Politics

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Very good to see all of you today. Seems like a while since I've spoken here, but it's good to be back with you. Before I say anything else, though, let me do compliment the special music. It was exactly what Mr. Welch said it would do, and they delivered, right? Very good song, very good message in that. Let me welcome to everyone that is listening in on the web with us today. Good to have you with us here today as well.

You know, I was thinking as I was coming here this morning that it was only been like three weeks ago that we were at the Feast of Tabernacles just three weeks ago, and I hope your feast was like ours. It was just very nice. It was very peaceful. There was just a wonderful feeling about the Feast of Tabernacles as you're with people and away from the world and out of it. You know, we typically do not listen to any TV or any news during the Feast of Tabernacles. I always figure if something major happens in the world, someone will tell us about it, and that always adds to the feast, to not be immersed in what is going on in the world around us, because sometimes it can be it just stays on your mind and you realize what's going on and where the world is headed.

That was just three weeks ago, just three weeks ago that we were there at the Feast, and often I'll say the time flies, but I'll have to say that seems like a very long time ago to me.

You know, when we came home, we went back into our routine and we listened to the news, and as you listen to the news, you see the world moving ahead. You see things happening, and it's been interesting as you watch the world news. We, of course, here in the United States are here in the middle of these upcoming this week, just these midterm elections that you probably have heard about time in and time out and heard all the hype that goes along with it. Democracy is at stake, and etc., etc., so I've got everyone pretty well revved up for these midterm elections, and whatever happens in the midterm elections, you know, we know what the future holds because the Bible says, and we can see the writing on the wall.

We see what's going on in the world around us, and we understand that the things that are being said today are far different than anything that have been said in any kind of election before. Now we know from what we've seen, and people trying to decide and teach us what their truth is and what must be followed, that follows the pattern of what's in Revelation 13. But it hasn't been just the United States, because just since we've been back, you know, we've had the United Kingdom that has gone through some, I guess, upheaval, if you will.

The queen died before the feast. The existing prime minister resigned. Another prime minister was appointed. She resigned, and now Britain has another prime minister, the first one of color in that nation. I have no idea what his background is or anything, but things have certainly sped up, and Britain is a far different country today than it was just several weeks ago, right?

I mean totally different in the world. Since, you know, since we've been back, China, the president over there got elected to his unprecedented third term, we're told, third term, and immediately what he did, as he was elected, he removed all opposition. All opposition, even former presidents just kind of ushered them out. You probably saw that on TV. As he begins to probably take control and become the dictatorship in the Communist Party that we all know that China is looking to be. So we have that change in there as he solidifies his power.

And then just this week we heard about elections in Brazil. Brazil isn't a country that we think about much, but it is the largest nation in South America. And that nation, you know, the incumbent president was voted out. You saw pictures probably on the news of mass protests that went on over there as cries of election. I don't want to use the word, but I'm going to use it.

Election fraud and people not happy with that. And you see this going on in the world. Now, notable about Brazil, and I haven't checked this out, I'll just repeat something I heard dangerously by listening to what I heard on the news, that as this the new president would take control, it is the last bastion in South America that he is favorably disposed to China.

So China then would have a foot in all of the South American nations. An interesting thing, as you see the world continue to move forward in that way. It is a world that is based on politics. Politics is all over the place. It's all over our news. It seems to be ever pervasive. And politics is a dangerous thing. It can be a dangerous game. We're seeing as politics move forward, there's trouble. There's trouble ahead. We've seen the things and the results of politics in the past.

Politics often leads to tyranny, oppression of people, even leads to death. The wars that we see fought, the wars that are going on in the Ukraine, you know all the political maneuverings that have gone on in that war between us. And so when we see a politics and the wars and all the strife and all the all the misery that politics has brought on people and the selfishness of people, the self-interest that's involved in all of it, it probably brings to mind James 4.

So if you'll turn with me to James 4.

James 4 verse 1 says, where do wars and fights come from among you? You know, we're talking here for a few minutes about global politics and national politics, but we know that politics extends far beyond the governments of this world. Politics is all around us. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Don't they come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

That's what it's about. It's about self. It's about what I want. It's about what we need. It's about who I favor. It's about who this and that and whatever. You lust and don't have. You murder, you covet, and you cannot obtain. You fight in war, yet you don't have because you don't ask.

You don't yield to God. People try to do it their own way. Presidents, governments, try to do it their own way, always in their self-interest, and often it leads to many things that are astray.

Well, that's politics on a national level. But politics, you know, we can say, oh, that's the news and whatever. Well, we know that politics exists beyond the national level, too. It exists in corporations. It exists in places that you work. We've seen politics, in the last few years, invade even huge corporations and companies in our world around us.

Just think about Facebook. What has Facebook done in the last few years? Politics involved in anything of the news that we've heard about Facebook? I think it's pretty much involved there.

What about Twitter? That's been all over the news recently. Politics involved in there? Yeah, politics involved in there. What is all that about? What's going on in that whole tech industry?

What's going on in many companies around the world as politics begins to affect the way they do business? We've heard of banks just giving names of people who were there in Washington on a certain day back a year and a half ago or a little more than a year and a half ago. All involved in politics, and it changes our lives. It affects our lives. It's tough to deal with. It seems oppressive. It seems like the whole world is going in a different place as politics has taken this evil, wicked turn in all of our lives. Look at the medical field. We've gone through a couple years here with coronavirus, and look what has happened as we've been told this and that and everything about coronavirus. Look what we've been told about these new MRNA vaccines that are different than other vaccines and how good they were. Look at what happened as that was being promoted and there were even mandates out that you would have to take that that vaccine in order to keep your job. Politics have anything to do with that? Politics had a lot to do with that as we are now past some of that time and could look and see what honestly went on. We see there was a lot of corporate greed. There was a lot of self-interest in that. There was a lot of political control being seized in that part that far exceeded what the reality or necessity was. So does politics affect us? Yeah, that all affected us. We all were prey to that. We all lived through that.

You probably have felt politics in the place you work as well. I don't know if there's any place in America that doesn't have some corporate politics. You know, several years ago I became aware. I knew there were politics there in the places I had worked, but at one point I worked for a very small company, a startup company. It was in Indianapolis, and they had just bought a couple of specialty hospitals there. And I left a larger hospital chain in order to go there to work for them. And I'll have to say it was a very pleasant experience. There were a few people that worked there, very smart people who had left major healthcare corporations in Nashville. They knew exactly what they were doing. And as we worked, and I eventually got transferred to Nashville down to their office, and as we were there, it was just a really nice atmosphere. Everyone knew each other. There was absolutely no corporate politics. And I can say that without reservation because I thought, man, this is just a really nice place to work. People just come, they do their work. There's no vying for a position. There's no trying to get in front of someone to just show them what you can do, you know, all the type of things that go on with that. And so that went on for a while. And then as the company grew, we had to hire more people. So we hired, I'm not gonna, well, he was a vice president of operations. We brought him in. He was from a high-powered healthcare company as well because we needed someone as the things grew. After he was there just a few months, the entire spirit of that corporation changed. And I realized what he brought with him was politics.

All of a sudden there was all this gaming, if you will, going on. And I realized what a terrible thing politics is. When people are vying and trying to, I know better than you, and this one, this, and that one didn't do this, and all the accusations and all the self-promoting that goes on. It just made the place, and still okay place to work. But firsthand I saw, this is not good.

This is not good. And at that time I thought, politics can't be part of what my life is. I cannot play that game or ever go to it. When you work, you do the job that you're assigned to, and you do it well, and to the best of your ability. No political games. And people who know me and who have worked for me, you know, will hear me say, I don't play politics. I don't respond to politics because I don't like it. I don't like what it does. I've seen it firsthand.

After I left that place, you know, the company that we were with was sold, and I went with that division, I saw politics in a way that I never even imagined it was so full of politics. It was actually hard to go to work because it was just full of it. Well, that leadership in that company failed, and I learned politics leads to destruction. Politics leads to strife. Politics leads to death. Politics leads to death. Politics is a way of the world. It's a way of the world.

And Christ said of you and me, people who he has called out, people who have responded to him, you're not of the world. Remember in John 17? He goes, they're not of the world, Father, just like I'm not of the world. And he also said in 2 Corinthians 6, come out of the world. Leave those ways behind. Don't have that be any part of your life. And of course, he's talking about many things, but one of the things that would be would be the politics of this world. Politics that have been there from the time man, well, even before, we're going to see before the time that man was on earth. It's been there. It's not part of God's way of life.

It's part of the other way of life. So is there politics that we can see in the Bible?

Yes. Now, the word politics doesn't show up in the Bible, but all the attitudes, all the methods, all the things associated with politics are there very clearly. And we see what the effects of that way of life and those attitudes and those things that we can do or that can happen in the church, because as we look at the things here in the Bible, they happened in the church. Politics, sadly, is still in the church, something that we need to have weeded out of our lives. Because I assure you, there won't be any political games in the kingdom of God, and he will see that those who are in that kingdom don't have that as part of their life or part of their method of operating. So let's go back. Let's go back and start in the New Testament and go back and see where do these politics and this way of life that so permeates life, where does it originate? If you turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1, you'll remember that Corinth was a troubled church. It had several problems and issues, and as Paul writes in this letter to the Corinthians, he's addressing some of those issues. And right up front, right up front, he indicates where those problems emanated from.

So let's pick it up in verse 10 here, 1 Corinthians 1. In verse 10, it says, What is now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. What? It's the church of God. Doesn't everyone speak the same thing in the church of God? But apparently in the Corinthian church, different people had different little ideas of what this or what that. Maybe not major doctrinal changes, but little things here and little things there that may cause questions that may say, what's that about?

So he says right up front, I plead with you that you all speak the same thing, that there are no divisions among you. Well, if there were no divisions in the Corinthian church, he certainly wouldn't have addressed that. But speaking different things, playing political games, giving my little interpretation and whatever and how I see things that may be different than what the church is teaching, can cause some divisions, can cause these factions that Paul is talking about, that there may be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Well, there, as he introduces his letter, he's saying, here's some of the things that have gone on. The same mind, the same judgment. We are, after all, of one spirit, one truth, one Lord, one Jesus Christ. We are to be one, but somewhere along the line, this church of God in Corinth had gotten off the track a little bit. And so, as Paul hears these things, now he's dealing with these problems because political maneuverings in a church or any place else leads to strife, leads to division, leads to factions that can develop and that can lead to decisions that can be hurtful and painful to others. In verse 11, he goes on, he says, It's been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, that those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Well, we are human. We all have, you know, are all things that we have to work with. There are going to be things that come up, but we have to learn how to work together and get back to the basics and get back to the one truth, the clear truth, and the unity that God wants in all of us. This Corinthian church was a little bit off base because these things had been developed, but Paul is going to address those.

Now I say to you, verse 12, that each of you says, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, which is Peter, or I am of Christ. Oh, they have people that they identify with. Were all those the same? What was going on? What was going on here, as Paul addresses and introduces his letter? And he says, Is Christ divided? No. We're all the same. We should all be teaching the same truth, living by the same truth, learning to love the same truth, living led by God's Holy Spirit. These divisions in the Church of God should not be if people are doing what they have been called to do and living and being led by the Spirit of God.

And so he goes on and he says, Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? And then you go through the book of Corinthians and you see these very many things that occurred in that Church. Even the tolerance of a sin, he says in 1 Corinthians 5, that isn't even named among the Gentiles. That one should have his father's wife.

Oh, so these contentions, these games, this division, this I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I believe this or I believe that. As you see Paul go through the book, he brings them back to square one. This is the truth. This is what you need to do. All of the same mind, all speaking the same truth, all led by one God, one faith, one truth that is the Bible.

The opposite, if you will, of the politics. Do we have that ever happen in the Church today?

Yeah, I think if we're honest with each other, we've heard some things around and seen some things that have gone on. Maybe you heard some things and it raises our intent a little bit, makes us ask some questions. And I hope that everyone, if they hear something that isn't the truth or they don't understand it, would raise their hand and ask. We all have a responsibility to be unified and of the same mind, of the same spirit, growing together as one, as Jesus Christ said, over and over and over again. All of one mind, all of one spirit, all following Christ and only Jesus Christ. You know, a man, I won't name his name, back years ago, for those of you who have been in the Church for a long time, said over and over again, don't listen to me. Go back and prove what you see in the Bible. And that's what all of us should be doing. We should be knowing exactly what is in the Bible and that's what we should be following.

And if we hear something different or read something different, it's okay to say, I don't get it. I don't understand. We learn. Iron sharpens iron. There are conversations that can happen.

But we all go back to the truth and to live the way that God called us to live in his way.

In his way. You know, we have a whole world around us that call themselves Christians.

And they would say, we follow Jesus Christ. But you and I know they don't. They have never done.

They have never done what we and I should do. Prove all things and hold fast to that, which is true. They've never looked into their Bible. And when their preacher says, oh, no, you keep Sunday instead of Sabbath, the Saturday, they just blindly follow it. Oh, it's okay. Those Old Testament holy days that mean nothing to them. They've been done away with. So they say, okay, if they would look into their Bible and think and realize they are not following Christ, maybe, maybe, just maybe, God would open their minds, but they don't. They just follow men and what they say. And so they are sorely deceived. Satan has used all that to completely deceive the world in so many ways. So we see that, you know, politics were there in the Corinthian church. They led to some uncomfortable things for the people back then. But what about during Christ's time when He was alive? Were there politics there during the time that Jesus Christ was alive? Well, yes, there were. You know that in the, you've heard of Pharisees, you've heard of Sadducees, you've heard of the Essenes, and you've heard of the Zealots, and you've heard all, above these factions that are there in the Jewish world when Jesus Christ was alive.

They called themselves God's people, but they had these various beliefs. They had various things.

They had the Sabbath in common. They had the Holy Days in common. But boy, they had vastly different beliefs, and yet they were meeting together. You know, Christ references that in Matthew 22, verse 23, but in Acts 23, we see where it's more fully addressed because Paul addresses it and discusses it and uses the politics of that Jewish religion to his advantage as he's been called to account by the Sanhedrin, and they're ready to, you know, ready to whatever they were going to do with him. Let's pick it up in Acts 23 and verse 6.

And as he is being questioned and as he has been brought to account before the Sanhedrin of that time, they don't like the things that he said. They don't like the things that he was doing. He says this. It says, when Paul perceived that one part of the group that was there among this Jewish religion were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Ah, he perceived. Look, this religion isn't united. This group has one idea. This group has another idea. They keep the Sabbath. They keep the Holy Days. They call themselves the people of God.

But there's disparate beliefs that are on there, and he used it against them. I'm a Pharisee. The reason they have called me here is because I believe in the resurrection. Verse 7. And when he had said this, I did not believe in the resurrection. I believe in the resurrection.

Verse 7. And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. Oh, wow! Look at the political, let's look at the political climate.

We've got multiple political parties right within the Jewish religion. We have Pharisees and Sadducees, and as soon as their difference is brought up, they get mad at each other. They fight with each other. They forgot all about Paul. They were busy. They were all busy worrying about each other, and it got so violent that the magistrate there had to lead Paul away because he was afraid what would happen to him. That's what politics does. That's what difference was believed. That's what putting two people or two groups in the same church that have different beliefs can lead to.

We are all supposed to speak the same thing. We're all supposed to be believing the same thing, too.

We all have the Sabbath in common. We all have the Holy Days in common. We have to have the whole Bible in common. We have to believe the whole Bible, be living by the whole truth. This is God's church, not the Jewish religion of Jesus' time. That isn't the church that he just added himself to and said that's Christianity. His church is a unified church. His church is to be freeing itself of any of these political divisions and these differences of opinion that can come in.

That we're supposed to resolve those and going back to the truth and living by that and then living by that truth. Everyone living by that truth. Remember we talked, oh, maybe a month or more ago now when I was here, about the purpose of the church. It is through the church that Christ is working with us. Have to be part of his body. Have to be part of his family. He grows us. And he grows us in the truth, grows us as we bear with one another, love one another, grow together as one, grow to love the truth, grow to change our own ideas or our ways of life and be transformed by God's Spirit to live his way. Just like it will be in the kingdom. When Christ returns, the people who will be in the kingdom will be those who have learned to live God's way. They will be one. He won't be working with the visions and divisive people and different ideas at that time. This is our time now to be doing that and to becoming the church that God wants us to become. And it's an exciting thing to be able to do God's work. But here, in that religion that called themselves God's people, while they had few things in common, they didn't have everything in common. God's church today needs to have everything in common. We need to grow toward that and fight for the truth and endeavor, endeavor as it says in Ephesians 4, for the unity in all aspects of our lives that God that God wants. But here, in Jerusalem, they had these different interpretations. I believe in the resurrection. Other groups says, no, I don't believe in the resurrection. I don't even believe in angels, right? They said. No, I didn't read verse 8. The Pharisees all argued of one another, but the Sadducees in verse 8 say, there is no resurrection, no angel or spirit. But the Pharisees confess both. How can you have a church? How could you have the church of God, the congregation of God with differing beliefs? But we work toward those beliefs. We work with one another, bear with one another, and God's spirit leads us into truth and into unity. But the Jewish church, the Jewish congregation then, wasn't one. It wasn't one as Christ wanted it to be and what he wants his church to be. If we turn back to 1 Peter 1.

Peter wrote this many years later, and as the church, the true church of Jesus Christ was growing, and people were being added to it, he admonished them as well about this unity that needs to be.

And these private interpretations or ways of doing things that could divide the church.

He addresses it here in 1 Peter 1. I think you probably remember what Peter says in the first several verses there of the chapter. But in verse 17, he says, if you call on the Father, who without partiality, he's not willing that any should perish. Every single man, woman, and child God would want to see in his kingdom. But we have to be willing to repent. We have to listen. We have to change. We have to not be people who would cling to our own ideas and say, I'm holding on to that for dear life, because if you hold on to it for your dear life and it's not in the Bible, you may find your dear life, well, resulting in something other than what you hoped.

If you call on the Father, who without partiality, judges according to each one's work, conduct.

That's behave, how we behave, right? Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things. Corruptible things, things of men, the material things, you weren't redeemed because of this or that or what anyone said. You weren't redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. That's what you were following. That was leading nowhere.

That wasn't leading to life. That wasn't leading to the kingdom of God. That was leading to death.

But you were redeemed, verse 19, with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through him, through him, believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Verse 22, since you have purified your souls, remember what it says in 1 John 3, 3? Anyone who has this hope in him, like we heard about the hope in the song that we heard before before here the sermon began, anyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, compares himself to the standard of Jesus Christ. Was there any political bone in Jesus Christ? No. He was completely yielded to God. He was completely submitted to the plan of God, even though it was going to create tremendous pain for him, whatever God said he would do. It's got to be the same for us. He's the example. He's the standard.

He's for all men. He wants all men and women and children who have ever lived to have eternal life.

But it can't be our way. It's his way. It's his way. And we need to let ourselves think and analyze, is there any of these things in me that mark the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Corinthian church, or any of the things that we may see around us at work or even in the church?

Any of those things that we need to purify and ask God, this needs to go. We know it's sin. We know it's certain attitudes. It certainly has to be the political games that go on. That seemed like more, well, it's are the world and not of God. Since verse 22, since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit, insincere, there's a word, insincerity, right?

Insincere, not just lip service, but insincere love, and that happens to be Philia. In sincere love of the brethren, because when we agape one another, that'll grow into the Philia, the brotherly love, just like we would have for our brothers and sisters and other family members.

When you obey the truth through the Spirit, in sincere Philia of the brethren, agape one another fervently with a pure heart, with a pure heart, just the way Jesus Christ lived, just the way He was among us. Having been born again, or having been born again is when we are in the kingdom, but as God puts His Spirit in us, as we repent, not of corruptible seed, not that stuff that we learn in the world, not that stuff that's all around us, that's not going to lead to life, that's going to lead to the alternative, as you know, not of corruptible seed, but uncorruptible through the Word of God which lives and abides forever. We go back one book, 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1.

You know what happened? What happened to the Pharisees and Sadducees? They developed all these different ideas over the years, and they just didn't get rid of them. They didn't go back to the Bible and see what it was. You can see that there's a resurrection of the Old Testament. That wasn't hidden. God didn't just introduce the resurrection in New Testament times. It's there in the book of Ecclesiastes. It's there in the book of Job. It was there for them to see, but they just didn't want to believe it for some reason. And other things that they did as well. That defined their religion. In 2 Peter 1, we'll pick it up in verse 17, Peter is talking about the truth of God, how we know the truth of God and what we're to do. He says in verse 17, He, Christ, received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This is who you should follow, God the Father said. I am well pleased in him. What he teaches you, the way he lives, follow him.

And we heard the voice, this voice which came from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed. How many times did Christ refer to the Old Testament when he was talking? Over and over and over again. Now Hebrews 1.1 tells us that that God in various times and in various places spoke to us in Old Testament times through the prophets that he sent, but in these days has spoken through us through Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ used that Old Testament. He's confirmed it over and over and over again. He validated it, yet so many in the world would say, don't have to pay attention to the Old Testament. Don't know how you read the Bible and not see that. Why do you think Christ quoted from all those scriptures? It's the whole Bible we live by. Every word, every word that God has uttered. And so, in verse 19, we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed, oh, that you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

That prophetic word, you know, prophecy, as it talks about here in prophecy, is not just foretelling future events. It's not just Matthew 24 in the book of Revelation. Prophecy and prophesying in the Old Testament was that any interpretation that God gave to the men that he sent to teach the Word of God, the correct interpretation of the Bible, the correct meaning of it and how it should affect our lives. So he says, when we go back, we would do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place. We still all have some dark places in our minds, right? Some dark places in our mind that God needs to shine that light on. And when that light shines on it and he shows us where it is, I hope we know our only choice is to yield to Him, follow Him, do His will, and not make a choice to continue in that dark space. Verse 20, knowing this first, knowing this first, that no prophetic, no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. The Bible interprets itself.

And yet, in the Jewish religion, they were interpreting their own things. In the so-called Christian religion of the world, they interpret their own things. I don't know all the detail of what Methodists believe and Presbyterian believes and Lutherans believe and Catholics believe, but I don't think their beliefs are all the same. I think they all have different ways of doing things, and yet they still say, we're of Christ. They're not. They're not. They've done their own interpretation of Scriptures. And if we don't watch out, the Church of God could do the same thing. Have to look at it through Christ's eyes, led by His Spirit, paying attention and taking heed to what goes on so that what happened to the Jewish Church doesn't happen to God's Church.

It's happened. It's happened in the past. You know, in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15 should be a memory verse for us and something we remember and strive to in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15. Timothy writes this, breaking into after the comma there in the first 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 words of verse 15, he says, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

The Church's responsibility. Teach the truth. Don't compromise on the truth. Same truth in Cincinnati, same truth in Indianapolis, same truth in Florida, same truth in Africa, same truth in the churches of God and all over the world. The same truth. There is only one truth. There is only one word of God. And we are responsible and you can hold everyone responsible. Let's live by the truth and not become ever divisions or ever questions. Let's teach the same truth. No politics, no hybrid interpretations, no, oh, I kind of like the way he interpreted that verse. That makes life a lot easier. That makes what I have to do in this situation a lot easier. If I interpret that verse or the way of God in it that way, it doesn't work that way. There's one way, one way, one truth that God wants us to do. That's how we become one. Now, sad about the Jewish church or the God's congregation or they called themselves God's people back then, they did become united.

But they weren't united in truth. What did they become united in?

They became united in their hate of Christ. We don't like what he said. We don't like the fact that people like him. They became envious. And there's one of the base roots of politics, the envy that goes on. You remember in Matthew 27, Pilate sized it up pretty well. He could find no fault in Jesus Christ, but he knew because of envy they delivered him to be killed and they were having absolutely no answer except crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. The policies, the politics of that day, the way they combine together to just say get rid of him should be a lesson. It's what the results of that way of life or that thinking is, is a testimony for all mankind.

The unity comes in God, in truth, not against the truth, not the divisions that can be caused or the things that can happen when we develop all these sides and then make decisions on this one that sees things my way or that one doesn't see things my way or the things that can happen.

The things that can happen, you know, perhaps innocently, if I can say that because we're all prone to making mistakes, not one of us is perfect, not everyone has everything in line with what God said, but we all have to be growing in that way. And when we see something of that, bringing it to the attention and doing that and bring it to attention and we have, if we really have the hope of the kingdom, overcoming self, putting away our own ideas, putting away our own interpretations, following what the Bible clearly says. And God will lead us to that. God's Church will always be led to the truth. God's Church will always be led to unity if the Holy Spirit is working in them. In Jerusalem, back then, there were two spirits working. They weren't of the same spirit because if they were of the same spirit, of course we know God didn't have his spirit at the time, but where there's a spirit of division, something's wrong. Something's wrong. What about the Old Testament? Let's look at the Old Testament. Just a couple examples there. We go back to 2 Samuel.

When we look at 2 Samuel 15, David is on the throne. The kingdom of Israel is moving along.

David became a man after God's own heart. And as we look at chapter 15, we know that his son Absalom had had to be exiled from Israel for a while, but David had mercy on him and allowed him back into the king's court. When we pick it up in verse 1 of 2 Samuel 15, we see what happened here that caused division, upset, strife, and eventually led to death. Chapter 15, 2 Samuel, verse 1.

After this, it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. Now here he was just banned from Israel. David lets him back in, but now he's mustering up this group with him and 50 men to run before him. And Absalom would rise early and stand beside the weight of the gate. So it was whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision that Absalom would call to him and say, what city are you from? And he would say, your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel. Then Absalom would say to him, look, your case is good and right, but there is no deputy of the king to hear you. Moreover, Absalom would say, oh, if I were made judge in the land and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me, I'd give him justice. You're right. I'll speak to you. I'll tell you exactly what you want to hear.

You can see what's happening. Yes, you want to hear that, right? When you bring a case to someone and they say, oh, you know, you're right. You're right. Whatever. And you hear that over and over again, and it makes you feel good. So look what's happened. What is Absalom doing here when he's speaking these smooth words to people? Just what they want to hear. In verse five, it says, and so it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, that he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. I'm your friend. I have your best interest at heart. Follow me. You should be looking to me. I'm the one who can make your case right. I'm the one who can provide everything you need. Now, it's no stretch at all to see that's what happens in political parties, right? I'm the one who can make this better. I'm the one that can make this better. Da da da da da. Verse six, in this manner, Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment.

Next verse, or next sentence. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

He took the kingdom away from David. Didn't do it by mustering an army, bringing in the weapons of war and attacking. He did it subtly. Ah, if you would just listen to me. If I was the one choosing or deciding your case, things would be so different. Ah, he might not have ever used David's name and said David doesn't know what he's doing. Don't trust him. But these smooth words that people want to hear that win them in and make all these things happen. And so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. There's politics. There's politics, and it came there, in this case, through Absalom.

He knew exactly how to play the game. He knew exactly the things to say. And so, as you read through the rest of the chapter, you see that we have war. David is taken by surprise when he sees what Absalom has been doing. He feels betrayed. David's on the run. We have all this mess, and so many people get involved. It's a time of stress, turmoil, just misery as you look at it and see everything that comes out during this time when Absalom plays the political game of the people of Israel. Listen to him. How does it end? It ends in Absalom's death. Absalom's death.

But Absalom had become pretty adept at speaking smooth things.

We've probably all had people who tell us, ah, what a wonderful job you do. And you are really good at what you're doing. And we all like to hear it, right? And there's nothing wrong if there's a sincere compliment in giving one. But sometimes, after a while, you realize, whoa, I mean, I could literally do anything. And I'm being told, that's, you did a really good job on that. You, you know, this, that. You probably all had it happen or seen it happen in your workplace, right, as those things happen. And sometimes people like to surround themselves with just people who will tell them exactly what they want to hear, who will do everything they say without thinking about it, right? You see it in corporations all the time. You see it probably in your neighborhoods. You've experienced what it is. It's a tough thing to witness. It's the political game. It's the smooth things that, like Absalom said, you know, back in the, or forward in the book of Proverbs, it talks about this thing. In Proverbs, it talks about flattery. Flattery and the dangers of it, because flattery is politics. I'll flatter you. I'll tell you anything you want to hear to get you to do what I want you to do, to get in your good graces. Proverbs 26, you know, maybe, just maybe I have no, this is pure speculation, maybe as Solomon, you know, was raised and David, you know, saw what the dangers of what Absalom did to people, that maybe Solomon learned this from David. Maybe he saw it himself. He had many, many people in his kingdom, and he was wise, and he could discern, he could discern. In verse 24 of Proverbs 26, it says this, he who hates, he who hates disguises it with his lips. I'm not going to tell you what I really think of you.

I'm not going to tell you what I really think of you. He who hates disguises it with his lips, and lays up deceit within himself. He might really think that, yeah, I really am doing the right thing, right? When he speaks kindly, don't believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly. Well, that certainly happened with Absalom. They all figured out what was going on when he was dead, and David took back control of the kingdom, and I'm sure taught them all a lesson about this and other things. One, not one chapter over, but in chapter 28 of Proverbs in verse 23, it says, he who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than he who flatters with the tongue.

Remind you of Hebrews 12.5, right? Whom the Lord loves, he chastens.

If someone rebukes, just like your mom or dad may have chastened you when you were young, doesn't mean they hate you. It means they love you. It means they want you to grow up and be productive, to follow God's way, to have a happy life, a joyous life. So someone in the church rebukes you, and it's founded. Listen to it. Don't get mad. Don't go out and form your own party and develop against them or whatever. Listen. Listen and do what God would have us do. Yield to him. Seek his truth. He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than he who flatters with the tongue. In the New Testament, in Romans 16, we see this thing, same thing, this aspect of smooth words. And actually, when you look at the word flattery in the Hebrew, it talks about smooth, smooth words, those things that we like to hear, those things that make us feel good and say, you're right, you're right, you don't have to worry about anything, or yeah, I agree with you, even if maybe we shouldn't agree in some cases when things aren't of the Bible. Verse 16 of Romans, Romans 16. I'm, yeah, verse 17, actually. Romans 16, verse 17.

I urge you, Paul says, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. If someone's teaching something different, if someone's saying, I think this is the way it should be, I think this is the interpretation, don't listen.

Tell someone, tell someone so that we, you know, so that we can do the things that God said, we can go back, improve what God says, and follow the truth. For those, verse 18, who are, for those who are such, don't serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but they serve their own belly. It's all about them.

My idea, this is the way I want to do it. I know more than Jesus Christ, this is the way it needs to happen. I will observe this day rather than that day. I will do this instead of that, or whatever it is that it is that we think we know more than the Bible, Jesus Christ, or the church.

Bring, bring your questions. Bring them. They'll be studied. God will lead us to the truth when we look back into His Word. For those who are such, do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but they serve their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

I want to be your friends. They want to take you away. They want to build their party.

The party spirit. Back in the book of Jude, talks about these things as we come to the end time. Jude, who wrote the last book before the last book before the book of Revelation, verse 16, talking about these people who are spots on our love feasts, he says, these are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people. Why? To gain advantage.

Politics, even in the end time. But he says, remember the words given to you.

Was the Old Testament church, or the New Testament church, was it exempt from politics? No, it wasn't.

We read of people who went away. I won't turn to 3 John, but you read of, I think his name is Diatrophies there. Who left? Who left the church? Took a group after him, because he wanted his own way. He wanted to do his own thing. Politics, still alive today? Yes.

Where does it go back to? Well, probably, as we've been speaking, you probably think of words and go even all the way back to Adam and Eve. You could probably go back to the rebellion of Korah as well, right? There it was. I'm going to challenge Moses. I'm going to challenge this, because you know what? I think I know more than Moses. Who made you leader? Moses. Should have been clear. Should have been clear who made Moses leader. And you see what that political, with the 250 men who joined with Korah, in his thought, they, earth, swallowed him up.

Politics leads to death. Be content with what God has given you to do and do it with your heart, might, and soul. Keyword, heart. Keep it and do it with your heart, committed to God, and letting him lead every step of the way. And go back to Adam and Eve. What happened in the garden of Eden with Eve? What did Satan do? Well, he used smooth words. Oh, come on, Eve. God's not going to cause you to die. And I don't know how long it took, but Eve eventually bought those smooth words and disregarded God and rejected him. What did it lead to?

Even before that, before there was man on earth, what about the one who became Satan?

What did he do? Did he create unity in heaven? Or did he, because of his own corruption, because of his own pride, because of his own ideas, thought, I'm better than you, God. Why are you? Why are you, God? I should be. I've got creative ability. I'm beautiful. And I'm like the light of the morning star. Who are you that you're God? How audacious was it that Satan could even say that or think it to God? And yet somehow it tells us in Revelation 12, a third of the stars followed him.

A third of the angels bought this garbage.

And so they're demons and they're miserable today. Hateful, ugly, everything that comes with politics and everything that does when we try to exalt ourselves over other people, or God, and promote self. That's what happens. Politics is an ugly basis. We see it in the world all around us. We've seen it. We've seen it in the church. And Paul, who got inspired in Acts 20, said it would be there in Acts 20 as part of the church because Satan is always looking for a way to intrude himself into the church of God. He will always look for a way in. You know, Paul tells us we shouldn't be ignorant of Satan's devices. We've seen what he's done. We've seen the effects of it.

And so when we look at it and we're aware of it, it's like, oh no, that's not of God. That's not the way it should be. One. One truth. One Spirit. One baptism. One God. In Acts 20 in verse 28, Paul says, therefore, talking to the elders from the church of Ephesus who were gathered, therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this. After my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. They will try to devour them.

They will try to lead them astray. Verse 30, also from among yourselves. Men will rise up, speaking perverse or misleading things, as perhaps the better translation is, speaking perverse things. Why? To edify the body of Christ? To promote unity? No. To draw away the disciples after themselves. And he says, watch, be aware. And it happened. It happened then. It happened after his life in the early New Testament church. Has it happened today?

How many churches of God are there today? Is the church of God unified? Is it one body, one truth, following God in perfect humility, perfect love, doing the things that God said? If it's not, there's a problem.

You won't often hear me refer to us as the United Church of God. I'll say the Church of God because that's who we are, but that's a legal name and we need to have it for a corporation. And I'll use that when I'm talking in business or when we have to distinguish ourselves because of that. But we are the Church of God. But even within the Church of God that you and I are sitting in here today, whether you're here in Cincinnati or wherever you are, that adjective of the Church of God has to become us. That name united must become us. It must become all the churches of God eventually because Jesus Christ will have a united church and a united body that is in the kingdom. He will have it. But you and I need to become united. United in spirit, united in purpose, united in truth, united and growing together as one. That's what God wants. That's what he desires. That's what we must be. We must endeavor, as it says in Ephesians 4, for that unity. And we must all learn to be impartial with one another, doing God's will, not playing favorites, not smooth words, not all these things that we've talked about that would be part of the political games that this world plays that you can see all around you. It can't be. It has to be weeded out. We have to become the bride of Christ that God wants us to have. He won't have those games in his family. You know, we talked about the pillar and ground of the truth. Let's start with Revelation 3.

Revelation 3 to the Philadelphian church.

That God says, you've kept my word, you haven't denied my name. He says this in verse 12, he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. The church of God is the pillar and ground of the truth. If God's going to make you and me a pillar, what do we need to become?

We need to be living by the truth. That's every word of God and conducting ourselves in that way.

We can do it under the leadership of Jesus Christ as we yield to his Holy Spirit, as we follow him to the kingdom and weed out all those things that separate us from each other, that cause many of the even minor divisions, that we work on those things, and that we work together. And part of our mission and purpose is to become one. Get rid of the politics. There's no rid. There's no place for politics in the church of God, the family of God, or the kingdom of God. Let's strive.

Let's strive to become one as God, Father, and Jesus Christ are, and his will for us is.