God Hates Gossip

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So, again, that was just a leaping off point. Book of Proverbs, I encourage you, as you go through the

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Book of Proverbs, you're gonna see there is so much connected to the Book of Proverbs that is connected to our mouths, what we say, how we relate information, how we speak about others.

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Book of Proverbs is filled with references to the tongue and our speech.

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And it's interesting because I think a lot of times as believers, we come to Jesus and God begins to change us.

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We get new hearts, that's a promise in a new covenant that's very, very different from the old, is that in the new covenant, the spirit of God's gonna be poured out,

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God's gonna take a heart of stone out of us and give us a heart of flesh. And what was once hard towards God and resistant towards God is now gonna be soft, it's gonna be moldable now,

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God can actually work within us, God indwells us by his spirit. So we know, oftentimes, in our own experience, what

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God's really transformed me, he's changed me. And so, for me, one of the big aspects in my story is not the standard, it's not overly important, but just biographically, me,

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I know that I can point back to what God did as a tremendous change in my life when he took over my life and took hold of my heart,

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God delivered me from drug and alcohol addiction. That was a major aspect of my life where you can see it vividly, it's on my sleeves,

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I'm wearing it, right? Disappearing from my family for days at a time, throwing all of our money away into drug and alcohol addiction, doing all manner of evil and sinful things, and you can say, well, look,

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I'm not what I once was, that's evidence of the spirit of God in my life. And so, we have, many of us, these markers in our lives where we say, this is something where God began to challenge me, and he got ahold of me, and I'm not who

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I once was. And we can give that as a testimony to somebody, not to our glory, but to the glory of God.

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It's not about me, it's what God did in and through me. You don't know me. Myself, in myself, left to my own,

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I would not be the man that I am today or the woman that I am today. I wouldn't be like this.

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This is all the work of God. And so, we have these markers and milestones, and we say, I used to be this man or this woman, and look what

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Jesus did. He changed me, he opened my eyes, he caused me to hate my idols and my old life.

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And so, we tend to have these markers and these things in our lives, and these big moments and milestones would point to this massive thing.

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I was an angry person, right? Or maybe I used to even abuse my wife, or I abused drugs and alcohol.

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I was hateful to others. I was this kind of person, and Jesus saved me, and he changed me.

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And we can look back at our lives, and we see those marks of sanctification and the work of God in our lives.

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And we think in terms of the big things. And maybe we don't see ourselves the way outside of God, we ought to see ourselves in terms of where our falling short is and maybe remains to be.

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Oftentimes, we see in the church body, gossip, discord, slander, as maybe one of the minor sins.

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It's one of the little things. We don't see it like adultery. Like, for example, it's interesting, when you think about adultery within the church or some drunkenness or some big sin, maybe you think in terms of even church discipline situations where someone's brought before the church, maybe they're in an adulterous relationship, they've left their wife and their kids, they're living with another woman, and that comes up before the church.

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You can almost not even imagine that that kind of issue, that kind of sin will pull a church apart and destroy it, right?

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Because we all recognize and see, this man was with his wife and children, he's abandoned his family, and he's living with this woman unrepentantly, and you say, of course, and that comes before the church.

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And on Monday after church discipline, there's really no risk that the church is gonna be pulled apart because of this issue of sin and adultery in the congregation.

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You don't often see adultery destroying an entire church or pornography destroying an entire church, those issues when they come up, or drunkenness destroying an entire church.

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You don't typically see that as a pattern where there's church discipline, but brothers and sisters, what you do see in terms of sin pulling the church apart is gossip, discord, slander.

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It's the kind of sin that Satan uses most effectively within the body of Christ.

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I want you to think about this in terms of just the name, Satan, it should really be called the

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Satan. When you think about Satan and how we refer to him as that's Satan, Satan means ultimately the accuser.

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It would be more appropriate to say the Satan, the accuser, the accuser of the brethren.

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The Bible describes Satan as the accuser of the brethren. He is constantly trying to accuse and to bring down and to shame

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God's people. So he is called the Satan, the accuser. And is it any surprise to us as the people of God that one of the ways that Satan and ultimately evil forces, spiritual attacks, enter into the kingdom of God, the church of God, one of the attacks primarily is gossip, slander, accusation.

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Why? Because the enemy of our souls, that is his identification, the

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Satan, the accuser of the brethren. It's powerful when you think about what

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God has done in this body alone. We're not mighty. I'm not special. We're not powerful and amazing and just something so unique and powerful and interesting about us.

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We just have such a unique group of people here that we are just better than anybody else and that's how God is using us.

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No, God has used this crew of redeemed rebels here at Apologia Church to really bring his gospel around the world in some significant ways.

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And if you consider the fact that what God has done through our body at Apologia Church, he's used people who are unworthy of him, unworthy of one another.

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He's filled us with his grace and his mercy and his love. He's empowered us and we have been sent by the

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Lord, all of us, into some pretty difficult situations. God's used Apologia Church and the people here, the body of Christ here to bring the gospel in a powerful way to some difficult areas that are often neglected.

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Mormonism, that community, he's broken us in in a powerful way and led thousands of people to Jesus through this church's work all over the world in an area that's tough.

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And when you engage in that, you also get the thousands of comments daily against our ministry, attacking us.

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How dare you treat these people like that? They're Christians too, just like you. You guys are full of hate and malice.

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You guys are bigots because you engage this community in this way. And I wanna say this, I have never felt, by God's grace, that in any moment, any of those external attacks on our body are gonna take us down or even affect us.

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God has sanctified this church in such a way that when external attacks come from without, we laugh.

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It rolls right off of us as a church. It's really significant and compelling. I love that about what

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God has done in this body. For example, we obviously have a pretty powerful ministry in the area of abortion.

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God has saved thousands of children through Apology of Church. Literally thousands of people are alive today because of your labor, because of your work.

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And you know, in that area itself, it is very difficult. It comes with lots of attacks.

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And you know we receive attacks on a daily basis from around the world because of our heart and desire to save these children and to bring the gospel into conflict with abortion.

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And I know that there's attacks constantly that come against us as a church. And I have never felt as a pastor that those attacks have any damage, capability of damage on our body because God has sanctified us so that we see it clearly.

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When Vice came out and did their film on our church,

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I remember that there were some things said and done in that documentary, and it was amazing. Its effect on Apology of Church was just right off the back, why?

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Because God has formed our minds in such a way to be like the mind of Christ, to see things clearly.

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So when you think about it, if God has done what He's done through our body in terms of raising people up, letting them see clearly, letting them understand the word of God appropriately, when

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He's caused people to live lives of risky missionary sacrifice like He has done here, if Satan cannot attack us from the outside in an effective way, how can the accuser of the brethren attack a church, a body of Christ, like Apology of Church?

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I'll tell you how there can be a spiritual attack upon the body of Christ, not from the outside, but from the inside.

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Strife, discord, gossip, slander, the accuser of the brethren insinuating.

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The accuser of the brethren accusing people from within the body. The accuser of the brethren smashing justice and importing injustice to our body so that we don't love one another like God commands us to.

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We don't love God's standards of justice like He commands us to. And so what do we do? We wield the tongue in a way that destroys.

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How can the enemy get his hooks into a church like Apology of Church to destroy a church body like ours that is effectively ministering the gospel all around the world?

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I'll tell you how, he can do it from inside. Gossip, the destruction of relationships, the lack of love for one another, the pride that wells up within all of us that we have to constantly push down and repent of, that can become a reality in our lives and we could use our tongues to destroy and not to raise up, not to heal.

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When you think about what the Bible says about God's plans for the future, one of the things

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God says He's going to do is He's gonna establish justice in the world. Now there's two ways to look at this. This is where I need you to really listen closely because this is huge.

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It really is sort of this foundational thing that lifts us up, we can stand on so that we understand everything else that we have to say here in this message.

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Two things, God says He's gonna establish justice in the world. One, how does that justice come?

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Does it come through God imposing law upon the world?

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Is that how the world changes? That we wanna look for some political might in some way, that someone sits in a chair somewhere, sits on a throne somewhere and establishes justice,

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God's law, by imposing it externally. Is that how people change according to Scripture?

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No, so that's the first thing. Is justice established by external force?

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Is it put onto people from the outside? Is that how God's gonna establish justice in the world? And the answer is unequivocally, no,

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God doesn't do that. That's not how people change, it's not how you change, it's not how I changed. Or the second option, how does

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God establish justice in the world because He promises to do it? The Bible teaches that God's gonna establish justice in the world internally, that He's gonna change people from the inside, cause them to love

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His law from their inward parts and not external tablets of stone.

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It's gonna be the internal working of the Spirit of God from within God's people. That's how

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God establishes justice. But you may be wondering, does God promise to do that?

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Is that something we ought to anticipate as the body of Christ, that that should be part and parcel to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, that justice starts from the inside and then pours out into the world?

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So I want you to go to your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 42, just so you have an anchor, so that you have something to stand on to know that this is

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God's promise to us in the world. So I want you to see that first. We're laying foundations. Isaiah chapter 42, it is one of my favorite passages in the

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Bible. Isaiah chapter 42, it's about Messiah. And I want you to keep in mind that this text was written about somewhere around 700 years before Jesus came in His earthly ministry.

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And as you all get there, I wanna suggest to you that one of the reasons that many Jews today reject

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Jesus as Messiah is not based upon any particular text.

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They ignore Isaiah 53 and many other texts that point directly to Jesus. I want you to hear this.

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One of the main reasons that Jews today reject Yeshua as Mashiach is they say that Jesus was supposed to be a leader.

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The Messiah was supposed to be a leader that would ultimately change the entire world, that the world itself would be ruled by the

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Messiah and justice would be established throughout the world, that all the nations were gonna come to God through the

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Messiah, and that the Messiah was gonna rule bringing forth God's Torah into the world.

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And they say, how can that be true if Jesus is the suffering servant? We say to that, well, that's because you need to read the whole story like Isaiah 53 where it says

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He's gonna be also the suffering servant. But here's one of those texts that I'm gonna say this, listen closely.

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This is what God is doing today. Today in the world, Isaiah 42 is a current promise that's happening now in the world.

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Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.

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I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations.

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He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.

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He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will faithfully bring forth justice.

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He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law.

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So what is Messiah doing now on his throne? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus is on his throne now, today, reigning now.

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And he says this, he must reign until he has made every enemy a footstool for his feet.

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Psalm 110 .1. Jesus is on his throne reigning, making every enemy a footstool for his feet.

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And then he says this, he must reign until all his enemies are under his feet and the last enemy to be defeated is death.

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So it's every enemy under Jesus' feet and then death is defeated. That's where we're going right now.

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But again, go back to that two -part question. How does Jesus establish justice in the world?

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Is it through military might? Is it through external coercion? Or is it through the spirit -empowered transformation that comes from within people?

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The Bible teaches it's the latter. It's from the spirit of God. I want you to give it another verse for hope.

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Go to Ezekiel, Ezekiel 36. We say it a lot. I just quoted from it a couple times already.

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Ezekiel 36, God promises that he's gonna do something new in the new covenant.

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He's actually gonna do something powerful that they hadn't experienced before that was gonna be different from the old.

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And this is what he says because he's talking about their sin. Watch, Ezekiel 36. He's talking about the sin of God's people, the house of Israel, and their sin.

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And I want you to see how God promises to change things. Ezekiel 36, 22, therefore says, say to the house of Israel, thus says the

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Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.

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And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations and which you have profaned among them.

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And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

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Did you get that? Did you capture what that says there? God is saying, you have profaned my name.

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You, house of Israel, have profaned my name among all the nations. Here's what he's saying. I'm holy and you've made me look like I'm not a holy

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God before all the nations. The nations are despising my name because they look at you, my people, and they say, he must not be holy.

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Look at his kids. Look at his people. And God says this, I'm gonna vindicate my holiness.

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And here's how I'm gonna do it. He says, I'm gonna do it through you.

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I'm gonna vindicate my holiness and show the world that I am a holy God. And I'm gonna do it inside you.

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The world's gonna see it from the people of God themselves. That's how the world's gonna know that I'm a holy

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God. And here's what he says he's gonna do. Verse 24, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own lands.

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I'll sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses. And from all your idols,

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I'll cleanse you. I'll give you new hearts and a new spirit I will put within you.

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And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I'll put my spirit within you.

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Listen, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

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God promises the new covenant's gonna do this powerful thing where he's gonna vindicate the holiness of his name by living in and through his people and their transformed lives.

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That's gonna testify to the world that God is actually holy because they see it in his people. But they see it in his people, not because they're disciplined and mighty and strong and they can obey all these rules and moral codes.

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They see it in his people because God is in them, changing them from the bottom up.

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And he's given them new hearts and his law is inside them. Jeremiah 36 or 31 31,

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God's new covenant promise. What does he say, everybody? What does he say about the newness of the new covenant and the direction or pouring out point of his law?

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He says, I'll make a new covenant with you. And he says, I will write my law on your what?

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Your hearts, it's gonna be inside. So listen, this is powerful. God's code of commandments and law and justice goes from external stone tablets.

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And in the new covenant, it goes from the inside. God writes it on the tablet of our hearts. And so justice and righteousness and goodness and truth comes inside and indwells us.

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So God's promise of justice, the God's promise of vindicating his holy name in and through his people.

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We're gonna talk about God's standards of justice. God has a law that is good and powerful and beautiful.

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And I'm gonna just say this today. I'm not gonna read all the texts to you today. All I'm gonna challenge you with is this, before you go to bed tonight, before you sleep tonight, would you do something?

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I just want you to read one chapter of the Bible. It's just one chapter. It happens to be the longest chapter in the entire

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Bible, but you'll be blessed by it. Which chapter am I talking about?

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Psalm 119. I want you to go home tonight. Before you go to bed, I want you to read Psalm 119 to get a fix on how

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God feels about his law. God's law is good, it is true, it is holy, it is righteous.

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And God says that his law is the expression of his own character. Now let's talk for a minute about what gossip does, what the injustice,

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I want you to capture that. Gossip is injustice. Let me say it again.

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Gossip is injustice. It's not merely sin.

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It's not merely malicious and vindictive. Gossip is injustice towards my neighbor.

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It's not treating God's standards of justice. And I want you to consider also the story that we all live in now.

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You remember me a moment ago telling you that God had promised in Isaiah 42 to establish justice in the earth, but he also promised in Ezekiel 36 that in a new covenant he'd indwell his people.

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Go back in your minds for a minute. How many of you guys have read the Old Testament and you've read the sections about God's temple?

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How many of you have read the sections of God's temple? Have you noticed the detail that God put into the

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Old Testament temple itself? The detail down to the kinds of stones and how it should be built and the measurements and how long and how far, how wide.

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And did you notice that in God's temple, that temple was supposed to represent where heaven and earth met.

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The temple itself was supposed to be the center point where heaven and earth met in a single location.

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And the temple itself had all these ways to identify where God was and where we were.

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This is the Holy of Holies. This is where God's presence is. We can't go there because there's a veil separating now

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God and us. And so the priest goes in representing Christ to offer sacrifices, to be a mediator.

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And they worked at all these rituals, but they knew heaven and earth meet right here in this spot. And that's why they revere that temple.

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God says he was building that temple up and that what God would do also is when they broke covenant with God, they turned away from God, God would allow that temple to be smashed, to be taken apart.

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The representation on earth of heaven and earth meeting and where God resided, that symbol there, that temple was a vivid symbol of what

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God was saying about his presence. Now here, watch this, this is big. Get this, get this, get this.

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It also symbolized, listen closely, where God dwelled, his dwelling place.

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And the glory of the new covenant is that we don't have a temple any longer made with stones that can be destroyed.

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Now we have a temple now, forever, that can never be dismantled. It'll never be taken down, ever.

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That temple endures forever and ever. And the glory of the new covenant temple is that it far surpasses the glory of the old.

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There were writers in the first century that used to say that the Jewish temple was so glorious, so beautiful, with the gold and where it was laid and all the precious things that were there that when the sun would shine on it from a distance, they said, if you were in the distance and you saw the sun hitting it, it looked literally like a glowing star on earth.

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It was so vivid and so bright and shined with so much glory.

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And God says his new covenant temple is a temple that is in the heavens.

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It is forever. And do you know what that temple is? Of course,

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Christ calls himself the temple, but his body, you and I, are all little stones being built up into a holy temple to God.

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I just want you to see it with your own eyes because you're saying, what does this all have to do with gossip? Listen closely.

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Everything to do with gossip. Go to 1 Peter, quickly. 1

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Peter chapter two, I want you to see Peter saying this. 1

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Peter chapter two, my bad.

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1 Peter, yeah, chapter two, that's right. 1 Peter chapter two. He says this, listen close.

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Verse one, so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy. All malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

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Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

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Put it away. Like newborn infants long for pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the

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Lord is good. And here it is. As you come to him, a living stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God, chosen and precious.

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You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

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For as it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious.

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And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So brothers and sisters, the text says, watch,

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Peter says it right here in line with the temple theology. He says, put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander.

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Why? Because you are God's spiritual house. You're not like that old covenant temple built with stones and mortar and all those things.

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This is a temple that, watch, God resides in and you all are living stones built up being a temple to God.

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And so here's what we do when we engage in malice and deceit and hypocrisy, envy and slander.

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We as the guilty ones, when we slander a brother or sister in Christ or we gossip, we walk up to God's dwelling place, to his temple that he's building and we try to destroy it.

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We try to pull it apart with our own hands. We try to set fire to God's own dwelling place.

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It isn't about the person in front of you that you might have conflict with and difficulty with.

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Understand that when I slander and envy and I'm full of malice and I gossip,

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I walk to God's temple that he resides in, that he protects, that he is growing and building up.

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I stand outside of it as an offender trying to set fire to God's house.

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We are God's temple being built up as little stones. When someone tries to gossip and destroy the body of Christ, they try to dismantle the stones from the temple.

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And I have one question to ask us. If I'm guilty of such a thing, if I'm guilty of trying to dismantle

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God's temple, what do you think a holy God that protects the holiness of his great name, what will he do to me?

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If I'm someone that tries to tear down the temple that he is building, gossip is dangerous.

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There's no way in one sermon for me as your brother and your pastor to unpack everything the

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Bible says about gossip. It is through and through. As a matter of fact, did you know that the

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Bible is actually quite limited on the things that it says God hates? Did you know that? I mean,

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I think if you asked all of us, we sat down together over coffee, we started exchanging like, what do you think are the worst sins?

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Like, personally, like, what do you think is the most destructive? Like, how does it hurt families and marriages and children?

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Like, what are the worst sins? We could probably come up with a list and there'd probably be some pretty graphic things. Like, well, murder's in there, that's pretty bad.

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We think about all the different kinds of ways we've been hurt, so we throw those out there. But do you know that God actually has a fairly small list about things that he says he hates?

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And one of the things that God says that he hates is gossip discord.

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He hates it. People often say, well, it's the Christian cliche, right?

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Love the sinner, what? You see, goodness gracious, stuff gets passed around so easily in the

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Christian church, right? Love the sinner, what? Hate the sin, Christian cliche. That's just kicked about, that's what he's saying.

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Well, there's, I understand, there's true love and hate, there's truth, of course, to that in terms of how we live with somebody and love them and try to point them to God and to hate the sin.

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Of course, yes and amen to all that. But you know, when the consummation happens and there is the final day of judgment that is coming,

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God promises that he is bringing the final day of judgment, I want us to all remember something in terms of sin and hating sin.

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When God has the last word and the final judgment happens and then the lake of fire is opened up as God promises that he will do, remember this, that it is not sin that goes into the lake of fire, it is people.

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It isn't sin that goes into the lake of fire, it's people. And so when we talk about loving the sinner and hating the sin, we ought to expand more on what does

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God actually say about sin, injustice, its effects. You've heard the famous tale, probably, about Mrs.

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Smith and a rabbi. Mrs. Smith was talking poorly about someone that she barely even knew.

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She had gotten some information from somebody and she shared it and she began to slander and gossip about a man that she barely knew.

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And she felt kind of bad about it at one point. It was grieved and she was walking around town and it seemed like every arrow on a sign, every finger pointing somewhere seemed to be pointing at her and she felt like God was speaking to her.

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Why are all these arrows pointing at me or all these fingers are pointing at me? And so she came under deep conviction and she goes to her rabbi and she says, rabbi,

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I think that I've sinned. I think I've done something horrible and I feel terrible. What should

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I do? He says, well, what do you think that you've done? And she says, rabbi, I think I sinned in gossip. I think

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I gossiped and I slandered a man and I don't think he deserved it. I think it was wrong. What should

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I do? And he said, well, Mrs. Smith, what I want you to do is at noon, I want you to go to the town square and I want you to go to the town square and I want you to go with two pillows filled with feathers.

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And I want you to take a knife in the town square and I want you to stick that knife into the pillow, gut the pillow and I want you to let the feathers fly.

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And so she says, yes, rabbi, I'll do that. So she goes to the town square at noon, the winds kicked up and blowing and she guts these two feather pillows and feathers fly all over town.

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She later returns to the rabbi and she says, rabbi, I did as you asked. I went to the town square. I gutted the pillows, feathers went everywhere.

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He said, good, what happened? And she says, feathers were everywhere.

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The wind took every feather all over town. He said, okay, now what I want you to do is

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I want you to go back to the town square and I want you to go pick up every single feather that blew out of those pillows.

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And she says, that's impossible, rabbi. I can never do such a thing. He says, why not? She says, I have no idea how far they went.

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And he said, that Mrs. Smith is gossip. Once this sin enters into our experience, once it pours out of my mouth, life and death are in the power of the tongue.

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When I destroy somebody with the injustice of gossip, there's no telling how far and wide it goes and how much destruction is in its path.

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One thing about the Lord Jesus to consider about who he is because he is the perfect image of God. He is what

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God intended for humans to be in every single aspect of his life. When he loved sinners, when he cared for people, when he sacrificed himself for them, how he spoke, how he thought, every detail about Jesus is what

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God anticipated, called us all to be like. Every detail, how he had conflict with people, how he would mock religious leaders who were leading people into sin, how he would call out sin.

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Every detail about Jesus is holy and righteous and blameless. When you look at his life, you see the book of Proverbs on display.

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It's written all over Jesus. Every detail of Proverbs is the mind of Jesus, the mind of Christ.

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And I challenge you, brothers or sisters, to look at the gospel record, read the narrative, find me one instance, one instance of Jesus engaging in the injustice of gossip.

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You will never see it. And you would think for a moment now, he had plenty of opportunity, and I think even maybe be vindicated in how

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Jesus could speak about sin, someone's sin. Just consider for a moment, Judas is walking with Jesus for years.

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He's, listen, stealing money from the church's ministry account for his own gain.

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Judas, stealing from the church. And Jesus knows the whole time he even says so, the prophecy of the son of perdition, somebody is gonna betray him.

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But you know what Jesus never did? Jesus never treated Judas with any lack of love.

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Jesus never smeared Judas' reputation in the church. Jesus could have known

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Judas is the one who's gonna betray me, he could have known that, and he could have whispered on the side to Thomas and to everybody on the side and said, well, we really know what

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Judas is like. Do you see what Judas has been up to? You know how Judas' attitude is.

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All these whispers, they never happened with Jesus. Do you know something that's amazing? Watch this. They did not know who it was that was gonna betray

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Jesus. They didn't know. When he says, one of you's gonna betray me, they're saying, who, is it me?

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Can't be me, is it me, Jesus? Is it gonna be me? Don't let it be me. You see,

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Jesus so protected the testimony of Judas, knowing he was gonna betray him, and he never slandered

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Judas and built up a caricature of Judas throughout his ministry. Judas felt like he was loved.

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Everybody thought that they were all part of this inner core and team, and nobody knew who the son of perdition was.

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Jesus never gossiped. He had every opportunity to slander Judas' character.

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He never did it. The Bible teaches us about our mouths, that they have the power of life and death, and I want you to see it.

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Go to James. This is the Lord's brother. It's Jesus' brother. As you get there, this is so cool.

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It's one of my favorite things, really, about James. I'll share it with you, because it's really near and dear to me, truly.

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It's just intimate. So you have these didactic parts of Scripture.

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That's like teaching, systematic teaching. So you look at Romans. Romans isn't like James. Romans, completely different kind of writing.

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Romans is systematic theology, explaining concepts, abstractions, theology.

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One, two, three, four, five. Here's how God saves people. Here's how God did in the Old Testament. This was

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God's purpose. Teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, right? You got, say, the Gospel according to John. Totally different kind of writing, different genre.

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It's a narrative. What happened? What did Jesus say? Where were they? What took place? All that's different.

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But James, Jesus' brother, who walked with Jesus his whole life, saw

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Jesus grow up. Saw his life, saw what he was like. James writes a completely different kind of book.

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His book is Wisdom Literature, How Do You Live? You might be asking, well, why'd you mention that? Here's why I mentioned it.

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I find it so compelling that Jesus' brother, who walked with him and had the same mommy, who knows what that was like?

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How crazy is that? They played together. They lived together. He saw Jesus interact with his mom.

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He saw Jesus interact with neighbors. He saw Jesus talking to God. He saw Jesus praying over the meal for dinner, right?

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James was so affected by his brother's life that his whole book is just about wisdom.

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Not these high abstractions of theology, but wisdom. What's real?

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Like a real relationship with God. He knows what it's like because he saw Jesus growing up. James is known as Leather Knees in the early church because he was on his knees so much, they said his knees were like leather.

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Jesus' life and testimony so affected his brother that it made his brother a person of prayer.

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Here's what James says about our mouths. James chapter one, verse 22.

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Well, let's go to verse 19. Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

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Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

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But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

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But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he'll be blessed in his doing.

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And here it is, and I hope this hits me. I hope this doesn't leave my heart.

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If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

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Worthless. If anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

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Okay, so let's do it. How's God changed you? Don't shout out loud, just think about it for a second.

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Let's make this intensely personal for all of us. How's God changed you? Where'd he take you from?

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What's he doing in you right now? What are the highlight things in you right now in your marriage? Maybe as a wife,

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God's shown you some things. You're passionate about changing those things. You're trying to submit to him and love your husband in a new and special way.

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And husbands, what's God shown you? How's he shown you? You're falling short as a father, as a husband.

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Single people, same thing. What's God taken you from? Where were you a year ago? Where were you 10 years ago?

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What's Jesus done in you? What would you glory in God in?

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What would you say? Jesus took me from here. This is what he did to me. Want me to say this, stack them up.

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Stack it up, stack up everything that God has done in your life. All your works, all the transformation, all of your service to Jesus, your giving to others, your going to serve the homeless, doing evangelism, reaching your family, going to AA groups and preaching the gospel.

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What you name everything that you're doing to glorify God, whatever it is, and James says this, your whole entire religion is worthless.

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As capital, it's zero. It's not $5, $10, $20, $50.

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It's not a hundred dollar bill. Your religion is absolutely worth nothing.

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It is zero. Your religion is worthless. You deceive yourself if you cannot bridle your tongue.

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We often think in terms of sanctification as like big ticket items, right?

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Like big ticket items, like you need to be sanctified. Wow, well don't be a drunk. You know, don't be a person who's in lust and sexual morality.

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Don't be abusive and angry. Like try to, big ticket items, right? Big ticket items of sanctification. Like let's solve those big ticket items.

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God says this, here's your big ticket item. If you can't control your tongue, your religion is worthless.

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It is worthless. Don't make excuses. Don't say, yeah, but I also serve in these ways.

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If we can't control our tongues as followers of Jesus, then our religion is worth nothing before God, nothing.

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You know, there's a text right next to it. Man, it's so challenging.

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I remember something. I'll just be honest. I've never said this publicly, ever. When I was a professing believer, that's so funny.

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It's the first time I've ever even said this. When I was a professing believer before my addiction and then

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Jesus saving me out of that, I used to go to Bible college, you know that? I went to Bible college.

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I was out in the streets doing evangelism, all that while being a professing believer and living a double life, a double life completely.

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And I remember that I used to like be reading the Bible to figure out how to minister to people and like cults and have debates with atheists and Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.

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I'd be going through Romans and so satisfied. Look at the gospel, look what it says. Look at all these things, all this stuff. And you know a book

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I was always afraid of that I never wanted to read because of how it made me feel was the book of James.

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All this theological knowledge, all the depth. I used to love to talk philosophy and about the future and read all these books on the evidence of creation and all this stuff.

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And the book I always tried to avoid was James because when I read James, I felt like the world was landing on my shoulders.

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I felt like I was weighed down with so much hypocrisy and guilt and shame because this was describing me to the

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T and James chapter three used to destroy me.

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James chapter three, not many of you should become teachers my brothers for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness for we all stumble in many ways.

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If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man able also to bridle his whole body.

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If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

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Look at the ships also. Though they are large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

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So also the tongue is a small member yet it boasts of such great things.

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How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

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The tongue is set among our members staining the whole body setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell.

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For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind but no human being can tame the tongue.

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It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

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From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

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Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree my brothers bear olives or a grapevine produce figs?

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Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. It's a little tongue that controls the whole course of life.

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The little tongue that at 8 a .m. was on my knees worshiping and praising

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God, delighting in Him, saying, God, thank you that you saved me. God, thank you for this, thank you for that. I bless your name,

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God, I bless your name. And at 8 .05 I'm cursing a brother. Same mouth within five minutes can praise

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God, bless God, and set fire to an image bearer of God. James says, if you can't control your tongue, if you can't get a bridle on it, stop pretending.

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Just quit pretending. Your religion's worthless. Our tongue destroys.

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I'm gonna do this quickly, quickly, because I think it needs to be shown that the

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Bible has a consistent story here, consistent. I'm just gonna go quick, I'll give the references.

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You can go back and watch this later, write them down or read them later. Ephesians 4 .29,

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just gonna go quick. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up others according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

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Exodus 23 .1, law of God, standards of justice. Do not spread false reports.

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Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. James 1 .26,

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those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues, deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

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James 4 .11, brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.

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When you judge the law, you're not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. Leviticus 19 .16,

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do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life.

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I am the Lord. Proverbs 10 .18, whoever conceals hatred with lying lips and spreads slander is a fool.

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Pause on that one. Do you see what did there? Okay, listen, come back for a second. Come back and stay with me on this.

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The Bible just gave you the description of what's happening inside the slanderous mouth. Here's a description, divine inspiration, of what's happening inside the slanderous mouth.

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So when you see somebody or you're guilty of slandering a brother or sister or gossiping, just know that the

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Bible tells us why that's coming out of your mouth. Whoever conceals hatred with lying lips and spreads slander is a fool.

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What's the real underlying reason for slander and lying lips?

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What's underneath it, brothers and sisters? What is it? Hatred. Hatred for brother, hatred for sister.

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It left my mouth because it had a root inside. It was fruit from a tree.

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And the roots go down to a well of hatred. Proverbs 10, 19, sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues.

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Proverbs 11, nine, with their mouths, the godless destroy their neighbors. With their mouths, the godless destroy their neighbors, but through knowledge, the righteous escape.

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Proverbs 11, 13, a gossip betrays confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret. Proverbs 16, 28, a perverse person stirs up conflict and a gossip separates close friends.

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Proverbs 17, nine, whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

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Proverbs 18, eight, the words of a gossip are like choice morsels. They go down into the inmost parts.

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Proverbs 20, 19, a gossip betrays a confidence, so avoid anyone who talks too much.

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Proverbs 26, 20, without wood, a fire goes out. Without a gossip, a quarrel dies down.

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Do you see that? What's all this strife and this fight and these communities and these relationships and all these different things?

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What's the problem? Well, without wood, a fire goes out, so without a gossip, the quarrel dies down.

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How do you stop fire from getting out of control in terms of gossip and slander and all those things? Well, take out the gossip and that wood no longer burns.

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So here's final word on this. I want to point you just to Titus chapter two.

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Little book, Titus, right? Let's see who can get there first. The little book, Titus. Titus, it's a little letter.

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Titus chapter two. This is a powerful section of the scripture. The apostle Paul speaks specifically to this.

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And I hear the turning of pages and trying to make sure I do better as a pastor to let everyone get there. Titus chapter two.

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He says this, verse one. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober -minded, dignified, self -controlled, sound in faith, in love and in steadfastness.

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Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

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They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self -controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

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Likewise, urge the younger men to be self -controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching show integrity, dignity and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us.

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So here's the apostle Paul giving these tidbits of wisdom and information to this church, this growing church.

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He's saying, okay, we got the foundations down. You know Jesus is, you know salvation. Like you're growing now as a small budding church and you need to know these things.

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Teach the older men to be like this, to focus on these things before God and teach the older women to be like this and younger men be like this.

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Paul is dealing with like these piecemeal issues of the things that ultimately cause wreckage in a church and destruction in a small church and Paul now is being very pastoral now to this church plant saying, mind these things.

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And here's what the Bible says, Titus chapter three, verse eight, the saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

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These things are excellent and profitable for people but avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions and quarrels about the law for they are unprofitable and worthless.

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Now listen, how do we deal with the person who creates division and strife in a body?

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And it's not to say that we're all not gonna fall here somehow but the believer who loves

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Jesus will recognize their sin when they fall and they'll wanna be changed, amen? They'll wanna turn from it.

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Here's what Paul says you do in a local body to preserve the temple of God, to preserve what

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God is doing, his dwelling place. Here's what you do with a divisive person. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self -condemned.

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Paul says this, look, the health, the life, the love, the labor, the works of every single local church have to come above the desire to keep peace with a quarrelsome and divisive person.

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God says preserve the temple of God, his dwelling place, his people by warning a divisive person once, twice and then have nothing to do with him.

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Why? It's just gossip. Why? It's just accusations.

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Why? It's just a small sin. Well, like James says, the rudder on a ship is a small thing as well, but it directs the entire course.

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A small flame will set an entire forest ablaze. So if we don't, as believers, keep a bridle in our tongues, if we don't handle the injustice of gossip ultimately with a firm hand, then we set ourselves up for destruction as a body.

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Let's talk about some quick things. Wrapping up here, these are just final points in terms of how we can interact with each other here.

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We know what the Bible says about gossip, the injustice of gossip, how God condemns it, how he calls us to get a bridle on our tongues.

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I wanna point you to a text in terms of like what should be underneath us when we're thinking about this.

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Just go quickly to Proverbs 18. If you can't get there quickly, I'm just gonna read it to you. Proverbs 18, here it is, ready?

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Here's the standard. Verse 17, the one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him.

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The one who states his case first seems right until another comes and examines him. So what's the standard? Brothers and sisters, if you hear somebody suggesting something, assuming something, if somebody accuses somebody, what's the standard that ought to be operating as believers in terms of God's justice when we hear accusations about somebody?

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What's the standard? I've only heard this person's side, but not this person's side.

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God doesn't permit me to receive accusations that are not based upon two to three independent lines of witness.

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So that means if somebody ever comes to me and tells me something, I am not allowed as a follower of Jesus to accept that as true no matter how close my relationship with this person, unless, of course, it is established on two to three witnesses.

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God says, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, it must be on the basis of two to three witnesses.

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So we are not permitted, according to God, to charge people with anything based upon assumptions or hearsay.

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We're not permitted to do so. So how do we manage it? First point, if somebody comes to share something with me that isn't about me, it's about somebody else, maybe it's an accusation, maybe it's a complaint.

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I remember the standard of God is this. One, I cannot accept an accusation unless it's on the basis of two to three witnesses.

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Paul tells Timothy, receive no accusation against an elder unless it's on the basis of two to three witnesses.

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That's not just for elders, that's for everybody. The next thing I remember when somebody tries to share something with me is

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Proverbs 18, 17. One person's case sounds true until another one comes to examine them.

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So what do I do as a brother or a sister in the body of Christ when gossip starts to begin, strife, discord, gossip, when it comes up, what ought

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I to do out of love for God and love for this person? Lovingly stop them.

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Can I, and let's just be real frank for a moment here with each other. That's hard, it is.

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Let's just be honest with each other. Someone we love, that we're close to, starts to share something with us about another person in the body that we don't really have any right to hear.

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Maybe it's a baseless accusation, maybe it's assumptions. And the problem, let's be honest, and ladies, let's be honest, is if you're sitting with women that you truly love and you care about, and one of your sisters that you love and you're devoted to starts sharing something with you about somebody else, you love this woman so much, you feel an obligation to love her and to be an ear for her.

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But the Bible says that's actually sin, it's injustice. Because here's the thing, if this sister has something against another sister, then what does

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Christ command us to do in a situation where there's conflict between one sister and another? What's it say?

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Matthew 18, we were just there, what's it say? Go to them what? Privately. So if there's a conflict between two brothers or two sisters,

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I shouldn't even hear about it. It should go to that person.

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So maybe you should say this to the person who's sharing, hey, I love you so much, I care for you so much. It sounds like you're really bothered by this.

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Have you gone to them yet to talk to them directly? Because I don't really think this is for my ears. You should go talk to them.

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Let's talk about something else because I don't really feel like we're loving them right right now. But I wanna encourage you to go talk to them. That's how we can stop that.

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Third point, or second point, are you the victim? If there's something that you're sharing with somebody, here's the question to ask, very important question to ask.

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If you're sharing something with somebody about somebody else, ask yourself this question, am

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I the victim here? Am I the victim? So I'm talking about this person and something that's going on with them or their interaction with somebody else,

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I have to ask the question as I'm sharing it, am I the victim? And if I'm not the victim,

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I have no earthly right speaking about it. Because that's something that's between those people.

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And I will settle down the strife and the discord by not adding wood to that fire.

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Am I the victim? Now here's the thing, what if I am the victim? Well, what does Jesus command us with if I'm the victim of another person's sin?

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What do we say? We go to them what? Privately.

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Ask this question, third point, is this about me? I'm sharing something, is it about me?

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No? Then stop telling people. Number four, what if you need help?

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What if something has happened and you actually need help? Some sin, something serious and you need help, you're just not sure how to go about getting help or resolving this situation.

01:00:06

There's some aspect to it that makes it kind of confusing. You're not quite sure how to relate it or how to get help.

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If you need help, then I would say wisdom would be to come to your elders so that they can be wise biblical judges and mediators in the midst of it and watch this, they can protect it and you.

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It may be actually so serious that you need your elders to come speak to it right away or it may be something that your elders tell you, you know, godly wisdom is that this is between them and you should really stop talking about it.

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And we're not gonna receive it ourselves and we're certainly not gonna share it with others. So I would say those points.

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Number one, someone shares it, lovingly stop them. Number two, are you the victim? Have you gone to the person?

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Number three, is this about me? No, stop talking about it. Number four, do

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I need help? Go to your elders so that they may be wise judges. And I'll finish on this point here.

01:01:07

Open your Bibles to Romans. I want you to have a place to sit in as a church. Here it is,

01:01:13

Romans chapter 12, verse nine.

01:01:22

After Paul preaches the gospel, explains and unpacks it, this way he says to us as a church, let love be genuine.

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Do you know some translations? How many of you guys have a translation that says, let love be without hypocrisy? That's what it means.

01:01:40

Hypocrisy is hubakrite, it means play acting. You put on a mask. You come in and you pretend like you love someone and you really don't have any love for them.

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It's fake. You ever have someone like that in your life? Where they're like just flattering. They say things that just aren't true.

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You don't trust them. You don't know if their love's real. People around you that you just don't know if their affections are genuine for you.

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Paul says, let your love be without hypocrisy. Let it be without play acting. Stop pretending. Don't flatter people and say things that aren't true and just pretend to be loving.

01:02:14

He says, let love be without play acting. Let it be without hypocrisy.

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Let it be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good.

01:02:25

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Honor each other.

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Honor each other. Outdo each other in honoring the person next to you. Not honoring yourself and seeking your own gain and popularity within the church or something like that.

01:02:43

Outdo each other in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal.

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Don't be lazy in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope.

01:02:57

Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

01:03:03

Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice.

01:03:11

Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

01:03:18

Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

01:03:24

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

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For it is written, vengeance is mine. All repays, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

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If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by doing so, you'll heap burning coals on his head.

01:03:46

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. My heart's desire as a pastor is that God would fill this church with a depth of affection, a depth of love and mercy for one another.

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So that when the world looks into what God is doing in us, the world truly sees

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Jesus. And I don't wanna be pithy and Christian t -shirt about that.

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I mean genuinely, I hope to the Lord that by the time you and I go to lay down to be with the

01:04:28

Lord, that people will have been able to look in the life of this body and they see

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Jesus. They see genuine affections. They see a church that hates the injustice of gossip, that hates slander and backbiting and all those things.

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And they see a church that has genuine affection, which means, premierly, can I just say this? What I need to work on and what you all need to work on, all of us together need to work on is this, repentance.

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Because we are so full of pride. Can we admit that? Can we admit that we are full of pride?

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And we try to outdo the person next to us? Women versus women, men versus men.

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What's the conflict there? What is it? Is it a matter of justice? No, it's sin.

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It's pride. The strife and the injustice of gossip, that happens because of pride and sin.

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I'm trying to raise myself above another image bearer of God. I wanna be the one that's highlighted. I wanna be the one that's seen as strong and mighty and sound.

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And I wanna be the one that's the center of attention. And this person, I'm gonna bring them down. I want them lower than me.

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I wanna say this. The first thing we have to do is get on our knees before God and say, God, break my heart.

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Break my heart, destroy my pride. Allow me to see my brothers and sisters as you do.

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Let me serve this person like Jesus serves the church. What does

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He do for the church? He gives His life for the church. He sacrifices all of His being for the good of another.

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If I wanna truly be like Christ, I have to serve His people the way that He does. I pray that God makes us like that.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray, Lord, that the message that went out today from an unworthy servant changes us.

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God, not for our glory, not for anything in us, but I just pray that it glorifies you.

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God, we confess you as a church. We're guilty. We are. Lord, we are guilty.

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We're prideful. We are selfish.

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Lord, all of us have this in our past. We've slandered brothers and sisters. We've gossiped. We've engaged in the injustice of gossip.

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We've torn down someone's character. We've lied about people. We have had hatred in our hearts for our brothers and sisters.

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And I just beg of you, Father, please, would you please break it? Lord, heal us. Please change us.

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Make us like Jesus. I just pray that we would wave a banner here at this church, banner at this body, that we hate the injustice of gossip.

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I pray that for your glory, and as an act of worship, we would put down gossip and slander.

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And I just pray that you open our hearts and expose us. And even today, even today in this room,

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Lord, I don't even know what's going on at every moment, every corner of this room.

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I just pray, Lord, even now, if there's a sister or a brother that you've touched even right now, and you've brought them under conviction, a father would.