1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,440 Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located 2 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:16,680 in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship 3 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:21,920 Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, 4 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:27,300 discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church 5 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:31,880 and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your 6 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:36,420 host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing 7 00:00:36,420 --> 00:00:41,080 to you and bring you closer to God. 8 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:51,760 Hello and welcome back to the P.H.S.A. podcast. My name is David Bigford. I'm the pastor 9 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:56,440 here for the Potter's House and Salmon Arm. The message I put together today is called 10 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:02,760 A Spirit of Conviction, Sinner, Saint, Salvation and Service. We will be using the text of 11 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:12,120 John 16, 5-11 as our jumping off point. Let's go ahead and get into it. The idea of this 12 00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:21,200 sermon is all about conviction. With that, you will have to work with me because the 13 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:25,640 spirit of conviction of the Holy Ghost works differently in different situations. We will 14 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:29,160 dive into it here as we get started. 15 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:34,360 A well-known professional golfer was playing in a tournament with President Gerald Ford, 16 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:40,680 fellow pro Jack Nicklaus and Billy Graham. After the round was over, one of the other 17 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:47,740 pros on the tour asked, hey, what was it like playing with the president and Billy Graham? 18 00:01:47,740 --> 00:01:55,920 The pro said with disgust, I don't need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat. With 19 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:00,160 that, he headed to the practice tee his friend followed and after the golfer pounded out 20 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:06,360 his fury on a bucket of golf balls, he asked, was Billy a little rough on you out there? 21 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:14,440 And the pro sighed and said, with embarrassment, no, he didn't even mention religion. Astonishingly, 22 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:20,400 Billy Graham had said nothing about God, Jesus or religion, and yet the pro stomped away after 23 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:25,960 the game, accusing Billy of trying to ram religion down his throat. 24 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:33,360 This quick illustration gives us the first glimpse of how conviction is used by God and 25 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:38,520 how others can be impacted or influenced by that spirit of conviction. In the past, I've 26 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:44,840 spoken about the mob ruling, Israel calling for a king and the general decline of our 27 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:49,660 society. And I believe these ideas all have a similar root and we can all tie them back 28 00:02:49,660 --> 00:02:56,760 to this idea of conviction or in our time, the spirit of conviction. When people sin 29 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:01,080 or do something that goes against their conscience, it seems that often we are faced with this 30 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:07,120 emotional or spiritual quandary within ourselves and we start to act funny or act in somewhat 31 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:13,420 of a weird way. So we will act differently to our friends and loved ones and those in 32 00:03:13,420 --> 00:03:18,940 authority above us when we feel like we're in the wrong. So I can come up with countless 33 00:03:18,940 --> 00:03:24,480 examples of this. You have the simple example of a kid with his hand in the cookie jar and 34 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:29,120 how everyone tends to slow down when they see a police officer. Even if you're following 35 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,120 the speed limit, you tend to see a police officer and you're like, oh, I'm going to 36 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:39,960 slow down a bit. Or emotional outbursts when someone questions our behavior. So these kind 37 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:46,360 of things represent themselves whenever we kind of come into situations in our lives. 38 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,800 And a lot of times this can be rooted back to, you know, you're doing something wrong 39 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:55,400 or you're afraid you're doing something wrong and so you act a different way. The reality 40 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,900 is that we don't like to be challenged or tested in our lives. And when someone comes 41 00:03:59,900 --> 00:04:05,120 along and shines a light a day on our actions, we tend to instinctively recoil. The same 42 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,840 thing happened to Adam and Eve in the garden, Genesis 3, 7 through 8. It says, when the 43 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:14,080 eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked, they sewed fig leaves together 44 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:18,560 and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden 45 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:23,080 in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the 46 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:32,520 Lord God among the trees of the garden. This instinct was due to conviction, the spirit 47 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:40,200 of conviction, the idea that we know we did something wrong and now we don't want to face 48 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:45,880 the judgment that's going to come from it. So when we define conviction or convict conviction 49 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:51,400 in the Bible and from a biblical standpoint, the Greek word is elencho, which is used in 50 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:56,400 the New Testament to express both the convicting work of God's spirit and the ministry of 51 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:03,160 rebuke within the Christian community. So generally elencho means to convince or to 52 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:08,760 refute. It gradually took on an additional meetings to correct or often by accusing or 53 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:16,600 to convict. Elencho is used in the Septuagint to translate the Old Testament term, the NIV 54 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:22,320 and the NSAB translates to correct. So this is the idea of conviction. It's not meant 55 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:29,780 to beat you over the head. It's meant to correct. It's meant to convince. It's meant to refute. 56 00:05:29,780 --> 00:05:36,040 So God's correcting is a powerful ministry. It confronts human beings in their sin. And 57 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:40,440 we can see that in our scripture that we're going to read through in John 16, five through 58 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:47,680 11, we can see it in Jude 15, the Holy Spirit is the active agent in this ministry. And 59 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,800 we see that as Jesus promises that when the spirit comes, he will convict the world of 60 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:56,120 guilt regarding sin and righteousness and judgment. So let's go ahead and turn to our 61 00:05:56,120 --> 00:06:04,920 text in John 16, five through 11, the work of the Holy Spirit. But now I'm going to him 62 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:10,720 who sent me and none of you, and none of you asks me, where are you going? But because 63 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:15,080 I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you 64 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:20,480 the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper 65 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:25,880 will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will 66 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:31,480 convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin, because they 67 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:36,100 do not believe in me concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you will see 68 00:06:36,100 --> 00:06:44,120 me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. So as we consider 69 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:51,280 you, the, you know, the, uh, the ideas behind this message, we're going to take a look at 70 00:06:51,280 --> 00:07:00,000 centers, saints, salvation and service, right? Those are going to be the key tenants we look 71 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:07,040 at. So first we're going to look at centers. We're all centers and we know that we were 72 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:13,160 all saved from sin, but we're going to primarily, you know, focus on those that have not yet 73 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:17,240 accepted Jesus Christ and they're still living in their sin. So if you've given your life 74 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:23,080 to Jesus, then you've been redeemed, but we're all, we were all still born into sin and without 75 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:27,860 the grace of Christ, we would have died in our sin. The act of ministry of the spirit 76 00:07:27,860 --> 00:07:31,880 has been to carry out, has been carried out since Jesus coming at Pentecost. This does 77 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:38,500 not guarantee conversion. A person may hear the gospel, recognize his or her personal 78 00:07:38,500 --> 00:07:44,160 sin and need, and yet many will choose not to believe. Even the brilliant light of God's 79 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:49,260 revelation directed by his spirit to reveal an individual's heart does not release that 80 00:07:49,260 --> 00:07:55,080 individual from the responsibility of personal choice. So this brings me to a similar illustration 81 00:07:55,080 --> 00:08:01,840 in the Old Testament. Samuel 8 verses one through nine, Israel demands a king. When 82 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:06,520 Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son 83 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:11,400 was Joel and the name of his second Abishai and they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his 84 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:16,920 sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside from after gain. They took bribes and 85 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:20,960 perverted justice. And then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel 86 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:25,400 at Ramah and said to him, behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. 87 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:31,000 Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all nations. But the things displease Samuel 88 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:34,560 and they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord 89 00:08:34,560 --> 00:08:39,320 said to Samuel, obey the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have 90 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:44,200 not rejected you, but have rejected me from being their king over them. According to all 91 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:49,240 the deeds they have done from the day that I brought them out of Egypt, even to this 92 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:54,560 day forsaking me and serving other gods. So they are also doing to you now then obey their 93 00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:59,600 voice only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king that shall 94 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:05,600 reign over them. Give us a king like all their nations was the call. So the situation is 95 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:10,280 that the desire of the Israelites to have a king was both from a place of unbelief and 96 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:15,080 envy. They routinely fought God's plan for their lives and they opened and that opened 97 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:19,640 them up to being filled with envy for what they believed other nations had. They were 98 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:23,920 convicted of their sins and the desire of earthly ruler did they desired an earthly 99 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:30,180 ruler because they had already denied their heavenly ruler through their will, their willful 100 00:09:30,180 --> 00:09:40,040 acts of disobedience and sin. It is clear that they were dealing with a fact that Samuel 101 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:47,600 was coming to the end of his time and that his kids were not living up to the same expectation 102 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:52,560 of godliness that Samuel had put into the people of Israel. So with that they said we 103 00:09:52,560 --> 00:09:56,400 are going to throw this all away, we are not going to trust God to raise up somebody new, 104 00:09:56,400 --> 00:10:00,580 we are just going to say give us an earthly ruler. So at this time in Israel's history 105 00:10:00,580 --> 00:10:05,020 they had yet to have a king outside of God himself. There were judges whom God rose up 106 00:10:05,020 --> 00:10:09,400 to help the Israelites in times of need and there were priests that were meant to point 107 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:13,400 Israel to the law of Moses and the covenant that it had with God. So if you consider the 108 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:18,240 rights and privileges that were laid out in Levitical law you could argue that they were 109 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:22,960 a constitutional form of government at this time. Each tribe fundamentally governed itself 110 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:27,500 but was required to rule according to the tenets of the law or the constitution given 111 00:10:27,500 --> 00:10:32,240 by God himself. They had tremendous freedom but they were bound by a heavenly covenant 112 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:36,600 and they did not want to have to live up to that standard any longer. They wanted a more 113 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:44,200 lowly standard from a man just like themselves. They desired to be like other nations and 114 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:50,720 this coming forth from their loss of faith in God. They lost faith in Samuel because 115 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:55,280 of his kids and that loss was actually a loss in faith of God to his ability to rise up 116 00:10:55,280 --> 00:11:00,000 someone in his stead. This happened when Moses was too slow coming down from Mount Sinai 117 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:05,980 as well in Exodus 32. When the people saw Moses was so long and coming down from the 118 00:11:05,980 --> 00:11:11,320 mountain they gathered around Aaron and said come make us gods who will go before us. As 119 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:14,800 for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt we don't know what has happened 120 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:20,720 to him. The Israelites were fickle with their faith and we see similar examples of that 121 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:26,080 in our society today. Christian culture constantly strives to bend the word of God to fit the 122 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:31,960 secular world around us. We are called to accept ungodliness in our society as something 123 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:37,120 to be revered. We are persecuted and judged for holding godly standards. We are told that 124 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:41,860 times have changed and that we need to reinterpret what the word or what the scripture in God's 125 00:11:41,860 --> 00:11:48,120 word means. Our desire is to fit in, is moving against our conscience and pressuring us to 126 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:54,880 give up our beliefs in God's word to belong and to find friends in this world. This is 127 00:11:54,880 --> 00:12:02,360 what happens to the Israelites and it became their downfall. They received warnings about 128 00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:06,960 this but God's plan to govern over his people through his prophets, judges and priests, 129 00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:12,960 this theocracy was based on his benevolence and his covenant. His plan did not include 130 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:17,460 this earthly king and despite the warnings that were given the people of Israel would 131 00:12:17,460 --> 00:12:23,240 not relent. So God allowed them to fit in and to suffer with their choices to reject 132 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:29,320 God. In 1 Samuel 8, 10-22 we read the rest of this where it says, So Samuel told all 133 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:35,120 the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him and he said, This 134 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:38,960 will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint 135 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:44,560 them to his chariots to be his horsemen and run before his chariots and he will appoint 136 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:49,560 for himself commanders and thousands of commanders of fifties and some to plow his ground and 137 00:12:49,560 --> 00:12:54,520 to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and his equipment of his chariots. 138 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,880 He will take your daughters to be perfumed fume and cooks and bakers. He will take the 139 00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:04,200 best of your field, the vineyards, olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take 140 00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:09,160 a tenth of your grain of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his servants. 141 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:12,800 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and 142 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:17,280 your donkeys and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your flock and you shall 143 00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:22,280 be his slaves and in that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen 144 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:29,320 for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. But the people refused to 145 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:34,680 obey the voice of Samuel and they said, No, but there shall be a king over us that we 146 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:39,440 will also be like the other nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us 147 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:43,960 and fight our battles. And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people he repeated 148 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:47,640 to them and as the ears of the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel obey their voice and make 149 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:53,800 them a king. Samuel then said to the men of Israel, go every man to his city. So often 150 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:59,940 we encounter peer pressure and we can seek out advice and sometimes that advice comes 151 00:13:59,940 --> 00:14:05,060 from a godly source and sometimes it comes from the source of our friends, but they're 152 00:14:05,060 --> 00:14:15,560 being ungodly and we see this in our society today. Like this idea of kingship. Man, wouldn't 153 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:22,960 it be great if our governments today only took a tenth of our belongings, but instead 154 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:26,600 they take far more than that from us today, but people are continuously putting their 155 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:32,600 faith in men, in fallen men that lead these governments in the world and there's been 156 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:39,480 like terms or phrases about in the new world order you will own nothing and be happy. And 157 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:44,560 that really does speak to this warning against kings. This elite leadership class that's 158 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:49,560 going to bestow upon you what you need to survive and take all your worries away, but 159 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:56,400 at the same time they will take everything of yours to themselves. But yet so many in 160 00:14:56,400 --> 00:15:02,800 society today put their trust in these men and they deny the spirit of conviction that 161 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:08,880 comes from our Lord. So this reminds me of the Rehoboam's choice in 1 Kings 12 and verses 162 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:13,780 3 through 5 where it says, And they sent and called to him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly 163 00:15:13,780 --> 00:15:18,020 of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore 164 00:15:18,020 --> 00:15:23,660 lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you. 165 00:15:23,660 --> 00:15:27,740 And he said to them, Go away for three days and then come to again to me. So the people 166 00:15:27,740 --> 00:15:32,700 went away. So the advisors of King Solomon and his father recommended lightening the 167 00:15:32,700 --> 00:15:38,180 load and dealing with them in humility. And we are reminded of this even in Christianity 168 00:15:38,180 --> 00:15:43,720 with allowing the spirit of conviction to do the heavy lifting, but dealing with those 169 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:49,700 with like sinners and people who are lost, dealing with them with compassion. Stating 170 00:15:49,700 --> 00:15:53,900 that this would endear them back to the house of Judah, Rehoboam's friends on the other 171 00:15:53,900 --> 00:16:00,480 hand, you provided a very harsh piece of advice on how to deal with the situation. They recommended 172 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:05,700 threatening and a heavier burden and harsher conditions and even punishment. And we see 173 00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:10,660 that oftentimes as Christians, you know, we, we want people to be judged for their wrongdoing 174 00:16:10,660 --> 00:16:15,680 rather than dealing in empathy and trying to, you know, restore the lost or trying to 175 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:21,760 bring, you know, convince people of their need of God. We deal harshly. This scenario 176 00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:26,900 played out the way that God intended, but it illustrates the point that often, even 177 00:16:26,900 --> 00:16:33,140 as a king, that we can be led astray. A king can be led astray. We can be led astray because 178 00:16:33,140 --> 00:16:42,900 the desire to follow our friends rather than, you know, he the, the, uh, you know, the recommendations 179 00:16:42,900 --> 00:16:48,660 of the older advisors, he resigned to doing what his buddies wanted him to do. He wanted 180 00:16:48,660 --> 00:16:53,020 to be the man to make the decision. And this choice led to the splitting of the kingdom 181 00:16:53,020 --> 00:16:59,660 of Israel. And the real crime here is that the, the Northern kingdom, the kingdom of 182 00:16:59,660 --> 00:17:05,060 the Jeroboam went directly into idolatry and they eventually are lost to us as the lost 183 00:17:05,060 --> 00:17:11,700 tribes of Israel, all because of this decision of Rehoboam to be the big man, not allowing 184 00:17:11,700 --> 00:17:17,980 the advisors from that, from Solomon to speak into his life and give him wise counsel and 185 00:17:17,980 --> 00:17:24,720 dealing with it, with a, a kinder approach, allowing, you know, God's conviction to deal 186 00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:31,100 with you, with him. And then therefore with the key, the Northern kingdom, if only godly 187 00:17:31,100 --> 00:17:36,580 counsel was taken, if only the spirit of conviction would have won the day, maybe the 10 tribes 188 00:17:36,580 --> 00:17:40,540 of the North would not have been lost. That brings me to my next point, which is the saints. 189 00:17:40,540 --> 00:17:45,660 We are not responsible for the actions of others, but only for the message that we send 190 00:17:45,660 --> 00:17:52,180 and transmit. So now we can remember that generally Alentio means to convince or to 191 00:17:52,180 --> 00:17:57,100 refute. So when dealing with the world, we're to strive to convince the loss that they need 192 00:17:57,100 --> 00:18:02,460 salvation. We are also meant to refute the ungodliness of our culture, but we are not 193 00:18:02,460 --> 00:18:09,600 responsible for the response. So as we look at now, the second point, which is the saints 194 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:15,540 within the Christian community, believers are to exercise some responsibility over one 195 00:18:15,540 --> 00:18:21,140 another. That is true. But let's look at James in verse and chapter five, verse 19 through 196 00:18:21,140 --> 00:18:28,780 20 on how we're supposed to deal with our brethren. So in verse 19, my brothers, if 197 00:18:28,780 --> 00:18:33,860 anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that 198 00:18:33,860 --> 00:18:39,260 whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover 199 00:18:39,260 --> 00:18:45,580 a multitude of sins. This responsibility is expressed by other mean, the other meaning 200 00:18:45,580 --> 00:18:51,500 of Alentio to correct or to reprove. The theme of this reprove is often seen in the pastoral 201 00:18:51,500 --> 00:18:59,500 pistols and first Titus five 20 second title, second Timothy, rather four two in Titus one 202 00:18:59,500 --> 00:19:07,140 nine and 13 and, and then also in chapter two, verses 15, the process outlined in Matthew 203 00:19:07,140 --> 00:19:13,860 18, 15 through 17 is supposed to be followed this idea of discipline, but in a kind of 204 00:19:13,860 --> 00:19:21,180 way that's going to lead to restoration in Matthew 18 verse 15 through 17. It says, if 205 00:19:21,180 --> 00:19:26,060 your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If 206 00:19:26,060 --> 00:19:31,500 he listens to you, you've gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two 207 00:19:31,500 --> 00:19:37,780 others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three 208 00:19:37,780 --> 00:19:43,900 witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to 209 00:19:43,900 --> 00:19:50,960 listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Scripture makes 210 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:57,860 it clear that the ministry of reproof cannot be undertaken by a person with the wrong attitude. 211 00:19:57,860 --> 00:20:04,300 Paul provides this guideline, those who oppose the Lord's servant, he must gently extract 212 00:20:04,300 --> 00:20:11,260 in the hope that God will grant them the repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth. 213 00:20:11,260 --> 00:20:16,900 Second Timothy two 25 in our ministry of rebuke performed when we see our brother or sister 214 00:20:16,900 --> 00:20:22,940 turn from the pathway that God's word marks out as in the spirit's ministry of conviction. 215 00:20:22,940 --> 00:20:27,780 And it is the knowledge of God's word alone that will bring understanding and lead to 216 00:20:27,780 --> 00:20:34,740 life transforming change. So recently we've seen the the issue that has come up from other 217 00:20:34,740 --> 00:20:40,340 pastors for Mark Driscoll in this in this thing with that the men's conference. So what 218 00:20:40,340 --> 00:20:45,580 we're seeing here is is what should have happened was it should have been done behind closed 219 00:20:45,580 --> 00:20:51,060 doors between the two men, the two pastors. And then if that wasn't going to be enough, 220 00:20:51,060 --> 00:20:56,340 it should have been with some with two or three witnesses. That's what should have happened 221 00:20:56,340 --> 00:21:01,780 before being brought before the whole assembly in the way that it was. Now I'm not judging 222 00:21:01,780 --> 00:21:07,260 anybody. I'm just saying what the scripture here says in verses 15 through 70. This is 223 00:21:07,260 --> 00:21:13,020 what we're supposed to do because the goal is not to say gotcha. The goal is not to say, 224 00:21:13,020 --> 00:21:18,020 hey, look, you're a sinner. You need to repent. The goal is to say, brother, let's come back 225 00:21:18,020 --> 00:21:24,420 closer to the Lord so that we can fulfill the work of the father. As we look back at 226 00:21:24,420 --> 00:21:29,460 Exodus 32 and the golden calf or first Samuel eight and the demand for king or in our own 227 00:21:29,460 --> 00:21:35,740 life, it's dangerous to follow the mob of this worldly culture, especially when it's 228 00:21:35,740 --> 00:21:43,900 in opposition to God's direction. You know, man's wisdom leads us to these weird philosophies 229 00:21:43,900 --> 00:21:49,060 in life. Socialism can provide us in a good example of the dangers of the mob. This philosophy 230 00:21:49,060 --> 00:21:55,260 is always able to sway people's desire for equality and equity or I'm not getting enough 231 00:21:55,260 --> 00:22:00,020 or they have more than me. The reality is that it always leads to the same disparities 232 00:22:00,020 --> 00:22:04,740 that it contends to fight against. But in the end, everyone has less than when they 233 00:22:04,740 --> 00:22:09,260 started except for a couple people at the top, just like the king that's described in 234 00:22:09,260 --> 00:22:15,300 the Old Testament that we read. George Orwell had a tremendous quote and it says, it's always 235 00:22:15,300 --> 00:22:20,060 the women above all the young ones who are the most bigoted adherence of the party, the 236 00:22:20,060 --> 00:22:25,700 swallowers of slogan, the amateur spies and the nosers out of unorthodoxy. This comes 237 00:22:25,700 --> 00:22:30,740 from his book 1984 and I'm not targeting women here, but the interesting thing here is the 238 00:22:30,740 --> 00:22:38,380 emotionality that's that's used oftentimes to get people to rally against, you know, 239 00:22:38,380 --> 00:22:43,500 righteous judgment. So this quote from Orwell highlights something that we're seeing in 240 00:22:43,500 --> 00:22:49,780 our society today. The move to make everything over emotional is the move to push against 241 00:22:49,780 --> 00:22:55,500 our rationality. There's a new wave of radicalization that's targeting our young women and it's 242 00:22:55,500 --> 00:23:02,060 being led in some part by the educated class. So here's something that happened last week 243 00:23:02,060 --> 00:23:07,820 that I thought was pretty interesting and it shows that the way that we're seeing the 244 00:23:07,820 --> 00:23:13,300 violence, the destruction that's happening to our youth today, an anti-Israeli protester 245 00:23:13,300 --> 00:23:18,620 wept as a judge, arraigned her in California on Friday after she allegedly threatened to 246 00:23:18,620 --> 00:23:24,060 murder public officials at a city council meeting. Now you can go and find this video 247 00:23:24,060 --> 00:23:31,020 online. You can hear what she had to say. It's pretty crazy, but Riddipatel, 28 years 248 00:23:31,020 --> 00:23:37,460 old sobbed as she pleaded not guilty to 18 felony counts after she directed comments 249 00:23:37,460 --> 00:23:43,380 to Bakersfield City Council members and the Republican mayor, Karen Goh, for not backing 250 00:23:43,380 --> 00:23:48,580 a Gaza ceasefire resolution against Israel and for installing metal detectors at the 251 00:23:48,580 --> 00:23:53,500 city hall. Patel was ordered to be held on a million dollar bail and stay at least 500 252 00:23:53,500 --> 00:23:58,300 yards away from the city hall. So this is basically what happened. Patel was seen on 253 00:23:58,300 --> 00:24:03,420 this video during the public comment section of the city council meeting on Wednesday of 254 00:24:03,420 --> 00:24:10,940 last week where claiming she had hoped oppressed minorities would guillotine city government 255 00:24:10,940 --> 00:24:16,340 members declaring that even Jesus Christ would kill them and threatening to go to their houses 256 00:24:16,340 --> 00:24:22,780 and murder them. Once a promising athlete, 20 years old, Riddipatel's fall into far 257 00:24:22,780 --> 00:24:28,260 left politics was polluted by her joining the Center for Race Poverty and Environment, 258 00:24:28,260 --> 00:24:32,580 a nonprofit organization that provides legal technical assistance to low income and marginalized 259 00:24:32,580 --> 00:24:37,620 communities. Where she worked as an economic development coordinator, Riddipatel has had 260 00:24:37,620 --> 00:24:42,700 a controversial social media presence and has had a history of going on anti-Hindu and 261 00:24:42,700 --> 00:24:50,020 anti-Modi rants. These kind of ungodly ideologies are what we have to stand against as Christians, 262 00:24:50,020 --> 00:24:55,760 but we have to make those stands to always be one seeking redemption. These kids did 263 00:24:55,760 --> 00:25:02,300 not raise themselves. They were not taught these kinds of ideas by our society alone, 264 00:25:02,300 --> 00:25:09,980 but rather by their parents and by those around them. So God's wisdom shows us in Levitical 265 00:25:09,980 --> 00:25:14,300 law, it gives us guidance on all sorts of things, property rights, preferred judicial 266 00:25:14,300 --> 00:25:19,500 systems, even a sort of a welfare system. God's law is succinct and it's the best form 267 00:25:19,500 --> 00:25:25,660 of law for any society and as Christians we're ultimately called to put nothing before God. 268 00:25:25,660 --> 00:25:31,460 He is to be our center and he was meant to be the head of the Israeli government and 269 00:25:31,460 --> 00:25:39,580 in our lives. Humanity constantly strives to put celebrities and politicians and scientists 270 00:25:39,580 --> 00:25:44,020 and doctors above God. There's a constant drive to supersede God in our society and 271 00:25:44,020 --> 00:25:50,780 we're called by the mob to deny God and our Savior Jesus Christ just to please this mob. 272 00:25:50,780 --> 00:25:55,820 We must strive to keep God at the center and the focus when we are dealing with each other 273 00:25:55,820 --> 00:26:01,580 and the world we must allow the Holy Spirit to convict sinners to repentance and to convict 274 00:26:01,580 --> 00:26:09,020 Christians to further sanctification. In Psalm 1, 1-6 it says, Blessed is the one who does 275 00:26:09,020 --> 00:26:14,340 not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the 276 00:26:14,340 --> 00:26:19,800 company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on his 277 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:25,420 law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its 278 00:26:25,420 --> 00:26:32,220 fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers, not so the wicked. 279 00:26:32,220 --> 00:26:36,660 They are like the chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wickedness will not stand 280 00:26:36,660 --> 00:26:41,580 in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over 281 00:26:41,580 --> 00:26:45,980 the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. This brings me 282 00:26:45,980 --> 00:26:52,860 to my final point which is salvation and service. Despite the sins of Israel, God provided deliverance 283 00:26:52,860 --> 00:26:59,300 to the nation through their kingly line. Similarly, we can see the path to salvation is for all 284 00:26:59,300 --> 00:27:05,820 men and women. As sinners we needed the spirit of conviction to prompt us to receive God's 285 00:27:05,820 --> 00:27:11,180 grace and salvation. As Christians we still need the Holy Spirit and conviction to help 286 00:27:11,180 --> 00:27:16,420 us grow closer to God, to be regenerated in Christ, to accept his call for our lives and 287 00:27:16,420 --> 00:27:22,220 to run the race for Christ and to be his emissaries here on earth. As we look at the Old Testament 288 00:27:22,220 --> 00:27:29,140 we see Saul being chosen as a king. He came to be a king in humility, he fell to his pride 289 00:27:29,140 --> 00:27:37,540 and eventually his insanity. But then we see God redeeming the kingly line of Israel by 290 00:27:37,540 --> 00:27:45,940 appointing David as king. Again he was pulled out of his humility, he fell to pride with 291 00:27:45,940 --> 00:27:55,100 his failing with the Bathsheba, but unlike Saul he kept a heart of redemption, he kept 292 00:27:55,100 --> 00:28:00,820 a heart after God. He allowed the spirit of conviction to deal with his heart and so he 293 00:28:00,820 --> 00:28:07,900 ended up repenting after that sin. And it's because of that that we have the kingly line 294 00:28:07,900 --> 00:28:13,760 of King David and we have Jesus Christ our King of Kings who comes. He comes in perfection 295 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:22,580 to be sacrificed to bring us salvation through his godly service. It is through Christ that 296 00:28:22,580 --> 00:28:27,540 our relationship with God is set right again. It is through the service of our King and 297 00:28:27,540 --> 00:28:34,060 his sacrifice that we have salvation in Jesus name. The sin of the mob is to turn away from 298 00:28:34,060 --> 00:28:39,820 God's teaching and to look only at man's limited understanding. We are convicted by 299 00:28:39,820 --> 00:28:45,460 our sins and we seek a lower bar to live by. We constantly need to turn our eyes back to 300 00:28:45,460 --> 00:28:50,140 the cross and to our Savior Jesus Christ. We need to constantly return to the word and 301 00:28:50,140 --> 00:28:56,420 the truth of the Bible. We need to allow conviction to convince us of our need for Christ. We 302 00:28:56,420 --> 00:29:01,180 need to allow conviction to correct us when we are in the wrong and we allow conviction 303 00:29:01,180 --> 00:29:09,540 to help us guide others and ourselves into a closer relationship with our Father. So 304 00:29:09,540 --> 00:29:12,420 with that if I could have everybody have their bed-army closed wherever you're listening 305 00:29:12,420 --> 00:29:19,660 unless you're driving, it's just as a sign of respect to our Lord because I would like 306 00:29:19,660 --> 00:29:28,780 to give an invitation to anyone who is not saved at this point. If this message has impacted 307 00:29:28,780 --> 00:29:33,720 you, if the spirit of conviction is hugging at your heart right now, then now take the 308 00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:39,360 time to accept Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. With that, if he is dealing with you, 309 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:44,780 you can signify that with an uplifted hand, I can't see you, but God will see you. It's 310 00:29:44,780 --> 00:29:50,180 just a simple thing of you recognizing in a physical way that you need Jesus Christ 311 00:29:50,180 --> 00:29:55,220 to be your Savior. With that I would like you to pray a sinner's prayer with me. It's 312 00:29:55,220 --> 00:30:00,720 a simple prayer. It's just, Dear Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner. I repent, I turn 313 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:07,420 away from my sin and I accept your Son Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior. I thank you 314 00:30:07,420 --> 00:30:15,060 for salvation in Jesus' name, amen. That simple prayer brings you into salvation. Now you 315 00:30:15,060 --> 00:30:19,780 have to allow that spirit of conviction to take you further and further into your relationship 316 00:30:19,780 --> 00:30:25,940 with Jesus Christ. How can you help that? How can you strengthen that? How can you allow 317 00:30:25,940 --> 00:30:29,180 God to convict you in a way that's going to bring you closer and closer to God in your 318 00:30:29,180 --> 00:30:34,020 relationship with him? Well, you can pray. That's going to be crying out to God with 319 00:30:34,020 --> 00:30:40,540 your needs, with glorifying him for the gift of salvation. You can read your word. Read 320 00:30:40,540 --> 00:30:44,380 the Bible. There are several apps you can get, YouVersion, you can get all sorts of 321 00:30:44,380 --> 00:30:48,940 stuff, Logos, all these different apps to get free Bibles. If not, if you want a physical 322 00:30:48,940 --> 00:30:57,380 one, reach out. I'll get you a Bible. But read your word and get in the word. Don't 323 00:30:57,380 --> 00:31:03,460 neglect that time of prayer and meditating on the Word of God, reading the Bible. And 324 00:31:03,460 --> 00:31:10,460 then finally, of course, find a Bible-believing church to not only go to and to plant roots 325 00:31:10,460 --> 00:31:17,460 in but to be a servant in so that you can help them as that church spreads the gospel 326 00:31:17,460 --> 00:31:21,540 of Jesus Christ. And then you can help with that spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 327 00:31:21,540 --> 00:31:27,020 You can help other believers as they come into the church to be a service to the rest 328 00:31:27,020 --> 00:31:33,740 of the community. That's a powerful thing. And if you're in Samanar, please come and 329 00:31:33,740 --> 00:31:37,460 reach out. We're actually really excited. We're going to have a new building space come 330 00:31:37,460 --> 00:31:41,780 June 1st. So we're very excited about that. So it'll probably be a week after that that 331 00:31:41,780 --> 00:31:46,800 we'll actually announce our first Sunday in that building. It'll be the Samara building 332 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:54,300 right down by the BMO in town here, the Bank of Montreal in Samanar. So we're very excited 333 00:31:54,300 --> 00:31:58,540 about that. So if you're in Samanar, please come out to church. If you're not, we have 334 00:31:58,540 --> 00:32:03,740 three thousand five hundred churches globally. I'm sure I can find you a great Bible-believing 335 00:32:03,740 --> 00:32:11,140 church near you. But get into a church and gather with the brethren so that you can be 336 00:32:11,140 --> 00:32:15,200 built up and edified within the body of Christ. So with that, I want to just go ahead and 337 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:22,820 close quickly with a quick prayer and just, dear Lord God, I give you all the praise and 338 00:32:22,820 --> 00:32:27,700 glory. I pray this message does go out further and further and further at the spirit of conviction 339 00:32:27,700 --> 00:32:33,020 is able to to interrupt people's lives and convince them of their need of Christ. And 340 00:32:33,020 --> 00:32:37,420 I pray that for Christians, the spirit of conviction will impact them in their lives, 341 00:32:37,420 --> 00:32:44,060 that they will continue to sanctify themselves and become more Christ-like and run the race 342 00:32:44,060 --> 00:32:50,220 till the end so they can enter into the kingdom of God and hear those words. You know, well 343 00:32:50,220 --> 00:32:55,620 done, good and faithful servant. So we give you all the praise and glory and we pray that 344 00:32:55,620 --> 00:33:01,960 you help us, Lord God, as we go into our week. And Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening. 345 00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:07,500 If you could take the time to like this podcast, share this podcast and subscribe. That really 346 00:33:07,500 --> 00:33:12,060 does help us to get the word out. And I pray that you'd help you be willing to do that 347 00:33:12,060 --> 00:33:18,220 for us and get this message as far as wide as we can possibly get it. Thank you. God 348 00:33:18,220 --> 00:33:21,860 bless. Talk to you next time.