WWUTT 1599 Hold Back Those Led to Slaughter (Proverbs 24:1-14)

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If it were not for the fact that someone came to you and gave you the gospel of Jesus Christ, you would stumble to the slaughter.

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That's the direction most of the world is going, but we must give them the word of God from the Bible when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we come back to our

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Old Testament Study, and we're on to Proverbs chapter 24. If you want to open up your

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Bible and join with me there, or I will read to you from the Legacy Standard Bible, the first 16 verses of this chapter, this is the word of the

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Lord. Do not be jealous of evil men, and do not desire to be with them.

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For their heart meditates on destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. By wisdom a house is built, and by discernment it is firmly established.

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And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge strengthens his power.

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For by guidance you will make war, and in abundance of counselors there is salvation.

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Wisdom is too exalted for an ignorant fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate.

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One who deliberately thinks to do evil, men will call a schemer. The scheming of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to men.

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If you are slack in the day of trouble, your strength is in trouble. Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are stumbling to the slaughter, oh, hold them back.

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If you say, Behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the hearts understand?

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And does not he who guards your soul know? And will not he render to man according to his work?

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Eat honey, my son, for it is good. Indeed, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.

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Know that wisdom is thus for your soul. If you find it, then there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

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Do not lie in wait, oh wicked man, against the abode of the righteous. Do not destroy his resting place.

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For a righteous man falls seven times and rises again. But the wicked will stumble in calamity.

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That's Proverbs 24 verses 1 through 16. We go back to the beginning here.

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Do not be jealous of evil men. What would we have to be jealous of evil men for?

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Like what would we want that they have? Maybe we see what it is that they're doing.

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Maybe we see the sin that they're in and how much fun they're having in it, the pleasure that they are experiencing, and we might think to ourselves,

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Boy, I wish I could have a little pleasure like that. Don't envy that, because it's for that pleasure that is against the law of God that they will be destroyed for.

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We should not desire those things that God does not desire for us. Even the desire for it is sin.

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So if you're looking at what evil men are doing and you desire what it is that they have, well, then you are just as much in sin as they are.

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That is what your heart is for, not for the things of God. You don't delight in righteousness. You would rather delight in unrighteousness.

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So that could be one thing that you may have jealousy over the wicked for. What else might you see among evil men that you wish you had?

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Maybe their success? It could be that you don't really want the sin because you know it's evil and you don't delight in evil.

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But those guys, they seem to always come out on top. How is it that these men do wickedness and they do well, they prosper, whereas I'm doing the righteous thing and I'm getting nothing for it?

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Don't be jealous of them. Don't desire to be with them. For their heart meditates on destruction.

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What they want will lead to their destruction. So don't desire what they have, even their success.

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The success is temporary. It might look like they are thriving for a time in this world, and of course they do.

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They're evil and the world is evil, but they will come into judgment. Their lips talk of mischief.

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What comes out of their mouth is a revelation of what is in their hearts. Don't desire to be with them or lest you get dragged away with them.

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We go on to the next couple of verses, verses three and four. By wisdom a house is built and by discernment it is firmly established.

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Firmly established. So not just built, but it lasts. This is like the parable that Jesus gives in Matthew chapter seven of the wise man and the foolish man.

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The wise man builds his house on the rock and when the storms come and beat against the house, it stands.

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But a foolish man builds his house upon the sand and when the storms beat against that house it falls and great is the fall of it.

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Who does Jesus say is the wise man? It's the one who hears his word and does what he says.

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He builds his house and it is established and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

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Knowledge in what? Knowledge in God and his word. This sounds a lot like Psalm 127 one, unless the

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Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the

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Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. So may the

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Lord be the one who builds our houses and fills our rooms with all of his good things.

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We're talking spiritually here of course, not your literal house. Verse five, a wise man is strong and a man of knowledge strengthens his power.

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Verse six goes right along with that for by guidance you will make war and in an abundance of counselors there is salvation.

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So what is it that makes the wise man strong and that man of knowledge, he strengthens his power while he seeks the counsel of others.

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So a man who goes into battle, someone who goes into conflict does not go by his own strength or by his own wisdom.

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Rather, he listens to the guidance of many counselors. In an abundance of counselors, there is salvation.

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You will come out on top. You will win this war and this conflict when you plan accordingly.

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Consider what Jesus says in Luke 14, beginning in verse 31.

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What king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10 ,000 men to meet him who comes against him with 20 ,000?

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And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

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So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple and what

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Jesus is talking about there is counting the cost. This is this is wisdom, not jumping in with something and not considering what it is that you were jumping into.

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But if anyone would be a disciple of Jesus, he must consider what he must lose in order that he may gain.

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And where do we get that counsel from? We receive that from the word of God. So by guidance, we make war.

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By guidance, we are soldiers in the army of God. In an abundance of counselors, there is salvation.

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Who is our counselors? Listen to your pastors, your teachers who are over you, receive the counsel of other brothers and sisters in the

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Lord who are more mature than you. Listen even to those who are lowly and build one another up in this most holy faith.

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And in this way, we will strengthen ourselves for the battle that is at hand every day.

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We wage spiritual warfare in this walk of faith that we are a part of.

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Verse seven, wisdom is too exalted for an ignorant fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate.

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Remember that the city gate is the place of judgment. The elders, the wisest men of that city will come there to the gate and they will listen to the cases of people that have complaints.

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They have a complaint against this person, so they bring it to the elders at the gate. They're looking for a legal settlement.

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Maybe it's not a dispute, it's just what's the right way that we are to handle this. Or maybe they need some witnesses to some sort of a legal exchange.

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All of this takes place in the gate. But the point is that the wisest men, it's the elders, it's those who have been made judges and put in charge.

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They're the ones who sit in the gate and make these deliberations. Wisdom is too exalted for the ignorant fool, like he can't grasp it.

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So therefore, he will not open his mouth in the gate. He's not welcome there. He does not get to sit among the wise men and make these kinds of judgments.

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In first Corinthians chapter six, the apostle Paul says that we who are in Christ will judge even angels.

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And so how much more we should be able to try these matters of dispute, these disagreements that may exist between brothers and sisters in the

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Lord. We do not need to take these things before an unbelieving world. We can settle these things among one another.

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So if you are in Christ, you know that you will be seated on a heavenly throne and we judge the nations as we read about in the book of Revelation.

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But those who are foolish, who do not know Christ, who go the way of the world or they go their own way, they will not sit in judgment.

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They will be those who are judged. They don't get to open their mouth in the gate. They must be silent and receive their sentence.

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Turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved on the day of judgment.

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Verses eight and nine, one who deliberately thinks to do evil, men will call a schemer.

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He schemes, he thinks of ways that he can get what he wants, that he can execute his foolish plan.

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The scheming of folly, so planning out foolishness is sin. If you plan to do that, which

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God says is not good, then you are sinning even while you plan it out.

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Say somebody has done something to you and you are plotting a way that you can get even with them.

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That's what you're thinking about. How can I get even with this person? Now you're just plotting revenge. You don't really want justice or the righteousness of God to be done.

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You just want to feel better about yourself as long as you can bring that person down who hurt you in some way.

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The very fact that you're planning out such a thing in your mind is sin. Maybe you don't ever even actually go through with it, but you have this animus in your heart towards someone else.

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You have sinned in your heart against God and against that other person. The scoffer, it says in verse 9, is an abomination to men.

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We read about scoffers in 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter warns about scoffers who will scoff at Christians because the day of Christ has not arrived and Jesus is never going to return.

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So who are you, oh foolish people, to continue to wait for a Savior that's never going to come? But Peter says there that Jesus is long -suffering, that he doesn't want any of his own, his sheep to perish, but that those who will be saved will come to repentance, will come to a knowledge of our sin and repent and turn to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live. And those who scoffed in that day will be judged on the day of Christ's return.

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If you are discouraged by the scoffer, or you are led astray by the scoffer simply because you don't like to be scoffed at, well then you fall into the same abominations that they are guilty of.

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The scoffer is an abomination to man. So beware of those people who scoff and do not be discouraged by them.

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Hold fast to the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter what these wicked men and women are attempting to do to you, they will not succeed.

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They will come into judgment as long as you continue to hold fast to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Verse 10 says, if you are slack in the day of trouble, your strength is in trouble.

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So don't go lazy when scoffers have their way, they say the things that they say, when the world is bearing down on you, when your flesh is tempted by things.

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Do not get weak in your strength. If you're slack in that day of trouble, then your strength is in trouble and you'll fall into temptation and sin.

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Continue to hold fast to Christ. Where we are weak, he is strong.

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Verse 11, deliver those who are being taken away to death and those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

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Oh, hold them back. If you say, behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the hearts understand and does not he who guards your soul know and will not he render to man according to his work?

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So if you see somebody that is in sin that would lead them to slaughter, in other words, it's the day of judgment that's going to come upon them.

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That's the context that we've been looking at here in this section of Proverbs 24. You see somebody walking in that sin, call them out, say, don't continue in that way.

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You will be destroyed if you continue to go the way that you are going. Hold them back, those who are stumbling to slaughter.

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But if you say, behold, we did not know this, like we did not know what was right and what was wrong, is that going to be any excuse for what does the passage go on to say?

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Does not he who weighs the hearts understand? And that doesn't mean

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God knows your heart. He know that you didn't, you didn't know that this was wrong because that's not any excuse.

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You can't say that. Nobody will stand before God on that, on that day of judgment and say, well, God, I didn't know this was wrong.

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And he's going to say to you, oh, that's okay. I knew your heart. I knew you meant well. So that's fine.

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That's not what this passage is referring to. It is never said in the word of God that it's okay as long as you don't know his law.

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If you disobey it and you didn't know it, that's fine. The scripture does not say that.

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Rather ignorance of the law is no excuse. It says in Romans two, they who perish are still going to perish under the law, even though they did not know what it was.

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So you cannot say we did not know this was wrong. God gave us what is right and what is wrong.

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It's in the Bible. You know what's right and you know what's wrong. You know what is pleasing to God and what displeases the

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Lord. You know the way of righteousness and you know the way of destruction because it is said in the

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Bible. We have it right here. How may we live that will be pleasing unto the

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Lord? We know it according to his word. How can a young man keep his way pure,

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Psalm 119, by guarding it according to your word?

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When we listen to the word of God and we obey it, then we know what is right and what is wrong.

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No one will be able to say we did not know this. Does not he who weighs the hearts understand?

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Does not he who guards your soul know? And will not he render to man according to his work?

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So know what is right and know what is wrong that the Lord may render to you according to your work that you did what was right.

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And when you saw those who were stumbling to the slaughter, you stood in their path and said, don't go this way.

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My brethren, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and live. As I talked about this last week, as we were going through the love chapter, first Corinthians 13, love is so much more than not doing the bad things, right?

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As long as I don't do anything bad to my neighbor, then I love my neighbor. No, true love means that you are actively looking for ways that you can show kindness to them, that you can build one another up, that you can show charity and affection.

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If you're just abstaining from interaction with another person altogether, that's really cold hearted.

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That is not affectionate. It is not desirous. It's not ministry. Ministry means going to people and ministering to them.

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So the way of righteousness is the same way. It's more than just not doing the bad things.

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As long as I don't do bad, then I'm being righteous, right? Well, Jesus confronted that in the Sermon on the

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Mount, where he said to those who say, hey, I've never committed adultery before. Oh, yeah.

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Well, have you lusted after a woman in your heart? Then it's the same as if you've committed adultery. Hey, I've never murdered before, so I must be a pretty good person.

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Well, do you hate your brother? Have you called him names? You're guilty of the fire of hell. It's the same as if you've murdered him in your heart.

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So see, you can't simply just abstain from doing bad things, and therefore you're a righteous person. No, we're sick from the heart.

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Righteousness means desiring to do the righteous thing. We want to do the right thing. We see sin, and we call it out.

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There are a lot of ministers out there who are playing the safe game. It's like as long as I don't call out sin, then

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I'm not offending anybody. Maybe if I just stand over here and I continue to do the righteous thing,

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I just continue to do good to people. I'm still preaching the gospel, and people like me for that.

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But I start calling out sin, I start saying, yeah, that's wicked. God's going to judge that. You'll go to hell for that. Well, then people really dislike me for that.

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So as long as I abstain from that, then I'm doing pretty good. I tell you, on the day of judgment, there are going to be people who will stand before God and be condemned because they would not oppose that which is evil.

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The Bible calls us not just to do what is righteous, but hate that which is evil.

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Read Psalm 5. Read where David says that I hate the things you hate,

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O God. It is said of Christ in Hebrews chapter one, you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

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And don't you desire to be like Christ? So we must do the righteousness that Christ calls us to, and we must hate those things that even

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God hates, telling the world that if you go this way, if you choose the path of unrighteousness, it will be to your destruction that we may stand in their path and hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

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They're stumbling to the slaughter because they don't realize where it is that they're headed. But we know according to the word of God, it's why we must know the word of God.

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So we can tell the person going to slaughter, don't go that way. Some of you are probably aware of an evangelism opportunity that the men at the

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Babylon Bee had recently with Elon Musk, richest man in the world, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, shooting rockets into space.

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He's hoping to make it to Mars one of these days. These men, as they were interviewing

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Elon at the conclusion of the interview, they asked these questions of those that they talked to. And one of those questions is, will you accept

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Jesus as your Lord and personal savior? And Elon really doesn't even understand what it is that they're talking about.

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And he says he believes in the God of Spinoza, which is basically that, you know, everything that exists is in some way

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God. And I believe in that. It's all knowledge and all matter and everything becomes God. And so that's that's the

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God that I believe in. He never understands Jesus Christ as being the son of God, the savior,

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God himself, who became man, who lived a perfect life, who died on the cross for our sins, who rose again from the grave so that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life.

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Elon left that interview with no knowledge, no understanding of that whatsoever. And the men at the

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Babylon Bee who claimed to be doing ministry, they claimed in that interview that this is a ministry. They didn't minister.

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They didn't warn Elon that because of his sin, he's going to destruction. And he needs to repent and turn to Jesus Christ and live.

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So those men there who claim to be Christians, they even know he's going to slaughter.

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And they did not stand in his way and tell him, don't go that way, Elon, turn to Christ.

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Now, it's it's going to be up to Elon. It will be on him and him alone as to whether he would become a follower of Jesus.

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But the ministers at the Babylon Bee, if you'll pardon the expression, did not even tell him that.

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So they did not stand in the way of those stumbling to the slaughter and hold them back.

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If you say, behold, we did not know this. Does not he who weighs the hearts understand? Does not he who guards your soul know?

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And will not he rendered a man according to his work? Did these men, the men at the

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Babylon Bee, did they do the work of God in sharing the gospel with those who did not know?

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And I don't think we should just be sitting here pointing at those guys and saying, hey, look how much you failed. It's a learning experience for all of us.

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We recognize we're all called to share the gospel. And how will the world know unless they are told, as it says in Romans chapter 10.

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So we have been told to go and share the gospel with the nations. Those who believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ will live. But how do they know unless they're told? I'll close with these verses, verses 13 and 14 here.

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Eat honey, my son, for it is good. Indeed, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.

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Know that wisdom is thus for your soul. If you find it, there will be a future and your hope will not be cut off.

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What is that good word that is sweet for the soul? It is the word of the Lord that we have in the

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Bible. Referencing Psalm 119 again, verse 103. How sweet are your words to my taste?

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Sweeter than honey to my mouth. There is no sweeter word than the good news that our sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ and we have eternal life with him.

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Heavenly Father, thank you for the good word that we've read today. And may we hear these words and do them and teach others to do the same.

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And where we see those who are stumbling in sin to the slaughter, we stand in the way and say, there is a way of salvation.

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Turn to Jesus Christ and live. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. This has been

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When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.