 Amen. So Romans chapter one, keep your place there. We're going to be spending a lot of time there this morning. But we're talking about Romans, first of all, Romans chapter one is definitely one of those chapters in the Bible where there's just a lot of depth there. It's one of those chapters where if you read it again and again, you just keep seeing more and more and more things. And I mean the whole Bible is like that, but Romans chapter one especially has a lot of depth. There's just a lot of things in Romans chapter one that we can learn as we read it again and again and understand more about it. There's just a lot of explanations in Romans chapter one on why we see the things that we see in our world. So what are we talking about the last couple of Sundays? So we talked last Sunday, we're categorizing the whole world according to God. God categorizes the world according to, we talked last Sunday morning on neighbors. Who is our neighbor? What does that mean? What does that mean for us? Who in the world is our neighbor? We tend to categorize people in the world as saved and unsaved. I'm not saying that that's wrong. From the perspective of a soul winner, it's practical in many cases. But God really categorizes people in the categories of neighbors and enemies. So we talked about neighbors last Sunday morning and this morning I want to talk to you about the topic of enemies. Who are our enemies? What are enemies and how are we supposed to treat those enemies? They're in Romans chapter one. The first thing I want to go through is a Bible study on the two types of enemies that the Bible discusses. There's two types of enemies in the Bible. The first type are talked about in Romans chapter one and these are enemies of God. These are God's enemies. Now look, there's this idea out there that, you know, especially in liberal Christianity, Christianity over the last 10, 20 years, you know, as things have just gotten really loose with the Bible, that God loves everybody and the Bible does not teach that. And the funny thing is, is that God loving everybody and this doctrine that says that God loves everybody is actually a stumbling block for many people. It's a stumbling block. It is something that actually stops people from wanting to believe and have faith in God. And you say, well, that sounds, you know, God loves everybody, sounds good. Well, not really if you think about it for more than three seconds because a lot of people and look, I have met people out so many that have asked me this question. I've met these types of people several times. People that will say, how could God allow, how could God allow these people like serial killers or, you know, these molesters that are out there and just these evil people in the world? Look, it's, you know, these are questions that people ask. They don't want to believe in a God that would just love everyone including all these wicked, horrible people. Because look, people can see the wicked and the evil with their very eyes. They can see it. They can see it happening. These are people that are unsure if they want to believe in God or even want to know what the Bible says, if this is kind of something that God allows. It's fighting, look, it's fighting their conscience. This idea about it because what they're seeing in the world is what's happening. Loving everybody makes no sense. Whether we love everybody or God loves everybody, that makes no sense. As a matter of fact, it's actually evil to teach that. It's actually evil to teach that. And the liberal Christianity that does teach this is actually putting people in danger by doing so. And they're placing a stumbling block even more wickedly. It's placing a stumbling block in front of people that might want to be interested in the Bible, interested in, you know, what the gospel is. It's stopping people from coming to the knowledge of the truth is what it is. And it's going against the very law written in people's hearts. I mean, it's the person that they're not saved. They've never really even read the Bible much. And they're just like, how could God allow? They've seen something happen in their life, usually to someone that they love. Something wicked and evil has happened to someone that they love. How could God allow that person or that thing to happen or these people to exist or whatever? It's their conscience. Look, you get a conscience. Whether you were raised in a Christian home or not, you get a conscience. So look, it's going against that law. Look, here's a funny thing. Even this liberal commentator, Bill Maher, and if you don't know who he is, don't look him up. Because he's a vulgar guy. But even Bill Maher says this last week, there's a news article when he was talking about, you know, the war in Afghanistan and the pullout of Afghanistan. And he gave some dialogue and he made this comment. And he was talking about, you know, the United States, the nation. But he said this. He said this. Even liberals understand this. Anyone with any ounce of logic understands this. Here's what he said. Quote, blind hatred is just as misguided as blind love. Agree. Everyone who's thought about this for a second understands this. But here's the good news, folks. God doesn't love everybody. And this actually, if you remember, at one point he loved everybody. And if you remember the sermon on the book of life, this is exactly how the book of life works. Everybody starts in the book of life. Everybody begins in the book of life. Go back to Romans chapter one or look at Romans chapter one. It's super important that we understand this. God did love everybody. But as things stand now, God does not love everybody. The first point I want to make is we look down at Romans chapter one. I want you to look at verse 18. The first point I want to make is you're like, oh man, God doesn't love everybody. Here's the thing. God did not start it. God did not start it. Look at verse number 18 of Romans chapter one. The Bible says we're just going to study through the last half of Romans chapter one. And we're going to find out why, you know, this has happened. Everybody started out being loved by God. Everybody started out in the book of life. They all had, remember, they all had those two things. Everybody had those two things from the beginning, no matter where you were born, no matter who, what family you were from, what country you were raised in. You all, everybody had, you know, the proof of creation. Everybody had that. And then Romans chapter two talks about everybody was given the law in their hearts, their conscience, the Bible calls it. Look at verse 18 of Romans chapter one. God did not start it. It's not God's fault. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. So who's ungodly and unrighteous? It's not God, it's men that did this, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Look, these people had the truth. They had it. They knew it, but they did not accept it. They rejected it. Look at verse 19. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it to them, unto them. Here's the creation. This is how he showed it to them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. So they are without excuse. Look, everybody can see the creation. You're living in it. You're walking through it every day. Verse number 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their own imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Vain means, that's a key word there as we see this transition happening. They rejected the truth of God and then they became vain, which means they became focused not on God, they became focused on themselves. So everybody has the creation. Everybody has their conscience from Romans chapter 2. And then they became vain. They let go of the truth of God. They rejected those things. They became vain instead of focusing on God and the things that God did and the eternal Godhead of the Lord and the creation, they focused on themselves. And look at verse 22. And then, it gets even further, you can see they became vain and all of a sudden they're just, here they are, professing themselves to be wise. They became fools. They rejected the word of the Lord and God made them fools for it. Proverbs 9-10, I'll just read for you. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. They became fools because they went against this. As you lose the fear of the Lord, God will turn you into a fool. You can see that demonstrated. I've preached sermons on that. You can see that demonstrated over and over again in your life as a Christian. But now it gets even worse. You say, okay, they rejected the truth of God. They were not thankful for their life. Because look, you and I are part of their creation. You were created, hello. So they were not thankful for their life. They were not thankful for the creation, the larger creation around them. They professed themselves to be wise. They became vain. They came about them. Look at verse 23. But now, it gets really bad. Because God hates this. And this could be a whole sermon in itself. And change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man and to birds and to four-footed beasts and to creeping things. They changed God. They changed God. And twice we see this. Look at verse 24. Wherefore, for this reason, because of this, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. And then verse 25. The Bible says again. It says, They committed a very serious offense here, which is why God says it twice. They changed God. They changed who God was. And then they changed what God said. They changed the truth of God. They changed the word of the Lord. The Bible says, I am the Lord. I change not. If you haven't figured one thing out from the Bible, the people that change the word of God, it says that the end of the Bible itself, if people take away or add from or add to my words, it's like they're done. They're done. I'll take away their part from the book of life. So they committed a very serious offense here by changing God. And then in verse 24, it says, So it's interesting that just normal people that are unsaved, God keeps them in a certain state. This implies in verse number 24 that because of the fact that these people changed God, they rejected God, and they focused only on themselves, and they were not thankful to God, and then they actually changed who God was. They changed the truth of God that he let go of that protection. And he just let their hearts just lead them into the lowest darkness. It's kind of like God's a safety net for most people. That's kind of how I think about it. God is a safety net. You're not saved, but you don't really think one way or the other about God. Maybe you believe in God. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't know much about the Bible. You're just kind of indifferent about it. There's a safety net that God holds those people in. With these people, God took the safety net away. He just let whatever, whatever, just let them go into whatever they were going to go into. Look at verse 26. Now it gets even worse. Because they changed the truth of God into a lie. For this cause. See, God didn't start it. Back to my first point. God did not start it. God did not just choose some people and not choose other people. It's because of what these men did. For this cause, God gave them up to vile, unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that, which is against nature. And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the women. You know, I have in my Bible, I have every time that the Bible uses the word natural or against nature or not convenient, I have that underlined. And it's five times. You'll see it. So it's repeated. It's not just repeated twice. This idea of nature, natural, against nature, unnatural is repeated five times in these verses. Look at verse 28. And even as they did not like to retain God and their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. That means a rejected mind. And to do those things which are not convenient, not convenient means not natural. Being filled. And now look at this list. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiter's. Here's the big one. Here's the enemies. Haters of God. Despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parent. Look, these people got to the point and God took away that safety net because of what they did to him where they got to the point where they literally hate God. They literally hate God. They are evil. Look, I hate to break it to you this morning, but there are evil people out there, folks. And you may not hear this from any churches today, but the funny thing is, everybody knows it. Everybody knows it. You don't have to watch the news for too long or read too much in the news from just yesterday or the day before to know that there's evil people out there. Look at verse 31. Without understanding, covenant breakers, without what? Natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. And the one thing that comes out of this, look, there's so much confusion about this today, but the one thing to really narrow this down is to use what God said five times here. He said five times, he said natural and unnatural. As far as affections, here's the thing. What's natural and what's unnatural? If you look at the very first time that the word was used, here's all you have to know. You don't have to go out and study all the different unnatural things that are coming out every single year because the list is just going to keep growing and growing and growing. All you have to know is there's two categories. There's natural and there's unnatural. A man and a woman is natural and everything else is unnatural. That's all you have to know. As far as affections, that's all you have to know. You don't have to go out and study the 105 different perversions or whatever there are. It's all in the unnatural category. If it's all, the only comparison you have to do is if it's an affection and it's not a man and a woman, it's unnatural. And there's another thing. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. Why? Because they have a conscience. Because it's written in their heart. So look, they may be being influenced by media and being influenced by all these things, but everybody knows that it's unnatural. So you just have to know that. This is why we don't allow homosexuals in this church. This is why. Right here, Romans chapter 1, this explanation. But look, really it's not just that. It's anything unnatural. It's not going to be allowed in this church. Look, folks, it's not natural to be a serial killer. It's not, look at the last verse. Look at the last verse of Romans chapter 1. The second to last verse. No, I'm sorry. The last sentence of Romans chapter 1. It says, they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but look at the last verse there. But they have pleasure in them that do them. You're saying all murderers? No, look, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Somebody that goes and gets into sin and goes and has too much to drink and gets in their car and actually ends up killing somebody with their car, that's a terrible thing. That's murder. But that is not something, they did not have pleasure in, you know, they were not going out and murdering people for pleasure. Okay, they were not out and murdering people for profit. Like, you know, the abortion doctor. This is not, I mean, that's a different category. That is somebody that could go to work every day and murder babies every single day for money. That is not natural. That is an unnatural thing because most normal people would see that. Do you know how many people I have gotten to be pro-life when I was younger? Just by showing them what an actual abortion is? They're like, whoa! I'm not for that! As you see some dismembered human being in a garbage can. It's unnatural. It's sick. It gives you, like, it gives you, like, a twisted feeling in your stomach and it just, it breaks your heart. So somebody that can go and do that for a living is not a natural person. It's not a natural thing. So that is what we have to watch for. But back to the point I'm trying to make. People have become God's enemies in Romans chapter 1. We see how it happened. We see the process that happened. But look, they started it. You can't pin this on God. And look, that is a, that God actually has enemies and actually is against these people and is going to punish these people. That is a comfort for people. That is a comfort for people that have had run-ins with these wicked people in their lives. So look, it would be wicked if God, like, loved serial killers, inventors of evil things, people that would hurt children, all these unnatural people. You know, it turned to Luke chapter 17. You're like, oh, but Jesus loves everyone. Well, Jesus is God. They're the same, first of all. And the answer is no. The answer is no. You know who Jesus loves? Jesus loves the children. That's who Jesus loves. Look at Luke chapter 17. Look at Luke chapter 17. And verse number two. Jesus is talking about someone that would, by offend here, he means commit an offense against. He's talking about somebody that would commit an offense against the child. This is what Jesus thinks about that. Jesus says it would be better for him, this is the person that committed an offense against the child, it would be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea. Then that he should offend one of these little ones. He's saying it would be better if they were drowned in the ocean. And he didn't say we should drown him in the ocean. He said it would be better. Because when I get him it's going to be much worse. That's what Jesus is saying. This is Jesus. And look, this is comforting. This is comforting for people. Knowing that yes, no matter what our society allows, no matter what our society allows, that Jesus is going to take care of it in the end. That God will take care of it in the end. And now look, we could go on and on about this. But the point I'm trying to make is God has enemies. God has enemies. There are people that have turned against him. They are unnatural, meaning their conscience is gone. And look, science will tell you this too. Science will tell you this, that there are people where their conscience is gone. They don't have one. LifeScience.com has it, and you can find this statistic pretty consistent throughout most scientific studies, that the definition of a psychopath basically is somebody that doesn't have a conscience. Somebody that just has no feelings, as they will say, towards other people. And LifeScience.com and most other studies put it at about 1% of people. Think about that. One out of every 100 people out there is a psychopath. Somebody that does not have a conscience. Now, does that mean that 1% of people are serial killers? No, but it means that they have the capability to. It means that most people, the reason that that 1%, they're mostly not serial killers is because of self-preservation. You'll find that in corporate America that you will find this type of person that are just really good at getting to the top because they don't care about ethics or morality or who they hurt or whatever. And, you know, they're not a serial killer because they like their nice life. They don't want to go to jail. They don't want to go to prison, whatever. But they use it to get them... I'm not saying every person that's successful. But look, you will find this in, you know, people in successful positions because they're not playing... Look, I'm playing by a different set of rules. I can't do unethical things. I can't hurt people and step on people because, look, I'm guided by my conscience, the Bible, you know, whatever ethical rules I put in place, you know, for myself and my conscience is there telling me, you can't do that. That's not right. You can't lie about that person to get that promotion. That's not the right thing to do. So most people won't do it. But 1% of people will, which is why they will get ahead in many different situations. But look, it doesn't mean they're all serial killers. It just means they have the capability. And look, if you pay attention to this, you might be able to pick some out in your life. I've picked out a few in my life. You can watch for things. You can watch for unnatural things. You know, people that just don't care for morality on any level. And, you know, you'll notice it. All right, so look, there's another kind of God's enemy. So we see a set of how people become God's enemies in Romans chapter 1. But I want to focus down in kind of a subcategory of God's enemies. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2. There's another kind of God's enemies. It's not as easy to identify these people as God's enemies. But the Bible does say, and this goes back to Romans chapter 1, where it was talking about the people that changed God's word, changed the truth of God. You will see a category of God's enemies that are false prophets. Look at 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2 in verse number 1. Look what the Bible says. The Bible says this. It says, There you go again. They knew the Lord. They denied him, though. They knew what God's word said. They denied it. They changed it. Denied the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways. Now pernicious means very harmful but subtle. So pernicious is very bad. It's somebody that's very harmful, is trying to do hurt, but they're very subtle about it. So these are a particular dangerous set of God's enemies here. If you look at 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2. A lot of people can be confused by 2 Peter chapter 2. It's basically talking about two groups of people. In 2 Peter chapter 2. If you just want to make a little bit of a note. I'm not going to study through the whole chapter. There's two groups of people. It's talking about these false prophets. They bring up at the beginning. And it's talking about the people that they hurt throughout the chapter, especially at the end of the chapter. It's talking about the people that they actually pull away from the gospel. Okay, so there's two groups that are talked about in 2 Peter chapter 2. False prophets and the people that they pull away. And it's because they're pernicious. They're pernicious. They're subtly harmful. They're very good at it. By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through, in verse number 3, it tells us one of the reasons that they do it. It says, And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not in their damnation slumbereth not. This is why Balaam, who we talked about on Wednesday, is brought up in 2 Peter chapter 2. Because the way of Balaam is the way of greed. It's the way of covetousness. That's what God Balaam into all his trouble. He just had to get back and get the money somehow. So, two groups of people. False prophets and the people that they hurt in 2 Peter chapter 2. That's just a side note. But false prophets can be enemies of God. And I say can be, why? Why? The difference is this. You can't say that every false prophet is someone who's rejected by God. You say why? Well, because of the Bible. Look at Acts chapter 8. Let me give you a tale of two sorcerers in the Bible. Let me give you a tale of two false prophets in the Bible. And then I'll point out, I'll give you some characteristics of false prophets where you can kind of gauge whether or not, okay, this is an enemy of God right here. But look, there's two sorcerers talked about in the book of Acts. These are false prophets. They're teaching false things. They're teaching witchcraft or whatever they're doing. Look at Acts chapter 8 and verse number 9. Look what the Bible says. So this is the first one. But there was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria. Sounds like a bad guy. Giving out that himself was some great one. To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest thing. This man is the great power of God. He's using witchcraft and they're thinking that he has the power of God. And to him, they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. So look, he's doing, he's dealing in demonic things, sorceries here. This is bad stuff. But look at the Bible in verse number 12. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Look, they had some cultural things to get out of this guy if you keep reading. But the point is this guy got saved. I mean this guy was a false prophet a sorcerer and he got saved. He got saved. Now turn to Acts chapter 13. So we can see that we can't just kind of label people enemies of God just giving over just because they're a false prophet because we see that this guy got saved. So it's possible that they could get saved. Turn to Acts chapter 13. I'm going to give you kind of a philosophy on how to gauge enemies as we get towards the end of the sermon. But look at Acts chapter 13. Let's look at the second sorcerer in Acts chapter 13. Look what the Bible says in verse number 5. And when they were at Salamis they preached the word of God to their minister. And when they had gone through the Isle of Paphos they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus which was with the deputy of the country. So this guy's with another guy. So this false prophet, this sorcerer is with another guy, the deputy of the country Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God. So you have Bar-Jesus and this Paulus guy and they're together and Paulus says to Paul he's like come tell me the word of God. He says to Barnabas and Saul he desired to hear the word of God. But Olimus, another name for Bar-Jesus the sorcerer for so is his name by interpretation withstood them seeking to turn away the deputy from the face. So this is the difference right here. Then Saul who is also called Paul filled with the Holy Ghost set his eyes on him and said, oh full of subtlety and righteousness right there. These false prophets they never really come out and just say hey you know, here's what I think and here's what I think is different than what you think and they're never really in your faith they're very subtle and they're very pernicious the Bible would say. He said, and full of all subtlety and mischief thou child of the devil thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not seize to pervert the right ways of the Lord. Paul I mean really just hands it to this guy, calls him a child of the devil, but the difference is this the difference is this, he says enemy of all righteousness thou child of the devil. He's trying to actively stop someone from hearing the truth. That's the difference. You can kind of pick this out with people. Let me give you an example in my life before I was even saved. We were Lutheran. We lived in Texas at the time and the Baptists are big in Texas. I have to kind of give credit by the way to the Texas law, I'm sure it was the Baptists pushing that down there. They call it the Bible Belt for a reason so thank God for those people down there. But the point is I had a Lutheran pastor of a church that we were in in Texas and he really had no issues with the Baptists. He liked the Baptists people, he talked great about the Baptists the Baptists were the ones knocking doors as a matter of fact I had many conversations with this Lutheran pastor about the Baptists that would go out and hand out materials and knock on people's doors and just be like it seems like maybe they're doing what the Bible says they should do. I even kind of said that to this pastor he's like yeah that's a good thing and all that and I never really took it much further than that but he had no problems with the Baptists, this guy. But you could say he's a false prophet. He's got a church with a false gospel. And I think about that man a lot and my wife and I talk about that man a lot but look he had no problems with the Baptists, the Christians. Then we moved to North Dakota and we ended up in a Lutheran church and this pastor actually I was not saved. I was not saved for another year or so after this but this pastor was constantly ripping on Baptists. I left the church for that one reason. I left the church for that one reason because I said look these people are Christians. It's like I don't know what you think about these people but they're going to be in heaven with us. I didn't know that my state at the time but I never one time in my life thought that a Baptist was going to hell ever and this guy was just constantly making fun of them and all this Lutheran pastor and I'm just like hey this isn't right these people are Christians but you know what that was that wasn't my great example because I didn't really have much at that point it was my conscience it was a law written in my heart I knew that what they were doing was according to what was in my heart and this guy was going against that it was so bad we left we left the church for that reason so look there's two examples that I can give you right there of false prophets one that may have been an enemy of God and one that probably wasn't but another one is Brother Frank and I were out soul-witting one time to a pastor on the street and this pastor he came up to us and he's like oh what are you guys doing and he's like oh we're from this Baptist church and we're passing out invitations and letting people know how they can go to heaven and all this and then there's a bunch of guys playing basketball over there and there's a lot of people out on the streets this day and this pastor he came up to us and he was just super friendly to our face Brother Frank do you remember this he was super friendly to our face and then we went in and we started knocking doors in the neighborhood and Brother Frank heard this guy telling going around to all the people out on the street saying yeah they're asking you for money they're just trying to raise money they're going to try to get money out of you look that's a bar Jesus right there that's somebody who's trying to sink the gospel that's a child of the devil and Brother Frank and I we made the connections to Acts chapter 13 right away because look you'll see it you'll see it you'll see when you'll be giving the gospel out to people you will see people that are maybe leaders of a church or a pastor or something that are just like they're not going to let you give the gospel I mean that's bar Jesus you'll find those people you'll think of those people so look God has enemies to bring it all back around and thankfully you know we have a just God and because we know evil exists in the world God does not love everyone it fits it fits our conscience turn to Psalm 139 turn to Psalm 139 it fits our conscience and I'm very thankful that I mean God made my conscience so I mean it makes sense that you know the Bible says that he behaves according to that look at Psalm chapter 139 in verse number 21 Psalm 139 in verse number 21 so we're supposed to back to the whole sermon series we're supposed to love our neighbor we're supposed to love our neighbor but God has enemies these people are not our neighbor is what I'm getting at here look at Psalm chapter 139 in verse 21 the Bible says do I not hate them a Lord that hate thee the people that hate the Lord are God's enemies we just learned about am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee look that's why they're God's enemies because they're actively working against God bar Jesus actively working against God and he says I hate them but then in verse number 22 we really see you know the conclusion it doesn't really matter right here I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine enemies so really the first part of that that perfect you know what that perfect means righteous it means I hate them with a righteous hatred look there is a righteous hatred there's a righteous hatred even liberals understand this from the saying of Bill Maher just blindly loving everybody and blindly hating everybody is folly that's exactly what the Bible teaches that's exactly what the Bible teaches so there's a righteous hatred and that hatred is towards the enemies of the Lord the Bible says now go to Matthew chapter 5 there's another type of enemies we see that there's enemies of God there's enemies of God not God's fault but then look at Matthew chapter 5 there's personal enemies there's your enemies there's my enemies there's personal enemies look at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 44 so there's a righteous hatred towards God's enemies how about my enemies look at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 44 the Bible says but I say unto you love your enemies now notice how the Bible doesn't say doesn't mean we can have a contradiction if the Bible said love my enemies but it says love your enemies this is your personal enemies these are God's enemies these are your personal enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you not me God's not saying do good to them that hate me He says do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you so there's a difference between God's enemies and your enemies these people hate you not God is what the Bible is talking about the difference is you're supposed to love the people that hate you you're like oh man that's a hard thing to do turn to Proverbs chapter 25 but there's a big difference there and you gotta make sure and I'm gonna talk about risk management in your life that we don't blur these lines look at Proverbs chapter 25 that's a hard thing to do somebody that uses you that's despiteful towards you you know that just hates you and you're supposed to love them but God gives us some comfort here in Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 21 if thine enemy that means your enemy be hungry give him bread to eat if he be thirsty give him water to drink for thou shalt heat coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee so the Bible says if you do what I say I'll reward you and it'll drive them nuts that's what he's saying here he's like look God's saying hey the best way for you to it'll drive people crazy if they just hate you because you know what they want they want you to hate them back people that are just mad and just upset at you and they just really don't like you they want you to just get down in the mud with them somebody told me one time don't get down in the mud with the pigs because the pigs like it when you get down in the mud with them so somebody doing evil to you you're supposed to be nice back so who are these people that could be doing evil to you look they could be saved or they could be unsaved these people that are your enemies that's the funny thing and the mistake that people make look here's a huge mistake that people make and I think that people need to think about this more but people misunderstand how wicked saved people can be people have a fundamental misunderstanding of that and I mean look a Christian somebody who's saved can be spiritual with the Lord and then they can get backslidden and just become a wicked person I mean look you gotta think about you gotta think about the Bible think about the Bible Saul King Saul murdered 85 priests I mean think about that I mean think about if you heard about some person that killed a bunch of pastors I mean you'd be like that guy is an enemy of God for sure look Saul was saved Saul was saved look yet two people could too save people hate each other is that possible? of course it's possible look at Saul and David I mean you had Saul like literally just full of burning hatred towards David I mean but the thing is does everyone that hate you hate God is the thing that you have to ask yourself I mean some people just don't like each other that's the first thing some people just don't like each other you ever met somebody that just doesn't like you I mean maybe it's your personality or whatever they just don't like you but saved people cannot like you in the world where you have two saved people that are both following the Bible and never get in the flesh they should never end up hating each other I agree but the problem is that people get backslidden people go against the Bible people get in the flesh many times it's both sides and you end up with two saved people hating each other and look saved people look the thing is you're not saved by anything you do being saved has nothing to do with the type of person you are it has nothing to do with the character that you have it's about what you have trusted in what you believe so saved people can hate each other I hate to report that but it can happen it does happen and we have to make sure that we don't take our personal enemies and make them enemies of God because there's a temptation to do that so let's just recap very quickly we see that there's enemies of God the traits in Romans chapter 1 we see that they're unnatural people they're false prophets you know the Pharisees are another good example of this a lot of the Pharisees fall into this false prophets Jesus didn't even want them to get saved anymore he said to the disciples he said look I speak in these parables because you know they might end up understanding if I don't he didn't want them to get it he didn't want them to get it because they were given over he was done they were done so look not all people that believe in false doctrine are enemies of God and we're going to find those people we're going to get those people saved all the time I mean there could be false prophets also that are just sincerely wrong you know and I can think of some people that I've met I've kind of gave you some examples but if you try to if you find somebody specifically trying to stop you from getting someone saved that's a different story you know I'm comfortable attaching that God's enemy label in that case but let's talk about making your personal enemies God's enemies because we're going to talk about just at the end of the sermon I want to talk about some risk management for you for your life here's the application for you today here's the application of how you can mitigate risk in your life because look here's the thing I'm going to explain to you why I have a philosophy that I have where I give people the benefit of the doubt it's not because I'm super spiritual it's not because I know more than anybody else it's personal protection for me okay and I'm going to explain that to you here's the personal risk of having a loose enemy policy that's what I call it where you just take every person that hates me is you know an enemy of God and you know God hates them too and all this and look because I get it your flesh you want to do that let's say I have a personal enemy I mean like we really hate each other like I really hate this person he hates me to the point where I wish that person the worst and I declare them an enemy of God turn to Matthew or turn to Luke chapter 6 there's two possible problems here for me personally there's two possible problems and I'm talking about personal risk management for you this morning look at Luke chapter 6 first of all I'm not following Matthew chapter 5 which we've already read where Jesus says love your enemies Luke chapter 6 verse 27 says but I say unto you which you which hear love your enemies and do good to them which hate you and bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you so the first thing that you're not doing is if you make your enemies God's enemies is you're not following Jesus's command you're not following what Jesus said I mean have a saved person doing evil to me like David did and then I make them God's enemy and I'm just not listening to God that's the first thing the second thing is this turn to first John chapter 4 first John chapter 4 we're going to go to first John chapter 4 and then first John chapter 2 first John chapter 4 in verse number 20 the Bible says and the second risk is this so number 1 I'm not listening to Jesus so number 2 I could end up hating my brother I could end up unknowingly hating my brother look at first John chapter 4 that if I do that there's consequences for me look at first John chapter 4 and verse number 20 if a man say I love God and hate his brother he's a liar so first of all that makes me a liar now go to chapter 2 of first John first John chapter 2 and this is the worst one right here first John chapter 2 in verse 11 so if I have a personal enemy and I'm like there's no way I hate this guy so much he does wicked things and like I said save people can do wicked things save people can do really wicked things and that's I mean people need to realize that for protection for themselves look at first John chapter 2 the Bible says he that hated his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not where he goeth because that darkness has blinded his eyes look the Bible says that God will make you blind if you hate your brother you will look and I've seen this play out if you hate your brother and you declare your brother God's enemy first of all that doesn't make him God's enemy you don't have the power to do that what that does is it makes you hate your brother when you don't even know it but God sees that you hate your brother that's what God sees and here's the thing you will do and you will say foolish things you will be walking in darkness I mean two Christians fighting one is way over the top look at David and Saul I mean look at Saul he became like a madman he was like a perfect example of this in the Bible he was like a crazy person to the point where God took him home to the point where he's like God's just like I'm done you're gonna die now I'm gonna kill you you know God took him home he took him to heaven but he took him off this earth he's like you're a nutcase so look Jesus' advice on our personal enemies it protects us you see it's protection for us loving your enemies protects you personally from consequences and personally that's why I err on the side of caution here because just as you have misjudged I mean you ever misjudged if somebody you know out soul winning you ever misjudged if somebody was saved have you ever done that in your life you can misjudge if someone's not saved just as easily because we can't see the heart we can't see the heart I'll say that out soul winning before I say a prayer with somebody I'll be like you know what I can't see your heart but if you do believe these things God sees your heart so we can misjudge who is not saved just as easily I say that to people soul winning all the time so look identify and avoid God's enemies according to the Bible the unnatural this church policy there will never be an unnatural person in this church ever it's for safety and it would be pointless anyway they've been given up those who would hinder the gospel we have to kind of just false doctrine in the church we kind of have to just avoid but we don't have to be blind either because the Bible says it's going to be subtle people are going to bring in false doctrines they're going to we just kind of keep our eyes open everybody else we just love everybody else it's pretty simple neighbor, brother personal enemies just love them all that's what the Bible says so look people that don't like us or we don't like them just love them anyway there's safety there it's not for them it's for you it's for me to just give people the benefit of the doubt people aren't unnatural they're not false prophets it's best to just err on the side of neighbor for your own sake so that's neighbors and enemies folks the only ones we're not to love it's pretty simple it's kind of nice to categorize the world in that way neighbors and enemies because it's simpler for us as our actions go forward because the only ones we're not to love are God's enemies that's it that's it everybody else we're to love and do good to them let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer