No. 37 - THERE’S NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, December 27, 2003 If you would like to title this sermon, it is “There’s Nothing New Under the Sun”. There are many constants in the universe. These are solid unchanging facts that we can count on. For instance, scientists have determined that there are about twenty numbers that are very important to the universe, and they actually sustain the universe! By these numbers and their values, we can determine and predict certain things in the universe with an absolute certainty. For instance, the power of the force of gravity can be determined. The speed of light is determined. E=mc2 is determined. GOD’S CONSTANTS There are about twenty numbers that the universe runs on that always stay constant. They never change. God is the Creator of the universe and we know that He never changes. There are spiritual constants in the universe such as the Ten Commandments. They never change. God’s character never changes. The spiritual forces that God uses, His powers, never change. Powers of love, mercy, faith and truth are the same yesterday, today and forever. We can count on them with absolute certainty. In all this we know that God is our friend. He is our maker and He is our sustainer. He always wants what is best for us. This we can count on. It is a constant. Turn, if you would, to Romans 8. Read verses 31-39. These are constants that we can count on. God’s love, His intercession and His mercy help us cover and conquer all things, including sin, and fight the powers of darkness, the principalities that are against us. With God we cannot fail if we stay true to Him. We have in God a perfect friend, a constant ally. He is someone who will never let us down. Turn to John 15 where Christ is speaking. Read John 15:9-17. We have in Christ a Being who loves us, and He is loved by His Father. He commands that we love one another as His Father loved Him and as He loved us. What comes through here is a friend willing to lay down His life for us, that is Jesus Christ. He is a friend whose loyalty goes beyond all normal bounds. He will do anything including giving up His divinity and becoming a human being and suffering the indignities of the flesh in order to help us. Loyalty to His friends is one of Jesus Christ’s most remarkable trait. You would have to say it is legendary and should be so in the body of Christ as well. Our loyalty to one another should be legendary. He did this for His friends when He knew their weaknesses and their flaws. He knew the flaws in the 12 apostles, and I am sure many times had to correct them. He knew they were weak and of the flesh, and He loved them anyway. It is the same with us. He knows our weaknesses, and He loves us anyway. He covers our weaknesses and hides our sins if we accept His sacrifice. He wants us to look as good as we can. DARK CONSTANTS There are dark constants in the universe as well. These are also solid, unchanging, unyielding spiritual constants. Satan and his hordes are very real. Satan’s name actually means “adversary, arch enemy of God” and our arch enemy as well. His force and his power are the exact opposite of God. He is full of hate. He is unmerciful, untrusting and untrustworthy, full of lies and deceit. He is just the opposite of God’s character. He is very good at what he has set out to do. Revelation 12:9, as we are all familiar with, says that he has successfully deceived the entire world. That is at the end of the Bible. Let’s turn back to the beginning of the Bible and see what God had to say about it there. Genesis 3, verse 1: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden.”?’” So this most cunning of all created things lied to Eve with horrible consequences for mankind. He is very cunning in his approach. If you would, turn to John 8 where more bits of information regarding his character come forth. Christ is talking to the Pharisees here. John 8, verse 42: “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because, you are not of God.’” This is a terrible indictment of Satan’s character here. He is a murderer from the beginning. He is a liar from the beginning with no truth in him. This is from the beginning when he turned this way. When he was actually created, he was a beautiful being, but once he turned, from that point he became the father of lies. He became a well spring of hate and deceit. This is Satan’s character, and now it will not change. Just as God is a constant and His character is a constant, Satan is a constant. His character is constant. He is against us and against God. There is no truth in him and he speaks from his own resources because it is of himself. This is his character. His own resources means of his own self. He generates lies. As I said, he is a well spring of lies, deceit, murder and hatred. It comes from him. Anyone who follows him is used by him, even if deceived and not knowing what they are doing. They cannot hear God’s voice apart from a special miracle where God opens someone’s mind. But if we are of the father of lies, we cannot understand the truth. We are all mixed up. We are a combination of good and evil, like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just as God is unchanging, so is Satan. He will always be our enemy. We have to remember that. Turn to I Corinthians 10, please. Satan does some things that are so tricky, so sneaky that we have to be on our guard all of the time. He is a brilliant individual who is a well spring of all of these tricks, deceits and lies. We have to understand how he does these things. We have to be able to catch him so we are not caught unawares. I Corinthians 10, verse 11: “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” We are being warned here that we can fall, even though we think we are solid, if we are not careful! Satan is that crafty, that sneaky, that we can think we are on solid ground just like the Pharisees did. They thought they were on solid ground. They were not. That can happen to us even as God’s people. I would like to continue reading in verse 13. I Corinthians 10, verse 13: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say.” After Paul gives the warning that we take heed lest we fall, he says now you will be tempted but God will always give you what you need to overcome it if you grasp that. We must take it up. PEOPLE CAN FAIL People can fail. This is what I want to talk about today. People can fail because Satan is that crafty. I would like to read all of I Corinthians 10 now because that whole chapter outlines in context what Paul was getting at in those few scriptures we just read. Let’s start in verse 1 and read to verse 4. Our forefathers in the Old Testament drank of the truth from Jesus Christ. Continue reading I Corinthians 10:5-6. Paul is warning here that their bodies were left in the wilderness as a result of the sins that they committed because they were tricked. They thought they were on solid ground and they were not. Continue reading verses 7-10. We are talking about sexual problems. We are talking about tempting Christ. We are talking about complaining. These led Paul to warn the Christians of his day and us today what we already read. Reread verses 11-13. Notice Paul says complaining is very dangerous. This refers to words. It is very important to realize that the words that we use have consequences. NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN Our arch enemy knows human nature inside and out. Our arch enemy has the same tools today that he had back then. He had the same tools then that he had back in the Garden of Eden. That does not change. It is the same hate, lies and deceit. It is the same bag of tricks. He may color it differently at one time and hide it a different way, but it is the same bag of tricks. He does not change in that regard. He has nothing new under the sun. That is why we can look at the Old Testament examples and learn now 2500 to 3000 years later by looking at them because the tricks that Satan used are the same. He will do the same thing to us. REBROADCASTING TO EACH OTHER His hate, his lust, his greed, his deceit and lies he will put through into people, and people communicate them. He broadcasts as prince of the power of the air and then we rebroadcast from one to another. His use of his basic tools is ingenious. Genesis 3 said he was the most cunning being ever created. As God’s people, we are not immune. Ancient Israel had a very special relationship with God and most of them died in the wilderness because Satan was so effective at tricking those people. We have to take the examples of old and apply them to our situation today and see how we are going to fight Satan off. That is the crux of the situation, because the tools that we use are also the same constants: love, mercy, compassion, truth and faith. They have not changed. We need to learn how to use those tools to fight Satan with his instruments and his tools. Turn to the Book of Matthew, if you would, to look at a few examples in the New Testament of how Christians (people walking with Christ ) can be tricked, fooled and deceived. Turn to Matthew 16:21. “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’” WORDS HAD BETTER COME FROM GOD It says He just finished teaching Peter and the apostles about why He had to die and what was going to happen to Him, and then Peter spews a line from Satan. Christ admonished him and said, “Get behind Me Satan. You are an offense.” When you talk like that, you are not minding the things of God. So what was he minding? He was minding the things of Satan, which is why Christ used the name of the real influence and not Peter. Peter, you are being deceived so I am not even going to call you Peter right now. I am going to call you Satan. It must have devastated Peter, but it must have taught him a lesson he learned for the rest of his life. The words we say better come from God. They can come from the other side, without our even realizing it, if we are moved and motivated by the wrong thing. Satan knows how to use our human nature, our human weakness, to communicate his deceits and his lies. HYPOCRISY Turn, if you would now, to Galatians 2. We are not picking on Peter this morning. He has his name in the Bible for a lot of wonderful things but a few things that I am sure he is not very proud of. They are there for us to learn. Galatians 2, verse 11: “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed…” This is Paul writing about the chief apostle, Peter. Continue with verse 12: “…for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?’” Paul stood right up in front of a crowd of people because he saw hypocrisy where some of the chief apostles, starting with Peter himself, were not being straightforward with the truth. Hypocrisy was entering the Church at the very highest levels. I am sure Peter repented of this, but he did not know he was doing this. He did not understand the full consequences. He did not want to be embarrassed, or he did not want to face the Jews, or he did not want to get in an argument with them or whatever the case may be. He may have had an inkling this was not the best way to handle the situation, but he did not realize he was actually harming the Church or he would not have done it. Satan comes in very strange ways broadcasting things. He did not take over Peter. He just broadcasted something. There was a certain pride or character trait in Peter that made him susceptible to this. When he was not in tune with Christ enough, he turned and became less than straightforward with the gospel. He became a hypocrite. He led Barnabas that way and he was leading others that way. Paul saw if we do not stop this, this hypocrisy can go right through the Church! I am bringing these examples to our attention to show how sneaky and cunning Satan is. He is extremely sneaky and cunning. That is why I wanted to read so much of I Corinthians 10. Let’s go back to I Corinthians 10. DO NOT CAUSE OFFENSES Continue reading in I Corinthians 10:14-22. He had just gone through the example of what happened to ancient Israel, and those examples were written for our admonition. Then he is saying I do not want us to inadvertently offend people or do something that puts us in the fellowship of Satan and his demons. We have to be careful what enters the Church and be careful how we handle one another. We will continue reading in verse 23 about sacrificed food. Continue reading verses 23-29. In other words, the issue here was food offered to idols. Paul said do not offend a weaker brother who happens to realize the food we are about to eat at the table was offered to idols. Paul said I will not eat that because he did not want to offend the new member of the faith or a weaker brother or sister. But if there is no weaker brother or sister present, then he is worried about the person serving the food. If they served food that he thought might be offered to an idol, he says do not worry about it. Do not offend the person. I know, he says, that what comes into my mouth cannot defile me. It is what comes out of my mouth that defiles me. Christ taught him that. He said I have to watch for the people around me. I have to be concerned for the people around me. Continue reading I Corinthians 10:30-31. Now that is the point I want to make here. It is not limited to food sacrificed to idols. He said whatever you do, handle it this way for the glory of God so you do not cause offense. Continue with verses 32-33. To the very best of our ability, we do not want to harm the brethren around us by our actions, thoughts, words or deeds. It is through those little offenses that Satan subtly works. Satan is always there ready to take advantage of any situation. It is important for us to realize this because this is how we can block him out of our fellowship and block him out of the Church. We can be overcome by Satan in very subtle ways by complaining, tempting one another or offending one another. All of these things were mentioned here. We can cause offenses. These may be small at the start, but they are wedges. Any of you who have worked in the woods or worked with wedges know what I am talking about. We are all considered to be trees, as we have said earlier and have studied in the Bible. God wants trees to bear fruit. SPLIT APART INSTEAD OF BEARING FRUIT You know that with one small wedge and repeated blows I can reduce a tree to a bunch of splinters! Whenever I want to cut firewood I can take a big block of a tree, and with a little wedge and a maul I can reduce that to as small of a bit of firewood that I want. I can make it nice chunks or little bits of kindling. Just with a little wedge and repeated blows and then hit at one time it all of a sudden blows apart. That is how a wedge works. We are all trees so we are susceptible to wedges. Satan will use words, offenses, and deeds to drive wedges to split God’s trees. We need to be aware of this so we can deal with it and battle him. These are some of the subtle tricks that we do not even know he is doing. Turn, if you would, to James 3. We have seen Satan use this method so well you would think we would be on to this and never fall for it, but lest we fall, we need to be careful. We have seen a great Church fall apart into a lot of little pieces of wood. The Church of God was big in the end time and now it is a bunch of busted up little pieces. It is mostly because of wedges of things people said. Words between people were the most powerful tool Satan used. They caused offense to drive a little wedge that got bigger until it split this beautiful tree apart into a bunch of little pieces. Read James 3:1-5. Now that we understand that God’s Church is a forest of trees, we understand the words people use can burn down the whole forest! We have seen it happen. The whole forest is going down tree after tree after tree. Verse 6: “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.” When Peter was talking to Christ and said that He did not need to go through all of that, he was speaking from hell, from Satan. He said this innocently, but he was being used. Each of us can also fall for that. If it can happen to Peter and Barnabas, it can happen to John Blanchard or any of us. We need to constantly be aware that these are the tricks that Satan uses. We need to be constantly on guard with our tongue. Continue with James 3, verse 7: “For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.” This is something we understand more and more. We cannot even curse the men in the world, the human beings out there. They are made in God’s image as well. They have been deceived. We have to be careful how we judge the world. We must be very careful how we judge the Church and how we use our tongue because we can harm the entire body, we are told here. We are all susceptible to this. This is what we are being told by James. A CRITICAL HUMAN WEAKNESS Nobody can completely tame their tongue. I know I cannot, and I do not think any of you can. We are not up to that yet and Satan knows that. He knows it is a critical human weakness, and he has done tremendous damage to the Church of God and the entire world by the words people say. We need to be very careful and on our guard constantly with what comes out of our mouth. In our own weakness and sometimes in our total ignorance and not knowing what is happening, we can use a line of Satan’s to hurt someone else. We can cause offense and drive a wedge. Once a tree is split, you try and put it back together. It does not work. You see the evidence today in the Church of God. It would take a miracle to ever put the Church back together again. Like the proverbial Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall, and who could put him back together again? It is like that with the Church. Once these schisms are in there and those words have been used to hurt, offend and divide, try and put it back together. It is literally impossible. It cannot be done humanly. This is what James is saying. None of us have learned to control the tongue perfectly, but we need to do our best. When we see that we goofed up, make amends and try to fix it as quickly as we can before a split occurs. Continue with James 3:10: “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?” Christ sends out fresh water in truth, love and compassion. Satan is a spring of bitter water sending out hate, deceit, lies, lust and greed. You cannot get the two kinds of water. Christ is not going to put two kinds of water out there and Satan cannot put two kinds of water out. He may color his evil with a little bit of good to make us swallow it, but it is still poison. It does not matter. Fruit does not have evil in it, but evil can have just enough truth on it to doctor up the poison so you do not know it is there. It is still there and it can still kill us. Verse 12: “Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.” If we have, at anytime in our hearts, a controversy or bitterness between one another or a self-seeking attitude (a selfish base to what we are saying), we are against the truth. We are humans. This is going to happen to us sometimes. We need to catch it. We need to realize the source of this. We need to learn how to deal with it so we get this bitterness out and we get these false desires (this selfishness) out of our lives. Verse 16: “For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.” Is the Church confused today? Of course, we are. It is a confused mess. We do not want confusion in our congregation. It could happen. We must never get to the self-righteous point where we think we are immune, because when that happens, we are in grave danger. Satan knows we cannot tame our tongue. He knows we have weaknesses that are not going to disappear until our change comes. They will diminish if we work on them, but they are never going to be totally gone. We need to be aware of these tactics of Satan and be very careful not to allow them in. Verse 17: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” We want to be of those who make peace between one another and are sources of peace, because Christ is a source of peace. When what we are saying is full of good fruit, in other words it is gentle, peaceable, pure, kind and has no hypocrisy or selfishness in it, it is of God. Whenever we want to say or do something that has some selfishness in it (or causes some strife or a wedge to start being driven in or causes an offense), it is from the other side. We are all a bit of a mix of this, but we need to be reducing Satan’s hold on us more and more and producing the good fruit that God wants. Then we can effectively fight Satan as a unit, as a body of Christ. This is our purpose to fight. We are to help Christ fight. What does He do with His body? Christ works with His body, He fights with His body, He produces good fruit with His body, and the body is the Church. We need to be producing these good fruits to help Him fight Satan. If we are hurting one another, we are not helping Christ. We are hurting Him. Go to James 5, please. This puts a little more light on the subject. James 5, verse 1: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.” This should be something we would be paying a lot of attention to because we are in the last days. The rich is a spiritual richness and knowing a lot about the plan of God. The riches are understanding. Being bought by Christ at baptism makes us rich. If we are corroding here in the last days, there is a good warning for us here. Verse 4: “Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.” If you were to go back to Ezekiel 34 and tie this to living off the fat of the Church, you would find that the shepherds in the last days are living well, by and large, off the sheep, which are the brethren. The brethren are the laborers working hard to help support them. The rich that are spoken of are the ones who would have the authority over the sheep and caused offense. They have used the sheep in many cases. We have had situations where sheep have set themselves up. If you have time, go back and read Ezekiel 34. You have sheep who have also abused sheep around them. ESTABLISH YOUR HEARTS Continue in verse 7: “Therefore be patient, brethren…” We know he is talking about brethren here. “…until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” Then he states what he wants us to do to establish our hearts and be patient in verse 9. Verse 9: “Do not grumble against one another, brethren lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!” Even though we have been kicked around and abused, even though the brethren have not always been nice to one another (even in our own congregation), we are not to set about grumbling and complaining. We are to forgive, because the power is in forgiveness. The power is in mercy. Grumbling, complaining and dividing are Satan’s tactics. Whenever he caused a rebellion you can go back and think about how he would have done that. For example, he got those angels who knew God so well to turn on Him by grumbling and complaining. There must be some kind of recorded historical record of those conversations. Maybe some day in the distant future we could look at that and I think there would be an eyewitness account. They could say that Satan came up to me and was complaining to me, God, about how unfair a decision was that You made. Or maybe they would say he complained about how You had offended an angel over there. By spreading the words, grumbling and complaining, he managed to turn one-third of the angels against God. Here we are at a great disadvantage being physical, and he uses the same tactics. But if we are aware of those tactics, we have all the tools in our arsenal to defeat them. God says, My tools are eternal as well. My love, mercy, compassion and faith I will give you. That is armor to resist him, and if you resist him, he has to flee. I am so powerful compared to him that he must flee, but you have to resist. FIGHT SATAN BY CONTROLLING OUR WORDS We have to apply these things in our life. This is the point of what we are learning here today. It is the age-old battle between good and evil and it is being fought in our very lives. We need to know how to fight this battle, and one of the chief ways is by controlling what we say. Grumbling, complaining, grudges, murmuring is what Satan has used all the way down through time. All the way down through time Satan has turned people to complaining. You can go study Korah’s rebellion in Numbers, and you would find he turned Korah into complaining against Moses. I do not want to go through the whole issue of Korah’s rebellion, but it is a good thing to study from time to time. Go back and see how Korah and a few men turned 250 leaders against Moses. He was the most humble servant of God who had so many miracles worked at his hand. You think it would have been impossible to turn anybody against him, but they did! They ended up in the pit of the earth where Satan is going to end up during the Millennium because they were spewing Satan’s lies. They had fallen for the age-old deception and the tricks of Satan. That is very unfortunate. We need to realize that this is how he works. COMPLAINING AGAINST CHRIST’S BODY I am going to read a little from Numbers 14. I will read Numbers 14:26-29. God got tired of hearing murmuring and complaining by the people. It is like a constant drip of a faucet. That caused them to die in the wilderness. The comparison was made in I Corinthians 10. Do not make the same mistakes that ancient Israel made! Complaining against God is no different than complaining, carrying grudges or murmuring against the body of Christ because God is in the body of Christ. It is the spiritual equivalent of doing it to God in the Old Testament, so it takes it to a new level. It is why we have to be so kind and so compassionate to one another. We should never judge harshly, and if there are offenses we should work them out because we are dealing with the body of Christ. Christ is in us. If we complain against one another, murmur or carry a grudge against one another, we are complaining against God in a sense. We can fall into the same trap. That is why we can look at their examples and learn what to avoid and why the admonitions of James about the tongue are so important. We are going to see a few more that just nail it home so solidly. If you would, turn back to Philippians 2. Philippians 2, verse 12: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing…” Working out our salvation with fear and trembling has a lot to do with not complaining and disputing. That is arguing amongst each other. Why? Because when we argue against each other or say things wrongly against one another, we are arguing with God, in essence, because God is taking care of other people’s sins. Each of us has sins. I could do something that you find offensive, but I can pray to God and repent of it. He will forgive me, but what if you hold it against me? Who are you really holding it against? The same with you. What if you have done something that offends me, and I take you to task for it? If you have repented and God forgave you, who am I arguing with? It takes it to a whole new level. We have to be extremely careful about how we handle one another and that there is no grumbling or complaining. Continuing in verse 15: “…that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…” Because if we are arguing and complaining and carrying grudges, we cannot be a light to the world, which is what is wrong with the Church today. Whoever looks at the Church cannot see God. They say that cannot be God’s Church because they hate each other! Scripture says you will know them by their love for one another. If they are all complaining and carrying grudges, suing each other in court and attacking one another that cannot be God’s Church. They have a very good point. By not arguing, complaining, disputing and murmuring against one another, we can let that light shine. We can do it in a perverse generation because to argue and fight is the way of the world. UNDOING THE WORK Continuing in Philippians 2:16. “…holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.” Paul says to the Philippians, which is Christ speaking, if we do not do this we could actually do all of our work in vain. If we end up fighting and arguing (like the Church is doing at large) they have undone the work they have done. They labor in vain. The Philippians are being warned not to make that mistake. Do not undo all the good works by arguing, complaining and using your tongue harshly. The body of Christ should not complain about the body of Christ. The body of Christ should not grumble about the body of Christ. The body of Christ should not murmur about the body of Christ. We should always put our best foot forward to the world and to one another, otherwise we are driving little wedges. Those wedges can get bigger and bigger until they split the tree and then you cannot put it back together again. It would take a huge miracle. Remember God does not change. Those Old Testament examples that we saw are still valid for us today. I want to look at some scriptures that do not apply to us but show us where this could ultimately end up. I want to make it clear that these do not apply to us in any way, shape or form, but it is where grumbling, complaining, murmuring and carrying grudges end up. Unfortunately, in the Church at large I think some people have gone this way. Turn to Jude 1. “Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.” He is talking to the Church. Verse 3: “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” He said I have to write to you about some people who have crept in and have done some things, and by their words they are teaching you bad things. They are being a bad example to you. Verse 5: “But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” He uses three examples from the past: people coming out of Egypt and dying in the wilderness because of unbelief; Satan and his rebellion being reserved to judgment and darkness; and Sodom and Gomorrah becoming very depraved. He uses those examples and he says now the people who have come among you are like this. Continuing in verse 8: “Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.” They are speaking things that are harmful. Verse 9: “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’ But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, having run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.” He compares these false teachings that cause harm to the rebellion back in Numbers, once again, to Satan and to Cain’s rebellion. Then he says in verse 12: “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.” So what they are teaching is based from a selfish attitude. Continuing: “They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” This foaming up their own shame is the teaching. FOAMING AT THE MOUTH Drop down to verse 16: “These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.” God calls that like a foaming at the mouth. That foaming at the mouth divided the Church we see and love into all of these little bits and pieces. I found it interesting looking at the term “complaining” in the Old Testament. It was murmuring. If you were to look it up: ragan is murmur, murmuring in our tents and rebellion. It is number 7279. Right behind it is 7280, raga, which is the same root word there. It means to toss violently by the sea and waves. When these people who destroyed the Church did it with these great swelling words for their own self-interest and self-gratification, power or whatever it was, their foaming at the mouth caused this damage because it was like a roaring of the sea and the foam of the sea. We understand what the sea is now. The sea is where Satan has his house or where his control comes from. He pushes the people to do these things. When the people spew Satan’s line like when Peter told Christ You do not need to die, that was angry foam coming from Satan! God has about had it with this kind of stuff. It should not be in the Church but it is to a great extent. Like I said, it is not here. A BATTLE WITH WORDS I am trying to show us where improper use of the tongue can get us because we have seen it happen all over. It can happen here, but if we are aware of that, it will not happen. If we stay humble and we are aware of these things, we can defend against them by using God’s eternal methods of love, mercy and compassion towards one another to defeat Satan’s ways. We need to be wary of Satan’s devices otherwise we can be tossed around by the sea. If you would please, turn to Daniel 11 and we are going to finish that thought before we conclude. Read Daniel 11, verse 29-36. This wrath that shall be accomplished is indignation in the Old Testament. The indignation comes from the word foaming at the mouth in the Old Testament, number 2195. You will notice in here how much this has to do with talking. The wise are instructing many. Some foolish do things by flattery. There is intrigue and blasphemy and saying horrible things about God. This whole battle is done with words. The teaching of God’s truth versus the teaching of Satan’s lies, which is the foaming at the mouth. God calls this indignation. He will only let that indignity be suffered by the Church so long and by His name so long, and then it is over! Matthew 12:33-37 says we will give account for every idle word. We can read that in Matthew 12:33. “‘Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’” How important are words? Are trees teachers? Is fruit the good things we say and do or the bad things we say and do? Absolutely! This whole battle is being done by what we say primarily. The damage done to the Church was done 99 percent verbally! Now we see the power of the tongue. UNITED WE STAND I am nervous telling you this because I do not want to cause offense. I do not see any big problems, but as I was realizing that this can be done, it has been bothering me. I know I cannot control my tongue perfectly. I know you cannot control your tongues perfectly. I have just had an unsettled feeling that we need to get something stronger among us and get something better or fixed. I have not been able to put my finger on it until just very recently. I understand now that this is what it is because this is the way Satan does 99 percent of his damage. I leave you with this cautionary note that we need to be aware of this because he will try it again. He has no new tricks. There is nothing new that he can do. He can only do it these same old ways so he is going to try and do it over and over again. We have had a nice peaceful long stretch, and he is ready to try it. We can head him off at the pass, which is what I need us to do and we need to do so that we can stay unified. There is that old expression, “united we stand and divided we fall”. Our word should be our bond and should express our love for one another and keep us very strong. We should be impervious to Satan and his tactics. Turn to Psalm 144 in conclusion. Speaking of the future we can see here that we are going to be victorious, and it is in a beautiful way that I never quite saw before until I was doing this sermon. It is talking about the Millennium. Psalm 144, verse 9: “I will sing a new song to You, O God; on a harp of ten strings, I will sing praises to You…” (ten strings) “…the One who gives salvation to kings, who delivers David His servant from the deadly sword. Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouth speaks lying words, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as pillars, sculptured in palace style; that our barns may be full, supplying all kinds of produce; that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields; that our oxen may be well laden; that there be no breaking in or going out; that there be no outcry in our streets.” That term “outcry” is complaining in the King James. Verse 15: “Happy are the people who are in such a state; happy are the people whose God is the Lord!” One of the ways the world is going to be happy in the Millennium, is because murmuring, complaining, grudges and false use of the tongue will be very diminished. It will get straightened out the more it goes on and as people learn. Satan will not be there to exploit our weaknesses and cause us to turn against each other with our tongues. If we can control our tongue, we are perfect, it says in James 5. We cannot be perfect in this time yet, but we can strive for it. We can be aware of one of these crazy tools that Satan will use, guaranteed, to drive wedges between us. Forewarned is forearmed. We will prevent this. We need to understand this. That is why I brought this sermon to you today not as a correction, but as a helpful tool in our arsenal to educate us in how we can defeat Satan and help God bring about this beautiful Millennium that is just ahead.