 The subject is legalism. So a lot of people may say that, you know, this is a legalistic church. They may look at you and say, oh, you're going to a legalistic church. As you grow and mature as a Christian, this word is a word that might be thrown at you, you know, from time to time by people that don't understand what the Bible teaches, what the gospel is, and why you do what you do. So this morning I want to look at this idea of legalism, what it is, what it isn't, and are we legalists? Let's look at it this morning. So what is legalism? What am I even talking about? If you just look up dictionary.com's definition of the word legalism, the Bible, or not the Bible, dictionary.com, definitely not the Bible, okay, says, it's a dependence on moral law rather than on religious faith. Alright, and then it has a quote where it says, you know, if you stress obedience over faith, you produce legalism. Alright, this is from dictionary.com, not anything that the Bible has to say. In short, in short, legalism, I mean to us, well we would look at the word legalism. What legalism to us means is basically works-based salvation. Alright, but what legalism to other people looks like is somebody that goes to a church and a church that preaches hard sermons on the Bible and hard sermons on sin, and they'll say, oh, that pastor, he's legalistic. That pastor, he's preaching legalism. But that nothing could be further from the truth than what we preach and why I preach the things that I preach here. Turn to Acts chapter 2. You're going to keep your place in Matthew chapter 7. So let's look at this idea of why people would misunderstand that. Why would people look at, why would people listen to a sermon, you know, from a Bible preaching church, a sermon from this church or churches like ours, and say, that guy is legalistic, or that church is legalistic. Why could they understand that? Well, the first part is this. In Acts chapter 2, look at verse number 47. Acts chapter 2 in verse number 47. The Bible says in Acts 2.47, of course, this is the beginning of the book of Acts that we're studying through, where just thousands of people are getting saved every single time. They're in Jerusalem, there's this great day of Pentecost, they preach the gospel in all these different languages. Just people are just being added to the church by the thousands. It's just, it's Christianity's jumpstart right here is what we're looking at in Acts chapter 2. In verse 47 it says, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Now, look what it says here. It says the church in Jerusalem. It's not talking about the universal church. It's talking about the church in Jerusalem where they're at today. There was this great miraculous event where these disciples got up and they preached the gospel, and they're preaching the gospel in all these different languages that all these people from all these different nations understood. That's where everyone was like, what are they? What are they drunk? They're like, no, they're actually speaking the gospel in languages, in languages. Just people are just getting saved by the hundreds, by the thousands, and God added to the church there, but just anybody to the church? No, it says, as such as should be saved. This is pointing out to us that church is for the saved. The sermons that you hear from this pulpit are for saved people. I'm not preaching to unsaved people in this pulpit because the people that are part of this church, I'm assuming most of you are saved as I preach. That doesn't mean that people aren't going to visit the church, and that's why one of the first things that we'll do is we'll offer to preach the gospel to people after church that come and visit the church, but you're not going to hear a gospel message every Sunday from the pulpit here, because why would I do that when 90% or the vast majority of people in the church, or in churches like this, they're saved already? How edifying would it be for me to stand up here and preach a gospel message to you on how to be saved? So instead, you're going to hear practical preaching. You're going to hear sermons on what the Bible says that you should do after salvation. Now, people that are listening online, people that maybe are checking out the church that you go to or whatever, for good or bad reasons, they're going to be like legalism, because they're not going to understand that church is for the saved. This preaching is for the saved. Nothing that is preached from this pulpit as far as living your Christian life and getting sent out of your life and all the practical things is for salvation. None of that is to keep you saved. If that was the case, we'd be called Pentecostals, because the literal definition of legalism from the perspective of the Bible, believe it in Christian, is really works-based salvation. The pastor that gets up here and says, look, if you don't come here and you don't come to church here and you don't bring your kids here and you don't do what I say in this next sermon that I'm going to come up on, that's the Pentecostal church right there. You're going to get back slid and you're going to lose your salvation. Look, I bet we've been in homeschool groups years and years ago with Pentecostal people. Those are some fear-filled people right there. They're literally, and it's funny because the list of things, it just depends on which Pentecostal church they go to, the list of things that can cause you to go to hell. One lady that we talked to a couple of years ago, it was, I just can't commit more than seven sins in one day and I'll go to heaven. It's whatever this false prophet that she goes to has made up and told her that it takes to get to heaven. One Pentecostal I met said that, well, heaven and hell, it's like a hotel and it's like a hotel with an elevator and the upper floors of the elevator are heaven and the lower floors are hell. I'm like, whoa, what in the world? I'm like, look, if we're going to use hotel analogies, they're definitely not the same hotel. They're not in the same town either. But the point is, it's just all this weird stuff, that is legalism. That is legalism. Some person getting up and using the Bible to try to hang your salvation over your head, if you don't do X, Y and Z, whatever my hobby horse is as that pastor, I will take away your salvation from you. Look, that is legalism. It's work based salvation. There's nothing anybody can do to take away your salvation once you have it. The reason that you hear sermons from the Bible like this is because Acts chapter 2 and other places in the Bible show us that church is for the saved. And after you're saved, what comes after that? It's Christian growth, Christian maturity. It's like, you're saved now, made it. Let's get on with this Christian life. That's why you hear preaching like you hear from this pulpit. Now here's what's interesting. Here's what's interesting. There's an interesting trend that I've noticed out there. And that's this. The more people believe in works to get themselves to heaven, works to be saved, now this is ironic. This is why it's so important and like being a soul owner will just give you so much knowledge and wisdom on the world as it is. Because the more people believe in works to get themselves to heaven, the less works they have. And look, I'm not saying that there's not outliers in this, but I'm saying this is an overall trend that I have noticed over several years of soul winning. The more people believe, I mean, it's kind of counterintuitive, is it not? You would think that somebody that believes like, I have to do good works to get to heaven and they go to a church that teaches I must do good works to get to heaven. You would think they'd have works. You would think that they would just be like the more God-filled people and just like the, I mean, but the opposite is true. And I'm going to explain that to you from the Bible. Look, this is the deceit of works-based salvation right there. Now turn to Matthew chapter 19. Let's look at why this is. Why is that? Why is it that somebody that believes in works-based salvation tends to be someone that doesn't have works at all? Why is that? Look at Matthew chapter 19 and verse number 16. It's really this idea of works-based salvation is really a self-contained prison that people have themselves in. And I'll show you why that is. Look at Matthew chapter 19 and verse number 16. This is the very famous story in the Bible called The Rich Young Ruler. There's a lot of lessons in this story. It's a young man. Look, it's a story. It's not a parable. It's an actual young man that came up to Jesus and asked him some questions. And Jesus, I love Jesus' interactions with people because it shows you the brilliance of God. Alright, look at verse number 16 of Matthew chapter 19. So Jesus is here and this young man comes up to him. He says, And behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? What's his problem right here? He came up to Jesus. He came up to God himself and he says, What works can I do to get to heaven? And he says, Good Master. Now verse number 17 and he said unto him, Jesus says, Why call us thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. But if that will enter into life, keep the commandments. So first of all, look at the first part of that verse. A lot of people will say, Oh, this is Jesus saying he's not God. No, that's Jesus saying he is God. He's pointing out the fact that this young man did call him God. He said, Why do you call me good? There's only one good and that's God. Did Jesus say, Did Jesus say I'm not good? Did Jesus say you made a mistake by calling me good? No, he said, What do you know I'm God? He's basically saying, You must know that I'm God if you call me good. Let's continue. He says if you will enter into life, keep the commandments. So really, there's two ways to get to heaven. There's two ways to get to heaven. Either you're saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, you trust on Jesus only or never sin. And Jesus is kind of going down this road with this guy. Why? Because Jesus is God and he knows what this guy's problem is. So you want to go to heaven by your works? Never sin one time and you'll get there. You're like, Oh, done with that one. What's the other option? We all need the other option for all have sinned. Okay. And look, this shows you how messed up this kid is because let me tell you something. 99.9% of people when you go up and you tell them you're a sinner, the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 99% of people will agree with you. It is rare. I can count on one hand. All the times that I've been so willing, I can count on one hand, probably three fingers on that hand. How many times I've met somebody that says I've never sinned? Imagine. I mean, just think about yourself making that statement. Why? Because that's in your heart. You know you've sinned. Romans 2 15, God put that conscience in your heart. You knew the law before you even read the Bible. You knew it was wrong. People knew it was wrong to murder when they're in a jungle in South America. They knew it was wrong to murder because God wrote it in their heart. That's why. So people know that they've sinned. But look at this guy. This is a special character right here. And Jesus knows that he's talking to a very special individual here. And I say special, not in a good way. All right. And he say, say unto him, so Jesus says keep the commandments and you can go to heaven. He's asking, what works can I do? Jesus says keep the commandments. Which ones? All of them. Look at verse 18. He said unto him, which? And Jesus said, Jesus just gives them just a handful. Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and mother. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man said unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet? He says, God, I've never done those. I'm good. He's never done it, which he's lying to God right here. Okay. He's lying to the Lord Jesus Christ. The young man said unto him, what lack I yet? Like I said, this is a rare individual right here. Look at verse 21. Jesus said unto him, if that will be perfect, he's like well, apparently you're perfect. He's like apparently you're perfect. That's what it means when it says there's none righteous, no not one. Righteous meaning perfect. You've never sinned. And Jesus is like, if that will be perfect, but see Jesus is God. He knows everything about this young man. He knows everything that's wrong with this young man. He knows that he's just been lied to by this young man. So he points out a very specific sin that this young man has in his life that is very obvious and it is something that can be demonstrated right away. I mean, Jesus could say, no, I know you've committed adultery. I know you lusted after a woman yesterday. You know, you committed adultery with her in your heart. And he could say, no, I didn't. And they could go back and forth and have this big debate. Or Jesus can just demonstrate it right here in front of everybody. And he says, if that will be perfect, go and sell that thou hast. The love of money is the root of all evil. And give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come follow me. He's like, all right, literally put your money where your mouth is, is what Jesus says to this guy. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. See, he loved his stuff. He loved his stuff. And Jesus like just pointed, called him out on it right there. Now, how many, you know, obviously that was not his only problem. Jesus was just pointing that out to him as a very obvious demonstration that he was not without sin. Okay, but what was his biggest problem? And this is why, this is why this is a perfect example of somebody that believes in workspace salvation having no works. You know, he's like, if you believe in workspace salvation, wouldn't you be like on your toes, just do good works? And the answer is this. The answer is workspace salvation is a very prideful belief. And this young man, this rich young ruler was a very prideful young man. And he was very proud. I mean, he was just like, I mean, just, just imagine for a minute, thinking that you by your own merit, have the ability to get yourself to heaven. That's bold. That's bold, especially, especially if you know what the actual gospel says. That's a bold thing. If only there was a button you could push to just like have people all sudden see like see themselves as other people see them. Or like even like a like a like another button, like a special or more special button to push to show people like how God sees them. Because even it doesn't even matter how many good works you have, because those good works can't cover up the bad you've already done. Good works can't cover up sin. You know, people laugh at that when you're out soul winning when you say you go out and you steal a car and you wreck somebody's car. And then you stole it and you started on fire and burned it and you get caught and you get brought in front of a judge in Fresno. And he say, well, judge, yeah, I did that I stole that guy's car and I burned it. But I'm really nice. People people laugh. Because the good that you've done doesn't matter. You still have to pay for what you have done. It's a prideful person that says, I'm so good that it doesn't matter how bad I've been. Because that's how good I am. That's me standing in front of that judge being like, yeah, wrecked his car, wrecked his house, wrecked his family. But look at how awesome I am, judge. The judge doesn't see it that way. This is the problem. All right. So look, it's a prideful situation. Pride is the main problem that keeps people in that prison of workspace salvation. Let's go back to legalism. Why do we do what we do? Why do we do what we do? Why would a Christian who's doing what he's supposed to do and listening to the word of God, listening to the preaching of God, why would a Christian look different, act different? Why? Is it because you go to a legalistic church with some psychopath controlling pastor that's just like screaming at you all the time or I'm going to hunt you down and all this kind of thing and you're going to lose your salvation and go to hell? Why do we do what we do then if that's not the case? So first of all, you're saved. You're saved. Why obey God? Why be different than everybody else? You can't lose your salvation. There's nothing that you could do or I could do or anybody could do that makes you take away your salvation. Why be different? Why separate? This is what we talked about Wednesday night. If you separate and you do these things, you're going to have trouble. You're going to have trouble in your life on this earth. When you start to do these things, when you start to act different, be different, look different, think different, raise your kids different. The more you do that, the more trouble you're going to have. Like why in the world would anyone do a thing? Why not just get saved, slide into home there, and just all good look like everybody else blend in. Why? Being different look being different, being different's hard. Being different's hard at times. Is it not? I mean, is everyone like to stick out and stand out? Being different is difficult. Separation's in everything. If you're living a mature Christian life trying to do what the Bible says, separation is everywhere in your life. We're coming back fishing yesterday. We're coming back fishing yesterday and we pulled up to the dock and I saw some guy like showing his fish to some people on the dock and I was like, we have fish that's way bigger than that. I told the guy, I'm like, that's a nice little fish you got there. Did you catch him all by yourself? I didn't say that. But right away, the guy is like, and you know, then we held up our fish, held up the fish or Alex caught and it was like, oh, the guy's like, want to bet, want to put some money on it? The guy says to me, and I'm like, why? I've already seen your little fish. And look at my big fish. But I said, I just said, you know, I don't gamble. And right away, you know, I don't know what he's thinking like some, you know, what do you use some prude or whatever. But I was just like, I mean, the point is the point I'm trying to make is like, separation is everywhere in small ways in big ways, separations everywhere. I'm just like, I'm not a gambler. You know, I'm a fisherman better than you apparently. But why do we do it? Why do we do it? Seriously? Why do we do it? Why separate? Why look different? Why act different? I'm going to give you two reasons. Turn to John chapter 14 or look at the front of your bulletin. Here's the first reason right here. It's pretty simple. But it's misunderstood by a lot of people. Turn to John chapter 14, look at the front of your bulletin, then we're going to get back to Matthew chapter seven. Why do we do it? The first reason that we do what we do and we will look different, we will act different, we will stand out to a lot of people to the unsaved of this world is verse number 15 of John chapter 14. If you love me, this is what God says. God says, if you love me, keep my commandments. God is saying, if you love me, do what I say. That's what God is saying. Alright, he's saying, look, you know, if you love me, he's assuming that he's starting to save people here. He's like, if you love me, do what I say. So the first reason is that we love God. That's why we do it. That's why we listen to God because we love God. See, the problem is here is that people don't understand. This is why definitions of words and the way that they're being changed are so important is because the Bible says that your love for God should literally be defined on how if you love God or not. If I listen to the Bible, I listen to preaching, and I don't do it, you don't love God. You're like, but I love God. I feel like I love God but here, love's not a feeling. Love's not a feeling. Like, oh, I don't know. If you asked me if I love God, I would tell you love's not words. Turn to Matthew chapter seven. The first point is love's not a feeling, love is not words. You are not saved by the way because you love God. You are not saved because you love God. Look at Matthew chapter seven. You are saved because God loved you. And you better be, you better be thankful that love is not words and love is not a feeling because God didn't just say, oh, I love you. He took action. The Bible says that John 3 16 forgot to love the world that he gave. He gave that is action. That's action. He did something about it. And all God is saying in John 14 is, hey, I saved you. Why don't you do something about it? Why don't you show, I've showed that I love you. Why don't you show that you love me? He already told you, I promise you have eternal life. I promise you have that no matter what, whether you love me or not, you have that. I promise he promised us in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie. God literally can't lie to you. You're saved because he loved you. Love meaning action. He gave his only begotten son for you. That's what he did. He did something. He took action. Go to Matthew chapter seven. Look at verse number 21. It's interesting that the Sermon on the Mount, this very famous sermon that Jesus gives, this is one of the last things that Jesus says in that sermon. Look what he says. We're talking about us loving God and God loving us. God loved us. Love meaning he took action. He did something. He sacrificed for us. Look at verse 21. He says, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Don't you think those people that went up, they would call Jesus Lord? They're calling Jesus Lord. Don't you think if you were to ask those people right there, do you love Jesus? Don't you think they would have said yes? They're calling him Lord. They're saying Lord, Lord. But he says, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. What's the will of the Father? I'll just read for you in John chapter six and verse 40. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone would seeeth the Son and believeeth on him may have everlasting life. The will of the Father is that you would trust his Son. The will of the Father, doesn't it make sense? You know, God gave his only son to die, be tortured to be killed and raised again for you to suffer everything for your sins, lived an innocent life, suffered for you, took all the punishment for you, everything that you'd done even before you were even born. Don't you think that he would be his will that you would trust that? Instead of being like, Hey, I'm pretty awesome. This is why God's going to be angry at these people. God's angry at these people. These people are like Lord, Lord. But it says they're not going to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Why? Let's keep reading. Go to Matthew chapter seven. Go back. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Why? So the will of the Father is that they would believe on his Son. They would trust on his Son. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? In thy name cast out devils. In thy name done many wonderful works. These people are going around. They're preaching Jesus. This is the street preacher right here. Jesus loves you on the sign. This is a street preacher that's up there and just prophesying Jesus' name. Jesus loves you. Cast out devils. In thy name done many wonderful works. Look at verse 23. These are pretty good people. Then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. What? Depart from me ye that work iniquity. Those people are going to hell. Why? Turn to Hebrews chapter six. Turn to Hebrews chapter six. Those people are going to hell. Why? Because they work to work iniquity. You're like, what do you mean? They're doing all these good things back in verse number 22. What are you talking about? Work in iniquity. Go to Hebrews chapter six. Hebrews chapter six and look at verse number one. Hebrews chapter six, look at verse number one. Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Let us go on to perfection. Not only, he's saying, he's saying, what are the principles of the doctrine of Christ? He's saying, look, we've laid the foundation. The foundation is the gospel. The foundation is getting saved. The foundation is that you're saved through Christ, not your own works. He's like, let's get done with that foundation and let's move on to growth. This is what we're talking about in this sermon. This is why you're preaching like you hear here. Look at the last part of the verse. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from what? From dead works and of faith toward God. You know what you have to do to get saved? You have to repent. You know what repent means? It means change your mind. You have to change your mind about your works, which guess what? You know what works to get you to heaven are? You know what the works that that rich young ruler was doing to get to heaven? You know what those are? Those are dead works. You know what that means? Those works are going to kill you. If you're trusting in those works, those works are going to damn you to hell. You're like, but it's good. I did good things. I prophesied in Jesus' name. I held up a sign. I did all these things. Maybe I went out and I helped people out and I said, this is in the name of Jesus and I prayed with people and all these things. Look at all these great things. Those are dead works. If that's what you're counting on to get you to heaven, they're going to kill you. Those works are going to kill you for eternity. That's what Jesus is saying. That's what Hebrews is saying. And guess what? Back to loving God. Why do we do it? Because we love God. It is all about whether or not. Whether you get to heaven is all about whether or not God loved you. And he did through Jesus. And it's all about once you get saved, it's all about whether God knows you. You notice how Jesus said, I never knew you to those people. He never knew them. It didn't say I knew you a couple of weeks ago. This is to the Pentecostal right here. It didn't say, hey, I knew you back when you were in church a year ago. And then you got out of church and now I forgot who you are. No, he said, I never knew you. Because once he knows you, he knows you. You're sealed. Go back to. Actually, you don't have to go back there. Just hang on. They never knew him. So it's all about whether or not he knows us. Our salvation is because he loved us. It's about him towards us. We are saved because of God's action towards us, not the other way. Our love. Now let's talk about our love and our sacrifice. Our action towards God is out of obedience and love towards him. And God is literally defining whether or not you love Jesus. You love him. This is God's definition of love. It doesn't matter if you say you love God. It doesn't matter if you say, oh, I love him my heart. If you're not doing what the Bible says, you don't love him. You're like, man, that's pretty harsh. That's just what the Bible says. I think it's one of the shortest verses in the entire Bible. If you love me, keep my commandments. God's like, do I have to say this slow? It's like that is what love towards God means. He defines it for us. So you say, I want to love God. Read the Bible and do what it says. He already gave you salvation. He already sealed you. There's nothing you can do to lose that. He's not going to take that away from you, but he's like, hey, if you love me, don't just say it actually keep my commandments. That's why we do it. That's why we do it. That's why you hear preaching, and that's why you hear a pastor stand up and say, read the Bible and do what it says. Because that defines our love towards God. I wouldn't be a very good pastor if I didn't tell you what the Bible said, even the things that maybe you don't want to hear. Don't you think that there's times when I'm writing sermons, and we have a church full of people, and I'm writing sermons, and I'm like, oh man, oh man, this is going to offend some people. But it's what the Bible says. If I got up here and just preached my own opinion on stuff, you'd have a right to be offended. If I hit you with something that was just my opinion that the Bible didn't say. But I'm up here, I'm preaching the Bible. I'm writing sermons according to what the Bible says, and I'm telling you, hey, go home and read your Bible too. Go home and make sure these things are so. Read your Bible, and then do these things. So that's the first reason we do it. When people look at us and they say, man, you look different. You act different. You don't do these things anymore. You don't go to these places anymore. Why? Because we love God. That's it. That's the first reason right there. That's the simplest reason, because we love God. It's not to get to heaven. God already loved us. God already took that action for us. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. If you're in Hebrews chapter 6, just a few chapters over. What's the reason? Here's another reason. I'm trying to cover it in two main reasons. You know, look. Reason number one, while you're turning to Hebrews chapter 12, reason number one could really be summed up with good character. I mean, just good character towards God. I mean, one of these commandments, one of the commandments, he's like, if you love me, you know, keep my commandments. One of his most important commandments to us is to tell others about this gift. One of his most important commandments to us, he's saying, if you love me, keep my commandments. One of his most important commandments is go tell others, go preach the gospel to people. He's like, if you love me, you'll do that, because it's one of his commandments. Look, it's just all about good character. I mean, who would want to be saved and get this free gift and understand, look, and it's also like people that are saved, they understand what they've been given. Because to be saved, you have to understand it was nothing of you. It was zero percent you. It was all Jesus. They understand how great that gift is, that it's eternal, and you should have a desire to want to go tell other people about how to get that gift. What kind of jerk would take that gift and just have the character to be like, yeah, good, I got it. Can't lose it. I'm going to keep it for myself. Literally to hell with all these other people, and I got mine. But that's what you would be doing. That's what you'd be doing. So what's the second reason? Hebrews chapter 12. You know, God says that when you get saved, he says it in Galatians chapter 4, I'll just read it to you. He says when you get saved, you get adopted into God's family. So look, somebody that, you know, they may, everyone may say they're a child of God, because they were created by God. That's not what the Bible says. All right? Everybody on this earth is not a child of God. You're like, did God create everyone on the earth? Yes, he did. But are they children of God? No, they are not. In Galatians 4, 4, the Bible says for when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. When you get saved through believing on, just trusting on Jesus, when you get saved in that moment, you become a son, lowercase s, of God. You become adopted into God's family. We're looking at why we do the things that we do. Why do we live the Christian life? Why not get saved and just move on with everybody else? Why not? Look at Hebrews chapter 12 now. Understanding you've been adopted into God's family, that you're now a child of God. Look at Hebrews 12, 6. The Bible says for whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth, and scorgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chasening, God dealeth with you as sons, for what son is he whom the father chaseneth not? You understand what the Bible is saying here? Look at verse number eight. But if you be without chastisement, where of all our partakers, then ye are bastards and not sons. Bastards are someone that doesn't have a father. It's like a real definition of a word. Alright? It's someone that doesn't have a father. Like all the unsaved people are bastards, not sons. And God is saying here is that if you're a son, you're going to be chastised by him. That means punished by him on this earth. I'll tell that to people over and over and over again. Somebody gets saved and I'll be like, look, things are going to be different for you now. If you truly, if you truly were not saved and now you are saved, God is now going to punish you. So if you're in your life, and it also answers the question, so many people have this question, why do wicked people get away with everything? Why do wicked people on this earth seem like they can just do things and not suffer any consequences? The reason is because they're not sons. They're bastards. God's not punishing them on this earth. He's like, what is that fair? God's going to punish them in eternity in hell, which is more fair than you could even imagine. So we don't have to worry about all these wicked people that are murdering all these people and committing all these horrible versions and crimes and all these things. We don't have to worry about that because God will take care of that in an eternal way. And that is, that is more than you or I could ever think of. That's why God says, hey, vengeance is mine. He's like, I got this. Don't worry. So we don't have to worry about that, but that answers the question on why you see all these horrible things like it just seems like these people are just getting away with everything. They're not going to get away with everything. They're really getting away with everything right now. But God will take care of them. God doesn't make mistakes. He's a perfect judge. He will take care of them. That's why Jesus said, it would be better if a millstone to people that would hurt a child or do something bad to a child. It would be better if a millstone was hung around their neck and they were drowned in the sea. Why? Because when I get ahold of them, it's going to be way worse than that. That's why He said it would be better. He didn't say, that's what I'm going to do. That's why people will say, all these, you know, child, you know, perverts and all this should be cast into the sea with the mill. No, that's not what Jesus said. He's like, that would be better. Because when I get them, it's going to be eternally worse. All right? But back to the point of the sermon. Why do we do what we do? Because the second reason is, first of all, we love God. The second reason is I don't want to be chastised by God. God's a perfect father. God's not going to let me get away with anything. I don't want to be punished by God on this earth. Boy, I've run into some saved people that are really getting chastised by God in their life. And the worst is the people that are saved, they're being chastised by God and they don't even know they're being chastised by God. Because that means it's just going to get worse and worse and worse. The chastisement of God can be terrible. It got to the point with King Saul, where God literally got him to the point where he's going to kill him and he had to kill himself. God could literally make his chastisement on the believer so severe that he could say to you, you know what? You're done here. And it could shorten your life. That's how bad chastisement could be. Or how about this one? How about this one? God looks down at you and he's like, this guy is so profitable. This lady is so profitable. This person is making such a difference for the kingdom of God. You know what? I'm going to give her some more time on this earth. I'm going to answer that prayer. King Hezekiah prayed and he gave him more time on this earth. But that's the side you want to be on. You want to be, look, the second reason is to be in good standing with your Heavenly Father. That's why we do what we do. People look at us, oh, you're legalistic. No, I would just like to be in good standing with my Heavenly Father. I would just like to show the God that saved me, that loved me, that I love him by following his commandments. And I would just like to be, I just like to not get beating after beating after beating in my life. But look, folks, not to get long-winded, these two concepts are not understood by the outside world. They're not understood. They're not understood by, you know, they'll just see an obedient Christian and they're like, oh man, that church is controlling. You know, but that's the opposite of the truth. I don't follow people home here. You know, as a matter of fact, like just to kind of, I think, I'm pretty hands off as far as that, it's kind of like, I preach the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it is. And look, it's uncomfortable at times. If there's times when I'm reading through stuff in the Bible and I'm just like, oh man, like that's going to stain a couple of people. But it's like, that is my responsibility to preach the entire Council of God to you. And I'm doing you a disservice if I hold back. So you're like, man, that sermon just hit me in the face. That sermon just knocked me down. The Bible convicts you. The Bible convicts you. You know, so it's my job to show you the truth. It's my job to answer questions that you may have about the truth. And from there, you know, God, God takes it from there. God takes it from there. But the unsaved look, they have no understanding of this process. You know, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2, it says the natural man, it's like receive it not the things of the Spirit of God. The natural man, the unsaved man is not going to understand the Bible. They're not going to understand, you know, what this is about. And instead they'll look at you and they'll say, what are you just afraid of sin and just afraid that you don't want to go to things that have alcohol everywhere. And you're like, are you afraid of alcohol? And are you afraid of these things? Nothing, look, nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. We see it all the time. What they're actually talking about is this stupid worldly doctrine of like we need to expose our kids to sin, which is the most wicked evil doctrine, one of the most wicked evil doctrines out there. You got to let your kids go out and experience all this sin and all this fornication and all this garbage that all the world is doing. Are you, first of all, are you crazy? That's exactly what the Bible says the opposite of. But guess what? Our kids see sin all the time when they go out soloing with us. They see people that are drinking. They see people that are doing all these things. That's one of the reasons I don't have to teach these lessons to my kids. You know the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 5 it says if we would separate from people in the world we would have to just not even be in the world. How would you go to work? How would you go out in the world at all? But what these people are talking about is why don't you expose them? Why don't you let them get into these things? Is what they're really talking about. And that's wicked. That's wicked. The Bible says that you should read the Bible, learn the Bible so sin becomes exceedingly sinful. So you recognize it. So you can judge right from wrong. So their misunderstanding Christian growth is what's happening when people call you a legalist. Or they say that oh that church is into legalism. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, as a matter of fact if you look at a church that teaches works based salvation that's like the definition of legalism. That's the definition of trying to control you. Turn to Mark chapter. Turn to Mark chapter 4. But what they're seeing is Christian growth. And Christian growth is something that's going to be more and more obvious as it goes on and it ends you mature as a Christian. People are going to notice it more. They're going to notice it more and they're going to notice it more if you are growing. Turn to Mark chapter 4. So as a Christian, as a Christian you see the Bible teaches that you have this flesh and this spirit that are warring against each other. It's not like you get saved and all of a sudden I have no desire for sinful things anymore. All of a sudden I'm a perfect person now. All that sin stuff is behind me now. No, the Bible says now you have the Holy Spirit in you which is warring against the things of your flesh and God wants you to win that battle. And guess what? The more you feed the spiritual side the more desire you're going to have for spiritual things. But guess what? The devil he can't take away your salvation but he can take away that spiritual side. He can take away that desire for spiritual things. You say how? Can he take this Holy Spirit out of you? No. No, but he can feed the flesh in you. He can put things in front of you that will make you want to you know go with the flesh and not the spirit. Look at Mark chapter 4 and verse 19. The Bible gives us some things that will feed the flesh that will stop that spiritual side, that spiritual growth and push you towards sin. And the cares of this world the Bible says. Mark 4 and 19. And the deceitfulness of riches isn't that what we saw with that young man? And the lusts of other things entering in choke the word and it become unfruitful. You know what the Bible is saying here is the more the more you feed the flesh that cares of this world, money, all the things that money can buy, all these things the more you feed that side of you it doesn't say that you become unfruitful it says the word will become unfruitful. It's like you'll have less desire for the word of God. You won't want to read the Bible. You'll be like, eh, you won't want to, you know, be in church and hear the word of God preach. You won't, you'll start to not want to hear those things. You'll start to lose that desire for it because why? Because you're feeding the flesh part of it and it chokes out the spirit. Alright the spirit's always going to be with you. God promises us that but you're going to be grieving the spirit while feeding the flesh. Alright. Look at verse 17 of Galatians 5. Verse 17 of Galatians 5 is a great verse just talking about this battle that is always going to be going on with you. This is why you're always moving forward or backwards in the Christian life because there's this constant battle between the spirit in you, the Holy Spirit and the flesh. Look at verse 17 of Galatians chapter 5. I want you to go there. Look and the mature Christian will recognize this and look everybody's going to struggle with this. This isn't just like you're like, well you're the pastor. Everybody struggles with this. The difference between a mature Christian and somebody that's not is when a mature Christian recognizes this, they stop it right away. Look at verse 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another so that you cannot do the things that you would. You say, how long am I going to have this war going on between my flesh and the spirit until you stop breathing physically? That's how long. So this is the mature Christian to just catch this before it happens. So watch for that mature Christian just by the way. And I told you, I told a couple of you this on Wednesday night. Once you become a soul winner, once you start making a difference in this Christian life, your life's going to change. You say, in what way? Your life is going to be changed in the fact that Satan's going to be coming after you even harder than. Why? Because you're fruitful. Because you're making a difference in this life. He doesn't want that fruit. He doesn't want that fruit. So he's going to, anything that can be put in front of you that can stop you from being fruitful, it will happen. For sure. That's last night we're talking to Garrett after he got back. He got back and he was just, I think maybe I was thinking of something different when he was telling us all these stories and he was naming off the names of a lot of the guys. I won't say the names today but he was naming off a lot of the guys that were at this trip. And a lot of these guys, and I tell you what, as he was naming off the names of these young men that were on this trip, I was so, I was just, I was overcome with pride. I was proud of these young men. I mean, I don't mean prideful. I mean, I'm talking about in a good way. I was just proud of these young men. Why? Because many of these men I've known for years. I've known for years. And let me tell you something. It is really easy for a new Christian to go to a trip like this and be super excited. Because look, it's another level. It's another level going on a trip like that and just preaching the gospel to so many people and just being in a different part of the world. And, you know, I won't wreck his testimony for tonight but the point is he's reading these names and these are men that I've known for years and years and years and years. You know what I know about those men? I know that you don't just get to that point where you're going out and you're a young man and I have some extra money and what do I want to do? I'm going to spend it so I can go on a trip and go soul-winning for 14 hours a day. You don't get there in five minutes. Those men have been faithful to the Word of God. They have been faithful to the house of God. You know what? Those men have gone under attacks in their life, I'm sure. And they stayed faithful to God. And you know what? That's how they ended up years down the road where they are still doing what they are today. I am sick and tired of this stat of the one-year Christian life, the two-year Christian life, whatever. I mean look, be in this thing for the long haul. How do you do that? Love God, that's how you do it. How do you do that? Be a growing Christian that's, you know, that wants to avoid the chastisement of God. That's how you do it. I was so proud of those guys. I mean it's easy to start and it's exciting to start but years down the road and they're these, just these herculean in my mind, just Christians making such a huge difference for people that they have never met. Sacrificing, they're willing to sacrifice anything for people that they've never met. It just, it was such an encouragement to me to just, to see, to hear those names of people that have just, they're in this thing for the long haul. They're not in this to, hey, it's not just some new thing to them. They're in it for their life. They're in it for their life. So look, back to legalism. It's really like, it's really the workspace salvation crowd. This is the irony of the whole thing. It's really the workspace salvation crowd that are going to these churches. I don't care what, if it's a Protestant church, if it's Catholic church or whatever, it's a cult by definition. You know, you got, you go there and what could be, think about what could be, let's just do a thought experiment. What could be more controlling than standing up behind a pulpit, you know, whatever, saying, hey, you want to go to heaven? You better be here three times a week. You want to go to heaven? You better confess all your sins to me so I can literally put myself in the place of God. It's crazy. That is, it's all about control. It's always been about control. So it's not surprising folks that in the end, the people that believe workspace salvation, they accuse somebody of actually doing works and they call the kettle, there's basically the pot calling the kettle black. All right. Practical preaching is what you will hear here. It's for saved people and it's to encourage Christian growth. That's what it's for. In the end, just love the Lord, and obey your heavenly father and just understand that the unsaved, they're not going to always understand why you do what you do. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.