(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back to Stronghold Baptist Church. If you can open up your hymnals to song number 110. Pretty spaced out evenly today. Song 110, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Hey, 110. ["All the Way My Savior Leads Me"] My church on the first. All the way my Savior leads me. What am I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy? Who through life has been my guide? Every peace divine is covered here by faith in faith to dwell. For I know whatever befall me. Jesus, do with all things dwell. For I know whatever befall me. Jesus, do with all things dwell. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. Tears each winding path I tread gives me praise for every trial. Peace be with the living friend. Though my weary steps they falter and my soul not thirsting be. Crushing from the rock before me though a spring of joy I see. On the last, all the way my Savior leads me. Oh, the fullness of His love. Perfect praise to me is promised in my Father's house above. When I stare it, but it not always is blind. Two rounds of death is my soul up through when this changes. Jesus, do with all things dwell. When this changes, Jesus, lead me all the way. Is my soul through when this changes? Jesus, lead me all the way. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for keeping us safe as we gather here together, Lord. Thank you so much for using us as vessels as we went out to go preach the Gospel, Father. And thank you so much for the souls that are saved, Father. Lord, I just pray that the preaching and that the singing and that the service give you glory, Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. All right, let's turn to our next song. Song 389. Song 389. Bring them in. Hey, remember, 389. All right, church, let's sing this one out with all our hearts. Hearts is the shepherd's voice I hear Out in the desert, dark and clear Calling the sheep who come astray Far from the shepherd's bolder way Bring them in, bring them in Bring them in from the fields of sin Bring them in, bring them in Bring the wandering ones to Jesus Who would have this shepherd time Help him, the wandering ones to find Bring the lost ones to the fold Where the shelter from the cold Bring them in, bring them in Bring them in from the fields of sin Bring them in, bring them in Bring the wandering ones to Jesus Out in the desert, hear their cry Out of the mountain, wild and high Hearts is the pastor speaks to thee Go find my sheep, where they be Bring them in, bring them in Bring them in from the fields of sin Bring them in, bring them in Bring the wandering ones to Jesus Amen, all right, great singing. Go ahead and count up any salvations. First of all, before we do today, we're going to count up salvations prior to today. Anyone have any salvations prior to today? One for yesterday, amen. Anyone else prior to today? All right, now how about for today? One here. And there. After we split up? Okay, thank you. And then four, amen. That's great. That's awesome. Okay, got it. Anybody else? Very good. We'll keep up the good work. That turned out good. Was that younger people? Was there a group of them or something? No, just different doors. That's awesome. Praise God, that's good. Yeah, a lot of Spanish speakers at this community. It turned out pretty good. The salvation that we got together was We kind of tag teamed that one effort in Spanish, so that was nice. But she definitely got it. And that's why we always want to be careful, especially if you're speaking language that you may not be fluent in or you're a little shaky in. Try to do your best to make sure that they're getting it. Ask the questions as much as possible. Obviously, people can get saved off very little information, even off of one verse. It's possible. But we try our best to be as thorough as possible to make sure they completely understand. It's better to give people verses. It's better to go into that as much as you can, especially in another language, if you know a little bit. It's a good idea to learn a little bit. If someone will speak you in Spanish and you don't really know the language, but you can at least say have a little routine or something that you can say and quote the verses to them. You may not be able to fully lead them to Christ and do everything the way you normally would, but at least you can give them some verses to think about and a brief explanation of the Gospel. I'm going to go over that next time when we do another Solonang workshop. Covering foreign languages in general is kind of a major point in Solonang that we run into. That has its own set of things that we deal with and do in different situations that we cover. We'll go over that next time. Did everyone like the Solonang workshop? Did that seem valuable to people? It seemed pretty good? Alright, good. We'll definitely do that again. We're not going to just do it all the time. I recorded it, so it'll be available for people. It's also good, let's say a few months from now and we're done with all these workshops. Hopefully, Lord willing, we continue to have new people coming in and joining the church and are interested in Solonang and stuff. As I mentioned this morning, I expect people to continue to teach and disciple as they come out. That's always first and foremost. The best way to people learn is hands-on training, on-the-job training. You learn the most from, you're going to get the most from. Keep in mind that we're recording these sessions, so if there's people who are coming in that are kind of new, point them to the videos because they're going to be public. As long as we have our YouTube channel, they'll be public somewhere. Our channel will be shut down. It'll be up somewhere else. I'll probably integrate links or something with our website to be able to get to those all the time. Just remember that. Keep that in your mind to be able to point people back to as we continue to train new Solonang. Very good. Back to the announcement. Great day out Solonang. Obviously, some hurdles, especially if you don't speak Spanish very well with a lot of Spanish speakers there. I don't know if we're going to be going back to it. Brother Carter already did that one as I suspected might have been the case on his Monday night group, but the good thing about apartments is that even when you already do it, he goes on Monday nights. We were there on a Sunday afternoon. You got different types of people that are home. Apartments have enough turnover. I don't know if anyone ran into someone that said, no, no, you were already here. I don't think that happened. Not to my knowledge. No one said anything like that, so it's fine to do that. Anyhow, offering tolls there on the bottom through the month of September. Prayer requests. I went over most of these this morning. We had some good news on Joseph Brown. It's Cesar Cady's grandfather who has pneumonia that he was doing well enough to be released from the hospital. He had not been released as of this morning, but he was doing well enough to be able to get released. It just hadn't happened yet, so that's good news. Continue to pray. Like I said, for everyone else, I'm here. I did a brief update on Steadfast Baptist Church. They're facing actually a lot of persecution on many fronts from the location of the meeting at, with protesters, with the people who stole the church accounts and all that stuff that's going on. So just be in prayer for them. Pray that God will allow them to be able to focus on the work of the Lord without all of these, with these distractions just being put aside and that God will bring the judgment on the wicked people who are really like of the devil just trying to do evil against the work that's going on there. So that's an actual special prayer for people like that. As much as we pray for the health and the wellness of a lot of people, as we should and as we seek for, the extremely wicked people, they get a different prayer. That's biblical. So on the next page here we've got the October challenge, soul winning challenge. So if you don't normally go soul winning for at least an hour every week and you went out today, then congratulations, you're doing well for this month. If you normally go out soul winning, you've still got another hour to do. Right? So that's the challenge. That's the whole point. We're trying to make another time and if you normally go out soul winning for four hours a week or five or six or eight, you've got another hour to have. We're pushing. So I appreciate all the people being minded on this. It's really important. We do more soul winning challenges than anything else throughout the year. So I think we have about three different challenges that we do as a church that are focused on giving hospital people. So very important. And hopefully you get to see everyone participate in this. It's going to be great. Upcoming events. We just had the soul winning workshop. If you weren't here and you missed that, that is up. It should be up online already. I live streamed it and it's recorded so that you can stay up on our channel. We had a great lunch and some pastries and breakfast beforehand so you missed out on that. But help yourself if whatever food is left over. I don't know what's out there. Help yourself if the food doesn't come over and drink and everything else. And then we've got the fire breathing Baptist fellowship at Step Past Baptist Church this week. Tune in to that. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of fiery preaching going on there. I'm going to be there. I think I'm preaching on Friday, but I'm not positive about that. Souling Marathon in Athens. I mentioned this this morning that as with all of our Souling Marathon events, we will be providing hotel stays for those who are driving long distances to come to church in order to stay here Saturday night to be able to come to church on Sunday just to make it more possible for you to attend the whole event and stick around for church. So we're very happy to do that, especially for those who are putting in the work and going out and working for the Lord. So we will happily put you up for the night to stick around here and come to church next day. Everything else you can see the events are coming up. Bible memory passage. This is the last week to memorize verses 1-11 in chapter 3. If you're able to quote it word perfect without making any mistakes, then you'll earn a prize for that. The birthdays for the month of October are listed there as well as the home school field trips. Today is the last day to report RSVP whether or not you're attending a fellow science museum home school field trip because we have to submit paperwork and my wife is sending that off tomorrow. So if you have not already contacted her, please do so today. And I believe that is it for our announcement. You might as well repeat or come up and lead us to the next box. Hit 4-10. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the first. Right on the That's Deuteronomy chapter 22, and as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church we're going to read the entire passage. I'm going to ask brother Devin if he can please do that for us. Once again that was Deuteronomy chapter 22. Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them. Thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. And like manner shalt thou do with his ass, and so shalt thou do with his raiment, and with all lost fame of thy brothers which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise, thou mayest not hide thyself. Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them. Thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dame sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dame with the young. But thou shalt in any wise let the dame go, and take the young to thee, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house. If any man fall from thence, thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts, as of woolen and linen together. Thou shalt make the fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself. If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, and give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid. Then shall the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city and the gate. And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man's wife, and he hateth her. And lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid, and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city, and the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, and they shall immerse him in a hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife, he may not put her away all his days. But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel, then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die, because she hath wrought folly in Israel to play the whore in her father's house, so shalt thou put evil away from among you. If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman and the woman, so shalt thou put away evil from Israel. If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die, the damsel because she cried not, being in the city, and the man because he hath humbled his neighbor's wife, so thou shalt put away evil from among you. But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lay with her shall die, but unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing, there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death, for as when a man riseth against his neighbor and slayeth him, even so is this matter, for he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her. If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found, then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. A man shall not take his father's wife, nor discover his father's skirt. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this day and this opportunity to meet back here tonight in church. I pray that you would just bless our service now, help us to listen up and to learn something. I pray that you would bless pastor as he comes, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, this afternoon I'm going to be preaching a sermon. Now, keep your place there in Deuteronomy 22, because we are coming back to that. And this is, Brother Peter kept asking me, he's like, what pastor were you, what pastor were you? I had to figure out where I wanted to read from, because we're actually starting in 1 Samuel 17, and Brother Carter preached on that last week when I wasn't here. And which, by the way, I appreciate Brother Carter and Brother Peter both preaching on that Sunday. I was able to listen to both sermons, they were great sermons, so hopefully you all were here for that. If you weren't here for that, listen, I recommend listening to them. They were good, some good teachings there. And actually, what I'm going to be teaching on this afternoon is a result of listening to Brother Carter's sermon through 1 Samuel 17. There's all kinds of great information. In 1 Samuel 17, that's the story of David and Goliath. I mean, that's basically what we're reading there. And there's so many awesome truths and a lot of insight, there's a lot of things that we could learn from that passage. So it's a really long chapter, though. I didn't want to reread that since you already read that last week if you were here. And it never hurts to read Deuteronomy 22 anyways in church, because that's one of the passages specifically that gets a lot of flack or ridicule from the world, from the God-haters, from the atheists. And unfortunately, a lot of churches aren't reading Deuteronomy 22 in their church services and not teaching out of it and completely avoiding it. So it does us well. It's a win-win situation. But anyhow, we're starting in 1 Samuel 17. And what we're doing, what I'm teaching on this afternoon, is opposition from brethren. Now, I preach many times on the opposition that we're going to face from the world, from people who hate God, that we can expect persecutions, that we're going to be experiencing some tough times, and you're going to have people trying to stand in your way and block what you're doing and things like that out in the world. Again, people who are adversaries against the Lord, that's well known. It should be expected. It's warned about over and over throughout Scripture. But I want to deal with a subject this afternoon about dealing with opposition from people who are your brothers, right? Because it does happen. It can happen. And we need to know first, be able to identify kind of why it happens in some situations. And understanding why is important so that we don't find ourselves opposing people. And as we get into it, you'll understand why, how that can happen and how people who are saved could end up being an opponent to someone who's on the same team and trying to serve the Lord and do a good work. And we don't want to find ourselves fighting against people like that. But it's all possible. And how we then just deal with it, too. So we're going to see here David in this story with David and Goliath, right? David's the underdog. Great story. But he runs into a lot of opposition. There's nobody supporting him. There's nobody encouraging him. There's nobody edifying him. And in fact, we actually find kind of the opposite. And coming from people that really ought to be the ones supporting him most. And he's trying to do good work. He's right. He's preaching the right message. He's got the right faith. He's trusting in the Lord. I mean, at this point, he's trusting just perfectly the way that God commanded them to trust in him. And he's using the Scripture. Look, God's with us. Who is this guy? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? They're haters of God. And we have God on our side. If God be for us, who could be against us? That's a mindset that David has. And he's trusting fully. He's right. He's got the right attitude. He's got the right spirit. He's got the right faith. Yet he still has people along the way trying to discourage him and just completely throw a wet blanket on what he's trying to do here. And that's not right. Look at verse number 26 of 1 Samuel chapter 17, because the first people we come across that are trying to just discourage him is ultimately what they're doing. It's his own brethren. His own brothers. And specifically, his eldest. Look at verse number 26. The Bible says, And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the 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 killeth him. Verse 28, And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. So this makes his oldest brother angry. Now, there's a few dynamics here I just want you to consider. It's his oldest brother. And David, I think, was one of seven brethren. Right? Because when they were going to anoint him king, if you remember, they were bringing all of his other brethren first. And Samuel's like, Nope, nope, nope, nope. Like, isn't there another one? And they said, Well, yeah, the youngest, and he's out with the sheep. Right? So I don't know exactly. We don't know. You can't prove how much difference of years there are in between the oldest and the youngest. But, I mean, seven kids. We're talking probably a decade. I mean, roughly-ish. Right? Somewhere along that time. So I don't have any personal experience with siblings that are that much different in age. But it wouldn't be that hard to understand that a child that's that much older can almost treat their sibling like a child of their own more so than a sibling of being kind of on the same level. Right? But at this point, David's an adult. Now, he's a young man. But we have the eldest brother. Oh, here's David. You know, and he gets angry. Like, what do you think you're doing here, little boy? Like, run away. Right? It's the attitude of, you know, hey, we're the soldiers. Leave this to us. You don't know what you're talking about. Get out of here. You're just getting into mischief. You're just getting into problems. You know what? He's not a little boy anymore. He's a man. And he's actually saying the right thing. And he's trying to encourage the people and trying to motivate the people to say, well, hey, man, what's going to go on? You know, like, who is this uncircumcised with you? Who is this guy anyway? You know, everyone's all scared of him. But really, he's defying the armies of God. And who does he think he is? So they get angry, or Eliab gets angry at him and says, why camest thou down hither? And with whom has thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? And just, see how he's just minimizing even his job, those few sheep. You know, like, you're just, just go out there and watch the two or three sheep and, you know, that's all you're good for. Go away. Who's watching those few sheep that you have in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. See, the only reason you're here is just because you just want to get a glimpse of the battle. Now, what's interesting here is that Eliab is projecting on David what, because David, look, is there anything in this story at all that suggests that David is a proud person? Absolutely not. Throughout the entire story, we see David giving all the credit, all the glory, all the reasoning behind why they could defeat the, why he could defeat Goliath, or why anyone could, is because of God. It's because God is on their side, because God is going to fight their battles for him. He, throughout this entire story, behaves in that manner, acts in that manner. Yes, he has boldness, because he's filled with the Spirit of God. But he's not just full of himself in saying, well, I'm so great, and I can, that's not him at all. But who's the proud one who thinks that David could do nothing? David's saying, hey, we need to rely on God, and his eldest brother is basically just saying, get out of here. Of all people, the eldest brother should be willing to say, who is this Philistine? Let's go, and he's a soldier, and David's not even a soldier. So those whose responsibility is to go out and do the job, they tend to, when they're not doing their work, when they're not doing their job, when they don't do what they're supposed to be doing, it causes them to get angry at those that are willing and want to do the job that they're supposed to be doing. Ultimately, what it is, and this is one of the reasons why we have opposition from brethren, is when people who are supposed to be doing work, they're supposed to be doing good work, they're supposed to be serving the Lord, they start seeing someone else who is or who wants to, and maybe they are a little young. Maybe they don't have all the experience of getting in these battles and stuff, but they've got a great zeal, and they've got the right mindset, and they want to go out and do what's right, then people just want to shut them down. Why? Because they're not doing the job. They're not doing the work, and when you have someone who's going, oh, and they want to go out and do it, it starts exposing their inaction that they're supposed to be going out and doing this, and it's going to show them, well, look, if this young kid can come up and beat this giant, what does that say about you, Mr. Soldier, who's got however many plus years on him, years experience, years in strength, years in physical capabilities? I'm assuming in this situation, obviously, but Eliab, it should have been his job, along with all the other soldiers, to not just man up in their own strength, right, because they're not going to beat Goliath in their own strength, but to have that spiritual strength and understanding, knowing, you know what, this is God's fight. He's coming out daily and just blaspheming the Lord, and these cowards are doing nothing about it because he seems to be an adversary that they can't beat. And what happens is the coward then doesn't want to look like a coward, so if they can't do it, they don't want anyone to do it, because if anyone else comes up and does it, it's going to show, well, hey, why didn't you do that? If your little kid brother, your youngest brother, comes up and he's able to defeat Goliath, then why weren't you able to, Eliab? This is what sparks the anger. This is what kindles that anger from Eliab towards his own brother. Now, we need to learn from this and recognize, as you gain experience, as you gain years, and we see this happen in churches, you can have churches and pastors that may start off great and are soldiers and have been in the fight and been in the battle and have been doing good works, but then they kind of taper off or maybe they start getting scared, right, at the opposition, and they stop doing what they're supposed to be doing. They stop doing the job that God had for them to do, and then maybe someone comes in and they want to do a great, well, oh, man, let's, hey, let's go sowing. They stop the sowing program, they stop all this other stuff, hey, let's go out sowing, hey, let's serve God, hey, let's do this, let's do that. Someone wants to, oh, and I'm going to give you every reason why you can't do that, and oftentimes I've heard so many stories where they actually get angry, and then the pastors start preaching sermons against people who want to serve God, because they're not doing anything, and then they're going to start preaching against the people who want to do something, and that's wicked, and it ought not to be, and we need to make sure that we, all of us, especially as you get older, because there's a tendency as you get older to be more likely to get into your flesh, to be able to ride on successes of the past and kind of stop doing the work that continues to be done, because spiritually, you know, we're in a battle just for the rest of our lives. Now, at some points, it's rougher than others, and it's more heated, and there's more adversaries, there's more things going on, but at the end of the day, it's a lifelong battle, and we need to remember that. We can't go off into retirement, and if you were to find yourself in that situation, don't get mad at the people who want to go out and do the work. Look, you're the soldier. You ought to be showing the example to these people. Eliab should be showing the example to David of boldness, of going forth in the name of the Lord, instead of getting angry with him and trying to send him away from doing a good work. But look at how, I mean, he's being insulted here. He's being falsely accused, because he says, I know thy pride in the naughtiness of thine heart. First of all, David was sent there by his own father, saying, hey, bring these supplies, bring these goods, see how everything's going, see how everything's doing. He went to see the welfare, he shows up, he sees this heathen that's defying God, and he's like, what is going on here? And everyone's afraid to go fight him. So there's obviously a problem. He didn't go to insert himself into the war. He didn't come because he was proud and all this stuff he's being accused of. He came for all the right reasons, but look at how he handles it, and look at how he answers, because this is also important as well. There's a lot to learn so that we don't be the ones that's trying to oppose brethren from doing good work. But then also, we want to have the right attitude and the right spirit if someone is going to approach us like that too, because here's, at the end of the day, you know, if you're brethren, you're not enemies. You may find yourself in opposition, unfortunately, due to sin, due to sinful nature, due to the flesh getting involved, but, and I'm going to assume David's brother's saved, but still, I mean, you can make the spiritual application of physical brothers apply this spiritually, right? And you've got one guy saying, that's the elder, you know, oh, I know you're proud and this and that, and they think they've got them all figured out, and they don't. But look at how David answers. He says, look, what have I now done? What have I done? I haven't even done anything. And he says, is there not a cause? Isn't there a reason? And then you know what he does? He ignores all of them. That's it. We don't hear anything more about this. Then he goes on, and he's just like, okay, well, I'm just going to keep on doing this anyways. Don't let him get you down. Don't let him stop you. You know, if you're going to serve the Lord, serve the Lord. He's not there to serve Eliab. He's not even there to serve Saul. He's there to serve the Lord. And if everyone else is going to tell you not to do that, not to serve God, you know what? I'm serving God. So he's going to do it anyways. But he's not going to make, you know, he's not fighting that battle. He doesn't want to go and fight Eliab. There's no purpose to that. He's just like, what have I done? Isn't there a reason for me to be here? I mean, look at what's going on out there, right? But then he moves on. He doesn't have to hang on it and whatever else, right? And then he goes to Saul, so the men are hearing this, and they're getting, I think the men are getting kind of excited because, hey, here's someone who's saying he's going to fight him. Because everyone's standing around waiting, all these soldiers standing around waiting for somebody to stand up to the big bully, someone to stand up to that wicked Goliath, but they're all afraid to do it. All they need is someone to ignite the spark, to have the boldness, and to face him. And, you know, a lot of people are looking for that champion, for their own champion, right? Because Goliath is called a champion, but he was their champion. And there's a lot of people who are soldiers and that want to get in the fight, but they're kind of scared, and, you know, this is human nature. People need someone to trailblaze. People need someone to go and be like, okay, I'm going to follow that person, and we need more people like that. We need more Davids. I preached a sermon last week at the camp called We Need More Calibs. We also need more Davids. He goes to Saul. King Saul. King. You know, it may seem foreign to us because these days, our modern era of leaders, of countries, no leader of any country that I'm aware of ever steps foot on a battlefield whenever there's a war. Ever. But that's not the way things used to be. One of the reasons why people even, you know, even the children of Israel, when they were asking for Saul, they wanted a king. What did they want a king to do? When they were going to Samuel and said, no, we want a king, they wanted a king to go out and fight their battles for them and to lead them in the battle and to be the strong one to go and lead. That's historically been the role of that leader is to also be, you know what, we're doing this, and they're going to put their own neck on the line and not just send off a bunch of other kids off to do their fighting for them. But that's another sign of the wickedness of the time that we're in anyways is that these leaders who are making all the decisions to go to war have no skin in the game. Yeah, why don't you put your own neck on the line, Congressman, Senator, President, right? Why don't you go over to Afghanistan or over to any place in the world that you want to send everyone else to, why don't you lead the charge? Why don't you put your boots on the ground and go out and show us how it's done and say, hey, we've got a righteous cause, we're fighting for the free world. Why? Because they don't have a righteous cause. They want money, they want wealth, they want power, they want all those things, and they don't want to pay for it and they want to shed the blood of other people to get what they want. Ridiculous. But that's not the way things used to be, but here we go. Saul's job, one of the whole purposes for them wanting a king was to go out and fight these battles. Of all the people, even above Eliab, of all the people who's supposed to be the champion, and mind you, Saul was head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel. He was unique, he was the biggest man that would have gone out and should have gone out and faced Goliath, if you're just talking about physical stature, right? I believe Goliath was probably the biggest that they had in their group. I mean, that's why he's a champion, right? He's this warrior, he's a giant, he's big, he's, you know, he's their champion. Unlike everyone else, man, that guy, well Saul was unlike everyone else in Israel, and not only that physically was he unlike everyone else, he also was anointed of the Lord to be the king. To be the guy to stand for the Lord, to do what's right, to fight the Lord's battles, and he was too cowardly to do it. So even he, when David comes in, because there's all this murmuring going on, I was talking going on about how David is, you know, saying, hey, you know, going out with this Goliath guy, right? So they bring him to the king, because he's basically saying, I'll go fight this guy. Verse 32, the Bible says, And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. And my servant will go and fight with this Goliath. He's telling Saul, look, I'll go and fight with him. Don't let the people's heart fail. They shouldn't be discouraged. They shouldn't fear. I'll go fight this guy. Look what Saul says to David. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. For thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. So now he's starting to tell them all the reasons why he just can't go and fight. Like, you can't win. You can't fight him. You can't do this. Now, ultimately, he lets them go, right? But the point is, you know, these people are these obstacles or these opposition. They're supposed to be, you know, they're on the same side. They're brethren. We know what King Saul saved. David saved. You know, they're fighting the Lord's battles. But why are they opposing him? Why are they trying to shut it down? Because they're not doing the job themselves. And so many times, people will oppose you because they feel guilty for not doing the job they're supposed to do, and they see someone else doing it. And, you know, it doesn't, in the Christian life, obviously, this is specifically talking about a battle. And we could relate this to spiritual battles and churches and with people who are supposed to be leaders, like pastors of churches and deacons and people who are supposed to be in positions that are like, hey, these are really spiritual godly people supposed to be fighting these battles. Right? And leading the congregation in. And when they see just lay people and church members going out and doing all the way more work than the pastor's doing, because the pastor got too comfortable collecting his paycheck and doing one sermon a week and, and nothing else for the rest of the time or whatever. Or just studying and studying and studying and not actually going forth and doing any of the labor, doing any of the other work. They're the ones that get mad, but it's not just in a situation like that. You're going to run into this of people kind of feeling guilty and exposing their faults when you just try to live godly. This is why we started off in Deuteronomy chapter 22. Because when people start caring about the word of the Lord, to the point of like, it's real to you. And you actually want to live the way that God says we ought to live and you start caring about his commandments instead of just blowing them off. Oh yeah, we don't care about you. And actually look at it and study it and read it and you want to live that way and I want to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord and you actually care about that and it's not just something you say but it's something you want to do. That sets you apart from a lot of other people. Even other saved people that are comfortable living worldly, they're comfortable just doing what they're doing, doing bare minimum, not really serving God. And then you start making changes, right? Because you're starting to learn more. You're starting to grow. You're saying, hey, I never knew this, but God gets really mad about this or whatever. I'm not going to do that anymore. One of the most obvious, which is why we started in Deuteronomy 22, and I already referenced this in this morning's sermon, is verse number five. Okay, this is very obvious because it's obvious to the outside world. It's also something that gets people really angry. Verse five, the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. Calling something an abomination unto the Lord is a big deal. It means God really, really, really hates that. Now, we could read that and understand, like, wow, that's an abomination. God hates that. And say, well, basically, what's the summary of this? Well, it's saying don't cross-dress. Okay, okay, fair enough, right? But the people really start to have a problem with this when you actually start to say, well, what does that really mean? And get more specific because, let's face it, you have to get specific because you have to get dressed every day. Right? It's easy just to say, well, don't cross-dress. But what does that mean? And when you hear the word cross-dress, I think the one thing that probably pops into everyone's mind is a man putting on a dress. That's commonly accepted as if someone were to say they're cross-dressed, you're thinking of a man in a dress, right? So at least the world in general and Christians should have an idea of, well, they know that a dress belongs, that is a woman's garment. The problem we run into is when you're trying to identify, well, then what's a man's garment? It's one-directional, where people won't freak out or care about what you're saying if you say, yeah, a man wearing a dress is a man that's a cross-dresser. Because that's a woman, that is what women wear, a dress is. Okay, then tell me what, because God didn't just say it's an abomination for man to wear that which pertains to a woman and that's it. And women can just wear whatever they want. No, it's both ways. Which means just as much as a dress would be considered a woman's garment, there's garments that are considered man's garments, okay? To God, not just the current culture. To God, there's a difference. And, you know, I'm not going to preach an entire, I mean, obviously there's sermons out there dedicated this one thing, but let's just, you know, talk about the elephant in the room. What is that garment? It's pants. You just look at the universal symbol for men and women. It's simple enough right there. You don't need any words, you can just use a picture. If you're going to go to a bathroom in just about any country in the world and they have a picture of which one is the one for you to use, you know what you're going to see? You're not going to see pictures of two people where you can see their legs completely and everything's the same. Well, then how are you going to know which one's which? You're going to see one that's wearing a little triangle symbolizing a skirt or a dress and the other one you're going to see all the legs. Because, visually, that separates men from women. Any questions? It's not that hard. Okay, but the reason why this makes people flip out over this is because culturally it's accepted for women to be wearing pants. And again, I can go on and on and on and on and on about this and teach from many other places in scripture. I've done it before, I'm not going to do that just for the sake of this. What's my point with this though? What's my point? The point is when a person then starts to, and this was one example, there's many examples, right? So we have a lot of rules in our family that are derived from biblical principles. One of them being that my wife wears skirts and dresses and I wear pants. No one has a problem with me wearing pants. But the fact that my wife and my daughters only wear skirts and dresses makes people angry. Now it's funny, right? What's funny about this is that we don't go and tell everyone else, you shouldn't be wearing pants. You need to be wearing a dress. We don't just tell everyone how to dress. You think that we would based on the amount of hatred that we get sometimes from people who can't stand that that's what we do just because they know that that's what we do. But we're not out there just telling everyone else how to dress, but they're going to get angry at us. And it's opposition that you face. Why? Because you're doing what's right which makes people feel guilty that they're doing something wrong When I think, and I'm talking about brethren here too, I'm not just talking about the unsafe world. This is not a sermon dealing with just the world. This has to do with people who are going to be convicted by the Holy Ghost on things. And deep down they're going to know that what they're doing is not right. But instead of humbling themselves and getting right and recognizing or at least not opposing people, they get angry because they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing. And they see someone else doing it, so they're going to oppose you. And it could be that. It could be whether or not you're listening to the world's music and the movies and everything else. We don't go to movie theaters and watch everything Hollywood's putting out and all this other stuff. And we don't allow our kids to watch that stuff. And it's like people start giving you a hard time. It's like, look, you watch what you want to watch. We have rules in our household. Don't oppose us. Don't leave us alone. But people do it. You should probably know it just as well as I do if you start making any rules that that's what's going to happen even from people that should be on your side. People that should not be opposing you, but it happens. And we need to learn, one, that it's going to happen, but two, how to deal with it the way David did. Don't let it stop you from doing what's right, first of all. Don't let the opposition just say, well, this is just too much. I don't want to deal with this anymore. Look, you still have to please God. The whole point you made the rules and started doing these things was to please God to begin with. So don't be a man pleaser because someone's getting upset with you and, well, I don't want to deal with it anymore, so I'm just going to stop doing what I was doing. No. Please God. And just say, look, is there a cause? And you know what? Then just ignore Him and keep doing what you're doing. Ultimately, it's not that big of a deal. It shouldn't be that big of a deal. You still need to keep doing what's right. Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 13. And Matthew 13 isn't the best example necessarily of opposition, but the principles here where you can see how people could potentially oppose you, again, that are brethren, based on the example that we see happening here. And the story in Matthew 13, we're going to actually jump down to verse 54, so it might be on another page for you. It's a lot of verses. It's a story when Jesus Christ goes back to His home area, where He's from. And they don't respect Him because He grew up there and they're looking at Him going basically like, who are you? But let's read it. Verse 54, the Bible says, and when He was coming to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue insomuch that they were astonished and said, once had this man, this wisdom and these mighty works. So first of all, I mean, He comes in teaching and they're like, they're kind of blown away. Like, wow. But you would think that that should be all the more reason to listen to Him is because they knew Him and now He has all this wisdom and teaching. But instead, they say, is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary and His brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? So basically they're saying, isn't this the same guy? Well, He's not very special, right? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? So they're saying this in a way of basically, why should we listen to Him? We know His family, we know where He grew up, so we're not going to listen to Him at all. Even though He has great wisdom, even though it's kind of blowing Him away with His education and His knowledge. And you may run into this as you grow and really increase your Bible knowledge and your wisdom. Because for some people it can happen really fast. You start gaining a lot of wisdom. If you really get zealous and on fire and you're reading your Bible and you're going to church and you're listening to sermons and you're doing all this stuff, you're just like really growing in your understanding and in your knowledge. And other people can be in opposition, especially if they've known you. Oh well, it's just so and so, right? Now I'm not saying they opposed Jesus, but they were looking at the messenger more than the message itself. And this is a problem that people can fall into. Jesus Himself here, this is how He answered in verse 57, He says, and they were offended to Him, but Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor, saving his own country and in his own house. And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. So because they didn't want to listen to Him and they didn't really believe in Him, because of whatever they knew from Him, He wasn't able to do the mighty works. And it's going to be the same way for the people who you may have a lot of wisdom that you can impart on other people. And maybe you have a checkered past and maybe you weren't doing things right. And maybe people are going to say, oh, I mean, if it were me, you know, there's a lot of people who knew me at various stages in my life. And if someone knew me when I was real young, you know, in grammar school, whatever, I was a pretty good kid. So it might not be that much of a shock to see, oh, he's pastoring a church now. But there's definitely a period of time where if you were to find friends from that period, you'd be like, hey, he's pastoring a church. They'll be like, what? Right? It's a big deal. And then they might not want to have to listen to anything you have to say. Well, I know he did this and he did that. So what's he doing now? There's always going to be people like that. Instead of saying, look, is he teaching the word of God? Is this from God? Then that's what's important, as opposed to who is this person. And if anything, that should just give, like I said, further testimony to say, well, look, if that's how I was and this is how I am, maybe something dramatic happened. Maybe there's a good reason for such a big change. I mean, that should only help bolster it. But you know what? People, you kind of could view it either way. And some people just choose a view and say, yeah, I don't want to listen to anything you have to say. And we need to be careful not to fall in that trap, too. And maybe you know someone and maybe they go away for a while and they come back or whatever. It's like, hear out what they have to say more than who is the messenger. So we don't end up opposing people that actually might have a lot of wisdom. Because what you end up doing is opposing yourself. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9, another pitfall that people have in opposition is what I like to call being too independent. People get so much separated from everybody that if you don't do things exactly this way, then not only, you know, I don't have anything to do with you, and you just need to stop doing that and stop going there and stop serving people there and just come here and serve, do things our way. And this is very relevant because you don't want to have this attitude. And this is dealt with in Scripture. Luke chapter 9, look at verse number 49. The Bible says, and John answered and said, he's speaking to Jesus, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him because he followeth not with us. But John's saying, you know what, we ran into these guys, and they were casting out devils in your name. So they're, I mean, they're preaching in the name of Jesus, and on top of that, they're actually casting out the devils. Now what we've seen before is people were claiming the name of Jesus and not casting out devils because they weren't saved. Remember the seven sons of Seva, they weren't able to cast out the devils. And they're the ones that answered and said, you know, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but whom are ye? And they were saying, you know, in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, you know, like, they're trying to cast out these devils. So it's not like just anyone was casting out these devils because there's a spiritual gift given by the Holy Ghost for them to be able to do that to begin with. So the fact that they were doing this is going to show us these guys were saved. And the reason why the devils were actually being cast out is because they were doing it in the name of Jesus because they were saved. So they're out serving the Lord. Now, should they have been yoked up with the disciples and Jesus? Sure. I mean, they'd be that much closer to the teachings of Christ and doing what's right. I think they should have been, probably. I mean, I don't know, we don't know all the details of this, but sure. Well, let's just say that it would have been right and better for them to be with the disciples and following Jesus and doing things their way, right? But here's what I'm talking about is it's an opposition. Opposition is meaning they're telling them not to do what they're doing. There's a big difference between saying, well, you do what you're going to do and I'm going to do what I'm going to do, right? And we're both going to serve Christ and you don't have to like each other and you can say, you know, you're doing things wrong, we're going to do things this way. Fine. But when it comes to the point of opposing people and saying, you know what, you've got to stop doing that. Even though they're doing good things and serving the Lord, that's the opposition that you need to be careful of and you need to watch out for. And we deal with this because there's different churches that we're friendly with and some that we're not quite as friendly with or whatever, but there's definitely some people that are serving the Lord, that are saved, that they're doing their work, and we may be in disagreement on some things and whatever, but I'm not going to say don't go there, don't serve God there, and they need to stop doing what they're doing. No way. Not for people who are serving the Lord, we're on the same side. Jesus said don't do that. He told his disciples when they did that, look, we're not perfect either, okay? And it would be ridiculous if some area that we're wrong in for someone else then to say, oh, man, you guys just need to stop doing what you're doing. You should shut down your church because you're not doing this right and stop serving God. Ridiculous. You need to just follow our way. Why should we do that to anyone else? Now, obviously, there's a difference between someone who's a false prophet heretic who's just got a false gospel and leading people to hell and everything else, right? Of course, their mouth should be stopped. Of course. And the Bible teaches that too. But not people who are saved, brethren, they're serving God, maybe they're doing a little bit differently, but don't oppose them and stop them from doing their work or try to fight against their work. Let them do their work. We have a similar situation in Numbers chapter 11. Turn, if you would, to Galatians chapter 2. I'll read from Numbers 11 for you. When people aren't following us, aren't following our church or whatever, but they're saved and they're serving God, we're all on the same team. We are all on the same team. We're serving the same Lord. We're serving the same God. We're not ecumenical and we're just going to yoke up with every church in the whole world and say, yeah, we're all going to serve God together because they don't have the same God. People who are saved have the same God. And Numbers 11 is another example of this. When Moses had ordained the 70 men to help offload some of the work and help do the job and kind of be judges and help out with everything, right? Two of the guys didn't show up to their ordination or whatever, where God was going to pour out the Spirit upon them, but they still received the Spirit of God. Now, there's nothing in the story to show us that these are just two bad guys. If they were bad guys, why did Moses pick them, right? Moses picked 70 people. He's trying to pick the top 70 people that he could think of that he knew that he's going to say, yeah, they should be serving here. Now, for whatever reason, they don't show up, right? Two out of 70. But look at what happens. I'll read this for you. Verse 25, the Bible says, and the Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto him and took of the Spirit that was upon him, which is upon Moses, and gave it unto the 70 elders. And it came to pass that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not see. Amen. The Spirit of God comes upon these 70 people, and they just start preaching without stopping. It's amazing. That'd be great. You guys are like, I don't know. I'd love for the Spirit of God to come out of here. Just preach, preach, preach, and not be able to stop, and you're like, Pastor Verzins, come on now. I think this is great. It is a great verse right there. Verse 26, but there remained two of the men in the camp. The name of the one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written, but they went not out unto the tabernacle, and they prophesied in the camp. See, they were prophesying because the Spirit of God still came on them. Even though they didn't go to the tabernacle, they should have. They should have. They were wrong. They should have been gone to the tabernacle. They should have done what was right, and they didn't do that. They failed in that area. But you know what? God still deemed them worthy to serve him. They were still of the 70. They were still appointed, and they still prophesied. They were preaching. And you know what they were preaching? The Word of God. If they're filled with the Spirit of God, and God says they're going to be preaching, they're not just preaching heresy. They're preaching the Word of God. They're doing what's right. The story continues. Verse 27 says, And there was, and there ran a young man who told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. He's like telling, hey man, these two guys are prophesying out there. See, Moses has the right attitude. Moses, like David, is not lifted up in pride. Moses isn't going, well, how dare they go and preach the Lord in the camp. That's not the attitude. That would be a wrong attitude. He says, One of his young men answered and said, My Lord Moses, forbid them. Tell them to stop. Tell them to stop preaching the Word of God? No. No, we don't want to oppose them. They may have been wrong, but we're not opposing the good work. We can tell them they're wrong. You can rebuke them for being wrong, but you don't forbid them from doing the work of the Lord. You don't forbid them from preaching the Word of God. You don't say, you just need to stop. And Moses said unto them, Envious thou for my sake? And he says this, Would God not all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them? He's like, I want everybody to be preaching the Word of God. Whether they're here in the tabernacle with me or not, or whether they're out somewhere else, I wish everybody would preach the Word of God. That's what I really want. So it's a good thing that they're preaching the Word of God. Maybe they're not doing it perfectly. Maybe they are making some mistakes. Maybe they should have done this and should have done that. But they're doing what's right. And we want to make sure, and even in the sowing training and everything else, I want everyone doing what's right. Now, we're not trying to just squash zeal and silence people because we're talking about having silent partners and everything else. We do want to make sure things are being done decently and in order in the way that we do things. But at the same time, we also want to encourage people to be able to talk. We just want to do it in a certain way. And if you don't like that and you say, you know what, I don't like, you know, strong-old, I'm just going to go up and do my own thing. You know what, then I'm going to say, well, God bless you. I hope you do a good work for the Lord. I'm not going to tell you, don't do that. You can't do that. Serve God. Now, under our name and representing our church, it's going to be done a certain way. But I'm not going to forbid you and say, well, you just can't, you're going to do that. You just can't do that at all. Unless it's like a false gospel or something. That's the difference. You could disagree with things, you could do things a certain way, and you could have your rules and everything else. But you're not just forbidding people from doing a work that's good for the Lord. That's the opposition that I'm trying to express here that we don't want to ever find ourselves guilty of. In Galatians chapter 2, we're going to see something, now, an area here where there's a disagreement among brethren. We're going to see the Apostle Paul, you know, withstanding Peter to the face for something that he was doing that was wrong. But I want you to notice, as I read this, he's not forbidding Peter from serving the Lord. He's trying to rebuke and correct where he's wrong. And there's a difference, and we need to understand that there's a difference. You're a pastor versus I thought you said we should never oppose people. You know, it's like, you're right, we shouldn't oppose them. But there's a difference between opposing someone and correcting someone. There's a difference between having fights and disagreements and everything among brethren and opposing them to try to stop the work that they're doing. Two different things. And that's why I'm bringing this up. I want to see that we're very clear on this, that someone fighting and having their own issues and saying, well, we're going to serve this way and we're going to serve that way. Fine. As long as you're not stopping other people from doing the work that they're doing. Others save people from serving the Lord. That's the key. That's the opposition that I'm teaching about where we don't want to be guilty of just completely opposing someone else's work to work against them. Because here's the thing. When you oppose and work against the work for the Lord, you're fighting against God. Those two guys that were preaching in camp and they're preaching the word of God and you're going to tell them not to stop. You know what? You're fighting against God. Now you can tell them, hey, you ought to be over there. You ought to be with the rest of the 68 people and do it the right way. Great. They're not saying don't do it. Forbid them. Two different things. Even if you went withstood them. What are you guys doing here in the camp? Get over there. Great. That's what they're supposed to be doing. Nothing wrong with that. And there's nothing hateful about that. And there's nothing unloving about that toward your brother. Correcting him. But that's not opposing him either. Galatians chapter 2. Verse 11. Bible reads, but when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. Now when it says he withstood him to the face, it doesn't mean he was opposing his work for the Lord. He's withstanding the error that Peter's in. Because it's kind of a big deal. Right? Peter being who he was and what's going on here. And Paul dealing with it, which by the way, dealing with it face to face. When he sees there's a problem with this, he's like, what's going on? You know what? I'm not going to go and talk to other people about this and start spreading rumors in Gaza and say, did you see what Peter was doing? Man, he was over there and he's doing this. He sees the problem and he goes to his face and deals with it. We ought to be done. Verse 12. He explains the situation. Before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. So there's this group of people that came from James. And before they came, he's eaten with the Gentiles because he understands the teaching. In Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free. They're all one in Christ. He understands his teaching and that there should be no separation. Peter himself had the vision and the dream, thou should not call any man common or unclean. He had the vision of the unclean beast. He was given that instruction from God directly. But what happens is that some people come in that have some clout, some people come in that have some weight, and he plays politics instead of standing up for what's right and he kind of fears, oh man, if these people see him eating with the Gentiles, see, they don't like that. They still are holding to this wrong doctrine of we need to be separate from the Gentiles. He changes and goes back on what he knows to be true and caves in, and it makes Apostle Paul mad, so he goes and confronts him about it. What are you doing? That's what happens here. But let's keep reading here. It says he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumstances of his fears. Just like I meant this morning preaching on fear, we shouldn't have fear. We shouldn't have fear, man, because this causes you to do things that are wrong. Many, many, many times. Fear made the wrong choice. It was a choice based on fear, not the fear of God, fear of man. Verse 13, and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, so Peter has influence over people, so now other people see him distancing himself and not wanting anything to do with the Gentiles and not eating with them. I shouldn't say not have anything to do with them, but he's not eating with them and segregating himself. It says insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. That was the real sin there. The problem is it's dissimulation. That's not what we're supposed to be doing. Barnabas was someone who was very wise and full of spirit and a good, solid disciple doing the work, and he gets carried away with this because he sees Peter and everyone else doing it, so again, unfortunately, some human behavior we need to be aware of. Don't just follow the group just as much as people are following the group and no one wanted to face Goliath. Here are people following the group going the wrong way. We need to always keep our eyes on Christ. That's the right way, and when people start straying from that, even if it's someone that you perceive to be a spiritual giant, a Peter, a Barnabas, if they're going the wrong way, God's right. The word of God's right. They're wrong, and as Apostle Paul did, he was sent into the face because he's not a respecter of persons, and he loved Peter. Showing him his error is going to be helpful to Peter. Yeah, it might be humbling. Yeah, it might sting a little bit for Peter to be called out and be called out in front of everybody or whatever. I assume he's in front of everyone, but he was sent into the face. Either way, whether it's in private or not, it's got to be uncomfortable, but I'm sure he loved Paul for doing that because we don't see some major split from this. I think Peter just gets right with God here. Verse number 14 says, But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them also, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compelest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? You're going to make them keep the law now? I mean, you can't keep the law as a Jew, so what's going to keep you so holy and separate from them? I mean, that's the distinction, right? I mean, there's another sermon for another day, never mind. I don't want to get into all that. All the symbolism between the Gentiles and the Jews and the people of God and the tabernacle being, you know, the veil being rent and twain and everything, that kind of goes into all of this. Acts 15, last place we're going to look, Acts 15. Turn a few of you to Acts 15, please. Because along these same lines, he withstands Peter, but he doesn't just forbid him from serving the Lord now. He's saying, okay, Peter, you're to be blamed. He wants to correct him. That's it. There's a disagreement or whatever. He sees something wrong. He tries to correct it, which between two disciples trying to serve God, you see someone doing something wrong in an error, and you would stand in the face and say, hey, this is wrong. I mean, you should be doing this. Great. That's not opposing their work. And even if it's some passer that's got a lot of recognition and whatever else, and they're doing something that they ought to be rebuked for and say, hey, this is wrong, that's not a bad thing, and it's not opposing the work that they're doing. Understand the difference between the two. Someone calling someone out for doing something that isn't right is different than just saying, like, you know, don't go to the, you know, don't have anything to do with these people. They're wicked and wrong, and they shouldn't be doing what, you know, and stopping at that. Those are two different things. Now, if someone's wicked and they're, you know, some false prophet, then, yeah, you call them out like that. But if it's just correcting some area where, like Peter, needed to be called out in front of everybody, and told he was wrong, then so be it. Acts 15, we're just going to see this situation here, and I've thought about this recently, but I want to kind of bring it up again just to reinforce that disagreeing among brethren, fighting and disagreeing with brethren, is not the same as opposing. It's not the same thing, so don't confuse the two. Verse number 36, the Bible says, And some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. It was a great idea. Paul and Barnabas had already gone on a mission trip and started a bunch of churches and stuff, and got a whole bunch of people saved, and traveling around, and he said, you know what? Hey, let's just go follow up with these guys now. Let's see how everyone's doing. Let's see how these churches are doing, because they don't have cell phones. They can't FaceTime, right? What do they got to do? They got to go old school, and, you know, they can't even get in a car or jump on a plane. I mean, they're like traveling. It's a big deal, so they're going to make another journey going around, and travel all these churches, and check them out, and see how everything's going. So Barnabas was like, great, it's a good idea. And Barnabas was determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. Now, if you know the book of Acts a little bit, a few chapters earlier, you're going to see John Mark embarks on their original journey with them. But what we understand here is that at some point, he cuts out. He stops doing the work, right? And that made Paul mad, because he just kind of left them and was like, all right, see, for whatever reason it was, I don't know all the reasons here, probably not a very good one, because Apostle Paul is like, you know what? I don't want this guy coming with us. He backed out once. You know, I don't trust him, or I don't want, you know, whatever, right? I don't like him. Verse 38 says, but Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia. So he made it to Pamphylia with them, and then he's just like, all right, I'm out. I got other things to deal with, or whatever, and went not with them to the work. Apostle Paul's a worker. You know what? I want to bring laborers with me, and I want people who are going to labor night and day with me. And if you ain't going to do that, see ya. But I'm not going to bring you with me again. And that's Apostle Paul, right? That was his attitude. But, you know, Barnabas is looking at him going, you know what? Yeah, he did wrong before. You know what? He's good for the work now. So they have this disagreement. Who's right? I don't know. Doesn't matter. But it becomes kind of a big problem between the two of them. Verse 39 says, So they go their different ways, and guess what? Both of those ways are serving God. Paul doesn't want John Mark going with him. I don't want anything to do with that guy. He didn't forbid John Mark from going anywhere. He just didn't want to go and be yoked up with that guy. He didn't like him. He's failed him before. I don't want to deal with that. I understand that, right? You may have friendships with someone. They stab you in the back at some point. You're like, look, I don't want anything to do with that guy anymore. And they're saved, and they're serving God, and maybe, you know. But you can understand, like, I don't want to deal with that anymore. Fine. Fine. But don't forbid them from serving the Lord. That's what we're discussing here. Go ahead. Do your thing. I'm going to do mine. And you know what? They both ended up serving the Lord. Amen. Understand the difference between the two, because we definitely should not be finding ourselves opposing, discouraging, and just trying to stop people from doing a good work for the Lord, as we saw when people were trying to stop David from doing a good work, other people trying to stop, you know, other people doing good work to serve the Lord. Encourage them. Edify them. Now, if there's disagreements and fights, and people think we should be doing this way or that way, okay. There's nothing wrong with that either. People need to be corrected. Correct them. But don't forbid their work and stop them from being in total opposition to them. As far as I've ordered prayer, Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for your word. I pray that you please just help us to grow in understanding and knowledge, dear Lord, and that people can choose to serve you with whatever company that they want to, dear Lord. But I pray that you please help us in this church to just be unified and that we would all have a great spirit here and a humble spirit, dear Lord, to continue to serve you and to just allow you to lead us and guide us and to not oppose anyone who's doing a good work for you. Lord, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. We're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, please lead us in our last song. All right, church, you can open up your hymnals. Song number 316. It's all 316. I have decided to follow Jesus. Hymn 316. All right, church, hold the verse. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back, no turning back. On the last, the world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back, no turning back. Amen. Great singing. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you, guys.