How to Destroy an Assembly — Galatians 5

0:00 Good morning. Since I had to go south to get here, morning, y'all. Sorry. Pretty cheesy, isn't it? Yeah.

0:17 A number of years ago, I moved from I lived in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. And we're talking the three biggest metropolitan areas in New York I mean, in The United States. New York being the first, Los Angeles second, Chicago third. And, then I I moved to Michigan. And, it was interesting because, doing...

0:50 Trying to do open air evangelism, I I really love to do open air evangelism. And so I went downtown Detroit downtown, like, near Cadillac Square, if you know anything about Downtown Detroit at all. And it was like the neutron bomb hit because everything looked like a big city. Everything was... You know, it felt like a big city, but there was no people.

1:17 And it was really interesting. And I guess because they had they had riots and that kind of stuff and people moved out of Detroit, and the downtown area became literally a ghost town. And it's somewhat the same today. That was twenty some years ago that I went down there to try to do open air and see how it worked. And, man, I'm telling you, it was tough.

1:40 Cadillac Square was tough. I mean, you know, hardly any people. It was just amazing to me. Cadillac Square is where the buses come and take people out. And it's just really amazing.

1:55 So a lot of stores went by the wayside, one of them being a big department store similar to the May Company. It was called Hudson's. And Hudson's was a big, big store, and they went belly up. I don't think that Hudson's is anywhere now. I think that they just stopped.

2:17 Hudson's did. And they had this huge store down there, and I guess the city fathers decided that they wanted it, they wanted the thing, so what they did was they demoed it. And they brought it was tight. There was a tight area. You have a lot of buildings on the sides and that kind of stuff.

2:42 So they brought in experts to demolition the whole thing in one fell swoop. They brought in the Loiso brothers. Loiso is a publishing house. If you have... You might have some Christian books, but but they also have other brothers that were demolition experts.

3:04 In fact, they were world famous. They were world famous experts, and I think they still are, in demolitioning and having a building implode actually just fall in and not having external damage. So they brought in the Luazo brothers. It was really amazing because they take a lot of time. They really the got to physicality of the building.

3:31 They got to know engineering. They have to know how to blow it in such a way with dynamite charges that it'll just all come in and not fall out. Amazing. Just amazing. A lot of dust, but no debris.

3:49 And it was just really amazing. And they had it on TV where they went you could see it. It goes different charges at different times to make it fall in at a sequence. Know, boom, boom, boom, boom, and the bottom starts falling and then the next thing, was no damage. The buildings that were like this far from nothing wrong with them.

4:14 It's amazing. A lot of dust, though. A lot of dust, but no damage in all in that regard. And I thought to myself, wow, the internal explosions that they did in terms of the girders and the super the structure of it that held the whole building up, they just blew that out like crazy. And I thought to myself, wow, that's an amazing, amazing task.

4:43 Because I thought to myself, wow, this this could this take place within an assembly? Could that take place within an assembly? And so the title of my little talk this morning is how to destroy an assembly. And, I'd like us to look at a passage of scripture. It's first...

5:16 You've got a doctoral, then you've got a personal, and then you've got a... You've got an an exhortation, especially the last two chapters in which the the apostle is talking to the church at Galatian... The churches of Galatians and saying to them and exhorting them in different areas. And one of the areas is... And we'll see this, and he shows us...

5:41 Paul shows us three categories of sin that can destroy this assembly or any assembly. My assembly, this assembly, any assembly. As as Vance Havner, the great preacher, once said, you're not safe until you're home. You are not safe until you're home. He's not talking about eternal security, which he really firmly believed in.

6:08 He's talking about our lives being shipwrecked on a personal level and also on an assembly level. It can happen. And I'm I'm getting older, and I've been in I've been in the work, full time Christian work for forty four years, and I've preached all over the country and some places outside the country, and I've seen what can happen within an assembly. I've seen it and I've seen this over and over actually. I've seen it.

6:39 It's not as clean and nice and buttoned down as the Loazzle brothers did the Hudson Building in Downtown Detroit. And, I've seen it be messy. I've seen it be just... They just fade away. They just go away.

7:00 And I ask myself the question, Why? What's the reason for that? What is the reason for that? As an elder in our assembly, Calvary Bible Chapel, we we constantly have to ask that question. Because as an elder, you know how it goes, maybe you don't.

7:23 Being an elder in an assembly is living martyrdom. It's true. It is really true. Last, you know, I I rare is the time when somebody comes up to an elder and puts their arms around him and says, I just want to let you know I'm praying for you and I appreciate you. That is so rare.

7:44 It's unbelievable. Like hen's teeth and I don't even know does hens have teeth. So, you know, you you say you say to yourself, wow, what is what is it? How how can you and I destroy Westlake Bible Fellowship? How you and I could destroy Calvary Bible Chapel or Lakeside Bible Chapel or any of these any of these assemblies that are dotting across The United States and Canada and different parts of the world.

8:19 How can this take place? And I think that Paul will show us three categories of sins that can destroy ourselves. And in in in destroying ourselves, we destroy the assembly. And let's look at this because we're gonna look at, Galatians chapter five, and we're gonna start in verse... Well, we'll start in verse 16.

8:54 This I say then, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary. The one to the other. So that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

9:22 Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, wrath, factions, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, reviles, and the like, of which I tell you before, as I have also told you, in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And we'll just continue to verse 26, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self control. Again, such there is no law and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust and if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.

10:29 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. So when you look at these, you look at this, we're gonna look at up to verse 21, but the context is really clear, and he's telling us how we should live individually. How we should live, walk not in the... Walk in the spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. And it's an...

10:56 It's not... It's not... It's one or the other. This is this is what amazes me about this. It's one or the other.

11:04 You either are in or controlled by the spirit of god or you are not. Paul writes to the Ephesians and he says to us, be controlled or be filled with the spirit. And you won't... And then here it says, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh, but be filled with the spirit. You know, being an ex charismatic Pentecostal, I thought being filled with the spirit was one of these things of, you know, it was existential, very feeling oriented, and how do you get this, and what does that mean?

11:41 It literally is simple. It's it's as simple as this. You have the word of god in your life, and this is like a little addition thing. Okay? You have the word of God in your life and our understanding of it.

11:56 That means right hermeneutics, plus our bending our will to it through prayer. Plus, you've got all the holy spirit you're ever gonna get if you've received Christ as your personal savior. You got all the holy spirit you're ever gonna get. And I... That was a shock for me because being a former charismatic Pentecostal, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit three weeks after I got saved and guys laying hands on me and all that kind of stuff, which was absolutely flat out wrong.

12:31 The moment you believe on Jesus as your personal savior is the moment you get all the holy spirit you're ever gonna get. And what the holy spirit is going to do is he wants all of you. So if we have the word of God, if this... Can you see this addition problem here? You have the word of God, our understanding of it.

12:51 You have plus bending our will to the word of God through prayer plus the holy spirit already in our life equals the control of life or being filled with the spirit. It's as simple as that And so when somebody says to me, you know, in the in days long time ago, you know, you need to be filled with the spirit. What does that mean? In fact, I just told you what I meant, I think, And, I look at that and I say, well, praise god for that. I had a prophet, Moody Bible Institute, teach me that.

13:28 And that cleared up a lot of stuff for me. It wasn't so... Let me use a big word. I don't even know what it means. Ethereal.

13:36 It wasn't one of these, you know, like, I kind of know what that means but have no idea what that means. Being filled with the spirit. It's really rather simple. You take the word of god, you bend your will, and and can say to God, I wanna do what your word has to say, and I already have the Holy Spirit. He's gonna give me the power to obey it.

13:59 That's the controlled life. Simple. But that can change like that. You can you can change that and not be controlled by the spirit in a heartbeat, in a decision. Boom.

14:15 Next thing, what's controlling you? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter five just briefly just briefly to, get that. Ephesians five eighteen. It says, be not drunk with wine which is excess but be filled with the spirit. And then it says, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, as, you know, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart, giving thanks unto the lord, to the lord, giving thanks always to all things unto god and the father in the name of the lord, our lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of god.

14:58 So, being filled, you can be controlled. Somebody's controlling you. Something is controlling you. Either your flesh is controlling you or the spirit of God is controlling you. This is the problem that Christians have.

15:14 This is the problem that Christians have. It's called an old nature, old sin nature. And we have both. We have the new nature. Colossians is clear on this.

15:27 He says, take off, put off the old man and put on the new. What's the old man? That's the old nature. Doing what we did. You know?

15:35 And some... Is it possible for Christians to live a carnal or a fleshly life? Is that possible? Yes. It is.

15:47 Big time. And we can easily slip right into that into that mode. We easily just goes like that. Next thing you know, you're thinking selfish thoughts, you're whatever, and all these kinds of things. So, we constantly have to focus on the word.

16:06 We have to bend our will to the word of God in obedience, and we already have the Holy Spirit in us, controlled life. That's really nice. That's nice. And we see the fruit of the spirit in Galatians chapter five. We see the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering, 22 through 25.

16:46 You got this really ghostly look on your face. Hi, how are you? I'm in the spirit. I'm doing, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not it at all.

17:00 What it looks like is... Here's what it looks like. Remember what, Psalm one says? Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth standeth in the seat of the sitteth in the seat of the scornful nor standeth in the way of sinners, but his delight is in the law of the lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Right?

17:23 Remember that passage? I like that. The word blessed is the man. Blessed means it's Hebrew Asher. It means, oh, how very happy.

17:36 Oh, how very happy. So I I I... Okay. Let me ask you this question. Is being a grump, being controlled by the spirit or being controlled by the flesh?

17:51 Just want to ask that question. If you're like a grumpy person, where's it going? Yeah, get away from me. How's it going? How's the tribe...

18:03 The tribe's terrible. Ah, the Cleveland Browns. Definitely speaking the truth. You know? Nothing's right.

18:16 Everything... You're you're just the plain grump. Right? And they say, well, when you get older, you become grumpier. Well, I don't think so.

18:25 I mean, why is that? Why why why is that kind of thing? Is it controlled by the flesh or controlled by the spirit? I venture to say that a person who is controlled by the spirit of god is easily entreated, easily to come to. They're not grumpy.

18:46 You know, they're not grumpy. They're they're actually happy. They're happy people. They really are. They are.

18:57 They're happy and so, but when you look at the when you look at this passage that we're going to look at, you know, these three categories, I put em in this way. The categories of sins, in verse 19, we see sensual sins. Sensual sins. In verse 20, verse a, first part of verse 20, substitutional sins. And 20 b and 21, we see societal sins.

19:47 And then in verse 17, he tell and that we won't fulfill the lust of the flesh and then he starts to describe what is the lust of the flesh. What does that look like? Well, if being controlled by the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. We see looking this in verse twenty two and twenty three, meekness, self control, against there is no law, such is no law. Those are the things that look like a person being controlled by the spirit.

20:19 What is the person being controlled by the flesh look like? This is ugly. It's just plain ugly. Why do we wanna go back to the ugliness that we had in our lives prior to coming to Christ? But notice what he says.

20:41 The flesh lusts against the spirit. Put your finger here. We're gonna we're gonna... Sorry. We're gonna go to first Peter.

20:55 To the right. Look at what Peter says in first Peter chapter two verse 11. First Peter chapter two verse 11. He says, dearly beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims. How you doing, pilgrim?

21:24 Sojourners and pilgrims, in other words, we're just passing through, aren't we? We're just a passing through then he says, dearly beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and as pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your souls. So if it says it's warring against my soul, it's not it's not he's got an Irish temper or he's got Italian passion or he's got... No. It's called sin nature, and we have that.

22:03 And at wars, we have this war going on in... Inside of us. And I... I've I've shared this. I know I have, but forgive me.

22:11 I'm gonna share it again. Somebody asked, and this is one of the clearest clearest ways of explaining it, I think. It really helped me. You know, somebody asked this American, Native American chieftain about what it meant to... He was a Christian.

22:27 What it meant to have the two natures within themselves, you know, the old nature and the new nature. He says, It's like having two dogs, white dog, black dog, tails tied together, giving my best Native American accent. Tails tied together, fight all the time. Well, chief, which dog wins? Dog I feed most.

22:57 I think that it's really clear what dog are you feeding. Are we feeding the old nature or are we feeding the new nature? And when we have the word of God in our lives, the word of God has got to be paramount in our lives. In fact, the Bible has to be the Supreme Court from which there is no appeal. It is the final authority.

23:21 Rightly divided. No questions about it. You can make the Bible say anything you want it to say, but rightly divided. Proper hermeneutics, etcetera. Rightly dividing the word of truth.

23:33 Study to show yourself approved unto God. A workman that needs not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth. And I think that this is so critical for us going back to Galatians. So he says, for the flesh lusts against the spirit, it wars against us, against the new man, and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another so that you cannot do the things that you would.

24:05 But if you be led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now, are the works of the flesh manifested. They're made known. Here they are. Here's how it is and these are the sensual sins.

24:19 The sensual sin of adultery. The sensual sin of adultery. This is this is in your heart and this is the thing that god knows. Even as Christians, it can a Christian, can a Christian, a married, Christian lust after somebody else's spouse? Can that take place?

24:45 Can that happen? You bet you it can happen. And if we think that that doesn't happen, where in the world are you? Because you're not informed it can happen big time. That's adultery, you know, married...

25:01 Between married people. Fornication, can this take place? In our culture today, these things are no big deal. In our culture today, these things, these particular societal, since fornication is before marriage, it's having fornication, porneia, and that's exactly what it means. So you have adultery, fornication.

25:24 It's no big deal. People... We teach... At Tepsy, we're teaching... I'm finishing up our semester and finishing up a class on Christian ethics.

25:35 And it's talking about this very thing. It talks about this Christian ethics deals with these very issues. And how does a Christian handle it? And by the way, you look at any movie today, generally speaking, a secular movie, you look at any... And they accept the idea that you're gonna...

25:57 A a young woman will sleep with a young man just to try it out and to see how that's all going to work out and that kind of thing before marriage. Going absolutely diametrically opposed to the word of God, that's fornication. That is fornication and so what we look at in adultery and this is no big deal and I my understanding regarding divorce and remarriage and all that kind of stuff. That's not my my purview at this moment. But the divorce rate among Christians, it's almost reaching a problem.

26:31 I don't know if it's surpassing the secularization of of of marriage. It's surpassing in terms of divorce, in terms of percentage of people. Somebody once said even among Christians, it's fifty percent of Christian marriages wind up in divorce. That's amazing to me. It is amazing to me.

26:53 But not so much because if we're following the flesh and not the word of god, we will we'll accept it. The Corinthians had a problem among many. And the one problem was in chapter five verse one that a man was sleeping with his father's wife and they accepted it. They had no problems with that And he says, you should deliver that one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, for the saving of his soul. Ain't that amazing?

27:35 So the Corinthians' problem was this. Did the church influence the culture, or did the Corinthian culture, which was really bad pizza, influenced the Corinthian church, and the latter, the Corinthians, were influenced by the world. They were totally influenced by him, and they were so carnal. Some people say, I wanna be a New Testament church. Me too, but not like the Corinthian church.

28:07 No way. Don't want that. And and he was telling the churches at Galatia, he says, here's what the flesh looks like. You have adult sensual sin of adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness. Uncleanness, things that will destroy you.

28:36 A number of years ago, during the Reagan administration, Edwin Meese, the attorney general, did a edited or was the person that really got it going, and they did this big expanse of study on pornography in The United States. This is the U. S. Government doing this. They said it was so pervasive, so unbelievable.

29:05 It was hard to fathom. And they came up with a report in a book, a book like looked like the Manhattan phone book. And it was just amazing how you know, what the... What is going on today. And it's worse...

29:21 That was during the Reagan administration. It's worse today. It's worse today. Easy peasy to get that stuff on the phone. And you would be surprised and shocked to see how many people you might know be hooked on it.

29:42 They're saying it's like mental heroin. Mental heroin. And this is what this is what, this is how pervasive and damaging it is, uncleanness. Uncleanness. And then you have lasciviousness.

30:02 Doing whatever you wanna do. No problem. Do whatever you want. I'm who I am, and no one's gonna tell me I'm a free moral agent. True.

30:13 But if you've been bought with the price, you're not your own. If you've trusted Christ as your personal savior, you got a war going on inside. And that's exactly what Peter is telling us, and this is exactly what Paul is telling us. It's taking place, the war taking place in your heart and in your mind. Every Christian has this, and it's who we feed the most that it wins.

30:41 Who wins? And this is this is really a a very, very tough thing. Very tough thing indeed. So we can destroy ourselves, and we can destroy this assembly by sensual sins. You can do it.

31:06 No one's gonna know about it except God knows about it, you know about it, and maybe a close person. But this is an evil thing. I mean, James talks about the evilness that comes and it's manifested through the tongue especially. The evil. He says the tongue is set on fire from where?

31:35 Hell. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And so this is this is something that is so damaging not only to yourself and to your if you're if you're married to your marriage. It's just destructive, destructive.

31:59 And you know where it all starts? I'll you where it all starts. Right here. James talks about when sin becomes sin. When temptation becomes sin, he says it in James one eighteen.

32:22 When lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin. When does that take place? Is there a moment in time that that sin, that temptation that we all get... Every man is tempted when he is... Right?

32:38 He's tempted. We're all tempted. It's what we do with that temptation that makes the difference. It's what we do with it. When does it become sin?

32:48 It's when we mix our will with the temptation. In other words, we say yes to it. You've sinned. You might act it out. Oh, I've never fornicated.

33:03 I have never done this. I have never gone on through somebody else's way. I've never... Wait a second. The moment you mix your will with that temptation is the moment you have sinned.

33:19 And you need to get right as a Christian. You need to get right with God immediately. Because the spirit of God is going... You know what the spirit of God is doing right now at that time? Don't do it.

33:29 Don't do it. If you're a Christian, this is always true. Don't do this. You do it. You've done it.

33:35 Get right with me. You've done it. It's called the conviction of the Spirit of God. The most miserable people on this planet are not the unsaved heroin addicts, unsaved prostitutes, and all that. No.

33:54 The most miserable people on this planet are Christians who are not living for Jesus, who have succumbed and mixed their will with that temptation. Boom. That's the moment you become... You have sinned. That very moment.

34:11 Ain't that a killer? It's off... It is a killer. It's a killer to your own spiritual life. And it's a killer and then you think, I haven't hurt anybody but myself.

34:25 Wrong. Wrong. Oh, no. That's another lie. You hurt people around you when you're not living controlled by the Spirit of God.

34:38 Because it's one or the other, folks. Either the flesh is controlling you or you're being controlled by the spirit of god. And that, you know, that's what he's talking about. This is why he's telling us and he he tells us, walk in the spirit. Be controlled by the spirit.

35:02 And so notice this now. So we look at the sensual sins. And not only can we destroy ourselves and this assembly through sensual sins, but we also can do it through substitutional sins. I put it substitutionally because... Notice verse 20.

35:24 Idolatry and sorcery. Idolatry and sorcery. What's idolatry? I was talking to my friend yesterday and he was telling me of a basketball player who plays in a certain locale near us that says that he feels that people worship him as God, like he's a God. If that's the case, if that's the case, that's called idolatry.

36:01 Any other thing that we would worship, whether it would be money, whether it would be whatever, it is called idolatry. Would you turn with me, please? Keep your finger here and look at Exodus. Exodus chapter, I believe, 20. Exodus chapter 20.

36:26 That's in the not in the New Testament, I think. Right. Okay, excuse me. Exodus 22. Sorry.

36:44 Exodus 22 verse 20. And actually, let's look at verse 18. Exodus 22 verse 18 and following, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. Verse 20, he that sacrifices unto any god, save unto the lord only, he shall utterly be destroyed.

37:23 That's Old Testament economy. Praise God that we're not doing that, putting people to death. Disobedient to parents. You could take them before the elders in the in the in Israel, and they would put them... If they would be found true, they'd put them to death.

37:40 They'd stone them. So, man, this is bad news. I mean, for those of us who are walking away from God and idolatry, having an idolatrous, you can make a relationship idolatrous. You can make anything, anything, your education idolatrous. You can make anything idolatrous.

38:06 You're a ministry idolatrous. You can... Anything. If it's anything but the Lord himself, it's idolatry. How's that one for you?

38:17 So we have to look at the Lord Jesus, and we can worship Him and Him only. This is what we're to do, and this is what we're called to do. We're to worship Him. We've been bought with a price. We're to worship only Him.

38:34 And we're loving... We wanna let the spirit of God control us. Because if we don't do this, we're letting the old nature and the sin nature control us, and it's ugly. It's ugly sin. That's what it is.

38:54 And so when we look at this, we look at this particular, you know, sorcery, And I think I'm not sure what the Greek word on this one is. It might be pharmakeia sorcery in the old in the Book of Revelation. It's pharmakeia. It's anything but the spirit of God. So idolatry and sorcery, I mean, I can't believe all the junk that they got on television.

39:18 Television, you know. What's that? I didn't even watch... I haven't watched one episode. How's that for spiritualness?

39:25 I just think it's stupid where they got the vampire guys. What do they call that? I I forget the name of that stuff. They got the vampire. And he's real handsome.

39:36 So, it must be good. You know, you're really handsome and beautiful people. You never see really ugly people do that. They're really good. None of that.

39:45 You don't see ugly people with the fangs and all that. They're real handsome and their hair is perfect. How's that going? Then they turn into dogs or something. I don't know.

39:54 And then they come back to people and they fight and they got the good vampires and the bad vampires. I'm going, this is stupid. This is absolute stupidity, but it makes them a good coin, right? Makes them a lot of money. And we we saps in America buy it up.

40:16 You know? But substitution, we're substituting anything. That's why I call it substitutional sins. We, with idolatry and sorcery, we're substituting anything for the not only who God is, but His power. His power.

40:39 I had a guy curse me in the name of Satan once. Did I ever tell you about that? Yeah. Was in Downtown Cleveland. He comes up to me, and and here's the...

40:48 Here's exactly what he did. He uses this symbol at me and he says, I curse you in the name of Santino. I looked at it. This actually happened. No kidding.

41:03 I looked at him and said, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. Right on it was right where Fenny Farmers used to be, Euclid Avenue and Ontario. I said, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. He goes, boom. Took off.

41:17 This guy had the greatest first step I ever saw in my life. I've never seen a guy move so fast in my life. And he ran around public square, the whole thing. I don't know if that's a quarter mile or not, but he went past the high end. He went way over there, came near the library, and then came back.

41:36 And I am not kidding. I am not lying. This is not an exaggeration. He came up to me right near Fanny Farmers, which is not there anymore, and he went like this. He's looking at me and I said, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.

41:48 And he goes, I was a little surprised by his reaction. There's only one name. There's only one name, and his name is Jesus. There's only one power, and it's him. And it resides with him.

42:10 He's the only one. And so this idolatry and sorcery, people are looking for this power. It's only in the Lord. So this is why I call it substitutional sins. And then we have societal sins.

42:24 And I I I labeled these last ones, the verses 20 b to 21, as internal and external. Internal societal sins. Notice what it says. I I... You know, I have the first one there.

42:41 You have jealousy. Jealousy, wrath, factions, seditions, heresy, jealousy. Prettier than me, handsomer than me, wealthier than me. How did they do that? How did they get there?

43:07 Jealousy. Jealousy. Oh, I deserve this. I... They shouldn't have...

43:17 I should I should be first jealousy. That ever happened to you? Or am I the only one that's ever experienced that? Jealousy. You know, not rejoicing that God has shown them or put them in a particular area or, you know, advanced them or they have, you know, more money or they got a new car.

43:45 No, no, no, no. You don't rejoice with that. You get upset with that. Why? Because you think you deserve that.

43:55 I like what somebody once said that pride kills Thanksgiving. We think we deserve more than what we got. We think we deserve that. Reality tells us, the word of god tells us that that we deserve the wrath of god. Anything that we have been given by god is by god and we don't deserve it.

44:24 It's by the grace of God. Undeserved merit. Undeserved favor. So anything that you have been given, materially, physically, doesn't matter. Mentally, all these kinds of...

44:40 Has been given by god. So why in the world... If god has given somebody else something, why in the world... You know what we're saying? God, you didn't give enough to me.

44:54 It's called jealousy. It's a very, very insidious. And by the way, we can rationalize that one right out the door. Well, no, no, no. We and we can give all these excuses but the baseline on this one is jealousy and it's sin.

45:14 It's just a plain sin. You can't you can't and notice what else it says, wrath. You get upset. You get upset and you will take it out on other people whether verbal abuse or whether actual physical, whatever. Wrath.

45:38 I have a friend who's angry as this unsaved guy. Angry. And you can understand his family life was in the pits. Angry. When he trusted Christ as his personal Savior, the anger went away.

45:58 Isn't that amazing? And he exhibited that anger. He'd fight on the football field. He'd fight in the basketball court. All this kind of stuff.

46:07 Wrath. For the Christian, we fight against this. He's not talking to unsaved people. He's talking to Christians. Wrath, jealousy, wrath.

46:21 These societal sins that envyings. Notice this, the internal. We envy people. Verse 21, the first word, envyings. And then notice the externals.

46:40 You've got hatred, strife, again, wrath, factions, seditions. The Corinthian church knew all about this. I am of Paul. No, I am of the Pauls. No.

46:57 I am of Christ. Oh, you're real spiritual now. These divisions, he says, doesn't make you spiritual. They make you carnal. I can't speak to you as spiritual.

47:16 I have to speak to you, Paul says to the Corinthian church in first Corinthians three, I have to speak to you as babies in Christ. Why? Because they had seditions. They had factions, factious, and it's all in the heart and in the mind. And then it's manifested this way.

47:39 It's manifested this way. Heresies. Oh, I don't believe that. Did you ever have somebody say that to you? No.

47:49 No. Here's what it really is. Okay. Rightly dividing the word of truth is going to come up. If you rightly divide the word of truth accurately, you will only have one interpretation of the Bible.

48:04 You will not have two. On any given subject, you will not have a duplicitous God. I had a friend of mine call me up one time, he said to me, You know, Chris, I believe that the Bible teaches the eternal security of the believer. I'm going, That's great, Harry. He said, I also believe the Bible teaches that you can lose your salvation.

48:30 I said, it's like the exact opposite. I said, No way in a million years. Somebody one time at a full time workers meeting that we had in Detroit, one time said, you know, this guy said, this full time worker in an assembly on the West Side, he says, you know, I can teach that head coverings are of God. And I can also teach just as legitimately that head coverings are not of God. And one of the full time workers, he just spoke up, he says, Not in a million years, brother.

49:17 Not in a million years. One interpretation there's many applications, but there's only one interpretation. You hold to the literal, historical, grammatical, hermeneutic, you will hold to what the Bible teaches. You can't fudge on that one because there's rules to it. Allegorically, if you hold to allegorical interpretation of the scriptures, there's no rules with that.

49:46 You can do whatever you want. You can make Jesus a yellow dump truck. You could do that because there's no rules for it. But for the literal, historical, grammatical, hermeneutic, there's only one interpretation. And the Bible is its best commentary.

50:06 I know I got a lot of commentaries in my library and in our school, in our library at school, the Ezekiel Prize. A lot of commentaries, but the best commentary is the Bible, the absolute best. The best commentary is the bible. It will it will comment on itself. So this will dispense with heresies.

50:29 Then notice this this is an absolute... I'm gonna say this. Killer murderers. Murders, drunkenness, revilings. And then I think I I think this kind of not tongue in cheek, but Paul is going to say anything that's of the work and the alike.

50:54 That covers anything else that is of the flesh. And he says, of which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of god. Well, that was true of the old old days. This is, you know, a person can be saved. No questions about it and get into the works of the flesh and look as if they were never saved.

51:23 Is that possible? Yeah. That is possible. It's... We see it.

51:29 We see it in the in the New Testament. Demons have loved this present world and left. You have Ananias and Sapphira. You know, they were wiped out. They were killed.

51:40 I'm telling you right now, god, you you look at Thessalonians sometime and see what god... First Thessalonians or second Thessalonians chapter one and tell me what he thinks of this assembly and anybody who comes into this assembly trying to destroy it. He'll come after you. God will come after you. It's not a...

52:07 We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the workers. You know, this is exactly... Workers of darkness in this age. This is exactly what he'll come after you. God loves this assembly.

52:24 Did you know that? He sent his son to die for us. And he is holding us and interceding for us and sends the Holy Spirit to... As the glue to keep us together. But the flesh is insidious.

52:43 And we think, oftentimes, when we're in the flesh, we think we're right. Ain't that a kicker? It's a horrible thing. It's so so deceptive, and we've got to be constantly on guard. Constantly on guard.

53:03 And if we're not on guard, shame on us. Shame on us. We have to constantly keep Jesus as the focus. Isaiah puts it this way beautifully. Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.

53:22 Isaiah 20 six:three. And verse four, For in the Lord God Jehovah, verse four, is everlasting strength. Isaiah 20 six:three and four. I look at this and I say to myself, Lord, help me to keep my focus on you. Help me to do this.

54:26 You can't even move in Times Square. Do you know how small Times Square is? I mean, people go, Times Square looks big on TV. It's real small. And they get about almost 2,000,000 people, and you're moving like this.

54:40 I'm gonna set a sketch board up. I I definitely got the crowd, But there's no way they're even going to listen to me, this kind of thing. Every year we look at that and we see the ball drop and we have this hope. Wow, this hope, things are going to get better. Right?

54:59 Things are going to get better with the New Year. I can't believe it's April already. How's your New Year's resolutions going? I made a resolution not to make them, not to make a resolution because what I know I'm going to fail all the time. Only one life.

55:42 I don't want to lecture. I want to challenge. What does the Bible teach? What is it saying to me? Rightly divided.

55:57 And what am I going to do with this? Can't walk out the same. You just can't do it. You can't... And many of you right now are making a decision.

56:10 You know, Chris Schroeder, you're an idiot. And you would be right. You're ugly. You would be really right. Praise God and pray for Barb.

56:25 Okay? Married an idiot and an ugly idiot. Okay? But here's the deal. What is God saying through his word to your mind?

56:50 If there's business to be done right now, why don't we do it? I'm gonna give us... I know we're a little over time. Why don't we just... I'm gonna give you about twenty seconds, and then you start the start the process.

57:04 Lord, I have whatever. And then ask the Lord to forgive. Ask the Lord to renew. What do you say? Father, help us.

57:51 Father, forgive us if we have sinned against you, if we have sinned against one another. Forgive us if we're the source of that tension. We know that we have sinned against you. If we have, we ask you to forgive us. Wash us clean.

58:16 Help us to be controlled by your spirit. Minister to us, Lord, in this. If there are things that we have to do to make things right, help us. Help us, Lord God, to love you more. And in turn, love each other more.

58:52 Lord God, please help us, we pray. We yield to you this very second. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.