Romans 16:6-19 - Mark Them Which Cause Divisions (06/04/2023)

Good morning, everyone. I am extremely thankful to be standing here preaching to you today because I had something hit my left foot on a

Wednesday and it was terrible. I couldn't walk and really at all. I had two canes.

That didn't work. So I finally found some crutches out in the barn and that didn't work too well.

And I had a lot of folks praying for me. It's planter's fasciitis is what it's called.

Not sure what causes it, but I had it once before in my right foot after a long plane on a trip on an airplane sitting and then got up and walked fast.

And I think that's what caused that. It took six months for that to get well. In this one, I had a couple of long automobile rides about an hour and 20 minutes there and back and rested a little on, was it

Tuesday? And when I got off the couch,

I was watching some TV. And when I got off the couch, I couldn't walk. It just hit.

It was terrible. And a lot of people started praying for me, you know, family mostly because not everybody knew about it.

And I woke up yesterday morning. God had healed it. It was just gone. And it was way worse than the time

I had it that lasted six months. I mean, it was really bad. And so I'm so happy because it was answered prayer because I know what it's like when a normal process is just takes a long, long time because it's tendons and things and they take forever to heal.

And then Lord just healed it. And so I woke up again this morning and it's still healed.

That's the way a real healing works, isn't it? And so I'm able to be here. I guess I would have preached from a chair with crutches if Lord hadn't healed it.

But it's a lot more fun to be standing up here. I do have real fancy shoes, though.

Can you see that out there? They match quite nicely, but they're soft and cushy.

So I wore those because I knew I needed to dance before the Lord and thank him for healing me.

And so I've done I did that after Sunday school. I'm not going to do it again. Sorry that some people did see me do it.

So anyway, great to be with you all. And we did have a number of serious prayer requests.

They're always serious. But, you know, today and so we keep those folks in mind.

Today is Brother Raymond's birthday. Bless you. And it was also my mom's.

It was on the same day and she's in heaven watching us, I'm sure. And I mean, I'm sure she's in heaven, but I question whether she can watch because Brother Otis did not think so.

But I thought that the scripture taught that they can. I still think I'm right. But how do you know till you get there, right?

But Brother Otis knows right now whether I was right or not. And but anyway, so I've got a lot of great thoughts about my mom.

And as Ben pointed out in Sunday school this morning, it's one year anniversary of Brother Bill Nichols' last time to teach

Sunday school is today. And then two days later, he was in heaven. And that all of that is right now.

So it's a little emotional around here today. But anyway, so great to be with you. Turn with me, if you would, to Romans chapter 16.

And we had sort of worked our way down through at least verse nine.

I'll just pick it up there. And this is sort of part of a list of over 30 people, even more than that.

We don't know the exact number because he listed most of them, but then talked about and their family. So that adds multiple more people that the apostle

Paul was commending for their service in the church. And so it's pretty cool.

In fact, you know, this is the kind of list that sometimes we're tempted to skip it and just go on and find something more meaningful.

Hey, Matt, before you sit down, would you goose this up just a little for me back there? But it occurred to me this time through that I felt like, well, you know, that's great.

I'm down a little. OK, how's that? Is that too loud? That's pretty good. You know, the

Lord's written a very concise book, right? And it's got everything he wants to know about himself and us now in this book.

And in this little concise book, he took the time to list all these people for some reason.

So I thought maybe we should look at him. Well, we've looked at quite a few. And what I decided to do to save us some time is

I found a reformer named John Gill who had written extensively about these people.

And he didn't write about all of them. He wrote about the ones he could find information on because it's not easy. And so I'm quoting him on a lot of this.

It saves it saves us a little bit of time because he doesn't talk about all of them, but he talks about the ones that he felt he could find information on and were important in a particular way.

So I'll quote him some as we talk about these. So I'm going to pick it up here at verse eight,

I guess. Greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord. Salute Urbane.

We've mentioned this one last time. Brother Myron preached last time, but time before Sunday before last.

Our helper in Christ in Stachys, my beloved. Salute Apelles approved in Christ.

Salute them, which are of Aristotle's household. And a lot of these, when he mentions these households, a lot of times it is a church in a house where a godly couple starts a church in their home until it grows big enough to move to a bigger building.

And Paul would start churches that way sometimes too. So sometimes it's actually a whole church or a leader of a church he's commending here.

And so I'm going to pick up with John Gill says this. Sixly, he's talked about five of them so far.

Sixly, two worthy men are joined together, Urbane and Stachys. The one is saluted as a helper in Christ and the other as beloved by the apostle.

And I would think a lot of times when they're beloved, they might be his own, someone he led to the Lord, perhaps.

Seventhly, Apelles is named next and commended as one approved in Christ.

In Christ is a word formula in the New Testament that means saved, born again, obviously.

And eighthly, the family of Aristobulus is greeted in Romans chapter 16, verse 10.

Then I'm skipping to ninthly, a kinsman of the apostles by the name of Herodian.

So this is someone that was actually kin to Paul who was saved. And then tenthly, the household of Narcissus said to be in the

Lord, Romans chapter 16, verse 11, which means they're born again.

So now it's interesting, how many times have we said, myself included, well, you can't tell the sheep from the goats or you can't tell if someone's saved or not.

We kind of throw that out. We've heard great preachers say that. I know that the great Charles Spurgeon, who I adore and can't wait to meet in heaven someday.

He said, the Lord doesn't paint a yellow stripe down the back of the elect.

So he said, I don't know who they are. But he actually was talking about elect people that aren't saved yet, perhaps.

And you cannot tell them from the goats, right? I mean, they're just lost. Lost people are lost. We were that way. We were all lost.

We ran with goats and lost sheep, didn't we? And the goats don't ever get saved.

The lost sheep always get saved. And Spurgeon was saying you can't tell the difference. But he wasn't saying,

I have not read where he said, I can't tell a Christian from a lost person. I've not seen him say,

I can't tell someone that's like, if they're in Christ, I can tell.

I've never seen him say, I can't tell. But I've heard modern preachers say that, haven't you?

And I think I've said it because I heard modern preachers say it. Where's Ben about the old cool preacher?

I've heard old cool preachers say it, so I've said it. But it doesn't mean it's right. Because notice, I want to ask you a question.

How does Paul know this person's in the Lord? And yet the

Holy Spirit inspired him to say it. So it's true that Paul is a man knew that several of these where he calls them in the

Lord, right? And one of these was the household of Narcissus.

And Paul said, who is in the Lord? Meaning the man who's the leader of the house. So Paul could tell a

Christian from a lost person. And when you hang out together for a good while, you can tell for sure, don't you think?

I mean, you can look in someone's eyes a lot of times. But I'll tell you, the more you're in the word, the more you can tell about others.

Some you can't tell, because the Bible says, Satan slips some in unawares.

That means you can't tell. You think they're Christians for a while because of the words they say and the actions they do.

Shaking your hand, joining you in your love feast, having meals with you. But you don't know. You know by their fruit is how you know.

But that takes some time. So in a smaller church like this, it's good because we've been together, most of us for a long time.

And those of you who are fairly new, we're still watching you, but I'm messing with you.

But you watch one another going through trials and tribulations.

I think the trials prove a lot when you go through those together and you're still together and things like that.

So I just found it interesting that Paul could tell when someone was saved and when they weren't. And that's contrary to what a lot of modern preachers say in their books and from the pulpit.

And I apologize for the times I've said it, because I can't agree with it after studying this more carefully this time through.

All right. So let me move to verse 12, Romans 16, 12. Salute Triphina.

I love these names. We need to start naming some of our grandbabies and stuff, these names. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Triphosa.

How do you like that? Here you have Triphina and Triphosa. So the parents like the tri thing and they had 10 more kids.

It'd be try this, try that, try that. Who labored in the Lord. Salute the beloved

Perseus, which labored much in the Lord. Now, we've mentioned this already. A lot of these are

Jewish people, but they have Greek names. Why? Because Greek was the economic language of the world, like English is now.

Worldwide English is the economic language. And if anything, Jews are economic oriented. They're very into buying and marking it up and selling it for a profit, running banks, financing, all kinds of things.

They've always been. Why? Because all the secrets for all of that are in this book. Now I've been criticized for talking about that.

You know, I've been asked the question, does the Bible really promise wealth to his people?

And the truth is he does, but it's a conditional promise. And some people have said, well, it's not an individual promise.

It's general. No, show me that in the Bible. Show me that in the Bible. It's a promise to you if you're saved.

And I'll challenge that. But it's a promise to you if you're saved, but you got to keep the conditions.

And I'd have mentioned in the past that some of us find ourselves in the first generation where a generation before us didn't do it.

So we're starting over. And that doesn't mean in your lifetime, you can create wealth in one lifetime. Although with technology today, it's easier, wouldn't you say?

Don't you think, Noah? Being a young man who sees the technology in business now is so much different than when

I was your age. So you could potentially do it in your lifetime if you're as young as Noah and Josh over here and Ali.

So I mean, you have time, obviously, but it's a generational thing in families where you teach the kids and the grandkids the skill sets of the business you're doing.

Not some new when they go out and learn from college, but something you, the family, teach them. That's how

God brings wealth to families. And it is specific. It is not general. It's specific to individuals who will follow and do what

God says to do in the scripture and make that clear. Now, here you have some people that are commended in this group who are wealthy individuals.

We've already mentioned some of the women who said that they gave money to those who needed it in this list right here in chapter 16 of the scripture.

So here you have two excellent women greeted. And I guess that would be

Trifina and Trifosa. And this is one reason I referred to John Gill. I can't tell if these are women or men, can you, from those names?

But obviously, they're lovely female names. And you might keep them in mind. One thing about it, you name your kid this, no one else will have the name.

It'll be, they'll be very unique. And then Perseus, I think, is a nice name. Almost sounds like a fish or something.

I'm not sure. But they labored much in the Lord. They're probably going to come up to me in heaven and say, you called me a fish.

I'm going to say, sorry about that. I thought you couldn't see me. Otis said you couldn't see me.

Salute Rufus. Now there's a good one. That sounded like a Texas name right there. Rufus, chosen in the

Lord. Now how'd Paul know that? How'd Paul know he was chosen? Interesting question, but he knew, and his mother and mine.

Did Paul have a brother named Rufus? No, he said, salute

Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. His mother and my mother,

Paul said. Right there. Isn't verse 13 say that? Or is that print funny in my, yeah.

So it could mean pray for Rufus's mother and my mother, or it could mean me and Rufus have the same mother.

You don't think that Rufus might've studied under Gamaliel? Or Gamaliel said,

Rufus, I don't think so. You're a Texan. You don't get to come to this university. I don't know.

Probably just two different mothers, but you can't tell from the language. I'll check it out. Next week,

I will look and see if anyone in the whole world thinks Paul had a brother named Rufus. At least we can tell it's a guy though, right?

Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. What does that sound to you like, Sharon? Doesn't that sound like his mother's my mother?

And am I right, Raymond? I don't know. We'll check it out. We'll check it out.

We'll put Matthew on there. Matt, figure that out while you're driving on your vacation. Maybe you shouldn't drive if you're going to do that though.

All right, here we go. So maybe some of our learning folks out here already looking it up. Find out if Paul had a brother named

Rufus. I'm halfway teasing, but I don't know. You can't tell from the language. Now, here's some other nice ones.

Salute. Wow. Asencritus. Phlegon.

I like that for a guy, I'm thinking. Hermes. Petrobus.

Or Petrobus. I like that better. Petrobus. Hermes. And the brethren which are with them.

So apparently they have a home church. Salute Philologus and Julia and Nereus and his sister and Olympus and all the saints which are with them.

Apparently they had a church in their home. Salute one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.

Now I got to stop there for a second and then I'll read what John Gill says about these people.

But I've got to ask you this. If the Bible says we're supposed to keep the Lord's Supper and we do that.

And it says here we're supposed to give each other a holy kiss. Why don't we do that? Take these off.

So I'm not teasing. I'm asking a question. Why don't we do that? Because we're

Texans. COVID. Because of COVID. I like it.

We're embarrassed. Okay. Should we be doing this? If Paul under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit said to do this, should we be doing it? Josh, what do you think? You go, not me.

No, no, no, no. Hugs are bad enough, right? Hugs are, wow. Okay.

But it's a serious theological question I'm asking you. So type some things in. Matt, go back and check the comments.

Make sure. Probably got some answers out there. Anybody got a comment about that?

I mean, it's a serious question. Why don't we do this? Well, in what countries?

Do they do it in England or do they do it in Spain? Or do they do it in Italy? In England or Spain?

Italy. Why not England? It's Protestant. All the

Catholic nations of the world still do this. And it's, you've seen the Europeans do it. They kind of just pack up.

They don't even touch it. They just kiss right here and then kiss here. You've seen them like that, right? You've seen them on TV or.

Okay. We got an answer back there. It's a cultural issue.

He says, well, Brian, that's what they say about women teaching in the church too, my brother.

Right? Cultural issue. I don't like that answer. Sorry, Brian.

Every other answer you've ever said our whole life together has been correct, but I don't like that answer. Oh yeah.

Wait, Brian, you're talking about in Europe. I'll go with it for Europe. Between difference between Europe. I'm sorry.

You're correct. See, you're like me, Brian, except the difference is I thought you were wrong this time, but you're actually right.

So that's the only mistake you made this year was David thought you were wrong, but you're right. Because talking about England or Europe and America, it is cultural, but I'm asking biblically, like from a pure Bible viewpoint, if we're commanded to give each other a holy kiss, why don't we do it?

And I think you're getting at the answer there. When you talk about, you said, well, maybe you're right in England.

They don't tend to do it in England. Well, here's what I think. Here's my theory. And I'm just going to,

I've never heard this or read it. It's David Mitchell's theory, which means it could very much be wrong, but here's what

I think. When Martin Luther could not fix the

Catholic church, like he wanted to try to reform it, he had to separate from it. And John Calvin and all the ones that came after him, like humans do in so many cases, when you think you see something really badly wrong, like some of the doctrine of works salvation, you can lose your salvation.

You should kill people who don't agree to become Catholics, like they did all through the dark ages, not only kill them, but rip their guts out, literally, if they won't agree to become a

Catholic, or if they want to read the Protestant Bible, which King James, by the way, was based on Greek manuscripts, manuscripts that only non -Catholics used for 2000 years.

And they were often killed because they wouldn't use the Catholic Bible. Think about that, which differs a little bit from yours, not much, but a little bit.

And all of that's going on. Well, when they separated from them, there were some things they brought with them that were, that I think were

Catholic. Matt, I'm sorry to bother you again, but that's my water up there, and I forgot to bring it for myself. I need it, please.

Thank you so much. Actually, going back and forth, you're about to take a vacation. I'm going to make you work hard until you leave, and then you'll probably never come back.

So they brought some things with them, unfortunately, like sprinkling babies, which I have no clue why they brought that with them.

But they totally changed the doctrines of salvation, which is the main thing, isn't it? But you know what else?

There were many areas where they wanted to be so different from the Roman Catholics and never be considered to be one, where people could actually know they weren't one.

And one of the things I think they did was they stopped the holy kiss thing, because the Catholics have always done it.

And the Catholics, by the way, Brian, I think if you check this out, the Roman Catholic Church is what brought that to Europe.

That's why they do it. And so the European nations, so many of them are Roman Catholic, including

France and Italy, Spain and others. And they're the ones that still do that today.

I think it came because the Roman Catholic Church was doing it. Now, what about before the Roman Catholic Church?

Well, we're reading about the very church at Rome that became the

Roman Catholic Church after Constantine. And they were already doing it.

You see my point? So because Paul told them that through the Holy Spirit's inspiration to do it.

And back then it was a thing that showed the difference between a Christian and a pagan, because the pagans weren't going around doing that.

But the Christians would do this and people could see it and they could tell, oh, they're Christians. So the Roman Catholic Church correctly picked it up.

And the Protestants, when they split and wanted to be different, incorrectly stopped it. What's weird is they kept some of the wrong stuff like sprinkling babies.

This is purely a theory, but I think the way that a lot of Protestant churches do the Lord's supper came from the

Roman Catholic Church. But we're studying that right now in process of studying that in this church to see if we can determine whether that's true or not.

But I think they brought some bad things, but they cut off some good things like this. So the reason we don't do it is because the

Protestants that are our brothers and sisters that go back to the reformers from, you know,

Calvin, especially this direction, did not do this because they thought it was

Roman Catholic. So that's the only reason we don't do it. So what do we do in Texas? We hug, right?

We're huggers. Now, I've even seen fundamental independent Baptist pastors who say don't hug.

It's inappropriate, but it is interesting. I mean, don't you, is it just me or is that, where's

Ben when I need him? He's with the baby. Ben, don't you think a holy kiss, if God said in the

Bible you got to do it? Noah, you're a young theologian just starting out, but serious. What do you think?

Speak to me. Or let me read it. This is in the imperative in the

Greek, by the way. It means it's a command. Salute one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.

So what do you think? Do we need to pick up on this and start thinking about it? Oh, you want to pray about it for a week and study it on your vacation?

All right. So come back next Sunday. I'll see what you thought of it because we'll see like if you're living your belief or not.

So, okay. Now, Brian is saying, I'm sticking with my social thing.

What do you say? It's something we could all fall back on if we don't want to do this.

We just say Brian was right. It's social. We're not Europeans. We ain't doing it. I like that part.

All right. I can't remember all of that, but he went into some theological discussions he's probably read.

Unless that all came out of your brain, Brian, it could have. But the last part was the important thing is that we show genuine

Christian love and affection to one another that shows. And I think a hug is sufficient, but am

I right? I don't know. Noah's going to answer it for us by next Sunday. And so I'll let you have the pulpit for five minutes and explain what you think.

Seriously, dead serious. Okay. Show me that.

Which verse? Okay. So Ron says he believes the

Bible's indicating that you have to greet them with a holy kiss and say goodbye with a holy kiss. Well, they do that in Europe, don't they?

Yeah, I think they do. So I want you just like philosophically to think about if we just have just a clear command in scripture that says to do this, who are we to say it's social or we don't have to do it because it's society?

Because that's what they say about don't let the women preach or teach in church. They'll say, well, that's just Paul's societies.

It doesn't really count today. That's exactly what they say, but they're wrong. So what about this?

It's just an interesting exercise. We may well stick with a Texas hug, because we would like to have visitors stay when they come to visit.

And so that's something to think about too. So now people are going to accuse Brother Mitchell of wanting church growth so badly that he's willing to be unscriptural, right?

You could say that if we, I don't know. I'm just going to wait on Noah, my assistant.

Thank you, sir. Okay. So let's see what John Gill says about this. Who, by the way, was a

Protestant reformer, probably going to say nothing about the Holy Kiss. So eleventhly, two excellent women are greeted who had been indefatigable.

That's a good word. I want you to start using this one, Ron. Indefatigable. And in their service of Christ and twelfthly, another woman by the name of Percy's, a woman to be respected and loved on account of her labor in the

Lord. And that was from verse 12. Paul said she labors much in the

Lord. And then 13th, Rufus is saluted as one chosen in Christ and also his mother and who was the mother of the apostle.

John Gill thinks I was right. Isn't that funny? Romans 16, 13.

So fourteenthly, five of the saints are joined together who are mentioned by name and other brethren with them whose names are not set down in Romans 16, 14.

And lastly, five other saints with all the brethren with them are likewise saluted.

Romans 16, 15. And these and all the members of the church are exhorted to salute one another in an affectionate and chaste manner.

I love it. How many of you think that's awesome how he said that? That is, that just sounds so much like brother

Otis. If he were here, he would be so nervous this morning because I mentioned kissing.

He would be so nervous, right? But he would say it like this. He would say it just like that.

Greet one another in an affectionate and chaste manner. We might just stick with that.

How many of you vote for that? Okay. We'll vote for that. Brian, we're going to vote for that.

You don't have to study anymore on this one. Noah, you're not off the hook because I want to know what you think by next

Sunday. You're not allowed to refer to John Gill because he's just a man.

He could be wrong. Okay. So who are told that all the churches also saluted them.

Now that's cool because these people are known in other churches too. Some of these people that he mentioned for their service for the

Lord. So this was from John Gill from a book called the Exposition of the

Bible by John Gill. Now verse 17. Now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them.

Now some people have asked me, it's interesting because when we were independent Baptist, I was sometimes criticized for not preaching topical messages, which is what they like to do and for preaching verse by verse through books.

And yet even as a young man, I found great wisdom in preaching verse by verse because you have to, how many of you have ever been in here before where I preached a sermon and for some reason you thought that I knew something about you and I was just only talking about you?

How many of you ever felt that? Okay. That happens, doesn't it? Well, if you're preaching verse by verse and you're about a month and a half ahead in your studies of where you're preaching or sometimes years, if it's material that I pull in to some of this, that's already been ready for at least over a month, then that kind of proves that I had no way of knowing anything about you and I'm just preaching what the

Lord led me to preach and you just feel like it's you. Well, this is particularly important today because as I said a few

Sundays ago, we've had a few families who have decided not to join with us anymore, not to be in fellowship with us anymore.

And I would not want them to, they still listen to our tapes, by the way, some of them.

So I would not want them to think that I'm preaching this today because of them, because I'm not.

Okay. I'm preaching this today because it's where we are in the book of Romans chapter 16. And to finish the chapter, we have to preach this.

So this is exactly why I'm here, but I am going to preach it. I'm not going to back away from it.

And all of us, no matter what scripture is being preached, need to examine our hearts every time we hear scripture and let it speak to our hearts.

So I would ask anyone listening to this from anywhere to do that. So the apostle

Paul and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, now I beseech you, brethren, mark them, make note of them, which cause divisions and offenses in the church.

Contrary to doctrine, because doctrine teaches not to do that all through Old Testament and New Testament.

It teaches not to do anything that would cause division among brethren or in your family, in your church, anywhere like that.

And when you mark the people that do it, and then you avoid them. That's the exhortation.

You make note of who they are, and then you avoid them. All right. Now, when we look at this to mark, the

Greek word skopio means to take aim at or to regard someone or to consider or take heed of who they are.

So you're noticing that they're practicing this and you're marking them in your mind saying, oh, they're a person that does that.

They're a person that back bites. Like they will talk about David behind his back, which means they're probably talking about me behind my back too.

Or what if they come up to you and want to talk to you about someone else? And by human nature, we like to hear information.

So we're tempted to listen. And we never stop and think, no, wait a minute. If they're sitting here talking about Ron behind his back to me, and I'm listening, well, three weeks from now, they're going to be over here talking to Paul about me behind my back because they are a back biter.

You see, you're supposed to mark them and avoid them because they're going to be talking about you next time.

Now, this is just wisdom from the holy word of God. So to mark means to figure out who they are.

In your mind, you put a mark on them. That is a back biter. Now, the only thing that would change that is if they came and apologized to whoever it was that they were talking about behind their back and said,

I'm sorry, I was not spirit filled when I did that. I was in the flesh. And maybe even

Satan led me to do it or put thoughts in my mind about you that were either half truths or not true at all or out of context or whatever.

Or maybe they were true, but I should have talked to you about it, not to brother Ron or whoever. I'm using him because I'm just picking on you.

But so this is what it means when it says mark them. And I think we all know what the word avoid means.

And so the word mark comes from a smaller group

Greek word, skopos, which means to peer into something like almost like a spy, like you're noticing something about a person.

And once you notice that they are that thing, you mark them. I mean, you have marked them. That's what the word mark means.

It can mean to dig. So you dig into it a little bit and say, are they really talking about people behind their backs?

And you figure out that they are, or it may not be talking about someone behind their back.

It might be fornication or any other sin listed in these passages of scripture where it says, don't do these things.

It might be one of those things. But, but in this case, in verse 17, where we're studying here in Romans 16, 17, these are people who are causing divisions and offenses in the church.

And that starts with backbiting and talking about people behind their back because in a little bit in this study that we're in now, because of verse 16,

I mean, verse 17, we're going to find out how do you properly handle church problems? What if the pastor is actually doing something wrong and it needs to be addressed?

How do you handle that? What if a church member or an elder or deacon or any church member is doing something wrong and you've noticed it and how do you handle that?

And so the Bible talks about specifically how you don't handle it. And then it talks about how you do. It's very important.

In fact, we've talked about, because of all this thing happening, we're probably going to make a video for new visitors to watch that tells them a little bit about our church, our background, our beliefs, but it's specifically going to tell them how we deal with church problems.

And that way they will know immediately that they won't last around here if they don't do it biblically. If they have a problem with the church and they don't handle it biblically, they're going to be called to point on that and they won't like it and they won't last.

So that's going to be very important because we don't want to be a church that argues over the color of the carpet or whether the pastor grabs his right ear every other 30 minutes while he's preaching.

I mean, listen, if you want to pick on me, I am a sinner saved by grace.

You can find something new every day negative about me, but I can do that about you too.

Do you want me to? Or would you like for me to look at the good things in you, your strong points, the gifts that God's given you, how you benefit the church, how you benefit your family?

Which would you prefer? So I would like the same in return. Doesn't mean that there aren't sometimes times when a husband or a wife may talk to their spouse and say, you know,

I've noticed you're doing something that maybe you feel is detrimental to them because other people are seeing it too.

That's okay sometimes to bring that up to your spouse, but it's never easy, is it? And if you don't do it in exactly the right way, it won't work anyway because you have to open a person's mind before they will listen.

And that's one reason the Bible says specifically never rebuke an elder. An elder means a preacher.

If you rebuke him, he won't listen. He just won't, it won't, it won't help, but you admonish them as a brother.

That's why I appreciate Brother Music so much. I wish he were here. Maybe he's listening from home. I don't know, but he knew some of these issues that were being talked about, about me, and he came to me face -to -face, asked for an audience with me face -to -face.

He bought me coffee at Denny's and said, I need to talk to you about some things, and he shared with me some of these things that people were saying face -to -face, and he admonished me as a brother.

He did not rebuke me, and so I listened, and some of the things we've already changed, like we're starting on time now, right?

That is a valid problem. We do that because we're a small church. We get a little lax because you don't have to be as highly organized as a church with a thousand people, but it doesn't mean that it wasn't better to start right on time, so some good things can come out of it, but you've got to handle it in the right way, correct?

So we see here that when you find a person who is backbiting and talking about people behind their back,

Paul says, mark them and avoid them because they will cause division in the church, and now there's more to this than this.

It goes in great detail and talks about how, through spiritual warfare, Satan can use us against each other.

We may not even know he's doing it because we never think that we have a problem, right?

You don't think you're bitter. You don't think that you're prideful or arrogant or any of that.

You never think it's you. It's the other guy, so the enemy can use that against us to even hurt one another as Christians, and it shows up as division because usually what happens is if I think

I see something about Brother Ron that's serious, I'm going to go tell Brother Paul, hey, he does that, but I do it this way, and Paul's going to say, well, you're right,

Brother David. Now I've got a party like Republican and Democrat. Me and Paul are in the Republican. He's a

Democrat. Now I'm going to come over here, and I'm going to get you and say, hey, me and Paul think this.

Ron said this. Now I may be taking it out of context. You may have said something else where you didn't even mean it that way, but that doesn't matter because I'm backbiting.

You're not there to defend yourself. You can't say, well, actually what I said was this, and I said this before that, and I said this after it.

I didn't mean that. You can't say that because you're not there, so I'll just tell you here's what he said, and I'm giving you my version, not his, and you say, well, you're right,

David, and I'm with you and Paul now, and then I go and get as many of you as I can before you even know about it, and every time

I've ever seen that done to a pastor, the people doing it will take one innocent family with them when they leave every time, and that's in a small church.

Imagine in a big church what that would look like. They might take 30 families with them, and so it's very evil.

God hates it. It's one of the six things God hates is people that cause division, so we're supposed to mark them and stay away from them until they repent.

It's like any other sin. If they will get right with God and the people that they wronged, they're welcomed right back in with love, and that's what we want to happen, and so here we see this.

Now the word divisions here where it says mark these people that cause divisions. It means disunion or dissension among a larger group.

Disunion where they're no longer of one mind. They have two parties now, butt and heads.

It's really ugly in a church when this happens, and then offenses. They cause divisions and offenses, so the word offenses is skandalon, and that sounds like the

English word scandalous, right? And skandalon comes from the

Greek idea of what they used to call a trap stick or a bent sapling that you would set a trap for an animal.

Matt, you'll like this. You set a trap, and you take this little twig, and you bend it over. You probably know how to make one, and you tie it, and when the animal hits the little thing, it pulls it up and shuts the door.

Well, that's what the Greek word starts with there. It's so trapping someone or putting someone in a snare.

Figuratively, the cause of displeasure or sin, it's an occasion to cause someone to fall or stumble or an offense or a thing that offends or a stumbling block, so what you're doing is you're setting a trap for the person behind his back when he doesn't even know you're doing it, and you're telling other people about it.

He can't defend himself, and it creates division, so that's what these words mean in the

Greek. Now, look at verse 18. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, so like when you see division being caused by anyone, whether they're doing it on purpose or not does not matter.

It does matter, but I mean it still counts. If they're causing division, it is not coming from above, so you have to tell me where it is coming from.

Where is it coming from? It's coming from Satan and from the flesh, usually both because Satan works through the flesh, and when we choose to walk in the flesh, for however many moments or days or weeks or months it is, demons have full access to us as Christians if we choose to walk in the flesh.

Just remember that because a lot of preachers say it's not true. Absolutely, it's true, so here we see they serve not the

Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly, so they're doing this for selfish reasons. Sometimes their belly in Scripture means for money, but it doesn't always.

It could mean power or feeling good because I'm right and he's wrong, and I want as many people as possible to agree with me that I'm right and he's wrong.

This feels good. It's a position of power, but it's not serving the

Lord Jesus. It's serving the self. It's serving the self -life of this person. Now, so they serve not our

Lord Jesus Christ but their own self, and by good words and fair speeches, they deceive the hearts of the people.

It's simple, so what they will always do is they will try to go to the people in the church that are new

Christians and haven't been in the Word very long. They won't go to someone like me who's been in the

Word 40 years. They will avoid me. They won't go to Brother Paul. They won't go to people that have been foundational people of the church like Raymond and Sharon.

They won't go to you, and if they do, I know what would happen, but anyway, they go to people that they sense they can get away with it, and that's exactly what the

Scripture is saying right here, that they use words and fair speeches and all kinds of interesting logic to deceive the hearts of the simple.

Now, that doesn't mean simple -minded. What that means is those who are not in the Word as much.

They're not as strong spiritually as others. For your obedience has come abroad unto all men.

I am glad, therefore, on your behalf. So now he's speaking to the church again, and he's saying, you're obedient, you're strong, but beware, this kind of thing is going to happen.

When I leave, wolves are going to come in unawares. This is going to happen, so here's how you deal with it.

You mark them, and you avoid them until they repent. So he says, your obedience has come abroad unto all men.

I am glad, therefore, on your behalf, but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil.

Now, I've taken that verse out of context before, I'll admit, because I've used it. I've pulled that verse out and used it to mean, okay, don't go read a bunch of books about demons or stuff like that, because if you do, it'll affect you.

It's not what this verse means, and I'm not saying maybe that thought is a good thought, but it doesn't come from this verse, because what this verse means, since you have to take everything in context, what is the context of what we're talking about here?

We're talking about people that cause division in the church or in a family, a Christian family or in a church, and in that context, it says,

I commend you because you're obedient to the Lord, you're doing these things, you're not one of these people

I'm talking about, but he said, at the same time, I want you to be wise towards that what's good and be simple concerning evil.

When these people come to you and try to do this, you need to just remain ignorant by saying, you know what,

I don't really want to hear that. Why don't you go straight to Ron and tell him he's no good?

You'd rather him do that, wouldn't you? You go straight, I'll go with you, let's go right now. It's a great thing to tell someone that tried it, say, look, this is great, and you just pull your phone out and they say, what are you doing?

I'm dialing Brother David. Can I put you on speaker? Yeah, here he is, tell him what you just told me.

Would that work? They won't do that to you, they won't choose you next time, you see my point?

So there are things that we can do, and that's what Paul is saying to be wise to what's good about other people in context, like if people are talking about Ron and telling you his gifts and his strengths and how he helps the church and how he's a great husband, he's good at home, he works hard, or Brother Bobby comes up and fixes anything that's broke, and they're saying good things, then listen to that, be wise, know that.

But if they come to you and say, yeah, but Brother Bobby, I've seen him whip puppies before, and he likes to kick puppies and whip them, say, look,

I don't need to know that, let's call Bobby right now, you tell him that and go deal with it and help him get over that.

You see, that's what it means in this context. Verse 19, for your obedience has come abroad unto all men,

I am glad therefore on your behalf, but yet I would have you wise to that which is good, simple, concerning evil.

John Gill says this, then follows the exhortation to take care of false teachers, to mark them and avoid them.

I did not see in the scripture where it mentioned a teacher, however. I think he extrapolated that.

It's not a false teacher, it's any person of any kind in the church who's causing division.

Mark them and avoid them who are described as schismatics and heretics.

Now, that's interesting because, see, we think heretic means someone that teaches false doctrine, don't we?

But if you look at the Greek word that's translated heretic in the English, especially the King James, the word heretic is the word schism.

It's a person who causes divisions in the church, schisms, parties. It means to make parties.

You're with me, they're over there, they're in that group. So you have groups in the church that do not get along together anymore because these people created these parties.

And that's actually what John Gill's talking about when he mentions here that you need to mark those who are schismatics and heretics.

It's the same word in the Greek. And they're making divisions in the church, or they might be preaching contrary to the gospel taught and learned.

That is a possibility, but it's not always that. It could be they just, it could be anything that they're using to create division.

The arguments or reasons made use of to enforce the exhortation are taken partly from the characters of these teachers being selfish men who serve not the

Lord Jesus, but their own bellies, this is John Gill, and deceivers who by smooth words and plausible doctrines impose upon simple minds, and partly from characters of the saints at Rome who were simple and credulous and ready to give in to everything that carried any appearance of truth.

So John Gill believes that Paul is in a sense admonishing the Roman church saying, you know, you're not in the word enough.

And anybody that comes in here and preaches something, you just say, oh, that sounds good. Now, doesn't that sound like the American church?

Anybody that gets up and preaches something from the pulpit, you say, oh, that's good. It must be true. And he's saying, don't be that way.

Check it out with scripture to make sure it's true. Don't accept it because it has the appearance of truth.

And don't, now, if you want to apply this to somebody talking about another person, then the best thing is to take that backbiter and force him to go to the person, let the person defend himself and say what his viewpoint, so that you can base all of it on truth rather than the appearance of truth.

The appearance of truth means just one side of the coin. And through my whole life dealing with Christian school that I ran for many, many, not,

I think Brother Paul's bordering on having done it longer than me with this school at this point.

But for many years, I ran this school and I had to bring the kids in. And I'm sure you do the same thing. I bring them in one at a time first and get their story.

And then the other opposing party and get that story. And they're always different, right?

The two stories don't match. So then what I do is I bring them both in the room and make them tell their story in front of the other party.

And guess what? They change a little bit so that they both match. Real often that happens.

And that's what this is saying is how you deal with problems in the church is you put, if they're talking about somebody, get them in front of the person they're talking about and make him say that with the person present.

And either his story will change a little bit to match what the other person says he really did, in which case they'll apologize and get right with each other.

Or there's a real problem in which case it can be handled also. So that's just the proper way.

And John Gill is talking about that here. He's right on board here. Though they were to be commended for their ready obedience to gospel, yet it became them to mingle wisdom and prudence with their simplicity and readiness to receive anything that appeared like truth as if it were truth.

And he rebuked him for that. Now I think he's reading a little bit of that into the verse, but that's okay.

He's an expositor. He can tell what he thinks that it means. Doesn't mean we agree with all of it, but basically it's very clear what it does mean.

Now the scripture talks about this topic quite a bit in both

Old and New Testament. It's very important to God himself.

And so God who wrote the scripture says many things about this, because the greatest way for the enemy to defeat you is to divide you.

Would you agree with that? If he can divide you, he can conquer you. Why do you think there are probably 10

Baptist churches in Corsicana? Do we need 10 Baptist churches in Corsicana? We don't.

Every one except the first one was caused by a division, which was caused by a divisive person who caused the division.

And so there's much in scripture. In Proverbs chapter 6, verse 12, it says a naughty person.

I like that. That's old English. A naughty person, a wicked man walks with a froward mouth.

He walks with his mouth talking about people. He winks with his eyes.

So once he says the bad thing about Ron, he looks at you and says, you understand, don't you, Paul? You see what, you see the picture?

You understand, don't you, brother Raymond? Ron, pretty bad dude. And he said this about me and that's exactly how he said it.

And he's a pretty bad dude. And he winks with his eyes and then he speaks with his feet.

What do you think that means? He's going to move on over here and talk to this person and move over there and back there and talk to that person and move around the church to the people that he thinks will listen.

He or she. He teaches with his fingers. What do you think that means?

Well, look right here. It says this here and he said that. I don't know.

Frowardness is in his heart. He devises mischief continually. He sows discord, sowing discord, going about with his feet, telling as many people as possible.

Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly. Now, suddenly with God's timing is different than suddenly with our timing.

Have you ever noticed that? God takes care of our needs and we always think he's late, but he's never late.

So suddenly is on God's time. When God is ready, he will deal with it. Vengeance is mine, saith the

Lord. And that helps a lot if you're the innocent party getting beat up is you want to fight back. You want to go and get them and you just need to pray about that and say,

Lord, look at my heart. Show me the things they're saying that is true and help me be better. But the stuff that they're saying, it's out of context.

It's not right, Lord. I'm gonna let you deal with that. And that's how we should do it. And because God will deal with it and calamity will come suddenly upon these people.

Suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. It means it can't be fixed once God deals with it.

So that's sombering. Then it says in verse 16, these six things doth the

Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto him. First one is a proud look.

The second one is a lying tongue and lying by the way. If you just give half a truth, that's a lie. Like if you say something that Ron said, but you don't say what he said right before it or after it, that's a lie.

And hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations. So now that's like when the person that does this comes to you and says something about the other person.

And in your mind, it blows it up and says, golly, well, I bet they're doing this wrong too and this and this. And it gets huge.

And the thing they actually did was a little bitty. But now it's a huge, bad, wicked thing.

Now they're arrogant. Now they're, you know, just totally prideful and just gone off and have been since the beginning of their ministry.

That is an imagination. But see, the scripture talks about it. It talks about it very clearly.

So wicked imaginations are devised. Sometimes demons will put thoughts in our minds though and blow that thing up, make a mountain out of molehill.

Feet that be swift in running to mischief. Always going to the next person, the next person. A false witness that speaks lies.

Look at that. These are six things God hates. A person that will tell a lie or a half truth about another person as a witness against that person.

God hates that. And he will deal with it. If they don't deal with it themselves. I mean, you can repent of anything.

1 John 1, 9. You can repent and God will forgive you. The person will forgive you. You can be back in fellowship.

But if that doesn't happen, God deals with it. And it's not pretty when he does. And here's the last thing. He that sows discord among the brethren.

I mean, you're sowing it like seeds in the earth. And in James, it says, when a person does that, it leads to bitterness and it defiles many, which means it spreads throughout the church.

All right. So a false witness that speaks lies and he that sows discord among the brethren. Six things God hates.

In 1 Corinthians 1, 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing.

Now the Holy Spirit's putting this in the positive. Now he wants us to have unity where the things we believe are the same, not different.

We, and if we disagree, we talk about it until our beliefs come closer together so that our beliefs are the same.

Now, other people will look at that and say, oh, it's a cult group. They all just follow their pastor or whoever the leader is a brother

Otis or whoever. And now they don't even think for themselves. They'll say that quite often.

They don't think for themselves. There are all kinds of things people can say about you when you obey the scripture on this.

But it says that now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing.

Wow. What does that mean? You have unity. Your doctrine is Paul's doctrine.

I'm talking about the Paul of the Bible. It's Paul's doctrine. So we're in unity because we understand it the same and we see it the same.

And we have looked through the 10 rules of Bible interpretation. It's in context to the best of our ability.

We agree on what it means and how we move to the next thing. And we talk about that doctrine and the next thing. And we talk about that doctrine.

I've even been criticized for moving around the Bible and talking about these doctrines as they appear.

And I'm sorry, but God led me to do it this way. And that there be no divisions among you.

So everyone speaks the same thing and there's no divisions among you, but that you'd be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same way you judge things.

That's the exhortation for a church. Now the word division there is from the Greek word schisma.

English word means schism. Paul says we should never have any schisms or splits or gaps or divisions among us.

Verse 11, where it hath been declared unto me by your brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

Now, I got to ask you a question now, and this is both theological and logical. Is it wrong to go to another person and talk about a third person behind their back unless you're saying good things?

Is it wrong to go to a person and talk about a third person behind their back if you're saying bad, negative things?

Yes. Okay. Isn't that true? It's universally true. Well, there's one exception to the law though, to the rule, and we find it right here in this verse.

I want you to listen to this carefully. The apostle Paul who is, there are no more apostles.

So you talk about church leaders, your pastors, your elders, your deacons, that's who would have to take this place at this point.

There are no apostles. But Paul said, it's been declared to me. So someone came to Paul behind someone's back and said, that person over there is causing divisions.

Now, is that gossip? Because that person's not in the room and they're telling Paul, hey, they're doing that.

Is that gossip? By definition, it is not gossip if you're bringing the problem to the leadership of the church.

That's an exception to the rule. That's not gossip. In fact, you're supposed to do it because the reason you're doing it is to stop the gossip.

You're doing it to benefit the church, which is the Lord's and you're doing it for the Lord. And people that are truly gossiping,

Paul made it very clear. They are not doing this for Jesus sake, right? You have to deal with it quickly.

And Paul said, it's been told to me by you about them, which are of the house.

Also by people in the house of Chloe, he told me the same thing that there are contentions among you.

So it's a good thing when you let the church leadership know about it. And so there's a principle in the Bible that it's not gossip.

If you tell the leaders of the church, the elders and the deacons, sinful acts that you have observed among the church so that they can deal with those persons and hopefully help those persons, right?

Help them get back in track and, and realize what they're doing, that it may even be the enemy taking advantage of them and let them see that and help them.

Verse 12. Now this, I say that every one of you sayeth, I am Paul. I'm of Apollos.

Oh, I'm of Cephas. And the other one said, well, I'm of Jesus. And now he's rebuking them because they're, they've had parties in the church.

What a group of church people said, well, I like to follow the apostle Paul. He rebuked him for that. And it was Paul saying it, look, you're not supposed to say you're of me.

And this group over here says, oh, well we follow Apollos. So now there's a division. You know, you know, you could use

MacArthur or some other modern preacher. Well, I follow him. Oh, well we follow David Mitchell.

See, this is not scriptural. And he's dealing with that back 2000 years ago.

And he said, oh, I'm of Cephas. And the other, the real super spiritual person, well, I only follow Christ. I just go by the

Bible only. You'll hear that one too, right? Paul rebuked all of that. And he said, is

Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Some of them were wanting to follow

Paul and not get along with the others that liked Apollos better. He said, well, was I crucified for you?

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Pretty, pretty rhetorical questions there.

Pretty sarcastic questions there. In verse 18, for first of all, when you come together in the church,

I hear that there are divisions among you. And partly, I believe it, he says. He's just being nice.

He's trying to open their minds where they'll listen to him. He's being, he's holding back a punch a little bit because he knows it's true.

But he says, partly, I believe it. For there must be also heresies among you. That word in the Greek means schisms, party making, people making parties that they, now listen to this.

Paul says, for there must be, that means this is part of God's will.

I want you to think about this. There must be division, people causing divisions in your church.

Why? So that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

It shows us who we are, who's who. It shows who's who. Right?

Paul says that has to happen the way the Holy Spirit cleanses the church. That's pretty sad.

It's pretty sombering, but it's absolutely the truth. So these things have to happen from time to time.

Some of the very people that left might've been asked to be elders or deacons someday. Wouldn't that have been interesting?

Well, the Lord didn't let that happen, but the ones who are still here are approved and they may well be elders or deacons someday, or servants of any kind in the church.

And rightfully so, because they've been proven to not be divisive, to want to just follow Jesus. And that's what this whole passage is speaking of.

So, I got all the Greek behind all that, but the English is very clear. So I'm going to skip that.

First Corinthians 11 20 says, I'm going to skip that too. Second Timothy chapter two, verse 22, flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the

Lord out of a pure heart. So hang out with people that are in it because it's real.

They're not there for religion. They're not there for church to be a certain way. They're there because they love the

Lord and they're following after faith and love and peace and do that with people that call on the

Lord out of a pure heart, not a hypocritical faking heart. It's real. It helps to look in their eyes, look in the eyes of people and see if you see

Jesus in there. And if you do, then hang out with those people. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes in the church.

And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men apt to teach and patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, their logic will beat themselves up.

They get like, if they're lying or half -truths, it'll come to pass if you just ask them questions and get them talking.

Instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will.

Is that frightening? You get in the flesh, ladies and gentlemen, demons and Satan can take you captive as he chooses to.

It has nothing to do with your will at that point, it's his will, Satan's will.

This know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come for men will be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, that's talking about homosexuals, truce breakers, false accusers, that's talking about people behind their back with only half the truth, or some cases totally untruths, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high -minded, lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God.

They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power of God. From such, turn away.

There once again, mark them and avoid them. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts."

Now look, ladies, it was tough when I preached some scripture on women not teaching or usurping authority over men, but the holy word of God says that these men sneak into houses and corrupt silly women in their houses, and that's just what the

Bible says. Why do you think it says that? Who did Satan come to first, Adam or Eve?

Who? Why? Is she dumber than Adam or smarter?

Ladies? Smarter, right? So why did he do it? It's not because she's less intelligent, she's more, she's influenced more easily, right?

Oh, and influential on the man as well. Whoa, I like it.

Well, she's more easily influenced from an emotional viewpoint, but then she has more influence on her man.

Wow, I like that point, Ashton, that's brilliant. So yes, both, all right? So they will go to the woman and convince her that the other person is bad, and here's the reasons, and then she'll tell her husband, yeah, you know, he's bad because,

I mean, that may go on on the couch at night where she tells the husband, did you know this, you know?

And so this is how it works, and Paul points it out and says this is exactly how it works.

So they, these sort, these sorts of people creep into houses, lead captive silly women, laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth.

They're always studying, but they don't quite get it right. Maybe it's because their husband's not a spiritual leader, who knows?

Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds, what did, by the way, what did

Janus and Jambres do with Moses? Do you remember? They said,

Moses, you take too much upon yourself. You need to let us help run the whole thing, divide it up and let all of us help you.

And yet Moses was God's called man, and so God opened up the earth and swallowed the rest of them.

What does that tell you? Well, they weren't right, were they? All right, so now as they withstood

Moses, so do these types of people resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men as theirs also was.

People like that can hang out in the church for some numbers of months or even years and fellowship with us in our love feast, and you won't even know it until you know it.

And then when you know it, you're going to know it because they try to cause division, and they don't solve problems in the church in the biblical way, they solve it through backbiting and division, and that's how you know it.

And Paul through the Holy Spirit says, God will make them come rise to the top, and everyone will see who they are, and that's one reason it has to happen.

So two reasons it has to happen, number one, to expose those who are like that and to expose those who are not.

Now all of us have some of that in us, would you agree? But like any other sin, when we figure out we did it, we hate it, and we confess it to God first and go to the brother and make it right, correct?

Or if the brother doesn't even know about it, you could just confess it to God, go to the person you were talking to about how bad that brother is and say, like,

I was wrong about that, and I've repented, and you need to too. You don't always have to go tell him because then he might think something bad about you, but if you hurt him bad enough, you got to go to the brother too, right?

So these things have to happen because it cleanses the church, but thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long -suffering, love, and patience,

Paul says, so follow me. Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse as we get closer to the end times, deceiving and being deceived.

But continue thou in the things which you have learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them.

That means the Bible, and you learned it from the Holy Spirit. Stick with that stuff. And from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for correcting things, which is reproof, and then it says for correction and for instruction in how to live righteously.

The Bible is what you go to, not people's opinion. You go to the scripture. Why? That the man of God may be mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the dead, the living and the dead at his appearing, like all of us will stand before Jesus to answer for everything we've done in our body, whether it's talking about somebody behind their back, whether it's cheating, whether it's lying, everything we do as Christians because we still sin sometimes.

We get in the flesh. We sin all the time when we get in the flesh. We will answer to the Lord for that, not for salvation, but it has to do with rewards and suffering loss in heaven, but not salvation.

That's total grace, but we know there is a judgment seat of Christ and that's what he's talking about in this scripture.

So they will all stand before God. We will all stand before God and Jesus Christ who would judge the living and the dead at his appearing and in his kingdom.

That's an interesting point. I was taught my whole life that the first resurrection is only saved people, but this verse says he will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and at his kingdom.

It means like the front end of his kingdom. That's something we'll discuss later. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, patience and doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust, shall they heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.

But watch thou in all things, what are fables by the way? Stories, half truths, things that are not based on the truth.

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of the evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.

And then in Galatians 5, 18 and following, it talks about the works of the flesh and the works of the spirit.

It gives two groups like fruits of the spirit, fruits of the flesh. When it talks about fruits of the flesh, it mentions idolatry, witchcraft, but it also mentions causing strife and seditions and heresies, which means divisions in the church.

Those are works of the flesh. Also Satan, we already read the passage where it said

Satan works them at his will, but now we see the flesh gets involved. And then, so it mentions hatred and variance, which means strife, emulations, which means envy, strife, seditions and heresies, which means divisions, making a choice or a party.

And it mentions all these things. Then it says the fruit of the spirit. Now, listen to this. This is how you deal with problems in the church, the right way.

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, patience with the person that may be doing stuff wrong.

We all do stuff wrong, right? Gentleness, deal with it in gentleness, deal with it in goodness and in faith, deal with it in meekness and temperance, which means self -control, where you don't just blow up at the person when you're talking to them, you self -control.

Against such, there is no law. And they that are Christ's have already crucified their flesh with the affections and lusts of the flesh.

If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory or provoking one another or envying one another.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.

Now that can only happen if you know about it soon enough. But if you do, you deal with it like this in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

Boy, is that not the truth? Like you did like that to me when I said, I'm going to turn her against you. That's a great illustration.

And Paul says, be careful because when you get in these battles, you can want to hurt them too.

And you've got to avoid that and let the Lord deal with it. How do you deal with problems in the church?

What's the right way? Proverbs 10, 11, the mouth of a righteous man is a well of life.

The things that come out the mouth of a person walking with the Lord is like giving people water to keep them alive.

It's not something that kills people or hurts, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. So when the wicked talk, it causes hurt.

It causes violence. Hatred stirs up strifes or divisions, but love covers all sins.

Now, would you agree? Like I said already, if we want to nitpick each other, we can find something wrong in anybody on any given day, or maybe a list of several things if you want to list them.

But if you love the person, do you list those things or do you list the good things about the person? You list the good things about the person.

Now, are there times you might sit down and try to open their mind and talk to them a little bit about something where they're hurting themselves by their habits or whatever, and maybe try to help correct them?

Yes. But you do it like this says, you do it in love and self -control and meekness and in private, right?

Not behind their back. There's just right ways to do it. So hatred stirs up strife.

It brings out the negative in people and shows it to everyone else, but love covers it. In the lips of him that has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.

Proverbs 13 .10 says, only by pride comes contention. It's interesting. But with the well -advised comes wisdom.

Proverbs 15 .17, better is a dinner with herbs where love is.

In other words, you don't have any meat or dessert. All you got is vegetables. I love this. Better is a dinner with just vegetables where love is than a stalled ox and hatred coming with it.

That's a great proverb. Leave there thy gift. Oh, wait.

Now, in Matthew chapter five, verse 23, Jesus Christ himself tells us how you deal with problems in the church or in the family.

And I want you to notice that he only gives you one week to deal with it. One week is the most you have to deal with this.

And this is a teaching of Jesus Christ. He says this, therefore, if thou bring a gift to the altar, that means you come to worship.

That's the Jewish way. Our way would be to come. Our altar is all the spiritual gifts we talked about when we preached on the the believer priest.

Remember the sacrifices that we can do. So that's our altar. So when we come to church to do these things, when you come to the altar and you're bringing a gift, which would mean like an offering with us, it's coming to church to worship the

Lord from the spirit. When you do that and you're sitting out here and you remember that your brother's got something against you.

OK, whether you actually did it or not, but you know they got something against you. Leave the gift.

And go your way and first be reconciled to your brother and then come back to church.

They need to come to me. We need to get with each other and you got one week to do it. That's the proper way. All right.

So there's other scripture. Ephesians 426 says, be angry and sin not.

Let not the sun go down on your wrath. Now you got one day or half a day to take care of it.

So, you know, you've got like you should take care of it the same day the thought goes in your mind when you when

Satan puts negative thoughts in your mind about a person is not there or when your flesh does that, you should go to them before you go to bed that night and talk to him.

And if you will, I'll promise you one thing. If you deal with it that fast, loving communication between two genuinely born again

Christians, Satan will have to flee and you will be restored every time.

If you'll do it this way, which means before you go to bed that night, you fix it. But if you're not going to do it before you go back to church, you need to fix it.

If you're not going to do that, it's going to blow up in the book of James says it will turn to envy and defile many other people.

And that's what happens. That's what happened in this case. Neither give place to the devil before the sun goes down, go deal with it.

Don't give place to the devil. So now your flesh is caused you to have a problem with this person and you don't deal with it.

Now you just gave place to Satan and the demons to infiltrate you and other people and blow this thing up into something that's not even real, but it seems so bad where you can never even walk with this person again because Satan has made them so evil in your mind.

And then it'll take the innocent party and make the other one seem evil. And you have to battle against that and let the

Lord deal with that. It's Satan's way. We're not ignorant of his devices.

This is how he works. But the Lord gives us exhortation. If you'll go and deal with it quickly with loving communication, then you don't give place to the devil.

Does everyone understand that? You don't give place to the devil. If you deal with it quickly, let him that still no more.

Let him work, you know, work with his hands. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the edifying of the brother and administers grace to the hearer.

So you can't be bad mouthing people. You gotta be saying good things about people unless you're going to go to that person and deal with a genuine problem in meekness.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit. You know that the only place in the whole Bible where it says you can grieve the

Holy Spirit is right here. And what is the context of this? Causing division, not dealing with it properly.

Then you grieve the Holy Spirit. Let no communication proceed out of your mouth, except that which is edifying and administers grace to the hearers.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed into the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, where it starts to build up in your heart, where it's like almost like hatred.

And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

And that fully covers Romans chapter 16. And we just finished the book.

And I think I usually take time and switch to something topical while I'm choosing the next book.

I've had some thoughts about the next book. But what I'm going to do is take a few Sundays the Lord willing and preach on marriage and family.

And it'll help the kids and young people that aren't married yet to a lot. So that's what I think I'm going to do.

And we're going to see what the Bible has to say about marriage and family. Some of it will be stuff you've never thought about.

I'll promise you that. And some of it will be stuff you know about and you need to renew it and start doing it again.

And it's going to be really, really refreshing and good for all of us, I believe.

So let's stand and have prayer together. Thank you for bearing with me a little, having a little bit extra longer service. But I wanted to finish this chapter.

Yes, Sharon. No, I know that.

I know that. You help more than anybody.

You send Junior over to mow their grass, to take care of their flowers. You would take care of their dogs and houses and mail.

No, I didn't mean to imply that you, I know you didn't hate them. We all loved them. We just wanted them to do.

Yeah, exactly. What was the legalism that you didn't like?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I know that's true.

Well, let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word. And Lord, I pray anyone listening will only let the parts of that apply to them that need to, any of us.

I mean, some parts of it apply to all of us. Some parts don't apply to any of us.

And some parts apply to some of us. And so Lord, may your Holy Spirit have freedom to move among us and take our holy consciences and cause us to be under conviction if we need to be about any of these things and let us take care of these things.

And the best way is in love, face to face in the Lord with holy and true and godly loving communication.

And then Satan has to flee. And so Lord, thank you for keeping peace in our church at this point and protecting our church and that everything is moving forward fine now.

We thank you that you took us through this little time period and your will shall be accomplished.

We know, and it hurts Lord, but we know that you're in control of all things. Thank you for keeping us safe.

We ask you to be with those who will have to travel or choose to travel this week. We have several families on vacation.

Give them traveling mercy, put your angels around their vehicles and their children and keep everyone safe and bring us all back together.

We pray in Jesus' name and thank you for the food that you've provided and the fellowship we're about to have in Jesus' name.

Amen. You are good.