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For our first song we will be turning to song number 179 Such Love Song number 179 Such love Such wondrous Such love Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous Such wondrous At this time, we will have an opening. Next page Tonight will be in 2 Kings chapter number 8 Let's see here Sunday, February 26 Pastor Shelley will be here from Steadfast Baptist Church In Texas And he'll be here for both services That Sunday And we've got some other folks coming to visit that weekend as well Brother Corbin Russell from Faith Award Baptist Church He will be here March 26 Let's see here Oh yeah, there is one One more announcement I talked about this last week Next month I'm going to do this challenge called March Madness You're welcome to join me That's where we go soul winning every single day If you want to participate or if you have questions Just come see me after the service Let's see here Birthdays and Anniversaries for February So we had Caden on the 6th And Elowen on the 22nd Let's see here Verse of the week is Psalm 119 165 which says We are a family integrated church And so what that means is we don't separate children From their parents for any reason If you need privacy Moms can use the room right across the hallway over there And dads you can use that room Or break room, whatever is convenient There's a show out there so if you want to watch the freak show You're more than welcome to Let's see here Don't forget to turn your phone off or place it on silent So it's not a distraction And the bottom line of your bulletin says Traditions lead to perdition when the commandments of men And so with that being said We're going to have one more song And then we will have the Bible reading Alright everyone If you would please turn to song number 208 Grace greater than our sin Grace greater than our sin On the first On the first Marvelous Grace of our Loving Lord Grace that Exceeds Our sin And our guilt Yonder On Calvary's Pount Outboard There Where the blood Of the Lamb Was felt Grace Grace God's Grace Grace That will Pardon and Cleanse Within Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that is Greater than All Our sin Sin And despair Like the sea Waves cold Threaten The soul With Infinite loss Grace Grace that is Greater Yes grace Untold Points to The refuge The mighty Cross Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that Will pardon And cleanse Within Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that Is greater Than all Our sin Dark Is the stain That we Cannot Hide What can Avail To wash It away Look There is Flowing A crimson Tide Whiter Than snow You may be Today Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that will Pardon And cleanse Within Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that Is greater Than all Our sin On the last Marvellous Infinite Matchless Grace Freely Bestowed On all who Believe You that Are longing To see His face Will you this Moment His grace Receive Grace Grace God's Grace Grace That will Pardon and Cleanse Within Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that Is greater Than all Our sin Morning everybody turn to Matthew chapter 15 Matthew chapter 15 Matthew chapter 15 Matthew chapter 15 and we'll read the first 20 verses today alone Matthew 15 starting in verse 1 Then came Jesus to the scribes and the Pharisees which were of Jerusalem saying Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread But he answered and said unto them why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition For God commanded saying honor thy father and mother and he that curse a father or mother let him die to death But ye say whosoever shall say to his father his mother it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me And honor not this and honor not his father his mother He shall be free thus have he made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition The hypocrites Well did Isaiah prophesy of you saying this people draw nigh unto me with their mouth and honor me with their lips But their heart is far from me but in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men And he called the multitude and said unto them hear and understand not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man Then came his disciples and said unto him knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying But he answered and said every plant which my heavenly father have not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch Then answered Peter and said unto him declare unto us this parable and Jesus said are ye also yet without understanding Do not ye yet understand that whatsoever enterth in that the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out in the drought But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile a man For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies These are the things which defile a man but to eat with unwashed hands defile not a man Brother Denver you want to preface Lord I thank you so much for this beautiful day, this spring comes here and I thank you for a chance to gather in your name I pray that you bless, pastor and gentlemen Amen, alright Matthew chapter number 15 so we're going to be finishing up the last part of the story where we started last week Last week's sermon was titled when traditions lead to perdition we talked about how the Pharisees love to put their own laws Or the laws of the elders above the laws of God and we talked about the problem with placing the commandments of man above the commandments of God And so today is going to be the other end of that ok we're going to be dealing with the offense of the Pharisees But before we get there I want to have you guys turn to Revelation chapter number 1 Really this sermon you're going to find is centered around the verse that's on the bulletin which is Psalm 119 165 Which says great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them That's really what this all is going to boil down to Now there's an interesting fact about the word peace in the last book of the Bible You're going to see it appear two times once in chapter number 1 and once in chapter number 6 this morning And you're going to notice something very interesting about that word peace But just to start off your revelation chapter 1 look at verse number 1 it says the revelation of Jesus Christ Let's just stop right there for a second ok keep this in mind what is a revelation Well it's a revealing it's an understanding ok it gives you sight ok just keep that thought So the revelation revelation 1 1 the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him To show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John Who bear record and here's another key point that once you just think of ok the word of God So what is going on here what we see in verse 1 the subject matter is this revelation this revealing Ok and it's given to John and look at verse number 2 who bear record of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ And of all things that he and here it is again saw ok these are going to come to play here in just a minute Verse 3 blessed is he that readeth and hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which there are I'm sorry which are written therein for the time is at hand Ok so obviously you get a blessing just from reading the bible ok you get revealing you get understanding there's so much that goes into that But especially this book ok this verse here verse number 3 mentions the fact that you are blessed ok beyond measure If you read and can understand the book of revelation ok the book that reveals which is the word of God ok what does that mean Look at verse 4 so John says this in verse 4 John to the 7 churches which are in Asia grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was And which is to come and from the 7 spirits which are before his throne and so what you see there in that first 4 verses That first paragraph that we just read there is the believers can have peace because we can see because of the word of God it reveals to us And not just a physical sight ok now let's look at the opposite of that in revelation chapter number 6 so go over to revelation chapter number 6 And look at verse number 3 it says and when he had opened revelation 6 3 and when he had opened the second seal I heard the second beast say come and see Verse 4 and there went out another horse that was red and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth That they should kill one another and there was given unto him a great sword now you might read that and think like wow that's like right now You know there's no peace on the earth but there actually is in a generalized sense ok there's still some law and order there are you know still Consequences if you will for just randomly killing other people what this is describing is a different level ok there's coming a time where God is going to take Peace from the earth and what does that look like well there's a lot that goes into that and hopefully what you're already seeing here is that part of what I guess produces peace on the earth literally are believers people that can see people that can understand people that raise godly families people that walk Themselves through scripture that live out the bible that produces peace in a way that we can't even understand and so God is saying that there's coming a day Where that is going to be taken away from the earth and what's the result once that's taken away people start killing each other ok it's just mayhem It's just absolute chaos it's destruction like the earth has never seen before but why is it when peace is removed from the earth that people go and kill them Or kill other people and you just see all of this horrible stuff going on well it's simple ok if believers have peace because we can see Well non-believers don't have peace because they can't see now leave your place there in Revelation chapter 6 and go to 2 Kings chapter number 6 Go all the way over to the Old Testament 2 Kings chapter number 6 ok so I'm going to make this statement here which is believers have peace because they can see Non-believers have anxiety because they can't see so what you see there in Revelation 6 is when peace is removed from the earth it produces anxiety Because people are coming to the realization that they can't see that they can't control the outcome like they think they can today The narrative has been exposed therefore people lash out in violence because that is something that they can do and temporarily see And I'm going to show you this here in the Bible and really what I'm saying here believers can have peace because not all of us have peace all the time And we'll talk about that ok just because we're saved doesn't mean that we're always going to have this great peace when bad things happen to us We still have to learn to suppress our emotions and control and we'll get into that here ok but just a little bit of review 2 Kings chapter number 6 We talked about this just a few weeks ago ok the situation here obviously Elisha is the main prophet of the land he's prophesying to the northern kingdom of Israel And you know King Jehoram is just kind of on and off again ok he's not obviously as bad as his father Ahab but in this specific time the king of Syria has decided he's going to send bands over and harass Israel And start wars and in the process of him doing that if you remember the king of Syria is like hey who keeps telling the king of Israel where I'm going to be and blowing my plans and blowing my cover And his own guys were like no it's the prophet ok there's none of us we're not traitors it's the prophet Elisha he's the one revealing this to the king And so the king of Syria is like let's go snatch him up let's go try to cause him some trouble so let's pick it up right in that moment verse 13 2 Kings chapter 6 verse 13 Look what this says And he said go this is the king of Syria go and spy where he is that I may send and fetch him and it was told him saying behold he is in Dothan Verse 14 Therefore sent he the other horses and chariots and a great host and they came by night and compassed the city about Ok so the king of Syria sends his guys they compass the city of Dothan where Elisha the prophet is they surrounded the city ok which would definitely be a terrifying thing look at verse 15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early this is one of Elisha's servants says and gone forth behold a host compass the city both with horses and chariots and his servant sent him Look at this statement here alas my master how shall we do now obviously this guy is a servant to the prophet and he's experiencing anxiety he is not at peace right now Why is that? Well let's keep reading look at verse 16 look at what his boss says And he answered fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them So you have two people here both saved one is feeling fear one is feeling anxiety and the other one is completely cool calm and he is collected Ok now look at Elisha who is calm look at why he is calm look at verse 17 And Elisha prayed and said Lord I pray thee open his eyes that he may see Now let's stop right there what does that mean because obviously the servant here he saw the fact that they were surrounded with his physical eyes He could witness that he could see that he understood that but he was fearful So what eyes are Elisha praying that God would open? The eyes of the new man the spiritual understanding So verse 17 and Elisha prayed and said Lord I pray thee open his eyes that he may see And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha You see that there? That's the goal of today's sermon how do we overcome offenses How do we come a people that when offenses come we're able to brush them off we don't let them bog us down we don't let them stop our forward momentum How do we do that how do we remain calm like Elisha how do we go through things like Paul like Peter like all the disciples how do we do that By seeking to have our eyes open not the physical eyes but the eyes of the new man which can only be opened by God and who is God he is the word of God Understand that now go back if you would to Matthew chapter number 15 Therefore I said believers have peace because they can see they have the opportunity to see but non-believers on the other hand have anxiety because they can't see they can't control And you know I'll just tell you a quick story I think these are you know very applicable the military is very good at doing this to people I learned this lesson when I was 18 19 years old about how you can cause anxiety on another person and you do that by taking away their ability to see For example you know you would think let me let me just do this here I'll bet right now most of you could come up here and probably do this as long as you want Just lean against the wall no problem right and just talk to somebody but here's the thing what if someone had power over you and they said go lean up against that wall And they just walked away and you knew you couldn't get off the wall about a minute like a minute goes by your neck's gonna start hurting your shoulders gonna start hurting Your hips gonna start hurting you're gonna start sweating why because you don't know when that's gonna end just something as simple like like arm circles Okay they would have us do arm circles okay you know how in the movies are always like hey drop and give me 10 okay they don't they don't do stuff like that They say hey you start pushing right now okay and you have no idea when that punishment's gonna end and what does that do that creates anxiety that creates fear And so if you could do let's say you could drop down right now and just do 50 push-ups without ease okay if somebody comes up to you and just start pushing You know you're probably gonna get about 20 or 30 and that anxiety okay that emotion is gonna pull blood away and go into your brain in places it doesn't need to be And you're gonna start shaking you're not gonna be able to do as well okay and that's what we're talking about that feeling that when you find yourself in that position How do you overcome that okay because we have to deal with that spiritually we have to deal with that on another level I mean just think about times that you've been filled with anxiety It's probably because you're in a situation to where you can't see how you're gonna get out right I mean think about it think back to a time where something was bothering you something was keeping you awake at night You know like what was going through your mind and I'll bet if you sit down and you just meditate and just think about it it all boils down to the fact that you could not see an escape You could not see a way out but there's always a way out for the believer because the Word of God has promises the Word of God has peace and you know we can overcome anything The Bible is very clear that God will not give us more than we can handle and so when we can see that so that's the thing we got to be able to see that Okay and you don't just see that with your eyes you see that with the new man meaning you understand it goes into the heart and you live it out through faith So let's get started here Matthew chapter 15 we're gonna pick it up in verse number 10 This is right after Jesus talks about how in vain do the Pharisees worship me but obviously they promote the commandments of men versus the commandments of God Look what he does next this is what Jesus does next in verse number 10 He says and he called the multitude and said unto them hear and understand So now Jesus is like okay you know I'm gonna make this thing public I'm going to expose this here Verse 11 he says not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man but that which cometh out of the mouth this defileth a man So what does that mean? Well the Pharisees were like hey why aren't the disciples washing their hands before they eat? You know the mind of the disciples and the law of the elders they're thinking well you know their hands are dirty and that dirt's gonna get into the mouth And it's gonna corrupt a person and so if you don't do that now guess what well now you're defiled now you're not spiritually clean Now you are the problem Jesus says that has nothing to do with what defiles a man and he's gonna get into what that is here in a moment But look at verse number 12 Then came his disciples and said unto him knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying Okay and this is what blows a lot of people's minds in the world today because people in the world today as you all know Have this vision they have this Jesus that they have created in their own minds and this Jesus wouldn't offend anyone I mean why do you think these freaks are out here? Because they're offended over stuff that we've said They're so offended that they're willing to give up their time which apparently belongs to us and just stand out there and yell and scream at people as they come into church Because they're offended they're hurt their feelings are hurt we have violated their traditions according to them But we don't care we're always gonna go with the commandments of God over the commandments of men So what do we do when we offend other people that's what Jesus is gonna show us right now So the disciples are like Lord like you offended them okay so what's Jesus gonna do here? God better go love them to pieces and love them back and win them back is that what he's gonna do? We'll see verse 13 But he answered and said every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up And on your own time go back to Matthew 13 and read the parable of the wheat and the tares and kind of think about how that fits in there Something that we as God's people are just gonna have to learn to deal with is that as we grow as we move forward There will always be tares among us and I'm not saying there's any in here today But collectively in the world today where all of our brethren are worshiping there are tares amongst them They will come here and I talk about this all the time it always happens it's a thing it is what it is okay The only way to deal with that is to go read Matthew chapter 18 no I'm just kidding But the only way to deal with that is to just not get offended yourself I mean you know that that's the only thing that you can do you have to be the one that can see You have to be the one that can understand and as long as you know that that's going to happen That's the business that we're in we have to work alongside these people When you get that and you understand that that will give you peace that will keep you from getting offended Look at verse 14 this is what Jesus says That's Jesus' response when he offended the Pharisees I'll leave them alone they're going to hell that's basically what he's saying You think he's talking about a physical ditch? Oh they're just going to go lay down in a physical ditch Did Jesus say you know well maybe we can find something in common Like these freaks out here we found something in common without Episcopalian church over there And they like us and they give us water and they let us park in their parking spaces They follow the real Jesus No that's wrong Okay anytime you call yourself a Christian and you're siding with the devil There's a huge problem there a huge problem there What we do is what Jesus did just leave them alone Let the blind lead the blind because they're both going to fall into the ditch Here's what else he's saying these blind people are without discretion They're without discernment they are unsaved In another place that we're going to get to in the future Jesus says that you guys You Pharisees you Sadducees you Scribes you actually prevent people from entering the kingdom of heaven And you don't go in yourselves Think about that we have the right to offend people We have that right Jesus did it he doesn't apologize for that In fact he says leave them alone who cares they're going to hell Wait a minute that's not the Jesus I heard on TV That's not the Jesus over there at that freak show church You're right it's not it's the Jesus of the Bible So what's the idea here Well the idea here is that the blind follow the blind they both fall into the ditch Okay now symbolically metaphorically what this is talking about here Is that when blind people follow false teachers Guess what they're going to fall into the ditch which is hell So what does that mean for the saved Well if the blind follow the blind and they fall into the ditch Then the sighted follow the light giver And we don't fall we go to heaven And by follow I'm not saying that if you're really saved you're going to do everything right all the time That's not what I'm talking about Okay but the only way to get saved is to follow what the Bible says and put your faith and trust on Christ That's what I mean by that If the blind follow the blind they shall both fall into the ditch Well that means that the sighted are going to follow the light giver And we're not going to fall into the ditch it's impossible It is impossible to do that Go to Ephesians chapter number 5 And we're going to talk about something here that I hear all the time Just because it's here and I think it's worth mentioning And that is I've even heard this screamed at some people It's that you're just blindly following the Bible You just blindly follow church You just blindly follow your religion You just blindly do this People say that to us all the time But you know what? Nothing could be further from the truth We are not the ones that are blind I mean think about this here Okay Jesus calls these religious leaders of his day The Pharisees the Sadducees and often the scribes Blind Yet they have scripture They preach they looked apart But he says you're blind You cannot see Okay they are the ones that are blind Their followers are the ones that are blindly following the false teachers Not us And just to prove this point here Oh you blindly follow the Bible You have blind faith That doesn't even work Okay Because faith is the substance of things hoped for The evidence of things not yet seen Okay So how do you see those things? By the promises By the things that are in the word of God and believing them Okay having your eyes open that way Ephesians chapter 5 We looked at this verse last week But we're gonna look at it again just very quickly Look at verse 14 So Paul tells the Ephesians this He says Think about it Well What does that mean? Well that means the sighted which is us We have the ability to see The ability to see not just physically but obviously spiritually We can follow the light giver So when we're saved we put our faith and trust on Christ He gives us light He gives us the Holy Ghost And we're able to understand the things that are written down In the word of God And get peace and comfort from those things So the Bible tells us in just one verse here That Christ gives us light So are we blindly following the Bible? Who is Christ? He is the word of God Go if you would to Psalm the book of Psalms We're gonna stay here for a little while Psalms chapter 97 Psalms chapter 97 Then we're gonna go to Psalm 119 So go to Psalm chapter 97 You're just blindly following the Bible Oh you don't wanna go golfing with me on Sunday morning? You don't wanna go clubbing with me on Fridays? You're just blindly following the Bible Psalm 97 look at verse 11 That's a fact That is how God set this thing up Light is sown for the righteous Where does that light come from? It comes from the word of God obviously Look at the rest of the verse Think about that, gladness It's a synonym of the word peace Gladness for the upright in heart Well we know that no one's upright of their own accord So it has to be talking about believers So guess what? If you're upright in heart Meaning you're a believer and you're walking in the spirit And you're like hey I'm all about the word of God I wanna read, I wanna learn, I wanna study Guess what? Light is sown for you You have the ability You have the choice To walk in that light And to not be the one that's offended And to be the one that can be in peace No matter what is going on around you And that will produce gladness For the upright in heart Go to Psalm chapter 119 Look at verse 105 All the way over Verse 105 I love these verses, I read them all the time Let's read it again Psalm 119, 105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet So who's the one blindly following the Bible? Well it has to be the unsaved person Okay when the blind follow the Bible You know what you get? You get traditions and commandments of men That's what you get Cause my Bible, your Bible says Thy word is a lamp unto my feet And a light unto my path So when people say this to us We quote them this verse here No the word of God is my lamp That is how I see That is how I walk through life That is how I navigate all of the traps That are set before me from the enemy Go over to Psalm 119, verse 130 Psalm 119, verse 130 Look at this The entrance of thy words giveth light Okay, what does that mean? The entrance of thy words giveth light Well as a believer again You want to make the choice to be upright in heart And let these words come in Through your eyes, through your ears And resonate in that new man And that provides you your light, your wisdom The way that you walk, how you see The entrance of thy words giveth light It giveth understanding to the simple Don't ever let somebody tell you Oh, you don't have this Bible college degree You haven't been going to church as long as me Blah, blah, blah So you don't know as much as me Don't let somebody make you feel that way No, it's all about the entrance of the word of God If you're taking in the word of God Then you have the ability to see You are not simple You are growing This clown out here You know, he makes it a point to be here I guess every service now I guess I was told he was here on Wednesday And he carries the same sign And I'm telling you right now Most people see him as a homeless guy Just walking back and forth He's got a little flag with a cardboard sign I mean, that's what I would think Okay, but his sign says something to the effect of I've been born again Christian Longer than that pastor's been alive The problem is The word of God has never entered into that man's eyes or ears And if it did It got kicked right out Okay Think about this How do we go from being simple To being prudent To being what? The word of God coming in Okay It's not, you know And people have the scale And a lot of people do this And if you've done this You know, I've done this in the past When I was a babe in Christ You know, it's okay It's what people do But people have the scale And they're like, you know I've been saved ten years Why? You've only been saved this long Why are you telling me what to do? Why are you trying to give me advice? Your spiritual maturity depends on you And how much of the word of God you choose to enter in And how you try to apply that And, you know, so on and so forth We talk about that all the time The fact of the matter is We are not the ones blindly following the Bible That is an impossible feat That cannot happen Because the Bible is light Thy word is a lamp unto my feet And a light unto my path That is what the word of God says The entrance of thy words giveth light You are here this morning getting light Not from me From the word of God From the Bible During the week When you pick up the Bible And you read through that You are giving yourself light You are the one that is enabling yourself To be able to see Go back Keep your place there in Psalms But go to Back to Matthew chapter 15 We're gonna come back to Matthew chapter 15 We're gonna come right back to the book of Psalms So again, believers have peace because they can see Non-believers have anxiety because they cannot see And we see this all the time You know, you see that look on people's faces a lot When you go knock on someone's door And then you ask them, are you saved? Do you know for sure if you were to die today That you would go to heaven? I'm like, I sure hope so I think so I talked to God That's what one woman told us yesterday I talked to God She's like, but that doesn't make sense, does it? You know, she had a little munchkin around She wasn't able to talk But you can just see that fear That's why we ask those questions To see if we can pick up any anxiety Any difficulty Any unsettling in the speech Because then we can gear the conversation on how to help that How to resolve that And how do we always do that? By showing them the Gospel By trying to open up their eyes By getting the Word of God into their eyes Into their ears And hopefully down into the heart Before the enemy can come and pluck that seed away So again, let's read these verses Matthew 15, look at verse 10 again And he called the multitude and said unto them Hear and understand Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man But that which cometh out of the mouth This defileth a man So why does he give this analogy here? Why does he teach this? Why is this in the Bible? It's to show us that seeing is not just physical but spiritual It is very important It is so important that it's mentioned over and over in different ways Throughout the entire Bible From Genesis all the way to the book of Revelation So go back to the book of Psalms real quick Let's look at one more Psalm 19 We're going to look at verse number 8 Psalm chapter number 19 I know somebody in here is thinking that I couldn't see that it's Valentine's Day on, is it Tuesday? I was going to preach a Valentine's Day sermon and then I just wrote this and just realized that right now So that's alright, I can see you next year, Lord willing I'll preach you a Valentine's Day sermon There's cupcakes in there so forgive me, okay? That's love for you, alright? Psalm 19, look at verse number 8 The statutes of the Lord are right Rejoicing the heart The commandment of the Lord is pure What are the last three words? Enlightening the eyes You want to know how to have peace when everything seems to be falling down around you? It's the Bible, it's the word of God It's putting these things in through your eyes and having your spiritual eyes open so that you can really see So that you can understand and that is going to bring you peace That is going to make it so you are not the one that is offended It is the other party and it stays that way That's their business, that's for them to deal with We do not have to feel guilty about making people offended by preaching the truth We don't have to go around Let me just apologize, I'm sorry I said that, blah blah blah That's what cowards do We don't do that, go back to Matthew chapter 15 Let's look at this main verse again here, verse number 12 Then came his disciples, Matthew 15, 12 Then came his disciples and said unto him Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? And so the question is the title Oh, so you're offended? Big deal What do you want, a medal? Why don't you just start crying? I mean do something, I don't care This analogy was in response to the fact that the Pharisees were offended So instead of apologizing, Jesus backs up the truth That's what we do Oh, you're offended about Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13? Oh, no problem, we'll just preach some more sermons about it We'll just keep talking about it We'll just go out into the community and make sure that we mention it all the time And get people saved There's more of us, there's more people on our side even Than are on their side And that's a fact, that is an absolute fact You don't have to turn there But I'm going to read the verse on the bulletin one more time Which is Psalm 119 verse 165 Great peace have they, and please understand this Great peace have they which love thy law And nothing shall offend them That's the key there, it's not automatic You've got to learn to love the Bible Understand the value, understand what's in it for you Peace, less anxiety, the ability to see in a world that seems to just be going crazy I mean you can't go anywhere without hearing bad news I think Fox, CNN, MSNBC, all of these things should just come together And just say we are now the denomination of bad news We are the bad news network That way we can all just understand it and get over it Great peace have they which love thy law Does that say great peace have they which will it in their hearts to never be offended? No Who are the ones that do not get offended? The people who love the word of God It's that simple It's that simple but yet most people unfortunately don't see that Don't get that, don't understand that They come to church over and over again Oh I'll never get offended, I'll never be the one that's offended And then something happens and they get offended and leave Why is that? It's because we have this problem today where people just want to look the part I need to look new IFB They never stopped and did an audit, did a self-assessment and said You know what, maybe certain things right now just aren't feasible I need to work into this If we could just learn to be people that aren't ashamed of who we are and where we're at We could go so much further in life So much further in the Christian life By just being able to see reality Like I am not there yet Acknowledging you know what I get offended easily I've got a problem Well whatever it is If we could get to that state When a person's in that state we can help them We can help ourselves, we can help each other The idea here and the goal is to learn to love the law Love the word of God And then you will become that rock Because that's what the word of God is, it's a rock It's Jesus Christ, it's the Bible given to us Now let's say you love the law You are Psalm 119, 165 Does that mean that you're not even going to feel the emotion of being offended? No you're going to feel it You're going to feel it Because again we have this dual nature We have the new man inside But we've got this old man And you feel offense When someone offends you, you feel it The difference is when you can see And you can understand how to respond And what to do with those offenses What to do when you offend somebody else with the truth When you can see that You will be able to overpower those feelings And that emotion that arises in your heart And so again, if you look at verse 14 You're going to see the solution here What's the solution again Because it's worth mentioning again When we offend people with the Bible When we offend people with the truth When we offend people with our lives I think, I would say this is probably an underestimate Just me throughout the week I probably get told at least once a week And that's being conservative That homeschooling the kids is going to make them awkward Because of the nature of my job I talk to all sorts of people And they always want to get to know you a little bit And that's fine, whatever Do you have kids? It's the first thing people ask Yeah, I have kids Oh nice, how old are they? What school do they go to? What college are they going to? That's like a big thing around here What college are they going to? None They're not going What? Are they going to be one of these online people That make online money? I don't know, maybe, probably What's it to you if they've got the money? I mean, that's smart I feel like saying it I don't say this because I'm trying to be professional But hey, they're not going to be one of these people That owes thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars I've been there I'm speaking from experience here I bought into the lie I was fed the lie And we're just trying to help people Verse 14 This is what we have permission to do When we offend people with our words or with our lifestyle But these people, when they ask me this A lot of times they get offended Especially when a schoolteacher Boy, you talk to one of these schoolteachers out here Oh man, not all of them I've talked to some ones that are great That are like Hey, I'm here because I believe I'm fighting for the truth And I don't teach that woke garbage There are actually some, say, born again Christian teachers That are in this community There are, I've talked to them But some of them, they get offended like Well, the school district's just not good enough for you? And they'll say things like that And I'm just like I can't believe you're talking to me like this You don't even know me They're just offended based off of a choice that we made 18 years ago To homeschool the kids Just like Well, what about all the stuff they missed out on? Like what? Look, I went inside one of these high schools Not too long ago to fix something You want to talk about the freak show out here It's the same thing in there Same thing, McMillan and Cloverdale That high school, whatever the hell that school's called You take a picture of these fools out here And you transplant them into that high school That's what it is I'm not kidding I walked in there The first thing I see is someone dressed up as a rainbow unicorn Purple and blue hair Purple and blue hair I mean, I thought I was going to see the reprobate in there It was crazy I'm like, what in the world's going on here? But, you know, these people are getting offended Because we won't send our kids to their school You don't even know me And it's just like Wow You, my friend, are living out the Bible for me And thank you for this visual lesson that I can now go back and teach But here's what we do Let them alone They be blind leaders of the blind And if the blind leave the blind, both shall fall into the ditch Hey, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing We have the word of God The word of God is being spread We're knocking doors all the time People don't want to listen, man That's on them Okay, I'm not going to put my foot in the door You're not going to be able to love someone in that mindset to pieces And, oh, just show them with your life Look, people look at our lives and they're horrified Your wife doesn't work What does she do all day? Stays home with the kids Oh, I'd go nuts I had a woman tell me that the other day I'd go insane So, instead, you surround yourself with 30 or 40 kids that you didn't give birth to And you're wondering why you're on all these psychedelic medications Why your pantry, instead of having food, is just filled with booze It's insane, the logic that these people have It is what it is So, again, you will feel the emotion of offense in the flesh But the path through that is that love of the word of God which gives us life We're not the ones blindly following the Bible Because of that, we're going to be offending people all the time It's just going to happen And the result is you leave them alone When we do other things and offend people, we'll get to that in several weeks When we're in Matthew chapter 18, we'll talk about that But the point is, the Pharisees here, obviously, they don't love the word of God They're more concerned about the tradition of the elders They're more concerned about whether or not somebody washed their hands in the correct manner for the right amount of time And look, it is a good thing to wash your hands before you eat I'm not knocking that But you're not going to lose rewards in heaven if you don't And you might not even get sick all the time if you don't It depends on what you're doing and where you're at Now, I had a job one time where they would regularly test your blood for metals and different things like that And I worked with this one guy, this was several years ago And the amount of metals in his blood was insane But this guy here, I mean, he would literally, this is gross, but he would literally eat his lunch He would eat a sandwich, and I'd be watching him eat this sandwich during lunch With, like, just the greasiest hands you could imagine Like, he literally stuck his hand inside of an oil pan, took it out I mean, there's black fingerprints all over this white bread and this dude's eating the sandwich So, look, this guy had all kinds of stuff going on in his blood You know, and they're like, look, you're disgusting This is what he was told in the abbey You're disgusting, you're going to die Look at your blood work here, it's off the charts, you need to start washing your hands And they would send somebody and make sure that he washed his hands Thirty days after they told this individual to start washing your hands before you eat Guess what? His blood went back to normal Okay, so we live in a little bit of a different age Jesus isn't saying, you know, just throw hygiene out of the water The point is, the accusation from the Pharisees was that your disciples are defiled Because they don't follow the commandments of men Okay, and Jesus is simply saying, hey, your traditions actually violate the commandments of God Which is what defiles people from the heart And you understand that Now today, again, just to continue on with this People do get offended over the silliest things And it seems to be getting worse, and it makes sense Because the Bible talks about how in the end times People would become, they will increasingly become selfish People are giving up selfless service and going towards the selfish side It's just the time in which we're living in And I can remember way back when this church first started And it was still in our house And there was a guy, and it was right before I was about to give the announcements And he comes up and he says, I'm leaving right now, I'm offended Because of the way this woman looked at me And I just remember thinking, you're not going to make it You're just, I'm sorry, you're just not going to make it I didn't say that to him, I just said, okay And then I went and gave the announcements He wound up staying around, you know, for a while And then after that, you know, some time went by Remember, he sent me this message And he says, hey, just want to let you know You know, that I willed it in my heart You know, that offenses come from both sides of the ministry And I'm never going to quit I'm never going to allow that to offend me I knew in that moment, my suspicion was confirmed That someday he would fall out You know why? Because the verse in your bulletin, what does it say? Great peace have they which love thy law It doesn't say great peace have they Which will it in their heart from their flesh That they won't get offended It says great peace have they which love thy law And nothing shall offend them That is what the Bible teaches So when I read that message, I knew it was done It's sad, it's beta, it's disgusting But that's the path that believers can go to When they decide to close their eyes When they decide not to have the word of God enter Into their hearts and into their minds So that they can clearly see the proper way to do business The proper way to live life It's sad but true We're almost done, look at verse 15 Then answered Peter and said unto him, declare unto us this parable And again, I love Peter He was the one that hopped out of the boat He was like, let me just try to walk on water Let's do this You gotta give him that kind of credit And he's the first one speaking up here Declare unto us this parable You know why he said that? Because none of them understood it Look what Jesus said Are ye, it says in verse 16 And Jesus said are ye also without understanding So Jesus is like, are ye also without eyes Are ye also the ones that can't see Are ye also the ones that cannot understand Verse 17 Do not ye yet understand That whatsoever enteth in at the mouth goeth into the belly And is cast out into the drought But those things which proceed out of the mouth Come forth from the heart They defile the man And this here is what we have to acknowledge This is what is in man This is what is in all of us This is what comes from the flesh Verse 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts Murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies You know that's what comes from your heart Those things bubble up Those things circle around Those things are in our old man Those things are in our flesh This is why the Christian life is so difficult Because we have to acknowledge this And understand the way that we can have peace Despite this fact here Is that we can learn to love the Bible Understand the value Understand it It has the answers to suppress this Jesus says, verse 20 These are the things which defile a man But to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man Because of those things Is why we had to be saved This is why you cannot repent of your sins and be saved This is why works cannot contribute to your salvation It is impossible We very briefly summed this up for a young woman yesterday And I could see that light bulb I could see that light bulb go off her head like Oh, can I believe that too? She probably went inside and was like phew She didn't have time to get into it But the point is The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin There ain't nobody around here giving up foolish thoughts We can learn to close our mouths We can learn to restraint But here's the thing There is great peace when you understand There's not necessarily something wrong with you Because you have these thoughts that pop in your head It's the fact that you can suppress this By learning to walk in the new man You have that option, you have that ability That's why we have to have a new man That new man isn't going to have any of this That new man doesn't have any of this When you get your new body This stuff won't be there It will be without Which again, I said this a couple of weeks ago And I'll say it again When people come to you and say Hey, do you think you can sin in the millennium? If you were saved going in Do you think you can sin in the new Jerusalem or in heaven? No It's not going to happen Because this here pertains to the flesh And hey, you can have great peace You're saved from all that Jesus paid the debt for all that He wiped it away You just have to keep telling yourself that You just have to keep battling that You just have to understand that Despite the fact that we all have to struggle with these things We can still have peace We can still do great works for God So stop beating yourselves up If you are over these things It's part of the flesh Understand you are a dual creature as of right now You have the new man And you can choose to walk in that But this person, he's been conquered Okay, this verse 19 here This heart that's in man Jesus conquered that on the cross He defeated that That is not who you are So again, verse 20 These are the things which defile a man But to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man So again, he's pointing to things that originate in the spiritual to confirm what is important Okay, the important point of the law Which is what? Salvation The fact that we need to be saved And the good news again for us is that believers can have peace Because we have the opportunity to see We can see Not just with the eyes but with the new man We can look at the things that are going on We can look at these Chinese spy balloons And we can look at all that stuff that's going on And why isn't this going on? And why aren't they doing this? Did they spy on our nuclear sites? And understand It doesn't matter I'm an ambassador Okay If this country decides If this world decides That they're going to follow the antichrist Hey, I'm here as an ambassador I'm just here to preach the message I don't belong here This isn't my home So I'm not going to get offended because they didn't shoot it down or whatever I'm not going to get offended because of that Now I'm going to get a little mad about some things Don't get me wrong We have that right We have the right to preach against We have all the sin of wickedness We have the right to do the John the Baptist And to call our wicked leaders out We can do that We can pray in the way that we need to pray about those people and situations But we can have peace about it when people turn their backs on us When people get upset at what we're saying That is the whole point here Oh, so you're offended? So what? Let the blind lead the blind Because you know what? Both are going to fall into the ditch We're here doing our jobs We can see And we are ready, willing, and able to help as many people as want to be helped But to those who don't, it's on them, not you Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Thank you so much, Lord For this great comfort And for the fact that we can have peace Because we can see through your word, Lord We don't blindly follow anything Your word is light Please bless the fellowship after the service And bring us back again safely tonight In Jesus' name I pray, Amen All right, everyone, for our final song we will be turning to Excuse me We will be turning to song number 180 Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? We will be turning to song number 180 On the first There will never be a sweeter story Story of the Savior's love divine Love that brought Him from the realms of glory Just to save a sinful soul like mine Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to me On the second Boundless as the universe around me Reaching to the farthest soul away Saving, keeping love it was that found me That is why my heart can truly say Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to me On the last Love beyond our human comprehending Love of God in Christ how can it be? This will be my theme and never ending Great redeeming love of Calvary Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful Wonderful Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to me Alright, let's bow our heads for our word of prayer Dear Lord, thank you for this time we had to hear your word be preached I ask that you please help us to remember these things And I also ask that you please bless the fellowship after the service In Jesus' name we pray, Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen