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Amen. So, Romans chapter 12 and we're doing part 2 today from verse 9. If you remember in verses 1 to 8 last week, we looked at not being conformed to this world, didn't we, by being transformed by continual renewal, wasn't it? It's the continuing renewal of our mind which was by the Holy Ghost and that came ultimately by the Word of God, didn't it? By the Word of God. So, it's that continual renewal. We looked at that. We looked at the different gifts that God had given us as well, didn't we? And what were they for? For the edifying, for the benefit of the church, wasn't it? That's what the gifts are for. And, look, if you're sitting there thinking, well, I just don't know what is it that I can, you know, what gift do I have? What is it that I can add to this church? Well, look, sometimes it might be, you know, God's waiting to reveal that to you and it's not, oh, it's going to be this special miracle thing. It might just be just, you know, being a good part of this church. It might be going out and just preaching the Gospel and trying to get people saved. But, look, it has to be your motivation with that. It has to be what's going to benefit the body of Christ, what's going to edify the church. And if you're not in church, again, I'm talking to a church here, so you are in church. But, you know, for those out there that aren't in church and for those people that listen to this or for those people that might listen to this and then not come back to church for a long time or drop out of church, bear in mind, what is the point in God giving you any gifts and abilities to edify a church if you don't go to church? What's the point in, you know, in these Christians reading through all these passages and then sitting at home twiddling their thumbs? I mean, what was the whole point in all of these gifts and everything? It's the edifying of the body of Christ. So, look, it's essential that we're in church and we're there to serve God. We're there to do many things. Many things come from the church. It all does centre around the church. And we looked at that when we looked through the book of 1 Corinthians as well, didn't we, with just time and time again. It was just everything about it was about the church that's so centred on the church that you still have these imbeciles out there that try and fight and argue about going to church. Well, I don't need to go to church to be a Christian, you know, and this sort of thing. Organised religion, we heard a bit of that today when I preached in the Gospel. And we looked at the different gifts here in 1 Corinthians 12, didn't we? And the purpose of those miraculous gifts in confirming apostleship and confirming the Word of God as well, wasn't it? And obviously there were those instances in the book of Acts with those that we wouldn't have called apostles. We saw with Stephen earlier, but it's confirming the Word of God and it's that first generation of Christianity, isn't it? And I think last week we showed clearly how tongues is languages. I don't think you could have come away from the sermon last week and argued against that, how speaking another tongue is another language. OK, so we're going to get started or kind of continue from verse 9. Before we do, let's have a quick prayer. Father, thank you for this great chapter of the Bible. Please help me now to preach it clearly and boldly and accurately and just preach it so that people will go away and be able to use what they hear today to strengthen them, to edify them, to just help them live a life that's more pleasing to you. Please fill me with your Spirit and just help everyone else to be filled with the Spirit and to just have attentive ears, to be wide awake and alert, and in Jesus' name, for all of this, Amen. OK, so verse 9 there of Romans chapter 12 says, Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. And from sort of this part of this chapter, we're just going to keep seeing these sort of statements in a verse. Sometimes there's two or three commands in the verse and there are some, like I said before, you could preach a chapter of pretty much every verse of this. Sorry, you could preach a sermon of every verse of this chapter. And the first verse we're looking at is verse 9 there where it says, Let love be without dissimulation. What is dissimulation? Dissimulation is basically fakery, pretense, yeah? Because there are many out there that claim to be loving, don't there? Yeah, many people claim to be loving. They claim to have love for people. They claim to have love for others. But it's fake. It's pretend. It's a lie. Yeah, they claim it, but they're not really loving, are they? Yeah, and it's easy to say I love you. It's easy to say I love everyone. It's easy to say what a loving man of God I am or lady of God or whatever else. But is it really true? Is it really true? Because we get a lot of that, don't we? We get a lot of people claiming we're not loving. Yeah, our sort of church gets a lot of accusations of being not loving. The you're not loving slander, and it is slander, isn't it? It's a lie. It's slander. We get a lot of why because of the fake false Christianity out there, the dissimulation out there, the fake love that's out there. And look, there's a lot of them out there, aren't there? A lot of these fake Christianity where people are just walking around trying to act so calm and loving to everyone and we just love you so much. We would never offend anyone. We would never say anything that might offend someone. But is that really love? No. They love themselves, so I suppose it is. They love themselves, don't they? But they don't really want to say anything that might get a bit prickly, that might make someone actually have to assess something. Look, real love is saying it how it is sometimes, isn't it? Yeah. And there's a lot of fake Christianity out there. I mean, in this country, I suppose when people think of Christianity, they'll look at the mainstream Christianity in general in this nation, which it will be the Church of England vicar or priest because most people have had some access to the Church of England vicar or priest. And again, that's a fake Christianity. And because it's so similar, the Catholic vicar, priest, what they call them, priests, don't they, in Catholicism. And it's this kind of pretense of being this very loving person, very calm, very mild-mannered, very meek and everything else. But they're frauds, aren't they? These people are ravening beasts, aren't they? These people are absolute animals and they're dangerous people as well, really dangerous people. And there's very little love there, if any at all. But even the so-called Bible-believing attackers of our types of church all try and claim this as well. You know, you're so hateful, preaching about false prophets all the time. Well, the Bible says a lot about false prophets, doesn't it? Preaching about false religions. Well, the Bible says a lot about false religions, or at least in terms of any false way. The Bible says a lot about that. Is God not loving? God is love, isn't he? But again, we're not going to have the world, or let's hope no one here wants to have the world dictate to them what is love and what isn't love. Jesus preached against false prophets, didn't he? And again, they'll try and tell us who Jesus is or who Jesus should be and give us the image of what the world tells us Jesus is, but it's very different to what the Bible says. And pretty much all of the prophets in the Bible preached against false prophets. They preached against these people, and these are loving men of God, aren't they? They were out there preaching the truth. Jesus was preaching the truth. But we have got to the point in this joke nation, haven't we, where preaching the Bible is now got to the point where people call it hate speech. Yeah, there are certain verses and certain passages, certain truths in the Bible that it seems people are getting arrested for. At least we get the videos out there, don't we, of these, you know, street-preaching clowns getting twisted up and, you know, getting in a row with some posh old guy shouting at the policeman while the policeman is kind of putting his arm behind his back in a half-Nelson. It's a good view, though, isn't it? Because they're always preaching repetitive sins or some other rubbish, aren't they? But apparently preaching that sodomy is a sin, apparently that's hate preaching, isn't it? Hate speech. I mean, how bad have we got to the point where you just preach the truth out there? I mean, that's a universal truth, isn't it? I mean, there are nations out there that don't even claim to believe the Bible that know that that is a wicked, wicked, vile act, yeah? But here, apparently, it's becoming hate speech, and there are other things that are as well, and preach against false religions. I don't know, you're on sketchy ground, it seems, at that, but, you know, for us, we're not fussed, though. We want to preach what the Bible tells us to preach. This verse says here, in verse 9, it says, Let love be without dissimulations, that's fake love. It says, Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. What does abhor mean? Shall I tell you what abhor means? To hate extremely, or with contempt, to loathe, detest, or abominate. Okay, so that's the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, telling us to hate extremely, with contempt, to loathe, detest, or abominate, that which is evil, yeah? We're commanded to hate. We're commanded to hate evil, and cleave to that which is good. We are commanded to hate. Well, turn to Psalm 119, because these people that claim to love the vile reprobate are either dissimulating that, or they're dissimulating their love for God, because it's one or the other, isn't it? Yeah? Either they're dissimulating their love for the sodomite, they're dissimulating their love for the transvestite, or whatever, you know, we're meant to call them nowadays, the freak, the weirdo, or they're dissimulating their love for God. It's one or the other, isn't it? And let's be honest, most of the time it seems to be, well, probably both, actually, but they're definitely dissimulating their love for God, I believe. Because it's easy to just say, I love everyone, isn't it? Isn't it easy? That's the easy option. I just love everyone, man. I just love everyone, I don't have a let live and let live, I don't have a problem with what anyone does. That's the easy route. And the easy route isn't the loving route, though, is it? Like, you know, there's some famous old sayings, there's a famous old preacher that said, if you love flowers, you hate weeds. Yeah? If you love good, you hate evil. Yeah? If you love children, then you hate vile child abusers, don't you? Does it not go without saying? But these people are dissimulating. They're fakes, they're frauds. It's easy to say, I love everyone and everything. It's easy to never make a stand. It's really easy to not make a stand, isn't it? It's easy to never judge righteous judgment and just go, judge not, judge not. That's easy. But it's a lot harder. It's a lot harder to love like the Bible tells us to love, and that love includes hate, okay? That includes hatred for evil. Abhor that which is evil. Where do I get you to turn? Psalm 119. Look at verse 104. Psalm 119, verse 104 reads, Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. So the more you learn about God's precepts or commandments, the more understanding you get, the result is hating every false way, isn't it? Yeah? And I'll tell you what, you show me a Christian, and I'm talking about someone saved, that says, yeah, but I just, you know, I find it really hard, you know, saying that about these psych-queers and sodomites, things like that, and I'll show you a baby Christian, and I'll show you someone that doesn't read the Bible. That's what it comes down to, because the more you read it, you cannot, you cannot read this book through multiple times and come away and go, yeah, but, you know, they'll live and let live, they're all right. No, you end up hating evil because you're loving good, because you're getting in tune with what God tells you to do, because you're trying to renew your mind through the Holy Ghost, through the Word of God, to think and be more like God. And these people that think they're so loving, standing there in front of you going, yeah, but I just love everyone, if you're saved, then you're just showing that you're not reading your Bible, you're not, or you're not, or you're reading it and you're not listening to it, are you? Okay, did it say, did it say through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way? Was it just talking about some of his commandments, though? Was it just some, you know, just the ones that didn't just apply to that time and place? No, because then verse 128 says, Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning, all things to be right, and I hate every false way. All thy precepts concerning, all things to be right. See, the Word of God is right, the world is wrong, yeah? The Word of God is right and the world is wrong. The queer, effeminate, priest, vicar, reverend, and you fill in the blank, depending on what you've been exposed to in terms of false religion, because it's all the same pretty much, isn't it? Let's add the imam and the rabbi and the Pentecostal pastor and you name it, whatever you've been, look, and they are, let's be honest, they're all reprobates, yeah? That means that they're all at least capable of faggotry, they're queers, they're all sorts of just disgusting vile reprobates, and it's dissimulation, they claim to love you, it's dissimulation, they're liars, they're fakes, they're all fakes, but they give the world this view, this appearance, this sort of fake Christianity where they judge us as these horrible, hateful people because we're just preaching the Word of God, because we're hating every false way like we're told to. It's ridiculous. Those people don't love you. Those people, they don't love anyone but themselves. That vicar, that priest definitely doesn't love your children, okay? He doesn't love, I mean, it goes without saying, doesn't it? But people still look at these like they're some sort of picture of Christianity, yet time and time and time again throughout the world they're being exposed for what they are, aren't they? Yet still they look at that and they're like, oh, well, did Jesus say to do that? Did Jesus? But what, you preach? I mean, that's not how the vicar is, is that what we call you? These people are frauds. But a man or woman of God says, I hate every false way, okay? It's not just the guy behind the pulpit. Everyone here, if you keep reading through the Word of God, if you're a man or woman of God, you will say, I hate every false way because that's what the Bible tells us to do, doesn't it? That's what, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Psalmist said, I hate every false way. And that commandment we just read in verse 9 was, Abhor that which is evil. And the false ways are evil. And with that in mind, that's why I hate Islam, yeah? I hate Islam. No, I don't hate every Muslim, but I hate that religion. I hate their stupid dresses, okay? I hate them. I hate their stupid hats, yeah? I hate everything about that religion. I don't hate the people. I hate the vile imam. I do. Because the vile imam who's preaching a false way is most of the time either there or on his way to being a reprobate, yeah? I hate those people. But I don't hate Muslims, but I hate every false way. And Islam is a wicked false way, isn't it? And the arrogance and pride that comes out of these idiots. And I hate Mohammed. Yeah, that was a wicked, wicked reprobate, wasn't he? I mean, it's clear as day. I looked just recently, I was going to preach on Islam recently, and then just, you know, I ended up wanting to preach something else. But I was just looking for some things I might want to preach at, and I'll be preaching a sermon on that soon. And I just saw some videos come up and debates about, you know, how old Aisha actually was, you know? And a lot of the time you just click to comments, don't you, because I can't be bothered to watch this video. Let's see what we've got out there, yeah? And they're arguing about whether or not she was actually 13 or actually 6. It's just messed up, isn't it? They're debating whether or not, well, no, no, she was actually 13. That's all right. It's nuts. Absolutely nuts. 13. 13 is them justifying it. And then one of the arguments was, was it immoral? Was it immoral? Was it immoral? And that is sick, isn't it? That is a sick, twisted religion where you have literally millions of people saying, yeah, that's okay. That's okay. They're so desensitized that they're trying to – in fact, a lot of them will say the 9-year-old part of it is okay. Yeah? A lot of them will say that. I mean, that is messed up, isn't it? That is messed up. And you have a lot of these people around. Now, look, whether someone comes from a country where – and what a weird religion where basically a lot of the time they have to be forced into being that religion or you get all sorts of excommunication or you get – I mean, there's all sorts of penalties in some of these nations, aren't they? Strict Islamic nations. But, look, those people that actually follow that and agree with that, that is dangerous, isn't it? That is some wicked people. But it's not just Islam. I hate Hinduism, yeah? Because I hate every false way. We should all hate Hinduism, shouldn't we? Yeah, hate their stupid millions of gods. Yeah, I hate them. Yeah, I hate their rat god and their cow god. I hate all that. Because it's wicked. It's idolatry. Yeah? But it's true. It's true. There's about a million gods. And they're not about a million gods. There's about a million gods in Hinduism. That is ridiculous, isn't it? I mean, talk – I mean, wow. I mean, the Muslims get upset with us claiming that Jesus Christ is God in the Trinity. I mean, but they don't fuss about Hinduism. Hinduism with their millions of gods, because it's another lie. I hate Sikhism. Yeah, I hate Sikhism. And I hope you all hate Sikhism as well. I hate those stupid turbans. Yeah, I hate them. Amen. I'm being serious. I do know. Why wouldn't I? Because it's ridiculous. Yeah, I hate the fact they walk around with a sword. Why can't I walk around with a sword? Yeah? That is ridiculous. They shouldn't walk around with a sword. But you should, because it's a fool's way as well. And what are all these things doing? They're damning people to hell. They're damning people to hell. And look, okay, people choose it ultimately. But you know what? They give them a wicked choice to make as well, don't they? And these people are wicked. What about Buddhism? I hate Buddhism. Yeah. Yeah, I hate that stupid image of fat Buddha. I hate that. Whoever he was – again, a wicked false prophet, wasn't he? A liar. Leading people to hell. I hate it. I hate Buddhism. I hate the fact that they're just worshipping idols, that they're all bowing down to that rubbish. I hate the fact that they always think they're so highly spiritual, yet they're not. And again, all those monks, bunch of perverts. Yeah? Look into that if you're interested. I've talked about this before. Just like all the false religions at the top, they're all vile perverts. Yeah? All vile perverts. And Judaism. I don't mind you. I'm joking. I hate Judaism. If anyone's wondering, I hate Judaism. Don't we all hate Judaism? What a wicked religion. What a Christ-rejecting, wicked religion it is, isn't it? And what a blasphemous religion that is. And if you don't hate Judaism, then I would say that you're not in the will of God. Yeah? Because he says, I hate every false way. And all these wicked, you know, so-called Christians out there that seem to put Jews up on a pedestal and even call themselves Judeo-Christians, everything else. They are, look, at least they're well out of God's world. A lot of the time they're unsaved anyway. But we should hate that, shouldn't we? That is a wicked false religion. Again, damning people to hell. Man. What about Roman Catholicism? Hate it. I hate them. What a wicked, wicked false religion that is, isn't it? Yeah? Again, perverts, perverts everywhere, the money involved. I work a lot up in Victoria and they have Westminster Cathedral up there. I mean, what a colossal waste of money that is. Yeah? This huge, absolutely huge building. I mean, the money that's gone into that just abomination of idols and graven images and the rest of it, what a wicked religion. Wicked religion. Worshipping all sorts of dead bones and dead saints and it's just, and you go into one of them places. After I got saved, I walked into that cathedral out of interest and it gives you the creeps in there. Yeah? All the chanting and everything else. Wicked, wicked religion. I hate it. Orthodoxy, basically Roman Catholicism, barring a couple of changes there. Hate that lot. Protestantism, is it much different? Not really. Roman Catholicism, really. It's all just Roman Catholicism. It's all wicked. It's all full of perverts. But what about the more subtle, the more subtle Bible believing Pentecostalism? Well, at least they believe the Bible. No, they're wicked. They're wicked because people who know, who at least are drawn towards the Bible, they start steering them down another path, don't they? You see them down another path where they're even using the Bible because most of these other religions don't even claim to really use the Bible anymore, do they? I mean, Roman Catholicism, they will say, no, the Pope is our final authority. But these Pentecostals, they're claiming the Bible's their final authority and they're just lying about the word of God. They're slandering God. They're claiming he says things he doesn't say. I hate those people. They're wicked. I hate that religion. And look, when I say those people, I mean the people at the top of that, those false prophets, wicked. False evangelicalism, that liberal evangelicalism that we're seeing, new evangelicals who claim to be so liberal and so, you know, so in tune with the ESV and whatever else. Hate them. Hate that religion. It's wicked, isn't it? Because when you knock on their doors, and we knock on a lot of those types of doors around South End, they're all unsaved, aren't they? Ever knock on a door and someone, you know, I'm an evangelical Christian, they're saved? No. Not anymore. Maybe there were some at the beginning. I went to a church, one of those churches years ago. It seemed like only the old people were saved. Everyone else unsaved. Wicked false religion. OK, what about the false Baptists? I hate false Baptists. Yeah, I hate them. I hate those churches where you knock on the door of their congregation. I don't hate those people. Those people need to get saved. Oh, I've been going to this. I had one today. Go to Lee. Is it Lee Baptist, was it? Lee Baptist, yeah, go to Lee Baptist. Oh, OK, yeah, yeah. I've just been there today. Oh, great, OK. Do you know if you're sure you go to heaven? No one knows that. Yeah, you do. What do you have to do to go there? Well, I suppose it's faith, belief. Oh, sounding good, sounding good. What if you did something? Well, as long as I repented, as long as I ask for forgiveness, if I keep repenting and ask for forgiveness, you're not saved. You're not saved. Because it's so deceptive, isn't it? OK, but my point being, yeah, every single one of those is a false way. And if you read your Bible, and if you really are in the will of God, you will hate every false way like that. Because the psalmist was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moved that man of God to write, Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. The Holy Spirit moved the psalmist to say, Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right. And I hate every false way. The Holy Spirit moved the apostle Paul to say, Abhor that which is evil. No, we're not hate preachers. Well, maybe we are, but we're preaching God's type of hate, aren't we? Yeah, we're preaching God's type of hate, and so we should. He said to abhor that which is evil. And that includes, by the way, every wicked false Bible perversion out there, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah? Doesn't that include that? Should you not hate those wicked Bible perversions? Because they are a false way. Yeah? That includes all the false doctrine out there. I hate it. I hate false ways. Look, okay, I don't hate people that believe false doctrine, but I hate the false doctrine because it's wicked, because it's a false way. Yeah, I hate the pre-Trib rapture. I hate it because it leaves apathetic, lazy Christians who are just waiting to be raptured at any minute and don't do anything for God, at the least, yeah? And then further along, we're going to see just a load of unsaved apostate Christians taking the mark of the beast and going, well, it can't be because we're still waiting to get raptured. You know, okay, they're not saved in the first place, but it's a wicked, wicked false doctrine, isn't it? Yeah? And I hate it. Yeah, I don't hate the saved people that believe it, but we should hate those false ways, shouldn't we? Yeah. Hate every false way. You know what I hate as well? I hate false brethren. I hate false brethren. Okay? And we should hate false brethren. And as and when we have them, we've had them before, I hate them. Yeah? Those people that we've had to kick out before, they're false brethren, they're false prophets. They're wicked, vile infiltrators, they're reprobate, concern the faith, I hate them. They're going, oh, well, yeah, but they were, you know, they were part of the church. They might have just been a bit off. No, look, it was clear as day. They ticked every single box. I hate them. Yeah? And as and when we have them in the future, which we all have, and we kick them out, I hope everyone else is going to say the same. I hate that false brethren. What? They said what? They did what? What? I hate them. Oh, well, yeah, but we were friends. Oh, but we, you know, we hung out. We went soul-willing. No, hate them. Yeah? We should hate every false way. What about the loving sodomite? Oh, they love the loving sodomite, don't they? In the media, all over, and in a lot of these just false dissimulating churches, they're like, oh, aren't they just so loving? You know, they just love everyone. They're just so free and easy and everything else. They always seem to like animals, claim to like animals, don't they, as well? The loving sodomite, yeah? Lots of cats. Lots of cats. Yeah? Like the cat man. I'm not having a go at you cat people here, by the way. No, he's really on one now. But the loving sodomite living at home with 20 cats, it's weird, isn't it? And no, they're not breeding them, okay? Just to say that. You think I'm having a dig here? Yeah, well, yeah. They don't breed, do they? Well, they breed in other ways. But they're not loving, are they? Poor cats. Poor, poor cats. Poor animals. It's true, though, isn't it? But the loving sodomite, and the ones that claim to love sodomites, as well. So people that claim that, well, yeah, we just love everyone. Look, you know, God loves everyone regardless of, and then they come out with their list. Because they always like to bunch it together with racism, don't they? Like it all goes hand in hand. Like if you say what the Bible says about sodomites, you must be a racist. Because we love everyone regardless of creed, colour, sexual orientation, yeah? But if you can't even get that part of the Bible right, I mean, you are, wow, you need some help, don't you? Leviticus 2013, I mean, if that's not a false way. If that's not a false way, what is a false way? The Bible says if a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. It's an abomination. An abomination, that's something that God detests, he hates, he despises. And we're told to hate every false way. Now, if that's not a false way, what is? I mean, there can't be anything that's more just, right, false way than the sodomite lifestyle. It's wicked. If you don't hate that, then, look, you're out of God's will. You're completely out, completely out of God's will. Interestingly, where we just read, abhor that which is evil. Abhor, I would imagine, probably is linked to that word, abomination. It's talking about hating, despising, and they're an abomination. God abhors them, yeah? He abhors that which is evil, and that is evil. That is an evil, wicked thing, isn't it, that we see more and more in this nation. Cleave to that which is good. Now, cleave is to stick, to adhere, to hold to. Okay, so what do we stick, adhere, or hold to? And what is there that's physical and tangible to do that with? Our King James Bible, yeah? Cleave to that which is good. Cleave to your word of God. Hold it tight, keep it by you, read it, be stuck to it. That's what we need to cleave to, isn't it? Is there anything more pure that we can tangibly hold than our King James Bibles? No, cleave to that which is good. And when you cleave to that which is good, and that doesn't mean you just hold it and you never open it, that means when you're close to it, when you're stuck to it, when you're with it the whole time, you're going to abhor that which is evil even more, aren't you? And when you don't cleave to that which is good, I'll tell you what, you won't do either, you won't abhor that which is evil. Well, I read it through once, I've read that verse now, brother Ian, I'm alright. I've read through the Bible once, now I can just do maybe a chapter a year. I've read it now, I know what it says, yeah? Well, you know what, it will go, yeah? It will go and you'll stop thinking like God wants you to think the less you hear what he's got to say to you, yeah? It says in verse 10, let's move on from that point, otherwise we're going to have a part three, and that's how we should be to each other, isn't it? Be kindly affectioned one to another. It's not automatic though, is it? Otherwise it wouldn't be commanded here, yeah? Because one of the false brethren that didn't even, I mean this guy was so retarded he couldn't even get into the church, he just kind of crept in to our WhatsApp group, but one of his statements which kind of was one of the red flags we started wondering about this guy was that he thinks that if you're saved that you would automatically love the brethren. Is that what he said to me? You'd automatically love the brethren? Well, it's not automatic, is it? Otherwise we wouldn't be told be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. That verse would just be completely pointless, wouldn't it? Because it's not. Because there's nothing automatic in the Christian life, is there? I'll tell you one thing that's automatic in the Christian life, and that's chastisement, you'll get chastised in the Christian life because you're chasing every son whom he receiveth, but brotherly love for each other isn't automatic in the Christian life in honour of preferring one another. But again with that, the world wants to dictate what love is, doesn't it? Because what is brotherly love? Well, it's a care for each other, it's praying for each other, it's wanting the best for each other, yeah? That's a brotherly love. It's not talking about men cuddling each other, okay? It's not that we're just always walking around in cuddles and close to each other and everything else, but the world likes to encourage that. That's what brotherly love is, it's just always arms around each other cuddling and that's a brotherly love, and that's what love really is. Or love is really just never offending each other, always just saying something pleasing, always just smiling and agreeing with everything someone says. No, is it spending all our free time together? Because that's a brotherly love, isn't it? Thick as sieves, yeah? Just every second, every minute of the day. Well, you know, I've turned there, Proverbs 25, 17 says, Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house, lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee. So obviously not, is it? But a lot of people think that. They think, well, we're brothers in Christ, we should just spend all the time together, just keep knocking around each other's house, sleepovers, you name it, every minute, otherwise you're not right with God. Well, no, the Bible says don't do that, because they're going to hate you. We don't want to hate each other, do we? We want to love each other. There's a balance, there's a balance in everything in life. People love extremes. People who go to extremes, always be careful for them. They love to just preach an extreme, but they never see the balance, because everyone loves a nice black and white with everything. Well, we should prefer the fellowship of our fellow Christians, shouldn't we? We should prefer that, shouldn't we? And look, on that, I'll go to that in a minute. We should prefer it to the fellowship of the world, but you're not going to be friends with everyone here. You're not in terms of best friends. You should love each other. You should love each other. You should call each other brother, sister in Christ. You should be friends with each other. You're not going to be best friends with everyone here. That would be weird. Look, by the way, that's a red flag. When those people are just best friends with everyone, that's weird, because are they really that sincere? Are they really being themselves? Are they really being honest and truthful and sincere in life? How can you then be best friends with everyone? That's weird, isn't it? It's weird. No, we should love each other here. We should want what's best. You'll find people you click with better than other people, okay? That's life, and you shouldn't be mean to other people. You shouldn't exclude other people. But, look, Jesus had a closer friendship with John and the rest of the Twelve, didn't he? Didn't he? Yeah? The one that Jesus loved. He had a closer friendship with Mary, Martha and Lazarus, didn't he? Yeah? There are many of his other disciples. In fact, some of the disciples, you're wondering if they're still there, because you'd never hear them mentioned a lot of the time. And there are certain disciples that are mentioned a lot more, aren't there, that he seems to do more with and have more time with. But does that mean that he didn't love everyone else? No. No? It doesn't, does it? Jesus loves all his sheep, yeah? He still loved them. Does that mean that he then wanted to spend time with the reprobate Pharisees instead? No. Or was he like, look, guys, leave it out, I just want to go and hang out with the reprobates? No. No. I mean, they were stalking him. He was like trying to get away, get up early, get into the desert place and everything else. They were just constantly stalking him. But here's the thing. If you're avoiding church to hang out with your unsaved family, yeah? If you're avoiding church to hang out with your unsaved family and, you know, Uncle Sodomite or, you know, Aunt Sodomy, because Christians do that, yeah? Oh, well, I wouldn't want to miss out. I don't want to not be there, so, oh, well, I've been invited to a family lunch this Sunday, you know, so I'm going to go and hang out with all these God rejecters, Christ rejecters and sometimes God haters. Look, you're out of God's will, aren't you? Yeah. You should want to be at church. Look, yeah, you're not going to be best friends with everyone. Yeah, some people, look, the truth is you might find some people annoying. You wicked Christian, you. You are, yeah? Because we're all annoying. Just some people find us less annoying than other people find us annoying. Look, everyone has different levels of annoying to different people, okay? But we should love each other. We should want that fellowship. We should want that time. And when you're in the Word of God and you're living for God, you're going to want that time. And something which is always a bit funny is when people are leggy at straight after church, yeah? Turning up last minute, leggy. Look, at the end of the day, a lot of the time they're a bit out of God's will, I would say, because they should want to be around. Look, some people aren't always the biggest socialite. Some people aren't just going to spend every minute at church afterwards just chatting to people. Some people aren't like that. But, look, when you just want to get away, get away. You don't want to be here. You find excuses not to be here. You're just out of God's will. Because we should be kindly affectionate one to another, with brotherly love in honour, preferring one another. He goes on to say, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Turn to Ephesians chapter 6. We shouldn't be lazy at work, okay? If you're a Christian, do not be lazy at work, because you're basically, you're disgracing God, okay? People know you're a Christian. They should know you're a Christian. You're lazy at work. You're a problem, okay? You're basically causing reproach to the name of Christ, yeah? Men here, make sure, make sure you work hard at work. Ephesians, you're turning to Ephesians 6. Colossians 3.22 says, servants, obey in all things your master, according to the flesh, not with eye service, as men pleases, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Fearing God, okay? It's not about what they see. Ultimately, it's about what God sees. Ephesians 6.5-8 from verse 5 says, servants, be obedient to them that are your master, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ, not with eye service, as men pleases, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man do, at the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free, because many Christians are lazy at work, aren't they? Many people are lazy at work, and any of you that have ever employed people before, man, don't you just hate it, yeah? Don't you just hate it as, what is it? As vinegar to the teeth, isn't it? As smoke to the eyes, isn't it? I think it's nitrate to the teeth, so is the sluggard to him that sendeth him. I might have butchered that, I hope I haven't, but you get the idea, yeah? Okay, look, they're frustrating, and I've had people where they are, it's eye service, it's men pleasers, because the second you glance at them, wow, they're working hard, oh, they're grafting, and oh, you know, they're digging away, and oh, they're back, and everything else, and then you turn away, they don't know you're there, and suddenly they're relaxing and they're doing nothing, yeah, and they're standing around, and the shovel becomes a nice thing to lean on, and everything else, yeah? And there are people like that all over, and we shouldn't be like that, should we? And obviously, when you're doing that sort of manual work, it maybe isn't quite possible to literally just break your back all day every day, and there are times when there are breaks, and there are times when you have to pace yourself and everything else, but you shouldn't be lazy, should you? There's a big difference in people that are just lazy, and Christians, don't be lazy at work, yeah? You know, we saw there clearly in that verse, we saw not slothful in business, and that could be in any type of business as well, fervent in spirit serving the Lord, and when you're working, you're serving the Lord, okay? Remember that. When you're at work, you're serving the Lord with goodwill, doing service as to the Lord we just saw, and not to men, okay? Kids, you can apply that to your study. Kids, you can apply that to your school and your home school, yeah? That when you're working, you're working as unto the Lord, okay? When you're given a task to do by the ordained authority in your life, and by the way, men, when you're at work, that's your boss, yeah? Kids, when you're at home, that's your parents, then you should be working your hardest. You're working as unto God, yeah? Moms, you can apply that to your housework, yeah? You can apply that to your housework. Wives as well, moms or wives there. Look, you're working as unto God, okay? It's not just always, you know, as men please us, it's not just for your husbands to see, it's for God as well. Parents, we can apply that to our parenting, can't we? Yeah? When we're parents, that's the job we're doing for God, isn't it? Yeah? Children and heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is His reward, yeah? Look, they're His, we're looking after them for Him, yeah? We can apply that to parenting as well. You don't have to turn down, Proverbs 22, 13 says, A slothful man saith, There is a line without, I shall be slain in the streets. Because they've always got an excuse as to why they can't work, don't they? The lazy, they've always got an excuse, why they can't serve the Lord, why they can't be at church, why they can't do anything when they're at church, why they can't do anything at their place of work, why they can't do whatever jobs need doing at home, why they can't do whatever work it is their parents have told them to do, and really it just comes down to being slothful, doesn't it? Yeah, and that's a bad thing to be slothful, because you're not going to get anywhere in life if you're slothful. The slothful man saith, There is a line without, I shall be slain in the streets. I can't go outside, I might get killed, I might get eaten, I might get hurt. People like that, aren't they? I'll tell you what, there's a generation of people like that in our nation, it seems. They're sitting at home with some sort of sick note from doctor, because really they're just scared of going outside, because really they're lazy. It's anxiety and depression. And look, maybe there are some people that have that, but a lot of them are just frauds. A lot of them are blagging it to get cash, because they're lazy and they don't want to go to work. Well, we should be fervent in spirit serving the Lord, shouldn't we? And in everything we do, and that's coming to church, you should be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Now, the hope of eternal life is a reason to rejoice, isn't it? That's a great reason to rejoice. Sometimes that's something you can remind yourself of when you're going through hard times. Remind yourself of your salvation. What a joy, what a joy that is. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Turn to Matthew 5, and I know we're there this morning, but they're great verses, good to remind ourselves of, because when that hope of eternal life has helped you rejoice, then that should help you to be patient in tribulation, I believe, as well. And you're more patient the more you have your sight set on eternal things and not on the things of this earth. For what is your life? It's even a vapour, isn't it? It's even a vapour, and whatever you go through now is nothing compared with the glory that you shall receive. Eternal life is what counts, yeah? Don't forget that, don't lose sight of that. And if the tribulation is persecution for righteousness' sake, even better, because then the eternal life's even better, yeah? And again, I know we looked at this earlier, but Matthew 5, from verse 10, it does say, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Look, that's a great truth, that, isn't it? That's a great verse, it'd be great to be memory verses as well, maybe we'll do that next, but even if it isn't, even if the persecution wasn't for righteousness' sake, even if that tribulation, whatever you're going through, well, you're going to get stronger from it anyway, so either way you're a winner. Look, whatever we go through, whether you believe it's chastisement, or whether you believe it's the trials of life, or whether you believe it's persecution for righteousness' sake, either way you're going to get stronger. Either way you're going to get stronger from it, aren't you? It's going to toughen you up, it's going to help you with other things in life, it's going to help you be a stronger person, a stronger Christian, but any kind of tribulation is that much easier when you continue instant in prayer, or basically be quick to stay in prayer. And look, even though we know how important and how effective prayer is, we so often forget about it in times of tribulation, don't we? So often it's not the first thing people do, so often you're like, oh man, no, and then, quick, I'd better Google how to deal with this problem, or I'd better go to this, or I just don't know what to do, you start kicking off, and we should just be continuing instant in prayer, shouldn't we? First thing you should do is just check in with God, check in with God, get in prayer, and then you're more likely to then get into the Spirit, you're more likely to be guided by the Spirit, you're more likely to seek or to at least choose the right option, aren't you? But we don't, do we? We often don't, even though it is the answer to tribulation. You don't have to turn there, Psalm 34, 17 says, The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Yeah, it might not be straight away. It might be that you have to be patient, but you cry to the Lord, yeah? You're trying to live right, you're trying to do things right, you're saved obviously, you cry to the Lord, and the Lord will deliver you, he'll hear you, and he'll deliver you out of all your troubles. Okay, the Lord does deliver, but you've got to turn to the Lord, and so often we don't, do we? Okay, if you're in Matthew 5, keep a finger there, but go back to Romans, to Romans chapter 12. I'm going to be going back to Matthew 5 in a second. Verse 13 says, Distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality. Okay, so that's helping out the saved, and look, it's not just talking about throwing cash at them, okay? You're not just helping out the saints, you come here with just, you know, a wad of cash and start giving out tenors, twenties to people, while I'm distributing to the saints. If you do, come my way first now, I'm joking, okay? Okay, but look, that can be just a lift in the cark on it, yeah? That can be company when needed, prayers, help in many situations, just helping out the saved, helping out the saints, yeah? Distributing to the necessity, we all have many different necessities, and there are people that need help in certain times, and just being ready to do that, willing to do that, and like we talked about before, some people have a gift of being those types of people more than others, but that doesn't excuse us, the rest of us, because he's clearly talking to all of us here, he says, distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality. Now, hospitality is the act or practice of receiving and entertaining strangers or guests without reward or with kind and generous liberality. Okay, obviously, part of that you could apply to at your home, yeah? But it also applies to here at church as well, yeah? Okay, being given to hospitality is just welcoming to new people, welcoming to other brothers and sisters in Christ. Like I said, yeah, you're not going to be best mates with everyone, but you can still be kind and friendly, yeah? You can still be welcoming, you can still receive and entertain strangers or guests without reward, so basically without an ulterior motive, yeah? Because some people are very hospitable people, but there's an ulterior motive. Some people, well, I'll invite them round, then I'll get a return invite. I'll invite them round for whatever that motive is, or I'm going to be really kind to that newcomer, but really it's for another reason. It's to appear to be something, look, it's just no ulterior motives. We should just want to be nice, want to be kind to people, want to be hospitable. Verse 14 says, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not. Now, this is a difficult command, isn't it? Yeah. That's a tough one, couldn't we just delete that bit? We should just be like the Bible correctors and just take that one out, don't like that one. Well, no, well, they like this one because, you know, they can pretend to be so loving, can't they, with this sort of thing, but bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not. Notice how it said, blessing people that persecute you, yeah? Bless them that persecute you. Turn to Matthew 5, because people take verses like this, don't they? And over in Matthew 5, and then tell you to love the false prophet, don't they? Yeah, this is one of the ones that, oh, bless them that persecute you. You know, bless and curse not. You know, they will take verses like this and say, love the Judas. You know, love all the God haters. Love the sodomites, yeah? You know, even if they insult you, even if they say things about God, just love them. Just love them. Even though they hate God, just love them, yeah? Love the child abuser. Love the child abuser, because look, you know, there's just the way God made them, yeah? Because, you know, everyone makes mistakes. Like, there are people that call themselves Christians that come out with this sort of rubbish, yeah? Well, this is talking about our own personal enemies, so people that take an issue with us. That's what it's talking about. We read earlier on to abhor that which is evil, didn't we? Yeah? You're in Matthew 5, aren't you? Psalm 139, verse 21 to 22 says, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Amen. And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Something's amiss here. So, how do we level that off? How does that match up with what we've just read? Because it's talking about personal enemies, personal problem people. There's a difference between our personal enemies, that's those that do us wrong, and those that hate God, the children of the devil, okay? There's a difference between those that rise up against God, the enemies of God, the reprobates, and those that just have a problem with us, yeah? And that's something that we have to decipher, and you can't just tarnish everyone with a reprobate brush, so you can then get away with hating them and trying to take out your grievances on them, because ultimately, still, vengeance is mine, I'll repay saith the Lord, yeah? So, unfortunately, we're not on a reprobate hunt. Yeah, I know, I know, I know we would love to be, but we're not, because God deals with it, and we'll see that in a minute. But Matthew 5, from verse 43 says, Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy. I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For ye maketh his Son to rise in evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even republicans the same? If ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even republicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. So, clearly we're told to do good to our own personal enemies, and that is still hard, isn't it? Yeah. That is difficult, and look, and you think, well, isn't my person, I'm a Christian, my enemy must be a reprobate. No, no, you will all have people, you will even have Christians that are basically, there are Christians, yeah, did you know that, that count other Christians as enemies, and neither of them are reprobates, and neither of them are infiltrators or anything else. There are people, sadly, that's what the flesh does. You get angry, you start to hate people, they start to become your enemy for whatever reason. That's what happens, that's something we want to avoid, don't we? We want to avoid that. And there are people that aren't Christians out in the world that are your enemies, okay? There are people that hate you, not necessarily because you're a Christian, there are people that just don't like you for many other reasons, there are people that will cause you harm, there are people that want your job at work, there are people that want your life, the envy in the world that causes so many problems, there's so many other issues, there are people that you've crossed, you've said the wrong thing to, you've done wrong to, yeah? Believe that, you can do wrong to people, and they won't forgive you, yeah? There are your enemies in the world, and they'll do stuff to you. And the Bible says, it says love them, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Those people, we're commanded to be good to, and that's hard, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, that is hard, but look, that's something we should strive to do, and we should be praying to God to help us with that, but it's not talking about the enemies of God, okay? And like I said, you can't just assume everyone is an enemy of God so that you can justify hating them, but there are some people that clearly are enemies of God. And when they're clear enemies of God, we abhor that which is evil, we hate every false way, we hate them that hate thee, okay? And that's how it works, that's how you marry up those verses, and sadly, most Christians don't seem to be able to do that, do they? Yeah, and they claim that they would love and forgive even the most vile, reprobate, you know, child-murdering serial killer. I'd just forgive a man. No, they're just haters of God, they're enemies of God. No, okay, so back where we were, verse 15 in Romans chapter 12 says, Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Now, he's talking about having empathy for others here, okay? And again, look, yes, we can go to the extreme and there are people that have literally zero empathy, okay? But there are many people that just don't have that much empathy, okay? And we don't want to be those people that don't have much empathy, okay? Empathy is a good thing to have. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. You have to turn to Ecclesiastes 3, 4 says, A time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. Because, again, there are many Christians out there that just don't have empathy for others. They don't have it. When you're happy about something, they don't like that, okay? They're not able, they need to bring you down for some reason, you get people like that. You know, you're kind of, you're happy, and you're in a joyful mood, and then they just squash it straight away, because they don't want to rejoice with them that rejoice. And there are those that won't weep with them that weep. And you know what, there are people who have empathy, clear, you know, blatant empathy, and, you know, they can be great people to be around when you're in hard times, okay? Because they actually feel, they're people that genuinely feel for you, when you're going through a hard time, that would actually cry with you, because your heart ache actually really affects them. And there are those that have zero empathy, okay? There are those at the complete extreme that literally do not, and then there are those at fake empathy, okay? And these are obviously, we're talking about wicked people. And then there are those somewhere in between, and we're all probably somewhere in between, where we want, we're told here, he tells us to rejoice with them that rejoice with them that weep. And it is something I believe you can work on. You can work on being empathetic. You can work on actually caring about others. And again, I think the more you read through your Bible, the more that's going to generate. But there are people that have that gift of what they might call the gift of mercy. There are people that maybe just have that in more abundance from the beginning. But it is something we should try and have, yeah? And you should try and think about other people, think about how they feel, think about how they might be reacting to something, responding to something. And also, it's not just in hard times, okay? It's not just, don't just be a bad time friend. Be a good time friend as well to people. Because there are those that are just bad, they're happy when you go through bad things. They might weep with you then, but when you're rejoicing, when you're having good time, they don't like that, yeah? Look, we should want to rejoice with each other as well and want to be able to help people to be happy and have joy with things. And like I said, it's not just feeling sad for someone going through a heartache, okay? It's not just that. It's more than that. And it's having that actual care. It's actually putting yourself in their shoes. It's actually having that genuine care for other people. Verse 16 says, Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not hide things, but condescend to men of lower state. Be not wise in your own conceits. As you can see as we're going through this, you could preach a lot of sermons off this chapter, couldn't you? There's a sermon in it, absolutely everywhere. There's sometimes three sermons in each verse, but I'm trying, we're getting through this. We're doing it right here. You said, Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not hide things, but condescend to men of lower state. Be not wise in your own conceits. So, don't treat the rich guy better than the poor guy, yeah? Don't treat the rich guy better than the, oh, we wouldn't do that, would we? People do that, okay? People do that. And look, turn to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not hide things, but condescend to men of lower state. Well, James 2 and verse 1 says, My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if they come unto your assembly, a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and they come in also a poor man, in vile raiment, and you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and sound to him, Sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand now there, or sit here under my footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves, and have become judges of evil thoughts? Now, like I said, you would think, well, we wouldn't do that, but there are churches around this world that do that. There are saved churches with the right gospel, with a saved man of God at the front. Who would still do that? And what is it? A lot of the time, they want the big tithers, don't they? Oh, look at that one. Ten percent of that income would be good. Let's do a bit more outreach, because a lot of the time it's just inviting people to church, isn't it? In that rich area. Make sure you're in that nice neighborhood, because then the ten percent's a lot higher. That's what a lot of it comes down to, sadly, doesn't it? That's what it's about. And there are people even that want to befriend people that have money, because, again, they think they might, you know, feed from the crumbs which fall from the rich man's table, or something along those lines, or at least, you know, they're going to benefit in some way, or something else like that. We shouldn't be like that, should we? Verse 5 says, Because the poor are much more likely to get saved, aren't they? Yeah, the poor are much more likely to get saved. And when we have someone that walks in here, you know, and if they come in and it's not in the goodly raiment, and they're unsaved, the child's probably more likely to get saved, aren't they? That's the truth of it. But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgement seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which you are called? Those smug rich types are the worst, aren't they? When you knock on the door of one of those smug rich people who are just so up themselves, so full of themselves, so just, so arrogant in their wealth, they can be pretty hard to get saved, can't they? Pretty hard to even get anywhere, pretty hard to leave a verse a lot of the time. And, you know, he's saying, look, don't they, and look, the rich, it's a wealthy, it's a mega rich in this world that do oppress us, isn't it? Yeah? It's a mega rich in this world that do draw us before the judgement seats. They're the ones at the top there that are starting to put in those laws of the hate speech and everything else, changing the whole landscape of nations like this, which at least at one point claimed to believe the Bible. And it's the rich ones, isn't it? It's the wealthy, it's the rich that control governments, and we don't want to then put them up on a pedestal above others, because how vile and wicked are those people? Those people that are oppressors that bring us before the judgement seats, those mega rich in this world, do you have respect for those people? I don't. Oh, well, they've got some money, so what? Sure. You can have that money burning with them in hell. Amen. If you fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, you do well. But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. The truth's there, aren't there? Go back to Romans 12, we'll try and finish up. Verse 17, Romans 12, 17 says, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. Okay, and again, another hard truth, isn't it? We shouldn't be seeking revenge. That's hard, isn't it? Trying to get our own back on people. And again, it's tempting, isn't it? Yeah, and I'm sure many people here have been through things with people in the past where it would be tempting to get revenge on them. Maybe you have sought revenge on them, maybe you still plan to seek revenge on them. Maybe it's going round your head right now, I don't care what you say, brother, and I'm going to get them. I'm going to get them. Look, because a lot of us have had... Look, people can do some harsh stuff to you. And sometimes you're just thinking, I'm going to get you, yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to have... I'll at least be able to claim self-defence one day. Yeah, sometimes you just think, yeah, one day it's going to be self-defence. But we shouldn't really be like that, should we? He says, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. Now, before we go on to that and how that works, provide things honest in the sight of all men. We should be a picture of honesty to all, OK? So don't forget that, yeah. And some of you, oh, well, to get ahead in life, though, you can't be honest to get ahead in life. You heard these sort of smug types say this sort of thing. Well, who cares? You don't have to turn there. Proverbs 19.1 says, better is the poor that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool. Yeah, integrity is an important thing. Yeah, don't forget that, yeah. The more you start to see dishonesty in someone in areas of their life, yeah, the less you start to trust them, don't you? Yeah, we just, like I said before, in the old days, in this nation, I've seen this change in my short amount of years in this area. I have definitely seen this massively change where integrity seems to not be important at all anymore, OK, where people just, like, it's just talking about lying, talking about dishonesty is just no big thing. Like I said, Christians do it as well, of course, because the world does it. Christians do it. But not many years ago, the unsaved in this nation would pretend at least, yeah, they would at least pretend to have integrity, to have honesty, to not lie, to not be dishonest, to not do dishonest things, to not earn money dishonestly, to not lie to their boss about things, to not lie to... People used to try and live like that, yeah? They get it wrong a lot, but they tried. Now it seems to just be just open season for it, yeah? Yeah, it doesn't matter, just lie, just be dishonest, just act like that. And even amongst Christians, and that's wicked, isn't it? We're told to have integrity, and look, when you're around people, like I said, that you just, you know, sometimes, you know, they might kind of correct themselves and go, no, actually, that wasn't right, whatever else, and when you see that coming from someone and you feel that honesty coming from someone, it's refreshing, isn't it? And when people are like that, you know, they're people that you want to be around, people that are just, that you're not thinking, are you lying to me, though? Is that just another just little lie, little excuse, little dishonesty there, little bit of deceit? No, you just want to be around people that have integrity. It says in verse 18, if it be possible as much as life in you live peaceably with all men, because it's not always possible, is it? Now, this isn't saying, oh, look, if you can forget, if you can not get revenge, don't, but sometimes it's going to really eat you up. If it really eats you up, just like let down the tyres or something on the car or, you know, do something, no. It's saying if it be possible as much as life in you live peaceably with all men, because a lot of people won't live peaceably with you, okay? Some people, look, you try. You've tried as much as possible, as much as life in you, but some people will not live peaceably with you, okay? And you can't force that, can you? But we should at least be able to say on our side that we tried. We tried our best to live peaceably with someone. We tried our best not to round, not to get in fights, not to get in disputes, not to, you know, look, and, you know, we've been talking about this a bit so recently. Sometimes you get some aggressive people out, don't you? Sometimes you get some people that are in your face. Sometimes you get some people that are really trying to ruin a gospel presentation and sometimes it is, you know, you're thinking, well, I don't think it's possible to live peaceably with this person, but, look, we shouldn't be looking for an excuse to, like, have a fight, yeah? We shouldn't be trying to find a reason why, well, it was probably justified, yeah? We should be trying our best to live peaceably with all men, and, look, self-defence is all right if you have to, and self-defence sometimes is hitting someone first. There's truth, you know. You don't have to wait there to get beaten up before you react, yeah, because sometimes someone smashes you around the face with something even a fist, yeah, and that can be the end of your self-defence, okay? But don't misconstrue me here and start going out just punching people because you felt it was a self-defence issue. But, look, we do sometimes have to defend ourselves. Sometimes you know someone looks like they're about to attack you and sometimes you have to defend yourself, but that's very rare, okay? That is very rare, and if you're going out and getting in these situations regularly, then maybe it's you're not, if possible, as much as life in you trying to live peaceably with all men, yeah? Okay, so, verse 19 says, and this is something I wanted to talk about briefly to finish up, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Now, this is from Deuteronomy chapter 32, and you can turn there if you like. Okay, turn to Deuteronomy 32 because there is an important phrase in Deuteronomy 32, and verse 35, yeah? It's Deuteronomy 32, 35. We've just read, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Okay, Deuteronomy 32, 35 says, To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. Notice that phrase, in due time, their foot shall slide in due time. God's vengeance comes in due time. It's not always straight away. And there's something to remember here as well, look. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Do you know that God wants to avenge you? Yeah. Yeah? Did you know that those people that we just talked about, your personal enemies, yeah, your personal enemies, you know that God will avenge you with them? And I'm not just talking about hell either. Okay, God will deal with it for you if you let him do it. If you leave him to do it and you don't try and do it yourself. And it takes some faith there. For some of you that may be a little bit, you know, maybe you have a, you know, the red blooded male, there may be even, you know, some of those females who can get a little bit, you know, get a little bit aggressive at times with someone that's crossed them. It can be hard. In fact, look, forget what gender you are, it's hard. Okay? It's hard when someone crosses you. You want to get revenge, yeah? But God will. God will. See, it says here, to me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time. For the day of their calamity is at hand, the things that shall come upon them make haste. Yeah? I've had first-hand experience of this. I was telling someone about this recently and I had a guy that just, it's a long story, but he stitched me up with a card. I part-exchanged my old truck with the guy. He sold it to someone, he sold it to someone for, it didn't seem to do the paperwork. Like, he'd said, I don't want, I'm just going to sort it all out. I should have done it myself. He just stitched me up, basically. I had fines coming through, I had bailiffs coming round my house. I couldn't prove that I'd sold the guy. It was just an absolute nightmare. But at the same time, he'd sold me a car which he'd puttied under the oil tank. Like, it was a complete stitch-up, yeah? Yeah, you might think, you fool, how did you let that happen? Well, whatever, yeah, maybe I was foolish as well. This guy was just some wicked two-bob, you know, car dealer that I knew through someone else, so I trusted him because I knew his friend, yeah? It's where I used to live down in Godalming. And I was fuming, yeah? When I had someone have a look at the car and they're like, this guy's literally just put some putty under the oil tank, that's why it's leaking, before he sold it to you. And then when I got the things through about the truck, I mean, I was livid, yeah? And the flesh in me, I knew where he lived, the flesh in me wanted to drive round this house and drag him out of his house, yeah? Honestly, you know, it was a test for me. I really wanted to... My daughter's laughing there, but she knows that that's what I wanted to do, okay? And I wanted to, you know, and it was hard because for me, this guy just, it was a complete stitch-up. There was no way I could go, well, it's his side of the story. It was just a complete stitch-up, yeah? And I didn't, yeah? And, you know, praise God I didn't. And I left it to God and I prayed to God and I said, you know, okay, you said that you'll avenge me and et cetera. Now, just interestingly, and this is, you know, again, you might just say, well, it's just anecdotal, whatever. Interestingly, a while later, the guy who I knew him through rung me up about something else said to him, oh, by the way, have you seen that mechanic? He said, wow, yeah, don't talk about him. He said his life has gone completely to ruin. I think his wife had left him. His business had crashed. He was in a load of debt. He couldn't sell any of the cars he had left. Like, the whole thing was just a complete nightmare. Now, that was worse than anything I could have done. Yeah, I could have gone up there and, oh, I'm going to beat him up and everything. Maybe, yeah, maybe I could have beaten him up in the street, yeah? And probably got arrested for it and probably ended up getting just as much grief myself and probably ended up with my family then getting grief because of that and probably at the same time, you know, the guy, yeah, he might have ended up with a few, you know, maybe some bad pain. Maybe I could have really done some real damage, yeah, but was it anything that God could have done? No way. And God wants to do it, but if you do it yourself, well, maybe I could have gone up there and done something really pathetic, you know? Maybe I could have just gone up there, done my idea of vengeance and God would have just gone, well, okay, well, you did it yourself. There's your vengeance done, done. You didn't leave it to me. And that's the point. That's the point with your personal enemies is really, really when you leave it to God, you're letting God deal with it and God knows, really God knows everything, doesn't he? So God knows how much they need. He knows what they need, whether or not they really need dealing with it, whether or not you've completely misconstrued something yourself. He knows everything. He knows the start from the end, doesn't he? He knows a lot. So when we try and take it into our own hands, it goes wrong. And sometimes we can be impatient. How are they getting away with this? This person is doing this and doing that and treating me like this and everything else. Well, he said their foot shall slide in due time, yeah? At the right time, God will deal with it, okay? And that's why just love him. Look, the more good you do to them, the worse the vengeance will be from God. Because it says in verse 20, back in Romans 12, Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. And the I love everyone and the blessed and everyone else Christians, they really have trouble with this verse. I had someone, I had a guy at this false church trying to say this to me once. If thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. And I said, what about the coals of fire on his head bit, though? Yeah, I've never really worked out that bit. Because they love to pretend they're just so loving. Well, that's what the Bible's saying there. The Bible's saying, look, when you do good to them, then you're leaving it for God, okay? You're basically leaving it to God to give them their due reward, okay? Because if you seek vengeance, then God won't. And if you're nothing but good to your enemies, you're leaving it fully to God. And however tough you think you are, God's going to deal with things ten times better and ten times more effectively than you ever are. And he's not going to end up in prison for it either, which is always handy as well. Verse 21 says, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. If we overcome it, like I said, we're putting it in God's hands, okay? And he knows best in these situations. And that's the end of Romans chapter 12. Well, like I said, you could preach many hours from those verses, couldn't you? And I hope that I haven't gone on too long there for you all. That's a great chapter of the Bible, isn't it? Great chapter of the Bible, like all chapters of the Bible. But there are so many great truths there. But don't let them just go in your ear and then out the other. And I know they're kind of a bit quick fire, and it's like this. And then the next subject and the next subject. Go back over that chapter. Remind yourself of what those instructions are. Because Paul's – again, it's all for our own good, isn't it? For the betterment of all of us, it's for our own profit. And that's what really that chapter is talking about, is things that are for the good of all of us. And on that, let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for just such a great chapter of the Bible, which just gives us so much practical help and advice and instruction and commandment, really. And help us to take heed to that. Help us to act upon that as well. Help us to not just let it go in one ear and out the other and just continue doing things that we've always done them before. Help us to want to change, to want to be more like you want us to be, to behave like you've been telling us in that chapter to behave, to get our minds right, to get our hearts right. Help us to, starting with that, to hate the evil like you tell us to, to not try and have our faith dictated to by the world, telling us how we should behave as Christians, how we should think, how we should act, how we should love, how we should hate. But help us to go to the word of God, to go to what you tell us to do. Help us with all these things. Help us to put these into practice with this upcoming week. Please just help us to just keep you in the centre of this week. Last week we've got now without a midweek service. Help us to still manage to stay in the things of God, keeping our Bible reading to get out, soul winning as well, keeping prayer. And Lord, just help us to all return back next week safely for another day in your house. In Jesus' name, pray all of this. Amen.