SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Romans chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest today, we are preaching through the book of Romans, uh, and we're in chapter two this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading verse one.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row on page 940.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a Bible at home and you like that one, take it with you as our gift today.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, you know, remember, let me give you some context.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we finished chapter one, and it ended kind of on a harsh-sounding note.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of says, And God gave them over, and God gave them over, and God gave them over to do what ought not to be done.
SPEAKER_00: They first they became perverted.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, excuse me, they became immoral, and then they became perverted, and then they became consciousless, that their minds to do, they didn't think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, and so God gave them over to a depraved mind.
SPEAKER_00: Uh nothing matters.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't think rightly about right and wrong, and that's a bad place to be.
SPEAKER_00: And and Paul is writing, he's referring in chapter, end of chapter one, he's writing to Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Last night, uh, we do something in my house kind of different every once in a while.
SPEAKER_00: We'll have breakfast for supper.
SPEAKER_00: And last night, my wife said, yesterday afternoon, she goes, Well you gonna for supper?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Breakfast, and she said rock and roll.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I want some bacon.
SPEAKER_00: And she says, How long have you been since you've had bacon?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, it's been too long.
SPEAKER_00: I write it little letters, dear bacon, I miss you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because about a year, a little over a year ago, I looked in the mirror one day and I just thought, you're fat.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be fat anymore.
SPEAKER_00: This ain't fair to your wife, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so I lost about 38 pounds.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and but I love bacon.
SPEAKER_00: I miss bacon.
SPEAKER_00: Last night bacon and I had a little reunion.
SPEAKER_00: And we had bacon and eggs and French toast, and it was great.
SPEAKER_00: And and and and I thought, hey, and one of my kids, my wife said, What are you gonna talk about tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, Romans chapter 2, verse 1 to 16.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Here, I'll read it.
SPEAKER_00: Pulled out a Bible, read it.
SPEAKER_00: My nine-year-old says, I got sleepy, Dad.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: The people tomorrow will be the same way.
SPEAKER_00: And but my 15-year-old said, Dad, you might want to explain between Gentiles and Jews, so we could kind of understand that we're kind of Gentiles and Jews, and so he ends chapter one writing to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Gentiles were non-religious people, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It was me growing up.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a small town and we were poor and we were white trash, and we didn't have church clothes.
SPEAKER_00: That was the phrase we used back then.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if y'all have ever had that phrase, because a long time ago, like in 1978, you had to have church clothes in East Texas to go to church.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't have church clothes, and so we didn't go to church.
SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday I knew two things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, I was poor, and number two, I didn't fit in.
SPEAKER_00: And so we had to work on Sundays and we'd drive by the church, and me and my brothers would lay down in the bed of the truck because we didn't want the church people to see us.
SPEAKER_00: That's how much fear we lived in.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I telling you that?
SPEAKER_00: Not so you'll feel sorry for me.
SPEAKER_00: I took out my revenge and painted my name on the water tower in John Deere Green.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's a whole nother story that involved alcohol.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I was not a Christian back then.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are going, go back to the story about the water tower.
SPEAKER_00: I want to hear more about that.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing to the Gentiles, people had idols and they were involved in gross immorality.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jews, the religious people that had church clothes, they looked down on them and said, Oh, y'all are a bunch of bad people, I'll tell you what.
SPEAKER_00: And they went out and did the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing to them now.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 2, verse 1, he says, This Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
SPEAKER_00: We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things.
SPEAKER_00: Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, that you'll escape the judgment of God?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
SPEAKER_00: But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: He will render to each one according to his works.
SPEAKER_00: To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: For those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
SPEAKER_00: There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first, but also for the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: For God shows no partiality, for all who sin without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
SPEAKER_00: For it's not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
SPEAKER_00: For when Gentiles who do not have the law, for when Gentiles who do not have church close, don't know the rules, don't read the Bible, but by nature do what the law requires.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: They are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
SPEAKER_00: They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to read this passage of Scripture and think it's about judgment or judging, and it's not.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually about hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I want to talk to you this morning from Romans chapter 2 about five things that every hypocrite should know.
SPEAKER_00: Five things that every hypocrite should know.
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is found in verse 4, and it's simply this how you think about God matters.
SPEAKER_00: How you and I think about God matters, because look at it again.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in verse 3, our verse 2 actually, he says, We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things.
SPEAKER_00: And then he asks this question, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourselves, you two-faced religious weasels, do you think that you'll escape the judgment of God?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing the hypocrite needs to know is how you think about God matters.
SPEAKER_00: And it's found in that phrase where he says, or do you presume?
SPEAKER_00: Do you presume?
SPEAKER_00: That's not a phrase we use a lot, but basically what it means is to think lightly of.
SPEAKER_00: To think lightly is he said, Hey, do you presume, do you think lightly of the kindness of God, the forbearance or the tolerance of God, and the patience of God?
SPEAKER_00: How do you think lightly about that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me just start with my own life.
SPEAKER_00: There have been periods in my life where I did not do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: Like when I knew I was called to ministry, I ran.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons I ran from the call to ministry were preachers were the most phony people I'd ever knew.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought to myself, I can't be like those people.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: That would be horrible.
SPEAKER_00: So for a period in my life I thought, I'll just show God how unworthy I am.
SPEAKER_00: There was a period where I look back on that and I just think, man, God, why didn't you just kill me for being such a goofball?
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm probably the only one here that's ever had a period in your life where you just thought, man, God, is it any wonder why you didn't kill me?
SPEAKER_00: You could have killed me and taken me home to heaven and just been and still been a loving God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm probably the only one that's thought that, right?
SPEAKER_00: That knew you were wrong and wondered at the mercy of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm the only one, correct?
SPEAKER_00: You ever wonder why he didn't?
SPEAKER_00: If you got your Bible, I'll show you.
SPEAKER_00: Romans, if you're in Romans, just turn back to Acts chapter 14, just one book to the left.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to the right, you're gonna hit some maps.
SPEAKER_00: That's too far.
SPEAKER_00: Turn back to the left, Acts chapter 14, and if you it'll probably come up on the screen if you don't have your Bible with you.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Barnabas are in a city called Lystra, and they just healed a man, or God's healed a man through them.
SPEAKER_00: But in chapter 14 of Acts, but certainly in verse 15, Paul says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Men, why are you doing these things?
SPEAKER_00: Because they rushed out to them like they were gods.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to make Paul and Barnabas gods.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Men, why are you doing these things?
SPEAKER_00: Or who also, we we also are men of like nature with you.
SPEAKER_00: And we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their ways.
SPEAKER_00: Now just that is a pregnant sentence.
SPEAKER_00: Just hear it again.
SPEAKER_00: In past generations.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how many that is.
SPEAKER_00: A generation is considered to be, in modern-day vernacular, 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, in past generations, for a long time, he, God, allowed all the nations, not just people, but all the nations to walk in their own ways.
SPEAKER_00: You can't come here and sit in here this morning and think, well, God's some bully that's out to get people.
SPEAKER_00: If you do wrong, he zaps you with lightning and just kills you.
SPEAKER_00: That's not true.
SPEAKER_00: That's not true at all.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't presume, you can't think lightly about the nature of God.
SPEAKER_00: You say, why?
SPEAKER_00: He says, in past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he did not leave himself without witness.
SPEAKER_00: For he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest evidence of God in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you sit in this room right now as a Christian, or you're sitting here right now and you're still in that stage.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, hey, I'm gonna do what I want.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna walk in my own ways.
SPEAKER_00: There's a God, great.
SPEAKER_00: I came here to get my wife off my back.
SPEAKER_00: So say whatever you want to say.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say this to you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest testimony to the reality of God is the goodness of God in the midst of your badness.
SPEAKER_00: He has rung a bell that you can't unring.
SPEAKER_00: He has said things that you can't deny.
SPEAKER_00: You can sit around with your buddies and go, oh, well, the world's full of hypocrites, church's full of hypocrites, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: But you can never accuse God of being a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing, because when you didn't deserve it, when you least deserve it, God gave it.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't just kind of sprinkle it out.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that his way he did, he didn't leave himself without a witness.
SPEAKER_00: He made a testimony that no one could deny.
SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
SPEAKER_00: See, the first thing the hypocrite needs to know is that how you think about God matters.
SPEAKER_00: He says, or do you presume, do you think lightly about the kindness and the tolerance and the patience of God?
SPEAKER_00: If you say, well, no, no, I don't think lightly about that.
SPEAKER_00: Then ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe God is love and God is tolerant and God is patient, what sins has this led you to repent of lately?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says, hey, you think lightly about the kindness and the forbearance and the patience of God, but you don't realize that the kindness of God is intended to lead you to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It has caused you to get home and not remember how you got home, or to go out and do things you knew were wrong and did them anyway, and get back home and lay in your bed, and when no one is around, either think in your head or whisper even out loud, God, I know this is wrong, but just please watch over me.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, I get I didn't leave myself without a testimony.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, one of the greatest evidences of my reality that you cannot deny is that I was good to you when you didn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says to these religious people in Romans chapter 2, he says, Let me tell you something, you hypocrites.
SPEAKER_00: How you think about God matters.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that every hypocrite should know is the condition of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: The condition of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I have a doctor that I'm I didn't, by the way, I didn't have doctors, I didn't have insurance, I didn't until I got married.
SPEAKER_00: I had none of that.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's like, Who's your who's your insurance with?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, insurance?
SPEAKER_00: Who needs insurance?
SPEAKER_00: Well, who's your GP?
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: I have a BFF, I don't have a GP.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're general physician.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I, what?
SPEAKER_00: Men don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: But now I have a doctor and I have insurance, and every six months I gotta go get a checkup.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife's like, oh, you're getting close to 50.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, there's some procedures.
SPEAKER_00: Men need, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: But I have a doctor, and I picked my doctor because he has the same last name, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: McClendon.
SPEAKER_00: We're not related, but I go in every time and I say, Oh, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: McClendon, oh, are y'all related?
SPEAKER_00: No, but I'll take the family discount if it's available.
SPEAKER_00: And the lady always says the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, she goes, Oh, you're the guy with the great heart rate.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I have the resting heart rate of a three-toed sloth, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I go in and she goes, guess your blood pressure.
SPEAKER_00: And I tell her every time, my blood pressure is 120 over 70, and my heart rate's about 63, 58 to 63.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, I mean, how do you have such a great?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm world-class athlete, ma'am.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of hard to tell, I know.
SPEAKER_00: But if I took my shirt off, you would see a sculpted, this is like a Zulu warrior under this shirt, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, I had five pieces of bacon last night.
SPEAKER_00: I ate the four, I had two, and then I got two more, and then I took an extra one.
SPEAKER_00: Well, my wife wasn't looking.
SPEAKER_00: Don't say anything, because I'll get a lecture about that.
SPEAKER_00: Thought you were eating clean, not on the weekends.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like a man let out of prison.
SPEAKER_00: Yeeha! Food.
SPEAKER_00: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that you got to know the condition of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, last time I went, she pumped her up, boop, boop, boop.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how, but she releases a little blood pressure.
unknown: Shh.
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: It was 117 over 70.
SPEAKER_00: I was off by three points.
SPEAKER_00: Because I know the condition of my heart.
SPEAKER_00: God says to the hypocrite, and by the way, I'm not telling you you're hypocrites.
SPEAKER_00: That's for you to decide.
SPEAKER_00: This is just in case you might know a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: How's that?
SPEAKER_00: Let's you off the hook right there.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, yeah, I wish Billybob was here.
SPEAKER_00: He needs to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: You need to know the condition of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because look at what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Back in Romans chapter 2, look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: He says, hey, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: But because of your hard and impenetent heart, you're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like God's in heaven getting more and more angry, like one of those little cars and you back it up.
SPEAKER_00: That's not God.
SPEAKER_00: You, you need to know this condition of your heart because if you have a hard and impenitent heart, you're like, I don't even know what impenitent means.
SPEAKER_00: I might not have that, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But if that's the condition of your heart, you are storing up for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It's not God's, God's wrath is always a response to our behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Remember last week, the wrath of God is never uncaused.
SPEAKER_00: You don't walk in and God's like, I've been drinking, like a Carrie Underwood video, not enough wind in Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody?
SPEAKER_00: anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Cave seen the blown away video?
SPEAKER_00: Her alcoholic father, she leaves him there and she goes outside and gets in the storm cell and the tornado blows him away.
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all have cable?
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, never mind.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're we're homeschoolers.
SPEAKER_00: We don't believe in that.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I just have c am I gonna get letters for that?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: My name's Wade Collier.
SPEAKER_00: C-O-L-L.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: He said, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: He says, know the condition of your heart because here's here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because God says in verse 5, look at it, but hey, but because of your hard and impenitent heart, what God does is a response to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just picking on humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Your hard and impenitent heart, you're storing up wrath for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Hard means stubborn.
SPEAKER_00: Impenitent, put a star by this in your notes.
SPEAKER_00: It means unrepentant or admitting no change of mind.
SPEAKER_00: An impenitent heart is, and this is the reason this is crucial, because this person can admit to no change of mind.
SPEAKER_00: Remember my wife and I first got married.
SPEAKER_00: She grew up in a home where nobody could be wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And if you were wrong, you didn't admit it.
SPEAKER_00: You just kind of will.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just I grew up in a family where, man, you could just get in each other's face and just and if you just you were free to say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I missed it on that.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we got married, we came at that whole right and wrong from two different perspectives.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, when we were dating, remember I pulled over one time and asked for directions.
SPEAKER_00: I got back in and she was crying.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just so impressed that you asked for directions.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with you?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where I'm going.
SPEAKER_00: Well, most men just keep driving until they figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not most men, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like William Wallace here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Killed 5,000 men one time.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, oh, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: We've been married about 18 months.
SPEAKER_00: And I realized, why is being wrong such a big deal?
SPEAKER_00: And one day we had a disagreement, and she's like, Well, I can't talk about this right now.
SPEAKER_00: I could talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need preparation.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need cliff notes.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to put it on the schedule.
SPEAKER_00: Just ring the bell, ding ding, and I'm coming out.
SPEAKER_00: Woo, woo, woo, woo! I don't raise my voice.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a yeller, but I was on the debate team in college.
SPEAKER_00: And I can factor together a prima facie case really quick and pounce on faulty logic like a duck on a june boat.
SPEAKER_00: What pow! Because Marjorie would be like, Well, I don't want to have this conversation because you're gonna go all debate on me.
SPEAKER_00: No, let's have the conversation.
SPEAKER_00: So she said, Well, we disagreed about something, and she was wrong, and I was just praying that God would enlighten her heart and she would confess it, but she wasn't because she comes from a long line of people that don't admit they're wrong, and so we're gonna have to discuss it.
SPEAKER_00: Translation men, I was gonna have to put a verbal beat down on her and be gracious about it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, two things are happening in this room right now.
SPEAKER_00: The women are going, you're a pig.
SPEAKER_00: You are a pig, and I thank God and bless myself that you're not my husband.
SPEAKER_00: The men are going, oh Lord, how many times I've wanted to say that.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Okay, I think, because my wife doesn't like to talk when she's emotional.
SPEAKER_00: When I get emotional, I get clear-headed.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can drill down on it real quick.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I can, oh yeah, come on.
SPEAKER_00: And we got all ready to sit down, and my wife said, Before we get started, let me just say something.
SPEAKER_00: I was wrong, and you're right.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think I'd be going, wow, but I was like, no, no, no, no, you can't say that.
SPEAKER_00: And then she went further and she said, Yeah, I was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a leg to stand on.
SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, Who beats up a one-legged woman in a discussion?
SPEAKER_00: That's just not fair.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: I had all this stuff compressed inside of me, and I was ready to graciously let it flow out, but like a river glorious, it was gonna come.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Yeah, I don't have a leg to stand on.
SPEAKER_00: I was like a balloon, you blow up, and instead of tying off, you let it go.
SPEAKER_00: I was just like, okay, I gotta go outside and smoke, I gotta decompress, I'll be right back.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I telling you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says when you harden your heart, when you know you're wrong, and you insist on pretending you're right, here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Impenitent, here's why I told you to put a star by that.
SPEAKER_00: It's this person that's admitting no change of mind.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why do I put a star by that?
SPEAKER_00: Because biblical repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of heart, that leads to a change of behavior.
SPEAKER_00: And if you cannot admit that you were wrong and that your mind needs to be changed by what God says, you can never repent, and your heart stays hard.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the simple question.
SPEAKER_00: What's the last thing the Bible changed your mind about?
SPEAKER_00: The third thing every hypocrite should know is that the importance of actually doing something.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse six.
SPEAKER_00: The importance of actually doing something.
SPEAKER_00: Verse six, the Paul says, Hey, of God, after he says the latter part of verse five, he says, You're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: On that day, verse six, he will render, he will pay, he will cut a check, he will render to each one according to his intentions.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the word.
SPEAKER_00: He will render to each one according to the motivations of his heart that he just never found the courage to act on, but meant to.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He will render to each one according to his works.
SPEAKER_00: To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, let me just kind of drill down on this that we've kind of become a nation where, and I hear it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I went to a retreat a couple weeks ago, and God got up and says, Yeah, let's just face it, none of us is doing this.
SPEAKER_00: We're all getting our tails kicked by the devil.
SPEAKER_00: No, un amen.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lump me into that.
SPEAKER_00: Because America, here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: What's happened is we've taken the standard of God's word and we've torn it down, and we put up now the standard of our willingness.
SPEAKER_00: And so a preaching in the American church has kind of shrunk down to the size of what we're willing to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I hear all the time, well, I know, I know the truth, but I just don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: If that is a consistent confession of your life, you have no hope of going to heaven when you die.
SPEAKER_00: That's how high the stakes are.
SPEAKER_00: Now, either you just perked up and you're listening, or you're thinking, man, what a jerk preacher.
SPEAKER_00: I hate this guy.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want that.
SPEAKER_00: But I would be hating you if I didn't tell you, hey, listen, you can't just consistently go through life, go, Yeah, I know what the Bible says, but I don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like in America the most spiritual thing you can do is be a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Bible, the most unspiritual thing you can do is say one thing and do another.
SPEAKER_00: Like these people in Romans chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Why else do you think Jesus said, hey, everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, doesn't enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think he said in Luke chapter 6, verse 46, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?
SPEAKER_00: It's because when you stand before God and I stand before God, it's what's obvious, what's the work he will render to each one according to his works.
SPEAKER_00: For those who by patience and well-doing, patience and well-doing means don't get tired of doing the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: I know you work with a bunch of jerks at work who are lazy, who are slackers, who just kind of cheat and do what they can to get away with whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get, don't look around and kind of go, because by the way, doing the right thing and working hard is a lonely place to be nowadays.
SPEAKER_00: I can't stand my going to business and people are standing around on their cell phones.
SPEAKER_00: You need something?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, am I disturbing you, texting your girlfriend?
SPEAKER_00: Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Home Depot guy?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, oh, I'll just let her know I'm gonna pick her up tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, how about pick me up right now and take me to the toilet par?
SPEAKER_00: I need to fix a broken toilet.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'll be right with you.
SPEAKER_00: If I was the manager of Home Depot, I'd fire that kid right there.
SPEAKER_00: If you're on a business, you know how hard it is to find somebody that actually wants to work.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, hey, don't let those people get under your skin.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient and well doing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, those who are patient and well-doing, they seek for glory and honor and immortality.
SPEAKER_00: He will give eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, those things, glory and honor and immortality, the reason you have to be patient and just keep doing the right thing is because those are not now things.
SPEAKER_00: Glory and honor and immortality, those are then things.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when we started this morning, after Christy read and prayed, and then Clyde took off on the piano, and Ruthie Snyder started plucking that banjo.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you were like, Yee-ha! This is like hee-haw on steroids.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody stopped me in the foyer, I was getting some water and they said, Hey, we could sing that song every week, it'd be great with me.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you want to be reminded that, hey, I'm gonna fly away.
SPEAKER_00: This world is not my home.
SPEAKER_00: This is not all that matters.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what Pepsi says, you can't just live for now.
SPEAKER_00: Because glory and honor and immortality, those are then things.
SPEAKER_00: Then.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you get when you stand before God and you've done the right thing, regardless of what everybody around you is doing.
SPEAKER_00: You're not perfect, but you're not a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna say one thing and do another.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna judge people and then go out and do the exact same thing yourself and think God's gonna wink and look the other way because you go to church.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not.
SPEAKER_00: See the importance of actually doing something.
SPEAKER_00: So when you stand before God, there's something for God to reward.
SPEAKER_00: Don't think about, oh, oh, I don't want to be judged by God and condemned by God.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8, we'll get to that in like 2015.
SPEAKER_00: It says that, just see if you're paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: It says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me the other day, well, don't you fear condemnation?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: There's no condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Could you condemn your kids?
SPEAKER_00: You think you're a better dad than God is?
SPEAKER_00: And no condemnation flows you're in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't fear condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready for reward.
SPEAKER_00: I want my life and how it's lived here in this world to matter in the next.
SPEAKER_00: So in that 8 o'clock service, the reason I went over and I saw y'all looking in the back window.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have a pistol right here on the shelf next week.
SPEAKER_00: Be like a cop walking sideways.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all duck in this section.
SPEAKER_00: No, I got so happy in 8 o'clock service.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to hyperventilate up here.
SPEAKER_00: Because, hey, it's important.
SPEAKER_00: All the hypocrites need to know it's important that you actually do something with your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's why Paul says in Galatians chapter 5, verse 6, the only thing that counts, the only thing that heaven has a record of is faith expressing itself in love.
SPEAKER_00: He says it's neither circumcision nor non-circumcision because religious people love to keep score and kind of go, back then the Jews were like, well, we've been circumcised, and if you really want to be close to God, you got to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, I don't give a rip about that.
SPEAKER_00: All your man-made rules in religion, God doesn't care what you wear to church, wear whatever you're comfortable in.
SPEAKER_00: Anything north of a speedo is accepted here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So don't come to God and say, Well, a circumcision or non-circumcision.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I would never do that.
SPEAKER_00: No, you would come and say, I was catechized as a kid.
SPEAKER_00: I went through confirmation.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh oh.
SPEAKER_00: Did you feel that?
SPEAKER_00: Them fighting words right there.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Outward ordinances in classes don't make you right with God.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to confirmation and catechism, you can be circumcised, you can come to the Baptist church every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a relationship with Jesus, your heart's never been changed.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get right with God from the outside in.
SPEAKER_00: You get right with God from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when the Bible cuts down to the heart of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says to these Jewish religious people, like, well, we've been circumcised.
SPEAKER_00: We're sons of, we have Abraham as our father.
SPEAKER_00: What they're saying is, we're Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And John the Baptist said, hey, or Jesus said, excuse me, hey, my dad can make from these rocks sons of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: You're Jews, big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you want a cookie?
SPEAKER_00: You want me to make some Jews out of stones?
SPEAKER_00: We don't need more Jews.
SPEAKER_00: We need people that know God.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need religious people who bank on their religious heritage, but we need people who bank everything on a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's important that hypocrites know the importance of actually doing something.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, how do you know who's actually doing so?
SPEAKER_00: How do you know who has a relationship with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: The people that are patient and well-doing.
SPEAKER_00: The people that are doing the right thing when everyone else around them is doing the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: Fourthly, every hypocrite needs to know that you have a conscience.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, look at verse 12 for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: You ever read things in the Bible and you go, What, what, what in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12 is one of those examples.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be judged.
SPEAKER_00: You sinned apart from the law.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't know better, but you sinned anyway.
SPEAKER_00: And you religious people, you Jews, you had the law and you sinned anyway.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be judged as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the hearers of the law, verse 13, who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
SPEAKER_00: For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, people don't have to be Christians to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: But just because they do the right thing on occasion doesn't make them Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear what the Bible's saying?
SPEAKER_00: Because people look around and go, oh, well, Billy Bob, you know, he sent$1,000 to flood relief in New York.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: $5,000 extra, I'd send it up there.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen$1,000 extra in a long time.
SPEAKER_00: If you see it, it may have my name on it.
SPEAKER_00: Give it back to me.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, hey, that doesn't make a person a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what he says in the next verse.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: He says, as a matter of fact, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they show that they know there's a sense of oughtness in this world.
SPEAKER_00: There's right and they're and wrong.
SPEAKER_00: While their conscience also bears witness.
SPEAKER_00: And their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on this day when God judges the secrets of men.
SPEAKER_00: So you need to realize that you have a conscience.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Well, William, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest example is probably a man named Jean-Paul Sartre.
SPEAKER_00: Jean-Paul Sartre.
SPEAKER_00: He was a French existentialist poet, philosopher.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, just because you're French and you're existentialists and you're a professor, that doesn't mean you're smart.
SPEAKER_00: And this guy was pretty much a moron.
SPEAKER_00: But he wrote a book called Being, and the title of the book was Being and Nothingness.
SPEAKER_00: And that sounds really smart.
SPEAKER_00: People sit around in French cafes and drink strong coffee and smoke black cigarettes and go, oh, I'm reading Sarté.
SPEAKER_00: And people go, ooh.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: You must have gone to Harvard.
SPEAKER_00: Have you talked to people who went to Harvard lately?
SPEAKER_00: It is fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: I went to Harvard.
SPEAKER_00: I was speaking up there at the Lexington Christian Academy.
SPEAKER_00: And I went down to Harvard in the square and got a haircut.
SPEAKER_00: I've never heard such foul language coming out of a woman's mouth in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And she stuck her finger in my face.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, we ain't got to fight.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I don't mind fighting you.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let me take my shirt off.
SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
SPEAKER_00: But my point is nothing against Harvard.
SPEAKER_00: And let me back up eight minutes ago.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing against confirmation or catechism.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not making fun of that.
SPEAKER_00: I think you need to be taught the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't teach your heart into being right with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's something that God does.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Jean-Paul Sartet in his book Being Nothing, he talks about, he says that man's uniqueness is found in being a subject who observes rather than an object which is observed.
SPEAKER_00: He says a subject observes and acts, while an object is observed and acted upon.
SPEAKER_00: The former, it pleasures us, while the latter is a little bit disturbing because if man is just an object that is being watched, then that implies that he's accountable to someone.
SPEAKER_00: See already, you understand Jean-Paul Sartre right there.
SPEAKER_00: He says that man's ultimate power and dignity is found that he is a subject and he observes.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that he's an object that someone else observes.
SPEAKER_00: Now keep in mind the Bible says in the Psalm 139, verses 1 to 6, it says, Oh God, where should I flee from your presence?
SPEAKER_00: He says, before a word is on my tongue, you know it.
SPEAKER_00: Before I have a thought, you know it.
SPEAKER_00: God not only observes, he is familiar.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible says of God, He's familiar with all my ways.
SPEAKER_00: You see, and the classic example of this is that what Jean-Paul Sartre did is that one day he was looking in the hallway of his apartment building.
SPEAKER_00: He was looking through the keyhole and spying on this family.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: No one was inappropriately unclothed or he was just watching them through the keyhole because he prided himself.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Man needs to be in control.
SPEAKER_00: Man needs to be the subject who observes.
SPEAKER_00: So he's looking through the keyhole and he's watching him.
SPEAKER_00: And everything was great until he heard a noise behind him and he turned around and realized someone was watching him.
SPEAKER_00: And he was humiliated.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, he's at the fork in the road.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of saying, you know what, that was wrong, and I need to apologize to you, and I don't think we need to tell them, but thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Just seeing you reminded me that what I was doing was inappropriate.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, what he did was, he said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not going to be, I'm not accountable to anybody.
SPEAKER_00: And he became an atheist.
SPEAKER_00: He basically said, There is no God, which ought to sound familiar because the end of chapter one, it's the same thing the Gentiles did.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it like this: it says, Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done.
SPEAKER_00: What ought not to be done by Jean-Paul Sartre is write books about existential philosophy and invite people who are really smart to deny the existence of God, but that's what he gave his life to.
SPEAKER_00: It's horribly fascinating and tragic.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote a paper in school on the passion of Christ, and he got a silver medal, not a gold medal.
SPEAKER_00: And he got so mad at God that he didn't get the gold medal.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm never going to believe you again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm never, he said, from that day forward, God looked away from me and never looked upon me again, so I could do whatever I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the Bible says that God never takes his eye off of you.
SPEAKER_00: He says the hairs on your head are numbered.
SPEAKER_00: He says you've strayed to the left or to the right.
SPEAKER_00: You hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way.
SPEAKER_00: Walk in it.
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that Jean-Paul Sartre and all of us can't get away from is our conscience.
SPEAKER_00: Our conscience is this little inner sense of what is right and wrong in our conduct and motives.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of impels us toward the right action.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of says, Hey, hey, hello, something's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience is the part of you that reminds you that you're accountable to someone.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience is that voice in your head that nobody else hears.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't stop hearing it.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me, they said, You think the conscience is the voice of God?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience is that part of you that you can't violate without kind of sensing it.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn that, it'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible talks about the conscience.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, Paul is an older man, he's telling Timothy, this younger man, he says, Timothy, I want to charge you with this.
SPEAKER_00: This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you.
SPEAKER_00: That by them you may wage the good warfare.
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's kind of irregular, and we don't, it sounds almost Victorian.
SPEAKER_00: But what he's saying is, hey, people have been saying good things about you for a long time, Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you fight the good fight: you hold faith and a good conscience.
SPEAKER_00: Because by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Among them who are Hymeneus and Alexander, who I've handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul says to this young man is that faith and a good conscience are like two wings of an airplane.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta hold on to this, or you're gonna make shipwreck of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, does faith need anything?
SPEAKER_00: No, faith doesn't need anything, but a good conscience goes a long way.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been around a preacher that's just a jerk?
SPEAKER_00: Who doesn't know how they treat people, who talks to people?
SPEAKER_00: I've seen it time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've been in the room where a preacher knocks over a cup of coffee, buzzes his secretary, and says, Get down here and clean this mess up right now.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I said, What?
SPEAKER_00: I was actually in the room when a worship pastor walked through and snapped his fingers and told his secretary, Get me a glass of tea.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be in my office.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'll give you$100 if you go in there and pour it in his lap.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Oh, I can't.
SPEAKER_00: I need this job.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Hey, uh, can we were having dinner later that night?
SPEAKER_00: And because if I would have talked right in that moment, I'd wouldn't have come out right.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Hey, can we go back to the day, the kind of the way you treat your secretary?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, she's just a secretary.
SPEAKER_00: What's the problem?
SPEAKER_00: See, you're your con you can no longer feel what you're like.
SPEAKER_00: Your conscience kind of says, Hey, by the way, you something's wrong here.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, Hey, by holding on to faith and a good conscience, keep you from shipwrecking your faith, keep you from kind of running the ground, becoming somebody you don't want to be.
SPEAKER_00: Fifthly and finally, the fifth thing that every hypocrite needs to know is that there are no secrets.
SPEAKER_00: There are no secrets.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: You still with me?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, maybe we should ask ourselves what our conscience has said to us lately.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I told the first, I might as well tell you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start with some of my own confession.
SPEAKER_00: Last week, Lance and Wade and I took a study day, went over to the Lanier Theological Library.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful facility over off 249 in 1960.
SPEAKER_00: A man built the whole thing out of his own pocket.
SPEAKER_00: It's a private, it's on the grounds of his property.
SPEAKER_00: His home is there.
SPEAKER_00: It's got a little miniature train that runs through the whole property.
SPEAKER_00: They have black swans swimming around, have this world-class theological library that he's got, they got scrolls from all over the world, artifacts.
SPEAKER_00: It's unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite thing, they have a little cured coffee machine.
SPEAKER_00: You can have all the coffee you want.
SPEAKER_00: And they have this, I mean, it's it's it is the the ceiling is slaked from England.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, excuse me, the roof.
SPEAKER_00: The ceiling looks like the Sistine Chapel.
SPEAKER_00: Lancel Wade had never been there.
SPEAKER_00: I showed him you, you got to know where it is because it's just a little gate, and you buzz the gate and say, Hi, it's Neil McClenn, I'm here to study.
SPEAKER_00: Gate opens up.
SPEAKER_00: It's like pulling into the bat cave.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, you walk in, and it's kind of like you see people, and you're like, oh, last one of the last times I was there, Beth Moore came walking through our room.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey lady, you don't mind not interrupting us here.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing the Lord's work.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, You shut up.
SPEAKER_00: What do you you tell Marcy?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm not telling Marcy nothing, okay?
SPEAKER_00: People are like, That's Beth Moore.
SPEAKER_00: You don't talk to her that way.
SPEAKER_00: I just did.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a beautiful facility.
SPEAKER_00: It's unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: Words don't do it justice.
SPEAKER_00: They got all these books, and you can just resource them for free.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, here's the deal: you can bring your little jump drive and you can make copies of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: You can email it to your computer.
SPEAKER_00: If you make copies, ten are free.
SPEAKER_00: Anything over ten, they're 10 cents a piece.
SPEAKER_00: Got it, got it.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that my first rodeo?
SPEAKER_00: Wade Lance, you're listening.
SPEAKER_00: Don't embarrass me now.
SPEAKER_00: Get me kicked out of here.
SPEAKER_00: We go our separate ways.
SPEAKER_00: And my favorite part is they've got these little nooks.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a bay window.
SPEAKER_00: These little round tables, all these high-back leather chairs.
SPEAKER_00: You can just sit there.
SPEAKER_00: And they've got this bench seat, and you can put all your books out and just look out this window.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like a little English village.
SPEAKER_00: It is unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: And I came across this article on Romans that I wanted to study with.
SPEAKER_00: And so I went and made copies.
SPEAKER_00: 15 copies.
SPEAKER_00: All right, 10 free.
SPEAKER_00: I owe them 50 cents.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I meet them downstairs and I put all my books back on the little cart where they reshelf them, go back down, meet Wade and Lance, walk out, went and ate lunch at P.F.
SPEAKER_00: Chang's, drove all the way back across town to get ready for our Wednesday night service.
SPEAKER_00: That night I'm laying in bed, and that little voice in my head said, Hey, you owe those people 50 cents.
SPEAKER_00: And then this little voice in my head said, If they can build a building like that, they can afford 50 cents.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not saying that's right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that the longer you've been a Christian, the more tempted you are to justify what should never be justified.
SPEAKER_00: Am I talking to anybody but me?
SPEAKER_00: And I laid there and I said, Lord, it's overall 249, 1960.
SPEAKER_00: I'll spend more than 50 cents worth of gas.
SPEAKER_00: This is probably bad stewardship of your money.
SPEAKER_00: And very clearly that voice said, You want to push me on this?
SPEAKER_00: It's the small foxes that spoil the vine.
SPEAKER_00: So this week I get to drive back over to 249.
SPEAKER_00: Have I told you it's over 249 in 1960 over in Cyprus?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's over in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They got camels over there.
SPEAKER_00: And walk in and go, here last week I made five copies I didn't pay for.
SPEAKER_00: Here's 50 cents.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Because I even said this.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, they're probably going to say, you didn't have to do this, Neil.
SPEAKER_00: You could have just paid the light next time you come.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't know about you, but sometimes when I know I'm supposed to do something, I try to get out of it by telling God that, well, I know what they're going to say.
SPEAKER_00: I know what their response is going to be.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I'm the only one that does that too.
SPEAKER_00: So this week?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, it's$9 in toll fare to get over there.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be the most expensive 50 cent debt I've ever paid.
SPEAKER_00: I might even have to stop and eat it.
SPEAKER_00: P.F.
SPEAKER_00: Chang's again just to justify the gas.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get a witness?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There are no secrets, though.
SPEAKER_00: See, my conscience won't leave you alone.
SPEAKER_00: You better learn to listen to it.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're going to try to fly a one-wing plane and you're going to shipwreck your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Last thing the hypocrites need to know, just in case you run into one this week, they need to know there's no secrets.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16 and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: He says, on the day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, notice what the text says.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go into this very much, but notice that the Bible says that not only that we have secrets, but they'll be judged.
SPEAKER_00: But God will judge them.
SPEAKER_00: He'll judge them by Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The standard by which our secrets will be judged is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not our friends, not our wives, not our husbands, not our kids, not our friends on Facebook who we ask, hey, what do you think?
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
SPEAKER_00: That is going to be judged by the standard of a holy, righteous, perfect Savior that died to liberate you and I from sin, so sin would no longer have power over us.
SPEAKER_00: So it wouldn't compare and contrast.
SPEAKER_00: We would have all our affection focused on Him.
SPEAKER_00: Say, well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: There's no secrets.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's kind of wow.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus said the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just finish by reading from Luke chapter 12, verses 1 to 7.
SPEAKER_00: Now just don't turn there because I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to visualize this in your mind because sometimes we read the Bible and it's just flat and it's like, okay, uh, but but but but picture this.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 12, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: When so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another.
SPEAKER_00: Can you get that picture in your mind?
SPEAKER_00: Think of the Who concert in 1979 in Cincinnati.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Where somebody yelled out, the doors are open, and the doors to the cosine.
SPEAKER_00: More and open, and the crowd surged forward and they crushed to death seven people.
SPEAKER_00: And then, because we'll never miss an opportunity to turn a buck, they had t-shirts printed up that said, I'll walk over you to hear the who.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_00: That's the country we live in.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, just let me just read it one more time.
SPEAKER_00: When so many thousands of the people had gathered together, that they were trampling one another because they were so sick of religious, phony, blowhard preachers who say one thing and do another that they had given up on religion.
SPEAKER_00: He, Jesus, God with skin on him, the real deal.
SPEAKER_00: Kid Rock's best friend, Jesus, he began to say to his disciples, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, because of this, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.
SPEAKER_00: But I will warn you whom to fear.
SPEAKER_00: Fear him who after he is killed has authority to cast into hell.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I tell you, fear him.
SPEAKER_00: Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?
SPEAKER_00: And not one of them is forgotten before God.
SPEAKER_00: Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not.
SPEAKER_00: You are of more value than many sparrows.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus is saying a lot of things, but one of the things he's saying is that hypocrisy is born out of misplaced fear.
SPEAKER_00: You become hypocrites because you fear them.
SPEAKER_00: Plural.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fear them.
SPEAKER_00: All they can do is kill your body.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says, don't fear them, fear him, singular, i.e.
SPEAKER_00: me, he says, who can kill your body, and after that, I can cast you into hell.
SPEAKER_00: Then don't check out on me.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave here and go, oh, I don't like a Jesus that throws people into hell.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if that's what Jesus was all about, why would he come?
SPEAKER_00: And why would thousands of people be trampling on each other?
SPEAKER_00: Because finally a straight shooter and a square dealer was on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who, when they talked, people's heart beat faster, and they looked at the religious honks of the day and said, Hey, he didn't talk like one of you losers.
SPEAKER_00: He talks like a man who has authority.
SPEAKER_00: When he talks, I want to do what he says.
SPEAKER_00: When you talk, I want to choke you.
SPEAKER_00: That's a rough paraphrase.
SPEAKER_00: You know that's in the Bible, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus stood up and said the people, when they first heard him in the temple, the people said he doesn't talk as a scribe or a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't talk as a religious person who has nice church clothes.
SPEAKER_00: But he talks as one who has authority.
SPEAKER_00: He talks as one whose walk and his words are synced up.
SPEAKER_00: He talks as a man that says what he's, does what he says he's going to do and doesn't do what he says he's not going to do.
SPEAKER_00: He talks like someone who you can build your life on his words.
SPEAKER_00: That's why thousands of people were trampling on each other.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Hey, don't fear them.
SPEAKER_00: Fear me.
SPEAKER_00: And then because he thought, you know what, you're going to miss the point, he says, Oh, by the way, don't be afraid of me.
SPEAKER_00: All these sparrows out here, you're worth more than all of them.
SPEAKER_00: I got the hairs on your head numbered.
SPEAKER_00: I know you so well.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be phony and fake it.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you trying to convince with your hypocrisy?
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to sell me on something?
SPEAKER_00: I know everything.
SPEAKER_00: Don't hear that and go, oh my gosh, that's bad news.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's great news.
SPEAKER_00: Because he invites you and I to walk into the light and be free, liberated people.
SPEAKER_00: To change the music you listen to on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I have a friend of mine, a counselor, and it takes months to get an appointment with him.
SPEAKER_00: I asked him, I said, Man, why are you so busy?
SPEAKER_00: Is it like not enough counselors?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, No, there's plenty of counselors.
SPEAKER_00: They're everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Here's the thing, Neil.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like the jack in the box when you're a kid, when you turn the handle, the music would play.
SPEAKER_00: Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody lives with the fear that any moment now, their darkest secret is going to come to light and they're going to be found out.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, that's no way to live.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, You're exactly right.
SPEAKER_00: And so when the jack in the box comes up, the thing which you want to keep under wraps becomes obvious and there's nowhere to hide, then people can begin rebuilding and reforming their life based on the truth.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the power of your secrets.
SPEAKER_00: Secrecy is the power of badness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes along and says, I don't want you to live that way.
SPEAKER_00: I I got the hairs on your head numbered.
SPEAKER_00: You don't think I know what you're really like?
SPEAKER_00: And these sparrows, you're of much greater value than them.
SPEAKER_00: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Beware of becoming some phony religious person who goes to church and then goes out and does whatever you want and comes back to church and says, Hey, good to see you.
SPEAKER_00: The only person that hates that lifestyle more than you is God.
SPEAKER_00: And He's come to deliver you from it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you one last question.
SPEAKER_00: It's simply this What secrets are you living in fear of this morning?
SPEAKER_00: What secrets are you living in fear of this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Because the hypocrite needs to know that there really are no secrets.
SPEAKER_00: You have a conscience.
SPEAKER_00: It's important that you actually do something.
SPEAKER_00: In the condition of your heart, you need to know what your heart is really like.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to know that how you think about God matters.
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out and speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Your God has come to change your internal dialogue and the music by which you live.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a condemned people.
SPEAKER_00: You are loved and liberated.
SPEAKER_00: So there's no sense to be a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now and be synced up, free people.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.