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

Let's go ahead and re-read a couple of verses in this chapter, look back at verse 4 if you would. The Bible read, And David said unto him, How went the matter, I pray thee, tell me. And he answered, That the people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also. Skip down to verse 9. He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me and slay me. For anguish is to come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me. So I stood upon him and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen. And I took the crown that was upon his head, and the brace that was on his arm, and it brought them hither unto my Lord. And then skip down to verse 14. And David said unto him, How was thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? Now this is a very interesting chapter of the Bible. You start the second book of Samuel, and it's this story of a man, this Amalekite, who's coming unto David, and he's telling him this story how Saul had died. And if you had gone back one chapter, at the end of 1 Samuel, we see Saul die at the very end of that chapter. Saul is killed in battle. It says that Saul killed himself, though, according to that Bible. And if you read your Bible very carefully, you'll realize that this Amalekite was lying. He was not telling the truth. He didn't actually kill Saul, according to the Bible. The Bible says that Saul fell upon his own sword. Now this guy was saying that he slayed him, and that he had fallen on his spear. So most of his story doesn't line up, but we see that David has something very interesting here. He says, How were you not afraid to stretch forth thine hand against the Lord's anointed? Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 26, if you would. I'll read for you at the end of 16, David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head, for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed. Now it's interesting because David knew that this was a big sin. This was an important thing to David. He knew that going against God's anointed, going against the man of God, was a very wicked sin. That you were never supposed to go against God's anointed for any reason. We see a lot of examples of David not going against God's anointed, not going against Saul, not slaying him when he had the chance, but this guy that does, he condemns it very greatly. He says he kills the agai, he kills the Amalekai, he takes his life for killing him. Now go to 1 Samuel 26, let's read verse 9, And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless? So there was an example here where David had an opportunity to actually kill Saul himself. If he really wanted to kill Saul, if he really thought that was a good idea, he would have done it himself because he had ample opportunity. But he knew that slaying God's man was a very wicked sin. Now of course, David did point out Saul's falls. David did correct Saul and say, look, you're chasing after me and I haven't done anything wicked. Why are you coming after me as a flea? Why are you trying to kill me? Not only that, David departed from Saul. So David didn't necessarily stay and serve with Saul. He didn't always stay there and help him out and accomplish all of his will because he would have been killed if he had stuck around. Saul was trying to kill David, so he departed from him. But we see David was not willing to take Saul's life. He wasn't willing to go against the Lord's anointed. This is a very big and wicked sin. Look at verse 11 here in verse 26. The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed. But I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster and the cruise of water and let us go. So David, he takes some of Saul's materials here. He takes his spear, he takes his bolster to just prove to Saul that, hey, I have the opportunity to kill you, but I fear God more than anybody else and he doesn't want me to kill you. He doesn't want me to slay you. That's not my place. It's not my job to go out and kill God's anointed, to go against the man of God. That's a very wicked sin. And he even said to the guy that was supposed to be protecting Saul, he said that he was worthy of death because he had let David sneak in unawares and have the opportunity to kill him. So you see, God's anointed is supposed to be protected by God's people. God's anointed is never supposed to be gone against, it's never supposed to be attacked, it's never supposed to be slain by us. We're not supposed to go against God's man. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 then. First Chronicles 16, the Bible says, saying, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. Psalms 105 15 says, saying, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. The exact same verse multiple times in the Bible. Why? Because this is a big deal to God. God does not want you to go against his anointed, to go against his chosen, to go against the man of God, against his prophet. You say, well, that's the Old Testament. You know, I mean, obviously we're not supposed to kill people and just slay, we're not in all these battles. Look at 1 Timothy 5 verse 1, the Bible reads, rebuke not an elder but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren. And the title of my sermon tonight is rebuke not an elder. So we're going to look at a lot of Old Testament examples, but this is a theme throughout the whole Bible. We're never to rebuke an elder, ever. It's a wicked sin, it's evil, it's just going to cause strife, it's going to cause division in the church, it's going to cause evil and wicked things to come upon you. God took this sin very seriously in the Old Testament. When this guy slayed Saul, even if his testimony was true, which it was, we know that he was a liar, but if he had slain Saul, even by his mouth, he was killed himself because David said, look, you've testified against yourself. If you slay the Lord's anointed, you're worthy of death. This was a big sin. Keep your finger here in 1 Timothy 5. Let's go back to 2 Samuel chapter 4. And we're going to read here in verse 5, we're going to read another story that's very similar. It says in verse 5, and the sons of Reman, the Betharite, Rekab and Baanah, went and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on bed at noon. And they came thither into the midst of the house as though they would have fetched wheat. And they smote him under the fifth rib, and Rekab and Baanah his brother escaped. For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they smote him and slew and beheaded him, and took his head and gat them all away through the plain all night. And they brought the head of Ishbosheth unto David the Hebron, and said to the king, behold, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul thine enemy, which sought thy life, and the Lord of the Venge, my Lord, the day, this day of Saul and of his seed. Look at verse 9, and David answered, Rekab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Reman, the Bearer I fight, and said unto them, As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, think to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings. How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? Shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth? And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool of Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried in the sepulchre of Abner and Hebron. So again, we see these guys, they come to David, and they kill his adversary, Ishbosheth. Because during this time when Saul had died, there was kind of this power struggle for Israel, for Judah, for the land. We see that they were at war with one another, to try and see who's going to be the king overall. Who's going to be the one with the most influence? And as time was going on and on, David's house was getting stronger and stronger, and Saul's house was declining. It was getting weaker and weaker. And eventually these two guys come, and they just slay Ishbosheth. They just kill him. When he's weak, when he's just on his bed, unexpected, they come in and just take off his head. And they think, Hey, let's go tell David. Now David will reward us. I mean, we've killed his adversary. And they come unto David and say, Look, did you not know the last guy that came to me thinking that he had slain a righteous person was going to get a reward? You're going to get your hands cut off and you're going to be hung up because it's a wicked sin to kill God's anointing, to go against another brother in Christ, to go against the elder, to go against the guy that God put in power to get put in charge. It's a very wicked sin. Go back to 1 Timothy chapter 5, if you would. We should always have respect unto the man of God, unto the God's anointed, unto those whom God has put in positions of authority, who God has put in a position of power. Look at 1 Timothy 5, skip down to verse 17. The Bible reads, Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine, for the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. Against an elder receive not an accusation, but for two or three witnesses. Then that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. So the Bible is saying, look, the person that's in charge, the elder, is supposed to have double honor. I mean, you're supposed to have high respect for this person. You're not supposed to just, oh, I'm just going to speak evil of him. Oh, I'm just going to speak wicked things about him. Oh, I'm just going to go behind his back and just talk all evil and speak evil and put my hand forth against God's anointed. That's a wicked sin. Anybody that knows me knows I won't tolerate that for one second. I mean, you could ask my wife. I'm not going to let anybody speak evil of the man of God. When we go home, when we're in private, when I'm just talking with someone, hey, if you don't agree with the man of God, if you don't agree with a pastor, if you don't agree with somebody, that's okay. But you shouldn't be calling the guy a wicked and a liar and a reprobate and he's a false prophet just because you don't agree with them or you don't like something about him. No, that's a wicked sin and God punished it very severely in the Old Testament. We're supposed to have double honor to these guys. We're supposed to have double respect for these people. We're supposed to be lifting them up and treating them as fathers, as it's said in verse one. Treating them as a father. They say, well, it says elders. Is that just saying like the old people, like we're just supposed to respect only the old people? Well, of course, the Bible does say that we should respect elders. We should be, you know, and treat them well. We shouldn't just rebuke an old person either necessarily, but that's not the context here. The context here is talking about a pastor, it's talking about a bishop, it's talking about one that's over the church in the New Testament specifically. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 16. I want to prove this point real quick. I want us to be sure that we know what it means to be an elder according to the Bible. Let's use the Bible to explain to us what it means to be an elder or what the context here is trying to say. In 1 Samuel chapter 16, look at verse number three. The Bible reads, and call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt do, and thou shalt anoint unto me him who my name unto thee. Look at verse 10, skip down, 1 Samuel 16 verse 10, again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel, and Samuel said unto Jesse, the Lord hath not chosen thee. So in verse three, he was going to anoint somebody, and then in verse 10 he was contrasting that saying someone that wasn't anointed was not chosen, because the word anoint is similar to the word chosen. To anoint someone means to choose them for something. Go to Acts chapter 14, if you will, Acts chapter 14, because in the Old Testament we see a lot of examples where he's saying, don't stretch forth thine hand against God's anointed, right? What does that mean? It's the guy that God's chosen. It's someone that's been chosen to do some kind of service or some kind of work for the Lord. That's what it means to be anointed. Go to Acts 14 verse 23, we're going to see, we're going to keep building on this, this chain of words here and verse 23, the Bible reads, and when they had ordained them elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. So we see now they're saying they're ordaining and they're ordaining elders. Now is every old person that walks in the church ordained? Of course not. So it's not talking about just being an older person. Obviously elder could mean that. The Bible talks about the younger sibling and the elder sibling or the younger sister and the elder sister. In that context, obviously it's talking about age, but in this context, it's clearly talking about a pastor, it's clearly talking about a bishop, it's talking about an overseer, and we see they had ordained him. Now if you look at the word ordained in the dictionary, it says to select, to appoint, to anoint. Those are the words that the dictionary uses in synonyms with ordain. Go to John 15 if you would. John 15. So we see to be anointed means to be chosen. To be ordained means to be anointed or to be selected or to be appointed or to be chosen. So we see there's people that are chosen to do work for God. That's what he's talking about when he's talking about someone being anointed or being appointed and he's talking about the elders are people that are chosen. They're people that are anointed. There's someone that makes a choice to anoint another person and that person becomes an elder. Obviously we know that elders beget elders. Everything brings forth after its own time. Go to John 15 verse 16. You have not chosen me, this is Jesus speaking, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. So now go to Titus chapter one. So we see, again, chosen and ordained, used in the same breath, but I have chosen you and ordained you because being ordained or being anointed or being appointed is being chosen. Go to Titus chapter one, we're going to look at verse five, hopefully this will kind of wrap everything together. So you see, to be an elder, according to Acts, you are ordained, right? And we see ordained means to be anointed. We can tie that with the Old Testament. We can see what God is saying, hey, don't touch mine anointed, don't touch my prophet. Look at Titus chapter one, we're going to get a better definition of an elder. As in verse five, for this cause left I be in Crete, that thou should have set in order those things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as I have appointed thee. Now looking up all those words, this verse has a lot of meaning to it now, doesn't it? We see that he says, look, you're going to ordain who what choose or appoint or anoint elders. We haven't quite understood what that word means yet, but in every city as I had appointed thee. So Paul had appointed Titus to be an elder. We see the apostle anointed the elder and he's saying, because of practicality we realize apostles weren't going to continue. So how are they going to have more elders in the future? The elders were to appoint other elders. We see the succession. So then the question is, what is an elder? Well, let's keep reading, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given the wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faith the word as he had been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. So now we have an idea of what an elder is. He's a bishop. And what is a bishop? Bishop synonymous with the shepherd or the overseer or the pastor or the elder. These are just synonymous terms used throughout the Bible. We can interchange them to be a bishop, to be an elder, to be an overseer, to be a pastor. Old Testament words like a shepherd or someone who is a priest. We see these words are describing a person that is chosen. Now of course, you can't say that every old person is an elder because according to this scripture, not every old person fits that description, right? I mean, not everyone's been taught the faithful word, is sober, is, you know, faithful, temperate and all things. I mean, man, that's a hard list to follow sometimes if you really just want to hit every single point and be blameless, as the Bible says. Being blameless. Now, of course, it's not unattainable, it's not impossible. Anybody can, any man could do this. It's nothing that's restricting any one person. Now, if you make bad decisions in your life or you decide to forsake God and make a lot of really horrible decisions, you could end up making it where you could never be a pastor. You could never be a bishop. That's why it's good for young men to be on the right path their whole life. Don't go soil your wild oats. What a foolish and un-learned thing. No one goes out and soils their wild oats and is really happy about it. The only people that are happy about it have nothing to live for, nothing. They don't have family, they don't care about their life, they don't have eternal life. They're not going on about the things that really matter in this world. They just want a renaissance about, oh, you know, with all these women, I had all this fun. And all they want to do is just do it again because now they're old and they can't have as much fun in their sin. Now they're paying the consequences for their sin. But you know what? They're not happy. They're not really truly proud with the decisions they've made. They just have to boast because they're so insecure about the fact that they ruined their life. No, a young person should always stay on the right path, should always go to church, should always be soul winning, should be a virgin on his wedding night, and should follow all of God's commandments. You'll never be disappointed for following God's commandments. When I look back at my life, I only wish I had followed God's commandments more. I don't ever think, oh man, that was a good sin to do. Oh, I'm so glad I made that horrible decision. No. And I thank God that I hadn't made a decision bad enough to disqualify me from being a pastor one day. That would have been really disheartening. Once I'd gotten on fire for God, once I understood the Bible a lot more, once I read the qualifications of a bishop. If I was reading the list and I was like, oh man, I can't ever do that. That would have been really disheartening. So it's really important, even if maybe you don't have a desire today to be a pastor. Maybe you don't want to be a pastor right this minute, but you might as well follow all these rules and go for it anyways because your heart and your mind could change. There's been a lot of times in my life where my decisions changed or my perspective on life changed or what I wanted to do in this life has changed. And I certainly would be glad that if I had decided to be a pastor, oh, I've already read the Bible 20 times. Oh, I've already been sowing it. Oh, I've already been doing all the things that I should be doing. And now I can be a pastor so much easier. I have that foundation. You're never going to be upset for following God's laws. You're never going to be upset for doing what God said. And every man should try to do this, not just the pastors. Now this should just be the example for every male believer. Hey, this is what I should be like. And the Bible is saying only those that are of this high caliber, of those that are trying to be righteous, trying to be holy, obviously none of us is perfect, but those that are trying to, those are the ones that are going to be qualified to be a pastor one day. It's not saying the pastor is just some extra special person or, oh, this is just, oh, the light shone on this guy and he's just a special anointed. No, it's a guy that's following God's commandments that wants to live for God. And another elder says, hey, I'm willing to ordain you. Hey, I'm willing to choose you and say you can be a pastor one day. I have trust in you because when you're going through these pastoral epistles, Paul's constantly saying, you know, uh, the same commit thou to faithful men who should be able to teach others also. So the Bishop, the elder should be looking for guys that he thinks, Hey, this guy's a good teacher. This guy's faithful. If I, you know, and bestow effort into this guy, he's going to be able to go out and teach others also. He's going to be steadfast in the faith. He's going to do the work. He's not looking for some lazy bum that he can just, Hey, you want to be a pastor? Sounds great, man. Let's do it. He's looking for the guy that's faithful, that's steadfast. So we see that there's a lot of qualifications for this guy. It's a high calling. It's something that their person's working really hard for. So should we just take it so lightly to just call this guy a false prophet and call him a liar and throw dirt and mud on his name just because you don't agree with something about him or maybe he's a little off in some area or maybe you just don't like the way he looks or maybe he didn't get your name right. Maybe he called you by the wrong name or maybe something, you know, I mean, it's just, it's little stuff like that, that people will go out and they'll just call the man of God wicked and they'll rail on him and they'll gnash on him with their teeth. It's wicked. It's awful. I won't stand in for one second. Bible says, uh, go back to verse 17, first Timothy chapter five. We're going to get the primary context of this first before we move on. But I want to say this. The Bible says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. You know what that tells me? It tells me that the elder that doesn't rule well is still worthy of one honor. He's still worthy of honor because he's a man of God because he's God's anointed because he's God's chosen because he's decided to dedicate himself to the things of God. He deserves that one honor. But of course the person that rules well, the good pastor, the good shepherd, he deserves double honor. Now if you get the context of first Timothy chapter five, it's actually talking about money. It's talking about taking care of widows. It's actually talking about, you know, financially providing for those that are your own house. I mean, it's very clear that when the Bible says that the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, it's actually talking about the fact that the elders that rule well should be paid double. That's the kind of respect we should have for the man of God. That's the way we should look at the man of God. Hey, this guy's a good pastor. He deserves double money. He deserves double the, you know, the fad of the lamb, you know, the fad of the calf. He deserves the double portion of the meat. He deserves a double portion of the, you know, the wheat offering and all the offerings. I mean the guy that's ruling well, you know, some people have this warped attitude where they think, you know, I don't think the pastor should be paid more than even the least paid person in the church. They think like the lowest, the lowest surrounding salary in the church, the pastor should be under that because that, that would make the guy humble. That'll be, you know, that's more biblical. That's more godly. The Bible says the elders that rule well should be counted worthy of double honor, double honor. He should be paid double what he should be, what he's worth. I mean, especially they labor in the word and doctrine. Look at verse 18, for the scriptures say it, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn and the laborer is worthy of his reward. So again, it's saying, look, this guy, he's laboring in the word of God. He's studying the word of God. He's memorizing the word of God. He's preaching the word of God with all faithfulness. He's worthy of a double portion. We should, we should be willing and ready and have this respect for the man of God to want to do that for him. Now I'm not saying that the man of God should just live in a million dollar mansion and drive the royal's rice down the, you know, the street and have all this money and just be concerned with the houses and the cars, but you know what, he's worthy of double honor and we should never ever want to be, uh, have this wicked attitude to think that the pastor should just have like almost no money and should just struggle and can hardly feed his children and hardly clothe his children and he can't ever take a vacation and he can't ever have anything nice and he has to be dressed in like sackcloth and ashes or something. I mean, no. I mean, you should look to your pastor and say, you're worthy of double honor because you're ruling well. And even the guy that's not ruling well, he's still worthy of honor. He's still worthy to be paid. He's still worthy to have respect. He's still worthy for you to give him your attention. I mean, we shouldn't, we shouldn't just take it lightly being a man of God, especially in this church, especially in faith, word Baptist church, when we realize how few men of God there are in this world. Now, of course, I'm not saying that we should give double respect to the false prophets. I'm not saying that you should give honor and respect to those that have averted the gospel of Christ. Let them be accursed. Let them be a, a marathon, an anathema, a marathon, right? I mean, we're not supposed to have any respect to a false prophet, to a false teacher, but I'm saying what if a guy is just a little wrong? What if he's pre-tread? But of course he's soul winning. He's got the gospel right. He's been a pastor. He's faithful. He's leading his church. You're going to sit there and rail on the man of God? You're going to rail on Saul? You're going to rail on the guys? You're going to rail on Ishbo chef? God's going to slay you. You better be careful. You better not stretch forth your hand against God's anointed. We don't see Saul. Saul at the end of his life wasn't doing big, great things for God. He had fallen away. He killed eight, five minute, holy men of God. He was at the, the witch's house. I mean conjuring up spirits. Oh, now it's okay to just rail on the man of God. Now it's okay to stretch forth my hand against the man of God. No, that's wicked. It's wicked. Now, of course, I'm not saying you couldn't correct the man of God. You couldn't say, Hey, what he's doing is wrong or he's teaching a false doctrine or I don't agree with that. That's that's not rebuking an elder rebuking an elder is when you don't agree with something. So you call him wicked and unsaved and a false prophet. And you're, you're just calling him all kinds of, you're just railing on the man of God. That's wicked. When you're attacking the person and not just attacking their false doctrine or maybe correcting what they said. Go to a first Corinthians chapter five. We should never be rebuking another pastor in our movement of the guys that are saved of the guys that are faithful. Oh, well, they do things a little bit different than faith for Baptist church. So I'm just going to rail on him. I'm just going to speak evil of him. I'm just going to say all this wicked stuff about him because he doesn't agree with me. That's, that's a horrible decision. That's so wicked. And you know who you're being like when you do that? They're being like the devil. The devil is called the accuser of the brethren. Why? Because he just wants to sit there and rail and accuse and speak evil of all God's people. Even the ones that aren't saved. He just constantly wants to rail and speak evil. You know, a godly person wants to forgive. Love covers a multitude of sins, right? I mean charity covers a multitude of sins. We should know that love and compassion and forgiveness is what we should be like to any brother. Even if they did offend us, even if they did do something wrong to us, we should just forgive them. And how much more God's anointed? How much more the prophet of God, how much more the elder and the bishop. You know, when there is a, these guys that were thrown out of our church, these four heretics, these guys that are believing false, wicked doctrine. When they were thrown out of our church, man, did they just rail on Pastor Anderson? Did they speak evil of the man of God? They call him a liar and a false prophet and he's turning the whole church away from God and he's leading them astray. I mean, they couldn't, some of them just couldn't stop railing on the man of God, speaking evil constantly and constantly saying, you know, that they're polytheistic, that they don't even believe the Bible anymore, they're just falling away. I mean, all kinds of railing and evil and wicked speech. You know, it's interesting when I think of one of them, before this incident happened, a few weeks before, if you talk to this guy, he would have been Pastor Anderson's number one fan. I mean, every time I was around this guy, I mean, he couldn't stop just praising Pastor Anderson. Pastor Anderson's the best guy ever. He's the best pastor ever. He's the smartest person I've ever met. I just love Pastor Anderson. I love Faith Board Baptist Church. It's the greatest place in the world. Why would anybody leave this church? This is so great. So three weeks later, calling him a liar and a false teacher, saying he has no respect from him at all anymore. Talk about 180. Go to, I told you to go to First Corinthians. Go to, go to Proverbs 26, if you would, Proverbs 26. The Bible says that we should be aware of flattery. We should be aware of this speech that's just constantly just dripping and oozing with over flattery. Now, of course, you know, the pastor preaches a good sermon, hey, hey, good sermon, pastor. But you shouldn't just be gushing and going all over the top. Oh, that was the best sermon I've ever heard in my entire life. I'll never hear a better sermon. I mean, almost worshipping the guy. I mean, falling down on your knees and saying, you're the greatest person to ever live. Can I follow you around? Can I get your picture like 12 times? I mean, just going way over the top. Now, of course, I believe that Pastor Anderson is the best pastor, you know, in the world. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. I believe Faith Board Baptist Church is the best church. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. Right. Okay. But you don't have to let it all come out of your mouth. You don't have to just sit there and drip and ooze and, you know, ogle over a person. If you've ever gone on a date, it doesn't go over well if you just sit there and over flatterize the person. You're just like, you're just the most pretty thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I don't know what I would do without you. I mean, will you call me every five minutes? Can I hold your hand through the whole meal and can we just never stop talking and will you call me as soon as you get home? The person's gonna be like, you're a psycho. What? Don't ever talk to me again. Too much flattery is a bad thing. It's a wicked thing. It's too much of emotion, not a rational thought, not a true love, not a true feeling. Now, of course, obviously, the Bible says that we should praise God continually. His praise should be on our lips and we should be humble. When it's coming to another man, it's almost like worship. When you're just sitting there just oozing over another person, he's still a man. I mean, the man of God, we shouldn't be rebuking him, we shouldn't speak evil of him, but he's still a man. He's not perfect. And we shouldn't just be idolizing men because then we're gonna be let down. Then we're gonna be, you know, really let down when something happens or when they pass away or whenever we move. We shouldn't just put all of our trust in a man who loves to trust in the Lord, right? Now, of course, that doesn't mean we can't follow a godly pastor and look up to them and speak well of them. Of course, we should. But this over flattery is really dangerous. Look at Proverbs 26 right at your turn, look at verse 28, the Bible says, a lying tongue hated those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. Go to Proverbs 6, go back a little bit in your Bible, Proverbs chapter 6. So he's saying like the lying tongue, people that lie to you, they want to afflict you. They want to hurt you. They're not lying to help you out. They're not, this like white lie, oh, I'm just lying to, you know, make them feel better, feel uncomfortable. No, liars are only trying to do evil to you and the flattering mouth is the same with lying, it's deceit. It's deceit in a way and it's going to cause ruin. Look at Proverbs 6 verse 24, to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of the strange woman. The strange woman comes to you and she's like, oh, you're so handsome, you're so strong, you're the best looking guy I've ever seen, do you want to come home with me? But you don't realize she says that to every guy that walks by. You don't realize that what she's saying, she's trying to trick you, she's trying to deceive you and her flattering speech is something to be aware of. It's something to take notice of and say, something's not right here. Go to Psalms chapter 12, flip back, keep going backwards in your Bible, go to Psalms chapter 12. I love Psalms chapter 12. We need to be weary of those that are very flattering in their speech because they tend to be very emotional people. They tend to wear all their feelings on their sleeve. They're not someone that can go through something very difficult and when you let your emotions dictate your actions, it's very childish or it's kind of feminine. To have a man be really flattering in his speech is not a manly quality. It's actually a very childish or very feminine quality. We see that women sometimes struggle with taking control of their emotions. They're very emotional. They can have really high and really lows, but a man's supposed to be very stable. That's just natural for a man to be level headed, to think logically. A woman's going to think with her heart, with her emotions. That's why she's so much better with children and she's so much better with maybe fixing a wound for the kid because she empathizes. I mean the dad's just like, get over it. Be a man. Get up. The woman's like, oh, are you okay? She's very empathetic. So it's not necessarily a negative thing, but for a man to be very overly flattering and very emotional and wearing all his emotions on his sleeve, it's not a manly quality. It's a very feminine or childish quality. Obviously male or female kids can't control their emotions. They're just screaming happy one second and then they're mad the next and then they're happy again. It's just this roller coaster of emotion. Kids can't really control themselves. Let's look at Psalms chapter 12 verse one. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity, everyone, with his neighbor. With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Who have said with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? So we see again, the flattering lips is what? Deception, because it's a double heart. They're saying one thing but they don't really mean it in their heart and maybe they're deceived to themselves. They think that they actually mean it because they're just letting their emotions control them. But we see they have a double heart, meaning they're going to turn on you. And notice in verse four, who is Lord over us? These people always seem to have a problem with authority. They always have a problem with submitting to somebody. It's a weird connection but those that are flattering have a problem with authority. We see the guys that are coming in to David, hey David we killed Ishmael Sheth, we got this guy. They're giving all this flattery unto David, but guess what? They just killed their last master, they just killed Ishmael Sheth. I mean you should realize, hey this guy's a guy that I don't want to be around. This guy's wicked, he'll turn and slay me if I do something he likes. They have a problem with authority, these type of people. When someone comes to you, maybe if you were an employer and you were looking for a good employee and they're like, oh man my last boss, he was so awful and he was so wicked and I didn't like anything about him and I would always tell all the employees that he was such a terrible boss and I would do all this wicked stuff. The wise employer is going to be like, this isn't the guy to hire because if he's going to speak evil of his last employer, he's probably going to speak evil of me, right? You know when you have that friend who's always coming to you and he's always, hey I don't like so and so and I don't like this guy, I don't like our other friend. He's always speaking evil of other people. Guess what? He's speaking evil of you when you're not around because it's just how people work. And we should realize that the flattering lips, a lot of times they're overcompensating because they realize, hey I've been speaking a lot of evil about this guy. So then when they're around you like, hey buddy how's it going? Let's be best friends, you're so great. And then as soon as you turn around, oh I hate that guy. He's so wicked, he's so evil. I don't like being about him, he's dumb, he's stupid. There's a lot of deception when it comes to flattering. When someone's flattering you and they're really over the top, it's something to be weary of. It's something to watch out for. But even if it was your wife, I mean, even if you didn't agree with something on the sermon and you're getting in the car and you're driving home and then all of a sudden the husband or the wife starts railing on the pastor, starts saying, that guy's wicked, that guy's evil, I don't agree with him, the husband should correct his wife. He should say, you should not speak evil of the pastor. Now of course, y'all can disagree with something. He could say, hey, I think this pastor says something a little bit different or that's not exactly what we're going to do on a personal opinion. I'm not saying you just have to be in a cult. We have a lot of stuff. Oh, everything pastor says is right. I must follow everything. But we shouldn't be calling him wicked and unsaved and a false prophet. And you know what that does? It teaches the kids in the backseat that it's okay to be a fake person. It's okay to be a liar. It's okay to be a deceiver. It's okay to go to the pastor and say, hey, pastor, love the sermon, love the church. You're doing so good. And then you get in the car and you're like, man, I don't like that guy. He's evil. He's wicked. It teaches children to be fake and teaches children to go around and lie to people and to be this, you know, not a real person, to be feigned in all their words, feigned in all their actions. It's actually hurting you and your whole family and your children to teach them that it's okay to speak with double speed, speak with a double heart, to go around and say one thing in public and then in private, say a bunch of other stuff. Here's a good rule of thumb. If you wouldn't say it to the pastor's face, don't say it ever. Do you hear me? If you won't say it to the pastor's face, don't say it. Why? Because you don't want God's wrath to come upon you. You don't want to be wicked. We shouldn't be rebuking an elder, not just to his face, to other people, to ourselves. We should not be rebuking the elder ever. We shouldn't treat him as a father. And I love that phrase there because when I was really pondering on it, nobody really goes around speaking evil of their own death. I mean, if there's one person in your life that you really have a hard time speaking against, it's probably your father. Now, of course there's exceptions, of course there might be somebody that had a really bad relationship, but for the most part, people are constantly complaining about their spouse. People are constantly complaining about their brother, their sister, I mean their children. I mean they're constantly complaining about all kinds of people in their life, but the one person that I think most people, they just tend to not speak evil of is their dad. I love my dad, you know, he's so strong, he's so great, you know, the kids go to the school, a lot of times they'd be like, what does your dad do, and I want to be like my dad. I mean it's just a relationship that usually has a lot of built in respect, it has a lot of built in just love, and you know, you're cherishing and reverencing your father. I mean when I think about it with my wife, I mean I don't think I could trick my wife into speaking evil of her dad. I mean she just will not rebuke her father for anything, and there's things she doesn't agree with, there's things that she knows is wrong, but I mean she just loves her father. Why and that's a good thing, that's a great thing, to have love and honor and respect under our father, honor their father and their mother, that's what the Bible says. We should also treat the pastor like that, that's the view, that's the perspective we should have for the pastor. Hey, I'm not going to speak evil of the man of God, I'm going to treat him as a father. I'm going to speak about him like I would my own dad. I'm going to take that much care, that much love, and that much adoration for the man of God. Even if I don't agree with everything he does, I mean of course nobody's going to say their dad's perfect, but they're not going to speak evil of him either. Why? Because they have that love, they have that respect, they have that reverence, that's the kind of mindset, that's the kind of attitude we should have for our pastor. But you can be like Satan and be the accuser of the brethren, going around speaking evil of the man of God, speaking evil of the pastor, it's wicked. Go to Psalms 101. Someone that got kicked out of this church not for being a heretic, I actually just left the church. They texted me and they said, so do you think we can still be friends and hang out and have fellowship together? And I said, look, someone doesn't have to go to Faith Word Baptist Church for me to be their friend, for me to have fellowship, for me to hang out with them. I mean I just went to the Red Op preaching conference where there is hundreds of people there that don't go to Faith Word Baptist Church and I'm friends with a lot of them. I like all of them. I want to have fellowship with all of those people. You don't have to go to Faith Word Baptist Church to be my friend. You know what I did tell them? I said, look, you don't have to go to Faith Word Baptist Church to be my friend, but I'm never going to have fellowship with someone that's speaking evil of my pastor, that's railing on my pastor, that's calling him names, that's saying evil and lying about him. I'm going to have no fellowship with a guy that's railing and rebuking my pastor. You know what? Not only that, any man of God, any pastor that's saved, that's doing right. I mean I'm not going to hang around with some guy that's speaking evil of the man of God just in case that lightning bolt from God strikes me too. I don't want that. I don't want to be around. I don't want to be around. I'm going to rebuke you. The Bible says to rebuke them that sin before all that others may fear. Look we should fear ever speaking evil of God's man. We should fear that God could cause us to die in a wreck, to get a heart attack, to just fall over dead, for some wicked thing or evil thing to come upon us, for our hands to be sawn off. That sounds horrible. I don't want that for anyone. We should never be speaking evil of God's man, rebuking an elder. Look at Psalms 101 verse 4. A forward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person. Who shall probably slander this neighbor? Him that I cut off, him that is in a high look and a proud heart, will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in the perfect way, he shall serve me. The Bible says the life is too short. Don't surround yourself with wicked people, with forward people, with people that have a high look and a proud heart. Your eyes should be upon the faithful. So that's only a few people. Well, just be friends with those people. Maybe you can win more people to Christ, convert more souls from their sins and make them more faithful. Encourage more people to live for the Lord. We shouldn't be around those with a forward heart. They're wicked people. People that are going to rebuke an elder are wicked people to their heart. There's something wrong with that. It needs to be corrected. It needs to be rebuked. If they rebuke, I'm going to rebuke because that's what the Bible says. It's a heart problem. We can go through the Bible and we can look at example after example after example after example. We can look at when Abimelek was told by God not to rebuke Abraham with the blessing. We can see when Miriam, she speaks evil of Moses, what happens? She becomes a leper and she's cast out of the congregation. She's without the camp. She's out of church. She's kicked out for speaking against God's man. Why? God takes it serious. Korah, Daphne, Abiram, the earth swallowed him up for speaking against God's man. We see that even Shimei, he's speaking against David and David had made a promise early in his life that he wouldn't harm Saul's house. So he doesn't kill him. But guess what? On his deathbed he says, Solomon, come here. Remember Shimei? You better pay him back. You better give him what he deserves. And God didn't forget. God paid him back. We could look at Mabel who speaks evil of David in the field who wouldn't give him any food. God's anointed. You better worry if you're speaking evil of God's anointed. If you go home and you're speaking evil of God's anointed, the man of God, the elder, the person that's been chosen, appointed, anointed by God, you better fear. Better fear God. And I'm going to have no fellowship with those who want to rebuke my pastor or any pastor, any man of God. Go to Matthew 10 and we'll finish. Even if he's not doing it, but his friends are doing it. It's going to rub off. That rebuke, that wicked speaking, that evil speaking just rubs it off and it gets, it's a contamination, it's a disease, it's wicked, it's a cancer. We need to just get it out. God's not going to tolerate it. I'm not going to tolerate it either. Matthew 10, look at verse 14, and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart of the house of the city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Man, I don't want to speak against God's anointed. He said it's more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than the apostles, than trite's disciples that were rebuked or not received by those in those cities. You better not speak against God's man. He takes it very seriously, and this life and the next. Obviously if you're saved you can't lose your salvation, but God's going to punish those that sin against him and sin against his anointed. He takes it very seriously. Let's pray. Thank you Father for your word. Thank you for giving us pastors and bishops and elders and overseers. Thank you for those men that have sacrificed their life to serve you. I pray that none of us would ever be so foolish as to rebuke an elder, that we would hold our tongues, that we would get our hearts and our attitudes right, and give them double honor. Give them respect. Treat them as a father. Thank you for our pastor and all the pastors in this movement that you've given us and blessed us with. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.