Do Not Deprive One Another

And when Andy assigned these out to us, I know he laughed when he said this is the one Michael have to teach on.

So this is, for some people, this might be a little uncomfortable, but we're gonna go through it.

I'm gonna read, I'm gonna read the whole chapter, but I'm gonna, because of the context of what he's saying, I'm gonna read chapter 7, verses 1 through 8.

No, I'm gonna go through 11.

Now, concerning the things wrote, concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman to have her own husband.

The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does, and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.

Stop depriving one another, except for the agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

But this I say by way of concession, and this is not a command, yet I wish that all men were even as I myself, however each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner and one to another.

But I say to the unmarried and to the widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I, but if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better for them to marry than to burn, and in some translation it continues on to say with passion.

But to the married I give instructions, not I, but this is from the Lord, that a wife should not leave her husband, but if she does leave her husband, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

The context of the whole book of Corinthians, for those of you who may not know, he is answering a bunch of assertions, we're not sure if the letter that was written to Paul had to deal with they were actual questions, but when we do interpretation we can understand that there was something that was being asked, or assertions that were made by the way he answers this.

Like in this case he says, now concerning the things which you wrote, so there's obviously they wrote either him a question, or an assertion, or something, so Paul in chapter 7 is answering some questions concerning marriage, and the verse that for the one another this week specifically has to deal with stop depriving one another except for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

This specifically has to deal with marriage life, so that is what we will talk about, I don't know if I'll get to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we may, but we may spend a good bit here.

He says, now concerning the things wrote to you, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

There was a teaching going on in Corinth that after they were converted it was not good for a man, a husband, to have conjugal rights with his wife, okay? Now, that is not uncommon in church history, believe it or not.

If you look at the church fathers during the apostolic age, if you would even take those such as Origen, do you know who Origen was? He was probably what we would call the father of the allegorical interpretation, and he was off his kilter a little bit, but he was a biblical interpreter.

He was so off in his biblical interpretation that he took, if your right eye offends you, cut it off, or it is better for you to go into heaven with no eye or no hand than to go into heaven, I mean, to go into heaven with missing an appendage than to go to hell with all of them, and he castrated himself, okay? So, just to let you know, he took some things allegorically, and then he took things physically.

This is what we're supposed to do.

So even Augustine had issues with men being married, obviously the Catholic church, all of that, so through church history that has been an issue, and I know this is Reformation Day, Martin Luther, one of the first things that he said after coming to the conclusion that priests could be married, he says, what a wonderful thing to wake up in the morning with pigtails next to him.

So he understood that it was a good thing for men to be married, but you can read Augustine, you could read any of the church fathers in the pre-Nicene Age, and you will see that those that served thought that celibacy was the way to go.

Ma'am? It was anti-Nicene, it's called anti, not meaning against, but it would be before 325 because the Nicene Creed came out, the Council of Nicaea came out in 325, so it would be before then, then, and you could even look at the time of Augustine and on, which would have been in the 5th century, 4th century, so he says here it's not good for a man to touch a woman, so he's going to answer these questions, or this assertion, he says, because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife.

Now when we hear that each man should have his own wife, we immediately think of, well, he should just have his wife, have a wife.

That's not really what he's saying, the assumption here is when the Bible used the word a man should have his wife, it's actually the conjugal, the rights, and he should have his own wife, not someone else's, not concubines, and remember, these men and these women were coming out of sexual immorality in Corinth, it was laden with sexual immorality, and he was saying, hey, a man should have his own wife, that's where his conjugal rights are given by God and to be enjoyed, he says, and each man is to have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

The husband must fulfill the duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her own husband.

That duty is obviously in conjugal rights.

The wife does not have the authority over her own body, but the husband does, and likewise also the husband does not have the authority over his own body, but the wife does.

Do you understand in Greco-Roman culture and in Jewish culture, that statement right there is absolutely contrary to the culture.

Women were property, and for them to say that they have authority over the husband was very, very, very odd, but it's a specific type of authority, meaning if the wife had the authority for conjugal rights to her husband, just as the husband did to the wife, then that would have been contrary, even under Torah, even some of your writings before the New Testament was written, men would say, hey, we're going to abstain for a time of studying Torah and in prayer and abstain from the wife.

Well, now, as we go on, you would see that they can't even do that unless they come to an agreement that this is the right thing to do.

And he says, and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does, and then here's the command.

Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Why would he have to say, you know, why would he have to say stop depriving one another? That's exactly right.

That's the dead giveaway.

Yeah, they were doing something that was causing deprivation, and actually, if you go back, the word is used deprived here, but if you go back into chapter six where he talks about where they were suing one another, another question he was answering, they were taking one another to court, I don't know if y'all remember that passage, they were suing one another, and he said, quit defrauding one another.

That's the same word that's used here for deprived, is why are you basically, does anybody's translation say defraud? Yours does? Yeah.

It says defraud, and defraud is actually, in my opinion, and I love the new American Standard, defraud is actually a better way of saying it, because when you defraud somebody, what are you doing? I'm sorry? Yeah, but if you defraud somebody, you're taking something from them that's actually theirs, cheating, stealing, withholding, when they were saying they were defrauding one another and taking them to court, what they were doing was trying to take their property, I don't know if y'all remember that, that's what they were doing, they were taking their property, well that property wasn't theirs, it wasn't the people that were suing, it was your property, and they were suing you to take what was rightfully yours, in this case, what's rightfully the husband's, and what's rightfully the wife's, the other one's saying it's not.

So he's saying, hey, quit defrauding one another, hey brother, quit defrauding one another.

And then he goes on, and he says, except for a time of agreement, now, we just said a second ago that the Jewish men could unilaterally just say, we're not going to do this anymore, what does this text say can happen at this point? They can't unilaterally make that decision anymore.

There has to be a specific time when these two individuals, the husband and wife come together and they say, you know what, we're going to abstain from conjugal rights for a specific purpose, not for any other purpose.

What's the purpose? What's that? Prayer.

Right, prayer.

And it gives a specific time, not length, but it says for a time.

So this isn't just an indefinite period of time.

It has to be on an agreed time that these people, these two individuals within the confines of marriage, husband and wife, are going to say, hey, we're going to abstain from our conjugal rights in order to, for prayer.

And then it says here, so that you would devote yourselves to prayer and then they would come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

I think that is a very, very astounding statement from Paul.

He knows that during the time of abstaining from one another for that time of prayer, that temptation will creep in, doesn't he? Does anybody agree that temptation would creep in? Okay.

And he says, why does Satan come in to tempt you? Because of their lack of self-control.

And then he goes on to say this, but this I say by way of concession and not a command.

He's not talking about what he just said in verse five.

He's talking about what he's fixing to say.

Although, I do believe that Paul is not saying it's a command that men and women have to set apart a time to abstain from conjugal visit or conjugal rights for prayer.

I don't believe that's what Paul is saying.

I believe that Paul is saying there is a time when this may be necessary.

If anybody disagrees with me, I'm fine with that.

But I believe that's what Paul was saying.

And he says here, he says, but this I say by way of concession and not a command, yet I wish that all men were even as I myself.

What was Paul at this point? Was he married or unmarried? What's that? Unmarried.

And we don't know if Paul was married before.

We don't know if Paul was a single man.

We don't know what.

But we know at this point, Paul is not married.

And he says, however, each man can have his own gift from God.

One is in this manner, one in another.

Paul had a very different calling than any of us have ever had in our life.

Paul was going to be an instrument of suffering.

And if you remember, that's what he was told on the road to Damascus.

He said, you will be a vessel of of suffering.

You imagine no worries, the men that are married here, no worry about, hey, if I go into this city and preach and I get stoned or beat with rocks, that sounds better.

Yeah, if I go into this city and I get beat with rocks and sticks and get run out because I went to the synagogue and started a riot, there was no concern in Paul's mind to go, man, I got to go home, bust it up to my wife.

Now he can just go on to the next city and he doesn't have to worry about the concerns of his wife.

Every man in here would know if they come home busted up and beat up or you've had a rough day, the talking with your wife, she's going to be concerned.

Imagine coming home where you've been drug outside the city dead.

You have to go home to your wife.

Paul didn't have to worry about that.

He just licks his wounds and goes on to the next city.

He says for each man has his own gift and one in this manner, one another in that.

I believe that celibacy is a good thing and I believe it is a gift from God and I believe that marriage is a gift from God.

And if you're here and you're unmarried and you have a desire to be married, you have do not have the gift of celibacy because you have a desire to be married.

Marriage is a gift from God and it's to be enjoyed between one man and one woman and that forever.

But I say to the unmarried in verse eight, but I say to the unmarried and to the widows that it is good for them to remain even as I.

But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion, as Paul saying here, and this is I really do want some answers as Paul saying here.

Hey, if you can't keep from wanting to have sexual desires to just get married.

You don't think that's a Paul saying here.

Yeah, I don't think that Paul saying, hey, if you're only outlet that to get rid of your lustful desires to get married, that's not what Paul saying, because that's not that's not going to curb the lustful desire.

But if you have a desire to get married, get married.

And then in the confines of marriage, that desire for that person can be fulfilled.

If you if you marry someone for the way that they look and you're an attraction that will soon fade, you know, as the book of Ecclesiastes says, you know, beauty is fleeting.

You know, you could be led to be 100 years old and be like Sarah, be beautiful all 99 years.

But man, I don't want to blip on the screen, you know, in comparison to the life he said, but let let them marry for it's better than to marry than to burn with passion.

Now, there are two interpretations of and I'm not going to tell you which one mine is.

Let them marry unless they burn with passion.

There's two.

One says that they believe that it's the actual desire that swells up within those men and women.

And it's just uncontrollable, a flame, I should say.

But there is another interpretation that says that it is better for them to marry than to burn and meaning instead of dying in their lustful desires and end up in hell.

I think that I think that holds weight because if you go back to chapter six, where he says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of heaven and do not be deceived? And here what he says, you're fornicators, adulterers, idolaters, effeminate, homosexual, thieves, nor coveters, nor drunkenness, nor revilers, swindlers will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

But such were some of you that you were sanctified, that you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of God.

So I would say both of them hold weight.

I vacillate in verse 10.

But to the married, I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband.

But she should, but she does not, I'm sorry, but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or else he reconciles to her husband and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

So Paul in here has handled the the issue of men touching their wives, women touching their husbands, the reason for not depriving one another because it would it leads to to lustful desires and to Satan tempting.

Then he goes on telling him that if someone's a widow, it'd be easier for them to if they can be remarried, be married, if not, remain unmarried, even as he deals with the issues of marriage and burning with passion.

And then he gets to here and he says that a that a wife should not leave her husband.

How often do you think in the Greco-Roman culture were wives leaving their husband? Not much.

That's right.

They sure didn't.

They had no way of supporting himself.

But men was pretty common.

You know, they didn't really have writs of divorce such as we do today.

They could just come home and say, you know what, I'm done.

I'm moving on and it's over.

But here it is.

He's speaking to the believers.

He said to the believing husband, Levi says that the wife should not leave her husband and vice versa.

OK, the husband should not leave his wife.

Now, if those two parties do part, what does it say they're supposed to do? Does it say they can remarry? It says that remain unmarried.

Or be reconciled to themselves now that when it says here that they're not to leave, this is not trumping the exception clauses used by Jesus or Paul.

Infidelity.

You do have grounds for divorce, although I do not believe infidelity is the default.

I think there's two believers.

There's infidelity within a marriage.

I think how difficult that would be to work through.

I think reconciliation is possible.

But they do have the right to leave.

Although that should not be the immediate response, but there are covenant breaking sins that do that can lead to.

The disillusion of a marriage, I believe that abuse, whether it be physical abuse, and I do believe that abandonment and adultery.

And those are explicit in scripture.

And the husband should not divorce his wife.

A man should not leave his wife for any reason other than just three that I said.

And even at that, we should take that with care.

Any questions on that? I'll move on to the next one if there's no questions.

That was very difficult.

I'm just going to be honest with you, because that deals with marriage.

I mean, we can try to shoehorn some.

We shouldn't deprive one another.

And to that application to the believer.

But I think that would be very difficult dealing with the context.

So that was an uncomfortable walking through that text for some people.

I do apologize.

Anybody questions? Ma'am, you said 17.

Yeah, it says here only as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each in this manner, let him walk.

Look, if you're married, continue to stay to be married.

If you're unmarried, Paul says it's OK to be unmarried.

If this is what God's call is on your life, he's not saying if you're married, if you're unmarried, you need to run out there and you have to be married in order to have a sanctified life.

Now, I will even say this in in history, you had the church fathers in the Apostolic Age who saw it as a good thing not to be married.

Oh, another thing about Kukio origin, he said the only reason for a man and woman to come together was he was how retarded this is, is to it was to birth virgins into the world.

Well, that's exactly the face I gave when I read that, that how long will that last? Yeah.

So that's how kooky he was.

So now we have in this in our culture and we've come to reading this passage, we come to 21st century, don't we? And people being unmarried is very odd.

Who ever gave him any credit? Catholic Church sees him as.

Yeah, yeah, he's got some kooky stuff, man.

Yeah.

Yeah, he did have some good writings, but he was, you know, I've got his books.

So now we go, OK, they went from this end to going, hey, if you were married, if you were married, it was bad to be in church leadership.

Now we've gone so far to the other end that you go, well, you can't serve the Lord properly unless you have been married.

And I do understand from the counseling side, it would be very difficult.

Mike was you were an elder at one time, if I was to come to Mike and said, hey, man, I need some counsel on rearing my kids and and and living with my wife in an understanding way.

But Mike was never married.

How difficult would that be for him to give me now? He could look into scripture and give me what the Bible says.

But where is he going to give the great wisdom from? Get that from life.

So that's why I do believe it's important that elders be a husband of one wife and to be married.

I believe that is the and have children.

I believe that that is the the the the qualifications.

And it actually says it's necessary.

And it's for that very reason that they don't they're not married and have children.

How can they? How can they love the Lord? That's right.

God's people look in and see how they're maintaining and bringing up their house and then apply that with how they'll maintain it and and nurture the house.

And that's actually what the in the statement.

Yeah, that's actually the statement that's made in scripture, where it says, well, yeah, you look at can he keep his house in submission if he cannot rule his house? Well, then how do we know that he will love God's people? Because you have no way if look, if he won't love and he won't love and take care of his own family, who's in his own home, how will he do those that he don't that don't live in his home? And you have no way of looking into that man's life to look at his character, the longevity of how he's loved his wife, the longevity of how he's cared for his kids.

That's right, Mark.

You were going to say something.

Oh, well, let's call it a lot of names by feminists, but in this passage, he clearly did a lot for women.

Oh, he did.

He actually he puts the stamp of approval that women have rights and that they are equal.

Yeah, Paul was not he was not anti what's a champion.

Yeah, he was not anti woman.

He actually was giving them rights and privileges that the Greco-Roman and Jewish culture actually said they did not have.

Andy, you look like you're going to say something.

No, no.

Anybody else? Paul was the original.

More anything else on marriage before we spend maybe 10 minutes and the next one disagreements, rights or demonstrations? All right.

And I won't get through all this, but let's let's read First Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 through 33, and this is concerning the Lord's Supper and how we're to conduct ourselves.

These are actually instructions, obviously, to the church of Corinth.

He says, for I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed, he took the bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is I'm sorry, this is my body, which is for you do this in remembrance of me.

And in the same way, he took the cup and also after the supper saying the cup is the new covenant in my blood and do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me or as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

But as a man must examine himself and in doing so, he is to eat of the bread and drink the cup for he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks the judgment on himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

For this reason, many among you are weak and sick and a number of them are asleep.

But if we judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

So then, my brethren, when you come together and you do eat, wait for one another.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that you will not come together for judgment.

The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.

OK, he gives instructions on how the how he received from Jesus himself.

This is Paul saying he didn't receive this from Peter and from John.

He said, he said, I received these instructions from the Lord Jesus himself.

And he goes on in the night in which he was he was betrayed and he says, man must examine himself or a woman examined himself.

And for what purpose should they examine themselves? What does it say? We go through this every Sunday.

What's the purpose? That's right.

And what is an unworthy man or man? Does it mean that we should be eating bread and shouldn't be drinking the grape juice? What is it was unworthy man or man? Unrepentant.

That's right.

They have a heart of unrepentance.

And it doesn't mean that we did you sin this week.

All of us have.

But are we holding some form of bitterness or strife or anger towards someone? And I can tell you right now, when I first came here and some of you know that I left a church where the man had stolen a substantial amount of money.

And when I got I came here, I told Keith it was very difficult because we did this every week here.

We weren't used to doing that.

And I had I was still angry about that situation.

And I says, hey, I'm struggling if I'm what I'm doing is is wrong.

I says I'm not holding any ill will towards that person.

At least I don't think that I am.

But when I think of him, I'm still get angry.

Does that mean I'm holding bitterness? And by taking the the bread in the cup, am I heaping God's judgment on me? And he walked through that with me and I was very thankful for that.

Hurt? Yeah.

Was I taken in an unworthy manner? No, because I was not holding bitterness towards him.

Will the the the hurt ever go away from that situation? Maybe.

I mean, you think about things that you've been hurt for by someone or hurt your family very badly and you go, yeah, it still doesn't make me feel the best in the world.

But was I holding ill will and was I willing to forgive that man if he came and asked for it? And I was not withholding anything from him.

So examine ourselves so that we don't take an unworthy manner.

And then he goes on down here and he said, why did he have to say this? Brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

That's actually the one another in this passage.

Why would he have to say that? What were they doing in Corinth? They were overindulging.

So when we think about the Lord's table, we think about a little piece of bread and a little cup that we're taking.

That's not how it was there.

And I think it was a few weeks ago I told you there would be kids and everybody running around and they'd be having a party.

And this was most likely going on every day at that time because they were coming together to eat on the daily basis.

So as they were coming around and they were eating.

Well, those that didn't work during the day were coming and partying and they were having a good old time.

And by the time the people that had worked all day, because remember, this was daily work, daily pay.

They were showing up.

All the food was gone and all the juice was gone.

Well, in that case, it was wine, but all the wine was gone.

And why was all the wine gone? Because of other people were drunk and partied.

And he's saying, don't do that.

If you can, he goes on another instruction.

He says, hey, if you can eat, eat at your house before you come.

You have food at home, you go eat because there would be some that this would be the only full meal that they would get.

Now, do we know in the course of church history at what point did this what they would call a love feast where they were coming together and enjoying this meal together when it became part of the the liturgy of the church? We don't really know.

We have writings to where at some point I can't remember, maybe it was Athanasius.

Maybe it was Athanasius where he said that we have come together for the Lord's table at a time of service.

So we the implication and I'll find it good, I think it was Athanasius where he says, hey, this is what was going on that during our our time of worship on the Lord's Day, we partook.

But we don't know when it became part of the liturgy, although I think it's a good thing where it says, because it's awesome if you come together, do this.

Well, when are we all together? On the Lord's Day.

Well, then they were meeting together every day in homes.

Well, under our context, we just we meet together on the Lord's Day and understand we're also we're trying to read into what they were doing because they wanted to meeting together every day to where we're commanded to meet together on the Lord's Day.

Now, hey, if you all want to get together, you don't want to eat together and have all that during the week, that's great.

I think it'd be very difficult in our culture.

We all don't live within probably twenty five yards from each other.

These were a very confined community.

It's not like that now.

But they were coming together for the purpose of enjoying a meal together, and then at some point during that that that meal, they would use a common cup, which I don't think anybody here would want to do that.

And it's it was in history says that they passed around a common piece of bread and they broke it off.

We were in a at CSC, the church I went to years ago.

That's how they did not the common cup, but they passed around a giant loaf and everybody just pinched off that loaf.

How weird would people be now doing that? You know, you want to be at the end of the line.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that that was that's why he says here, wait for one another.

Why do you have some common courtesy for your brother who has not eaten? And wait for him.

This might be the only meal he's going to get.

He may not leave even with a full belly, but this will hold him over till the next day.

He says here, if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, but you will not come together for judgment.

I can't remember right off hand when Andy was doing on the don't judge one another.

But this is one of the passages that came to me when he was thinking when he was saying that, because right here it says in the same verse, it says judge, but don't judge.

So you have to go, OK, what is he saying here? It's OK.

Well, we should judge one another rightly.

And he says, but we so that we will not be judged.

We should make a distinction among ourselves what's right and wrong.

Look, if they were partying and they were getting a full belly and being drunk, I mean, common sense would say, I probably shouldn't be doing this.

If my brother who is in need comes and there's nothing here for him to eat, that would be making a discerning.

And I think the word here is diacrino.

I have to look at.

But judge is to make a discernment, a decision of what's right and wrong.

And that he said, you know, we we are to judge one another and to judge ourselves, that we be disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

Look, there is condemnation if we don't judge ourselves.

If we don't judge ourselves and keep ourselves examined, that could lead to the condemnation of the Lord within our life, not condemnation, meaning God's going to drop the hammer of wrath on us that was paid on the cross.

But it does mean that whom the Lord loves, he disciplines.

Might also all be sick, as I think somewhere he also says that another way of showing love is by admonishing each other and admonishing each other, warning each other of our sins or what have you.

And I think that is one of the major things I struggled with.

So because, you know, how can I love Muslims that want to kill me, you know, that would rather kill me? How can I love them? And the only way I can really struggle with those who don't believe in me, don't believe the way we did, they believe certain things are abortion, all these crazy antics are OK, and we have the right to do that.

We have the right to live in sin, but I'm not going to apologize or celebrate with you.

Yeah, me and Luke, if he remembers when Keith preached on Sodom and Gomorrah, we have our theological talks in the car on the way home.

And he said, Dad, I've got a question.

I said, all right.

He said, Keith just preached about God killing a whole civilization over a sin that our country has accepted.

And he said something, how do we love them? If he remembers this, but how do we show them love when God hates that? That's a good question.

That is a very difficult question.

That means he's thinking in his mind that, OK, here's this God of all creation whose anger and hostility was so poured out on a civilization that he wiped him off the plate, the face of the planet.

But still, we as believers and ambassadors of Christ, we need to how do we love those people? Well, one, first and foremost, we love those people by telling them what's right and wrong.

First and foremost, this is wrong.

Why is it wrong? Because as image bearers of God, this is what we are not to do.

Now, an unbeliever doesn't have the ability in and of itself for them to understand what being an image bearer of God is.

But I can present the truth to them and I can tell them that God does love them because he does.

But that same God that loves them certainly has a holiness and righteousness that's kindled against them because of their unbelief and because of their sin.

And you and me don't think like that.

We don't.

I think it's in Psalm, our Psalms expert at the end down there could probably tell me Psalm 50, 21.

I think it says that you together think I'm all together like you.

That's what God says.

Yeah.

Well, if it was me, I would do this.

Well, God's not like us.

And he can at the same time have a love and compassion and for the salvation of the sinner, but at the same time have a desire to enact justice on that person and on a whole civilization.

So how do we do that? Well, we lovingly point them to Christ.

We lovingly show them that, look, there's no other way to attain salvation through than Jesus Christ.

He's the one who was the God man that came into the world and he paid the sin debt for sinners so that there could be reconciliation.

And all we can do is present that to them.

We can't.

I can't convince them.

I should try to use persuasive speech, because what does Paul say? Hey, we we persuade them with the terror of the Lord.

That's what we do.

But ultimately, I know that it depends on the Lord opening their heart.

And it's the Lord that's going to open up their minds to hear and receive the word.

Anything else? We're about run out of time.

They know they don't.

Not normally, not normally, but we have to be very careful on how we do that.

Look, when I open air preach, my message is already an offense, but I and my gestures and comments and my waving of hands and preaching should not do anything that would help add animosity to that and tone.

You say the same thing, but if you say it in such a way that it's condescending, it will never be received.

But if you can make a plea to that person through love and compassion, the same you can say it the same thing.

Just say it was in such a way that it shows that there's a sincere passion for them and a sincere compassion to see them say.

The truth will be received better served with honey than vinegar.

Yeah, yeah.

Spoonful of sugar is better than a spoonful of rubbitussin.

All right, well, let's pray.

Father God, thank you so much for your word.

And although these two passages.

Somewhat difficult, father, I pray that you would use it, father, to.

To strengthen us, to encourage us, father, to put others before ourself, to live with our wives, an understanding way to live with the church body in such a way that we love one another and serve one another and and find a way to be kind and compassionate towards one another.

Father, I pray for my wife today.

Father, to continue to strengthen her body.

I pray that you would give her comfort and help her to feel better.

And Lord, I pray for Keith as he brings us the word today that father, he would preach it with power and preach it in such a way that sinners hearts are converted and that the believer is equipped more and conformed more to the image of your son in Christ's name.

Amen.