(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, my sermon this evening I want to try to help teach a little bit on ultimately what it has to do with is with judgment, right, with judging. I'm not gonna get into all the Matthew 7, you know, judge not that you be not judged for with whatever man how it's for with what judgment you judge you shall be judged, you know, obviously that like I preach entire sermons on that they have to deal with not being a hypocrite in your judgment and things like that but I want to deal more with how to process information that you may come across that is going to be, you know, maybe information against especially against our church or churches like our church, you know, other churches that believe the same way and how we ought to scrutinize or deal with or not deal with, you know, information when it just comes your way. I mean we live in the information age, right, so there's a lot of information that's freely available that's kind of gets spread around and with social media and with other, you know, with all kinds of ways of just kind of seeing and being confronted with information it's important to know how do we how do we examine this what do we do with this and what's the proper way what's a biblical way of understanding what is right what is applicable, you know, and there's a lot that kind of goes into this and it's funny because the people who are, you know, we have adversaries, right, our church and churches like our church other people that go to a church like this there are adversaries there are people who want our churches shut down and they all have their various reasons for that there's a lot of people who become disgruntled with for whatever reason inside of a church and then they get all upset they get they have some problem something's not handled the way they want it to be or whatever or they're just some infiltrator that never really believed to begin with and they just want to cause problems later on down the road and you know what that happens a lot there's a lot of people out there Satan uses a lot of people to try to stop the work of a church that's doing good things so with understand that that's always going to exist and it's never fun you never want to have to deal with things that are just like oh man you know what's this about what's this drama what's going on now it's not fun it's not something that you look forward to but if you're going to live a godly life if you're going to go to a godly church if you're going to do work for the Lord you have to be able to expect this and I've covered this many times in the past and other sermons you could read through the Bible you can read through the book of Acts there's always adversaries there's always people who are going to try to stop the work and and and there's many ways that that's going to try to be done whether it be through intimidation you know the apostles face physical intimidation intimidation with with threats of arrest and and other things but then also there's social intimidation there's there's people trying to get you to stop through other threats and other consequences there's you know work done to try to you know false brethren the Bible talks about being creeping in to good churches unaware trying to make splits and cause division and so discord among brethren why because when there's discord when there's people this unity and disjointness you're not gonna be able to do a full the full work and the full function that you're supposed to be doing as a body as a church so this understanding of how to deal with things out of process them well I look at some biblical examples first we need to understand where the source of information is coming from when we're receiving information you see information because that does matter now I'll put it this way anything that's just truth or factual just matter of fact a factual statement shouldn't matter the source where it comes from it shouldn't matter because the truth is the truth right but here's why when you come across information it's almost never just a statement of fact here's some facts it always comes along with an interpretation with a purpose of saying hey look at this because this this this this this and people connecting dots and coming to conclusions based off of that evidence so when people bring forward what they call evidence or some information everyone whatever word term you want to use understanding who they are and what they're about is important because you're gonna see what angle they're coming from I mean think about this this is just I mean this is so basic where people get their source of information from of what's going on in the world today news right well you've got some people that will go to CNN and you've got some people that will go to Fox and you've got some people that go to some other channels and look we all know that there's different news agencies that are catering to different types of people who have different worldviews who have you know some cater to people who are very liberal in their politics and some people who are more conservative in their politics and they gear information towards those people and you have to understand where that's coming from because people have a certain mindset on how the world even functions and what's true and how everything operates to even you know to get to communicate with people that like these days especially there's there's a lot of polarization and there's a lot of people it's hard to even talk about things because the the facts or whatever they believe in aren't the same as what these people believe in and it's obviously they're not all facts right there's information being given that is corrupted based on the bias of the person presenting the information and the people receiving it don't know how to see through that bias because you're accepting a conclusion without critically analyzing the evidence and this is extremely important for all manner of life now I'm I'm kind of using just some events that have happened recently with things that I see and you know there's it's going to continue to happen continue to come and I thought that you know what this is going to be more beneficial and this isn't to you know I'm not like taking sides or making a public announcement of what's right and who's wrong or whatever that's not the point of this sermon so so I'm just going to point that now but I want you to be able to think about things and look especially though when it comes from people who are out to destroy and to attack churches like this because what this this method is is going to be used to try to build a mountain so what happens is that people will come out you've got you got one person over here and they're complaining about this and trying to make stir up drama and cause a lot of problems over this thing and then you've got someone over here and they're causing all this driving and then it's they're trying to build this impression of going like wow look at all these problems and these are just horrible churches because there's always and it's really just a few people you know a handful of people who are already have their own agendas already have their own issues and problems that now are just trying to for their own reasons make just so discord and destroy now as I mentioned before you'll understand that source is important when you when you look at that information consider what is this about because you know there's certain people out there that I have listed here that are highlighted as far as what I've seen you've got Robert Tuttle of the reason files he's got his own personal agenda against churches like ours you've got Seth book out was an old member of steadfast Baptist Church which by the way you know I know personally that if you guys remember you guys remember the soul winning app that we were building here at the very beginning back when the church first started he was the guy that was writing the code for that app and it's funny now because I've listened to some videos that he puts out and he makes it sound like he doesn't he like doesn't even remember my name and all this other stuff is a joke and he's a liar he's a total liar he doesn't have his facts right you know people but see people salivate when there's someone coming out against his church because the people who already hate our church they're gonna love oh man there's someone oh he was an insider oh he used to go to these churches yeah he was a false brother crept in unawares from the beginning and now I was just trying to push a bunch pedal a bunch of garbage and it's it's obvious when you can see the whole picture when you can see through and that guy is just full of when you listen to him long enough you start to hear what's really in his heart I listen to one video he put out and he said something about a person who was changing their gender from a man to woman a woman to a man or something and he's like good for him or good for her whatever it's like wait a minute what good for them the reason why I'm bringing this up is okay there's one thing if someone has a problem with the church or something that's being done or something that leadership does you think someone's guilty of a sin you shouldn't change your convictions of what's right and wrong you should still if you're really a Christian you should still hold to what the Bible says and you could separate from a church say you know what this person's wicked or they're doing that that's wicked I can't be part of this church because this is really bad but you don't change like your core beliefs you don't change well I still have integrity in God's Word in the Bible because someone else is doing something bad and see this is where the credibility goes out the window if I were to be attending a church somewhere and I witnessed man this is messed up this is wrong this shouldn't be happening here and I go someone needs to speak up about this someone to do this what I would do is you know bring that up but then I'm going to retain my beliefs I'm gonna say well no you still have to go to church the Word of God is still true that you know this is all right because I genuinely believe it and this is a good way to discern between does someone really believe what this is teaching do they really believe what the church believes or were they just faking it are they just a bunch of phonies because when they come in and then they claimed have all these beliefs and that guy Seth book out he was telling this was crazy I thought what he would say this he was like going talking about how he wanted to go on these go out and go some gay bashing I heard him I was there I witness him and now it's like you're saying good for you wait a minute now I heard that I'm like that's extreme look I believe in what the Bible says the punishment is for that act but I'm not saying hey we should just go out and do that like that's totally off the wall and that was a red flag back then like what is this guy saying but it's the first time I met him I didn't really know anything about him I didn't know like maybe he was just really you know ignorant and overzealous or whatever like I have no idea and it was just kind of bizarre when I heard that but now it's like who is this guy but but you know between him and this other guy that got kicked out very easy you know there's a bunch of people are just people out there but you can tell that they're phonies because they don't actually stick to anything at all that they claim to believe now it's just 100% different well did you ever really believe to begin with I don't think so and especially most of the people got kicked out of these churches or left these churches over really stupid reasons because they got offended or whatever you know something that I should not be some earth-shattering faith-shattering event right none none of them actually care what the Bible teaches this is one of the ways when you look at a source to understand you know don't forget that don't forget that here's what these people are standing for this is what they represent this is what they're trying to do here's their agenda now why am I receiving this information and what am I missing and what context is not there and what what else what other explanations are possible than the one they're trying to feed to you it's the same nonsense I brought this up in a sermon before when this was going on with with Pastor Shelley about the oh well we have we have these statements from this guy of how much money he's paying him okay and here's the dates he was paying him okay so what Pastor Shelley is a software developer he makes a good minute living at that time he was making money okay he's buying a house okay he said probably you know what maybe if you if you bother to learn anything more about the situation you can see hey he was having problems with this building this guy kept on jacking up the price and demanding more money and he's got a family needs to move in and there's all these other things that are going on in that situation but no you just want to believe and and and buy into some theory of oh wait look something's going on here we don't actually know what it is but this looks really suspicious looks like you're stealing money looks like he's doing that he's looking at this it's a bunch of nonsense a bunch of garbage but enough with that I want I don't want to get too deep into the specifics I've got one more example here though before before we just get into just straight scripture because this is another retarded thing that I saw recently here's our bank statement for our church okay now first of all I just want to I want to point this out this isn't just public for anyone in the world to just come and take a look at our finances it's not it's a private organization okay but I have no problems with our church members coming and seeing how we're spending our money either it doesn't matter to me I mean it's fine there's there's nothing there's nothing to hide here but but here's the thing when people are trying to destroy a church we're not just gonna publish this for you to try to find something that may have been done by accident that may be being done through ignorance that oh wait it shouldn't be done that way or whatever so for them to point out now and try to get you in trouble and try to destroy your church because you did something that that wasn't the right way but maybe it was unknowingly right and here's the thing the Bible teaches us to you know judge the spirits and to judge prophets based on their fruit and when you see someone I'm not like everyone no one is above sin first of all but when you see someone doing a good work and you are there and you know the church and you know the leadership and you see the work and you're a part of the work that's being done and it's all good you need to give people the benefit of the doubt if there's some doubt you're saying well I don't know what this is I don't know what that is and maybe there's things that need to be addressed but we're gonna at least give them the benefit of the doubt and not just jump to conclusions and say oh well look at this and this and this and here's a perfect example this is one of the stupid things that I saw people can look at this and again this is just information right this is factual this is this is factual information right here but how do you interpret the data and what context this doesn't have all the context this is just data this is a date amount and a trend you know a transaction so one person could look at this and be like let's see Panera Bread on June 1st 350 bucks Oh Panera Bread June 1st 100 bucks oh man Panera Bread $28 June 1st Wow Fuddwreckers 300 bucks on June 1st Oh bricks work foot wood fired grill pizza June 1st 300 bucks Wow Pastor Burzins must have been really hungry he must have invited all his friends out or something and or just ate a ton of food on June 1st because look at all these charges look at all this all in one day can you believe how much how gluttonous Pastor Burzins is for eating all this I mean he must have just been living high ordering the most expensive stuff oh wait no wait June 1st maybe the reason why there's a lot of transactions on June 1st is because we had an event on June 1st maybe the reason why you're starting to see some things here you know there's a lot of reason here my point there's a lot of reasons why you can have charges on there just seeing charges doesn't mean anything now I'll tell you this much when it comes our finances when we get visitors come in oftentimes I want to take them out to eat and you know what the church pays for that visit to go out and to take and be hospitable and pay for for another person you know for the meal of people who come and visit and I don't think there's anything wrong with that and when people labor like we do with the soul-winning we have drinks we'll get food when we do our soul-winning events we provide for all that stuff we do the homeschool filter we do these things and provide for people when pastors come into town guess what we're hospitable as a church collectively we're hospital towards them remember the camping trip what did we do well my wife got together these bins and and and these little food packages and all this stuff for their cabins right but do you think that we personally paid for all of that just out of my pocket no the church paid for that to be possible towards them but if you go back and find the dates when did you buy Oh pass the versions are you buying this stuff for you know anyone can do this and look and say oh well you've got charges to Amazon well what is this all your personal stuff Amazon no it's not now look I have a record of receipts for all this stuff my point is though it you know that's the point is if you just provide one piece of information without any other context you can speculate all day long as to well what's this for what's that for and what's this charge for what's that charge for what's this you know and you could be a lot of speculation but if you don't have any other context to that you can't just start bringing forward accusations and you can't just be receiving accusations either unless there's something to actually accuse of now again if there were if there was suspicion of impropriety going on in our church then guess what our church would be should be the ones that should care about that and deal with that in our church now there's issues and we're going to go into this too there's some issues that are more public in nature and there's some issues that are more private in nature and we need to be able understand when is approach what is appropriate for different situations as well and what does the Bible say about those things and who does it impact but let's get into Proverbs 16 because first I just want to deal with the character of certain people who are trying to destroy churches and good work and when you understand that one this is this is the source then take that for what it is it doesn't mean that they're not presenting true information but how do we process that we understand that and and be extra careful when people are out to destroy to say well what am I what could I potentially be missing here is the the result or conclusion they're coming to legitimate Proverbs 16 verse 27 the Bible says an ungodly man diggeth up evil so someone who's goes around is trying to dig up dirt dig up it is evil information about people to destroy them the Bible says an ungodly man does that an ungodly man is gonna go around trying to see well what kind of dirt can I dig up on this person and it says and in his lips there is a burning fire and that digging up evil is talking about finding stuff to talk about right because that's why it brings up his lips there's a burning fire verse 28 says a froward man soweth strife in a whisperer separated chief friends there are people out there that fit this bill they have this characteristic part of their character is that they're froward they like this to cause problems they like to sow strife they like these whisperers that they go around spreading rumors and trying to separate chief friends people who are best friends what chief means right so best friend but there's people are gonna come in and try to talk in the ear of one or talking here another starts spreading rumors why to split that friendship to get people to separate that's the purpose there are people out there that do these types of things intentionally we need to be aware of that flip over Proverbs 28 Proverbs 28 verse number four there are people whose character matches what the Bible saying here look at Proverbs 28 verse number four I was as they that forsake the law praise the wicked those people I was referring to that come out with all this stuff these are people who forsaken God's law all of them they don't care what the Bible says they forsake the law but they praise the wicked and that they that forsake the law Bible says praise the wicked but such as keep the law contend with them there's contention right between those are the adversaries people who don't who don't keep the law don't want to have anything to do with God's Word they're praising wicked people and then there's those that are righteous that love the law and want to keep the law contend with them verse 5 evil men understand not judgment but they that seek the Lord understand all things these evil people they don't understand true judgment that's why they're hypocrites in their judgment they don't understand judgment jump down to verse number 25 there in Proverbs 28 the Bible says he that is of a proud heart stirs up strife and that's another characteristic that I've noticed with a lot of the people I've mentioned here is that they are proud in their heart no one can tell them that they're wrong but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool but who so walketh wisely he shall be delivered and that's why I'm saying you know if people were to have a problem with a church or with leadership then you need to go to the Bible and say this is why this is wrong not just what's in your heart but what the Bible says and you know what then you should at least take that for what it is and be able to move forward with that but what's interesting is that with all these adversaries it's funny how they all yoke up together to no one's going because okay if I were to have some problem now obviously I'm in leadership here but if roles were versed and I was sitting in a pew and and I'm in a church and there's someone else who's pastoring I mean I would never go and join myself up with these other people with other heretics just because they've left their group for their other look I'm still gonna think that that a heretic the heretic right people who have been kicked out and starting their own tirade against these IFB churches I don't want to be anything to do with them I don't want to have anything to do with them now I'm not gonna want anything to do with them later either because my core beliefs are still gonna stay the same because if the problem that you truly have is with some actual sin that's happening then it ought to you ought not to change your core beliefs and and that should be a red flag when people have just completely changed like that and then they want to bring forth this information say well what's the motivation there and is this really the truth that they're bringing forward Proverbs 26 Proverbs 26 verse number 20 the Bible reads where no wood is there the fire goeth out so where there is no tale bearer the strife ceaseth and that's the whole point of the tale bearers is to cause problems there wouldn't be problems if you don't have people going around being tale bearers telling stories that's what that means a storyteller verse 21 as coals are to burning coals and wood to fire so as a contentious man to kindle strife the words of a tale bearer are as wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly no one likes there being gossip and tale bearing going on why because it's like wounds no it's not pleasant not fun for anyone to have to deal with it's not fun for me to even really stand up here and preach on this but it's important that we could just at least use the scripture and understand hey there's people like this around this is going to happen and we still need to be able to deal with the content of the information that we receive verse 23 burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross he that hateth dissemblest with his lips and layeth up deceit within him when he speaketh fair believe him not for there are seven abominations in his heart whose hatred is covered by deceit his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation who so dig at the pit shall fall there in and he that roll the stone it will return upon him a lying tongue hated those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth worketh ruin now just a general principle in the tip I don't have this it was wasn't in my notes but when things when information starts coming out I've reiterated myself over and over again the wise thing to do is to wait is to observe you can see whatever but wait because you don't want to start spouting off and make it giving all your opinions on things especially if it has nothing to do with you you ought to just keep your mouth shut anyways because what business of yours I'm going to get to that in a minute but if it does have something to do with you again the prudent thing the wise thing is to try to say okay well what is all the evidence what is all the information what else might I be missing here and be diligent because here's the thing if you're interested in the truth that's what you do if you want to know what is true then you're going to want you're going to try to assess everything and not just go off half-cocked going oh man someone is true could you believe this well hold on a second is that really true or is there another explanation is there anything else that I need to know before just going off and making up my mind and starting to open up my mouth when maybe we better to keep my mouth shut for a little while and see what all is is is going on and transpiring turn if you were to Deuteronomy chapter 13 and I'm not saying and see that people like to throw around the cult word all the time so you come to our church just be prepared for that oh you go to that cult oh you know you can decide for yourself is yeah I don't I don't really care that much it's kind of irritating but at the same time people are gonna say it because other people say it and because it just it's just a word of people like a threat it's kind of like the word Nazi right I mean how many people at this point in your life have you ever heard being referred to as being a Nazi and then how many of those people do you think really are even close to being associated as a Nazi well guess what cults kind of the same thing now here's my understanding people have different definitions of a cult my understanding of a cult is that one you've got a leader that's supposed to have this special knowledge and that's gonna you have to rely on that person to be able to tell you what's true and what's not true another element or aspect of a cult is that the leader tends to be really controlling to the sense of not wanting people to leave and isolating you from everybody else now you can judge for yourself we've got an open-door policy here if you don't like our church you are more than free to leave now we don't want to see you go unless you just don't believe or don't agree with what with what's being taught here obviously if you are not with the the doctrine then then why would you be here to find a church that you're going to line up with but if you agree with this I don't want to see you go but I mean if you know if you're gonna go go if you're gonna stay stay we're gonna do the work that's set up here how is that a cult furthermore what we teach here is that this is our source of truth right here and that the Holy Ghost is capable of teaching every single one of us individually what's true and what's not true and I am continually mentioning challenge me on what I'm preaching challenge me tonight and I don't mean come up and fight with me about it what I mean is it's not two man enters one man leaves okay we're what I mean is challenge the thoughts challenged ideas go home and and you know take notes on the passages we're looking at and then say is the application that pastor made correct what do these verses say in context is he ripping anything out of context is what he's teaching the truth or not last I last I checked I didn't think cults did that I think they said no no no it says this but what it really means is this we're not looking to separate ourselves and go off into some jungle somewhere and build a compound okay and buy a bunch of guns and and just hole up for the end of the world or something that's a cult we have no plans on doing that we are not doing that okay so whatever you know people have these claims they want to say your cult it's just to try to drag your name through the mud try to make people say oh yeah you know this cult why are we a cult well we are a little bit different than the world so it's easier to call someone a cult when you have rules and standards that you apply to your life now look the rules are not dictated where this is the rule and I make all the rules for all of your home lives and if you don't follow my rules you're out that doesn't happen here you make up the rules for your household I make up rules for my household and I'm gonna teach on the application I think that we could make from God's Word say here's what God's Word says how do we apply this in our life for based on what this says if the Bible says not to do this then maybe we shouldn't do this at home and you know what whatever you do at home that's up to you and what I do at home that's up to me but this is what the Bible says and that's what I'm going to teach and when you follow those principles you're gonna end up looking different from the world because you're gonna end up living differently you're gonna be doing different things you'll be abstaining from things that a lot of other people don't abstain from if you come to this church I'm going to teach you what the Bible says about drinking alcohol and that is a sin and that it's wickedness it's not just drunkenness Bible says look not thou upon the wine when it is red when it give it its color in a cup when it move with itself a right at the last is saying it's like an adder buy it like a serpent the the Bible is teaching you this is poison this is bad don't get involved with this it's not good for you so you shouldn't even be around him you should have anything to do with it but it's up to you to decide what you're gonna do with that information so on one hand hey yeah you're gonna look at me I believe this book so I'm not gonna be you know I don't go out to the bars I don't go in and hang out and do this stuff there's other things I don't do too that's gonna be different from what the world does but these are just common things are accepted in the world now look drinking I know there's plenty of people who don't go to church and they don't drink either and they can have the same rules whatever right but when you start adding these things together you look at the Word of God we're gonna look very different it's easy for people to label you as a cult because you look different and you know oh look you're dressed in that suit and tie and all this other stuff you know what the reason why I dress this way is because I want to show God respect and this is the best way for me to do that does that mean that you're not welcome here if you don't look like I do no of course not you decide for yourself how you want to dress okay this is why I do it though just so you understand it's it's I try to dress my best for the Lord whatever that is okay and you decide that for yourself and I'm not looking at does anyone ever heard me say oh man this person they're dressed like that and it you know like oh and you know you ought to never do that y'all be talking down and talking bad about people for what they choose to do you know especially when it comes to something like like how you're dressed now the Bible teaches some things about how we ought to dress as men and women especially but I'm going to teach on that but it's still up to you to do it and whatever you want to do and you're not less of a church member or more of a church member on these things and how you follow them or not follow more whatever anyways enough on next I want to get into just the discernment on information that you receive because sometimes it is appropriate to expose people and to expose and bring things to the surface and I'm definitely not for just cover-ups of things that are that should never be covered up and this is a problem in a lot of churches is that there are too many times when a church will cover up scandals like like horrible sins whether it be pedophilia or infidelity adultery things like that that look we're not just trying to sweep things under the rug as if it just never happened and just pretend like everything's okay and no just keep going on and this person's gonna keep you know no way no way absolutely not I don't I don't agree with that at all in no circumstance but you know what there's other things that don't just all need you know on the one hand you've got very grievous problem grievous sins like 1st Corinthians 5 type stuff where the Bible teaches that hey if a brother does these things you're supposed to put away from among yourselves that wicked person that's what the Bible says read 1st Corinthians chapter 5 at the end of the passage it goes through a whole list of sins and says if people are guilty if someone who's called a brother is guilty of doing these things then you need to put away from among yourselves that wicked person and that's another reason why people say oh you're a cult because you know it's like look we just follow what the Bible says if the Bible says to put that person away from among you then that's what we're gonna do because we love the Word of God and we want to operate and do things by the Word of God and if people are guilty of that stuff then it needs to be known because how else are you gonna separate from that person if it's not ever even known now most of those things though would still be done appropriately here it doesn't mean if someone's in the church is guilty of doing something that's one of those sins that we need to put away for it doesn't mean we just have to go and blast them publicly for the whole world to know that's not appropriate but if someone's guilty of committing some crime especially like a crime against a child or something we got to worry about them going somewhere else you better believe that that that's gonna get blasted if you've got false prophets that are out there deceiving the the hearts and minds of the simple and leading people to hell then absolutely we'll call that out we'll expose that that needs to be broadcast publicly but not everything is to be broadcast publicly and not everyone should be you know running with this and and and dealing with it everything as an as an order you know when Deuteronomy 13 we're gonna see here you know false prophets should be exposed and the Bible teaches that even if they're family members this is something that's so important that you need to expose the false prophet who's trying to lead people away from the Lord and go off and follow some other religion now I understand that we aren't currently living under these laws of the land but this is still the Word of God and how God feels about these things okay so we could still apply this and learn from this on how God would treat these things look at verse number one the Bible reads if there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder now first of all this is not just your average person who doesn't believe the Bible because your average person doesn't believe the Bible isn't claiming to be a prophet oh man I've got this dream and there's this sign coming and there's this one you know that's a different type of person would you not agree with that it was someone who is out there claiming to have special knowledge and visions and is called would be considered a prophet right so this is who the Bible is describing here not your average person this is just someone unique that that would fill a role that's being described here as a prophet a dreamer of dreams verse 2 and the sign or the wonder come to pass where if he spake unto these saying let us go after other gods which thou is not known and let us serve them so he's saying if this guy says hey there's this event that's going to happen or whatever and then it comes to pass they make this prophecy and it actually happens but he's saying so let's go serve these other gods who's not the Lord this is this is what the Bible describing verse number three thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet said don't listen to that guy just because he says something that happens to come to pass that doesn't mean that he's of God if he's telling you go off your other gods he's not of God right makes it makes perfect sense or the dream of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you so he's saying is God's testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him not cleave unto man not cleave unto some prophet cleave unto God and that's what I was saying before you know person people who actually genuinely have this belief should be you know sticking to what the Word of God says regardless of what man does but let's keep reading verse number five and that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he had spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee now this could be shocking to people because this is so far removed from anything that we have today I understand that and I'm not saying hey we need to go out and start killing these people okay I'm not teaching that but people love to take what we teach and try to say oh by the versions are saying this no I'm not but I am saying this that we shouldn't just take the Word of God and and you know belittle it or make it sound insane or crazy because it's not because this is the Word of God and this is what God commanded to have done back when he gave this law and it wasn't crazy and it's not crazy now even though people might think this would be absolutely crazy to have a law like this we need to be careful not judging God's Word for something that God intended and God look the reason why we were gathered together in church is because we believe that this book is the Word of God the Holy Bible is the Word of God we're not here to ridicule and mock this book you know people like to mock make a mockery of the death penalty laws that the Bible has in Leviticus chapter 20 some of the some of the things that the Bible has a death penalty on like this one a false prophet that's trying to drag people away from serving the Lord the Bible says hey that person's supposed to be put to death the Bible has a death penalty on you know if you steal another person kidnapping that person gets put to death the Bible has a death penalty on someone committing adultery with another man's wife the adulterer and adulteress are put to death that's that's God's work that's God's law that's God's judgments okay God thought that that is an appropriate penalty sodomy same thing if a man lies with a woman they too shall be put to death the blood shall be upon them same thing with thou shalt not suffer a witch to live okay the people who are atheist people who don't believe in God they like to make fun of those passages oh ho ho do you believe that because today's society today's world that's crazy but we believe the Bible I believe that God made that law and that the law of the Lord is perfect and that man isn't coming up with better laws and God came up with I don't believe that God knew that the perverts ought to just get the death penalty because there's no fixing them even the world will tell you that you know these these child molesters these pedophiles they can't be rehabilitated that's why they re-offend and re-offend and re-offend and re-offend but you know no we're so smart that we think that they should just be put to jail give them a slap on the wrist oftentimes they don't even have going to jail or do community service or they'll go for like six months or a year then they're back out again oh but you have to register as an offender okay and then they do it again and they do it again until they get caught again and then they do it again so they get caught again instead of stopping the problem we let them out to destroy literally to destroy children's lives because that's about one of the worst things in the world that could happen to anybody is be defiled as a child they go out and destroy lives and the best punishment we have for that is oh let's just put them in prison for a few months or a few years insane sorry no God knows better okay and these other laws that we read about maybe you should check have I just been brainwashed by this world into thinking that this is crazy and maybe I should get back into the word of God to see no this is the truth in God's way is right and the world's way is wrong but you know we're a cult for believing that so you want to be part of a cult then go ahead and you could you could stick around just wait for that clip to be taken out of context to you now right best version says our Baptist Church is a cult so you can't just believe everything that you hear verse number six let's keep reading here though I'm not even getting to the point of going to this passage right verse number six if thy brother the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosom or thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying let us go and serve other gods which thou is not known thou nor thy father's namely of the gods of the people which are round about you nigh unto thee or fall off from thee from the one end of the of the earth even unto the other end of the earth thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him but thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die because he had sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you why is this such a big deal because God is the Savior because when people are trying to lead people away from the Savior you know that does tons of damage not just in this life but eternally he's trying to draw people away after false gods well all the people get drawn away after false gods are gonna end up going to hell it's a big deal but my point isn't about the death penalty my point is this is that there's some things that are that are severe enough that even if it's your your closest friend or family member they still need to be exposed it still needs to come to light you can't just cover this up you can't just hide this right so he's saying he's trying to say look don't cover this up even if it's your mother or your father or your sister your brother when they commit a crime like this this is serious it needs to be exposed it needs to be dealt with it needs to be handled so things that are like death penalty worthy of course those need to be you can't just cover that up but not every situation or people who want to bring forth evidence on whatever is like worthy of the death penalty right there's all manner of degrees of different things that could happen is why am I even addressing this because some people are very easily swayed the Bible says in Proverbs 14 turn if you would to Proverbs Proverbs 17 Proverbs 14 verse 15 about says the simple believeth every word but the prudent man looketh well to his going simple means you're not very smart the simple man just believes every word people who just just oh internet said it must be true right they're simple but not just the internet obviously that's kind of a joke but really you can't just accept anything that anyone says just because they said it I'll even tell it to people sometimes when we go out soul-winding we preach a gospel to people you know I'll tell them I don't expect you to believe me just because I'm saying that because some people will some people are simple some people say oh wait you're the pastor of the church well then I'll just believe what you say that's misplaced faith now obviously I know that I'm not there to deceive them I know that but they don't know that they just have to trust that that's the case well hold on a second that's why we bring our Bibles with us when we go out and preach the gospel so that we could show people hey look the Bible says this the Bible says this here's what the Bible says to trust in the Word of God not to trust in me not to trust in any other person and this is why that we do the I do the preaching the way I do here too we turn to scriptures and we look at the scriptures and say this is why we should do this or not do this or believe this because of what the Bible says not just because of an opinion obviously there's gonna be cases where I'm making applications of the Word of God but you decide for yourself is that appropriate is that correct and when it comes to things that are being brought up you know we can't just believe every word but another thing we need to ask ourselves you know is this even my business I mentioned before you start hearing some people bringing up stuff about all this person or that person or this pastor is this my area of responsibility this is something that I need to deal with what does this have to do with me now it doesn't mean that you're just oh you're just part of the cover-up that no but what is it like what is it how does this have any influence or impact and especially if it's something that's not some monumental thing that you just have to make a stand against then what's the point what what is your motivation then to get involved in something that probably has nothing to do with you anyways Proverbs 26 verse 17 and you could turn if you like we're supposed to be in Proverbs 17 I'm going there next Proverbs 26 17 says he that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears so say you just if you're walking by and there's strife there's fighting going on it has nothing to do with you you say well I'm just gonna get involved anyways why was it it's like someone who's gonna take a dog by the ears go up to you know a German Shepherd and try to take them by the ears no don't do that if you don't know what's gonna happen it's not gonna be good okay you're gonna get hurt you're gonna be injured the dog's not gonna like that at all it's gonna turn snap on you and bite you I was saying when you just get involved in other people's business and other people's fights and other people's strife it's like what you're doing you're just asking to get hurt you're asking to get injured what's the point you have nothing to do with that leave it alone Proverb 17 verse 14 the Bible says the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with so the beginning of a fight of strife it's like when you let out water it's just gonna keep going going expanding right he says just leave it off have nothing to do with it before it's meddled with don't don't get involved in that strife it's basically saying the same thing that Proverbs 26 says look at verse 15 he says he that justify at the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord one of the reasons you gotta be careful and getting involved in other people's fight is if you don't know all the facts you might end up condemning someone who's just and justifying someone who's wicked and the Bible says that that's an abomination in the eyes of the Lord be very careful with their judgment very careful and that that's something you know our words have a lot of power words that is our words words in general have a lot of power they really do this is why you're seeing all the censorship because the powers that be know that words have a lot of power and that's why throughout history totalitarian regimes try to stifle speech because words have power words motivate people words move people and specifically when it comes to the Word of God the Word of God brings life the Word of God brings change the Word of God is is powerful I was it's more powerful it's sharper than a two-edged sword it's able to divide asunder of the soul and the spirit it cuts right to the heart God's Word is able to penetrate deeper than anything else than any physical tool the Word of God can transform that is power but other words are powerful too the Bible teaches us that in James that that the that the the tongue is a fire it's like a little member but that that tongue is a world of iniquity that tongue can stoke flames and start fires that causes massive destruction just by what is being thrown out of your mouth and that's I mean we got it we got a we're gonna be responsible for every idle word that we say Bible says that there in verse number 17 there Proverbs 17 a friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity so I don't have problems you know standing by my friends especially you know proven friends when when allegations and things come up I'm gonna stand by them and give them the benefit of the doubt because I know them at least you know as much as I know them I know them enough to be able to be willing to say okay well you know what I don't I may not know all the details but I can look and see if this person and this person and this person are bringing things up I know where they stand I know what their motivation is I know what they're trying to do so if they're the ones that are bringing this forward I also know what this guy is doing so I'm gonna stand with him and give him the benefit of the doubt now if there's a reason just to say hey this person is wrong though your friend did something wrong then you know what I'm gonna stand with the truth and whatever is appropriate is appropriate and I already had to deal with that with a friend of mine with Pastor Romero he was a personal friend of mine you know what when that when all of that came out and came forward it is what it is it was I mean that you just have to deal with it and move on and not brush it under the rug but deal with it and it was dealt with and I didn't have to deal with it personally because that was someone again someone else's church but you know even just publicly going yeah that's I mean that's not right that's wicked as hell you're calling it out verse number 19 here in power 17 the Bible says he loveth transgression that loveth strife transgression is sin right a person who loves strife and love fighting they love transgression and he that exalted his gate seeketh destruction he that the froward heart findeth no good and he that at the perverse tongue falleth into mischief I'm running out of time here Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse 3 it is an honor for a man to cease from strife it's honorable to stop fighting right to cease to stop from fighting but every fool will be meddling and you see people who are just always meddling in other people's business it's a fool it's a fool Proverbs 11 is last place we'll turn to you Proverbs 11 so I don't know about you hopefully this is coming across clearly it feels a little disjointed to me so I'm going to recap just some of the main points I want to make sure that we get from the Word of God and the application of the Word of God one we know that there's going to be adversaries we know there's going to be people who are going to be trying to persuade you to not believe the things of the Word of God not to believe in the Bible but not just that but to also to persuade you to form factions and be disjointed and try to cause problems within churches so that the work can just not be done that is the goal of some people we see that clearly in Scripture that that there's people out there that want to do that there's people out there that's the love drama and try to cause problems and strife when you get confronted with information you should ask yourself first of all is this even have anything to do with me is this any of my business if it's not then why do I even care about this why do I want to get dragged into some and some drama doesn't belong to me some fight that doesn't belong to me why does that really matter to me if for some reason you think it does matter well consider where your source of information is coming from and consider should I even be receiving this because if someone's just making an accusation you know information is one thing but if someone's making an accusation against someone and especially if it's against an elder and it's not received before two and three witnesses and it's not done appropriately then you shouldn't even be receiving it to begin with and again if it's some other church so you know it doesn't really matter it doesn't apply to you then then what's the point trying to think what else there's all there's definitely a time not to cover things up right false prophets things that are that are criminal especially things are like that you know things need to be exposed and that just brushed under the rug but at the same time there's it's also appropriate to be able to look past some transgressions and people are doing a good work now I would only hope that I would get a little bit of mercy and grace if I don't do everything perfectly when in the operation of this church and in my realm of authority and and work here that if I if I miss something if I don't do something right that people aren't going to just try to throw me under the bus and start you know railing on me because I didn't do something right I mean when we when we moved into this building I didn't know that I had to get the certificate of occupancy or whatever from the fire department we didn't make any real structural changes here I thought everything was fine I didn't even know I had to do that somebody reported us I don't know if I don't think there's anyone within our church but my point is you know people could point to them like oh well pastor Bruce you're not keeping them safe you don't have the fire extinguishers of you don't have this and that and that's your job and that's your authority and that's you know you're responsible for that and you know what that would be true I'm responsible for that I'm responsible for that but is that something that you're good you know that that you were gonna say wow well you must be a really wicked person and I mean you don't really care about your congregation at all now do you for example if we didn't have that not an exit sign on that door that wasn't there would you be like pastor burzins you wicked person for not telling people that that's not an exit it's not an exit it's not an exit okay because the fire code says that that's not an exit because it has a lock on it okay now I didn't know that before but I've been enlightened but you can see obviously it's an extreme it's an extreme example it's something that could be a silly example my point is this if you know that you come to this church and you know me and you see the work that we're doing here I know I'm not perfect you know I'm not perfect but if you got people just trying to just anything that I do just trying to find fault with it if you look close up you're gonna find fault with me I'm doing something wrong but use the proper judgment and discernment to say well does that mean that pastor burzins is a wicked person and needs to step down because he's making all these terrible errors and judgments like not having the not an exit sign on the door or is it something that maybe we should give pastor burzins a little bit of grace of going okay he didn't know that or he doesn't know all of the tax laws and all these other law you know whatever like all these different things that you could potentially be doing wrong but we can see he's not a thief he's not doing this he's not doing you know these major problems so maybe we could cut him a little slack and give him a little grace because we can see what's being done and that this isn't you know he's not just some bad person there's a difference but if I'm if I'm sneaking around and getting drunk and cheating on my wife that's another story that's totally different then you say get this guy out of here I mean it's not that hard right it doesn't get hard until you start getting into the areas where it's like well wait how bad is this really and then you know people want to shed their own spin on it and make some things sound really bad and other things maybe not so bad and again look at who's trying to do that what's their agenda and then just take the information for what says is there another possibility is there another explanation for what actually happened and then even if there is something that's found out say this is wrong what is the gravity of that what's the significance of that what does that fall under I mean people could look at you know my kids are still pretty young but as they get into teenage years one of them might end up doing something really bad right that I'm gonna have to deal with as a father but if one of my kids does something really bad does that just mean well you know what you're not ruling your household well so you're you're out of here you know what some people would say that you know who's gonna be saying that it's the people who don't even go to church because all these people that I was talking about with exception maybe one I don't know I don't I don't know about I don't know that much about the the reason files retard but he might be going I don't know I don't know that much about him other than that he's terrible at his job of trying to be an investigative reporter because the the facts so-called facts are all wrong but anyways I won't get into that proverbs 11 let's finish up with this verse number one we're gonna we're gonna read proverbs 11 here about being prudent when dealing with wicked people right just as how do we how would be prudent about this verse number one a false balance is abomination to the Lord we went over that this morning in this morning sermon a false balance abomination to the Lord but adjust weight is his delight now this is gonna be more applied instead of the financial side of things I was looking at this morning about the actual judgment right having a false balance meaning not not not giving the right judgment on things a just weight that's like justice right that's his delight and God is a god of justice he wants to see things done and dealt with appropriately verse 2 when pride cometh then come ashamed with the lowliest wisdom the integrity of the upright shall guide them but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them riches profit not in the day of wrath but righteousness deliver from death first and foremost for ourselves and and as much as is humanly possible we need to be able to stay above reproach because the people are always gonna adversaries are always gonna be out there trying to throw accusations around trying to hope something sticks try to disrupt the work that's being done what we need to do everybody is to try to live a life of righteousness because then we know that God definitely is going to be on our side and you can walk with clarity of mind and conscience knowing that hey whatever if these people are bringing something up either it's really old from a long time ago or whatever like some past transgression that you had or it's a lie right and we want you want to be able to be at a point where you can say hey if someone's gonna bring this up against me this is a lie and be able to say so with with you know looking people right in the eyes because you're telling the truth because that's what man and this is what's going to ultimately protect you because if you're out sin sinning and doing wicked things and someone calls you out on it you're gonna have to deal with it you have to suffer the consequences of doing those things let's keep reading here verse number five the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness the righteousness of the upright shall deliver them but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness when a wicked man diet his expectation shall perish in the hope of unjust men perishes the righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead so over and over again basically the Bible teaches here you reap what you sow and if you're doing right and living righteous then you know what you got nothing to worry about ultimately but if you're if you're being wicked and setting traps for people guess what you're gonna fall into that trap you're gonna be ensnared and these people that that want to be adversaries and come out you know what they're gonna end up ultimately being exposed and falling into their own traps and people who are just constantly railing guess what it's gonna come back on them verse 9 and hypocrite with his mouth to destroy with his neighbor and through knowledge shall the just be delivered when it goeth well with the righteous the city rejoiceth and when the wicked perish there is shouting by the blessing of the upright the city is exalted but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked again you know verse 9 with a hypocrite with his mouth destroyers to destroy with his neighbor verse 11 the city's overthrown by the mouth of the wicked that there's a lot of power in the words which is why these words and accusations and things are being brought forward because there's this power because there's so much damage can be done verse 12 he that is void of wisdom despised at his neighbor but a man of understanding look at his holdeth his peace no means to hold your peace not say anything many times the wise thing to do is to refrain from saying anything not always there's always there's a time and a place for everything but the majority of times I would say it's prudent and it's wise just hold your peace verse 13 a tailbearer reveal of secrets but he that is of a faithful spirit conceal it the matter someone who's faithful reliable dependable someone you can trust they don't just go repeating all of your secrets now when it says there it says secrets it doesn't say sins it's not always the same thing okay the secret is just something that could be private and personal to you it doesn't have to be a sin so there's a distinction there don't just think that that's talking about saying what's his secrets the secrets tailbearer someone you can't trust with some with information you want to confide in because they're just gonna go around and just spread it and because they don't care about you because they hate you that's why they're gonna go around and talk about that whatever you said hey no don't talk you know this is between you and me and it becomes between everybody but someone who's faithful they can know when to close the mouth conceal a matter jump down to verse 17 the merciful man do with good to his own soul but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh the wicked worketh a deceitful work but to him that so with righteousness shall be a sure reward as righteousness tended to life so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death they that are of a froward heart are abomination to the Lord but such as are upright in their way are his delight though hand join in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished what that means you though hand joining it doesn't matter how many of these these wicked people join up and yoke up together they could join forces hand join in hand it doesn't matter how seemingly strong they get they're not gonna be unpunished why because God's the one who punishes because God's gonna bring their way upon their own head and it doesn't matter how many of the trashcan people all join together into a big group and have a reprobate party it doesn't matter okay they could they could try to pull together all their forces the wicked shall not be unpunished but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered the seed of the righteous shall be delivered hey let's try to work on like I said before being above reproach because none of us are perfect no nobody is and you look hard enough you're gonna find problems with everybody everybody but our best defense is to just say you know what if someone's bringing this stuff up it's a lie or you don't have all the information and you know like I said with this you know if our church members you want to look at this it's up here you know what I'll leave it up here and I won't watch and you could come up here if you want to look at it and say well past versions I you know if you're worried that I might think bad of you if you look at it or something I'll leave it up here and I'll walk away I'm serious I'm going to do that okay I don't care if you look at it I don't want people feeling like oh man if but if I do that you know because this is another reason why we get you know people these accusations come forward of saying oh well you can't really I've heard so many people you can't really question you know they say that you could question but you can't really do it yes you can who in here has ever may ask a question about a doctrine that you either disagreed with me on or you wanted more clarification who's ever come to me personally and asked me a question about that see quite a few hands going up in the auditorium was it some horrible experience that you never want to do again ask brother Devin he's the number one person you asked me a lot of questions so that's why I'm gonna use him as my example because I know he keeps coming back obviously I'm not making him feel uncomfortable and you know what I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable I want you to be able to come to me okay so it's up you know it is what it is I'm gonna leave this here because I've got nothing to hide and I know this hasn't been an issue here anyways I'm not like bringing this up because I think there's some issue here the point is you know we need to be wise with with everything when you hear something something comes across your plate you know consider what the Bible says consider who these people are consider what their agenda is consider the motivation consider all these things what else can can possibly be here and you know what if you got a question on this ask me about it and you know I'm gonna tell you right now though what's not acceptable is to take screenshots of this to use a put out to the public not acceptable I'm not okay with that not because I have something to hide but because there is no reason to just give any potential ammunition for someone to start making up stuff and making up lies it's no one else's business anyways it's church business no problems with you looking at this but do not just go starting to make this stuff public all right so I'm gonna ask one of you gentlemen make sure that doesn't happen because like I said I'm not gonna I don't care if people want to come up and look at this doesn't matter to me but that I do not want to have happen no screenshots being taken of this stuff and going out because what this is you know what this is your money it's God's money that's what it is it's not my money it's not your money it's God's money and this is how we deal with it so as far as that word of prayer dear Heavenly Father Lord we thank you so much for your word thank you so much for all the things that we can learn I praise you please help us to grow in our discernment and understanding and that you would help us to be able to make righteous judgments and not to be a respecter of persons Lord but also to be able to not just run after railing accusations and just believe everything we see everything we hear of everything that other people say Lord but that we would know what's appropriate know what we should even be spending our time in and not spending our time in dear Lord I pray to please just bless this church help us to grow and to thrive and to do your work Lord and none of us here are perfect but we're praying we pray that you would please just help us daily to overcome our own faults and our own sins that we can be better vessels better equipped to serve you and to and to serve this community and to reach people with the gospel of Christ Lord and to just do something that you could be proud of that you would bless us for and and and help us to magnify and glorify your name we love you in Jesus name we pray amen