Good afternoon. We will still study judgment. And today's lesson is judgment, mercy, and faith. Judgment, mercy, and faith. And we know according to Exodus 20 and 60, God said in showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. So we see here that God was one that showed mercy and judgment And God is well known for his use of mercy. A well-known use of mercy that God calls the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat. I've heard that in the Old Testament, that that was called the mercy seat. In other words, the place where God's judgment was where the mercy seat was. The Israelite transported the Ark containing the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments wherever they went. So that law followed them, that judgment, and the mercy of God. Normally that ark remained in the Holy of Holies where God symbolically resided later in Solomon's tabernacle and later in the temple. But the mercy seat symbolizes God's throne and where he judges men's conduct. We see here in the New Testament where it says if we would judge in ourselves we would not be judged. So we have to think of judgment and remember I told you during the day we make thousands of decisions. Countless decisions and everything where it takes judgment To make the right decisions of God each decision you make each thing Each choice you make is a judgment. It's a judgment call but those judgments need to be in line with God's precepts his statutes his commandments and and being made in the image and likeness of God. As I said, God could judge our conduct, and its name reflects the basic nature of his judgment, of just what he's doing. And they always rest on mercy. He's a merciful God, because if he wasn't, we'd have been blotted out and annihilated long ago. He shows mercy, and I want to know how many of us are merciful with one another in dealing with one another. Even though we may form a judgment, a opinion, a decision about someone, the adjudication of a carrying out of that judgment is in the discretion of the one that's doing the judgment, and that's where we learn the image and the character and the likeness of God. So it does not mean God is soft-headed or that we should be soft-headed in judgment, looking over people's sins or whatever. But we have to learn to rationalize, have an understanding, and the only understanding comes from God, to understand why men do what they do. And we can't see their motivations, we can't judge the intent of their heart or why they did things. So that's why we have to depend on being led by the Spirit of God, being that God is in us and that we be developed in His image and likeness and we develop the mind of God. So we have the whole Word of God. We have to have, and that's why we've studied the whole Word of God, that know that these are statutes and commandments and everything. But the Spirit, His Spirit, in the New Testament time and in this time, that's why He says He was going to write His laws on our heart. So, it's like with your children and everything, I don't think you beat your children for everything they do. I don't think when your children or some people say things, you're not judging everything openly and that way you end up to have a tendency of provoking them to anger that if you're critical of everything they do or everything that they say. In other words, some decisions and things people make or do, you do as Mary did. They say, Mary seen or heard these things and she kept them in mind, not that she said anything at that time. It requires prudence to be able to walk in this earth, and it requires being subject to God. In other words, I said judgment, mercy, and faith. It has to be in that God's the ultimate judge, and that He's carrying out His judgments in the earth, and we can't see anything that He doesn't see. So we want to be accord with God. I remember how sometimes old folks used to just watch children or watch people or you read the book of Proverbs where Solomon said he just observed things. Sometimes you observe people's behavior or what they're doing or what they're saying, but it's not the prudent person that always blasts out and makes a decision or says something. It says a wise head totes a still tongue. Sometimes you can see people doing things or about to do things or whatever and not say anything that are going the wrong course. I think God was aware and seen when Adam and Eve was about to eat the apple or whatever. But notice he didn't jump from behind the bushes or nowhere out to the tree. Hey, don't eat that apple, Adam. I told you not to eat of it or whatever. He allowed them to help start forming their character because he had told them of the judgment of the expectancy of him or what he expected of him. But it was for them to develop that character in them of being obedient unto God and trusting in what he say do and having faith that he was looking out for them for their ultimate good. That's why children have to realize that parents should be looking out for the ultimate good of the child. And they're not trying to stop you from having fun or doing something because they have a lot of laws or whatever. And even I know a lot of times with a lot of my laws, there was a lot of leniency or mercy in them. But there were laws there that would help shape and form their character or whatever. But we have to allow a person to develop. Because we're not allowing free will or free moral agency to take its course. If we were always to just rebuke somebody or keeping them on the straight and narrow, that has to become part of their nature. In other words, that they wanna do good. We know God's law, so we wanna do that which is pleasing to God. We don't wanna break his law. We're trying to break loose from our old wheel and our old judgments that would have us following the provisions of the things of the flood. So in our decisions and everything, we're trying to make judgments, decisions that was pleasing unto God and contrary unto what we want. Even though our mind, our hearts tells us we want something or we need this or this is what we need. We looking and having faith in God is to say, well, if I follow this precept, this stature, this commandment, God's gonna help me to do this. And when I fail, he's a merciful God and I could fall in his mercy. But I wanna do that which is pleasing unto him. And by him giving me his spirit, I think he'll give me the ability and the power to do that which pleases him. We seek to please God. It's like if a child may not keep his house, keep the house clean and wash it, this should do everything it's supposed to do. But if he is not told to do that and the parent comes home and seeing that the child is trying to do the things that she told the child to do, It's like the imperative command. You tell somebody, will you wash the dishes or wash the dishes? You're not commanding them, but it's imperative. In other words, are they gonna do that? After a while, when they start washing the dishes or cleaning up, they're following your commandments and statutes that you're not having to repeat those over and over that because that's what required of them and that's what you expect. God's expecting holiness out of us. He's expecting a clean life. He shouldn't consistently have to tell us to pray, to read our Bible, to do all these things. But as we do these things, it develops the character, the conduct. We see somebody reading everything, we say, well, they're developing pretty good conduct. They're conducting themselves where they're not allowing television and nobody else to interfere. In other words, their character toward God is developing who or what they are is developing in God and toward God. And that's what we necessarily have to do, is develop our character toward God and it requires good judgmental decisions on our behalf to totally follow God. God's nature to be merciful rather than severe, acrimonious, implacable and vengeful, unlike men, God finds ways to change men so he can be merciful. So, you know what implacable is? In other words, You're so stiff that you can't bend, that you can't allow this. In other words, you're not pliable, you're not a merciful, but you don't give space to anything. You're not giving. And see, that's what Jesus was. He was, he came down here as a man, and he understood, and he knew the value of God's law. But notice that he didn't just say, okay, well, let's stone her to death. She was committing adultery or whatever. He was able to say, well, okay, whichever one of y'all is what I've seen, cast the first stone or whatever. He said, I don't convict you, you go your way. But are you always ready to judge someone else and not give someone else enough room that they have made a mistake or they've done the wrong thing or whatever? A lot of times he would go around healing on the Sabbath day. So his judgments or his decisions was based on it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Now, that was one of the reasons they destroyed him is because he worked it up on the Sabbath where they put up rules and boundaries around the Sabbath that you must do this or die or suffer the consequences or whatever. So they didn't have the spirit of the law in there. That's what's wrong with a lot of Christians. They're Pharisee, Oedipal. They don't have the spirit of the law. In other words, you know what's right. You know what the rules say, you know what things are, but are you, do you have the love of man in you? Do you actually love people? And do you love God? You have to love God to be able to love people. You have to love people to be able to love God. Okay. And you were talking about the spirit lead to increase in faith and increase in faith lead to spirit. I think we have to look at the regeneration here, just what God had purposed and created you to do as to how your faith would increase in these judgments and decisions that you're making in that You start realizing, I can't do nothing of my own. I have to ask God in the whole day, I have to be in communication to do God's will. What does God want me to do in this particular situation? So Paul and the rest of them would always tell you to cease not to pray. Praying always in prayer and supplication, let your request be known to God. He said this, God, they did this, what should I do? This is what's happening. What should I do? What should I say? You'll be slow to speak you think before you start speaking Since you have to give account for it the idle word you say the anger this burst and everything that you do so you start being pliable into This person and had a child out of wedlock or whatever. Do you stone? Do you label them or what do you do? What's the Spirit of God leading you to do? So we have to see that, you remember I tell you, Jesus came and he dealt with the situation on the ground. The situation on the ground was that mankind was involved in horrible sin. He was in all types of sin, his life was messed up. And he didn't have the image and mind of God. So Jesus say, I'm gonna give you of my spirit and I'm gonna write my laws on your heart. As you start doing these things and become pliable, In other words, start feeling for the brother in church or the sister in church. Start feeling for the people out there that you start having empathy. In other words, placing yourself in their prediction. Do you make mistakes? Do you want somebody always down your throat for the least little mistake you do? Are you coming into church trying to do your best? Are you trying your best to please God and you falter a lot of times? A lot of times I get up here to preach or teach, and that's what I was looking at today. I kept going over these notes, Lord help me, but don't let them be too critical of me or whatever. But God hardens me in such a way that you're trying to please God. But none of us have done this before, been this route before, so it's a leap, it's a walk of faith. You hadn't been parents before. There's no manual or something that can took you this through this proposal. You can make mistakes in values and judgments and things. You want your children critical of everything that you've done, a decision you've made, or bad decisions, or wrong decisions, or whatever. So the same way that you judge others, you should judge yourself. That's why I say if we would judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged. We wouldn't start being so quick to judge other people. So it's judgment requires mercy and faith, the spirit of God in us wanting to do the right thing. God's judgment always contain a perfect balance of justice and mercy. So you're not allowing people to continue in sin. Notice that Jesus told the adulterous woman, go and sin no more, unless a worse thing will happen to you. So it's not all right to sin and encourage people to sin or whatever. Well, we need to see how God is conducting or handling these situations and how his will is to be done. When does we use sternness? How? In other words, by exercise of use and walking with God, we learn to conduct ourselves around people and with people, our conversation, Of everything we do, our attitudes and disposition, and it either draw people or drive people. If you're too naive and plicable, sometimes people would get upset with you and distraught with you because you're too judgmental or whatever. I came in, it was very hot, and I'd say, well, look, are y'all hot? I know I came up and turned the air on or whatever. But if I'd have come in screaming at you and screaming at this person about that. God doesn't want us always, are you one to come home always upset in the apple cart? You know, it's a lot of husbands of things, things going on at the job or different places and he come home screaming at the wife or the children or whatever. Wouldn't you rather tell him, you just get out the house and everything so you could, things could go back to normal, things could calm down or whatever. You don't, Jesus always win in the situations and circumstances. being calm and in charge of the circumstances of the situation because he was being led by God and there's a certain calmness about the Spirit of God. It gives you a certain peace and a certain authority because you know the results are in God's hand. So that's why it says, see that you be not moved. No matter what's going on around you, the circumstances and things around you, He wants you to be a solid-minded judge. He wants you to make strong and implacable judgments that he would make in those situations But what we have to realize the judgments and the calls we making they're not of ourselves Those of God so we're talking about godly judgments What is godly judgment? Second Chronicles 19 5-9 when Jehoshaphat was in the land. Y'all didn't heard of King Jehoshaphat, right? It says, And he set judges in the land throughout all the spent cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Take heed what ye do, for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you, Take heed and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of person, nor taking of gift." Moreover, in Jerusalem, the Jehoshaphat sent Levites of the priests and of the chief of the fathers of Israel for the judgment of the Lord and for controversies when they returned to Jerusalem. And he charged them, saying, Thus shall you do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and with a perfect heart. So as we make in these judgments and decisions, we are making these of and for the Lord. In other words, this is what the Lord would say or this is what the Lord wants. This is not according to what I want. That what I want, I don't do. That what I do may not be what I want because that's not what the Lord, you see what I'm saying? It's not a self-centered decision or judgment that we're making. We're in a preparation stage where it says you shall be king and knowing that the saints shall judge the earth. So we should start in preparatory, in other words, preparation. This is practicing now for the kingdom to come because we should walk as the kingdom of God is amongst us, is within us. So we should start walking around practicing godly judgment. We should do as Jesus Christ did. As he is, so are we. We have the mind of Christ and we want to develop that mind. This is important considering our calling in Revelation 5-10 tells us we will become kings and priests. First Corinthians 6-2 clearly states, Do you not know that the saints will judge the world and that the world will be judged by you? Are you unworthy to judge the smallest of matters? The context involves selling disputes between church members, Christians, and other than the ministry must judge. In other words, We have to learn to work out our differences here in the church. Paul said, why not just suffer wrong? Why not allow someone to do what's wrong or whatever? If you've told that person and that person knows what the word of God is, I'm not going to let that hinder or make me bitter. that you're not following God's word or whatever. I'm going to love you. It says love your enemies and pray for them or those that despitefully treat you wrong or say all manner of evil against you or whatever. In other words, you're taking all these things to God in prayer and you're praying for people. but your character of conduct has to be one that God hadn't made you a ruler or a judge over the people. I read that to you last week when Jesus said, who had made me a judge or a ruler to divide the inheritance with you or whatever. We don't want the pastor, we don't want the elders, we don't want the deacons or the members of the church being heavy handed over others or whatever. And that's what we have to be with our children. If you want your children to despise you or whatever, One thing you can do is not let them develop autonomy. That's what we're trying to do, allow them to become young decision makers. In other words, young people that know how to conduct their own families and homes and things. That's what the older women and older men do, they teach the younger people. But not be a thorn in their flesh or overbearing much. Judgment has to be consistent if you notice God's judgment is going on in there, and I told you it's a process But God's not overbearing in judgment toward us to where everything we do But if we is in the light for it or whatever we do have to pay for our sin But it's a lot of time we do things we shouldn't do but God's merciful and allow us to proceed It was a merciful to David and allowed David to proceed even though David murdered Uriah and he had a baby with Bathsheba. So sometimes we have to allow people to make those mistakes and just like our children, anybody else make mistakes. We have to have faith in God that he's in charge and he's gonna preserve us and keep us and he's able to bring them to the place that we think we are or whatever if we're self-evaluating ourselves right. We have to be merciful in understanding the other person, the individual. So, we know that nobody's escaping with anything. If we know the Word of God, we know that every sin and transgression we'll receive is just recompense or reward. In other words, those that sin against God, God's going to punish them. That's why we teach these things and everything. We know that this is true and that's why we live that way and we don't do these things and we try to stay from it and we teach that to the others. But we can't force people to live a specific way. We don't, we can't do that. They have to be able to make those decisions and grow in the grace and knowledge and understanding of God. But we know God's word that he will judge the world and that every nation confess that he's Lord. and that you will pay for your sins. Right? So, wouldn't we be much better people if we realize that and that that's come at one time and that we're not all over the map on the way we do things or whatever. Now, let's talk about the Pharisees here when he told them that they tied mint, cumin, and anise and things. I started on that, I think last week, Matthew the 23rd chapter. the first through the thirty-ninth verse and I'm not going to go back and read that whole chapter or whatever but Jesus rips the scribes and Pharisees to shreds in this chapter eight times he pronounces a woe upon them in other words a judgment and we see that in Isaiah where we study in the first fifth chapter where he says and starting at the seven verses the woe the things that was going to come upon the people because He was going to tear his heads down because good fruit wasn't coming from the people. They wasn't producing good fruit. So eight times he pronounces a woe upon them. And a woe is defined by Webster's dictionary as deep suffering, grief, affliction, or ruinous trouble, trouble that'll ruin you. He dubs them hypocrites. We know what a hypocrite is. He calls them hypocrites seven times. This is a hypocritical nation. It says it's religion, but it's religion that's hypocritical. And I was with my son-in-law yesterday, was getting some work done. And I was telling him, he was asking me something about the president and something was going on. I said, well, I really don't follow the news anymore or whatever because It's gone beyond the brink of pulling back. In other words, the nation has gone to where God has allowed the hedge to go down. The evangelical church, the Christians have done that. The church has done that. God's people have caused that. God's people are one of the catalysts to this going on. So I don't really follow the news, local or national, as close as I do. I have a brevity of it, you know, the people, a watchful eye on what's going on as a minister of God. But he called them blind guides twice. He calls them fool and blind twice. He calls them blind once. He calls them whitewashed tombs once. And he finished his name-calling tirade against them by designating them as a brood of vipers. Remember, John called them a brood of vipers. So these words and things that he was saying was necessary. And I don't want to say a hyperbole, but sometimes you use rough words with people or you call or tell people something so they'll know the severity of the conversation, the depths of it. And you call them a brood of vipers if you would look at the symbolism of that, a bunch of snakes. venomous, they were poisonous, they were very destructive. He then accuses them of being the children of those who killed the prophets, a heavy insult considering how proud they were of their ancestors. Just like this nation is proud of the founding fathers of their ancestors. Just imagine, he said, you are the children of the ones that killed the prophets. It was their judgment and you're saying that that's something that you're proud of or whatever. And he predicts that they would do the same things themselves and declares that he would have nothing to do with them until they accept and bless the ones he sends. In other words, till they start truly accepting the people of God, the things of God. So here he comes. with statements and we should see the judgment of God in this. Jesus was really worked up over this, why these people were extremely careful in every minor article of the law, they would tie the least little portion of their cooking herbs and things. He said you tied your mint, anise, and cumin and everything. In other words, they was meticulous in all that they did concerning the law. And it says you swallow a net while straining, you swallow a camel while straining after a net. You go by judging the people, what they eat, what they drink, what they do, their lifestyle, and all these things. And you're a bunch of hypocrites. You know, it's the holy rollers that are always condemning and judging other people. These may be good people that may be doing things that are against God's law or whatever, may not realize or ignorant of these things, or may not have a capacity yet to change or whatever. But these are people that God may save, whereas He may not save you because of your attitude or disposition. In other words, you're searing these people's conscience. For conscience's sake, you're ruining these guys. Here's a guy that maybe come through something where he don't eat pork. He doesn't worship on the same day you worship. He does something on a holiday that you don't do on a specific holiday that you don't follow. Or he drink and you don't drink, you're an alcoholic or whatever. But this person really serves God in every other area of life or whatever. But then you are judging this person in what they do or whatever. And that's why Paul said, who are you to judge another man's servant? Who are you to judge another? So with these same judgments that you're judging, maybe, as Paul said, if you don't drink, if you don't do these things, maybe you should have them to yourself. Because the Bible doesn't say those things. But you're using a value judgment or judgment to judge others. And God's going to have a much more stricter judgment of you. That's why, like I said, if you look at that chapter, he used some mighty strong words toward the Pharisee, who was a very religious group of people. This nation is full of people that are judging abortionists, they're judging homosexuals or whatever. But they're far worse than some of the things that they are doing. Yeah, you could pick out anybody's sin because we're all sinners. The difference is we're forgiven sinners. So in that you judge another man, you condemn in your own sin by judging him. Because you don't know how to judge. You don't know what to say. This is not being led by the spirit of God. He says he's not the author of confusion. He didn't send us here to change the world. As a matter of fact, you don't see him even praying for the world. He said, I don't pray for the world. So why is we judging something that he's not praying for that's condemned already? Here's a woman caught in adultery. He said, I don't condemn you. Now he did tell her to go. He didn't say, I encourage you to go commit adultery. He said, go and sin no more. Since he got her attention and since he was merciful, she would hazard to listen at him. She would go home and listen at him. She seen that he was a person that understood that she was being mistreated. They were saying how many people that were being kicked off the Medicaid roads here in the state or whatever. And then John Bel Edwards came back to do it, get it done a different way or whatever. But you mean to tell me this may be a righteous thing you're doing, but you're doing it without mercy. In other words, you hear a lot of people in poverty, you hear a lot of people that may not have a way around, people that don't have anybody to explain to them just what the law meant, what they're doing. But you say, well, no, it's a certain time of year you could apply for this, it's a certain time you do all this. You're not lenient in any kind of way at all. You're wanting God to destroy these people. You're condemning these people. You're another Jonah. That's why he calls the gourd to form over Jonah, because Jonah preached the word. He was so hateful that he was afraid that the people would repent. He was mad at God. He said, see, I told you that, and now they didn't repent, and now you have mercy upon them. He said, Jonah, these are over 100,000 people that don't know their right hand from their left hand. In other words, you're willing to destroy these people, but you have more sympathy for God that you didn't do nothing with, that grew up overnight. You would be mad and angry about that, but yet you still, you want me to destroy a whole city that was doing wrong. Yeah, they were sinful and evil, and he did send you to preach to them, but it says that they repented at the preaching of Jonah. They turned around with so great a repentance that ever was. And now you mad because I won't destroy him, Jonah? You don't think like God. See, we have to start thinking like God and making the decisions and judgments God does. hopefully that way he he says you scribes and parishes you do pay tithes and offerings and you do do the right things in the law and the church and everything he says that these things you ought to have done he didn't say it was wrong to do these things he says but you forgot about the weightier matters of the law in other words of having mercy of faith in God See, you place yourself in the place of God, and God, I just now read in what it was, Chronicles, where we stand in the place of God. that he appointed you to judge. If he's making us judge and rulers and kings, shouldn't we have people that's understanding that each case has to be judged differently and that people are individuals and that we have to see. That's why I say God is a personal God. So no matter how large your church is, no matter how large your community or city is, God judges each individual. Each man will have to give account for the deeds done in his body. Your problem or what you're going through may be different from the guy sitting right next to you. The whole community or whatever. But you want to lump everybody in on that and say, well, everybody should apply here. Everybody should be able to do that. I mean, that's a pretty harsh judgment. That's why God allows, you see a lot of times God allows certain things or God just didn't burn somebody off the map. And we hear people that God ought to just blow them off the map. Really? Really? You don't have the patience and the long-suffering of God? Isn't that one thing that God teaches us and says that's a fruit of the Spirit? That is patience, long-suffering, and forbearance? But you can't put up with anybody. You can't put up with anything. So they were so busy overlooking the weightier matters of the law that they wasn't making proper judgment. Making sure everyone else obeys their demands that they no longer remember the fundamental purpose of the law or kept it properly themselves. Even worse, they used the law against others and took advantage even to the point of devouring widow's houses. In other words, These people were having hard times and difficult times, but then you would go in and buy up their property because you paid such high taxes for them. Your drug costs were so high, you didn't understand the people that were saying that they couldn't even afford some of their medications or whatever. Some of them lost their jobs or through different situations, hardship fell on these people or whatever, and you wasn't understanding that hard times and different things happen to people. You wasn't a very understanding person, but if something happened to you, you want everybody to be merciful to you and understand that you have a problem. If it's your child, you wouldn't want nobody to do that, but if it was somebody else's child, you want them to pay the ultimate price. You want to get your pound of flesh from them. In other words, you had respect of person in judging. This nation has a respective person. It has a race problem. It has an ethnic problem. It has a religious problem. It has all types of problems. As Isaiah said, the whole head is sick. Leadership on down, the whole thing is sick and God has to take down the fence. he says yet they look good publicly counting their men coming in on us it is not wrong or unlawful to do all these things but they forgot what God had why he had created the law and that by the law no flesh shall be saved and that freedom liberty grace and truth came through Jesus Christ he put a face to the law he put something there that we can see that was tangible That's why everybody loved that Jesus and they frowned on the Old Testament God because they look at the law and everything. But if we would notice that Jesus wasn't a lawbreaker, that Jesus went around helping and doing good. He carried around the judgments of God. Are we doing that? They set a horrible practice of Teaching and not following their own teachings. They were hypocrites verse 3 says so they practice and observe everything They tell you but do not do as they do for they preach things, but do not practice them That's why I said listen what the scribes and Pharisees say listen that the churches in the nation is preaching a whole lot of things But don't do as those churches and preachers do Because they're hypocrites he said They abused their officers by burdening others with strict requirements while not following those same requirements themselves. If we were listening and walking in God, he would be showing us these things now. We would see these things. And it says the prudent would keep quiet. In other words, sometimes the prophet in life, you can't say something about everything that you see. People don't need to know what side of the fence you're on all the time. I had something to preach in the sermon that I had for this week, and it came out of the book of Psalms, and Jesus says, For every beast of the forest is mine in the calendar thousand years. I know all of the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee. For the world is mine in the fullness day of. But to the wicked, God says, what right have you to recite my statutes or to take my covenant up on your lips? For you hate instructions and discipline, and cast my word behind your back, in other words, discarding them. You preachers and teachers, you people in this nation, you leadership, I'm talking to y'all. When you see a thief, you're pleased with him and condone his behavior. All the corruptness in the government, all the corruptness in the nation, the churches and the people are going along with this. It says, you are pleased with him and condone his behavior and you associate with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I have kept silent. And you thought that I was just like you. He says, now I will reprimand and denounce you and state the case in order before your eyes. In other words, you just sit there Let them go as far as they wanted to go and do as much as you can it says because of Evil work sometimes God is silent against an evil work You've heard of the expression, give a man enough rope, he'll hang himself. Just because you didn't say anything, just because you didn't do anything, try it with a child. Sit there and tell him not to eat the candy or eat those things, and you just sit there and watch TV or do something, and just look at him and don't say anything, but don't let him know you're looking at him. He'll take a piece of candy or take something from that jar, do what you told him not to do, and you're sitting there. And before long, he's going to take some more, He's going to eat so much he'll make himself sick. Honey is good, but too much of it will make you sick. Too much stealing, too much of anything. And that's what it is. Sometimes God is silent. Like I said, sometimes God doesn't come in and do anything. But before you know it, you've been in a reprobate condition. You went too far. And I was preaching that of Ahab. I had to preach for Sarah. It was about Ahab. God helped Ahab so much and God has built us out of decisions and things we've done so much. Instead of our judgment and evaluating how we're wrong, our judgment became unproductive. It became sour. It became the wrong judgment. We started making wrong decisions and that's what this nation is doing. Decision after decision after decision is wrong. It's not the judgment. It's not God the judgment. So that's what happens when you keep silent sometimes. You remember I told you the prudence to keep silent. Sometimes people think you with them just because you don't say anything against them. It's not that you don't, that you're with them or agree with them. is that sometime you've learned through the scripture and proverbs says, don't mellow with strife that don't belong to you. If I tell you somebody's crooked it, this person's no good not getting an argument, a shout match, and I throw them up or whatever. What that does is stop the behavior. It makes me become a slander or speak evil of my brother or whatever. But what happens if God just allow this to go on, the wickedness to go on? As I told you, if you observe and if you're a godly person, you start seeing that God is right to judge this nation. God is right to judge these people. In other words, wouldn't it be better for you to see these people in action doing this wrong? seeing their adultery, seeing their fornication, seeing their idolatry, seeing their lying and their wickedness in vain. That's what I say. He didn't hinder Adam and Eve from eating of the truth. He allowed them to become or do what they wanted to do and that was being a sinner. God's watching that as well as he's watching. That's why I say that's why we can't judge because he sees the Intents and the motives of the heart he knows when something hurts us that we've done That we wasn't it wasn't for evil or wickedness that we've done these things So he's able to through the Word of God and that's why he says it's the discern of the intent of the spirit It is discern of the spirit down to the marrow to the bone He knows what you did and why you did it even though it doesn't look right That's why he gave Joseph the knowledge and understanding that Joseph told his brothers, no, you did it for evil. God made it good. But your intent was something evil. A lot of times people do things wrong and intend evil and it turned out good. They don't think that you know that they were working against you, that they did this to harm you. See, that's what I'm saying. God is a judge and He's a discerner, and He can give you that ability. See, Jesus read their thoughts. He know that they was going about to kill them, to kill Him. So to become God-like, to have God-like judgment and everything, for that to increase, for your faith to increase, and for that spirit to increase, you have to be a doer of God's Word. We can't produce fruit. God produces fruit. We can only bear fruit. God give it life. He gives us strength. He quickens us. In other words, he makes us alive. So we can't just wish and hope these things happen. God is actually, as Paul says, Apollo's watered, he planted. God give it the increase. God is the one who causes you to be fruitful. God is the one that's caused you to gain wealth. God is the one that gives you blessing. God is the one that heals you. Now, man may try to take the credit for these things, but if you give God the glory and you see that God actually, everything, it comes through Christ, it's done through Christ. And without Him, we can do nothing. So our judgment, our things are being skewed. He told the Pharisees, you tie heavy loads that are harder to bear and place them on men's shoulders, but they themselves would not lift a finger to make them lighter. People are required to tell you the thing, but they're not gonna put their shoulder to the load to help you bear that load. They'll say, well, people should be healthy. They should be doing this. But no, you don't want to sacrifice some of your money that everybody would have health care. You don't want to get in and sacrifice and help that this would come about. You don't want to actually love your neighbor. You don't want to actually do these things. You're not actually doing these things. You're saying it's a good saying. But you say and don't do. You don't actually love these people. You're not actually doing what God wants you to do. What they did was only for vanity and for show. They do all their deeds to be seen by men, for they make their phylacteries. In other words, they go around building big churches. They go around feeding the needy, and they're doing good works. They're casting out devils in Jesus' name. But it's all a show. They don't actually love. They're getting rid of their access or whatever. And all in the end, Jesus will tell those people, I never knew you. Because their judgments and decisions wasn't godly, it was only for show. God knew why you were doing it. If you don't do something, God knows why you're doing it. I might not know why. And it's evil for me to attribute these things to you and say, I know you said this about me, I know you hate me, I know this person. When I see you making judgments and things that you couldn't possibly understand. God gives us the perfect example of this in Job where Job's friends came to him and they made all kinds of accusations against Job, against his children, against the life he lived or whatever. Wasn't any of it true? All it did was cause the friendship between them and Job to be frayed. Whereas Job had to end up turning around, praying for these people. None of this was true by Job. So they became the Satan. In other words, they became the adversary because you slandered your brother. From circumstances, from the way things look, you made wrong decisions, wrong judgments, and you voiced those judgments. You spoke those judgments against him because he lost his children. He lost his family. He lost all his cattle, his sheep, his money. He lost all these things. He lost his health. And a lot of people know where the faith is. Well, it happens to you because you don't have any faith. You don't know why it happened to them. You don't know what's going on in a person's life. So we have to be careful of what judgments we're making, and only God can make those judgments. These are decisions and statements and accusations to tell somebody they did something for specific reasons. You don't know what's on that person's mind. You don't know what they're thinking. So that's bad judgments on your behalf because you're becoming the devil. Who is the devil? The accuser of the brother, the slanderer. the one that speaks evil of another man. The Bible tells us not to do these things. So if you can develop the spirit, if the spirit's working in you, it says no man can tame the tongue. The spirit has to do that. So when you see Christians, that's why he told, as he said, let the women keep silent in church or wherever. That would be a hard thing, but it's harder now for men to keep silent because a lot of men just run their rat trap and talk on whatever, vanity and gossip and everything. I see more of them on the phone than women. They're not making spiritual judgments. See, it's hard to talk from the feelings or emotions of what you say. It's much harder, it's easier, in other words, it's harder to sit there and hold your peace. The old folks used to sing a song, if I can just hold my peace, victory will be mine. Sometime if you could just sit still and not say something, let God fight your battles. It's God's battle, let Him fight it. He says when people speak evil and say all manner of things about you, you pray for them. You just pray for them. You just go back and tell the problem to God. He says, I'm going to avenge all this. I'm going to avenge you. I'm going to take care of the ones that you oppress. The ones that you can't pay their rent, the ones that can't get around, the ones that you taking benefits and the widows and the fatherless, all these people that you're taking, the poor, the ones that you're taking advantage. I'm going to defend them. Now they better be doing what they supposed to do. That's why I say every man has to give account of himself to God, just because God's defending you. We read that on Ahab. Just because he defended Ahab and won a lot of battles, that doesn't mean he didn't turn around and judge Ahab. That didn't mean he wasn't going to judge the adulterous woman. God has a time for all things and a season. That's why I say we don't understand the timing God had placed in me. They'll fall sooner or later. You remember David says he wasn't going to touch God's anointing. He wasn't going to do Saul anything, that Saul would fall in battle one day or something would happen to Saul. You just let people say or do what they want to do. One of these days, God's going to level the playing field. God's going to take that. I don't want to do God's work. I'm not God and I don't want to become God. Only God can hold that position. Only God is God. We are the sons of God and we should act that way. They were social climbers. It says, they love the place of distinction and honor at feast. And the best seats in the synagogue, those are the platform near the stroke. They always wanted to be somebody, they wanted somebody to say, look what they did. They wanted the glory, they wanted to be spoke well of. And that's what this nation is full of. Look at me, look what I'm doing. They want people to say what they have accomplished. They love when the preachers give up and give accolades, you know. Sister so-and-so did this, brother so-and-so did this, look what they did. They love to hear their names called, they love the glory. It says that teaching had negative results, driving people farther from the kingdom of God. He says, Beware unto you judgments coming to you, you self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven in front of people, for you do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow those to go in who are in the process of entering in. In other words, you didn't set up as a preacher or teacher or whatever, you blocked from going in. You're a false prophet, you're a false teacher. You've got these beautiful, lovely churches and all these people in large congregations, and then you're the blind leading the blind. You're stopping them from going in. You're hindering everybody else. That's why I said, be not many masters or teachers, because you're in a position you shouldn't be in. Verse 14, now twisted reasoning led them to steal even from the weak. Woe to you scribes and pharisees and hypocrites, because you swallow up widows' housing, and to cover it up you make long prayers, therefore you receive the greater of the condemnation. Their misguided zeal made their proselytes twice as bad as they were before they were even converted to pharisaism. In other words, the people that they brought into the church, the people that followed them, and that's why I tell you about this leadership. The people that follow this leader we have here are much worse than the leader. In other words, they won't get out of this because they're willingly blind. He's bringing out the worst of their nature. They're saying just how divided this nation is becoming. What the people truly are is truly coming out. Gold and mercy, gold, money and greed became their main focus and God. And that's what, doesn't that name this nation? That's what they think about. Anybody that can get them money, anybody that can get them a better life, that's who they gonna vote for, that's who they're going with. No matter what that person's moral life is, no matter what their character is. He says, yes, war unto you. Their perspective was so perverted that they would pay more attention to keep from swallowing a net than they would swallow a camel. Yes, warn you Pharisees and other religious leaders, you hypocrites, for you tied down to the last mint leaf in your garden, but ignore the important things, justice and mercy and faith. Yes, you should tie, but you shouldn't leave the more important things undone. blind guys, you strain out a net and swallow up them. How others saw them was more important than their moral values. And so like I said, they wanted to go around to be seen as to what they were doing, what their accomplishments was. They wanted people to speak well of them. They wanted to be well known. He says, while they extolled the virtues of past men of God, they were so hateful and murderous that they would kill Christ and any of his followers that they could. Remember they wanted to kill Lazarus? Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead and Mary and Martha and Lazarus at Lazarus' house and the Pharisees was wanting people to turn them in and they wanted to kill Lazarus because people were going to Lazarus or following Lazarus to see Jesus' miracle. He was one that Jesus had rose from the dead. And just because he was a miracle of Jesus, they wanted to kill Lazarus. where you live at, what you're doing and everything. Do people talk about you just because you're a Christian or that you try to do what's right? They try to trip you up, they're after you because of what you stand for, what you try to be. We could easily break these attitudes down to many more categories of sin, but the point is obvious. The toll of all their religious efforts was zero, zilch, nada. They had a negative value. Uh, and I told you about the more weightier matters of the law. But, uh, as we wind this down for the day, uh, God intends the law to be the law of liberty. In other words, it shouldn't be burdensome to us. Huh? He says, take my yoke upon you. It's easy. My burden is light. James 1 and 25 and 2 and 12. If a person looks into it and obeys, he is liberated from guilt, shame, feelings of worthlessness, self-pity, abandonment, and loneliness. In short, we can only obtain joy and happiness in Christianity, in following Christ. But as you grow in Christ, there's going to be those come in from a religious perspective. to try to burn you down, to make you feel bad, to entrap you. That's why as a pastor, I try to ask God to help me teach and preach the word, not by lowering it over you, but speaking it as he would want me to speak it, that the church would be without a spot of blemish. And as Paul did, if he hurts you, let it call forth godless sorrow. In other words, if I present my preaching and teaching in a way that the judgments of God is presented to you in a way to show you of your shortcomings and that the Spirit would convict you of sin. That's something the pastor might have hurt you or the teacher might have hurt you with, but it's something that helps you see yourself, re-evaluate yourself that you did hurt me by saying that, that did make me feel bad or whatever, but It won't make me feel bad no more because I'm going to turn from that. I'm going to repent from that. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't realize that. I didn't see that. It's going to help me have a better character. It's going to help me make better decisions, better judgments. I'm going to grow in the Lord from that. See, it's like a mirror we're looking at darkly. In other words, is stopping me from lying, it's stopping me from making wrong decisions and wrong judgments. It's stopping me from being better or whatever. Now, it's something that's foreign to me. It's something that I don't know how to do, that the Lord has to help. And that's where faith comes in. That I believe that Christ in me, the Spirit in me, can help me do these things, accomplish these things, by mortifying the deeds of the body. by denying myself that's how I grow in the Lord by denying myself that he may increase and I may decrease that his will be done not my will but that I start to be stronger when I do that which is of God that which belongs to God so I would make better decisions my judgment would be much more balanced It would be much more accurate and people would say, what kind of God is he serving? His life is becoming more level. It's becoming something in his character. People can see it. They can feel it. The Spirit give it life. It quickens you. It makes you alive and it makes other people see that life giving forces in you. They can see in your face. They can see the authority of God. They can see or feel that conviction as the people say. These people have been with Jesus because of the boldness of Peter. The Spirit gives you a certain boldness. It doesn't give you a spirit of fear. Because it actually makes you steadfast, immovable in the faith, faithful to what God, it says, and when you make a decision from God, you're willing to die for that. You stand up from that, and you're not murmuring or complaining about it, and you're not saying it under your breath. That's what I said, and that's what I meant. That's what the Hebrew boy said. We're not going to bend, and we're not going to bow. You can do what you want to us. See what I'm saying? God makes us. better judges and we shall judge the world. And that's what Abel's actions did. It judged the world and changed righteous works with unrighteousness, caused them to raise up and kill Abel. Because his works was evil. Not Abel's works, but Cain's works was evil. If you walk in righteousness, present your body as a living sacrifice, God will give you the power to stand. He's going to be your shield. That's the shield of faith. Ahab, when I say God removed the shield of faith of that hedge from around Ahab, in other words, he allowed somebody to get to him. You notice Satan couldn't get to Job because God had the hedge up. God puts a hedge up around us. His statutes and commandments and judgments, that's our hedge. Those are our protections. Heavenly Fathers, we come before you on this day, Lord God, walking in your Word.