Go back to John 12 and read this
again. John 12, verse 42. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers, you know the Pharisees, they had different levels of
rulers in the synagogue. This may include some of the
civil rulers. These were men in some position. He says, nevertheless, among
the chief rulers also, many believed on him. They believed the Lord
Jesus was the Christ. They believed on him. But because
of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, did not publicly
confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. And here's why. For they loved
the praise of men more than the praise of God. Our subject is
seek honor from God. Seek honor from God. And if I
had a subtitle, it would be not men. Seek honor from God, not
men. Let me lay out a scenario here
that you and I have all encountered to some degree or another. And
I want this to be very plain. The Pharisees and the scribes
are sitting around in the backyard talking. There's some chief rulers
sitting around with them. There's some brethren scattered
about with them. Similar to what we would do at
a conference or when we get together, what have you. And one of the
Pharisees asked, or one of the chief rulers, one of these that
believed he was the Christ, they asked him, have y'all heard about
this new preacher named Jesus? This chief ruler obviously was
a southern boy. Have y'all heard about this preacher
named Jesus? And one of the chief rulers said,
I heard that he healed a lame man. No one ever healed a healed men
like this man's doing. And one of the Pharisees objected. He said, yeah, but he broke the
Sabbath. When he did it, he broke the
Sabbath day. Another chief ruler said, well,
I heard he received sinners. I've been hearing he received
sinners. One of the Pharisees objected. He said, yeah, But
when he's at those dinners, he likes to drink wine. He likes
to eat too much. Somebody said, I heard him say
he's one with God. I heard him say he's one with
God. I heard it. No man ever spake like this man.
I heard him say he's one with God. One of the Pharisees objected
and he said, he was born of fornication. Another said, but he casts out
evil spirits from men. We heard about this demoniac
at Gadara, he cast evil spirits out of this man. A Pharisee objected
and said, he only does that by the devil. That's how he does
that, by the devil. And then the Pharisees doubled
down, and they said, we've already met about this man, and we've
discussed this man, and we've decided if anybody believes on
this man, we're casting him out of the synagogue. Our text says, many of the chief
rulers believed on him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not
confess him. lest they should be put out of
the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the
praise of God." You see, they believed on Him. They believed
on Him, it says. But it was not true God-given
faith. They believed Him to be the Christ.
But they wanted to stay in favor with their mentors. They wanted
to stay in favor with the Pharisees. They wanted to hear the Pharisees
commend them as being faithful and praise them for being faithful.
And they didn't want to lose that. On one occasion, Christ
said to them in John 5, verse 41, He said, I receive not honor
from men, He said, how can ye believe which
receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only? You know, we talk to our children
about peer pressure. And when we hear that word peer
pressure, we usually think about children coming under the pressure
from other, you know, their peers. But Brethren, this is a problem.
that grown folks have a lot of problem with, even believers. Here's what I want you to remember,
this is what I want you to get. Peer pressure that makes a man
deny Christ is sin that only God can save a man from. And
likewise, peer pressure that makes a man deny true brethren,
witnesses who Christ has sent, is sin that only God can save
us from. Only God can. We all like to
have favor of our mentors, those brethren that taught us, were
mentors in the church and our brethren. We like to have favor
of our family and our friends. We don't want to unnecessarily
offend anybody. But when it makes a man refuse
to confess Christ publicly, when that desire to have the honor
and the commendation and the praise of men. When that desire
makes a man refuse to confess Christ publicly, or when it makes
a man not defend brethren and stand between the accuser and
the brethren, one for whom Christ died, when it makes a man shun
a brother for whom Christ died because he doesn't want to lose
favor because this other brother doesn't like that brother, Be
very careful about stuff like that, brethren. We do not want
to be like those who love the praise of men more than the praise
of God. We do not want to be those who
receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh
from God alone. Turn over to Matthew 10. I want
you to hear what the Lord Jesus said when He sent His apostles
out to preach. This is quite a few verses here,
but this sums everything up I'm trying to say in this introduction.
Look at Matthew 10 verse 27. He said, what I tell you in darkness,
that speak ye in light, and what you hear in the ear, that preach
you upon the housetops. In other words, don't you be
ashamed to confess me. Scripture says when He's given
you faith, you won't be ashamed to believe on Him and to confess
Him before men. He says, and do this, and fear
not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul. But rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without
your father? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear ye not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my father which is
in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven.
Think not that I've come to send peace on earth. I came not to
send peace, but a sword. For I've come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that would rather have the
honor of those families than the honor that comes from God,
he says, is not worthy of me. There's going to be some suffering
involved in that. He that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth
his life, tries to save his life from this suffering, shall lose
it. and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Now
listen, this is concerning brethren. All that he saves are his witnesses. It's not just his preacher. It's
all of you and me and everybody he saves are his witnesses. And
he says, he that receiveth you receiveth me. And he that receiveth
me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet,
the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward. And
he that receiveth a righteous man, in the name of a righteous
man, shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall
give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water,
only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall
in no wise lose his reward. Be very careful, brethren, speaking
negatively of brethren. Be careful of not standing between
the accuser and defending brethren. All our brethren are his witnesses.
just like his preacher is. And to persecute one Christ has
sent, one who is his witness, that's to hate Christ, and to
hate Christ is to hate the Father. He said in John 15, 20, remember
the word that I said to you, the servant is not greater than
his Lord. If they've persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying, they
will keep yours also. And he said this, he that hateth
me, hateth my Father also. Only God, only God can save us
from peer pressure and make us willing to confess Christ publicly
and stand with Christ. And only Christ can make us stand
with brethren and defend brethren, come what may. No matter who
it is that rejects them or how they reject them, only Christ
can do that. Now I want to show you how He
does this and what He does what He does through this, how He
honors His people. Does God honor His people? Does
God commend His people? Does God praise His people? He
certainly does. That's what the Scripture says.
Now let's begin where this begins in us. It begins in the new birth.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2. And here's why He honors His
saints. Because we're His workmanship.
He did all the work. That's why He honors those that
he's created anew. Look here in Romans 2.28, he
says, He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. Now, when the Lord gives you
faith, when He regenerates His child, gives you life, gives
you faith, we praise God. We give God all the glory because
spiritual life and faith and repentance and every good work
and every fruit is all of God. Every good and every perfect
gift comes down from the Father of lights. It comes down from
God with whom is no variableness of turning, no shadow of turning. of His own will begot He us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
His creation. He did that. So we give Him all
the praise and glory. But right here in Romans 2, when
it speaks of the praise of God, it's talking about God's praise
toward His people. That's what it's talking about.
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 10. The reason God praises His
child and commends His child and approves of His child is
because God did all the work. God were His workmanship. Look
here, and it's a heart work. It's inward. It's in the heart.
It's in spirit. Look here in 2 Corinthians 10-7.
There were men who were turning the Corinthians against the Apostle
Paul. Paul dealt with this a whole lot. And he said in 2 Corinthians
10, 7. I can't read it all, but I just
want to give you some parts of it. You go home and read it.
He said in verse 7, Do you look on things after their outward
appearance? That's what they were doing to
Paul. Look at verse 10. They said, For his letters, say
they, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak
and his speech contemptible. Verse 12, he said, those, in
verse 12, he said, those who measure themselves by themselves
and compare themselves among themselves are not wise. You
think about it, brethren, one worm commending another worm
because he's outwardly appears better than other worms. That's
not very wise, is it? Just because one worm does outwardly,
and you commend and praise, or worse even, one worm commending
himself by comparing himself to other worms. Look at verse
17. He said, but he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself
is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. That word commendeth
means whom the Lord approves. Remember how the Lord Jesus commended
Nathaniel? Nathanael was under the fig tree,
and nobody saw him, but the Lord saw him, and the Lord saw his
heart. And he was actually praying in the New Spirit, and praying
with faith, and praying and worshiping God in his heart under that tree.
And when he started walking up, the Lord said, Behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no God. You remember how the Lord commended
Mary and how He defended her. He stood between her and Judas
when Judas criticized her for coming and pouring out that costly
ointment and anointing the Lord's body for burial. Judas, he criticized
her for that. The Lord didn't. The Lord defended
her and commended her and He presented her faultless before
every one of them standing there in that room that day. And that's
what the Lord's gonna do for all his people in the end. It's
exactly, he's gonna defend, commend, and present us faultless in his
righteousness alone. Paul said, therefore judge nothing
before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels
of the hearts. And then shall every man, every
true Jew, every true saint of God have praise of God. Gotta praise all his people in
that day. Why is that? Because everything we are is
by Christ, and it's in Christ, and Christ gets all the glory,
and God is pleased with His Son, and so He commends His people,
and accepts His people, and approves of His people, and praises His
people because of what Christ has done. We're His workmanship.
Now here's the thing that makes you, here's who you commend.
Here's who we're to commend. They were criticizing Paul. Paul
told those Corinthians. He preached the gospel to them.
In 2 Corinthians, he preached the gospel all the way to them.
He said, whatever I'm suffering, whatever we're suffering in this
world now, it's so that we can comfort you with the same comfort
we were comforted when we were afflicted. And that comfort is
Christ the Lord. He told them, he said, I don't
need letters of commendation from you. I don't need your my
epistle written not with fleshly pen and ink, you're written with
the Spirit of the living God in the heart. He said, God has
called you out from that old covenant in all its glory and
brought you under the everlasting covenant of grace with all its
glory. He said, we have this treasure in earth and vessels
that the excellency of the power may be of God and out of us.
And he said, in all these afflictions, when we're cast down, it's the
Lord making our old man to die, and it's the Lord renewing our
new man, and he's making us look at things that are not seen because
those are the eternal real things. And then he said this, he said,
we're not commending ourselves again to you. He said, I'm telling
you this to give you something to glory on our behalf with.
He's saying, I'm preaching the gospel to you so you can use
what I'm preaching to you to defend us and speak to our accusers. that we are truly called of God
and saved of God and sin of God and preach Christ and declare
how we've preached Christ. He said, we commend not ourselves
again to you but give you occasion to glory on our behalf that you
may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and
not in heart. See, that's something to commend
your brethren for. Those that believe on Christ
and speak of Christ and declare Christ and give Christ all the
glory and give man no glory, and those are the ones truly
called and saved and who are true witnesses of Christ. That's
a reason to commend somebody. That's a reason to defend somebody.
That's one Christ died for. That's what Paul said. He said,
you defend us to those men who are glory in appearance and not
in heart. You see, what I'm trying to show you is this. God's not
looking on the outward appearance. God's looking on the heart. He
commends us because the heart in His child is the heart He
created in circumcision of the Spirit. He told Samuel when he
went to get David. He said, look not on his countenance. Don't look on his outward countenance.
He said, don't look on the height of his stature. Well, don't you
want a handsome king? Don't you want a king that stands
head and shoulders above everybody? The guy said, don't look on it.
He said, I refuse that man. He said, for the Lord seeth not
as man seeth. For man looks on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. When a man's been
born again, circumcised in the heart, born of the incorruptible
seed, this is what Peter said. He said, that's the hidden man
of the heart, in that which is not corruptible. That's why the
Lord said of Nathanael, here's a like deed in whom is no guile. That was not of Nathanael. He
didn't say it because of something Nathanael did. He said that because
Christ created a new heart in him that is holy and in that
new man, He was incorruptible. He was born of the incorruptible
seed, and in Him was no guile. And so, the hidden man of the
heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and
quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. God's
looking on the heart. Christ said to the Pharisees,
He said, you are they which justify yourselves before men. You know
about 99% of what goes on in religion is to be seen of men. About 99% of it. To receive praise of men and
honor for men and commendation of men. It don't matter what
I think about you. That's not going to help you
before God. It don't matter what you think about me. We can quit
trying to impress one another. That's not what's gonna help
us before God. He told the Pharisees, you're
they which justify yourselves before men, but God knows your
heart. For that which is highly esteemed
among men is abomination in the sight of God. One reason it's
abomination in the sight of God is because judging by outward
appearance makes men self-righteous and makes men despise others.
That's one reason it's abomination of God. Remember the Lord's parable?
Who was he saying it to? That Pharisee And that publican,
that Pharisee represented the people he was preaching to that
day. It says, he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and despised others. That's what
judging by the appearance always results in. Self-righteousness
and despising others. It results in men saying, stand
over there, come not near me, I'm holier than thou. That's
the only place in scripture where one sinner is spoken of as being
holier than another sinner. That's the only place. There
is no relative holiness among men. It's not that some have
grown and they're more holy than these other folks. It's never
spoken of that way anywhere in scripture, but one place in Isaiah
65, 5, and they say, stand by thyself, come not near me for
I'm holier than thou. And God said, these are a smoke
in my nose and a fire that burns all day. He said, it's like a
stinking trash dump to me. A smoking fire and a trash dump.
True religion is spiritual. True religion is in the new spirit
created of God the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus said, the hour
cometh and now is when the true worshipers, true worshipers,
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. This
is why the Lord Jesus told the Pharisee, he said, you judge
after the flesh. He said, I judge no man after
the flesh. And he said, judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. Judge spiritual judgment. And
holy God, that's how he judges. He approves, he commends, he
praises those he's given a new heart because we're his workmanship
and God looks on the heart. Remember that about your brethren.
Remember that about them. No matter what happens outwardly,
remember that about your brethren. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus under good works, which God had before ordained
that we should walk in them. That's why God praises His people,
and commends His people, accepts His people, and honors His people.
He did the work. Now look, secondly, we honor
the Father one way. through faith in His Son. God
honors those who honor Him. And the only way you're gonna
honor the Father is through faith in His Son. That's the only way.
Publicly confessing Him, standing with brethren who confess Him,
all the way to the end. Listen, only Christ honored the
Father in perfection. Only Christ did. He's the only
one who did. That's the only way you honor
Him is in perfection. He's the only one who honored Him. He
did it for the elect who God chose to save and who God trusted
to Him to save. Listen, verse Isaiah 42, 21 says,
The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake. He will
magnify the law and make it honorable. That's what Christ did and He
did it for His people. He made the law honorable. And
doing so, He made us honorable before the law. Listen, the works
of the Lord are great. They're sought out of all them
that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious,
and His righteousness endureth forever. Now, so the way that
we honor the Father, God will honor His child. He accepts His
child. He'll praise His child. There's
only one way He'll do that. That's for you to honor the Son. And the only way we honor the
Son is believing on the Son and confessing Him publicly. Uniting with His people under
His gospel. Look at John 5.22. John 5.22. I preached that first message.
You see what Christ is doing for us? All those covenant promises
we have. And this is what faith believes.
We believe on Him. We know He's our provider and
our provision. It's John 5, 22. For the Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that
all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which
is sinning. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death into
life. How can you believe on him that sent Christ? When God
gives you faith to believe on Christ, you believe on God who
sent Christ. Because Christ and the Father
are one. They're one. And it's through faith in Christ
that we honor the Son and we honor the Father. And that's
who the Father honors. That's who He honors. God our
Father will have all men honor His Son. Listen, he chose to
exalt Christ and give Him all the glory. That's the purpose
of salvation. God's purpose in salvation is
to show His righteousness, manifest His righteousness, and His righteousness
is a person. It's the Lord Jesus. And so,
He chose to exalt Him in eternity, and He chose His people in Him,
and He sent Christ to honor His law, to pay the wages of sin,
which is death, on behalf of His people, so that we would
behold how righteous and holy God is. And you behold that in
His Son. And when He gives you faith to
believe on His Son, and trust His Son, that He really is your
righteousness and your holiness, that's what highly honors the
Father. Because the Father honors in
His Son, and He's pleased with His Son, and He delights in His
Son, and He'll have His people honor His Son. That's the only
way you're going to honor His Son, brethren. Faith in Christ
honors the Father because it's all of God. 1 Corinthians 1.30
says, Of God are you in Christ Jesus. That's of God. Who of God. All the way we know
who Christ is. Who of God is made unto us. Wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. God chose us in Christ and God
reveals Christ to us. And he does it so that he that
glories, let him glory only in the Lord. That's how you honor
the Father. For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Now, another way you can honor
Christ, and thereby honor the Father, and you can only do this
through faith, only through faith. This is why he left us in this
body at death. When you fall or when your brethren
fall, stand with your fallen brethren
and trust your fallen brethren to the Lord Jesus Christ. That
honors the Son. You can only do it through faith
that honors Him and trusts Him. When we come to the fallen brother,
and rather than break out the whip of the law and condemn them,
you come to them and you remind them of what Christ has accomplished
for His people. You speak the gospel to them.
That honors Christ. Because you know. Why do you
do that? Because you know that's the message to which He called
you, which He's kept you, which He's renewed you. You know that's
the message that blesses you. You know that's the message that
strengthens you. You know that's the message that He's used to
save you out of all your falls. And so having the same way we
receive this mercy is the same way we faint not. And so we renounce
the hidden things of dishonesty. We don't go using other means
and other methods. We go speak in the gospel of
Christ. That honors Him. And then we pray to Christ for
them because we know He's the only one that can make the Word
effectual. That honors Christ and thus that
honors the Father. And then we wait on Christ to
make him stand. We don't do this and come to
this point and decide, well, maybe the Lord needs us to help
him out to produce a child like Abraham and Sarah did. No, we
wait on the Lord and trust he's gonna produce this fruit in his
child. And then when he's done it and
as he's doing it, We're merciful, and we forgive one another for
Christ's sake, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us.
Paul said, if a brother's overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual,
restore one another in the spirit of meekness. Consider thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. Bury one another's burdens, and
so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself something
when he's nothing, he deceives himself. But let every man prove
his own work. Then shall he have rejoicing
in himself alone and not in another. Now here's the opposite of that.
Right after that, he said, as many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, in the outward appearance, he said, they constrain
you to be circumcised. They constrain the brother that's
fallen to do this, that, or the other. He said, lest they should
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. Neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have
you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh, that they
may get praise from men for what they made you do. They want the
glory and honor of men and the praise of men. Now that's just
the opposite of what the Lord's telling you and me to do. If
you want to honor the Son, when your brother falls, you trust
Christ. Trust your brother to Christ. and trust Christ to make
him stand. If we begin to attempt to force
others into obedience, we seek the glory that belongs to Christ.
That's not faith in Christ. And doing so, we don't honor
the son and we don't honor the father. We're trying to seek
the praise that comes from men every time. every time. How can
you believe, he said, and seek honor from men and not that honor
that comes from God only? You're only going to receive
that honor trusting Christ only. Now thirdly, those who honor
the Son through faith, God honors. He does. God approves. God even
praises. It's because God honors, approves,
and praises His Son, and if you do it, His Son worked it. You see what I'm saying? This
is all so, it's all so interwoven. When you trust the Son, God will
honor you, He approves of you, and He praises you. It's because
He honors and commends and approves and praises His Son, and the
only reason you did what you did is by His Son. He's praising
His Son, and you're getting in on it. Look, in 1 Samuel 2.30,
He said, The Lord God of Israel saith, Them that honor me I will
honor, and they that despise me shall be lightless stained.
Christ honors those, Christ himself honors those that believe on
him. How does he do that? He said, those who confess me
before men, I'll confess before my father. I'll stand before
my father on their behalf. Why does he do that? Here's why,
listen. Here's why he honors those that
trust him. For both he that sanctifies and
they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he's not
ashamed to call us brethren. where he said, when I've sanctified
you in heart and given you faith, you won't be ashamed. You won't
be ashamed to confess Him before men. And he said, and I'm not
ashamed to confess you before my Father, because we're one.
We're one. And through faith in Christ God,
our Father, honors His child. He's not ashamed of us. Listen,
Hebrews 11, 16 says, They desire a better country that is a heavenly.
Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He
hath prepared for them a city. You see, it's not that you and
me did something to be honored of God. It's not that we did
something to be praised and approved of God. God did it all for us.
He prepared for us a city. He sent His Son. He laid down
His life. He gave us faith. He regenerated
us and brought us to trust Him. And then God honors you, like
you did it all. That's grace, isn't it? Here's the honor that comes from
God that He only gives to those that believe on His Son. This
is the honor that comes from God. We find it in John 5 there,
verse 24. Christ said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him
that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death into life. So, when you're
sitting around in the backyard, And somebody speaks of a preacher
or somebody speaks of a brother. And somebody you admire and trust
and whatever, if they go speak negatively of them, you just
remember this. Seek the honor that comes from
God alone. Seek the honor that comes from
God alone. Believe on Christ. You sit here today that are young,
that never confessed Christ, or if you're old and you never
confessed Christ, one major reason you've never confessed Him is
you're ashamed to do it before men. You're ashamed to do it
before men. When He gives you faith and you
see you have nothing but Him, you won't be ashamed to confess
Him before men. You will not. You confess Him
before men. You publicly identify with Him.
And you that He has called, you continue to confess Him before
men. You continue to bear witness
of Him. And you honor Him every day in everything that you do.
And you do it no matter who the men are that reject you and no
matter how they reject you. Do it no matter who rejects you
and no matter how they reject you. And here's something else.
You stand with brethren. who stand with Christ. You stand
with those brethren who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If
God the Father is not ashamed to call them brethren, if Christ
is not ashamed to call them brethren, don't you be ashamed to call
them brethren either. They're complete in Christ. And Christ
said, what you do to one of mine, you've done to me. That holds
true positively in a good way. He said, he that gives one of
them a drink of cold water, I'm going to bless him for doing
it. He's not unfaithful to forget
your labor of love, your work of love, and your labor of love.
He's not unfaithful to forget it. He said even a drink of cold
water, I'll bless him. But on the negative side, He
said, what you've done to them in a negative way, you've done
it to me. That's how one his people are. So you be very, very,
very careful about speaking negatively of somebody Christ laid down
his life for and made perfect. You defend those for whom Christ
died when the accuser arises. And if it comes to Brethren that
are at odds, you be gracious to both of them. Be merciful
to both of them. Don't be merciful and gracious
to one at the expense of the other. Be gracious and merciful
to both of them. That'll speak louder witness to both of them
than to be so to one and then the other. Speak that, be gracious
and kind and merciful to both of them. And trust Christ in
the whole everything you do and trust Christ to make your brethren
stand. Trust him to make them stand.
Don't be looking on the outward appearance. No matter, you know,
we're very bad to think that because somebody failed, that's
terrible. And we don't realize that when somebody's doing great
and prosperous, they're in a worse condition than that brother that's
fallen. But in either case, you trust Christ to make them stand. You do this because doing so,
you're honoring the Son and you're honoring the Father. And that's,
listen now, if you do this, if you do this, do it in the spirit
of meekness, remembering this, only reason you're doing it is
the grace of God. That's it. Christ working it
in you. Here's His workmanship. That's the only reason. And those
who honor the Father through faith in His Son, God promised
He's gonna honor you. He's gonna honor you. He'll honor
you with everlasting life. He'll honor you in and by Christ
Jesus. And He's gonna honor us by saving
His people, all His people, and keeping us united together. Seek
the honor that comes from God, not from men. I pray He does
that for us. I pray He'll bless that. All
right, Brother Adam and Brother Bill, I want you to pass out.