant. Instant pudding, instant coffee, instant tea. And we expect instant understanding. And I know there's some understanding before you even say. and God does that, but you're not going to have an understanding of everything the moment you're saved. It's not going to be just completely because Jesus, He told His disciples, He said, you can't handle some of the things I've got to tell you, but I'll send the Holy Spirit who will unfold it to you in a sense. He'll guide you into all truth. So there's going to be throughout an eternity even what you happen to do the moment you're saved is going to be unfolded in the greatness of God, the goodness of God. And so we expect instant understanding. We expect instant maturity. We won't be like a baby anymore, just instant maturity. We expect instant insight, but there's got to be a growing process. So we expect too much too soon. Another thing, a problem is we expect to know how to pray without having to learn. Jesus had to teach his disciples how to pray. We expect, well, if I get saved, I'll know how to pray now. Well, about like a baby. The baby don't talk and we don't get after the baby because it don't say its words just right. We may have a good time out of it, but the baby learns to cry for what it wants and you learn what the cry is about. Well, you can cry out. and God will answer, amen, but you expect it. Boy, then I'll know just how to pray. Well, I tell you, we expect too much too soon, and we expect to know how to pray without having to learn. We also expect always to be filled and never to be empty. Boy, I get saved, I won't have to worry about all this emptiness I've got inside, and it's for salvation, that's true. I mean, because old things are passed away, behold, all things become new. But folks, I want to tell you, it's the Holy Spirit's job to get you empty. sometimes because when He gets you thirsty and hungry He's getting ready to feed you and getting ready to quench your thirst. In fact the Bible said in Matthew 5, 6 and I know there's a principle that deals with a lost man when He said, and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now that's the principle for a lost man as he comes to the point of salvation and being saved, but it's also a principle for you even after you're saved to have an emptiness that God brings in your life, a void or something making you thirsty and hungry so that you want more of Him. Paul said, Oh, that I might know Him, that I might experience Him, Philippians 3.10 and being, and of course he said the power of His resurrection and being made conformable to his death. We don't like that part, do we? But anyway, the suffering that he had. But still, we expect never, always to be filled and never empty. And then the fourth thing we dealt with last week, we expect acceptance without opposition. Boy, when I get saved, everybody's just going to accept me. Boy, they're going to be tickled to hear. You'd think it would be. And you say, well, what about your own family? They're all not going to accept you, amen, when you get saved. They're not going to do that. You know that. He said, I come to cause division between you and your family. your daddy between you and your mama between you and your mom-in-law well we expect that sometime but that's it's all of it it's in the family going to be some division there and so therefore you expect acceptance without opposition and sometimes the foes are they of your own household they're your own mate if you please sometimes and even your friends that you thought you had now become your enemy, but we expect acceptance without opposition. Well, that's where we got down to last week. I want to give you about three more tonight, at least enough to give you something here, but we expect a bed of roses without the thorns. We expect the bed of roses, life of Riley type. We expect, well, I'll get saved and I'll never have this to deal with again. So what it amounts to in expecting the bed of roses without any thorns, we expect peace without tribulation. Well, yeah, there is peace with God, which is tranquility of spirit and soul in the presence of God, another word, but there's going to be some tribulation, a pressure upon us. The Bible teaches that, Romans chapter 5, verse number 3. says, Tribulation worketh patience. Miss Carol, okay, it does. But we don't want, don't pray for patience because tribulation will come to work patience in you. But tribulation worketh patience. James 1, 3, he said, The trying of your faith worketh patience. In other words, we expect peace without tribulation, but we need to know without any doubt we will suffer tribulation. We will have tribulation. We will have persecution. Bible says in 2nd Timothy 312 yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution didn't say they might but he said they shall and then Acts 14 22 Paul said we must through much tribulation enter in to the kingdom of God and so we're going to have it you see we will have trials and you say why do we have trials so God can display our faith you see when trials come God's not attempting to destroy our faith as we may think he is sometime, but he wants us to, he's attempting really to put us, he's getting us to the place to where he can put us on display before the world. Lookie here, I've got somebody I can trust. Remember Job? Look what he went through. He went through a lot, and God allowed it to happen so that he could put him on display for the world to see. You see, trials display what's on the inside of you. In other words, what's inside will come out. Now remember the stony ground here? When tribulation come to them because of the Word's sake, they didn't have anything real, and it exposed what they, they wasn't real. And it brought out that they wasn't real. But trials display what's on the inside, so God's going to put you in trial. They're coming. They're necessary. The Bible tells us they are necessary. Philippians 4, 19, the Bible says, My God, shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 4 and 5 he said, Paul said this to the saints at Corinth, But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings. In other words, you see something, he said, in everything you're going to face some things, but you know something, the greatest need, my God shall supply all your needs, you know what the greatest need sometimes is, is a need, and sometimes it's a trial that God sends your way to put your faith on display. Amen? But remember, Romans 8, 28, he said, For we know that all things work together for good, to them who love God, who are called according to His purpose. And that's not just those who are already saved, that's those sheep to be. God works together. It's not always good within itself, but it works together for good in your life, for His glory and for your good, really, is what it amounts to. Well, young converts, they'll want a bed of roses without any thorns. They want something that smells good, looks good, can be displayed without thorns. And you know, Y'all ever picked any blackberries? Where's the best blackberries at? It's the ones that got thorns on them, amen? The wild blackberries are the best there is. Now, they're harder to pick, but you know, we raised some tame ones that didn't have any thorns on them, and they're not near as good as what Doug had. He has had thorns on them, am I right? He knows, he scratched them, but his was better than our tame ones. His was half-breed, it was sort of what it was, but it still had the thorn, and they were better than those without thorns, amen? I believe there's a picture there, and then you're gonna have to have something, you see? If you know anything about roses, you know there's gonna be more stickers than there are buds, rose buds. We got one up at Momma's house, and Grandma Grace, we call it, amen? And that thing, it just got arms. It reaches out and grabs you every time you go by it to mow. I mean, it'll do it, won't it? She had a battle with it, wasn't it? And I've got to where I just get back away from it, you know? And it still gets you. I don't know. It's got some arms out there, but they're pretty when they're in bloom. But I'm going to tell you what, there's a lot of thorns on there to scratch you all to pieces, amen? And so therefore, if you realize what you're saying, that's the way life is, in a sense it's going to be. When you look at the rose bush, you don't say, look at all those thorns. You say, look at all those beautiful roses on there. And you see, even though there's stickers on there, you look at the beautiful flowers and in the midst of your trial, your faith shines. Not like the briars or the stickers, if you please, but it shines like the roses, that beautiful flower. on Rose Bush. and trials are necessary, and you're not going to have it easy. I'm talking about, you say, but I don't know whether I want to be saved or not. Listen, listen, if you live to be a hundred years old, and you die, you're going to go to hell without Jesus, amen. And Paul said he knew what was on the other side, and he reckoned, which means an accounting term, I've already saw what's on the other side, and I reckon that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. We get it. We just look at the first hundred years if you please if you look at forehead Most of us don't look that forehead, but get up every morning say good morning world You know we don't even think about tomorrow listen. There is that we need to think that it all you suffer is nothing compared and yet You're gonna have to count the cost in coming to the Lord Paul counted it He knew he's gonna have to suffer in fact the Lord said I've called him and told him so to show you how much things you're gonna have to suffer from my say That's what we dealt with as far as the scripture last week and the week before. And he asked, I show you how much you're going to have to suffer for me. I've chosen you to do that, he said. And so therefore, it was to display his faith. And he did display his faith, you see. trials are necessary and you're not going to have so quit trying to have it easy in this life and that's I'm preaching to myself maybe it's nobody else the message for it's for me a man in this sense but but you know you say but preacher I just thought that was going to that is the way it's going to be I was just going to have it easy well I know that's what we expect, but Jesus is the one who's going to be the object of your affection. He's got to be the object of your affection, and whatever it takes to get us to that place to where we put our affection upon Him, that's what He wants. So we're not going to have a bed of roses. Another thing, it's not going to be just we expect peace without tribulation, but we also expect love without any enemies. Boy, I get saved. Everybody's going to love me. Y'all ever thought that? I won't have no problems again. Well, I want to tell you something. We all do that, whether saved or whether lost, I'll tell you. But Jesus said that in our text verse here on the Sermon on the Mount, in verse number 43 of chapter 5, You have heard it had been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Why did He say all that? Because you're going to have some enemies, amen, you're going to have them. And He says, also said, Bless them that curse you, and do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Why? That ye may be the children of God. Now some people take this, this book and they'll take those verses and they'll say, well looky there, you're going to have to work for salvation. Even They call this a kingdom book. And then in Matthew, it's works plus, it's law plus grace. Well, I want to tell you what, that word for children there is the word huios, which means a mature child of God. And what it's saying is, as you grow in grace, you'll come to the place that you can love your enemies, you can love those, bless them that curse you and hate you. And when you do that, you're practicing maturity, and that's causing, in other words, others to see that you're a mature child of God. So he said, if you do these things, you shall be a mature child of God. That's what the Greek actually said. Not talking about born again ones, not talking about to be saved, as far as justification is concerned, but it's talking about you shall be a mature child of God. If they had put that there, it would have helped us understood that. little better at that time so I think you can tell from all these verses that that we read in our text verse that we we expect love without enemies that's why Jesus had to say love you and we expect not to have any but he said love them you don't even know how to love that love operates on the inside until you've got an enemy to love have you ever had an enemy yet Well, you will if you hadn't. Amen, you will. You say, well, I don't have any. Just wait, ones are coming. Luke chapter 6, verse 26, Jesus said this, Woe unto you when all men speak well of you. Amen. Well, they're not going to speak well of you. Your enemy is going to be a man you can't love or a woman you can't love. It's going to be your enemy, if you please. It's going to be somebody that brings you to the end of yourself again and again and again and again. Somebody said, well, I thought that only happened once and the old things passed away. Well, I'm going to tell you, you've still got the flesh to deal with. And when you say, I can't love that person, you're going to have to say, Lord, would you love that person through me? Because you can't within yourself. That's what it amounts to. So when you find someone you can't love, God's going to take over and He will love through you. I remember back years ago when I first came here, you all may not remember this distinctly as I do. but I remember long about July or August after I'd been here about six months, I said, God's gonna send somebody by for us to love. Now, y'all remember the situation that happened after that. You may not remember me making that statement, but lo and behold, he sent the hardest man in the United States by for us to love, amen? If you don't believe it, you oughta been in my shoes. Y'all had a little problem with it too, amen? Y'all wasn't as close as I, I didn't have any privacy for almost three months here. I mean, I didn't know what I was gonna do. And since then, there's been some more. It's been a close second, amen? And there may be some more, but listen, God wants us to love people, amen? The Missions Conference is coming up. He wants us to love people. Where would you be if somebody hadn't loved you? You see? In other words, God wants you to love. And sure, I remember several people saying, I got so mad at you, I could have wrung your neck. You know, I didn't know about it, but you just love them. Go ahead and love them. That's what it amounts to. And some of y'all may have been that way at times. You just had never said it, you know, and yet you may have. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I mean, but you see, God's been good to us. all the time. Amen. Been good to us all the time. But He sent somebody by for us to love, so therefore you won't really know how to love until you have an enemy, and you're going to have one. And so therefore you may not even recognize that you've got an enemy, but because if love is flowing through you, you may not even call them an enemy. That's why In other words, that's what I love about some folks that I know. In other words, they may be my enemies, and I don't know it because love's flowing, and I, in other words, I just love them anyhow. I try to, they sometimes try to hide from me, and some of these preachers, honestly, they will. They'll try to hide from me and go around, and if they're not careful, I'll slip up around the hook. hug their neck a little bit. I'll have my arm around their shoulder or something, you know, after a while. And he says, he calls a fire upon their heads. And so, and somebody said, well, you say their folks ever talked about you? Yeah, and they have, and they will, and they are, they'll always, they'll continue to do so. But I found a cure for them talking to me about me. Matthew chapter 5 verse number 11 and 12, listen to what it said, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So just rejoice and love them and they won't like that. Amen. Just rejoice over them. Then they'll just talk to others about me. Not to me, but to others. Okay, but others don't like it when you rejoice and they and they can't stand it when you love them Matthew 5 46 there He said in our text verse 4 if you love them which love you what reward have you do not even the publicans the same? I remember the day that that young preacher called me at the church and and he said he said you thank you love people now And I really did, I thought I loved people even back in those days. But he said, you think you love people, but what happens, you love those who love you, and if they don't love you, you mark them off your little black book. And I assured him very earnestly that that wasn't the case. And when he hung up, I marked him off my little black book. You know, y'all get the point, huh? I mean, you don't know, you're so deceived you don't know. And may God help us to realize, what reward do you have if you just love those who love you? The publicans do the same thing. The Bible says, love your enemies. What I'm saying, if you develop an enemy along the way, don't think it's strange. If somebody criticizes you, don't think it's strange. Don't think it's weird. Don't think yourself an oddball if someone doesn't like you. because if you try to do what's right, halfway try to do what's right, you're going to develop some enemies. Just love them anyway. Just love them anyway. And of course, we're talking about the bed of roses still, but it See, we expect discernment without trials. We expect to discern some things. Ecclesiastes brings something about, and it just comes to mind, but let me see, it's on the right-hand page, left-hand column, about chapter 2, I believe it is, but listen to what it says, and this is something that just hit my mind right now. Let me find that, all right? I hadn't got that marked, but Ecclesiastes I know it's in the book somewhere here, all right? Ecclesiastes chapter 2, is that right? What does it say? And if you'll get hold of this, it'll, yeah, verse number 18, 1, 18. For in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. And that's true. The more you know, the more you see, the more you understand, the more you have to look out and you say, boy, there's a lot of lost people out there And it's a burden to you, your own family sometimes, and you don't want to admit that. So you see, when we're talking about here, in other words, discernment. If you've got discernment, you expect it without trials, but it's going to come, in other words, increase of sorrow. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 13 and 14, He said, So in testings and trials and troubles and tribulations God sends on us, we weigh things out and we learn to discern good and evil through those things. In other words, I didn't say just right and wrong. Now, that may be involved, but more than that, it's good and evil. You see, this is the reason it takes time to develop to maturity. You're not an overnight wonder, amen? You don't develop that quick. We must learn how to be adults. Children's reasoning is not like an adult's, you know that? First Corinthians 1311 he said, When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, maturity, I put away childish things. So I guess some of us have still got some more time to go. We've still got some childish things. I'm talking about myself. Amen. Well, at any rate, a young convert thinks he's supposed to judge and weigh things automatically. Expect too much too soon. So do the saints, so do the sinners. Amen. And we need to give every young convert time to develop and know how to discuss a discerned truth. In other words, He who uses the word like milk is unskillful, he says. He hasn't had enough trials, he hasn't had enough experience to know how to discern truth, is what it amounts to. When he's away from the preacher, away from some mature adult, spiritually he feels uneasy because he doesn't know how to discern truth. I'm talking about with maturity in that, but let God develop him and mature him and it won't be long until he knows how to discern right and wrong and good and evil. And then the sixth thing, not only do we expect a bed of roses without the thorns, we're expecting the world to love us instead of hate us. In other words, that's what a new convert thinks. The world's going to love me. I mean, boy, they're going to be glad that I'm a changed man. John 14, 17, Jesus said, we talked about even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth in you and shall be in you. He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. In other words the spirit of truth is going to be in you when you're saved. Happened from the day of Pentecost. Every believer at that point in time received the Spirit of truth. I Corinthians 2.12 he said, Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. The world system cannot receive the Spirit of God. They don't want anything to do with truth. And He's the Spirit of truth. You see when you got saved the Holy Ghost came to live on the inside of you and the Holy Spirit is unwelcome in this world. He's not welcome. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't want to take my wife anywhere where my wife's not welcome. Y'all understand? In other words, I wouldn't want to take her somewhere where she's not welcome because I don't want to be in that place. I wouldn't feel like being pastor of New Hope Baptist Church if my wife wasn't welcome here. You understand that? But would you want to take your wife somewhere where she's not welcome? Somebody said, yeah, I won't take my wife anywhere to leave. Well, he agreed with that. But at any rate, you can't do that. Amen. The Holy Spirit's not welcome in this world, and since He's not welcome, then you know something? Why should I expect people to welcome me? Because if you're saved, the Holy Spirit lives inside, and as a result, I mean, in other words, if you're saved, you're His house, you're His dwelling place, according to I Corinthians 6, verse 19 and 20. What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You see, because of the fact that He's in every believer, and it's His dwelling place, then if I go somewhere, I've got to take Him with me. If He dwells inside you, you go somewhere, you've got to take Him with you. You can't say, well, Holy Ghost, you just wait here, and I'll go over there. No, He's going to go with you. And therefore, wherever you go, He goes, in essence, if you're saved. Now that's the reason I get ticked off at people who try to hide from God and call themselves saved. You can't do it, because how are you going to hide from God? God's in you. if you're really saved. See the real problem, root problem of a lot of this I understand is there's not, salvation is not in many hearts and lives today. And so as a result, can you imagine a fellow trying to hide from God and God living inside of him? That'd be impossible. But if you hide from God, you have to hide with God if you're saved and because you've got Him living inside you and wherever you go, He goes. Some say, I'm going to run away from God. Well, you can't do it if you're saved. Now, I know many of them are not saved, I understand that, because He goes with you if you're His, amen? And since that's true, where are you going in the world where you don't take the Holy Ghost? You take Him with you. Nowhere, in other words, what the Bible says, but the Bible says that the world can't receive Him. They won't accept Him, they won't welcome Him, and if the Spirit of God is taken, He doesn't want, where He doesn't want to go, He'll make you miserable. You take your wife somewhere where she don't want to go, and you'll get miserable. Am I right? Or vice versa? You take your husband shopping with you sometime. Take him, take her to a sale, see if she'll like it, amen? Most of the, a lot of times, those types of, you realize, and if you're taking the Holy Ghost and he's miserable, he don't want to go, he's going to make you miserable. He'll make you miserable until you get that thing right. And it won't be wrong, it won't be long until you'll find another place to go where he can go, if you're his, in other words. because you and him are together and I don't like to go where he's not welcome. Just like my wife, I don't want to go with her. where she's not welcome. In other words, that caused me not to want to go there myself. So you see, I want you to love her because you love me, and I want you to accept her because you accept me. And it's the same way with the Holy Spirit of God. If the Spirit's living inside you and He's living inside me, then you are going to have to love me and accept me, and I'm going to have to love you and accept you, but I'm not expecting the world to accept Him. Because the Bible said the world won't accept the Spirit of God. See, if I was to go out and say I have the Holy Ghost and in this world today there's a lot of expressions that they want to use and say, well, what does that mean? Well, the thing about it, if you even mention the Holy Spirit around some of them or the Holy Ghost around some, they'll say, hey, we don't want nothing to do with you. You get away from here. Just leave us alone. They can't handle it. They don't want it. They don't need it in essence. The world cannot receive the person who lives inside you. if you're really saved, but you expect the world to love you. You say, I don't, yeah we do, we want the world, everybody likes to be loved. Anybody want to be hated? No, we don't want to be. But yet every young convert wants to be loved by everybody, his friends, his family, and then he wants to be loved by the world. In other words, he's expecting to be loved by everybody. But since the Holy Ghost doesn't fit, that makes you a misfit. You can thank God for God's misfits, amen, because you can say, I'm a misfit, amen. You say, well I don't want to be a misfit. Hey, you can't keep from being a misfit if you're saved. It's alright to be a nut if you're screwed on the right bolt, but when you're screwed on the right bolt, the world won't accept you. You understand? You don't have to fit in except at church and with the saints of God. That's where you'll fit in and you need to. And I found a place where I fit. Amen. Even though there's a lot of people here, sheep, to be, I still believe I fit here. And I know I'm just kind of like a square peg in a round hole in this world. I don't fit anymore. I used to fit out there, but I don't fit anymore, you see? But I found a place where I can fit in just like peas in a pod, and I pray there'll be more peas getting the pod, amen, in this place. God is preparing a place where the saints of God can fit together and enjoy the things of God right here at New Hope Baptist Church. I believe He's doing it. It may seem like a whole lot hasn't happened in 19-something years, but just wait. just wait. Amen. He's still working. The promises of God are true. The world may not receive the Spirit of God but the saints do. The world may not love Him but the saints do. John 14, 27, He said, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. In John 15, 18 and 19, he said, If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. But if you were of the world, the world would love his own. And because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. So in order for the world to love me, I have to become like the world. And if I become like the world, then I'm compromising. You understand? But if I become like the Lord, then the world's going to hate me because they hated Him to start with. Don't want anything to do with Him. And if I'm going to be loved by this world system, I have to compromise. And I want to tell you, I don't want to compromise. You realize something in order for the world to love you, you have to compromise your convictions, and compromised conviction never convicts anybody of anything. That's why people are not convicted. They've already got compromised convictions. The reason some children of God never bring conviction on sinners is because they look like the world, act like the world, smell like the world, and want to straddle a fence and be half like the world and half like God, and the world laughs at it. In other words, and they ridicule the God that they represent. You say, but preacher, they won't love me if I stand up for my convictions. Well, I've got news for you, they're not going to love you anyway. Amen. I'm talking about you're genuinely saying, they crucified our Lord, didn't they? Why should they love us, Him, less than they did us? You ask, well, how will they crucify me? crucify your name, they'll slander your name, they'll, they'll criticize you if you, if you're anything God wants you to be, even try to be what God wants you to be, they, they, they'll criticize, but don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. In other words, Jesus told you, if the world hated me, they're going to hate you and this world system will hate you. John 7, 7 Jesus said, I testify of the world that the works thereof of In other words, I don't want to compromise my convictions in this world. Amen? Don't want to do that. I want to go ahead and live for the Lord. Jesus said in John 16, 33, He said, The things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace in the world, ye shall have tribulation. not will not have you will have you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I've overcome the world now don't you like that when he said be of good cheer he took the new converts in essence to save people be of good cheer in other words he said you'll have tribulation in the world but don't worry be of good cheer now what does that mean it means take heart take courage everything is going to be all right there may be some upheaval but Romans 8 26 says all things together for good and the world says we're going to see what we can do to you. Now Jesus said don't worry about it. They're going to try to, you see, don't be upset about it for young converts, that's a very precious truth, listen, the Lord's in control. Also it's good for older converts as well. Our attitude about sin and the world is different because we've been crucified with the world. That's what Paul said in Galatians 6, 14 when he said, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. You see we don't walk where we used to walk, if you're really saved. You don't walk in those places. James chapter 4 verse number 4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? And he said, Whosoever therefore be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. Verse John 2, 15 and 17, he said, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. In other words, he said if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. So even though we're dealing with problems of most converts, it's something to hang your hat on to see if you're really saved or not. because you see we don't walk where we used to be. You say, but preacher, how are we going to overcome? Well, he tells us, how are we going to get victory over the world? He tells us in I John chapter 5 verse number 4 and 5, For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the, the Son of God. In other words, overcoming simply means that you were saved. It means the work of Holy Ghost conviction was done, brought you to the end of yourself and completed in all three areas of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. And you realize something that this says, that Christ in you the hope of glory, that's how you're overcome. But young, young converts expects the world system to But folks, I don't care how long you've been saved, you'll never reach a time when the world can embrace you and love you. It just won't do it. So you must come to grips with that fact that you're different. God made you different. If you try to love the world, all they can do is reject you, and they will. And if you go back to the world and try to be like the world, when they're through with you, they'll wipe their hands of you, and they won't help you at all. In fact, the business you understand, you know, a lot of people go out with their drinking buddies They've got a lot of friends as long as they've got a little money to buy them a drink, but you let them turn and let them be saved, and then you call that guy, that bartender, and say, hey, I'm in a hospital down here, I need some help. You know what he'll tell you? Go to church. They'll tell even the world, go get help from the church, don't bother us. Because all they're concerned about is money, money, money. You realize the world system is built by the devil and it's built on popularity and prestige. And in other words, it will step on you. I mean, it don't care who it steps on, the world don't. The people of this world will just as soon step on you and use you as a ladder to climb up a ladder of success. Amen? You know that? And they'll do that, you see, but they could care less about you. Dog eat dog. The richest survive. The healthiest survive. And that's the very crowd that you want to be friends with? No, no, no. He said, don't be friends with him. You see, they don't love you. They just love what you got. In other words, they want you to, as long as you've got something, they'll go along with you. But when the going gets rough, they'll leave you. They'll drop you like a hot potato. You see, this whole system is built on the love of money, this whole world system. I mean, you say, well, that's not so. It is, too. You find one thing that's not, the business, ballgames. I mean, if them players wasn't paid millions of dollars, would they keep a plan? I'd rather go somewhere else, wouldn't I? Politics and religion. It's all money, money, money. You cut off the money and you won't have anything left. Everybody is after money. First John 3, 13, he said, Marvel not my brethren if the world hates you. Why? It hated Jesus and it rejected Him. You say, but preacher, it's sad. That's sad, yeah. But remember this, the Bible says that the world and everything in it is going to be burned up one day, going to be burned completely up. And that's not, this is not our world anyway. We've just got a better day coming, in other words. We've got another world coming. So, then there's another thing that we expect, this major problem of converts. If you please, we expect pure minds without evil thoughts. And that's true. We say, boy, I get saved. I don't have to worry about those thoughts anymore. I won't tell you the devil is throwing fire darts, is he not? He's going to keep on throwing fire darts. He's not going to stop. As long as you've got a mind, there's going to be evil thoughts that's going to run through your head because of the fire darts. the devil throws. But evil thoughts are not sin. You've got to realize the first thought is not sin. The first look is not sin. The devil puts it there. Temptation is not sin. You see, you can't keep thoughts from coming through your head. I mean, there's time they'll come in there, what you've got to do, you see, but it's when you let those thoughts get turned loose and turned into lust that make you sin, and that's what sin is. James chapter 1 verse number 15, he said, Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it's finished bringeth forth death. In other words, the thoughts you can't keep out of your mind, but we expect to have a perfect mind, we'll never have to think about those things again. But I'll tell you what, just as sure as you've got that in your mind, here come a devil with those fiery darts, wham, wham, wham. And then he'll make you feel guilty about that and say you've sinned because of those thoughts. Listen, you can't keep a bird from flying over your head. You can't keep a bird from even dropping something over your head as he flies over. I hear sometimes, and I don't know what it is, about when the asphalt's good and black in the summertime and a certain time of the year, they use this for a practice runway to bomb. If you get out there, you'll get bombed on, amen? Now you can't keep a bird from flying over your head and he might do something nasty in your hair, but you can keep him from building a nest in your hair. You get the point? In other words, those thoughts are going to come in there and don't whip yourself over the first thought that comes because the devil is going to give them to you. He's going to bring up those images from back in the past and bombard you on every side if he can and some people have different areas where they've got problems but there's going to be the fiery darts of the devil and yet we expect pure minds without those evil thoughts but they're going to come, they come along and when they come along, captivate them. It means to seize by force. You say, but how do it? Well, 2 Corinthians 10, verses 4 and 5, he said this, He said, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of stronghold, casting down imagination, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. It's a full-time job. It's putting on the whole armor of God, especially the helmet of salvation. I'm talking about for those who are saved, and there's some of that armor that you still can get hold of. Even as a lost person, God will help you in that area but realize something the revelation 1210 says this he said he said I heard a voice from heaven's voice saying in heaven now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brother in his cast down which accused them before our God day night. In other words, the devil is an accuser of the brethren. He's, he's, I don't know all about what's going on there, but he accused, he came before, before God in Job's day, and Job, he accused Job in this and said, just let me have him, and he'll, he'll curse the day he's born in that sense. You see, when you get an evil thought, the devil will accuse you for thinking it and tell you you're not right with God or you wouldn't have that thought. But I won't tell you about the devil. He's a liar. John 8, 44, Jesus said he's a liar and a father of those lies. Amen? It takes time to understand how the devil puts evil thoughts in your head. And almost every time you start to pray, I'll tell you there'll come a thought through your mind that'll pull your sight off of praying. Amen? I mean almost every time if you're not careful. Keep you from praying. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Some of you do. Amen. I don't care where you're at. He don't want you to pray. But you see what you've got to do is captivate that. In other words, you've got to push that aside and get on with the main business of doing what you're supposed to do. What the will of God is. Pray and go on and pray. In other words, the devil wants to detour you from the main business. And keep you from the main business you're about. In other words, captivate it. get hold of it, imprison it, and say, Lord, help me, help me. And if you're not careful, you'll try to go to confess and confess and confess and say, boy, I'm just not right. And we are a lousy mess, amen, but what you've got to do is say, Lord, help me to captivate that. and focus on what you want me to do and continue on. Don't expect a pure mind. You're in the flesh. And the Bible said in Romans 8, 7, He said because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. In other words, the carnal mind is flesh, and that's not going to be pure. And you're going to have to deal with that from here on out. In fact, He said it's enmity, which means hostility toward God. But someday, God will give us a new body. which will take care of all our problems. Amen. Oh, what a day that'll be. But until then we need to learn how to have victory day by day. That's sanctification. That's the walk of progression toward perfection that'll be gained at the first resurrection. That's being saved day by day from the power of sin is what it amounts to. In other words, that's what it's dealing, in other words, how we deal with what it's talking about is having how to have power, how to have victory as a child of God, a day-by-day process of having, of captivating the devil's lies and the fiery darts in there. All of us have problems in these areas whether old converts or new converts and yet You say, I'm not there. I don't know why you're even dealing. I don't either. Amen. Sometimes I thought about it. For the last three Wednesdays, I don't know, but it's somebody here that God's doing something for us, helping somebody. It may just be one. It might be one that's lost that God wants to get you to the place to see. You're going to have to count the cost. Am I willing to be this? Am I willing to do this? Am I willing to go on with this? You see, but our problem is we expect too much too soon. We expect to know how to pray without having to learn. We expect always to be filled and never empty. We expect acceptance without opposition. We expect a bed of roses without thorns. We expect the world to love us instead of hating us. We expect pure minds without evil thoughts. You say, but preacher, no one's perfect. No, that's right. Won't be till Jesus comes. And then with him, we'll be with him and we'll be perfected. But there's going to have to be a growth process in our life. And he said, if you practice these things, you'll be mature children. Matthew said. And I know it rains on the just and the unjust. Things happen both ways. But if we don't recognize this in ourselves and in others, it will cause us to put up with each other and love each other, even our enemies. You know why? He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. Took him just a week to make the moon and the stars and the earth and the sun and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient he must be. He's still working on me. Doop, doop, doop, doop, doop. That's the song. The songwriter said that. And you know, that's what it is. He's growing us. He's growing us. Romans 8, 18. Paul said this, he said, For I reckon that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed on me. Paul suffered as much as anybody. I think him and Job, probably the two greatest human beings that suffered. And you know what he called it, one place in Corinthians he called it these light afflictions. Beaten five times with rods and all those whips. shipwrecked, fast as he could. Oh my, yes. And yet he called it light affliction. And he said, if you put all that together on the balance sheet, it's nothing compared to the glory which shall be out yonder. May God help you get that in your sight. As a lost person to say, that's what I want in my life. I want to be that overcomer. I want to have victory even though there's going to be some problems because I know one of these days the only thing that's going to matter is when I lay down. what's on the other side, in other words, where am I headed to, what have I done, where am I, where I need to be? Well, He's still working on us. He's still working on every one of us. It doesn't matter who we are, nobody's perfect. You realize something? I praise the Lord for that truth. I'm not what I ought to be, but I'm not what I used to be, but stick around and see what I'm going to be by the grace of God. The Bible says this in the book of I John. I John, He said this, In I John chapter number 3 verse number 1 and 2, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, as he is pure. Amen. May the Lord help us to get hold to something. Whatever it's for, whoever it's for, Lord help me, help me to continue on for God's glory. Father, I pray you'd help us to captivate the thoughts that the devil puts in our mind at times and temptations that's there and that we might just continue on and keep on keeping on and realize the world's going to hate us, we're going to have persecution, we're going to suffer. You said to Paul and you'd show how great things that he's going to have to suffer for your namesake and he did and yet he said it's not nothing to compare to the glory which shall be revealed in us. He knew because he'd been on the other side. We've not been there but he has and he wrote it down inspired by the Lord and moved by the Holy Ghost and so therefore we can take that to understand for us that it's nothing, all this persecution is just a trying of our faith to put faith on display to a lost and a dying world that God's real, that Jesus is real and there's hope for every person. that they might be saved because there's a preacher of righteousness, a striving spirit and Lord an open door. Thank you for that. Now I pray you'd meet with us in this week and do work in this place in these days and we'll thank you for what you do. Help us to grow thereby. Help us to grow day by day. May the inward man be renewed day by day even though this flesh is perishing but help us dear Lord and help us to love our enemies and love each other and, and just see you work in the days to come, that we might be mature children of God. We'll thank you for what you do, for we ask it all in Jesus' name, for His sake we pray. Heads bowed, eyes closed, altars opened. Will you bind the Lord tonight as you pray?