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

So in Galatians chapter 5, Paul there is reminding the Galatians, of course, of the liberty that we have in Christ, and that's kind of the greater theme there. He's warning against those that are creeping in and trying to bring them into bondage. It says there in verse 1, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made a free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. So that's the warning. And that's what he's going into in this chapter saying, look, there's people that are creeping in, trying to teach, you know, these Old Testament laws, basically they're Judaizers, whether it was somebody within the group, whether it was somebody coming from without, we're not exactly sure, but Paul here is warning about this, and specifically about the practice of circumcision. If you look there in verse 2, it says, Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. So of course, this was something that they struggled with early on in the early church, because circumcision was such a major part of the Old Testament, and everything that they had been taught leading up to it, you know, that they had to be circumcised as God's people, and now that Christ has done away with that, you know, this is still a struggle that's going on within the church. Some people are still teaching that you have to be circumcised, but Paul here is correcting that and saying in verse 3, For I testify to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor due to the whole law. He's saying, look, if you think that keeping part of the law, whether it's circumcision or any other part of it, is going to be what gets you into heaven, well, you know what, then you have to do everything, because if a man shall offend at one point, he is guilty of all, as it says in James. Now look at verse 4, it says, Christ has become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. He's saying, look, if getting into heaven is by the law, then what's the point of Christ having died? He's of none effect to you. So Paul is making it very clear here in Galatians that, you know, they should not tolerate, you know, false doctrine in the very least, and this is a very good attribute. This is, of course, something we want to have in the local church. We want to be a people that is vigilant. We want to be a people that knows the Word of God, that knows right doctrine, that knows the difference between right and wrong doctrine, and when wrong doctrine comes in, that it gets dealt with, and that it's not tolerated in the least. Look at Galatians chapter 1 verse 6, Galatians chapter 1 and verse 6. He says in the beginning of verse 6 of Galatians 1, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. So that's the end of this false doctrine, people that are creeping in. So you can see why it's so important to be vigilant in this area and not tolerating false doctrine, not putting up, no matter who it is, that brings in a false doctrine, because what they're trying to do by bringing in the example of the Galatians when it comes to the subject of circumcision is they're trying to bring in another gospel, which is not another, right, but it's a perversion of the gospel. And look at verse 8, very strong language. He says, but though we, he's saying, even if we're my, me, myself, if I showed up with Timothy and Titus and Luke and whoever else is with me, my companions and travel, and we begin to preach another gospel, don't tolerate it even for a second. He said, though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. He's saying, look, if I show up and start telling you something different from what I've already told you, let me be accursed. Don't be a respecter of persons, even if it's me. You already know the truth and that, you know, even if it's someone like me or others, you know, let me be accursed. Verse 9, as we said before, so say now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then you have received him, let him be accursed. So Paul here, he's not advocating for mercy at all towards these Judaizers, is he? He's not saying, well, just bear patiently with them, try to teach them the right doctrine, you know, get them to understand the truth. Look, these are people that have already understood the truth and are bringing in a false doctrine. And he's saying in that instance, they have nothing to do with them. Let them be accursed. Look at verse 7, going back to Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5, he said, you did run well, who did hinder they should not obey the truth. This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you saying, this is not of God. This is something different. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And you say, well, why do we have to be so vigilant? Why do I have to be so adamant against false doctrine? That's a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be another otherwise minded, but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be. What's he saying there? He's saying, look, the guy that's doing this, he's got it coming. He's going to bear his judgment. And Paul even goes so far as to pray and desire that this person that is, and again, I'm not talking about somebody walks in and believes in a pre-tribulation rapture or believes that the Jews are God's chosen people or believes some peripheral doctrine that's not essential to salvation. But when it comes to this doctrine of salvation, where someone is bringing in another gospel, Paul goes so far as to pray that that person would even die. He would rather see that happen than this person creep in this little bit of leaven, get into the local church and leaven the whole lump and ruin it. That's what he says in verse 11. And I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the prop that the offense of the cross ceased. I would, they were even cut off, which trouble you. Now what's he saying there by cut off? He's meaning die. I wish that they would die. You don't have to turn there, but it says in first Kings chapter 14, when God is dealing with Asa, he says, therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam, him that pisseth against the wall and him that has shut up and left in Israel. He's saying, I'm going to kill the house of Jeroboam. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat and him that dieth in the fields of the fowls of the air shall eat for the Lord has spoken. So being cut off, you know, is a way of saying that you would wish that somebody would die. That's what it means to say, Hey, I hope you're cut off. It's not talking about traffic. It's not talking about, I wish that they would get on the freeway and have some jerk just pull out in front of them and slow down. He's saying, no, I wish that they would die. Now I don't think that's, you know, we want to be careful that we don't just run to that end. You know, somebody comes in and they believe something a little differently or they don't have all their ducks in a row doctrinally. That's not our chance. Well, they need to just be cut off. No, slow down. They need to grow because nobody starts out in the Christian life having all the answers. Nobody, people live the whole Christian life and they still have things wrong. I guarantee you we're going to get to heaven and find out there was things that we believed that were wrong. Now I'm saying we should strive for perfection. We should strive to be right. We should strive to make sure our doctrine is correct, but we're flawed. We're human. However, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to issues of eternal, uh, you know, the eternal destination of someone's soul, when it comes to the doctrine of grace, that's not something that's to be tolerated at all. We're not going to join arms with, you know, we're not going to get all ecumenical and say, well, these are our brothers too. When they're preaching a workspace salvation because they're not our brothers because they believe another gospel, which is not another. And Paul here is praying very specifically, I would that they were cut off. I'd rather see them die than to go out and pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now it's an, you know, and that's really the overarching theme of this chapter, isn't it? The warning against false doctrine, the very stern warning against false doctrine, the desire that Paul would have for those that would preach false doctrine to be cut off and Paul's rebuking them and telling them to get right and to deal with this. But I want us to know it's all in the context of unity. It's all in the context of love. Why is it that Paul wants this leaven out? Because he wants unity in the local church. And he contrasts this harsh punishment being cut off by advocating for the love of the brethren. In Christian life, it's so much about balance. You know, sometimes we hear a sermon and we read the Bible about Paul praying for people to die. We read the precatory prayers of David and we just want to grab that and run with it. And then just everybody that we see fit just deserves to have the ground open up underneath them and they go live down in the pit. But hold on. You know, that's part of the Christian life. That is part of the attitude that we should have towards certain individuals. But there's a big part of the Christian life that's about love. You know, that's a major theme of the New Testament, loving our neighbor. I mean, that's a major theme of the Bible. It's the greatest commandments. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Paul here quotes it in the same chapter where he's talking about, hey, I wish that they were cut off. I wish that he would bear his own judgment. And I also wish that he would learn to love his brethren. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Paul, really what he's advocating here is for unity in the local church, not just dealing with false doctrine. Yes, dealing for the false doctrine for the sake of the unity of the local church. That's what Paul is really getting at here. Look at verse five. He says, for we through the spirit, wait for the hope of the righteousness by faith. Verse six, for in Christ Jesus' night circumcision availeth anything, nor earn circumcision, but faith which worketh love. And it's an interesting phrase that he uses there. He's saying, look, circumcision or uncircumcision, it doesn't matter. Those things don't avail anything, but what availeth is faith which worketh by love. And you have to kind of stop and think about what he's saying here in verse six. He said there in verse six, as circumcision or uncircumcision availeth anything. It doesn't avail anything. What does it mean to avail something? It means it doesn't benefit anything. There's no benefit to uncircumcision. There's no benefit to circumcision. It doesn't avail anything. It doesn't do anybody any good. Then, but if faith in contrast works, right? Meaning what? That faith in contrast to the circumcision, the uncircumcision that he's referring to here, in contrast to that, faith worketh love. He's contrasting these two things. You have this false doctrine, this workspace salvation that you must be circumcised to be saved. He's contrasting it with faith. And he's saying, look, the one avails nothing. The other one does what? It worketh. It avails. It benefits what? Love. Notice there the wording. It doesn't work because of love. Love is what it works. We have to understand the context here is that circumcision doesn't avail anything. There's no profit to it. And he's saying, look, but faith worketh love, meaning it brings forth love. It brings forth unity. The Bible says in Romans 13, you have to turn there, but it says in verse 10, love worketh no ill. Again, this idea that love is something or faith is something that is availing something. There's something that results from it. And what it does not work is ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. So specifically, Paul is condemning those, you know, that are preaching a circumcision, you know, as unloving, saying, look, they're not doing any benefit to their neighbor. They're not helping their neighbor at all by preaching a false gospel. That's a very unloving thing to do to somebody. Look at verse 13 in Galatians chapter five. He goes on and says, for brethren, you have been called into liberty, only use not this liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another. So you see how he's working this idea of loving one another, working love towards your neighbor in contrast to this false gospel. With lowliness of mind, excuse me, I jumped ahead. Verse 14, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So what he's saying here is that they have been called unto liberty. And what I want us to understand, this is, of course, all introduction this morning, but that we, like the Galatians, are set at liberty. You know, we've been set free in Christ. You know, we don't have to, we're not in bondage anymore. We're set at liberty and here, and what should we do with that liberty? We're set at liberty and we should use that liberty to love one another. We should use that liberty to love one another. And I'm not just saying that, you know, we should just write each other sweet little notes and we should just look at each other with big, you know, eyes and just tell everybody how we love. Look, love is something that works. Love worketh, right? Faith worketh love to his neighbor. Love doesn't work any ill towards his neighbor. Love of course is feelings and all that we understand, but love is an action. Love is an attitude. Love is a way of going about conducting yourself. And specifically what Paul is dealing with here is love of the brethren. We should love one another. We should love our neighbor as ourself. So that love that we should have is expressed by serving one another. And Paul in the same chapter gives a very stern warning, not only to those that would preach a false gospel, but also to those that would insist on not loving one another, but would rather work ill towards one another. Look at verse 15. So now he's dealing with the local church. He's not dealing just with these people that are preaching a false gospel. He's preaching with or preaching to the people that are saved. Okay. And he says in verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be kind of consumed one another. I mean, it seems like such an obvious outcome. Why does Paul even have to say this? I mean, anybody who sat down to a meal knows that if you keep eating, eventually the plate gets empty. And that's what Paul is. It seems so obvious, but Paul has to remind people of this. And we have to be reminded this as Christians, that if we get into this habit of biting and devouring one another, don't be surprised when there's nobody left around. Don't be surprised in your life if you get into this habit of not being a loving person and just biting and devouring everybody around you, they just drive everybody away. They say, where did everybody go? Well, we got tired of getting bit. We got tired every time we got around you, we walk away going, ow. And everyone's going to be gone. The plate's going to be empty in your life, so to speak. I mean, this is such a warning against a very obvious outcome. And yet it needs to be said to these people. If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one another. And despite that warning that's right here, plain as day in the New Testament, we've probably read it many times, despite this being in the Bible for everybody to read, many Christians today just seem bent on biting and devouring one another. You know, I used to hear this saying about Baptists. It was kind of a knock on Baptists, and it came from a Baptist. And the longer I've been a Baptist, I believe it to be true that Baptists have a really good, I would say good, but they have a nasty habit, rather, of shooting their wounded. Of shooting the wounded. Somebody does something wrong, somebody messes up, somebody slips up, and sometimes a lot of Baptists today, they just say, well, he was never any good anyway. And what that is is just a biting. It's just devouring. And we'll see why people do these type of things. What Paul is getting at, and rather what I would like to get at and drive home this morning, and the many things that we could talk about in this chapter, is this idea that God hates infighting. God hates infighting and those who are the source of it. We should strive for unity in the local church. And it's not always going to be easy to do. Go to Proverbs chapter 6. Again, a very familiar passage. We need to let this really sink in and affect us, and think about, you know, so that it'll affect our conduct amongst one another. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16. It says this, these six things that the Lord hates. Oh, the Lord doesn't hate anything. God is love. Don't you know that? Well, God is multifaceted. God has a complete personality. God has many sides, just like me and you. We're made in his image. The Bible says in verse 16, these six things that the Lord hates, yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. That's some serious accusations. That's a heavy thing. Look, if anybody in here was accused of shedding innocent blood, that'd be a pretty serious thing to deal with. And heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift and running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies. Much like what they saw in the church of Galatians, right? Coming in saying, hey, you got to be circumcised. Liars. A false witness. God hates these things, but also he hates what's there at the end. He that soweth discord among the brethren. You can see in Galatians how they have a little bit of both there. They got these false witnesses coming in and Paul saying, I would that they would be cut off. Every man shall bear his blame. But also he's dealing with the people that are sowing discord among brethren. Those that are biting and devouring one another. You know, infighting is something that God hates. And this is why this is an important sermon. You need to listen to this this morning and let this sink in. God hates this. Look, if I'm going to get up and tell you, hey, I'm going to tell you some things this morning. If you want to, I assume everyone here in the building wants to please God with their life this morning. That's why you're here. That's why you come to church and you want to, you want to be pleasing to God. You want God to bless you. And then the preacher gets up and says, well, let me tell you some things that are going to get you the complete opposite of that. Let me tell you about some things that God hates. You know, if you, if you really love God, you'd perk up and say, well, let me mark that down. Let me make sure I'm not ever guilty of any of these things. That's why this is important because God hates infighting and those that are the source of it. God hates infighting. And here's the thing about it. Infighting is a common occurrence. I mean, I've been in Baptist churches for almost 20 years and I'm telling you some infighting happens all the time. It's, it's almost always going on in some church somewhere. People are getting angry with one another, upset with another, offending one another, not forgiving one another. And there's infighting that takes place. And it's a common occurrence. I mean, it's just part of human nature. You can say, why, why does God have to deal with this in scripture? It's just part of human nature. It's who we are. I mean, it goes all the way back to, you know, Cain and Abel. I mean, think about the infighting that goes there. I mean, it even goes so far that it would override a familial bond as, as brother, one brother to another. That infighting is someone despising another person and doing them harm. Jacob and Esau. I mean, there's other examples. And here's what I'm getting at is that, and if you would go back to Ephesians, go to chapter four, Ephesians chapter four, is that if unity in the, in the local church were a guarantee, we wouldn't be admonished to practice it. We wouldn't be admonished to practice it. If loving thy neighbor as thyself was something that just came so naturally to us that we'd have to give it a second thought, then it wouldn't be the second command, the second commandment that is like unto the first, unless such a close second, love the Lord thy God as thyself, or love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then love thy neighbor as thyself. I kind of mixed them up there. Look, if that came naturally, if that was just second nature, the Bible wouldn't have to command it. The New Testament would have to admonish us to do it. I'm here to tell you this morning that devouring one another, infighting, is something that happens often because it's part of human nature. No one's above it. Look at Ephesians chapter four, verse one, he said, either for the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. So often people struggle with, you know, that part of keeping the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. They can endeavor to do that. You know, and the endeavoring again tells us that it's something you have to purpose to do. It's something to set out. I mean, if I were going to say, hey, I'm going to endeavor to do something, I'm telling you, I'm going to put some effort into it, that I'm going to break a sweat trying to accomplish it, which tells me again that keeping the unity and the spirit of the bond of peace is not come naturally. It's not done easily. It's something you have to endeavor to do in your life. And so many Christians today, they don't want to do it. Why? Because of verse two, because it needs to be done with lowliness. It needs to do with meekness and longsuffering, forbearing one another. You know, it takes humility. It takes real serious humility. Not a fake one, but a genuine humility. It takes patience, you know, longsuffering, forbearing one another. Because there's the thing, people are going to offend one another because it's human nature. We're going to offend each other. Stick around. You hang out with me long enough, something's going to come out of my mouth that's going to offend you. I'm going to do something that you didn't like. And not even because I'm trying to be vindictive or malicious or upset you on purpose, there's just going to be something you don't like that I did or said. And you know what, if I hang around you long enough, the same thing's going to happen coming at me. You're going to say or do or, you know, I mean, this is something that goes on in marriage. That's why so many marriages fall apart. They offend one another and they can't forgive. They can't let go. They can't forbear. They can't put up with. They can't be longsuffering. They don't want to endeavor to keep the unity because why? Because it requires humility on our part. But let me just remind you, say, well, that sounds like a lot of hard work and it is. And so I don't know if it's worth it. Oh, let me assure you it's worth it. The unity of local church is such an important thing. We have to have it. It says here, and why is it? Because of the fact that there's no alternate. There's no alternate. I mean, I'm sure there's other, I know there's other Baptist churches we could go to and get along and you could serve God in. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying if every church we go into, it's just disunity. It's just discord. It's just anger and infighting. Eventually we're just going to run out of options. We're going to bite and devour until everything's gone. And there's not going to be an alternate, I should say. Look at verse four. There is one body and one spirit, even as you're called and one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all. Look, that's in the context of Ephesians four. He's saying, look, endeavor to keep the spirit of the unity and the bond of peace. Why? Because there's one body. Because there's one spirit. And if you're just always biting that body and you're always just fighting with that spirit, eventually you don't have another option. You have to learn to get along. It's kind of like with siblings. Siblings struggle to get along sometimes. It's like, well, you know what? You're stuck with that one. Well, you know what? I don't want to share this room. Well, that's the only room you got. You better learn to play nice. There's only so many toys to go around. You better learn to play nice. And somebody in that relationship is going to have to get humble. Somebody in that relationship is going to be long suffering. Somebody is going to have to put up with it until the other person just gets right. Look, God puts a premium on unity in the local church. He puts a premium on it. Look how important it is. I mean, he's writing about it all the time. If you would, I should have had you keep something in Proverbs. Keep something in Ephesians, but go over to Proverbs 19 or go over to Proverbs 17. Put a premium on unity. I'll read you from Psalms 133. We've probably all heard this Psalm, right? Behold on how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity, exclamation point. That's something that David here is saying, look how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity. Isn't it great to have a church that believes like you believe? Isn't it great to go to a place where we all have something in common? Jesus Christ, the Bible, the King James Bible. I'm not saying we're all going to line up exactly, all believe the exact same things, but man, it's nice to go to a place where you don't have to keep what you believe secret. You don't have to go to one of these old IFB churches and not make sure nobody finds out, I believe in a post-trib pre-wrath rapture. That's some big deal. Here's the great thing about churches like this is that you can come here and not be pre-trib. It's fine. We'll straighten you out eventually. You'll come around, but boy, you go into some of these old IFB churches, they'll run you right out. How did you find out about the church? I was Pastor Anderson. That word comes out of your mouth. Get out. That's all it takes in some of these churches. Not saying all of them. It's a shame, but it's reality. I read the emails all the time. Then I want to go on and on about that, but I'm just trying to make the point. Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. This is a good thing that's going on down here in Tucson. It's good to have some brethren together that dwell together in unity that have the same goal in mind. You know what? We need to work and endeavor to preserve that, to keep that bond of unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments. I just love the picture that he's painting here. It's like the unity of the brethren. It's just like being covered in some precious ointment, just being covered in it, saturated by it. It's fragrant. He's saying, look, unity among the brethren, it's like the oil upon Aaron that covered him. It's like the dew upon Mount Hermon, right? That dew, what is that? It's very refreshing, isn't it? You know, unity is a refreshing thing. We go out in the world and so often we run into people. We know people. We associate with people. They don't believe like we believe. They don't have the values that we have. The things that are important to them aren't important to us. The things that are important to us aren't important to them. Extended family a lot of times is like this. We don't share the same values. Yeah, we get together in a place like this where people all believe the same thing. Look, that's refreshing. I don't know how many times I just come to church and my spirit is just refreshed, revived. Just by the mere fact of knowing there's other people in the world that believe like me that I'm not even related to. And we're all united on this book right here. It's a refreshing thing. And that unity, I'm telling you, it's hard to find. It's like the precious ointment. It's precious. It's getting harder and harder to find. I mean, in the world alone, I mean, look, the world is divided even amongst itself. Put a premium on unity. Why? Because it's a refreshing thing. Because it's a precious thing. It's hard to find. How do you do that? How do you put a premium? How do you actually act this out in your life to put a premium on unity? You say, unity is more important to me by overlooking transgressions, by forgiving. Because as I stated earlier, that's what's going to happen. People are going to offend. People are going to say and do things that are going to upset us. And it's up to us to overlook and forgive transgressions for the sake of unity. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 20, it is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. Let me read it again. Proverbs chapter 20 verse 3. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife. Sometimes the best things for us to do is just cease from strife. But then he says, but every fool keeps right on meddling. Some fool comes along and he finds some strife and instead of just saying, whoa, I'm just going to leave that alone. I'm just going to go about my business. He says, no, I'm going to get right involved in this and I'm going to blow on those coals and see how big I can get this flame. You know where you see this the most is on the internet. This is where you see it the most. People are just always in comment sections trying to bring something up, trying to remind people of something as if nobody else knows about what's going on somewhere with someone about some things somewhere at some time. And let me tell you something, there's always something going on. There's always something that we could go all and just get up, you know, ruffle our feathers about and make a big deal about. Somebody's always doing something somewhere that's, you know, we could just go on the internet and just, did you hear, did you know, did you see what so-and-so did, said, or is, or whatever. And that kind of thing, it just goes on and on and on and on. You know, and those that want to have some honor, they want to keep unity, they're going to endeavor to keep the spirit of unity and the bond of peace, they're just going to say, it's not that important. Even if they agree and they say, you know what, it is a shame. Yeah, that's too bad. Yeah, that, you know, that is a point of concern, but it's really none of my business. I don't have any control over it. You know, that's usually a good idea or a good, that's a good test of things about how involved you should get in something, in some strife or whatever it is. Do you have any control over the situation at all? No? Then why don't you just leave it alone? Because the Bible says every fool will be meddling. You know, that'd be some good advice for a lot of people. And I'm not, I don't think it's a problem for anybody in this room, but there's some, probably some people over here coming through this device that could stand it. Get off the internet. You can't stop typing and meddling in everything and are just hell-bent on causing disunity among the brethren. Get off the internet. Take a break. Look, we have to put a premium on unity. We have to. And in order to do that, and why, why? Remi and Ryan again, why? Because it's precious. Because it's hard to find. In order to do that, you have to overlook a transgression. You're going to have to learn to forgive and be long-suffering. The Bible says in Proverbs 17 verse 9, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth the matter seperateth the very friends. He that covereth a transgression. You know, somebody does something wrong that says, you know what? The world doesn't need to know about this. We'll just cover this up. People do that out of love. And look, I'm not saying everything should be covered up. I mean, if there's sin, you know, if there's, you know, some public figure, some, you know, someone has sin in their life that needs, there's certain sins that need to be called out and made public, like that idiot from Hellsong or Hillsong, Nick Lentz, that pastor that just got outed for committing adultery and his wife. You know, for all the things that are wrong with that church, and there's a lot of things, that's a whole sermon in itself, at least they had the guts to do that. You know, they can at least be applauded for calling out the guy for being, and they want to say, you know, well, they're not condemning it the way we would or should. Well, he had a moral, he fell short morally or something like that. You know, he committed adultery is what he did. Okay. And I don't want to go on and on about that. I'm just saying, look, some transgressions, not every transgression falls to that, is that severe, is it? Not every transgression is somebody committing adultery or murder or, you know, suing one another or whatever it is. There's some things, some transgressions that happen that we could just cover up and no one needs to know about. Especially when it's between two other people. This is where the fools meddle. They see something going on between two other people. They disagree. They say, oh, this person clearly has done this person wrong. Let me get involved. Let me discover it. Let me open up and broadcast it to the whole world. You're not doing that out of love. The loving person says, look, that's between them. I'm just going to cover that. I'm going to leave it alone. It's none of my business. And the loving thing for the person, you know, unless it's something that needs to be called out publicly, the loving thing to do when transgression comes is to just cover it. And, you know, that's not always easy to do, but that's what the Bible says. And if we do that, what are we doing? We're seeking love. But he that repeateth a matter, separateth very friends. Look at Proverbs 19 verse 11. The discretion of a man deferreth his anger, and it is a glory to pass over a transgression. You know, it was a good day when I realized that I could just forgive people without them even saying sorry. It was a good day when I realized that I could just pass over a transgression, because oftentimes I found that when people offend one another, the guilty parties don't apologize. A lot of times they don't feel sorry. A lot of times they don't, you know, seek forgiveness. And here's why it's a glory. To forgive. Because you need to do that. People need to forgive. Even when people aren't sorry. And if you can learn to do that, that's a glory to you. It's a glory to pass over a transgression. To say, you know, this person did me wrong, this person upset me, this person said or did whatever, and I forgive them. And I'm just going to pass over that and let it go. I'm preaching this because we need to put a premium this morning on unity in the local church, because it's precious. Because there isn't an alternate out there. So how do you do that? You overlook a transgression, you forgive. You don't meddle, you don't broadcast it. How about this? You stay away from people you can't get along with. Now that's harder to do in this church. I guess we're tiny. I assume everybody gets along with everybody in here, right? I feel like we got that going for us, you know? But what if we were a bigger church? And the bigger this church gets, you know, the more different people, kite pipes of people come in. I'm not saying unity in the sense that everybody has to be your bosom buddy. That every barbecue, everybody has to be there. That there's some people you would just rather spend time with more than others outside the church. How about staying, you know, for sake of unity, if there's somebody you just can't get along with. And you know what? We all have people like this, you know. It's not that we don't like them. It's not that we despise them. It's not that we hate them. It's just that we have different personalities and we just don't quite get along. You know, they're just different than us. People You know, they're just different than us. People gravitate towards people that they like, that are like them. And sometimes you run into people and you say, eh, I don't want to be his friend. Nothing personal, nothing mean. Not that I can't love that person, shake that person's hand, be civil, be nice, be polite, even help them if they needed it. And be there for them. I'm just saying if I can't get along with them, if I spend too much time with this person, I know we're just going to start to grind each other's gears. I'm just going to stay away. And there's nothing wrong with that. Look at Proverbs 26, the Bible teaches this. Verse 20, where no wood is, the fire goeth out. So that where there is no tail bearer, the strife seeth. You know, you take away the tail bearer, you take away the wood out of the fire, you take out of that source of contention in your life, it goes away. It goes back to what I was saying earlier. If some people would just get off the internet, you know, they would probably have a lot less strife in their life. They just focus on things that really mattered in the real world and have actual value and meaning and can, they can derive actual real satisfaction from. That wood would go, that fire would go out. You know, unfollow that person. You know, and I bring up social media a lot, but let me just tell you why. Social media is a major part of our world today. It's a huge part of our life. We didn't ask for it, but guess what? It's here and it's not going anywhere. And I'm not going to sit here and be one of these people that advocate, you know, we just shouldn't have anything to do with it. You know, some people could probably tone it down quite a bit. Well, look, if there's just somebody on the internet or some YouTube channel or just somebody on Facebook or wherever that just every post they put up and everything they say and do and video they make just grinds your gears. Why don't you just unfollow that person? Why don't you just unsubscribe? Why don't you de-friend them? Right. Why don't you just say, you know what, that's just that, that content's not for me. I'm just not interested in that. Instead of trying to, you know, call them on the carpet, drag them, you know what I mean? And I'm using that as an example, but you could bring this into other areas of your life. You know, people just don't get along in real life. People just, hey, whenever I get with that person, it just seems like things get tense. I've had people like this in my life. You know, we have this couple over, we're going to have a game night over. And then at the end of the night, just say, you know, honey, that was nice, but let's not have them back because he and I are going to end up rolling around on the floor at some point. Cause we're just, you know, we're just too alike or we're not like enough or whatever it is. We just don't get along. I don't know what it is. I don't need to know what it is. I just know, you know, and this can go for anybody. Okay. Just take the wood away and the fire goes out. Why? For the sake of unity, for the sake of preserving peace among the brethren. Because it's a real thing. Infighting, contention, bitterness, anger, wrath, these things happen even within a local church. Even with the hearts of God's own children, these things are there. And God, you know, in Galatians, if you want to go back there, Galatians chapter five, you know, the Galatians, you know, it's kind of embarrassing for them, but you know, at least we can look at them and say, and see what was going on there. And it gives us insight as to the source of infighting. Where does this even come from? Well, it comes from mainly, you can just boil it down to one thing, walking in the flesh. People just get in the flesh and that's when they just start and that's when they just start to bite and devour one another. And there's nothing worse for this than when you have two people just walking in the flesh that don't get along, that don't see eye to eye, that have some beef, and they're just going to hash it out one with another. The Bible says in Galatians chapter five, verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Do you know that's a lust sometimes? There's people that, they love contention. They love the drama, the fighting. They love it. They live for it. Look at all these daytime talk shows that are out there. That's all it is. And people watch that stuff because they want to see people start throwing chairs and punches and they want to see a big brawl. That's why these Jerry Springer shows, I don't know who was out there anymore, but my day was the Jerry Springas, Oprah back in the day, you know, she wasn't always sweetness and like she tries to make it out or did. She used to have, you know, the whole weird scene going on in her show too. I remember that. Phil Donahue, remember him? Geraldo. Yeah, he's the classic, right? The guy literally has the bandage over his nose, broken arm because of this stuff. People eat that up. Why do they make those shows? Because people love that. They love to see contention, fighting. It's a lust of the flesh. And we say, well, I've never watched those shows, but yeah, but we'll get on Facebook. We'll go on the internet. We'll get on YouTube and we'll put on our own show for everybody. We'll get on that live stream and make some comment and try to flare up some kind of, are we not going to talk about so-and-so? How about this? How about maybe just nobody cares? Maybe everybody knows what you want to talk about, but some people just aren't walking in the flesh and are over it. People do this in the local church. They start to gossip. They backbite. It's a walking in the flesh. And if we would just walk in the spirit, look, if we're going to preserve the unity in the local church, we have to walk in the spirit. And if we're walking in the spirit, when somebody else who isn't walking in the spirit comes and there's a transgression against us, it's going to be a lot easier for us to just cover it and just say, well, in the spirit of love and meekness and long suffering, and for the sake of local church, I forgive you, even if you're not sorry. Let us not be divided. Here's another reason. Why does this type of thing go on in the church? This disunity? Because people get in the flesh. But here's another reason. Verse 26. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Another source of this is people get desirous of vainglory. I'm going to make a name for myself by putting somebody else who has a name down. If I can drag that person down, people will notice me as the one who brought that person down and exalt me. And this can play out in so many different ways. Provoking one another, envying one another. A lot of times people, they just get after other people and there's contention just because they're envious of that other person. Go to Matthew chapter 7 and we'll close there. Remind us of the words of Jesus, what he said. When it comes to dealing with brethren, come to dealing with people who have flaws. In case you haven't noticed yet, everyone in this room is flawed. Every child of God that you meet is flawed. They're going to do things and say things that you don't agree with, that are harmful even sometimes, that were poor decisions. But you know what? We've got to learn to forgive them and not get so bent on just trying to rub their face in it. Matthew chapter 7, look at verse 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the being that is in thine own eye? You know, I heard it said recently and I really appreciated this and I've been thinking about it. I think it was Pastor Anderson who said, you know, sometimes our sins look really bad on other people. A lot of times people get mad about other people, what other people are doing, what other people are saying or whatever, and they get all worked up about it. It's because when they're looking at it, what they're really seeing is their own sins. They're projecting it on other people. I remember very young, you know, my mom, unsaved woman, she even told me, a lot of times the things that we hate the most about other people are the things we hate about ourselves. A lot of times somebody will just rub us the wrong way and we'll just think about them and we just can't stand this about them. And then, if we're really honest, the reason why we can't stand that about them is because it reminds us that that's the way we are. And we're just projecting that on somebody. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye? That mote's like a little speck of dust, right? Just a little tiny something in their eye. But consider it's not the being that is in thine own eye. And he said, I mean, that's the glaring difference, right? One person has little speck, the other guy who's got a problem with him has this giant beam in his eye. Or how wilt they say to thee, brother, let me pull out the beam out of thine eye? And behold, the beam is in thine own eye. You ever get something in your eye? Probably everybody's done that. You ever get something in your eye so bad somebody else has to get it out for you? Somebody else has to hold your eye and say, let me get that, get a little cloth or something, poke it out? I've had that happen. And I think I've even done that for other people. You know who I'd never let do that for me? You know, if I got some kind of little piece of sawdust or something in my eye, you know what I'd never let do that for me? Is a guy who's blind. Here, let me get that for you. It's no higher, lower to the left. Let me put this blindfold on and I'll get that thing out of your eye. You're going to end up poking him in the eye. Did I get it? Did I get it? That's what he's saying here. And so often we want to try to get the mote out of somebody else's eye and we just have this giant beam and what do we end up doing? Just poking them in the eye. Nobody's better for it. We still got a beam. They still got a mote and now they're blind in the other eye because we've just been sitting there poking each other in the eye. How wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull 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 thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. You know, and it's funny. I guess it's not funny, but it's ironic. You know, specifically applying this verse specifically to this idea of having unity in local church. I've seen people get so upset with other people. Well, they're just causing a rift in the new IFB. They're just causing a rift in Faithful Word Baptist Church. They're just causing a rift in the movement. But are they really? Because to me, it seems like the person who's drawing attention to that, they're the ones that are trying to cause a rift. They're the ones that are trying to, you know, get people to choose sides. This pastor against that pastor condemned this person. You know, and what is that? It's biting. It's devouring. And look, I can't control, we can't control what goes on in other churches and what other people say and do and preach and how they behave. That's on them. But I'll say this, we can control here. We can control it within Faithful Word Baptist Church Tucson. The people that are in this room right here can endeavor today that they're going to keep the unity and the bond of peace, that they're going to endeavor to do it, that we're going to exercise meekness and long suffering and patience and love towards one another. And that way, because again, what's the alternate down here? What else do we have? I'm sure there's other Baptist churches we could go serve in. You know, we could get, you know, but I'm just warning you right now, you're just going to find the same thing over there. Imperfect people, flawed people who are going to make mistakes. And you're going to have to do the same thing in some other church that you have to do here. Forgive, let go, and keep the unity and bond of peace to not end up so that we don't end up doing what? Devouring one another. Let's go ahead and pray.