Bibles tonight to Romans chapter 14, where we have been. Romans chapter 14. It's kind of like a drum roll, isn't it? I think we're picking something up from somewhere. Romans chapter 14. We all are. Romans 14. Let's pray. Father, we come to this evening, Lord, we again are grateful for what we have. It looks to be stormy outside, but we have a roof over our head. It's been so hot, but we have air conditioning. Lord, you've given us everything that we need. We are your spoiled children. Thank you for spoiling us. We know we don't deserve anything other than to burn in hell is what we deserve. But Lord, you have been so gracious and so merciful and so kind and so good. And Lord, we have heaven to look forward to. I pray tonight, Father, that you would give us more manna from on high, that our souls might be nourished, that we might be strengthened against all the wickedness and the sin of this present world. Give us something tonight that might encourage us or uplift us, help us, convict us, whatever it may be. I pray, Father, that you'd take this piece of dirt, stand behind this pulpit. Without you, I can't do anything, and I believe that. And so, Father, I pray that you would fill this clay vessel with the Holy Spirit of God and the power and the passion and the words and the wisdom, Lord. Anything we need, Lord. You've chosen to use the foolishness of preaching. So Lord, I'm just a fool standing behind this pulpit. Pray that you would speak through me to minister to your people tonight. And Lord, I thank you for that. We love you, Lord. Can't wait to the day that we don't have to pray. We don't have to read or study the Bible. That we walk up to you and we talk to you. And you minister to us personally, Lord. We're looking forward to that time. But for now, Lord, we need to hear from heaven. So Lord, speak to us, I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Romans chapter 14. Last week, we discussed some of the things the Bible says we are supposed to judge. And I know there are some people that the only verse in the Bible they know is, judge not lest you be judged, and they couldn't find that if they had to. I remember being on Beale Street one time in Memphis, Tennessee, and a guy was talking to me, and this was a, I think he was a Southern Baptist, because everybody now in the South is a Southern Baptist. He was talking to me, and he said, you guys are too judgmental and all that, and I said, I began to talk to him about some of the things in the Bible, and before he could really give me a chance, he said, can you quote the Ten Commandments? Yeah, I can quote the Ten Commandments. Have no other gods before you, don't make no graven images, like to say anything in heaven and earth, below the earth, Don't take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day. Keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother. Don't kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or covet. And when I got to number 10, and I said, and thou shalt not, he went like this, and I said, covet, and he went. Judging's in there somewhere. I said, no, not part of the Big Ten, man. There's no, there's nothing in there. He thought for sure thou shalt not judge was with thou shalt not commit adultery or bear falsehood or something like that. I said, ain't there, man? And he just had this befuddled look upon his face. The problem is people just don't read their Bible. There are things we are to judge. We went through that last week. In fact, probably two of the most important things that need to be judged, number one is the person in the mirror. You want to judge, spend time with the person in the mirror and get that mess straightened out. And then secondly, we ended last week about being a stumbling block. Make sure that your lifestyle and your choices aren't causing another brother or sister in Christ to stumble. Very important thing. Now tonight I'm gonna bring up some things, we'll just finish this off, and some things we're not supposed to judge. So there is a time to judge, there is a time not to judge. So take your Bible, or take your papers, your notes, and look at second, a second, James chapter two, starting at verse one. Here's some things not to judge. James two, starting at verse one, he says, my brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of person. Now that doesn't mean to be disrespectful. I remember my mother before she died, I don't know if she got saved or not, started reading her Bible, came across that verse and was saying, you know, God wants people to respect each other. And this verse says we're not supposed to respect each other. It's not saying that. It's talking about being prejudiced. It's talking about being partial. you'll see in the context. So in other words, well, let's just read it. Verse two, for if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there come also a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit under my footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves, and become judges of evil thoughts? So here's the deal. Somebody came into the church, And you got one guy comes in, he's rich, man. He's got the fine clothes on. He's got the, was it Botany 500? Is that still the fine stuff? Harsh Stafford marks, whatever it is. He's got the best stuff on. And he's got a gold ring on. Everybody can see this guy's got some money. And then there comes a guy in that's got vile Raymond on, and he's dirty. And you wonder, what's this guy all about? And we have a tendency to be prejudiced toward the rich guy. Why would we wanna be prejudiced toward a rich guy? Let's be honest, we can get something from him, right? We want that guy in the church, we want him tithing every week, you know, and here's this poor guy, he has really nothing to offer. That's the mentality that many people have, and yet what we're saying here is don't make that prejudicial thing. Who knows what, you know, we are all in that sense equal. You're no better because you have money, you're no worse because you have money. You're no better because you don't have money, you're no better because you, how did I say that? You're no better because you don't have money, and you're not worse because you don't have money. He's saying don't make prejudicial statements and be partial like that. I mean, you got the one guy comes in and he's, again, he's got the suit on. Don't let the word gay clothing throw you. It simply means, it's not talking about sodomy or anything like that. He's not dressed like a disco queen or whatever it is. He just has, he has, you know, and that's what it was referred to as. You know, I'm telling you, people get real crazy about dressing and all that. There are some guys that say if you wear a tie, the tie was a symbol of sodomy, and the tie was invented by queers and all that stuff, and it may have been in the past. Nobody looks at it that way today, but it may have been in the past. I think the tie was invented by a fat guy. And when he sat down, he was so fat, his buttons pushed open like that, so he wanted to have a tie to cover that. That's my personal opinion. But we can't make prejudicial statements based on the way a person appears. We don't know what the person's like under the suit. We don't know what the person's like under the vial arraignment. I remember there were occasions when I would walk into church after working on a roof all day, and I couldn't get home in time to get cleaned up and all that, so I'd come in in my roofing clothes. And my wife would always tell me, sit way in the back. My wife was always one that when I came home from work, a lot of guys come home from work, their wife gives them a kiss and they say, welcome home. My wife would look at me and go, pew, go take a shower. Because roofing is a nasty, dirty thing. And doesn't mean I was a nasty, dirty thing, just means I was doing a job and that's the way I was dressed. And you can't make judgments like that. I think I might have told you before, we were in Dayton, Ohio, Brother Spurgeon's church one time, and I was one of the speakers, along with a few other guys. And they came in, man, they're all dressed nice, and I was dressed nice. And they would shake the hand, and the guy at the door would say, oh, are you one of the speakers? Yeah, are you one of the speakers? Yeah. He came to me, and he looked at my hands. And since you travel on a bus, you usually have grease on your hands at some point, and you can't get it off. I had cracks in my fingers, and no matter what I did, I still had dirty-looking hands when I came to working on a bus. And so when I walked up to the guy, he said, oh, are you a mechanic? I said, no, I'm with them. He made a judgment that by the look of my hands, I must be a mechanic, certainly couldn't be a preacher. But that's what he's saying right here. That's what James is saying right here is, Don't make prejudicial conclusions about somebody based on their clothes. Don't be a respecter of persons. Don't respect the rich guy because he's got money and disrespect the poor guy. Don't do that. Treat everyone the same way. I would always try to, you know, when somebody is visiting the church or what have you, especially when I was at Hope Baptist Church, you know, you visit everybody, you greet everybody and all that, especially visitors, and occasionally there'd come a guy in, man, he had the long hair and all that stuff, and I would make sure I went and greeted him. Because I'm thinking, nobody else is probably going to do that. Or if there was someone of a different race that was in there, I would try to make sure that I greeted them and welcomed them and made sure. Because I'm not going to make that judgment based on the appearance of somebody. That's what he's saying right here. So that's one of the things we don't judge. In verse 9, of James chapter two in the context of this, he said, but if you have respect to persons, ye commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. So this idea of being prejudiced toward one type of person or towards another type of person is in the word of, in the scriptures, sin, sin. So if you're favoring somebody, and we all have this tendency to do that, you have to be careful. It is sin to make a prejudicial conclusion about somebody without even knowing the person or getting to know them. That's the idea. All right, let me give you another one. Romans chapter four. Don't turn to Romans chapter 14 and 13. We're gonna talk about that in a little bit, but that's in the context. That's another area that we're not to judge. We'll get to that. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter four. 1 Corinthians chapter four. Here's something else you're not supposed to judge. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, starting in verse 1, it says, let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. So the context is a person's stewardship, meaning what they're doing for Jesus Christ. Verse three, he said, but with me, it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Because the Corinthians had this habit of judging. And they would judge Paul about his ministry. And Paul, on more than one occasion, would have to defend himself, his calling, and what he was doing and all that, because they had this problem with Paul. So he said, I'm not worried. He said, it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Not that he didn't care what they thought, but here's the reasoning. He says in the end of verse three, yea, I judge not my own self. He said, I'm not even judging myself. Verse four, for I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified. But he that judges me is the Lord. So what in the world was he talking about? He's talking about his motives. He's talking about his motives. And you'll have people say, well, you just do that because, and they'll give you what they think the reason why you're doing it. You're just going to church all the time because you don't want to take care of your responsibilities at home. Well, maybe that's the case, but that may not be the reason why they're going to church. You're just putting money on the plate because you want God to give it back to you. Maybe, but maybe that's not the reason. The idea is we can't judge each other's motives. I cannot crawl into your heart, nor would I want to. and start sorting out your motives. Oh, I see why you're doing this, you know. Paul said, I don't even judge my own self. And the point is, and I've heard the messages preached. I've heard messages preached about, you know, you should judge your own motives. You should search your heart out and judge your motives and see why you do what you do. Good luck with that. Good luck with that. Any of you that have ever tried to search your motives out and tried to figure out why you do what you do, here's what you're going to find. You're going to find a good reason, a good motive, and you're going to find a bad one, side by side. How can you say that? Paul said, when I would do good, evil is present with me. So there is in you, because you're in the stinking flesh, there is within you a pure motive, but alongside that pure motive in that filthy flesh is an evil motive. And if you want to keep, I've done it, I've searched my motives and I think I've come to it and then I found another motive that wasn't good and then I would go a little farther and then I find something good and I find something bad and I was digging myself a hole and I'm thinking this is a waste of time. The fact of the matter is, you really don't know why you do what you do and you don't know how the Lord is gonna reward you based on your motive until you get to the judgment seat of Christ where he sorts everything out. We'll see these verses in just a minute. But this idea of you need to search your heart and you need to make sure your motives are pure, impossible. Impossible. That's why Paul said, I don't even judge my own self. It's impossible to figure this thing out. Verse 4, for I know nothing by myself, nothing, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Verse 5, therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come. When is the Lord going to come? I don't mean when as far as the date is, but what's it called when He comes? The rapture, and what takes place right after the rapture? the judgment seat of Christ. That's what he's talking about. So he's saying, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness. Where are the hidden things of darkness? Right in here. And will make manifest the counsels of the heart. That's what a lot of the judgment seat of Christ is about. God's gonna show you why you did what you did. And it may come out okay. Or he may show you, you know, you really just did this for yourself. You know, there's some guys that say, man, I want to start a church. I want to win all these souls to Christ. And, you know, I want to do great things for God. That's a good motive. It may also be, I want to start a church and win a lot of people to Christ because I'll give a lot of money in the offering plate and I'll get a good salary and I'll have a good car and a nice house. That's not a good motive. And I guarantee you there are guys in the ministry that that's why they're in the ministry. Now how can you say that? There are young guys coming out of Bible colleges today that the first thing they ask, first thing they ask if they're a candidate is not God is this your will, but the first thing they ask is the deacon board, whoever's doing the candidating, not candidate, whoever's checking the candidates, one of the first questions they ask is what's the salary? What's the salary? And they follow that statement, well I have to make X amount of dollars. Really? That's the call of God? That's how that works. So the judgment seat of Christ will be a time when your motives will be brought out, be made manifest, and you'll see what you're really about. You say, preacher, but isn't there something I can do to make sure my motives are pure? Can I search something out? Here's what you do. When it comes to your motives, here's what you do. You make it a matter of prayer, and you ask the Lord this. Lord, would you please purify my motives, because I know in me, in my flesh dwells no good thing. I know, Lord, I can be doing stuff for the wrong reason, I would like you to purify my motives. So how's the Lord gonna do that? He'll put you through some stuff. Because really the only way motives can get purified is by going through stuff. And you wonder why Christians go through the things they go through. The Lord's trying to help purify their motive. So the Lord will put us through stuff. because he's on our side. He wants us to get to the judgment seat of Christ with pure motives. He wants us to get to the judgment seat of Christ and with our works being there and the Lord saying, yeah, you did this for me. That's what he wants. So he's gonna work at putting us through stuff that's gonna help purify our motives. All right, Romans chapter 14. This is where we are now, Romans chapter 14. So those are some things you don't judge. Don't waste your time judging yourself. Don't be prejudiced. And now we've got some things here in Romans chapter 14. Say, preacher, you tell me my motives aren't important. I just said they're important. I said the only thing you can do about it is pray that God would give you a pure heart, pure motives, pure reasons for why you do stuff. That's what you do. If you're concerned about your motives, that's what you do. Romans 14, and let's start at verse 5. Now here's another one. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord. Remember, we're talking about eating things offered to idols. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us live to himself, and no man dieth to himself. But for whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Wherefore, whether we live, Therefore, or die, we are the lords, for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. So there was quite a mouthful there. Notice he made the statement at the beginning of that section of scripture, I believe it's in verse five. This statement, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. When it comes to some things, and these are things that are referred to as gray areas, where the Bible doesn't speak specifically about something, but gives you enough input so you can make a decision. So generally speaking, in Christianity, there are gray areas. But as far as an individual is concerned, listen, if you're doing this right, no individual has any gray areas. I said, what are you talking about? He said, let every man, let every individual be fully persuaded in their own mind. When it comes to these subjects of the gray area, you get to make a decision. You have to be fully persuaded in your own mind. You study the Bible, you think the thing through, you try to search it out, and you come up with a belief, you come up with a conclusion, and you're saying, I think this is the way it should be. So it's no longer a gray area. Fully persuaded, you know what gray is? Part white, part black, not fully. Fully persuaded is there's nothing gray in between there. I've studied it and this is what I think is right. Now somebody else may be doing the same thing and they come up with a different conclusion. And that's where there's a tendency for people to butt heads. I think it's this, I think it's this. You're wrong, no you're wrong, now wait a minute. Let's see what he says here. The subject is the day, holy days, all right? Verse six, he that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. So there's some people say, you know, there are special days, there are certain days that certain things should be done. He that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. Somebody else says, no, there isn't. Well, the important part of that text is the phrase unto the Lord or to the Lord. Let me give you an example. I'll give you a few examples. How about Sunday? Do you realize there is no verse in the New Testament that says you're supposed to worship on Sunday? I can give you biblical reasons. I can give you scriptural reasons why you should meet on Sunday. The resurrection was on Sunday. Matthew 28 said on the first day of the week. And by the way, Sunday is the first day of the week. So the preacher, the weekend is Saturday and Sunday and then the week starts Monday. No, it doesn't. I mean, work-wise, that's the way we think. But Sunday is the first day of the week. Saturday is the Sabbath. It's the last day of the week. Sunday is the first day of the week. All right, so Jesus Christ rose on the first day of the week. He rose on Sunday. He appeared to Thomas the following Sunday when he was with the other disciples. that Sunday worship is part of the pattern of the early church. Acts chapter 20 verse 7 said, upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them. They're doing it on the first day of the week. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, starting at verse 1, he says, now concerning the collection for the saints, As I have given order to the churches of Galatia, so they're making a special collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem. He said, even so do ye, verse two, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store. So when you come the first day of the week to church, that's when you put your offering in so that offering then can be taken to the people that need it. Pentecost was on Sunday. John received the book of Revelation on Sunday. Revelation talks about on the Lord's day. So there's plenty of evidence why we worship on Sunday. Say, preacher, I don't think you have to worship on Sunday. All right, then don't worship on Sunday, but you're gonna be pretty lonely. Because everybody else worships on Sunday, and have been doing it for 2,000 years, except for the Seventh-day Adventists, and I'll talk about them in a minute. And there are some people called Seventh-day Baptists. But the point is, there still is nothing in scripture that says you have to go to church on Sunday. But we do based on these principles of scripture and since the early church has done that ever since the beginning. But I want you to think about something. What if you lived in China? What if you lived in Saudi Arabia or Iran? You know what they would be expecting you to do in China and Saudi Arabia or Iran? To meet on Sunday, right? So in order to hide yourself, And we're talking about the underground church in China, the secret church in Iran. It's illegal to even have a Bible in Saudi Arabia, but there are Christians that are gonna be there and they're gonna meet. But they can't do it on Sunday because that's when the authorities are expecting them to do it. In fact, they can't do it the same day of the week every week. They'll meet on Tuesday one week, they'll meet on Thursday another week, they'll meet on Monday another week, just to keep the authorities off balance so they don't get themselves in a habit where somebody's gonna realize, hey, they must be having church. They're not meeting on Sunday. So are they in sin? There's nothing in the text that says you have to meet on Sunday. From one day to another, the other day. But like I said, you're gonna be pretty lonely if you decide I'm not gonna meet on Sunday. How about another day? How about the issue of the Sabbath? Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 and 17 says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come. Now, if you see a shadow, is it the real thing? If you're standing outside and your shadow's on the ground, and I walk over to your shadow and go stomp on it, did I hurt you? Because that's not you, that's your shadow. The real thing is what's making the shadow. The shadow is just a shadow. And that's what he's saying right here concerning Sabbath days. He said it's a shadow of things to come. What's he talking about? Well, Ron Rhodes in his commentary said the shadow was a shadow of redemption that would be provided in Christ. and it symbolized the rest from our works and our entrance into the rest of God provided by his finished work. That's good, but I'm reading this thing and what he's saying is a shadow of things to come. Well, what is coming that could represent a Sabbath? I mean, what is coming? We're October, or October, August 20th, right? Today's August 20th, 2020? Well, what is coming that would picture the Sabbath? No, not the rapture. What is coming in history? It could be, because it's rest. Pardon me? Right, right, that could be, but what's another one that would picture? Millennium, millennium. If there are seven dispensations, which I believe they are, and the seventh one is the 1,000 year kingdom, and a day is 1,000 years, 1,000 years a day, so you've got six days up to, or 6,000 years up to the millennium, and then you have the millennial day, which is the time of rest. Rest for the earth, rest for the Jew, rest for the Gentile, rest for the church. A time of rest, the devil's tied up and put in the pit. So that's a picture of that. But the point is this. As far as we're concerned, Of all the Ten Commandments that were reiterated in the New Testament, and the Ten Commandments is the moral law of God, of all the Ten Commandments that were reiterated in the New Testament, there's one never mentioned, and that's the Sabbath, because the Sabbath was given as a sign to the Jew, and it's not something for the church. But, nothing says you can't worship on Saturday. You wanna worship on Saturday? Help yourself, worship on Saturday. But please, please, please, if you worship on, and here's where the Seventh-day Adventists come in. If you worship on Saturday, please don't come and tell me that because I worship on Sunday, I've taken the mark of the beast. Say, who in the world would believe that? The Seventh-day Adventists believe that. So how in the world would they believe that? Here's what they believe. They believe Sunday worship was instituted by the Catholic Church, which is so easily disproven, it's unbelievable. But they believe that Sunday worship was instituted by the Catholic Church. The head of the Catholic Church is the Pope. The Pope wears this funny-looking fish hat. On the funny-looking fish hat, if I remember correctly, are the words vicarious, vea de, which if you take the numeric value of those Latin letters, it comes out to be 666. Therefore, if the Pope started Sunday worship and you worship on Sunday, you've taken the mark of the beast. Don't sit there and go, oh yeah, don't do that. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. That's absolutely stupid. But that's what the Seventh-day Adventists believe. You know, you are, you've taken the mark of the beast if you worship on Sunday, then how could I ever be converted to Seventh-day Adventists when I already have the mark? Once I have the mark according to scripture, I'm done. But they believe, you know, if you'll join them, that somehow that's removed or whatever. Just stupid stuff. So if you want to worship on Saturday, help yourself, worship on Saturday, you'll be lonely or you'll be surrounded by a bunch of idiots. It's your choice, you know. Let's talk about another one that's a little more of an issue. How about Christmas? How about Christmas? One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth the day everyday alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. He that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he regardeth not. What about Christmas? You realize Christmas is not in the Bible? But the incarnation of Christ is. I don't believe Jesus was born on December 25th. That's fine. I don't think I do either. But since he became a human being and he came into this world, there are 364 other days that are possible. There had to be a day when he did come into this world. And if you choose to celebrate the day, a day that represents his coming into the world, help yourself. I don't have a problem with that. There are those that do. Oh man, I'm telling you, there are people that are absolutely nuts about it. I remember one guy that just went off and off and off about December 25th. And so he said, we know Jesus was not born on December 25th. And the reasoning being is because it speaks about when John the Baptist was born, Zacharias was the priest and it was the course of a Baia. Oh, okay, he was part of the course of Abiah. There were courses that the priests took. They had one-week stints at the temple to do the work, and it happened to be Abiah's course right then and there, and you can set the timing on that, and you do the calculation, and you get Christ being born in September, John the Baptist being born in March. That's the date for Christ. Here's the problem. There are two courses. You've got 24, and then you've got 24. So he was the eighth course in the first 24, but he was the eighth course in the second 24. And you know, if you start with that course, you know what you end up with? December 25th. But this guy went on and on, you know, got it figured out, got it all figured out, and it sounded good to me, so when I started looking it up, I said, man, I'm gonna get this all done, and then I came into that problem. How do we know it's the first one? What's the evidence that it was the first one? There is no evidence. It could have been either one. So, but you make a big deal out of it, you know? And we can celebrate Christmas, we can do it without all the pagan garnishings because that's the issue. You know, there's so much paganism in Christmas. And there is. I mean, you look back in it, the holly is pagan. Mistletoe is pagan. Why in the world, let me ask you this, why in the world would any group of Christians get together to celebrate the birth of Christ and have mistletoe hanging in the room? Because everybody knows what mistletoe is all about. Why would you do that? Ivy, laurel wreaths, Santa Claus of course, the giving of gifts. Something called weisseling, which was Irish or Anglo-Saxon, which was a wasseling. Is that what it is? Special drink wishing good health. Ever see people toast and say, here's good health to you? How about this one? Cheers. That's pagan. Green leaves and red berries. How about this? Caroling. Caroling is pagan. Oh, they'd get together in groups and go singing. Yule log, winter solstice, the date, the 25th. Candles. We don't do a lot with candles anymore, preacher. No, we have lights. We have lights. We put lights all over our house. You know what lights are? Little candles to bring light in the darkest part of the world. It's a little winter solstice. All of that stuff is pagan. It's like, preacher, what do you do? Let me ask you this, when you hang a wreath on your front door, are you worshiping a pagan god? When you're hanging ivy around and whatever you ladies do, when you do all that stuff, are you worshiping some pagan god as you do it? You know, there's this thing, you know, in Jeremiah chapter 10 talks about, and these guys go nuts about this, you go to Jeremiah chapter 10, a guy goes out in the woods, he cuts a tree down, he decks it with gold and silver. That's a Christmas tree. I don't know of anybody that actually takes a Christmas tree, carves a God out of it, puts real silver and gold on it, and then falls down and worships it. Now maybe you do. I don't know. I don't know what goes on in your family. I don't know of anybody that does that. But they'll say, you know, that's, and that's the issue. So, and I'm telling you, there was a couple that used to come here that struggled with Christmas and they were gone at Easter. Because that's the second one we're going to talk about. You know. My opinion, my humble opinion is that Christmas is more of a woman's holiday, because you like the pretty stuff and the wreaths and all that stuff. Thanksgiving is the man's holiday. We like food and football. They say, preacher, is it? There are some things we have to be careful. Here's, let me make this point, which is in your notes. Let me say this also, that we can call it Christmas, say well Christmas means Christ mass, we can call it Christmas without subscribing to all the Roman Catholic nonsense that goes along with it. The issue is, there are two things, the conception of the holiday among the society in which we live. How you celebrate that particular day or whether you don't celebrate that particular day, how is the community around you, what's going to be their conception of you because of that? For example, if you live in Italy, Spain, Greece, et cetera, heavy Roman Catholic areas, what are you going to do? You say, well, we're not going to do anything. Then you'll be the same as a Jehovah Witness. And they don't even celebrate birthdays. So are you gonna associate with them? Say, well, we'll do everything that the people around us are doing. Then you're associating with them. So somewhere you have to draw a line in the middle. I'm not some kook cult. At the same time, I disagree with some of the things you're doing. This is the way we're gonna do it. Now, what if you lived in a secular society, Germany, Belgium, someplace like that where most of the people are atheists? Then what are you gonna do? They're not celebrating it. A majority of them aren't celebrating it. So what are you gonna do? You'd celebrate it. Because you appreciate the fact that God became a man and came into this world. But I think you'd have to keep yourself free from a lot of the pagan junk and a lot of the religious junk and just present the birth of Christ in a scriptural way. How about Easter? Oh, secondly, secondly. How do we use the day as far as evangelism is concerned? Because either way, either you're denying the Christmas event or you don't want to celebrate it or you're going all out to celebrate it, either way the mind is on the birth of Jesus Christ. So find a way to use that in an evangelistic type of way. Why do we go out and sing Christmas carols? Why do we go caroling that time of year? because we're gonna give the people a track after we sing. Everybody's open the week or two before Christmas. People go into depression when the bills come in, which will be about a month later. At that time, they're rejoicing, they're happy. You use it as a means of getting the gospel out. You use it as an open door. Now, let's look at Easter. Can we celebrate Easter? without all the pagan garnishing? Yeah, I think we can. I don't need Easter eggs. I don't need bunny rabbits. Chocolate rabbits, okay, I'll go with that. But other than the other stuff, we don't have to be part of that. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can call it Easter, by the way, without subscribing to the pagan connection of the word Easter. Oh, that's where some people stumble at. Oh, Easter's a pagan turn. It comes from, you know, okay, let's look at some things here. Trinitarian Bible Society made this statement, and they've been on top of the battle for the right manuscripts in the King James Bible for decades. They make this statement. When Tyndale, Tyndale was one of the first revisers, one of the first Bibles produced in the line of the King James Bible. There were seven Bibles produced before the King James Bible. The King James Bible used the other seven, Tyndale being one of them. So Tyndale applied his talents to the translation of the New Testament from Greek into English. He was not satisfied with the use of a completely foreign word and decided to take into account the fact that the season of the Passover, the foreign word, by the way, was Pascha. That's the Greek word for Passover or the Hebrew word for Passover. He said, I'm not, he didn't want to take into account the fact that the season of the Passover was known generally to English, generally known to English people as Easter. So Easter was the term the English people were using, notwithstanding the lack of any actual connection between the meanings of the two words. So he said, well, I'm not connecting Easter and Passover. I'm just saying that this is what the word is for the time of that celebration. The Greek word occurs 29 times in the New Testament, and Tyndale has Easter 14 times, Easter lamb 11 times, Easterfest once, and Paschal lamb three times. So when Tyndale's translating and he sees that word Pascha, he says, I'll translate it Easter, and didn't see a problem with it. New Hunger's Bible Dictionary makes this statement. Easter, the Passover, and so translated in every passage except, of course, Acts 12 and verse 4 in your King James Bible. In the earlier English versions, Easter had been frequently used as the translation of Pascha. As the last revision, the King James, Passover was substituted in all passages with this. The word Easter, now here, here we go. The word Easter is of Saxon origin. The name is Istra, the goddess of spring in whose honor sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. Say, there you go, there it is, there's the paganism. Wait a minute. By the eighth century, Anglo-Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ's resurrection. So even though it is of pagan origin, by the 8th century, the Anglo-Saxon Christians were using the word Easter as the time of a celebration of Christ's resurrection. And they weren't bothered by it. And other people said, well, you know, the correct pronunciation, and that's always fun at Easter time. Because you can always find these people, you'll look and say, hey, happy Easter, and they'll say, happy resurrection Sunday. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. You can have fun with people like that, because they're just tore up about that word Easter. Now listen, if that's the way they're dealing with it, okay, help yourself. It's a great way to define the day, Resurrection Sunday. I personally prefer Resurrection Sunday, but I understand the use of the word Easter. One man's esteem of the day above another, every man's esteem of the day alike. So again, here's the issue. So okay, there's Easter. You're living in Greece, Spain, Italy, France. How are you going to celebrate Easter? If you were in Greece, you ready? Here's what they do. Here's what Greek Orthodox do in Greece. They dye eggs, but they dye it one color. Guess what color? Red. You know why they dye it red? to represent the blood of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ. Then you know what they do at the dinner table? They take the egg and they crack it, and they take the shell off. You know what that represents? The resurrection of Christ. You take the shell off, and you know what the egg represents? The egg represents some yellow powdery thing that absolutely is horrible and you can't even swallow it. No, the egg represents new life. That's the way the Greek Orthodox look at it. Now what are you gonna do? You're living in Greece, what are you gonna do? Say, I'm gonna stay away from all that stuff. Okay, you're a cult then. If I do the same thing that they do, oh, you agree with us. So somewhere in between, you have to do something. Of course, if you're living in a secular society, what would you do there? You'd really brag about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You'd celebrate that to the highest extent, not with bunny rabbits and eggs and all that stuff, but with an empty tomb. I was gonna say at Christmas time, one of the things you could do if you really wanted to make a statement is you have a nativity scene, and then you have a cross and an empty tomb. with a sign that says, this is the reason for that. And you're getting a message out with that. And if you have a nativity scene, please don't have the Wiseman there, please. They were there a year and a half or two years later. Don't stay as biblical as you can, and the same with all this stuff. But the point is this. If Brother So-and-so over here doesn't like Christmas, doesn't like Easter, that's his business, and here's the point though. If he doesn't celebrate Christmas, if they don't celebrate Easter because they think they're honoring God that way, then so be it. They're doing it under the Lord. If somebody else over here has the tree set up and they're putting pretty stuff out and all that stuff, and they're doing it under the Lord, then so be it. Here's the thing. Really, when you're decorating the tree and you're putting the stuff on, are you really doing that under the Lord? Are you really doing that under the Lord? I want to have the house on the block that has the most lights, for Jesus' sake, amen. Are you doing it under the Lord? Then you've got the guy over here, I ain't celebrating Christmas. All right, are you not celebrating Christmas because you're doing it under the Lord or are you too stinking cheap to go out and buy presents? Are you a Scrooge? What's your reasoning on it? Just interesting thoughts there. Romans 14, look at verse 7. Again, the key to that, verse 5, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. A person is fully persuaded how they're going to handle the holidays, that's their business. Don't try to persuade them against their persuasion. Romans 14, verse 7. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. But whether we live, we live in the Lord. Whether we die, we die in the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. That's the thing to keep in mind. As John Donne, the famous poet, the beginning statement of the poem, he said, no man is an island entire of itself. Every man's a piece of the continent, a part of the main. Translation, you go through life, you'll influence somebody in some way. So keep that in mind. You know, you cannot live under yourself. No man is an island. You may be a peninsula, but you are not an island. No man is an island. And the way you live and what you do and the choices you make influence other people. Now, if you're a parent, you understand that. Parents influence their children. Other people influence other people. You say, well, that's not fair. I know it's not fair, but it's true. And how well are you influencing other people around you? What is the impression that people have around you when they watch you do what you do? You got these professional athletes and kids are following, well, they used to anyway. But they used to follow these professional athletes and they made them role models. I wanna be like Mike when Michael Jordan was playing. I wanna be like Mike. I wanna be like LeBron or I wanna be like whoever it may be. And one of these athletes, I forget who it was. It might have been LeBron James, I don't know. It might have been Charles Barkley, but the statement was this. I'm not on the basketball court to be a role model. I'm on the basketball court to play basketball. I'm not on the field to be a role model. I'm on the field to do what my job is. Well, I'm sorry, you might say that. But you are a role model to young people that are looking up to you. And when you start doing some real dumb stuff and mess your life up, That's affecting the young people that follow you. Now you don't wanna be a role model, but you are. It's not fair, but it's true. And it's true for them and it's true for us. We are role models. We are an influence to the people that are around us. No man is of an island, an island. None of us live it to himself, no man die it to himself. Very simple. So let me give you five quick rules to live by. when it comes to this kind of stuff. Basic rules. It may not be in your notes. Number one, does it please God? I'm gonna make a decision to do something. I'm gonna either celebrate today or not celebrate today. I'm gonna do it a particular way. Number one, does it please God? Does it please God? Not the God of your imagination, but the God of the Bible. Does it please God? If it can't pass that criteria, it can't pass anything. Number two, would I like to have the Lord find me doing it when He returns? When I'm doing whatever I'm doing, what if Jesus Christ walked into the room? I ain't talking rapture. Number three, can I ask God's blessing on it? Is there something that you're doing that you say, Lord, would you bless me with this? If you can't ask the Lord's blessing on it, there's something wrong. So that's your relationship between you and the Lord. Number four and number five have to do with other people. What I'm doing, would it cause a weak Christian to stumble? Then we go back to the stumbling block thing again. Would it cause a weak Christian to stumble? Number five, would it cause an unsaved person to reject the gospel? Is there something that you're doing in your lifestyle that if a lost person saw you do that, they'd reject Jesus Christ flat out? They'd label you as a hypocrite, think you're no better than anybody else? And we aren't any better than anybody else, but in their mind, they put us on a pedestal. What would the effect be upon a lost person? So if it doesn't please God, and you wouldn't want the Lord finding you doing it, and you can't ask the Lord's blessing on it, and it would cause a weak Christian to stumble or a lost man to reject the gospel, I suggest it's probably not something you should be doing. Now, verse eight. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. That's an interesting statement. Just as people watch how we live, People are going to watch how you die. I mean, at the time of Paul's writing of Romans, there was a persecution against the church. People were being persecuted for their faith. People were dying for their faith. Saul, who later became Paul, was one that caused the death of a multitude of people that he had arrested for being Christian. So there were believers that were dying for their belief in Jesus Christ. How were they dying? You know, people were watching Christians die. You talk about the first three centuries, there were Christians that were being persecuted in the Colosseum. Instead of the gladiator games, they would have times when lions would be released to devour Christians and all that kind of stuff. And the whole crowd came to watch it. And they watched how Christians died. And I imagine some didn't die too well. I mean, you've seen the pictures and what have you where you've got a group of Christians huddled around and somebody's up there and they're praying as the lions are coming. That's a good way to die. But I'm sure there might have, I can't say I'm sure, but there probably was somebody running around saying, I don't wanna die! People laugh at that, you know. Oh, you Christians, yeah, you got eternal life. Talk about having a chance to go to heaven. Here it is, and this guy's going, I don't want to die. So people take notice of it. You know what else they take notice of? How we die in this day and age. I've mentioned before, I'm just about done, but I've mentioned before that we've seen people leave our congregation because of death, be it cancer, whatever it may be. And we always pray that God would heal because we believe that God can heal right up to the end. I believe that. And I'm not going to cut it short. I'm not going to cut my face short, you know, by saying, well, I don't think you're going to heal now, God. I'm going to keep praying for that all the way up. But here's the thing. The fact of the matter is they probably won't live. All of us here could end up in the hospital with something. And it doesn't appear that God is healing you. The prayer should be, Lord, help me to die like a Christian. Help me to go through this and help me to die like a Christian. I don't want to be laying in the bed whining and crying and complaining and all this and that and blaming God. I want to have the grace to die like I believe. And I think God gives that. But people watch us how we live. I guarantee you people are going to watch how we die. nurses and doctors and all that will be watching how we handle this thing called death. Because you can talk all the theology in the world if you want, but if you don't have victory over death, because that's the thing right there, death. You don't have victory over death, you ain't got nothing. So people watch how we live, and they're gonna watch how we die. That's what Paul, I believe, is saying right here. All right, any questions on anything? Yes, sir. Renting their church building.