sobering thought that you stand before the creator of all the universe if you're saved the great I am redeemed not because of anything you've done it's interesting isn't it that we as Baptist say we're Bible believers some Baptist Bible believers Just like some Lutherans or Bible believers or whatever, but the fact is we, one minute we're talking about the grace of God. And the next minute, if we're not careful, we talked about all the standards and convictions and works that we do. And if we're not careful, we start meshing those together, thinking that our standing with God is better. because of things we do or things we abstain from and the fact is if that's the case then you have actually mixed works with grace right now the works we do are out of a love and appreciation for what we have and where we stand with God and that we stand redeemed but the fact is and I appreciate the song because it goes very well with the message today when Paul in Romans chapter two is examining that very thing. So the last time we were in Romans chapter two, a couple of weeks ago, uh, we know that, uh, he, he dealt with the fact that, um. In chapter one, he dealt with the sinner or those that do not know God. And then in chapter two, he begins to deal with those that profess to know God, but that are actually hypocritical. And I thought about this a moment ago. You can't really have a hypocritical heart. He said, wait a minute. No, hypocrite means actor. So the actor is the outward manifestation. And so either if your heart's right with God and where it needs to be with God, then you would, in essence, be portraying what's on the inside through the outside, right? So the reason you can't really have a hypocritical heart is because God knows your heart. He sees the essence. Now, you may fool yourself. about your heart, but you can't fool God. And so in chapter two, he's dealing with the fact that those that say they're Christians or that they know the Lord, but that they really don't, there's a judgment for them as well. And so there's a lot of folks and most of us grew up in church. And, and again, here's, here's what we have to be careful of. I've said it many times. I want to say it again. We grow up learning the, the accounts of the Bible and we'll, we'll teach Sunday school. These kids will say, I want to tell you about the story of David and Goliath. And so in their mind, they equate story with something they they've seen on a cartoon or I don't even know the kids watch cartoons. Now, if you don't, you should, right? So it's all make-believe. And so then we talk about Jesus, right? We get to the point of talking about Jesus and we talk about the babe in the manger and we want to tell you the story of the birth of Christ. And they're going, oh, okay, well, it's a story. Then the feeding of the thousands, they say, well, it's a story, right? Then they look at Jesus on the cross and they're going, well, that's a story, right? It's no different than the story of, you know, Tom Sawyer or whatever. And so then they become adults and they've almost been calloused to the idea of the reality of the Bible because we made it into a book of stories. Almost make-believe. And so the kids grow up in church and they get to a certain age and they're going, well, this is all fake. It's not real. What I'm seeing out there is real. What they've told me in Sunday school is fake because it's stories. And so we have a generation sitting in our churches now that are religious, but Christ is not real. He's a story. And so they, they play the part. And again, I'm not the Holy Spirit, but in that song he just sang, it should have touched you somewhere. And I'm not saying you shed a tear or raised your hand, but if that song, if you sat there and listened to that and you're going, it's a Christian song. There's something wrong. I mean, he's singing a song about the fact that I'm standing before the King of kings and Lord of lords as a redeemed believer that I didn't earn, that he earned for me. So I'm afraid we were in chapter two talking about a lot of what we call Christians. And again, I'm not the Holy spirit. And I'm not looking at you and saying, well, you didn't come to church Wednesday night. You're probably not saved. I don't know the inside man. What I'm saying is what we all see is the outward man. Again, we have to be careful of that because I've heard people again misquote scripture and they look at David, right? And remember when Samuel, God told Samuel, said, go find the king and he's at Jesse's house. And so he told Jesse, said, now one of your boys is going to be the next king. God has anointed him king. And they start bringing the boys out and they brought the oldest first because Rightfully that should be him in that culture. And he's like, nope, that's not it. And just kept bringing them out. And he said, look at him. He's tall and he's built well and he looks stately. So he looks like a king. And he said, no, that's not him. He said, you got any more kids around here? He said, got a little scrawny kid down there in the field. He's the youngest, he's scrawny, his name's David, but he's not king material. That's when he said, God looks on the inside and man looks on the outside. So you have to take that in context because I hear a lot of Christians going around, well, it doesn't matter how we do this and how we do that. God looks on the inside. Okay. Well, man cannot look on the inside. So therefore the outside, and that's what this scripture is dealing with. The outside should not be hypocritical. It should be, it should be the truth of what and who resides in us. So in Romans 2, verse 25, Paul writes this. He said, for circumcision, barely profitable. Now again, understand the context that Paul, who is a Jew, and we know the Old Testament, God told the Jews that if they were to be circumcised, it was a sign of their sanctification or their setting apart from the pagan. Right? So it was to be an outward expression of an inward relationship different because they were Jews, but he's using that example to show that the circumcision did not make someone a Jew or did not make them right with God. It was that they were right with God and they were expressing that in the circumcision. Make sense? So look at it in that light. For circumcision is barely profitable. In other words, the outward expression is profitable. It's alright to act like a Christian is what he's saying. It's profitable. If, here's the if. If thou keepest, right, or if thou keep the law, but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcised. So he's saying if you're going to act like a Christian, but you're not really a Christian, then what you're doing is you're undoing your testimony of Christianity and basically what you are is a hypocrite. So it goes on in verse 26. Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? So what's that mean? Well, he's talking about Jew and Gentile. If the Gentile who is not a Jew will keep the law, or in other words, will do what the Bible says, than the fact that he's not a Jew. In other words, he talks about that people being grafted in to the family, okay? Verse 26, therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the rights of the law shall not as uncircumcision be counter for circumcision and shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge the who by the letter and circumcision does transgress the law. He said, Oh, preacher, I have no idea. Hang on. We're getting there. I'm going to hit, I'm going to try to help you look at verse 28 for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Right. To be a Jew, you had to be born a Jew. To be a Christian, you have to be born again a Christian. You can't be a Christian unless you're born again. You might be a good person, you might do some good stuff, but what he's talking about is an inward relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. Notice verse 29, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not the letter whose praise is not of men but of God. So we can pray and go home because here's what he's saying. You can act any way you want to act. You can keep the 10 commandments. You can keep the 20 commandments. You can keep it all. But if God hasn't changed your heart, you can give to the poor. You can clothe the poor. You can come to church every time the doors are open. You can quote sections of the Bible you can stand up and pray the most eloquent prayer you can you can do all the right things where man on the outside would look at you say they're a good person they must be a Christian but if you're not one on the inside you're not a Christian that's what he's saying now here's our problem brother Matt we got a lot of folks sitting in church that say they've had this inward experience But there's no manifestation of that experience to the outside. Right? So where someone who is not born again who acts like they are is a hypocrite, someone who is born again who does not act like it is also a hypocrite. See, we got this. This radical, run-of-the-mill, run-wild, grace mindset, this, well, I'm saved on the inside so the outside doesn't matter. That's not what he's saying. See, the fact is, religious ordinance, he's examining religious ordinances. What's that mean? Well, it's the do's and don'ts, the checklist of Christianity, right? That we as independent Baptists have become so good at. If you do this, this, and this, you're probably a good Christian. And if you don't, if you abstain from these things, you're a good Christian. But if you don't, you're not right with God. We've got good at that. But Shane, those are valuable. The circumcision is valuable. but not in your relationship with the Lord. I mean, if you abstain from alcohol, that's good. Right? There's a lot of stuff. If you abstain from doing drugs, there's a lot of benefits to not doing drugs. Can we agree with that? But just because you don't do drugs doesn't mean you're saved. Right? It's profitable not to gossip. But just because you don't gossip doesn't mean you're born again. Right? But see, we're usually guilty of the other. We say we're born again, love Jesus, go into heaven, that's all that matters. So therefore I can live my life any way I want to. Well, Paul's going to deal with that too. See, you don't commit sin because of the grace of God, you abstain from sin because you understand the grace of God. When you don't understand the grace of God, then you say, well, I can sin, and God's just going to be okay. Well, Brother Jimmy, he's a human in his flesh, and he's got these urges, and he's an animal, right? Now people are saying that we're animals, right? We have an animal instinct, right? That we're all mammals, and here's the problem. When you operate off instinct, then you usually commit sin. God has given us the ability to reason. Come, let us reason together. God told Adam and Eve to have dominion over the animals. So we're not animals. And when you devolve people to animals, then their behavior they're not accountable for. They're just doing what's natural to them. Trying to help you. Because there's a lot of junk out there they're trying to feed you. So the religious person usually feels that he has a special standing before God when he does XYZ and abstains from XYZ on this side. So often because they keep all the ordinances and rituals that have been told to them or that they feel like the Bible says. Now again let me say this, you ought to do that. but it does not improve your standing with God. Listen, if you're truly born again, you're as saved as you're ever going to be. I'm a child of God. Hallelujah. I don't have to abstain from things to become more of a child of God. What happens is that sin in my life hurts my fellowship. It strains the fellowship with the Heavenly Father. I can't pray when I have sin in my life. I don't fellowship with the Father like I'm supposed to when I have sin in my life. So it's not a matter of... And then people say this, Brother Ed, they say, well, if it's not a salvation issue, it doesn't matter. Here's the problem. There's one sin that will keep you out of heaven, and that is rejecting Jesus Christ. So what your argument is, as long as I have that settled, Brother Bear, as long as I haven't rejected Christ, anything else is fair game. That's nonsense. If that were the case, then the Bible would be condensed to one thing. You must be born again. Nothing else matters. He told the woman at the well, go and sin no more. So we're in this culture of Christianity that's just as long as you get saved and go into heaven, nothing else matters. Well, that's not what your Bible teaches. And so Paul is not concerned with the keeping of these rituals, but with the relationship with God. Listen, sorry you don't have outlines, you're going to have to go old school and take your own notes today. So number one is the limited value of rituals. The limited value of rituals in verse 25 through 27. So understand in verse 25, it says for circumcision barely profitable. Well, why? Because God told him to do it. Now I'm not going to be graphic, you know what that is, but there's no man that one day just woke up and says, I think I'm going to come up with this process of circumcision. If he is, he's crazy. Circumcision was something God told the Jews to do. Why? Because it separated them from those who were not. Right? So he's saying it's profitable, right? Does you not going to a nightclub on Saturday night make you better than someone else? No. But here's the problem. It separates. I'm tired of seeing Christians going to concerts and posting all over their social media and then going to church and raising their hand on Sunday. Right? I mean, it's hard to hear Hank Williams, Jr. talking about all my rowdy friends have settled down. Yeah, Hank! And then come in here and sing Amazing Grace on Sunday. Right? Why? Does it make you a better Christian by not going to the concert? Probably not. It does not make you more saved or less saved. But the outward appearance of it is that there's no difference between you and them. And that's what he's dealing with. See we have this limited, there's some value in rituals. There's some value in abstaining from some things, right? You shouldn't just watch anything on TV, right? Now, when I was growing up, it was like, well, you shouldn't watch this and shouldn't listen to this. And we didn't understand it because we just thought, well, you know, the awful moms and dads and the preacher and the Christians and God just, he's so unfair, doesn't want us to have any fun. But the bottom line was every song that I listened to that did not exalt Christ impacted my brain. Every movie that I watched that was not godly impacted my brain. I didn't know that as a kid, and my parents may not have known how to explain all that, but they said, shouldn't watch that. I didn't watch a horror movie. Listen, they wouldn't let me watch horror movies. I snuck to one of my friends' house one time and watched one. I was, I don't know, 12, 13 years old and snuck to their house and we all lived in this neighborhood and I didn't know what a horror movie was. I remember I went to the library one time and checked out a ghost story book. Ghost stories in North Carolina. I read the first thing. My dad had to sleep in my room for a week. I was scared to death. But I snuck off and watched this movie. Never did know nothing about it. It was The Exorcist. And I seen that girl possessed by a demon, devil, whatever. Then it was over and I had to walk home in the dark. Excuse me, I had to run home in the dark. And I couldn't sleep for months and years. And brother Barry, even now if I see something like that, it just messes my mind up. So there's a value in abstaining from some things. And young people, let me say this, it has nothing to do with, well, they don't want me to have any fun. It's stupid fun. It's fleshly fun. It's something that you don't understand now, but down the road, it's going to scar you. Well, not me. Yeah, you. So he's saying that there's the limited value of some of these things. In other words, it does not make you a Christian or a better Christian, but there's a value to it because it enhances your life and your walk with God. And so the law that God has given in verse 25 was that of circumcision, right? They had to be circumcised if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uns- He said, listen, I told the Jews, you need to be circumcised. I gave them the law and they were supposed to live by the law. But if they didn't live by the law, if they didn't live by the word of God, the rituals didn't mean anything. And so you can do all the things right and go to church and listen to the right music and you know, all the things, the checklist. But if there's not a relationship with Christ, the outward expression is only as valuable as the inward possession. Here's why. Because if your desire is not to love God and serve God, the outward expression will become bondage. At some point in time your flesh is going to flare up if you're doing it because you want to be a quote unquote good Christian and I want to you know do this do this and my parents expect it and the church expects it and I just want to keep them off my back and you know I want my wife not to be mad at me and all this if that's the only reason you're doing it at some point in time your flesh is going to rear up you go I can't do it anymore. That's why people walk away from church. They have all kinds of excuses. Brother Matt's the preacher and I'm not getting fed. Too legalistic, whatever. But most of the time what it is, is that they really don't have a relationship with Christ. And so they don't want to please Him. And so when the flesh starts going, oh no, this is terrible. The Holy Spirit's dealing with your heart and finally you're just like, I'm done with it. I'll find something that's less stringent. I have no, listen, I have no problem. You say, well, you're the preacher. I know a lot of preachers, listen, have changed their stripes over the years. Here's the benefit they got brother Jay. That's the world. God has revealed some things to me. I didn't know early on in ministry. No, that's not it. You just got, you got tired. One, two things you got tired of, of not being relevant. So you had to change your, your standards or you just don't believe in them. Probably never did. You just did it because that was the thing independent Baptist. Amen. Amen I don't have an issue with it you say well that's cause I used to call whatever you want to I just know this but Shane I love the Lord right I love him anything I know you here's let me share this with you so I've been married 30 years and I thought man but Johnny I thought I'm tough I don't need nobody They went to the beach on Friday. Brother Dennis, I hate it. I hate it. I don't like going to bed by myself. I'm used to that woman laying beside of me. That's the way it's been for 30 years. And it hit me this morning. I thought, boy, if she goes before I do, I'm going to be a mess. I'm going to be a mess, right? And then, you know, Luke got married, and Hannah got married, and you know, parents are like, always fighting and arguing, and the latter, you'll miss that. This week's been me and the dog, and the only conversation, you need to go up and go outside, roar. Right? I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to keep that woman happy, to keep her at my house. Right? Why? Because I love her. It ain't bondage to me, man. Right? You say, oh, you henpecked. Well, you caught what you want to, but our house is pretty happy around our place. Right? And so what I'm saying is the value of anything outwardly done has to be the result of an inward possession, and if it's not, it'll become bondage to you. Unless you have kept the entire law, then the outward expression has no value. Here's what we do. I'll tell you what, I might have done this, but at least I didn't lie. So what? Yeah, I stole $100,000 from the church, but at least I didn't lie about it. Right? Yeah, I committed adultery, hon, but at least I didn't lie to you about it. Well, maybe if you just wouldn't have done the first, you wouldn't be in a position where you had to lie for the second. Don't get all morally superior when it's like, well, at least I told her. I'm going to be honest with you about it. I don't want to hear your honesty. I don't want you to commit the sin to start with, right? But we just get in this mind where it's like either, well, would you rather have someone at church, preacher, that is a thief, but at least he's honest? Which one would you rather have? What about someone who's not a thief that is honest, right? You see what I'm saying? It's like either or. You get one or the other but you can't have both. No, God's saying, listen, unless you keep the whole thing, don't pat yourself on the back saying, at least I'm honest. So the law that God has given, but then the lighter person has in verse 26, verse 27. He said, therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision, and shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter of circumcision does transgress the law. So here's what he's saying. A person who brags about his outward rituals has made it void. Remember what Jesus said? He said, listen, when you give alms, He said, you don't let the right hand know what the left hand is doing. If you do, you just got your reward. Right? Don't know if y'all know it or not, but I just put $10,000 in this offering plate. I did that. The Lord led me. I want you all to know how much I love Jesus, that today, upon the Lord's request, I have put $10,000 in the offering plate. But I'm very humble, right? Yeah, but that's what he's saying. When you brag about what you do for God, and we do it all the time, and again, social media has given us a platform, right? Social media is not bad. Basically what it's done is just given us an avenue to express what we really are. Right? When people tell you what they are, believe it. So he's saying, listen, the inward man should humbly express outwardly what's going on inside. Nothing wrong with giving $10,000. Just don't brag about it. Right? God knows. He's the one supposed to know. Right? That's why I've been in some meetings with Brother Jimmy and you know they're taking up an offering and they're like, alright we need to raise some amount of money. Now how many of you would give a hundred dollars? How many give a thousand? Come on, somebody give a thousand. Why would you do that? Why would you do that? If the right hand is not supposed to let the left hand know what's going on. I'm pretty sure everybody in the church is not supposed to know. I'm pretty sure the preacher, I don't know. I don't know what you give, right? That's between you and God. So the value of anything outwardly done for God is the condition of the relationship. If you don't have a relationship with Christ, you can come to church as much as you want to. You'll be a church-going, hell-bent sinner, right? You can go knock on every door if you're not saved. You'll still go to hell. You've just handed out a lot of traction. You can give all the money you want to missions, but if you're not saved, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, all you've done is a good deed, but it does not It does not affect your standing with God. So there's a value in doing these things, right? It's more valuable to come to church than not come to church, right? I mean, if you've ever had to stay out for an extended period of time. The problem is this. The problem is We're spoiled. We are. I'm not a spoiled preacher. You went in your closet, sir. You picked out what shirt you wanted to wear, what tie you wanted to wear. Not I've got one and that's it. Right? I picked between, I picked, Brother Johnny, I picked between, I don't know how many white shirts, but I picked between the white shirts I had. Right? It's not like one white shirt and one blue. I was like, which white shirt do I want to wear? I got, I got this little thing Austin Hannah gave for my birthday. It's got all my ties and you hit a button and that baby rotates and lets you see him. I'm like, I'm not wearing a polka-dotted tie today, I'm gonna wear this one. I'm wearing a medallion tie today, right? But I got more than one tie. Most of you got more than one car. Right? See what I'm saying? So you know what church is? It'll be there. If I miss six months a year, it'll be there. If I'm gone all summer on vacation, I decide I don't want to miss work, so I'm just going to take my vacation Friday to Monday, right? That way I don't have to miss that meeting. After the summer, kids back in school, church will be there. Right? So yeah, it's valuable to come to church, but it doesn't mean you're saved. Doesn't mean you love God any more or less. It's something good. It's valuable. Why is it valuable? Because you get to hear the Word of God preached. You get to fellowship with other believers. You get to hear good singing. You get all that. It's valuable. But doesn't mean you're more saved or less saved. Right? So number one is the limit to that. Number two is the limitless value of reality. Here's the reality. Verse 28. He says, For it is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Then in verse 29, he said, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. So you see the contrast in verse 28, he says, he's not Jew. In other words, you say he's not a Christian, which is one outwardly. He's not a Christian in verse 29, which he is a Christian, which is one inwardly. So the contrast is the contrast. You say, well, what's that mean? It means that first of all, he's dealing with the outward man, that nothing we do outwardly makes us a Christian or spiritual. I got baptized. Great. But it doesn't make you a Christian. I shook the preacher's hand. Wonderful. I grew up in a preacher's home. That's wonderful. I've gone to church my whole life. Great. Understand who's writing this. Paul did all the right things. Matter of fact, think about this. Paul was killing Christians and putting them in jail because he thought he was a better Jew who loved God for doing it. Right. He was the rituals. He was, man, he was zealous. What changed? Well, He's on the road to Damascus to kill and imprison Christians. That's what he's going to do. And he has an encounter with the Lord Jesus. Here's what's interesting. Ready for this? He's there with a bunch of guys. They all had the same experience. But only one of them saw Jesus. They all said, we saw something. But that one, Jesus spoke to him. He said, Lord, who are thou? He said, I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest. You can be sitting in here, we can all hear the same message and the Holy Spirit speak to your heart. Right? You say, well, why didn't everybody get up and get saved or get right to God? I don't know. Maybe God spoke more. Some said no. But here's the thing. When the Lord spoke to Paul, you know what he did? Did what God told him to do. It wasn't just that. Here's another thing. Think about this. All these self-proclaimed apostles today. I'm an apostle. Well, when you look in the book of Acts at the qualifications of an apostle, one of them is that they had to see Jesus. They had to visually see the resurrected Christ. You say, well, I thought Jesus was dead when he was. Well, how'd he do that? Don't know. But I just know these boys today run around saying, I'm an apostle. You ain't seen him. So disqualified. Amen. So nothing we do outwardly makes us a Christian. Our outward man is to be a reflection of the inward man, right? I've said that many times. The outward man is observable by man. You can't see what's going on in here, right? You can see what's going on outside. That's why we are to live. That's why we're to let our light shine. We're to be salt so other people can know our Savior. The Bible said this, that men can see our good works and glorify our Father. They see our works and go, hey, why are you different? Why aren't you doing what everybody else is doing? Well, I'll tell you why. Because on my road to Damascus, Jesus saved me. And now I do all this because I love him. I don't do this to earn his favor. I've already got his favor. I do this because I love him. That's a different message. And so then there's, he goes with the outward man in verse 28 and then verse 29 deals with the inward man. We are Christians because of the decisions of the inward man. You got to make a decision. God's not going to drag you into heaven. You don't want to go, you don't have to go. Just, you say, well, when I was a kid, I was a drug kid. When church doors opened, my mama drug me to church. Well, God ain't going to drug you to heaven. You got to choose. Choose you this day whom you will serve, right? And this is where the relationship is. The outward man is the reflection of the inward man relationship. And so God examines more than the outward man. So here's the deal. If I put two people together, right? Here's a guy. He's done all these bad things. I'm not going to make the list. You make the list, right? In your mind, you've got a list of what makes a person bad or good, right? You just do. Take that list. You say, OK, five things, he does this, this, this, and this. Put him over here, right? Then you say, well, over here on this side is the guy that's good. Who doesn't do these bad things? Over here are the bad things, bad guy. Over here are the good things, good guy, in our eyes, right? What if I told you inwardly they were the same person, right? Inwardly the same person. So what do you mean by that? Well, just because somebody does good things doesn't mean they're good inside. Just because someone does bad things doesn't mean they're bad inside. Right? I mean, I'll give you an example. Would we agree with this? Would we agree that stealing is wrong? But someone who's a thief, and you hear all, I hate a thief. Right? I hate a thief. I can't stand a thief. All right, would we agree with that? Bad person. Did you ever find out why they stole it? I mean, is it proverbs? I think it's proverbs. It basically said a man would forgive someone for stealing if they were hungry. Right? I mean, if you were hungry enough, would you steal food? Probably. But you're still a thief, aren't you? See what I'm saying? In our mind, we've got this checklist. Well, they're not a thief. I hate a thief. A thief is as bad as a liar. You ever lied? Right? Are liars bad people? Let me give you an example. Ready for this one? There's an old girl in the Old Testament. She's a harlot. Makes her a bad person, right? These spies come. She takes them in. She said, OK. They said, we're going to destroy this place. And if you don't tell on us, we'll save you and your family. You know what they did? They came to her. They said, did you see them spies? She said, I ain't seen nothing. What is that? A lie. You ever looked at the genealogy of Christ? You know who's in there? The liar Rahab. Now, I'm not advocating lying, Brother Harley. I'm not. But what I'm saying is you better be careful when you're so judgmental against everybody else. Well, they're not a Christian. They're not a good Christian. They ought to get right with God. You don't know their heart. And then you got over here, you got this guy that does all the right things, says all the right things, gives to the right things, quotes Bible verses, but he doesn't know God. You cannot see the inward man. So on this side, brother Noel, we can't judge people, but on this side, listen to me, I'm almost done. I see some of you going, when are you going to be done? When I'm done. Hang with me. On this side, you ought to keep your judgmental eyes off everybody, but on this side, you ought to live like people would see you and say, that's Christ. Say, we usually do one or the other. You know, the Bible said not to judge. The Bible said, judge not, lest ye be judged. But he's talking to you. Stop beating everybody else up with the judge not scripture, and realize he's telling you not to judge, and usually you're judging people that say that by judging them. Judge not. You're a hypocrite because you judge. Well you just judge me about being a hypocrite. So on this side he's saying stop looking at everybody else and determining their spirituality but on this side you ought to live on the outward like what's going on on the inside. It's always brother Bart a double edged sword. This side, keep your mouth off of those people. This side, it's like you need to live like they can't put their mouth on you. How we doing? Here's the problem. There's got to be an inward change. If there's no inward change, you can do all the right things and you're still not going to heaven. Some of the most wicked people in the Bible are in heaven. You know why? Because they did one thing. They trusted Christ. That's what you've got to do. Now if you've trusted Christ as your Savior, here's what you've got to do. I've got to stop looking at everything else, determine their Christianity. I've got to stop depending on my little, you know, set of standards and rituals that I do and don't do and say, oh God, look at me, I'm such a great Christian. When you, there's things inwardly that you're not doing. Love thy neighbor as thyself. You doing that? Nope, but I don't listen to rock music. Right? I don't drink, I don't drink Bud Dummers. Hallelujah. Great. Got some bitterness? Well, I wasn't caught bitterness. But I've had a grudge against Brother Shane since we were eight years old. But I go to church every Sunday. I go to Sunday school. God's cool with me because I go to Sunday school. You're missing it. I gotta fix all this in here and here's how you fix it Lord God be merciful to me a sinner and then when he fixes this in here now I gotta say okay Holy Spirit fill me up and manifest yourself through me and let me can I give you this and I'm done even if you do that there's gonna be times you're gonna mess up still gonna mess up But Jack's still, I'm trying to do it right, man, doing it. And all of a sudden, mess up. You know what you do? Confess it. Know that you, cause see when you mess up, that does not mean you're not His. Means the fellowship's strained. So I just want to fix the fellowship. If you're here today and you never trust Him as your Savior, you can come to church and give and all the things that good quote-unquote good Christians do still not go to heaven. But today should be the day of your salvation. Now if you are saved and you say He's living on the inside, what's on here ought to come on the outside, right? If not, you need to get on an altar this morning. We've got to destroy this ritual stuff, my checklist. Checklists are good, right? I'm gonna do them. I get up every morning, I got a checklist every morning. That doesn't mean, if I miss, brother, if I miss one day of not reading my Bible, that doesn't mean I'm less of a Christian. If I mess up, doesn't mean I'm not saved. Means I got something, I gotta get right with the Lord and get back on track. See, some of you let the devil beat you up when you mess up to the point you're of no earthly good because you're living in this guilt. And here's what guilt does. The devil's saying, you know what, if he's really who you say you are, you ain't done that. And for a while, you internalize it. You let him beat you up. Then you know what you do? You externalize it. Yeah, but look at him. Well, look at him. Look at her. At least I ain't a hypocrite. At least I ain't this. And all you really had to do is say, God, you know what? I messed up. I acknowledge I messed up. Would you forgive me and get me back on the right track, right? And as I stand redeemed, the devil, the accuser of the brethren, says, if you was a Christian, you wouldn't be doing that. Greatest Christian ever walked the face of the earth. Paul. Right? Things that I should do, I don't. Things I shouldn't do, I do. Gives me some hope. See, some of you don't have victory because you don't believe that's you. You think unless it's perfect, you can't have any victory. Let me give you a hint. Let me help you with this. Life ain't going to be perfect. Right? You're going to have some trials. You're going to have a bunch of them. That's normal. If you don't have any trials, you're abnormal. Well, I don't want so many of them. You don't get to choose that. Now, let's be honest. Some of the trials we have, we've chosen them, and we're in them because we did it. But God's just trying to build you where you can trust Him. Stop letting the devil beat you up on everything. And realize that just because you act a certain way doesn't mean that's who you are. You can act like a Christian and be the meanest junkyard dog in the world. There's a lot of people, listen, I've met people in a business setting You see them on TV. You've seen athletes, you know, in an interview and they're all sweet, and then you find out they're beating their wife and their dogs. You're like... Right? That's what's on the inside. And if you don't know Him as your Savior, today's a good day. Let's stand. All over the auditorium, let's stand by our heads this morning. Our eyes are closed. The altar's open. This morning, you do not know 100% for sure if you died, you'd go to heaven. Let me invite you to come. Don't walk out of here not knowing. Say, well, I go to church, I act like a Christian, but are you? Are you 100% sure inside that if you died today, you'd go to heaven? Please, please don't put that off. Please just step out of your seat and come. If you are a Christian, does the outward man reflect the inward man? play through one more time you mind the Lord Jesus, thank you for loving us. Thank you for being so good to us. Use the message to stir hearts in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.