Good morning, everyone. Welcome here to our morning service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne. And also welcome all those who interviewed us via internet and all the people here in the congregation, welcome. Please open your hymnals to number 296. 296, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Number 296. All the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divine is comfort, hereby fit For I know that here before me Jesus doeth all things well O the way my Saviour leads me To its winding path I tread Gives me grace for every trial Feeds me with a living grain O my way with steeping belter And my soul a thirst may be Gushing from the rock before me, Lo, a spring of joy I see! All the way my Savior leads me, all the fullness of His love. Perfect grace to me is promised in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed in mortal wing, Is flight to realm of day, Tis my song through endless ages, Jesus leads me all the way. Tis my song through endless ages, Jesus leads me all the way. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we can sing that song with confidence. We can know that Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is there to lead us all the way. If we will listen, we're thankful for the new birth, for the opportunity, the privilege of being born again, of being saved, and having Thy peace in our heart. We thank Thee for each one that has come out today. We pray thy blessing upon each one. We pray for those that join us via live stream. May they also know thy peace and blessing in their hearts. And we're thankful that we can broadcast into many countries. We thank thee for the internet and that we can use it for thy glory. We do pray that thy will be accomplished in our country of Canada, that we would be able to see politicians getting saved in these days of grace. and many others as well. We pray for our police forces and doctors and nurses that they too, many of them would get saved and see the importance of truth in their lives. We ask that thy will be accomplished in regard to the land of Israel and the nation of the people there. We pray for the soldiers that they would have safety and that many of them would come to trust the God and Savior, pray for Jews across the world. And as in Canada, they are being threatened more and more. We do pray that many Jews would get saved. We do pray for the Arabs as well that are going across the world, the Muslims trying to take over. Pray that many of them would be broken and saved in these days of grace. We pray for The Coburns, as they plan to go to work with the Muslims, we pray for wisdom for them, for safety, that they would be bold for thee and allow thee to direct them in their plans, that I will be accomplished in the situation in Ukraine as well, and we pray for the Christians there and in Russia as well, that they would be faithful to Thee and be able to help others to know Thy peace and blessing. We thank Thee that in the midst of all the turmoil in our world, it is possible to be at peace with Thee. And we are thankful that in Canada, we still have the opportunity to openly gather here and to proclaim Thy word and to speak to people in the streets. And we thank Thee for that. We pray that we would not be careless, but that we would be faithful in being a witness and being there to remind people of the importance of knowing the truth in these days of grace. So bless our time together here. May thy will be accomplished in all that is said and done. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And over to 376. Take time to be holy. Number 376. Take time to be holy, speak of faith, my Lord. Abide him in soul, wish, and faith on his word. Make friends of God's children, help those who are weak. Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek Take time to be holy The world rushes on Spend my time in secret With Jesus alone By looking to Jesus, like him thou shalt be. Thy friends in thy conduct, his likeness shalt see. Take time to be holy, let him be thy guide. and run not before him, whatever be tide. In joy or in sorrow, still follow thy Lord, and looking to Jesus, still trust in his word. Take time to be holy, Becoming thy soul, each thought and each motive beneath his control. Lastly, thy spirit, true fountains of love, Thou, Son, shalt be lit in full service above. And over to 504. 504. Sweet by and by. Number 504. There's a land that is fairer than day, And by feet we can see it afar, For the Father waits over the way, To prepare us the dwelling place there, In the sweet by and by. We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore We shall sing on that beautiful shore The melodious song of the place and our spirits shall sorrow no more, not aside for the blessing of Christ. In the street, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. In the street, by and by, We shall meet on that beautiful shore To our bountiful Father above We will offer our tribute of praise For the glorious gift of His love And the blessings that hallow our race In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore Take your Bibles and turn to Luke's gospel account of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, we're reading there from verse 14 to the end of verse 23. Luke chapter 11, 14 to 23, we'll stand please for the reading of God's word. And he was casting out a devil and it was dumb. And it came to pass when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered. But some of them said, he casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. and others tempting him sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted and divided his spoils. He that is not with me is against me. and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning again that we have thy word. We're thankful that we don't have to spend our time here debating our own opinions and seeing who can win, but that we have an authoritative text that thou has preserved for us that we can read and we can study and we can learn so much from. We pray that thou would help us as we look into these verses and understand that there's a lot of division in our world amongst those who are religious and there's very little truth today just as there was when thy son was on this earth. I pray that thou would help us to know the truth and walk in the truth and seek to help others to see the importance of being a part of that separated house, not the divided house. separated unto Thee, to serve Thee faithfully, and to be a blessing to others. May Thy will be accomplished as we study this passage, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this morning is A Divided House Cannot Stand. A Divided House Cannot Stand. There should be no doubt in the mind of anyone, I'm sure there isn't in the mind of anyone here, that the devil is real. And we also know that there's nothing good that comes from the devil. Jesus called him a liar and a murderer from the beginning. So there's no truth in him, and his goal is to destroy God, which he never will. And he uses us as people as pawns. He tries to get us to do things that will bring shame upon the name of God. And again, we can't do that. There are many people who do mock God, who claim that God is doing things that he's not doing, but that doesn't change who God is. That's the beauty of knowing the true God. He is separate from sinners. and no slander that can be put against him will stick. We also need to understand as Christians that we don't play around with the devil. We don't tell him to get lost. We don't have that authority. The Bible tells us that we need to draw nigh to God. We need to resist the devil and he will flee from us. But our strength for that is in God, not in ourselves. And we dare not play around with him because he is very deceptive in his ways and we can be drawn in. I was reading about a business woman in BC who got scammed recently. She got email from the BC Lions, which is the football team in BC. She's a baker. She makes pies. And she was invited to set up a booth at the stadium and sell her wares there. And she didn't check into it close enough. It looked legitimate. And she didn't call anybody to confirm. She just went about making lots of pies. And on the appointed day, she arrived there and found out they had never heard of her. And so she had all these pies. What was she going to do with them now? But that's a human scam. There's a lot of that going on. The devil is also a scammer. And he tries to present himself as an angel of light. But those of us that are saved, if we're in the word of God as we ought to, we will be able to discern that and avoid his tricks. First thing we want to notice here is the devil has many devices. In verse 14, and we have noticed already in the book of Luke, that Jesus often cast out devils. And in this particular case, it says, and he was casting out a devil and it was dumb. So this particular devil here in this case, was causing this man, this person that was possessed, to not be able to speak. And in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11, we read there, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. So Satan has many ways that he tries to interfere with what God's design is for man. And as we've noted before, there seemed to be a lot of devil possession in the time that Jesus was on this earth. And I have mentioned as well that I believe that the devil still is possessing people today, but we have labeled that in different ways. And so we avoid addressing it biblically, and we go to different doctors and we get drugs. and we have people walking around like zombies rather than being set free from their possession. Doesn't tell us in the Bible how these people got possessed, doesn't tell us here in this text how this person got possessed, but we know that the devil cannot just come in and take over a person's life. the person has to make themselves available for that to happen. In our world today, it's happening through drugs, it's happening through rock music, it's happening through yoga and other means like that, that people are opening themselves up to allow the devil to come in. I remember when our son was in grade four. At that time, we had our children in the public school. It was a mistake, but we had them there. And in grade four, in one of his classes, they were told to lie down on the floor and to think white. And when he came home and told us that, I addressed that with the teacher. and told him that our son would not be participating in any more of that kind of stuff. Thinking wide, emptying your mind is a good way to open it up for the devil to come in. We are never told in the Bible to empty our minds. We are to be in control of our minds, and we are supposed to be, you're being directed by God, but we need to be saved for that to happen. So here in our passage, this particular devil, Jesus was casting him out, but it was dumb and it came to pass when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake and the people wondered. So we see again the power of Jesus Christ. He came to this earth to lay down his life for the sheep. He came to this earth as the eternal son of God. and the people needed to understand that he was fulfilling Bible prophecy. And so he presented himself in many ways, proving that he was the prophesied Messiah, that he was the savior of mankind, the one who was well able to save us of our sins, And he demonstrated that in many ways. And in this case, in the case of casting out the devil. And we notice here that when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake. When God works, things happen. And I've talked about it before. that one of the dangers of the New Evangelical philosophy is that they say when God works, you won't necessarily see any changes. And so we have a lot of people today who profess to be Christians still trapped in their sin. They can't get over it, and some of them will go to secular programs to try to get some victory, but they're crippled. We don't find that in the Bible. We find a God who is all-powerful, and when a person is delivered from whatever their bondage is, and the main bondage is that we're sinners, but when a person is is saved, they are a changed person. And here, this man, when the devil was cast out of him, he spake and it says the people wondered. And as we see in this passage, that the people that are questioning Jesus on this, they also are claiming to cast out devils, but they are obviously not having the same effect that Jesus did. And it caused the people to wonder, who is this man? And that's what God is like. He is. The only true God, He's the Almighty God, He's the all-knowing God, the all-powerful God, and He wants us to know Him and to realize that He can help us with whatever the challenges that we face in life. Now that doesn't mean that someone that is born crippled is going to get up and walk all of a sudden. It doesn't mean that someone who is born blind is going to have their eyesight restored to them. But spiritually speaking, there is no reason for anyone to be crippled by sin. Jesus Christ came to set the captive free. And that's very important for those of us that are saved to understand and to help people with that and to encourage people to know the peace of God in their hearts. It's very important for us to tell people the truth. The truth is what sets a person free. We know in the Bible that people took offense to what Jesus said when he told them the truth. We know that people took offense when the Apostle Paul told them the truth. But we also know that those who received the truth were blessed greatly by that. And so we should not be ashamed to tell people the truth. When they come to us, and they start talking to us about what's going on in their lives, we need to be able to answer them in a way that can help them. And we can do that if we know the Lord. The second thing that we see here is missing God's blessing due to a hard heart. So this man, this person here that was possessed of this devil, He was delivered, he was set free. But in verse 15 it says, but some of them said, he casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. And others tempting him sought of him a sign from heaven. So here we see these witnesses, these people that are observing what Jesus is doing. They knew that this man could not speak. They knew that, and they saw him speaking. And instead of them recognizing what was really going on, they right away tried to discredit who Jesus was. And that was not helpful. And so they were accusing him and saying, he casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. Now, we have a lot of people in North America, a lot of false teachers, a lot of false teachers in the charismatic camp who go around and they claim to do things in the name of Jesus. And most of theirs is showmanship. Most of it is to draw attention to themselves. And they are not able to really help people, but they are able to cause people to become dependent upon them. That was different here with Jesus. Now, Jesus has every right to want us to be dependent upon him, because he is the eternal son of God. We are dependent upon him for our salvation. And after we are saved, we are dependent upon him for our strength, to be able to live the Christian life. But it's not a good thing for man to try to make people depend upon him. We have our place if we're saved, but we're not the only ones. And there are others that can help people as well. So here in our text here, these people are robbing themselves of a blessing because they will not look at Jesus as he really is. And so some of them, they want to accuse him of serving Beelzebub. Beelzebub, it tells us there, is the chief of the devils. So that would be a name given here for Satan. And of course, Satan is a deceiver. And then it says, others tempting him sought of him a sign from heaven. Well, Jesus just cast out a devil here. And they are coming and saying, give us a sign from heaven. And we know the Bible tells us Jesus rebuked the Jews for that. The Apostle Paul addressed it as well. But one of the things that the Jews were guilty of is always wanting a sign. Now we know that there are many Gentiles also looking for signs. The Catholics are big into claiming that they see signs and that they have images of Mary that they claim bleed or cry. And they claim that that's a miracle. They have a piece of toast that gets burnt and they claim there's a cross in it or maybe an image of Mary. So they're big into signs. But here, these people again are robbing themselves because they're not looking at the obvious sign that Jesus just gave them in casting out this devil, but they want a sign from heaven. Well, where did Jesus come from? He came from heaven. And where did his ability to do the signs that he did, the power that he had to cast out devils, where did that come from? It came from the fact that he is the eternal son of God and has all power and was able to demonstrate that power here in this account. And we understand from the scriptures that the reason that Jesus did so many miracles was to prove his deity. He was preparing the people for his time when he would go to the cross, that they would receive him as their Savior and Messiah. And so he had a purpose in coming. And the people here in this text were again missing out on a very important truth. And so it's very important for us today as well, as we read the scriptures, that we understand what God is doing in the scriptures as we observe people, that we're careful to allow God to work through people for his glory. I remember the first church that I pastored having come from a Mennonite background. And as I would preach in that church, and even as a New Evangelical, I was very conservative in my thinking. And I remember after one of the services that some of the people dismissed what I had said and said, well, that's because he's from a Mennonite background. And I said to some of the people, I said, is it not possible for the Holy Spirit to work and to make us and change us so that we can think and act biblically? And do we need to label a person, well, that's because you come from that background and that's why you believe that way. Now, oftentimes that's true, but when God changes us, we need to give him the credit. And God was changing me then, and he still is now. And so, yes, I do have a background. All of us do. But we need to let God make changes in our lives. And when he makes those changes, that is a far greater consequence than what our background is. The third thing that we see here is a divided kingdom cannot stand. A divided kingdom cannot stand. In verse 17 it says, but he, knowing their thoughts. So again, Jesus here is proving his deity. He knows what these people are thinking. He said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falleth. And we see that in our world. We see that there have been nations, we can go back in the Old Testament, And we know that the Babylonian Empire, which was a very powerful empire, and yet that empire fell apart. It was taken over by the Medo-Persian Empire. The Medo-Persian Empire also eventually fell apart, was taken over by the Greek Empire. The Greek Empire, with the death of Alexander the Great, was divided into four parts. And those four parts, they couldn't agree with each other. The Greek Empire fell. The Roman Empire took its place. The Roman Empire wasn't defeated by any other empire, except that it was defeated by the corruption within that empire. It is not gone yet. And according to the Bible, it will come back again, but it will fail eventually as well. And Jesus makes the point here that every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. We look at our country of Canada. Our country is falling apart. If you can't see that, you've got a problem. But our country is not falling apart because we have leaders who don't have a sharp enough pencil. Our country is falling apart because of its moral decay. When you have a country that will not defend the unborn, God cannot bless that. When you have a country that promotes sodomy, God cannot bless that. When you have a country that will not stand behind the nation of Israel, God cannot bless that. And so Canada is falling apart. And yes, our politicians go around and they keep telling us that if you vote for me, I'll fix the economic problems in this country. I know how to build houses. I know how to get people to work. Blah, blah, blah. They don't know what they're talking about. And they're not going to fix the problems that this country is facing because of the moral decay. And so we have divisions in this country. We have the native community that wants more and more land and more and more power. We have the West talking more and more of separation. Quebec already has distinct society status. Our country is deeply divided. Doesn't matter what our leader tells us, our country is deeply divided and it is going to continue to be a divided country because of the moral decay that we are facing. A country, a kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. Spiritually speaking as well, we have a lot of problems in our own country, and a lot of problems in the world. We have seen just recently in the United States a well-known TV evangelist, in quotation marks, who died this past week, 90 years old. He had been, they were talking about how he spent some 70 years in public broadcasting. and made quite a name for himself with both his moral failures and also with his charismatic teachings. But he's dead. Before he died, his son was doing a lot of the preaching, but after this man died, it has been revealed that there was not always harmony between the father and the son. And so the question now remains, what's going to happen to that empire that that father built over the 70 years? And we have read that before of a man who is in spiritual leadership, seems to have a large following, but after his death, things kind of fall apart. I remember a preacher speaking at a men's breakfast that we had, and he said that within one generation, a good church can become a no-good church. And when I heard him say that, it bothered me, but I knew it was true. And that's because too often, we depend too much on the leader, the physical leader, rather than God. If a church builds upon the truth, they will guard that truth regardless of who the leader is. And if the leader comes in and starts to take that church in a different direction, those who are spiritual in that church will say, no, we're not going there. And we have a right to do that. Our loyalty to man should not supersede our loyalty to God. So the devil, again, is trying very hard to destroy the work of God. But those who are saved need to stand upon the truth. It's important for a pastor to teach the people the truth and to show them from the Bible why he believes what he believes. So that they can ask questions, they can look for themselves. Is this a valid belief? Is this something I can hold on to? That's important. And that's what Jesus did. He is the eternal son of God, but he proved that he is the eternal son of God. He proved that he was worthy of worship and worthy of trust. But here we have people attacking this fact. In verse 18, if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? And of course, we know that eventually Satan's kingdom will be destroyed. He is not greater than God, and he will not be able to maintain what he has even now, which has been given to him by permission from God. He didn't earn it, he didn't win it, but God has given him opportunity to function and to be an interference for those who don't want to believe the truth. So the question, if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. So Jesus was very good at giving people the opportunity to think through their positions. It's one thing for us to develop a position, but it's another thing to then make sure that the position that we have developed is actually sound. And that's where the opportunity for questions is important. And Jesus here was approachable, and he also asked others questions to give them opportunity to think about what they were really saying, what they were really believing. And how can Satan, how can he be effective if he's fighting within himself and within his, with his devils? How can that work? And of course, what they're accusing Jesus of is of casting out a devil by Beelzebub. Well, where are the devils coming from? They're from Beelzebub. So unless it was strictly for show, which they're not saying it was, how can that work? And so in verse 19, if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. Now these people that are accusing Jesus, they're not willing to accept that their own sons are frauds, They want to believe that their sons have the power to cast out devils. So then what's going on here? Jesus is confronting these people and helping them to see on whose side they are. Because they're attacking him, they're obviously not on God's side. They needed to understand that. They didn't want to acknowledge that fact, but the reality is that they were against God, and so when their sons were casting out devils, under whose power were they doing it? And so Jesus says, therefore they, or shall they be your judges. So that very fact should have silenced these people, but again, lost people can be very stubborn, can be very hard-hearted. can be very blind. And that's true for each one of us before we were saved. We tend to be blinded by our sin. The Bible says, the God of this world had blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the glorious light of the gospel should shine in unto them. So that's the reality that we face. The good news is that the God of this world is small g God. He is not greater than the true God. And so God is able to over, what's the word there? He's able to show us his power, even though the devil is trying to keep us on his side. So in verse 20, If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. Notice here in verse 20 again, but if I with the finger of God. We go back to the Old Testament, prior to the fall of the Babylonian Empire, Belshazzar is throwing his wild party. And we notice there that during that party, God wrote on the wall with his finger. He didn't need his hand. The king became so frightened that he couldn't even stand, let alone figure out what was happening. Just with the finger of God writing on the wall. Here, Jesus says, but if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils. So if this is what God can do with his finger, what can he do with his hand? And of course, those of us that are saved, we know the power of God. The word of God tells us that. And it is important for man to be reminded of the power of God. He is all powerful. And those who want to defy him are fools. But yet, all of us have done that. It's always amazing to me to watch young children when dad or mom say, go and do this, and they look at their parent and say, no. And I'm sure I did that to my parents, too, when I was young. But you know, you see that little child, maybe two feet tall, maybe 50 pounds, standing up to their parents saying, no, I'm not going to do that. That defiant attitude. And that's something that all of us have done at some point to God. We've said no to God. I said no to God until I was 20 years old. I was very foolish in continuing to say no to him when I knew better. But that's how we are. We have a distorted way of thinking until we are saved. And only then can we begin to think clearly. But Jesus reminded these people of the power of God that they were resisting. And so Jesus points out to them that if, in fact, he was with the finger of God casting out this devil, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. And there was no doubt that Jesus Christ was in their midst. They rejected him. Israel has suffered greatly over the past 2,000 years because they have rejected Jesus Christ as their savior. The Gentile world also has suffered greatly and continues to suffer greatly because The majority of us, the majority of the Gentile world has rejected Jesus Christ as Savior. In verse 21, when a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. So that's something that any good country has to have. They have to have an army. They have to have someone that is strong to protect what they have. In Canada, we are in big trouble when it comes to our defenses. We have relied on the United States all of my lifetime. They're the big brother. They have the Air Force, they have the Navy, and they have the Army. When Gretchen was our prime minister, he wasted millions of dollars buying junk submarines from England, which were not seaworthy, never were. But that's what he did. Our last several prime ministers have all made deals on buying new fighter jets, but never followed through on them and canceled them. And we still don't have good fighter jets. Our country cannot defend itself. That's why Mr. Trump can say, why don't you just become the 51st state? That's why he could call our prime minister Governor Trudeau. He's not even worthy of that title. But that's what happens when you don't have a strong man in charge. And when you don't have a strong man in charge of your life, you can't stand against the attacks of the devil. And the only strong man that can protect us is God. We need to know Jesus Christ is our savior. We need to be submitted to him in order to be able to resist the devil. We talked about that earlier. You can't do it in your own strength. So in verse 22, but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted and divided his spoil. Now I was thinking as I was looking at that of the time when King Solomon was the king of Israel, and we know that God blessed King Solomon greatly. And King Solomon had a lot of wealth. The Bible tells us that he had shields made of gold. That's what his soldiers had, shields made of gold. But we read also that Solomon forsook the strong man that was supposed to be guiding him, which was God, and he married many strange wives. The Bible tells us that his wives turned his heart away from God. So the strong man was gone. And after Solomon died, Rehoboam was the king. And early in Rehoboam's reign, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. And one of the things that he took from Jerusalem was the golden shields that King Solomon had made for his army. And Rehoboam couldn't defend himself. There was a stronger man that came into Jerusalem and took away those shields of gold. And the only thing that Rehoboam could do is replace those shields with shields of brass. So the nation of Israel was greatly humiliated at that time because the strong man was gone. And the strong man wasn't Solomon, the strong man was God. And when Rehoboam took the throne, God had warned that he was gonna withdraw some of his protection. And the nation of Israel was divided into two because of the sin of Solomon, which he never repented of. He never sought God for forgiveness for his many strange wives. And it hurt not just Solomon, it hurt not just Rehoboam, but it hurt the entire nation of Israel. And so here again, as we look at this passage in regard to our spiritual lives, when the strong man is replaced, it's not a good thing. And so it tells us here in verse 22, but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor, wherein he trusted and divided his house. Ephesians chapter six tells us that we need to have the armor of God on. And if we have that armor on as we need to, the Bible tells us in chapter six, we need to withstand and having done all to stand. One of the things that I have observed in my life as a Christian is I often see men as we grow older become weaker spiritually. I'm becoming weaker physically, I know that. But my prayer is that I will not become weaker spiritually. We don't need that. We need men that will stand strong. We need men that can testify to the grace of God that enables us to be strong even when we grow physically weaker, that we can still hold to biblical positions. We can still encourage younger men to take a stand for the truth. and that is greatly lacking in our country of Canada. We need men who are willing to stand up and say, thus saith the Lord, regardless of what the world is saying. And God has given us opportunities to be tested in this in the last few years. We haven't done very well in that test. But we have opportunity to correct some of those things where we fail, God, because our world needs to know where help is found. And we have that answer if we're saved. And we need to speak up. We need to remind people who is in charge. And we need to remind people that God is not dead. When I was a young person, There was an ad taken out in the New York Times, in the United States paper, big ad taken out saying, God is dead. That was during the hippie revolution. I grew up in that time. And that paper published that ad. God was not dead then. He's not dead now. But I remember growing up in that time, the same time that the Beatles came out. And I was, I don't know what I was then, maybe 12 years old. And I remember young people in our church, especially one girl in our church, who the Beatles were coming to a town close to us and she wanted to go and be at that concert. And I remember observing her parents, not knowing how to say no to her. And that was in our church. I don't remember any preaching from the pulpit warning about the Beatles or any of that rock music that was permeating the culture of that time. I don't remember any preaching in our church about mini skirts on girls, long hair on men. I don't remember any of that because that church was a compromised church. And it didn't dare stand for the truth because it was afraid of losing money. People with money. Because that's how most churches function. They need money. Every church needs money. We need money. But if I have to compromise to get people to give money, I might as well close the doors. It's worthless. Because we don't need that. Our world doesn't need that. Christians don't need that. We need the truth, and it's the truth that sets a person free. And God says that he will supply our needs, and he does do that. In verse 23, it says, he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. I don't want to be a scatterer. I want to be a gatherer. And I challenge each one of us here that we would be those that would want to be gathering people for Christ, not for ourselves. We're not trying to build an empire for ourselves here, but that we would want to help people, that we would want to be truthful with people and help them to see the importance of building their lives on the sure word of God. It's easy to find compromise today. It's easy to be a compromiser today, but it's not right. It never has been right. Yes, you will gain a following by being a compromiser. I was talking with a person recently who was quite upset with me. I've talked with him before, and he was quite upset with me that I was not dealing with Amway. And he said to me, he said, if you would deal with Amway, you'd have far more people coming to your church. No, thank you. I'm not interested. I know enough about Amway that I'm not interested in dealing with Amway. And that's not how God builds his church. And so he was very upset with me. I thought for a while he was going to kick me out. But he changed his tone. But it's important that we stand upon the truth. that we seek to help people to know the truth and to walk in the truth. That's the way of blessing. And so while Amway says in some ways that they profess to be some kind of a Christian organization, their brand of Christianity is not identified by the Bible. I'm not saying their products are no good. I wouldn't know. But I'm not going to use them as a means of seeking to reach people for Christ. It's not going to work. So it's very important for us to know where we stand and why we stand there. God is true. His word is truth. And he wants to bless us with his truth. And he wants us to be a blessing in our world where you live, In your part of the world, in my part of the world, he wants us to be able to be a blessing to others. And we can be that if we trust in the Lord for our salvation. If we try to do it on our own, we might gain a following, but for what benefit? Far better, as Jesus says, there's rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. more than over the 99 just people. So it's far better for us to deal with the individual and seek to help the individual to know the truth. If God blesses with large numbers of people, praise the Lord. If he doesn't, praise the Lord. We are his servants. We serve him. And our first priority is to be loyal and true to God and let him give the increase according to his will and according to his pleasure. And we need to be content with being faithful servants of God. That's what we need to do. Leave the results in his hands and just serve God faithfully. Trust in him, follow him faithfully, and allow him to lead and direct that we can know his peace and blessing in our own hearts, and we can be effective in reaching others with the truth. So in this passage, again, the importance of being able to identify the work of God, being able to identify truth, being willing to stand with the truth, as it tells us in verse 23, he that is not with me is against me. and he that gathers not with me scatters. Let's stand with Jesus, not by ourselves. Let's follow the truth. Let's make sure we know the truth and let's stand there and let's be effective servants of God in his work that he wants to do in our time where we are. So if you're listening to me either here or live streaming, you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior, that's the place to start. Trust in the Lord, turn to God in repentance, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. He wants to bless you and he can bless you and he will bless you if you will trust in him. For those of us that are saved, let's be faithful to God. Let's honor him in what he wants of us and serve him faithfully so that we can help others to know God's peace and blessing as well. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have this challenge from thy word. We see how easy it is to fight against the truth because we don't like it. But we see how important it is for us to humble ourselves and to believe the truth. And we're thankful that we have a Savior who knows every one of us, who knows what our greatest need is today. And we're thankful that we can trust in Thee to guide and direct and to help us to see the importance of trusting in Thee and knowing Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as our own personal Savior and then the Lord of our lives. that we can know thy peace and truth in our hearts, and we can help others to know that same truth in their lives. Help us to honor thee and to glorify thee in what we say and do. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.