Judge Not (Part 2)

No Compromise Radio

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, Minutes Free. Mike Ebenroth here. Glad to have you.

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Hard transition. Things just ain't what they seem.

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When you don't know what to do for a show, you just play Marvin Gaye, I guess. Fascinating that that song,

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Mercy, Mercy, Me, or Mercy, Mercy, was about environmental crises, back probably in the 70s is when he wrote it.

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I don't know exactly when. Again, Mike Ebenroth here, Law Gospel Primer, should be out soon. And the little booklet called

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Jesus and Cancer, meant to just be picked up. I don't know how much you can get it for, five, eight bucks, something like that.

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Haven't set the price yet. Just hand them out to people. One of my friends said they just give them out during, you know, people have chemotherapy and you just hand these things out like candy.

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Anyway, I am in the book of Luke, as you know. Sometimes I just come in here and talk just to see if I know how to talk about Luke properly.

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And then other times I say to myself, do I remember what the message says?

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The message paraphrase, I tell you, love your enemies, help and give without expecting a return.

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You'll never, I promise, regret it. Live out this God created identity the way our father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst.

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What? No. Our father is kind. You be kind.

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Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults, unless, of course, you want the same treatment.

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Don't condemn those who are down. That hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people and you'll find life a lot easier.

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Give away your life and your life will be given back. Not merely given back, given back with bonus and blessing, giving, not getting is the way generosity begets generosity.

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Eugene Peterson sounds almost like Joel Osteen right there. Well, Mike Abendroth today, he does say love your enemies.

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He's got that right. He does say the father's kind. He's got that right, but there's nothing there about mercy.

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And most importantly, there's no tie in between mercy and judging.

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That's what we looked at last time. If you missed last show, there is a kai, an and in English, kai in the

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Greek, between the end of verse 36 and the word judge.

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So judge not and you will not be judged starts off, that verse starts off with an and.

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And judge not. You are to be merciful to your enemies because your father is merciful to his enemies and you should not judge and you should not condemn and you should forgive and you should give.

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That's what's going on here. We're merciful to people that persecute us because God is merciful.

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And what does that mercy look like? Not trying to judge them, not trying to condemn them, but instead to forgive them and also to be giving, to be generous.

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All right. So today on No Compromise Radio, we're going to talk some more about mercy, but not being merciful to the environment, but to be merciful to other people, even unbelievers.

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And so the passage in Luke 6, it says, given, it'll be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, put in your lap for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

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And so if you're going to buy something back in those days, grain, let's say, you know, there's a little air.

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I mean, the way I always thought about it is if you have a box of what's your favorite cereal. I haven't had cereal for so long after being on this keto deal.

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Let's see if I could have any cereal right now. No, it would not be Frosted Flakes, although they're great.

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It would not be Boo -Berry, Frankenchocolate or Couchocula, is that it?

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Couchocula, Boo -Berry, and what's the other one? I wanted those to be better. It would not be Lucky Charms, Patty Evendroth, Mike Evendroth, but we're not

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Irish. They're magically delicious. They would not be, you know what it would be?

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Be Captain Crunch. I do like those cinnamon and sugar deals. You can just eat out of the box, but I don't eat those things.

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And is it true that Kellogg's was started by a Seventh -day Adventist? You don't want to eat meat, so you got to eat cereal a lot?

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I'm not exactly sure. I used to drive by the Weetabix, a little manufacturing place right here in Clinton Mass, and I would smell the

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Weetabix when I would drive by. I used to drive by Kellogg's in Nebraska on the 680,

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I believe it was, in Omaha, Nebraska, and you could smell, I don't know, something with cereal.

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But with cereal, it's by weight. It's not because the contents are all the way up to the top of the package, right?

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Sometimes they're settling, they say. Well, by the time you settle this and it's pressed down and it's shaken together and every little empty space is filled, running over abundantly, the

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Lord is telling us that when you're generous, that they're blessings. Blessings for generosity.

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That's what he's saying. The measure you use is the measure you're going to get back.

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You forgive people, they don't deserve it, and God blesses that.

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And you give, you're going to get it back. Not in a financial Joe Osteen thing or anything like that.

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It's just mercy gives, that's all. Mercy gives. Mercy's ready to forgive. Mercy's ready to give.

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One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord and he will repay him for his good deed. Proverbs 19. Proverbs 22, he who is generous will be blessed.

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Proverbs 28, he who increases his wealth by interest and usury gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.

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Did I hear that President -elect Trump wants to make the max on credit card interest 10 %?

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I think I heard him say that. I don't know how he does that, but I think that'd probably be good.

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I mean, you go to these places now like TJ Maxx, and they'll say, would you like to open up a credit card?

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You think, okay, I'm spending $800 on Christmas presents for the whole family. I can get 80 bucks back.

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I guess I open one up and then you get the 26 % interest rate and you go, I pay that off and then cut the thing up.

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Come on. What does mercy look like? Well, mercy says, I'm not going to judge people that I evangelize.

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I'll leave the judging to the Lord. I'm not going to condemn people. I'll leave the condemnation to the Lord. I'm going to be forgiving to those people.

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I'm going to be giving and come to think of it, when it's mercy,

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I better be careful who I listen to because who teaches me about this subject is very important because you're going to be influenced by your teachers and that's where Jesus gives this parable.

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It seems like out of nowhere, but the context still is king. He told them a parable, Luke 6, 39, can a blind man lead a blind man?

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Well, yes, and he gives you the answer in another question, will not they both fall into a pit?

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And back in those days in Israel, all the pits and divots and things in the road.

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It's not even like you could walk on a sidewalk today, sidewalk walking here would be dangerous if you were blind and a blind person was leading you, but how much more back in those days?

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And we know blind men can't lead blind men. And what Jesus is doing is he's saying, you better be careful who you follow.

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Now we know that we have a backdrop here of false teachers. We know the

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Pharisees, what they were doing and how they tried to condemn Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, forgiving sins on the Sabbath, for eating with tax collectors and sinners.

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And this legalistic, self -righteous, oppressive, suffocating, gnomism, if you follow those kinds of people, you're not going to be merciful.

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I mean, maybe once in a while, but you're going to be taught to be exacting and stingy and ungodly is what it's going to be.

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So therefore, make sure you choose wisely. And I could say to you, dear, no -compromise listener, be careful who you listen to.

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You have so much time in a day for things like podcasts. And some of you, by the way, have told me you get up and you drive to work and you listen to no -compromise radio.

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Amen. I get up in the morning and drive to work with no -compromise radio.

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So I do the same type of thing, but just a little bit differently. Different, different.

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And I say to myself, I've got X amount of time, what do I listen to? And when people say a bad book is a good thief, right?

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You're going to read a book and it's really no good. I want to finish it, but then I think, you know what? Why bother? This is just dumb.

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Move on. So make sure you have a good pastor who teaches the Bible. Doesn't have to be a perfect pastor, but he has to point to the perfect one, the

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Lord Jesus. And for podcasts that you listen to, you have to be careful on who you listen to.

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Because if you listen to legalistic people, you become legalistic. If you listen to neo -nomians, you become more neo -nomian.

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If you become more, listen to nomants, you become more nomist. If you become harsh, you might ask yourself the question, am

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I listening to harsh teaching? If I am listening to people that talk about grace and God's grace and sovereign grace and mercy, that's what

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I should be doing. I should be listening to people that say the way we should treat other people is with love and mercy and not, you know,

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God get them. Yeah, He will get the unbelievers, the people that hate you and revile you.

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And you can read the book of Revelation, what happens. And you can fast forward to the ultimate judgment day when

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Jesus comes back to judge the living and the dead, the quick and the dead. But here Jesus knows that disciples become like their master, that learners become like their teacher.

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Be careful who you listen to. Judgmental spirits, self -righteous spirits.

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I don't want that. I mean, that would be some of my default in the flesh anyway. Why would

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I want that? I don't want that at all. I'd like to be more merciful. And if I'm going to follow harsh people,

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I'm down in the harsh pit with them, in the potholes, rugged terrain, having accidents.

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I don't want that. J .C. Rowe said, we learn in the first place from these verses, the great danger of listening to false teachers in religion.

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Our Lord compares such teachers and their hearers to the blind leading the blind and asks them, shall they not both fall into the ditch?

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He goes on to confirm the importance of his warning by declaring that the disciple is not above his master and the scholar cannot be expected to know more than his teacher.

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If a man will hear unsound instruction, we cannot expect him to become otherwise than unsound in the faith himself.

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So we have to be aware of false prophets. We have to be careful. So we're not around people that are legalistic and merciless.

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And they'll be like blind leaders. Sad thing is a lot of these people, they think they know better and they don't.

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Jesus is training his men to go out. And what does

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Jesus do? Jesus equips them. And he says, here's what mercy looks like.

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No judging, no condemning, but instead forgive and give. And then be careful who you're listening to, because if you're following the wrong person, you're not going to really be as merciful as you should be because you can't rise above your teacher's level.

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He goes on to say in Luke 6, 40, but everyone, when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

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And if you want to follow someone for whatever reason, and they're not merciful or whatever, fill in the blank, be careful because you're going to do that.

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I hate to think that, especially years ago when aggressive lordship stuff here at the church, what kind of people were we becoming, right?

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If I'm exacting and hard and unforgiving and no mercy and self -righteous and everybody else is wrong, what kind of climate does that create at the church?

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If I, by the grace of God, am kind and merciful and show the kindness and mercy of God and the

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Lord Jesus Christ and his compassion for the lost and his desire to fellowship among sinners, of course, call them to repentance.

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Well, if I follow that and I preach that, then what kind of people do we become?

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We become merciful people. We become like what we worship, right?

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You worship somebody that's like this, Jesus, incarnate

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Jesus, that's merciful, you become more merciful, fully trained, just like him.

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So, we have to be careful not to have blind guides and getting nothing but destruction falling in to the pit.

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All right, what does mercy look like? Well, my name is Mike Gabendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. I hope you're listening because you think we're merciful here, that I want to be more merciful than I am.

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He expands now with this concentric circle, who he's talking about, and instead of just judging the unbelievers that you're evangelizing to, now he's going to say the word brother quite a bit.

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And so, he's going to apply this to believers when he says, Jesus says in Luke 6, 41 and following, when you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye, how can you say to your brother, brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?

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You hypocrite, first take out the log of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck that is in your brother's eye.

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Passage that everybody knows, and Jesus now expands the circle a little bit, not just being merciful to unbelievers, but being merciful to believers, brothers.

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Some say maybe this could be Jews compared to Gentiles, but this is a brother. And I don't care if it's a brother by blood, brother by faith, that's more likely what this is, of course, but we don't need to be judgmental, correcting people all the time.

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One of the things that I know about that is my judgment isn't just, my judgment isn't complete, it's tainted by sin, it's partial.

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And if I've got a four by four in my eye, I've got a big beam in my eye, and I'm worried about a little piece of dust, a little piece of sawdust in someone else's eye.

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It's kind of funny, isn't it? Could there be more laughable stuff in all the Bible? Talking about blind leading the blind,

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I think it follows right here. A little speck? What does mercy do?

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Mercy says, okay, so they got a speck. If marriages could get this down, if I could get this down better, wow.

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The little speck that is in my wife's eye, and I'm running around with what? Beams?

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Crazy. Criticizing when we have worse things in our own lives?

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So we need to look at our own lives before we're looking at the lives of other people. If we're judging sins like specks with four by fours in our own eyes, isn't that like the blind leading the blind?

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Blind guides of the blind? I mean, there's a log in your eye, and you're going to try to get the speck out?

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Now, there are times to confront. There's times to come alongside. There's times to talk about repentance and restoration and everything else.

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But this is the spirit here that Jesus is talking about. It's a spirit of mercy. That's what we're after, to just be merciful.

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You don't have to be blind to people's sins. You just have to be merciful. That's all. And when you get to know yourself better, you'll say, you know what?

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More logs in my eyes than you'll ever remember. You'll ever know, rather. And I just ought not to go do that.

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Seek and destroy mission all the time. Sinclair Ferguson said, what's wrong with such a man?

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He's looking for sins in other people, and he pounces whenever he sees one. So absorbed is he in his campaign that he is blind to the fact that he has sin in his own life that's far greater.

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That's so true. And I think, you know, even in the old days with the no -compromise radio ministry of discerning, we could fall into that.

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Ratings are down, that this is no longer a discernment ministry. Ratings are down, giving's down.

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I don't talk about Patreon much. I think we have 11 givers. I'm very thankful for that. And then one person that just directly

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Venmo's me once a month. The 12 givers, we used to have, I think, 30, 40 or something like that.

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And that was, I never ask anybody for anything. I mean, I made jokes about it's that time of year again, it's the end of the year.

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For years, you didn't even have anything on the website where you couldn't give if you wanted to. What's my point?

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My point is we've gone from discernment to talk about Jesus, and people don't like that as much. But I don't care about that.

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I care in the sense that I wish they would want to hear about Jesus more. If they don't want to listen to this podcast, that's fine.

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I don't mind. But if you look at the YouTube views and the TikTok views and the scrolling views on things that talk about discernment deals,

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I think you're going to see that's what sells. Controversy sells, discernment ministry sells.

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And I think Barnhouse is helpful here. Why are we so concerned about the specs in the other person's eye?

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Probably because it hurts us, it bugs us, we're inconvenienced.

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And what Barnhouse said, it's like a conviction gut punch.

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But you know, of course, we're antinomian here. Does such criticism arise because there's profound grief over sin?

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Is the critic moved by the fact that God is outraged and that great wrong is done? Something about God's honor versus it puts me out.

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Ironside said, when our hearts are occupied with his wondrous love, we remember that he loved us when we were unlovely.

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And some of us are not very lovely now. We remember that he loved us when we were unlovable. And some of us are not lovable yet.

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If he could do that when we were rebellious, and if that same love is now shed abroad in our hearts, we ought to be able to love those who were sinful and unkind and selfish.

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Plus, we don't really know what's going on. We don't know the situation that person's in and what they're going through internally, what situation they're in.

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We don't know. So, we have to be careful. Of course, we discern. Of course, we don't want to be open -minded theologically and revisiting every doctrine.

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Isn't I seeing Creed right? We don't want to be theologically naive and have just, some people call them love blinders on, that everything's only love and there's never any time for handling the word and teaching sound doctrine and refuting those that contradict.

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Of course, we need to do that. There's a discernment level there. After Jesus does the speck and the eye and the log in Matthew, he says at the end of that section, do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you into pieces.

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Therefore, how do you know the person's a dog and how do you know they're a swine? Well, that's going to take discernment.

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That's going to take judgment, but it's a proper judgment. It's a righteous judgment. So, when it comes to specks in other people's eyes,

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I mean, I ask you the question, is there anybody at church that does stuff, could even be sinful stuff, that's like a speck though compared to the log in your own eye?

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People that listen to the show, I'm sure some that listen struggle with pornography. I don't even like to say struggle with pornography.

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You just indulge in pornography. And then you're going to confront your wife about something that she did or didn't do.

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Okay, let's use a different illustration. You wives, you gossip and like to talk about people, but then your husband doesn't measure up in a certain way.

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Even if it's a real way, a legit way, even if it's a sin, I'm not trying to say there's venial sins and mortal sins.

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I'm just saying it's a speck sin versus a beam sin. And then you've got to be on him the whole time.

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I mean, we don't want to do that. Somebody at church and they're immature.

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Sometimes they act fleshly. Sometimes they rub you the wrong way. And then how do we deal with those people?

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We want to make sure we're merciful. That's the key is merciful.

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And of course, we understand that all this comes from a heart that's been changed by God.

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And that's why it says in verse 43, for no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again, does a bad tree bear good fruit.

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For each tree is known by its own fruit. We want to be known for good things, merciful fruit, right? For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.

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A good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, like mercy. And the evil person out of his evil treasures produces evil.

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For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. So we have received mercy and we want to make sure we give mercy, right?

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That's what we want to do. What about you? When people consider you merciful, you say, well,

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I hope, but I'd like to be more merciful. Hey, dear Christian, that's a good thing to do. I'm not saying if you're not merciful enough, you're not a

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Christian, but one of the best fruits or evidences of your Christianity is this.

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I read the word and I'm convicted by it and I'd like to obey it better. And Lord, forgive me for my past failures.

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So I personally can easily see specks in other people's eyes, especially with this ministry, right?

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As a pastor. And then I can judge them based hypocritically when

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I've got my own problems, self -sacrificially serving my wife.

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If I don't do that self -righteousness, pride, arrogance, self -dependence, thinking

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I'm better than other people, right? If there's a sin in the public sphere and I didn't do that,

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I would never do that. And so I have my own problems. And so therefore I have to be careful when

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I'm always trying to get the specks out of everybody else's eyes. So if you're that kind of person,

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I do not want to be the kind of teacher that foments and forms and trains disciples, you on the radio, to be that kind of nitpicky person.

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I just don't want to be around. I, Mike Ebendroth, would like to be the person, the kind of person that you would want around, that you would think he's kind and he's merciful and he's nice to have around.

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Now, of course, sometimes I get myself in trouble on Twitter, but that just goes with the territory of being a pastor and proclaiming truth and calling out error.

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But we don't have to be mean about it. We don't have to be unmerciful about it. We don't have to be rude about it. We don't have to be self -sacrificial.

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You know my point. You know what

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I'm after here on No Compromise Radio Ministry. If you're never merciful, then maybe you should say to yourself,

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I wonder if I've experienced and tasted the mercy and kindness of God. But if you'd like to be more merciful, how about saying,

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Lord, please let me be more merciful. Let me not be going around as Mr. Judger all the time and just trying to put everybody in their place when deep down, come on, let's be honest.

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Let's be honest between just us girls. We know what we're like, so let's be more merciful to other people.