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

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Baptist Church Manila. Let's get our hymnals. Let's open it to song number one, six. Page number one, six on your hymnals. Page one, six. But we're going to sing an English song. And this is He abides. He abides. He abides. He abides. He abides. He abides. Okay. And this is He abides. Song number one, six on your hymnals. Or on your extra hymnals. Song number one, six. He abides. On the first verse, ready? On the first verse, ready? And sing. I'm rejoicing night and day As I walk the pilgrim way For the hand of God In all my life I see And the reason of my Yes, the secret all is this That the Comforter Abides with me He abides. He abides. He abides. Hallelujah. He abides with me. I'm rejoicing night and day As I walk the narrow way For the Comforter Abides with me on second. Once my heart was full Of sin, once I had No peace with it, till I Heard how Jesus died upon The tree. Then I fell down at his feet And there came a peace so sweet Now the Comforter Abides with me. He abides. He abides. He abides. Hallelujah. He abides with me. I'm rejoicing night and day As I walk the narrow way For the Comforter Abides with me on the third. He is with me everywhere And he knows My every care I'm as happy as a burden Just as free. For the Spirit has control Jesus satisfies my soul Since the Comforter Abides with me. He abides. He abides. He abides. Hallelujah. He abides with me. I'm rejoicing night and day As I walk the narrow way For the Comforter Abides with me on the last. There's no thirsting For the things of the world They've taken wings. Long ago I gave them up And instantly The night was turned to day All my burdens rolled away Now the Comforter Abides with me. He abides. He abides. Hallelujah. He abides with me. I'm rejoicing night and day As I walk the narrow way For the Comforter Abides with me. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you. Lord, thank you. Lord, thank you. Lord, thank you. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. We pray that you would help us, Lord, this day. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Next psalm, Paul. We're just adding English hymnal. We're just adding hymnal. Psalm number 236. Psalm number 236. Psalm number 236. On your hymnals. No, not one. Psalm number 336. On your hymnals. There's not a friend Like the lowly Jesus No, not one. No, not one. None else Could heal us Most easily. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about Our struggles He will die Till the day is done There's not a friend Like the lowly Jesus No, not one. No, not one. No, not one. No friend like him Is so high and holy No, not one. No, not one. And yet No friend Is so weak and lowly No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about Our struggles He will die Till the day is done There's not a friend Like the lowly Jesus No, not one. No, not one. No, not one. There's not an hour That is near No, not one. No, not one. No, not one. No night so dark What is love Can cheer us No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about Our struggles He will die Till the day is done There's not a friend Like the lowly Jesus No, not one. No, not one. Didn't ever say By this friend forsake him No, not one. No, not one. No, not one. Or sinner find That he would not take him No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about Our struggles He will die Till the day is done There's not a friend Like the lowly Jesus No, not one. No, not one. No, not one. How dare to give Like the Savior Given No, not one. No, not one. Will he refuse Us a home in heaven No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about Our struggles He will die Till the day is done There's not a friend Like the lowly Jesus No, not one. No, not one. No, not one. All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bulletins and actually turn to the middle of the bulletin because it's a long sermon so I want to kind of save a bit of time. So just turn to the middle of your bulletin here under announcements and upcoming events. So our Bible memorization challenge is chapters 23 through 41 of the book of Psalms. And so for each chapter you memorize you get either a candy or a chip. And so our Bible memorizes back through the back table. So feel free to grab one if you're able to memorize it and quote it to somebody. And then upcoming activities. So today we do have our prayer meeting so we'll have that after soul winning here today. Next week is our children's day. So I'm excited about this. We have a lot of fun games for the kids that we're going to be doing. And so that's going to be next week. We're going to have food provided and things like that. So we encourage you to come next week and it will be a great time. Then on Monday, November 1st we have our All Saints Day Soul Winning Marathon. So we're going to be having that on November 1st. And then on November 13th is our two year anniversary in Pampanga. So this year we're not making a push for people to come from here to Pampanga for the event. But if you would like to come then let me know. Just so we can kind of plan out how much food that we need. And then let's see. Our three year anniversary here is on November 28th. So we're going to have the ping pong tournament on the anniversary, our three year anniversary. So I'm excited about that. And we'll probably try to at least record the championship match. And it's going to be a great time. So definitely come out for that. And a chess tournament is coming probably in December. So current and upcoming series. We are in the Book of Psalms. And so we're preaching chapter by chapter through that. You can buy a live stream only on Facebook on Tuesdays. Information on our group chat. And there is a place on the back for sermon notes. So I believe that's it for announcements. Turn your hymnal to 237. Now one goal we have here is to basically sing through all the songs in the hymnal. But that's a good thing. You get to know new songs. The thing that's bad about that is there's a lot of songs that aren't that familiar. So this one maybe is kind of new to people. So if you do know this one, sing it out. The cleansing wave, 237. 237. 237 on the first. Oh, now I see the crimson wave. The fountain deep and wide. Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save. Points to his wounded sigh. The cleansing stream I see, I see. I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me. It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. I see the new creation rise. I hear the speaking blood. It speaks polluted, nature dies. Sings beneath the cleansing flood. The cleansing stream I see, I see. I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me. It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. I rise to walk in heaven's own light. Above the world and sin. With heart made pure and garments white. And Christ enthroned within. The cleansing stream I see, I see. I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me. It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. Amazing grace, tis heaven below. To feel the blood applied. And Jesus, only Jesus know. My Jesus crucified. The cleansing stream I see, I see. I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me. It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. Alright, this time we'll take the offering. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for this day and for everyone who's here. Please help us to understand the message and to give us the message. We pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yes. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. We're here in Matthew, chapter 23, and the name of the sermon is religious hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy, or basically religious hypocrites. moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. So basically what hypocrisy is, is when you say one thing and then you do another. You say that I would never listen to this kind of music, but then you listen to that music in your free time, you know, being a hypocrite, right? And when you're reading Matthew 23, the big word you keep seeing is hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrites, right? Over and over and over again. You know, if you've ever listened to audio Bibles, you know, they always try to make Jesus to be a really, really nice person that never yells. And then you get to Matthew 23 where he's calling people out as Pharisees, as hypocrites and everything. Some of these Bible versions or audio Bibles, you know, he's very nice when he says this. He's like, ye hypocrites. And he says it in a nice, compassionate way because Jesus would never fight with anyone. But it's obvious when you're reading Matthew 23 that Jesus is pretty angry, right? It's obvious from the words that he's obviously being very forceful and yelling at them when he's saying this. And he keeps calling them hypocrites, hypocrites. Now, of course hypocrites exist in this world, but it's worse when you're looking at religious hypocrites. Now, let me give you three quick examples of very famous examples of religious hypocrisy. One famous example is with the Mormons. The Mormons take a stand that drinking caffeine is a sin. They say it's wrong to drink Coke. It's wrong to drink coffee. It's considered a major sin in the Mormon Church to drink any sort of caffeine, any caffeine whatsoever. But they used to own a lot of shares in the stock market in Coca-Cola. So it's like, we would never drink Coca-Cola, but man, if we can make money off of it, it's hypocrisy. Right? You're saying something, but then you're not conforming to the standard by what you're saying. Now, here's the thing. I don't agree with that standard, you know, of saying it's wrong to drink coffee or Coke. But here's the thing. If that's your standard, you have to live by it. It's okay to have strong standards or different standards, but whatever your standard is, you have to live by it. Otherwise you're being a hypocrite. Right? Another example is the Catholic Church. It's like the priest can't marry, but they can molest little boys and they'll cover it up like no big deal. Right? Hypocrisy. Right? You take a real strong stand, like we're so against it, they're not even allowed to get married. Right? This really hardcore stance, but they allow them to molest little boys. It's hypocrisy from the Catholic Church. Another famous example is with the Hindus. The country of India, the country that will kill you for eating beef is the number one exporter of beef worldwide, and it's mainly rich Hindu business owners. I would never eat beef, but we'll sell it to somebody in another country and make lots of money off it. It's hypocrisy. Right? So those are three famous examples, and those things don't really apply to us, but I'm just kind of giving you kind of an overview. What I want to do is kind of give you an overview of what hypocrisy is, a couple things that are not religious hypocrisy, and then three things that are religious hypocrisy. Matthew 23, notice what it says in verse 1. Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do. The Pharisees had a lot of strict laws and a lot of strict rules, and Jesus says, You know what? Observe what they say. Observe and do it. Observe and follow it. But then he says, But do not ye after their works, for they say and do not. So he said, You know what? They tell you to do something. They have this sort of standard. Follow that standard. Listen to their words, but not their works, because their actions and their works didn't match their words. Of course, we've heard the expressions, actions speak louder than words, and the idea is not to be a hypocrite, because here's the thing. If you say something and don't do it, people aren't going to follow you at all. But what Jesus says is, Listen to their words, but not their actions, because they would say certain things and follow that, but their actions don't actually match with the words that they're saying. What is that called? It's called being a hypocrite. They say one thing and they do another. It's religious hypocrisy. Verse 4, For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. So basically, they would have really strict rules and say, You have to do this, and they put it on other people, but they didn't follow it themselves. They say, Here's all these things that you must do if you want to be right with God. You must follow all these rules. And they would look like they're doing it when they're in a public setting, but at home, they didn't follow it at all, because they didn't actually believe that standard. They're just hypocrites. They looked good publicly, but privately, they were full of hypocrisy. That's what Jesus Christ said. Verse 5, But all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. So he says they do works to be seen of men. And the idea is this. There's many people out there that on the outside will look pretty good, right? They make it a point to say, Look at me, and they make it so everybody sees it. But you know what? Oftentimes, those same people are complete phonies. They just have this good facade and look good on the outside, and it's all an act. I mean, the truth is, if somebody's a little bit over the top with certain things, it might actually be a red flag that they're not like it at all. It's completely fake. It's not real. He talks about they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. So the garment is the clothing, and it's saying they intentionally wore clothing to be seen of man. Right? Think about the religions in this world. I mean, you can spot a Buddhist monk from a mile away, right? That bright orange garb or garment or whatever you want to call it, you can spot it from a mile away. I mean, you can see these people that are at the airport or whatever. Everyone's going to be staring at that person because they stand out. You know what? They're wearing clothing to be seen of man. Right? You look at the Catholic priest, and they got this weird little, you know, collar turned around backwards. Like, why don't you just dress like a normal person? But you're doing it to be seen of man. Look, when I go to the grocery store, I don't wear a suit. I don't wear a dress shirt. Now, I might have like, you know, a polo on or something. I don't wear a tie because there's no point in doing that going to the grocery store. It's not like, you know, I'm walking around just to be seen of man where it's obvious who I am. There's no point to do that. I just dress like a normal person. Right? Now, it's different when you're here in church because you're dressing up to preach God's Word. You take it very seriously just as you dress up to a wedding or a funeral or something like that. But in my normal everyday life, I don't dress up like this. Look, I love to work out, but I don't work out in this, right? When I do push-ups, I'm not wearing a suit, okay? There's no point. But the Bible is saying that there's religious people and they intentionally dress in a way to be seen of man. Anyway, the same thing exists today, right? When I grew up in the Protestant church, you got the minister, the reverend, which is a term only for God, according to the Bible, but you got the reverend and he's got this bright purple outfit on and this giant scarf thing and everything. It's like, why are you just dressing just strange? Because the thing is, what's considered culturally appropriate for dress standards to dress up is something like, here would be a baroque in the Philippines or a tie, but not some bright purple outfit, right? Or you got the pope wearing these bright red shoes. It's like, what are you doing? Is this some sort of movie or something? You're trying to play some evil clown? What are you doing? But they're intentionally wearing clothing to be seen of man. They're intentionally trying to make a scene because they want people to look at them and say, look how spiritual this person is. Look at this outfit they're wearing. But on the inside, they're actually bad people, okay? Turn to Matthew 6, Matthew 6, Matthew 6. Now let me say this, that oftentimes people make an excuse to skip church and they'll say, well, I'd go to church, but church is full of hypocrites, so I don't want to be in church. Okay? Well, look, usually that's just an excuse to skip church when people say, I'd go to church, but, well, there's a lot of people that always have that, but, and then they give 20 excuses why they're not going to go to church, right? You know, I love to go to church, but, you know, I got this special situation. Usually it's just an excuse, but I'm not going to say that there's no truth to it whatsoever, right? Because there are a lot of people that are hypocrites. And number one is this, every single one of us in this room to some level of degree is a hypocrite from time to time. Every single one. You say, why? Well, we're sinners. I mean, if you're a parent, don't you tell your kids one thing, always wash your hands before you eat. Does that mean that you always wash your hands before you eat? Do not, you're not allowed to eat food on the couch. Zeph, you're never allowed to eat food on the couch. Nobody's looking. Zeph's upstairs, all right. It's like, I don't want to go to the kitchen. It's more comfortable on the couch, right? Look, I'm not saying I've never been a hypocrite or I never am a hypocrite. All of us are hypocrites from time to time. But the problem with being a hypocrite is if you say one thing and then you do another, people won't trust anything you say. Right? If I stand up here and take a strong stand and say, thus saith the Lord, this music is bad, it's wrong, it's evil, and then you catch me outside before the service just like banging my head or something to some music, you're going to start to wonder, what else is Brother Stuckey a fake about? Right? I mean, he was preaching on serial killers recently. I really hope that he's not like a hypocrite in that area, right? So the problem is if you say one thing and you don't follow it, people will start to question every single thing you say. Okay? But here's the thing. All of us are hypocrites to some level of a degree because we're not perfect. Sometimes we say things and we don't always follow our own rules. Okay? But here's the thing. Of course, church is filled with hypocrites. It's not a good excuse for skipping church, though. Right? I saw this picture online that was very fitting for this where it said, you know, making the excuse of I'm not going to go to church because it's filled with hypocrites is like saying I'm not going to go to the gym because there's out of shape people at the gym. And it's like, you know, these people are at the gym, it's like you're a hypocrite for being at the gym. No, you go to the gym to get in better shape. Right? You wouldn't look at someone at the gym who isn't in the best of shape and say he's a hypocrite for being at the gym. You say, well, they're there to get in better shape. Wasn't it true we come to church to get better spiritually and to get more righteous and to fix our lives? Of course we have problems. Look, I make mistakes. I'm a sinner. I don't stand up here and act and say like I'm perfect. Right? Because you have problems and you're coming to church to get better. Right? It doesn't make you a hypocrite for coming to church and trying to better your life. Okay? And it's certainly not an excuse to skip church. Turn to Matthew 6. Matthew 6. And it says here in Matthew 6 verse 1, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven. You say, Brother Stuckey, what are your alms? Well, your alms and your tithes are not the same thing. Your tithes is 10% of your salary. Okay? Alms is like giving money for a cause, like giving money to a homeless person, giving money to someone who has less money or giving to a charity. That's almsgiving. Okay? The tithe is completely separate. The 10% comes to the church, but almsgiving is when you give money to other people that are less fortunate or maybe they're struggling or something like that. That's your almsgiving. Well, the Bible is saying it's a good thing to do almsgiving, but don't do it to be seen of man. You say, what does that mean? What means if you're going to help somebody out, you don't have to make it a point to say, I've got an announcement. Everybody come up here. I'm going to give Brother Ehrman some money. It's like you're doing it to be seen of man. It's obvious the reason why you're doing that is just to get attention from other people. It's like, what's a good thing to do almsgiving, but just kind of do it quietly. You don't have to do it to be seen of man where everybody knows what you're doing. It says if you do that, you have no reward of your father, which is in heaven. Wouldn't it be foolish to donate money to someone and give money, which is going to hurt you a little bit, and you don't even get a reward for it because you have the wrong attitude? See, the principle here in Matthew 6 on a lot of things is you better make sure you're not doing your works to be seen of man. This is why I'm not saying it's ever wrong to do this, but this is why I don't think all of our soul-winning results we just post on our Facebook for everybody in the world to see. I think it's a good thing that we encourage our church family, but it's just like if you're always doing that, I would have to question, are you doing that to just look good to people or because you're just trying to encourage people? Many times people are doing it to be seen of man. The problem with that is if that is your reason, you're going to lose your reward. Now, of course, it's great to go soul-winning, but make sure you're doing it for the right reason. I'm not trying to discourage people from soul-winning, and I understand people get excited. They take pictures, and I think it's kind of cool in our group chat because it's our church family. We're encouraging one another, but I would just say I wouldn't recommend just going on your Facebook and just posting, look at all the souls I got saved, because many people get souls saved. They don't post it all over their Facebook, and if you post it all over your Facebook, you better make sure you're doing it for the right reason, because if not, you're going to lose your reward. Now, look, I'm not here to stand in judgment of someone else's heart because somebody could be posting it for the right reason not to be seen of man. I would just say make sure that what you're doing, you're not doing it to be seen of man. I mean, if you spend an hour praying every morning, praise the Lord for that. I don't spend an hour praying every morning. I mean, I think that's great if you do, but you don't have to go around and tell everybody about it because then your reward's gone, right? You read the Bible a lot, that's great, but you don't have to make it a point to be seen of man, and everybody has to know it. It's like you're going to lose your reward if you do that. What the Bible's saying here is the Pharisees were very guilty of this, and they were hypocrites, and oftentimes when people do works to be seen of man, it's actually hiding what they're actually like. People thought Judas Iscariot was the best of the 12, right? You say, why is that? Was he doing more than the other disciples? No, he just made it a point to be seen of man, and people thought he was doing more, right? And everybody thought, man, this person is so godly. Look at all this great stuff he's doing. He's actually a bad person, right? But he's doing works to be seen of man, and man looketh on the outward appearance. Look, you see somebody doing all this soul-winning and posting, and you're thinking, man, this person's zealous. They're on fire. And it might be true. It might be completely fake. It might be Judas Iscariot, right? It's exactly like Judas. And the Bible says this is what the Pharisees were like. Then it says in verse 2, therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. And so I'm assuming that in verse 2, he's being symbolic or metaphorical when he says they sound a trumpet, like, doo, doo, doo, doo. I'm giving money. I'm assuming he's just being symbolic or metaphorical, saying they're doing it to be seen of man. But I'm not really sure, because there was that Baptist pastor like last year who posted all over his Facebook, look, I fed this homeless person. I gave him a haircut, gave him some food, look at all the great things I did. And everybody's like liking the post, like, wow, this person's so godly and everything. It's like, well, no, actually, it's revealing that you just want to be seen of man. Maybe he didn't get to Matthew 6 in his Bible reading. I'm not really sure. But it's just like, hey, if you want to help someone out, that's great, but don't do it to be seen of man and sound a trumpet and just say, look at what I did. I'm assuming it's being metaphorical, but after that happened with that pastor, I was thinking maybe it's not metaphorical. Maybe some of these false prophets really are like that crazy. They would do something like that. Verse 3, but when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Now, look, obviously that's being symbolic. We're basically saying just do it in kind of a quiet way, as much as is possible. Verse 4, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corner of the streets that they may be seen of men. Early I say unto you, they have their reward. So the Bible says when you pray, when you have your personal prayer time, do it at home in the privacy of your own home, not to be seen of man. This doesn't mean it's wrong for a church to pray at a restaurant before we eat because of the fact we're all gathered together for a soul-winning event, fellowship event, and we're praying because we want God to bless the food. But the idea is this. You say, I'm going to do my personal prayer time in the middle of Jollibee on the ground on my knees, right? That's where I do my prayer time every morning. Well, I'm just letting you know you're getting no rewards for that because you're clearly doing it to be seen of man. In your personal walk with God, that should be something you just kind of do quietly with God alone every single morning. People don't have to see it. You don't have to videotape. I'm live streaming my prayer session. And then it's like on for like 45 minutes or whatever, and it's just like you're obviously doing it to be seen of man. The Bible says you want to do this in a quiet place in your own home, right? Verse 6, but thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. So the Bible says God's going to reward you openly. Now, that could mean that the judgment seat of Christ or it could happen in this life, I'm not 100% for sure, but if you do things quietly not to be seen of man, it's like let another man praise thee, right? And not your own lips. What ends up happening is if you're serving God, other people will actually praise you because eventually people will find out that person is doing something great for God. Don't praise yourself though, you're going to lose your reward. Go to Matthew 7. Matthew 7. Matthew 7. So what are not examples of religious hypocrisy? So I've got two things listed here. Two things that are not examples of religious hypocrisy. And one of them I kind of reference is this, going to church. Going to church while having sins in your life does not make you a religious hypocrite. And this is what some people sometimes say, well, I want to start going to church but I have so many sins in my life, I want to clean up my life before I go to church. And people say this sometimes and they're sincere about it, they feel guilty about going to church. They feel like, man, if I'm watching the wrong movies and listening to the wrong music, the preacher's preaching hard against sin, I don't even feel worthy to come to church. I feel guilty about coming to church. Yeah, but you're coming to church to fix your life. Look, if you've got problems in your life, you need church more than ever. How are you going to fix your life? It's like, oh, I'm going to fix my life first and then I'm going to start going to church. You're never going to be in church. How are you going to fix your life if you're not in church? Because here's the thing, you're out of church and your life's already messed up. If you stay out of church, it's still going to be messed up, right? Come to church and that will help fix your life. And look, I understand because I preach some pretty hard sermons and you're like, man, I'm feeling guilty all the time, right? But see, here's the thing, you need to be in church to feel that guilt and make those changes. You don't have to feel bad about coming to church like you're not worthy. Look, we're all sinners. We're all sinners that are trying to fix our lives. You come to church to fix your life. It doesn't make you a hypocrite to come to church to try to better your life. Matthew 7 verse 1, judge not that ye be not judged. Judge not that ye be not judged. Now it was just, you know, within the last five years I think it was that John 3 16 got replaced for being the most famous Bible verse, the most quoted Bible verse in the world. The most quoted Bible verse is now Matthew 7 verse 1. It is overtaken John 3 16, but it's not even the whole verse. It's just these two words. Judge not is the most quoted reference in the entire Bible based on the study that they've done. It's the most quoted reference now, judge not. It's like, couldn't you finish the verse? Just judge not, right? And the way people try to use this and quote this, like if I stand up here and preach against vice pong, well, the Bible says judge not. It's like, how could you say that, right? You're being a Pharisee. You're being a hypocrite. I'm not a homo. So how am I a hypocrite? Me preaching against it, I'm saying one thing. You know what? I'm not a homos. That doesn't make me a hypocrite, right? But they'll say, well, the Bible says, judge not. Judge not. Judge not. You're never supposed to judge. I mean, who are you to say that murder's a sin, right? Who are you to say that stealing money's a sin? Who are you to say that lying's a sin? Well, I mean, thus saith the Lord. You're not judging if you quote the Bible. God made the judgment. You're just explaining the judgment. You're not judging if you say, well, you know what? That's a sin because there's a Bible verse that says it's a sin, right? So look, you're not judging if you know something's wrong and you say something's wrong if there's a Bible verse to back it up because you're not making a personal judgment. You're just showing what the Bible says, okay? So I'm not making my own judgment. I'm judging based on the Word of God. Now, the Bible says, judge not that ye be not judged. If you judge, you're going to be judged. You say, what does that mean? For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Well, the idea is this, if I take a strong stand and a strong line on something, then people are going to look at my life and check to see whether I'm following it, right? And it's not just the world but God as well. If you form a strong judgment, God's going to basically judge you by that same standard. If I say this is a sin, well, people are going to look at my life to see if I'm committing that sin, right? So it's not wrong to make a strong judgment, but you better make sure that your works can back up your words. Because otherwise, keep the mouth shut, right? I mean, here's the thing. Many of us believe certain things are wrong, but we're not following that. For example, you know, many people think certain movies are wrong, and I take that stand against movies and stuff like that and worldliness. But some of you right now, you're saying, that's a sin I struggle with. I wouldn't recommend you making a big point to tell all of your friends about how you shouldn't watch that, that's a sin, when an hour later you're going home and watching the exact same thing. Now, I would agree with you that it's a sin and it's wrong, but, you know, make sure that your works can match up and back up your words. You don't want to be a hypocrite, right? It's okay to just be quiet and allow yourself to grow first before you take strong standards. You take a strong standard, people are going to judge you by that standard, okay? With what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you need, it shall be measured to you again. When it says what measure you need, you know, when you look throughout the entire Bible, what it's saying is basically like, you know, with cooking. You measure out a fourth cup of flour, a couple tablespoons of sugar or salt or whatever, and it's like with what measure you measure, the same measure is going to be back to you. Verse 3, And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not the beam that is in thine own eye? And so the idea is this, that somebody has a giant mote in their eye, and they cannot see because it's blood sites. But you know what, usually you see, when people make it a point to point out small mistakes or small sins in other people, usually they do have a giant beam in their eye. Usually they have major, major, major sins in their life, and they point something else out to kind of justify their own actions and to look good. And people oftentimes will do that. Can you believe the person didn't come soul winning today? Can you believe that the person, you know, didn't do the nine chapters a day in January, and yet they've got bigger sins than that, right? This happens all the time, okay? Verse 4, Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. So the idea is, before you're going around judging other people, make sure your life is pure, right? And let me just say this, I don't think it's your place to just walk up to people at our church and criticize them for the way they're living their life. You know what, I preach a lot of sermons, and sometimes people get the wrong idea, and they think, oh, Brother Stuckey's just like this all the time, just walking up to people and say, Thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. You know, get that out of your life. When have I ever done that? I preach behind the pulpit, but you know, I don't go outside of the pulpit and just try to run people's lives. And look, people can be committing whatever sins and making mistakes in their lives. Even if I believe it's wrong, I'm not going to go and just criticize them. Look, if somebody came to church here today with a K-pop T-shirt on, or Justin Bieber, or ACDC, Led Zeppelin, whatever music, you know what, I'm not going to hold back my sermon. If it's already in my notes to preach against wrong music, I'm going to do it. But you know what, when I leave the pulpit, I'm not going to go to that person and try to make them feel like a terrible person. I'm not even going to mention it, right? If they're a new visitor, I'd say, Hey, it's great to have you here. We're excited to have you. We have a lunch fellowship, you should stick around. I'll be as nice as possible to that person. Even if it's someone who's more of an established member, I'm not going to be a jerk to them, okay? Now, am I against listening to that type of music? Of course. But you know what, it's not my place to leave this pulpit and start running everybody's life, okay? So I would caution you against doing that, to just go up to people and try to run their lives or tell them how to live their lives. Go to Matthew 23, Matthew 23. But the bottom line is, you're not a hypocrite for coming to church while having sins. You say, but Brother Stuckey, you preach against a lot of the things that I'm guilty of. You're not a hypocrite for coming to church, because what a hypocrite is, is when you open your mouth and say, thus sayeth the Lord, you're judging with your mouth and you're guilty of that exact same thing. You're not a hypocrite for going to church and then just going back home and you're working on things and struggling on things. You would be a hypocrite though if you came to this church and then you started preaching everything to other people and you're still committing those sins. That would make you a hypocrite. Coming to church does not make you a hypocrite though. Another thing, and let me just be clear, I want you to come to our church even if you're dressed wrong, right? And I preach on dress standards from time to time, but I want you at church even if you don't follow what I would preach on dress standards. Because here's the thing, how are people gonna better their lives if they're not in church? You say, Brother Stuckey, man, you preach about reading the Bible. I don't read the Bible, so should I come to church? Yes, more than ever because of the fact you need the word of God. Even if you have problems in your life, you need to come to church to fix your problems. You're not a hypocrite for coming to church with having sins in your life. You know, what we do have a tendency to do though is when we have sins in our life, we feel guilty about going to church, don't we? Right? When you got sins in your life, you don't feel like reading the Bible. You don't feel like praying. You don't feel like going to church. You don't feel like going soul-winning, but you should still go soul-winning. You should still pray. You should still read the Bible. You should still come to church even if you feel bad. Right? You know, at our church, I'm sure every single week we have people that come into church and they're thinking, I'm not right with God right now. I feel terrible. But you need to be at church to fix your life. Another thing that does not make you a hypocrite is going soul-winning. Going soul-winning does not make you a hypocrite. You say, but Brother Stuckey, I've got sins in my life. I feel like a hypocrite when I come out soul-winning. Well, here's the thing. Being a hypocrite is when you say one thing and you do another. When I go soul-winning, I say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Here's the thing. It doesn't matter how many sins I'm committing. That statement's true and I believe on Jesus Christ. So if you're going out soul-winning and saying, believe on Jesus Christ, how are you a hypocrite? Because you're saying something you believe, right? A hypocrite would be like, believe on Jesus Christ and secretly you think Muhammad's the way to heaven. That would make you a hypocrite. But if you believe that Jesus is the way to heaven, it's faith alone, it doesn't matter what sins you're committing, you're not a hypocrite. Now look, I think you ought to clean up your life. I think you ought to fix your life. It doesn't make you a hypocrite. You're not preaching a false gospel because salvation's by faith, not by works. You're not a hypocrite, right? You go soul-winning and you preach faith alone for salvation no matter what sins you committed yesterday, if you believe it's faith alone for salvation, you're not a hypocrite. Now look, I preach to change your life and to fix your life and to get the sins out of your life, but I want you to come soul-winning even if you got sins in your life. Look, I would be happy to go soul-winning with someone as my soul-winning partner who was wearing a K-pop shirt. And I mean that. Now I'd be disappointed if it was someone who's our established member, right? It's like you're preaching the Wednesday sermon then you show up with a K-pop shirt. I'd be like, I'd still want you to come soul-winning but I'd be like, something doesn't add up, right? But look, I would be happy to go soul-winning with someone who's not dressed right, listening to the wrong music. It's like I would still want to go soul-winning with them. I would go soul-winning with someone even if it was a guy who was a first-time visitor and his hair went down to his waist, right? I would happily go soul-winning with him because you know what, being in church, going soul-winning, that's going to fix his life, right? I want you to be out soul-winning today even if you've got sins in your life. You say, but Brother Stuckey, I don't feel right with God right now. I don't know if I can go soul-winning. Well, you need to go soul-winning to fix your life though. I started going soul-winning while I listened to all the wrong music. I watched all the wrong things on TV. I would go to church wearing shorts and a soccer T-shirt. I'd go soul-winning wearing shorts and a soccer T-shirt. And look, I don't think it's wrong to wear a soccer T-shirt, but obviously I dress a little bit differently now. What I'm saying is when I got saved as a freshman in college, I was worldly as could be, right? But going soul-winning and going to church, that changes your life. You say, why does going soul-winning change your life? Well, what's the whole point of your life? That your life is not about you, but it's about other people. Isn't that the whole message of the Bible? I mean, what did Jesus Christ do? He came to serve other people. He didn't come to be ministered onto, but he came to give his life for ransom for many of the Bible says. Well, when we're going soul-winning, isn't that kind of the ultimate way of saying my life's not about me? It's like, you're tired on a Sunday. You want to relax. You're like, Brother Stuckey, I don't want to be in church. I'm just trying to obey the Lord. I'm not right with God. Or I got some football game, basketball game. I don't want to watch or whatever. But it's just like, you know what? You say, well, I don't want to go soul-winning, but I'm going to go soul-winning, right? Well, here's the thing. If you have that attitude, I hope you change that attitude eventually, but here's the thing. You're basically saying other people are more important than me. I don't want to go soul-winning, but I care about other people more than me. When I started going soul-winning, I went out of obligation. I knew God commanded me, but honestly, I was so scared. I was like, I'm not an outgoing person. I could never talk to people. I don't want to do it and everything. But I started going soul-winning because I was like, well, you know, God commands me. I'm just going to go. You know, that changes your heart. All of a sudden you start to really love and care about those people. And you start going out of obligation and it changes your heart to love and care about other people and all of a sudden it enters into your personal life because you're basically being, you know, as John 15 says, God's getting rid of all the problems in your life so you can bear more fruits, right? The parable of the vine and branches. And He's going to purge out all of your problems. So you start going soul-winning with sins in your life. Guess what happens? God starts making you feel guilty about your sins and all of a sudden you start quitting listening to that music. You quit watching those TV shows. Going soul-winning fixes your life, but you're not a hypocrite for going soul-winning because you're preaching faith alone for salvation. So how could you be a hypocrite? What are some examples of hypocrisy though? Because we said going to church and going soul-winning, you're not a hypocrite. But let me give you an example of hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy. One example of religious hypocrisy is preaching repentance of sins for salvation. Preaching repentance of sins for salvation makes you a hypocrite. You say, why? Because you're telling somebody to do something that you haven't done. Nobody's repented of all their sins. So when you get up here and tell people, you must repent of your sins to be saved, you're a hypocrite. You say, why? You haven't repented of all your sins. Nobody's sinless. Look, if you said, Brother Stuckey, have you given your whole life to God? Have you repented of all your sins? I would say, no, because I'm still a sinner. Now other people would lie and say, yes, I gave my whole life to God. They're just lying. If you gave your whole life to God, does that mean you read the Bible for three hours this morning? You prayed for two hours. You said, you know what, I'm so godly, I'm never gonna do anything worldly whatsoever, just 100% of my time, personal walk with God, soul winning. They're a liar. They're a fraud, right? Notice what it says in Matthew 23 verse 13. Matthew 23 verse 13. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Now, in these audio Bibles I was talking to you about, it'd be something like this. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut, I mean, it's obvious Jesus is yelling, right? And he says, he shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. So they're preaching a standard, that they're not keeping themselves. They're saying, hey, you gotta repent of all your sins. They haven't repented of all their sins. They're saying, there's all these rules you must follow. They're not doing it. And they're telling other people they must do the same thing that they're not even doing. Go to Matthew 5, Matthew chapter 5, Matthew 5. But see, the beauty of salvation is, it doesn't matter how many sins you have in your life, you can preach it without being a hypocrite, because it's a gift, right? I mean, it doesn't matter what sins you committed yesterday, you can come soul winning today and you're not being a hypocrite. Now, look, you need to get the sin out of your lives, but what I'm saying is you're not a hypocrite if you come soul winning today, no matter what you did yesterday, right? Matthew 5 verse 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law of the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Now, when he says in verse 18, till heaven and earth pass, he's referencing Revelation 21, where we have a new heaven and a new earth, okay? And he's saying, don't think that I came here and now everything in the Old Testament doesn't apply anymore. He's saying, don't think that thou shalt not kill is now, well, you know, it's not your best life now, but it's up to you, right? No, it's still wrong to kill. It's still wrong to lie. It's still wrong to steal. It's still wrong to worship a false god. He's saying, I didn't come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill. Now, certain things were fulfilled by Jesus when he rose again, such as we don't follow the Sabbath day. That's the only one of the 10 commandments. We don't kill animals, right? It's not like you see us making a blood sacrifice. You say, why? Well, that was fulfilled by Jesus on the cross and when he rose again, because that pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's various cleanliness laws and things that we don't follow anymore because they were fulfilled by Jesus when he rose again, okay? But the moral law didn't change. Things that were a sin 3,000 years ago are a sin today. It's still wrong to steal. It's still wrong to lie. But Jesus was so much nicer. Well, isn't this, you know, the Sermon on the Mount, the same chapter where he says, if you look at a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery with her already in his heart. Now, that was already like that in the Old Testament, but I'm saying Jesus really drove it home. It's like, not just committing adultery, don't even look at a woman to lust after her. He didn't get rid of the law. It was still a sin, right? Verse 19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Say, Brother Stuckey, what does it mean by your righteousness exceeding the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? Well, he's not saying the scribes and the Pharisees are good people. They're not. They're bad people. What he's saying is the scribes and Pharisees say, well, here's my righteousness. They think they're good people. They lift themselves up. It's like when we go soul winning, we say there is none righteous, no, not one. And yet we talk to people that are often far more worldly than us, far more sinful. You're right in front of their house and they got beer cans on the ground and cigarettes, obviously not living a perfect life. And then they say, well, you know what? You gotta be good enough to go to heaven. And they always think they're good enough, right? And guess what? The scribes and Pharisees were the most Mayabang people in the world. They were like, this is how good I am. They thought they were great. And what Jesus is doing is using metaphorical language to say, you've got to exceed the scribes and the Pharisees basically saying it's impossible because there's none righteous, no, not one. So what he's saying is nobody can be good enough to earn their way to heaven. But see the scribes and the Pharisees were hypocrites because they said, look at all of our good works, look at our righteousness. And we pay tithe off anise and common and mint and all of these things. I mean, all these, I mean, we fast and we do all these things. And Jesus says, you're a hypocrite because they look good on the outside, but they weren't good people, right? And this is true with false prophets. False prophets will act like they're really good and righteous people. They'll take these really strong standards, but they're not actually good people themselves. I mean, you look at a lot of the cults, you look at Ang Dat Ting Da An, they take some pretty strong standards on certain things. You look at the Mormons or Jehovah's, I mean, Jehovah's Witnesses are so hardcore, we would never take a blood transfusion, right? I mean, they take this ridiculous standard on something and yet they have no problem with drinking alcohol. They seem like they're godly because they take a strong stand, but it's only in this one certain area to look good to man, right? I used to be friends with this Mormon in college. I went to high school with him. And you know, one time I went to play table tennis at the Mormon church on a Friday night or Saturday. I'm not telling you to do this. I'm just saying that's where I got my practice, okay? But I went to play table tennis with my friend. And you know what, my friend was Mormon. I figured Mormons are conservative. And you know, Mormons always say be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. So I figured they probably lived pretty godly lives. I mean, they were against drinking caffeine. That's pretty hardcore. It's like, man, I drink pop. They're like, no, you shouldn't even drink pop. They're so godly. Well, then I went to play table tennis, and they just turn on the radio and this music that they're singing, it's like the most blasphemous music in the world. And it's like glorifying drinking and fornication and drugs and all this stuff. I felt guilty being there, but they had no problem. It's like, no, no, no, no, I would never drink Coke. But it's like you're blaspheming God, and you're listening to all this ungodly stuff. And you know, this is what oftentimes happens with these religions. They make up their own rules, and they say, you know what, you must follow these rules, and they put them above the commandments of God. Here's the thing. It's not just sampung utos, right? There's a lot more than that. I don't need to make up extra commandments to make your life harder. I don't need to make up extra commandments to make my life harder. It's like I got enough to work on just in this book by itself, right? But these religions make their own standards and just make stuff up, and then they don't even follow the things that are found in the Bible. You say, what is that called? It's called being a hypocrite, right? Turn in your Bible to Matthew 23, Matthew 23. Matthew chapter 23. So one thing that makes you a hypocrite is when you preach repentance of sins or work salvation, because you're not good, you haven't repented of all your sins, so you're a hypocrite. You're telling people to do something that you have not done. Another thing that would make you a hypocrite, which I just referenced, is preaching strict standards and not keeping them. See, you're not a hypocrite if you come to this church and I'm preaching strict standards. But if you are personally preaching strict standards to people and not keeping them, then you are a hypocrite, okay? Now let me just help out for those that like to preach sermons or want to be a preacher or whatever. You know, you say, well, Brother Succy, are you saying that you can never preach against lying because you lie? That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if I'm gonna preach against lying, I should say something like, and you know what? I'm not claiming to be perfect. I struggle with this as well. Because if I act like I don't lie, that makes me a hypocrite. Because I do lie sometimes. I'm not perfect, right? I'm not saying you can never preach on something you're guilty of, but make sure you don't make it look like the fact that you are perfect in that area, okay? I went soul-wanting a long time ago in West Virginia and I knocked on this person's door and he said he went to Beth Haven Baptist Church. Well, I went to Beth Haven Baptist Church a few years before that, but I didn't recognize this person. I guess he was a new person. But I was kind of curious, because we were always kind of look at our old Baptist churches, are the members saved? Because we were saved, but there's a lot of doctrines we didn't know. So kind of going back in time to look at our old churchmates, it was interesting to see which ones were saved and which weren't. But this guy said he was saved. And I showed him Revelation 21, 8 in my gospel presentation. And I said, the Bible says that, all liars shall have their parts. And I said, you know what? Have you ever lied before? He's like, it's been 18 years. It's been 18 years since you've lied? He's like, I got saved 18 years ago. I haven't lied since then. And it's just like, you've never lied. You've never had a bad thought. He's like, I repented of my sins. I got saved. And see what they'll say, at least in West Virginia, when it talks about repentance of sins, these preachers will say, well, when I got saved, I got all the way saved, bless God. I never wanted to drink or smoke or do anything wrong ever again. That's what they'll always say. It's like, when I got saved, I got all the way saved. Like, look, if you put all your faith in Jesus, you got all the way saved. And if you only put part of your faith in Jesus, you got none of the way saved, right? Everyone who gets saved gets all the way saved. But what they mean by that is I didn't just get saved. I started to walk the walk. And they try to tie in these works with the salvation. Look, salvation is just believing on Jesus Christ. And there's nothing that changes in your flesh when you get saved. If you were a drunk the moment you got saved, you are a drunk the moment after you got saved. Now, hopefully you can get that out of your life through the preaching and reading God's word and praying to God and fighting and striving against sin. But when a person gets saved, their flesh doesn't magically change. They still have the same struggles that they got to work on, right? And when somebody says something like that, I haven't lied in 18 years, it's like, well, you just lied to me right now. You expect me to believe that, that you haven't lied in 18 years? Right now, that's a rare thing because rarely do people just tell a lie like that to your face. But it's like, well, there's a reason why we don't go to Beth Avon Baptist Church anymore. It's a hardcore Calvinist that preaches there and it's like, that's the sort of garbage you hear. Well, when I got saved, I never wanted to do anything wrong ever again. But see, when people will say this for a standard, instead of elevating their life, what they do is they justify all of their sins and they bring down the level of God's word. No, no, no, it's not wrong to listen to rock music. Where does it say that in the Bible? Show me rock music in the Bible. Well, Exodus 32, the noise of war, it's pretty obvious what it's referring to, but they'll say things like that. What they do is instead of elevating their life, they just bring down the commandments and the rules. It's like, well, it's not really wrong to covet. It depends on why you covet it. Did you covet because it was really important for you to have that or because, and they'll try to just bring down the level of sin instead of elevating their own life. It says in Matthew 23, verse 23, Matthew 23, verse 23, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of men in Anas and Coman and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. So he says, you paid tithe of men in Anas and Coman, and I would presume this is a gift given to them, and Jesus says he ought to have done that. I preach and teach, you ought to tithe off your gifts, okay? They're teaching this and they're doing that, but they've got bigger sins in their life. And Jesus says, it's good that you did that. It's good you tithed off everything. But he says this in verse 24, ye blind guides which strain at Anan and swallow a camel, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within there full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisees, so blind Pharisee, think about the beam in their eye, right, as it talks about. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. And what the Pharisees and scribes are doing is looking good on the outside to be seen of man while having major sins in their life. Go to John 12, John 12, John 12. And look, if somebody's always boasting about all the great things they do, there's a very good chance it's just all fake. There's a very good chance they're just doing it to be seen of man and to look good. And look, charity believeth all things, right? So I don't think it's a bad thing. We try to give people the benefit of the doubt. And you know what, when people say things, I mean, if somebody tells me that they read the Bible for two hours a day, I'll believe them. But it doesn't necessarily mean it's true. And people that are bad people, they have no problem with lying. They might just say that to look good. They find out somebody reads the Bible three times a year. Well, I read it four times in a year to just be a little bit above everybody else. So I go soul winning six hours, I go soul winning seven hours a week to just get above them. It could just be fake. People lie. Now, everybody lies, but people that are hypocrites, and this is often associated with bad people, they lie all the time. You can't trust what they say. And they make it look good on the outside and you tend to believe them, you think it's real. Then you find out sometimes, man, this is just all an act. Right? John 12, verse three. Let me give you a great example, Judas Iscariot. John 12, verse three. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointing the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. So here's a woman who uses her personal money. Okay? She uses her money and says, you know what? I wanna get a gift, do something nice. Right? Somebody uses 1,000 pesos and says, hey, you know what? I'm gonna get you a gift, and then she gives the gift. Isn't this a very generous woman? Isn't this a nice thing that she did? Right? If she gives a gift out of her own money, it's a good thing. Verse four, then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? So this woman does a nice thing, and then Judas says, how dare her do that? This is a terrible thing. We should sell this and give it to the poor, because, you know what? We oughta use our money for the best thing, give it to the poor. She should have never anointed the feet of Jesus Christ. And, you know, people sometimes will take a strong stand on certain things, like, I would never use the money for this, and it might actually be hiding something bigger. Now, let me be clear. I loved the gift last week, because I love lifting weights. I thought it was an awesome gift. But it'd be similar as if you got me that gift. It's like, well, you know, you should have given it to the poor. It's like, you should have sold those weights so you could give the money to the poor. Do you not care about poor people? You don't care about poor people. It's all about, I mean, wouldn't that be a very rude thing to do? This woman has done a nice thing, and he criticizes her and says, you know what? You should have just sold that and then given the money to the poor, right? What a wicked heart Judas Iscariot has. So look, you can tell people are bad people subtly. It's just not always transparent. But you see it with Judas here very early on. But then it says in verse six, this he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put there in. So Judas is like, I would never use my money. I would never do that. We, I'm sure you wouldn't because you'd never give any money for anybody, right? So you're a bad person. I'm sure you wouldn't do that Judas, but you certainly wouldn't have given your money to the poor. The same person who cares so much about money and giving the poor, I don't remember him giving the money that when he got money to crucify Jesus Christ, I don't remember him giving that to the poor, right? He's a hypocrite. And see religious people sometimes have these strict standards and they'll say one thing and then do another. It's called being a hypocrite. Now look, sometimes people will accuse a church like ours of being hypocrites for preaching really hard against sin. Well, we would only be hypocrites if we're not following what we say. So look, if I say one thing and then do another, I'd be a hypocrite. But if I take a strong stand and I follow that, that's not hypocrisy. That's not called being a Pharisee either. A Pharisee is someone who says one thing and then does another. Look, it's good to have strong standards. If you wanna serve God, you need to put some blocks in your life to say, I'm not gonna do this, I'm not gonna go there. Have some real rules in your life to safeguard yourself. But if you're gonna preach those standards to other people, you better make sure you're doing them, right? Oftentimes when people preach strong standards, they're actually being fake about it, it's not actually real. Go to 1 Samuel 17, 1 Samuel 17. Look, if you wanna get your Catholic family and coworkers and friends to get saved and come to church, people in your personal life, make sure you're not a hypocrite, right? Or if you wanna get your saved family members that are other Baptists, you wanna get them to come to a church like ours, make sure you're not a hypocrite because you know what? They're gonna be already looking for something to tear you down on. And if they find something, you will lose all credibility. It would be better not to preach such a strict standard and make sure everything you're saying, you're backing up with your works. See, it's okay to privately say, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. But if you're gonna publicly say it, make sure it matches your works because otherwise you're being a hypocrite. And nobody's gonna trust the things you say when they already can see that hypocrisy. Number one, preaching repentance of sins or work salvation is hypocrisy because nobody's repented of all their sins. Number two, preaching strict standards and not keeping them would make you a hypocrite because you're saying one thing and you're doing another. But the third and final one that I've seen, especially recently, especially in Baptist sort of churches is when people accuse other people being full of fighting and arrogance and they say, you're carnal and you have all these problems and they're actually guilty of the exact thing that they're criticizing somebody else. And here's the thing, there is no new thing under the sun. Let me give you an example in 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17, verse 26. And David spake to the men that stood by him saying, what shall be done to the man that killed this Philistine and taketh away their reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him after this manner saying, so shall it be done to the man that killed him. Now, keep in mind in this story, the chapter before David was anointed the king. He's gonna be the next king, right? It's already known, everybody knows that. And when they were going to pick a king, the one brother that didn't come was David because he had a humble outlook on himself. He said, I'm taking care of the sheep. This is an important job. I can't go to this situation. I gotta make sure the sheep are taken care of, right? And David didn't think he was worthy to be the king. He figured it's gonna be one of my older brothers. It's gonna be Eliab, right? It's gonna be one of my brothers. He just didn't think that highly of himself. He thought, I'm not worthy of it. And he's taking care of the sheep. 1 Samuel 17, he has some of his brothers go to the battle and you know what? David is still underneath the authority of his parents, taking care of the sheep. And then his dad says, I want you to go to the battle and give them supplies. So what does David do? He leaves his sheep with a keeper, the Bible's very clear, and he goes to the battle. So he comes here to see what's taking place. And basically, nobody's taken on Goliath. And the name of God is being shamed and embarrassed. It'd be kind of like this. You know, I've been to Baptist churches where they'll have an altar call at the end and it's like, everybody close your eyes, raise your hand. Don't do this, okay? I'm just giving you an example. But you know, close your eyes, bow your head. If you don't know for sure you're going to heaven, you know, raise your hand, right? And the preacher would say this, and then nobody would give that person the gospel. Somebody would raise their hands and they don't know if they're saved. I mean, he says he's not saved and then nobody gives them the gospel. Now, at a church I used to go to, my friend would basically kind of look, and if he saw a hand, he'd stop him in the parking lot and give him the gospel because he knew the pastor wasn't going to. And so he's getting people saved that'd raise their hands, first time visitor. Because look, we want to give first time visitors the gospel, right? It's easier at our level because we're not a mega church. You can see if there's visitors, but we want to make sure a first time visitor, you know, because in case he hates my guts after the sermon or she hates my guts, we want them to hear the gospel and hopefully get saved, right, even if they never come back, right? Well, here's the thing in this story, Eliab is criticizing David here in verse 28. And Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. Eliab's angry at David. Now, what has David done? He's just kind of going about his life, not causing problems, right? And he said, why camest thou down hither? Like, why'd you come here, David? Because our dad told me to come and I was listening to the authority of my dad, right? Why'd you come down here? With whom has thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? He left them with the keeper, the Bible says, right? I know thy pride, you're an arrogant person, the knottiness of thine heart, you're a bad person, for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. You're coming down because you're prideful, you're a bad person, and you're full of fighting. You're full of strife. You want to fight and you're arrogant. Isn't that what Eliab is accusing David of? It's kind of similar to you're going about your business, you get people saved, and this obviously doesn't happen at our church, but at a different church, you get people saved, and then your church members get mad at you. How dare you say you got somebody saved? You don't get anybody saved. Now, why would they do that? Envy? They're envious. They're not willing to do what's right, but they're upset if somebody else does what's right. It's kind of like when somebody quits drinking and all their friends get mad at the person for quitting drinking, right? It's like, hey, if I'm going to go down in misery and shame, I want you going down too, right? But this is often the case at Baptist churches. You get somebody saved and you're excited about it, and then other people criticize you for it, right? This takes place at Baptist churches. And so Eliab is criticizing David. You say, why is he doing this? He's doing this because he's envious, right? It's obvious from this story. He's envious. David was selected the king in the previous chapter. He's not happy about it. I'm the older brother. Why is he the king, right? And he accuses David of being arrogant. Now, which one of these people's arrogant? Which one's prideful? Eliab, because he has no problem with rebuking the next king of Israel. Isn't that arrogance? There's, I mean, I understand it's your younger brother, but he has no problem with going right up to him and then criticizing him the next king of Israel. Arrogance, right? And he's the one who showed up wanting to be the king. Why? He felt he was worthy of it. Why? Arrogant. What has he done? He's the opposite of what he's being accused of. And then he says that thou art come down, that thou mightest see the battle. He's basically saying, you wanna fight. Well, first off, who's the one starting this argument? I think Eliab is starting a fight with David, don't you? He's accusing David of wanting to fight. And then David, what have I done? Is there not a cause? Right, I just came down. I listened to what dad said. I'm just here. And then you're criticizing me. You're tearing me down. Look, David's just going about his business doing nothing wrong. And look, there's no new thing under the sun. The same thing happens in 2021. You're just going about your business, serving the Lord, trying to do what's right. And others that are envious will accuse you of being arrogant and wanting to fight and try to tear you down. Why? Because they're envious of you. That's the reason why. Well, this happens often when you look at people that are like-minded pastors. Our pastor, Pastor Jimenez, this happens to them all the time fighting in strife. It sounds like you started this. And what takes place is when a pastor actually responds to it, they're like, well, see, I told you he was full of strife. He's not the one who threw the first stone. Look, you shoot an arrow at somebody and it hits them, they might fire back at you. Who's the one who's full of strife? And what's funny is when people make this accusation, what they're saying is you should not fight. And while they're saying you should not fight, they're fighting. They're starting a fight, right? Well, I'm gonna give you a personal example of this. And I debated this with name it by name, but I am planning to. But I saw this post online from a like-minded pastor that we're friends with, Pastor Bruce Mejia, great pastor, right? His church got burned, not burned, that could happen. It got bombed by the LGBT earlier this year because he's just preaching the Bible. And then when his church gets bombed, it's like the news is saying, see how much strife that he's a part of. Look at all this fighting that he's doing. He didn't bomb it. He got bombed. Look at him starting a fight. He didn't bomb his church. He's like, what are you talking about? A homo bombs your church and then they try to blame the pastor. Look at the fight that he started. It's like, sometimes you wonder, are you living in the twilight zone? So here's the thing. What you need to understand is sometimes people separate and there's nothing wrong with that. In the Bible, Paul and Barnabas, they separated from one another, okay? To save people, they chose to separate. They decided, you know what, we're just kind of going different directions. Both were serving God, nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you'll see pastor separate from one another, right? It doesn't mean that one of them's unsafe. Sometimes pastors just separate. Now, we need to have unity in our local church, but it's actually okay if sometimes churches decide not to link up together. Look, there are churches where the pastors are saved, but you know what? We're probably not gonna link up with them. You say, why? Different doctrines, different directions. I'm glad they're right on salvation, but it doesn't mean they're gonna be our best friend. There's nothing wrong with that. And sometimes pastors can be friends and they kind of separate from one another, right? Pastor Mendez had a lot of friends in the ministry and then sometimes they kind of go different directions. There's nothing wrong with that. Well, Pastor Mejia made a video and he was talking about another pastor and then somebody commented on this video, a lot of people did, but one person in particular, and he was basically accusing every new IFB preacher of being carnal in arrogance. Now, I'm using this as an illustration because the person I'm talking about who I guess just started his own church recently, I'm not saying that he embraces the title pastor. I have no idea. I know people call him pastor on Facebook, but sometimes people call me that too. So I don't want to make a railing accusation. But this person who used to listen to new IFB sermons is now just railing on every new IFB preacher. And the kid's name is Joshua Bacolone. He is full of arrogance and strife by his own words. Now, I don't hate this guy. He's right on salvation. Some of you probably know him from Facebook, post Curtis Hudson sermons and everything like that. But he said, every new IFB preacher, every new IFB preacher is carnal and arrogant. Now, this guy just became a church leader. And right out of the gates, every new IFB preacher is carnal and arrogant. Now, here's someone who's saved. I don't question his salvation. He doesn't question our salvation. But he said, every new IFB preacher is carnal and arrogant. Okay, first off, Pastor Mejia doesn't know who you are. Who's starting a fight with who, right? Pastor Mejia doesn't know who you are. I'm the only one in the new IFB who knows who you are of preachers, right? Then it says, I mean, just listen with their preaching in quotation marks. Oh, you're just so loving, Pastor Josh. We're just so hateful. You're just so loving. Just listen at our preaching, you're just so full of hating and strife. And he says, and look, he's edited his comment, so I didn't write it down when he originally posted it, so I'm going back to what it was. But he said, they're all high-conflict persons. Everyone is full of fighting and conflict. They're carnal, they're arrogant, every single one of them. He says, the book of Proverbs warns us to make no friendships with such kinds of people. You know, actually, in my morning Bible reading, because I'm doing a Proverb of Day this month, chapter 24 says, make no friends with an envious man, right? It talks about the warning against envious people, which you clearly are Joshua, Eliab, Bekolam, right? Because this is the exact thing that Eliab does. Then it says this, I hope Christians will serve in the Baptist church they belong with, love and support their pastor, edify the brethren, win souls, and before knowledge must come virtue. Instead of hating your fellow brothers in the Lord, fix your life and stay in the will of God, develop a much closer relationship with the Lord. Look, I believe in being loyal to your local church if it's a good church, even if you disagree with some stuff. But what he's doing is criticizing every new IFP preacher, every single one, okay? So being the person who does not like conflict, I decided to respond, right? I'm like, I know this kid, and I've talked to this person one time. One time, a couple years ago, I messaged him because a lot of people were curious, is this person a new IFP person or not? And I said, hey, you know, I just want to message you and I see you're posting all this stuff. And I said, I was just kind of curious. And he said, there are some doctrines we disagree with with the new IFP, but we agree with the hard preaching and soul winning and the stance on salvation. I said, hey, that's no problem. Praise the Lord, you're getting people saved, that's great. I was like, it's okay if we disagree on some stuff. I said, I hope I get to meet you sometime, right? I mean, maybe I'm just naive, but I just kind of thought, you know, Baguio is not that far away from Pampanga, maybe we can do a joint soul anything one time, but unfortunately, other saved people decide to attack us. It's like, well, I guess that's out the window. I guess if I ever visit Baguio on vacation, I guess I'm not going to his church, right? I guess I'm not welcome or whatever, I don't know. So I responded, I said, interesting thoughts, Joshua. I've always had positive things to say and positive thoughts about high crest Baptist outreach. I've always been okay with the fact that there are some doctrines we disagree on because you guys are also winning souls. Are you also calling me carnal and arrogant? If so, then it sounds like you were throwing out the first shot at me when I've never had anything bad to say about you or your church. And so I asked him, are you also calling me carnal and arrogant because you're going to accuse every new IFP preacher. Well, he never responded to that. What he did is he changed his YouTube name, changed the picture so you can't tell now that it's him and edited the comment. It's just like, you know, the wicked flee when no man pursueth. But I mean, the righteous are as bold as a lion. What are you afraid of? It's like you changed your picture and your YouTube name. It's like, okay. And so he never responded to that. I figured he would. I didn't really think, I mean, I wasn't, you know, that mean in the response. I figured he'd respond and say, he just edited to say, well, some of the new IFP preachers. Well, you're obviously including Pastor Mejia. And you already revealed what's in your heart because I'm part of that. And so Pastor Min is in your original post. But what I'm saying is this. Who's the one who's full of conflict? Who's the one starting the fight? I'm not the one who said every new IFP preacher is carnal and arrogant. That's him. I've never said anything bad about them. Now, let me just be clear. The High Christ Baptist Church has a lot of different outreaches. So I'm not preaching against every single one of those outreaches. That would be a wrong perspective. I'm preaching against this kid who just started his own outreach underneath their wing or whatever, right? Because some of them could be great. I don't even know them, okay? But this kid says every single one of them is carnal and arrogant. Well, don't you think it's pretty arrogant to just start running a church and you have the gall to preach against someone who's been a saved pastor for 15 years? Pastor Anderson who has hundreds and hundreds of soul winners? Isn't it kind of arrogant to preach against Pastor Min who's been running the church for 11 years? Over 100 soul winners every week? All these church plants that are started? And what he's saying is you should never preach against another man of God, but you feel worthy about preaching against another man of God. That's arrogance, my friends. And here's the thing, when he's saying carnal, conflict, he's saying you're full of envy and strife. Well, it's clear you're the one who's envious because Pastor Min, he had never made a post about you and you're full of strife because you started the fight. He said, my brother Stuckey, it sounds like you're willing to have conflict, but I never said it was wrong to have any conflict. We're talking about being a religious hypocrite. I'm not standing up here saying you can never rebuke another saved person because Paul rebuked Peter. He though made it public, hey, you know what? I'm against all these other new IFP preachers. Well, you started a fight with people that don't know who you are. Who's the one full of conflict? Who's the one being a hypocrite? You are. You're starting a fight with people and there's no reason to. They're in another country. You're not competing over members. We're in Metro Manila, you're in Baguio. Like, why do you care? It's not like we're the church next door that are fighting for members. Like, what's your point of doing that? Because here's the thing, I'm not saying it's wrong if someone has that personal opinion because sometimes you might see things online and you just keep it to yourself. You say, why? Because you're not arrogant. Look, there's things that I see pastors post and I just think I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that, but I'm not gonna publicly rebuke another saved person. Even in the Bible, God defends Abraham when Abraham clearly does sin and God still has his back. So why, even if you thought that they're a little bit too extreme, why would you preach against them? I mean, that's your fellow brother in Christ, so what's your purpose? Because you're revealing you're just like Eliab. You're envious and you are guilty of the exact thing that you're accusing Pastor Mejia, Pastor Jimenez, you're accusing me of. You're saying we're carnal and arrogant when it's actually you that started the fight. Look, I've never had anything bad to say about this person. I mean, I haven't talked to him in a couple of years, but I would have figured if he asked him, he would have had positive things to say about me. Well, apparently not, right? And here's the thing, I don't mind. If he thinks I'm carnal and arrogant, just tell me that. I asked you, right? Instead of changing it to, well, some, I mean, just say it, just give a response. Who are you running from? Who are you hiding from? Go to 1 Timothy 3, 1 Timothy 3. But see, there's no new thing under the sun. Same thing with Eliab and David. Same exact thing. We're gonna be attacked by other saved people because they're envious. It's like, how dare you preach that hard against that sin? And you have people attack you, you're doing nothing wrong. It's just like at your old churches, you're just trying to go soul winning and you get in trouble for preaching the gospel. It's like, you know, and I went to churches where you get in trouble to preach, preaching to somebody else at the church, you'd find out they weren't saved. It's like, man, it's not good when your church member's unsaved. And you're thinking, let me just quietly, privately preach the gospel to them. And then all of a sudden the pastor ends up finding out and you're in trouble. How dare, he prayed a prayer when he was one year old, right? He prayed a prayer when he was five. How dare anybody say anything to him about the gospel? It's like, he said, Buddha's the way to heaven, but he prayed that prayer. I don't care what he said about Buddha. It's like, we had that 47 second conversation and he prayed that prayer after that gospel presentation. It's just like, this is reality. This takes place. Look, we as a church, we will have saved people attack us. There will be other saved Baptist that attack us and we're just going about our own business, right? Just going about our business, doing nothing. And then all of a sudden it's just like, you're carnal and arrogant. It's like, what? Like, what did I do to you, right? First Timothy three, verse four. Timothy three, verse four. Now this kid, Pastor Josh, and like I said, I don't know whether he embraces that title pastor. People just call him that, but this person's married, but he does not have children. Now here's the thing. The Bible is very clear to be a pastor, you need to have children. Now, why is it that that's so important? Because having children actually teaches you hard work, humility, and it really teaches you that life is not about you, but it's about other people. And the Bible warns about basically getting a spiritual position that is too much for you to handle. It says in first Timothy three, verse four, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall saved. And it's like, you know, you are already lifted up with pride preaching against people. What you're showing is you are not worthy to be in the ministry. You're just not cut out for it. You say, Brother Suggi, those are harsh words. Those are true words. Look, King Saul was a good guy before he was the king. It was too much for him to handle though. He was little in his own sight when he started, and then he got lifted up full of pride. It's okay to be a church member. I mean, maybe you're just not cut out for it. This kid is not cut out to be in the ministry because he just started and he's arrogantly preaching against all these other saved pastors when he just started. Now look, sometimes I preach against the pope, but do you hear me calling out saved pastors all the time? And look, I'm not saying it's ever wrong to call out another saved person. Obviously I'm doing that in this sermon, but I'm just saying you just start and then you're calling out people that have hundreds of soul winners. It's like, and things don't exactly add up because you got a church that has hundreds of soul winners. Oh, they're just all carnal and arrogant. No, it's called people get mad when you're getting lots of people saved because they're not getting as many. And they try to find something because they're envious to try to tear you down. And they're like, oh, see? He got in a fight with another pastor. He's carnal and arrogant. Well, something doesn't add up because churches of our stripe and like-minded churches have getting lots of people saved. And I'm sorry, but it's pretty obvious that the Spirit of God is upon these pastors, like Pastor Jimenez, Pastor Mejia, Pastor Shelley, and other pastors. Now, here's the thing. Pastors are different. They have different personalities. I am not the most confrontational when you think of some of the other pastors. But just because I wouldn't rebuke someone in a certain situation doesn't mean it's wrong to do it though. Do you understand the difference? I would never do that, but that doesn't mean it's wrong though, right? Just because you would show love or grace in a situation doesn't mean it's wrong for another pastor to handle it differently. And why are you standing in judgment of another church and another pastor that has nothing to do with you? It says, not a novice less being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. And this is one of the big worry signs about someone going to the ministry that they get lifted up with. It's like only 70 views. It's like really. It's very easy to get caught up full of envy and pride. These are things any one of us can struggle with. It's something we got to watch for though, because, hey, you know what? You ought to be happy when other people are successful. And look, I understand how it is because you go soul winning and you know what? Sometimes somebody has a big success. Somebody brings somebody to church and they get baptized. Sometimes they're going to be a small part of you that's envious, right? Where you think, man, and it's like inside of yourself, you try to tear them down. That's obviously the wrong attitude. But envy is something that can take hold of any one of us. Look, the bottom line is this. The Bible says, fight the good fight of faith. It is not always wrong to have an argument with another Christian. And you see this in the Bible of men of God to separate pastors that go different directions. Now, here's the thing. Within our local church, we should not be having fighting. And it is in the context of 1 Corinthians 3 in a local church, because we need to be united because we are one body. You can't separate the body. Now, two different church bodies, you know what, sometimes it's just better to say, you know what? We just disagree on too much, right? I invite you up here to preach and you preach in the preacher of rapture. I was not expecting that. It's like, no, we're just... It's like, but that doesn't mean that person's unsafe. It just means that those two churches are different bodies. They should go in different directions, right? Well, here's the thing. In one church though, we need to be united because we are one body. We can't be having strife within our local church because we need to be united under the same doctrines and love and care for one another. But you know, it's actually okay for people that are in different churches that live one. You're starting a fight with those words. You're fighting when you say that. You're revealing that you're arrogant. You're prideful. You're full of conflict and strife and you're projecting it onto someone else. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today in your house and getting to see your word. God, help us as people. Obviously, we're all sinners and we can be hypocrites from time to time, but help us to the best of our ability. Help us to just try to serve you and do what's right and help us buy our... 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