Come To Me Soon #3

This morning we're going to be continuing our study of 2 Timothy chapter 4, the section is verses 9 to 16. And this week we're going to be focusing on Paul's testimony surrounding a man named Alexander the coppersmith. In that section, Paul warns Timothy against Alexander, but he also warns Timothy not to take vengeance into his own hands. And this temptation that Paul warns against, to take vengeance into his own hands, is alive and well in each one of us. And so my hope is that God will help us to see it in our own hearts and that he would also give us grace to repent of it. Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord? This is 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 9 to 16. This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true.

Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching. At my first defense, no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now, there's an extraordinary thing, really impressive thing, that Paul says in the middle of this discussion of Alexander. And that's really what we're going to spend our time talking about is the theme that's picked up in there. And it's where he says, the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. But before we come to that section, that phrase, I think we need to get some clue about who Alexander the coppersmith is. Who was he talking about? What did he do?

And so Alexander the coppersmith shows up in a couple of different passages, three in Scripture, okay? First in Acts, he shows up as being along with Paul while he's preaching and in the midst of a riot, a big commotion. And he comes forward as one of the men who's going to give a defense for what they believe, for the truth. And so in Acts 19, 33 and 34, it says that some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander, the reason for all of the commotion. They said it was because of Alexander. Since the Jews had put him forward, saying it was him, and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them as they shouted for about two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And so what we know is that Paul and his companions are preaching at Ephesus. And it causes a big problem.

An uproar. And so, not Paul, but some of his companions get scurried off into the arena. And it says in a different part of this passage, nobody really knows what's going on or what they're all there for. They just know there's a big hullabaloo, and they're all just kind of tacking along to see what's going on. And so eventually, Alexander's put forward as a man to bring some peace, give some explanation. But when they realize he's a Jew, the crowd just resumes their cries of, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, and that's the end of his presence there. Eventually, the ruler basically calms the crowd down and says, yeah, yeah, we know what Ephesus is about. We know what Artemis is about. We just don't need to worry about this. He just sort of smooths out all the rough spots, and that's the end of it. So this is the first time we interact with Alexander the coppersmith.

And yet he never got to speak. All we know at this point is that he's one of Paul's companions, disciples. He's going to give an answer. Then he shows up again at the beginning of 1 Timothy. And something has happened between Acts 19 and 1 Timothy because he went from being a companion to being an enemy. In 1 Timothy 1.20, Paul says, Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. And so by this time, at some point, Alexander became an enemy of the gospel, an enemy of Paul. And in our passage, again, he shows up. Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm, for he vigorously opposed our teaching. So what did Alexander do to become a problem? And what sort of harm did he do to Paul? Well, Paul tells us what he did was oppose their teaching vigorously.

Meaning he took the gospel that Paul was preaching and proclaiming and said something to the effect of that's not true or Paul's not right or it's this other way. And there are many things that Paul had to deal with in his life, many burdens, many hardships, many sorrows that he endured personally. And many of them he just took in stride. But when someone opposed his teaching, he took note of them. And he opposed them. And he told us as much in Galatians. At the very beginning of Galatians chapter 1, he says, I'm amazed to this church. I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is not just another account. But there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And Alexander would be such a man. And then Paul goes on and he says, But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed.

As we have said before, even now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. And so Paul could deal with exposure to the elements. Paul could deal with being shipwrecked. Paul could deal with being beaten and imprisoned and whipped. And it never really shows up as something that he wants Timothy to take great account of. But the man who opposes the truth, Paul warns against and says, Be on your guard against him. Now there's something to note here that's important for us regarding Alexander and where he came from. There's lots of opposition to the truth. The most dangerous opposition will not be from outside the church. It'll be from within the church. It'll be from other people saying that they're Christians or saying that they know the truth when in fact what they're proclaiming is a lie.

And the reason that it's dangerous is because they're dishonest in their manner. They don't tell you, hey, this is different. They'll come and they'll say, no, it's the same. Now we could use an example. I could use an example like Mormons. And if you were to go and talk to them and say, oh, no, no, no, we believe all the same. They'd make the effort to say, it's all the same. And you'd say, no, it's not. And you could point out the places where, no, actually, it's completely different. But I don't think that they're the biggest danger to you or the biggest thing we need to be warned against. Because if a Mormon missionary comes and knocks on your door, you know that we're not the same. But a lot of what passes for the truth today and faithful proclamation of the gospel is not anything that Paul would have recognized as the truth. You see this pointed at or hinted at in memes where people go, would Jesus or Paul be welcome in your church?

The flipping over the tables and the calling out of sin and the warnings of hell and the calls for repentance of the leaders. The worst enemies to the gospel are those that arise from within. And Paul knows this. In Acts 20, when he's with the Ephesian elders at Miletus on the seashore, he tells them, I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And so there'll be danger from outside. from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. And so Paul notes Alexander as the sort of man who wouldn't have said, I'm not a believer. I don't believe. Paul's, you know, he's completely wrong. He would have tried to snitch away what Paul had built. He'd want to build his own kingdom. He'd want to pull aside his own disciples. I have a friend who said recently, He was speaking about the pressures that pastors feel. He wasn't talking about the pressure. He wasn't speaking to the pastors, but he was talking to the people about their pastors. And he says, you know, it's a miserable situation for your pastor to be in when you listen more attentively and more often to people who have never met you. And that because of you consuming that, he has to compete with them. And every week he has to prove to you. Now, I'm going beyond what my friend said, but I'm elucidating his point.

which is that every week he has to work to meet your standard or your expectation or your sensibilities because all week you've been listening to someone else. And actually what happens is the more you listen to someone else, the less you listen to him. My friend's right. I've also had a number of guys in the church say, well, we should develop an online presence. So here I'm going to tell a story, okay, about me, about our church, and about this issue. I said, I'm not opposed to doing something online, whether that's a podcast or writing or whatever. I don't have a principle against it. I do have my fears about it for myself. But what I told them is I said, I want to be clear to you, I have zero interest, zero interest in becoming a content producer. I don't want to just produce content because I'm a Christian, so you should listen to me. And the example I gave them was of Elon Musk buying Twitter.

I said, I have no interest in talking at any length about that. Because it's in the news and everyone's talking about it. Now, there may be something Christian to say about the response that Christians are having to it. That I'd be willing to talk about. But just providing commentary because, hey, look, it's the new fancy shiny thing that's going on this week. I don't have any interest in it. And the reason I feel this way is because I want to be your pastor. And I want you to be... If I can say it, my sheep. Okay? And that means that there's, in our day and age, though it's not new, the medium has changed with social media. The problem has existed. Men like Alexander, who would rise up and who would steal away men from other sheepfolds for their own, has always been a problem. I was talking to someone about us doing it, and he says, well, there's actually tactics. There's ways you can do it. And what you can do is you can go into a group.

of people that you largely agree with and start shooting shots at all of the people in there, at little part, you know, overemphasizing the things that they do wrong, just to create conflict so that your name gets into the mix. This is actually a strategy. This is actually a way to generate a following. Now, I'm not dumb. That's not like, oh, really? Like, I'm like, yeah, I see people do that, and that's what's gross to me, is that that's exactly what men like Alexander are doing. And it's what so many of the people, the Christians that have something to say online, are doing. Now, we might look at that and say, off with all of the Alexanders. That's not God's solution, actually. If he wanted to say, off with all of the Alexanders, he could. But he didn't. Instead, what Paul tells Timothy, what he tells us, what God is saying to us is, be on guard. Be on guard against people who are doing that. That's the solution. Be on guard.

Too often what we would like is to say, I want to remove the danger from my, I want to remove the temptation, I want to remove the danger, I want to remove the conflict. That's often not God's solution. His solution is for you to be on guard, for you to watch and pray, for you to repent, for you to speak, for you to flee, for you to expose. And so we have Alexanders. And so if I were sitting in your shoes, I would be thinking, I hope I don't become an Alexander. I don't want to become an Alexander. When I'm talking to the guys about a social media presence, that's what I'm saying to them about myself. I don't want to become an Alexander. I don't want to become the type of man who goes fishing in other people's ponds to pull them away from their pastors and from their elders. Alexander, in many ways, is like Judas. He's just a further down the line man doing the same thing, betraying the truth. We don't know why Alexander did it, but we know why Judas did it. He did it.

for money. And that temptation is alive and well. So many of the Christian content producers I have, you can't actually read their stuff or watch their stuff without subscribing and paying. I don't want to continue to go on with that, but what I'll say to you is, it ought not to be that way. It ought not to be that way. So that's Alexander the coppersmith. He doesn't much harm. And you would think if you had to deal with a man like Alexander in your life, a man who'd done you much harm, a man who'd opposed the gospel, that you'd be chomping at the bit to see their destruction. It takes much less than what Alexander did for us to want trouble for people. Much, much less. And that is why what Paul says about Alexander is so astounding to me. What he does, what's astounding to me is what he doesn't say. He doesn't pass judgment on Alexander. He says the Lord will. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. And there's a...

a mountain of meaning in what he says there. Consider the temptations that if you were in Paul's situation, consider the temptations to anger and to bitterness that you would have faced to someone who's hurt you, someone who's opposed you, someone who's caused trouble, not just for you, but for God's people. Those temptations would be natural and they'd be instantaneous. In your own life, how quick is your tongue to be angry at people who do you harm, to pass judgment on them? to hurt them, to slander them, to gossip about them. The Bible tells us that it's basically impossible for us not to do that. In James chapter 3, he says, we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, and here Paul is saying, if any man does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to reign in the whole body as well. And so how quick are you to pass judgment on people, on your spouse,

On your children, on your parents, on your siblings, on your coworkers, on your classmates, on your neighbors? Is there anyone in your life that you don't have a judgment about? Is there anyone in my life that I haven't formed a judgment about? And largely, they're unfavorable, aren't they? Aren't they? Am I the only one that looks at people and is like, well, they're an idiot about that, and they're stupid, they should know better, and I talk to them about that, you know? Am I the only one who does that? I know I'm not the only one who does it. So say, yeah, yeah, we do that, Dave. That's us. We do that. Okay, thank you. I'm not crazy. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man. And so what James is saying is none of us are perfect men. We're all so quick to judgment. I mean, minute by minute. How often do you hear somebody say something, get offended by it, and then go, you know what? I'm probably wrong. I bet they didn't mean it that way. As compared to you getting frustrated when they're like,

They don't understand what I... And you see the natural state of us. And that's what makes this statement from Paul so amazing. The Lord will obey him according to his deeds. And you see this sort of thing going on in other places in Scripture. In Jude, verse 9, Jude's telling us about Michael, the archangel, and he says this. Michael, the archangel, when he was disputed with the devil, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, and you remember Moses, God buried Moses and no one knew where it was. And so the people all want to know, but nobody could know where Moses was buried. And so for us, it's like out of sight, out of mind, and we just don't know. But here, Jude tells us, there was actually a conflict about it. And there was an angel arguing with Satan about Moses' body. And we look at it and we go, what in the world is going on here? But then Jude tells us, he says, that's not the thing to note. He says, there was this thing. The thing to note is, when they argued about the body of Moses, Michael the archangel did not dare pronounce it.

against him, an abusive judgment against Satan, but said, the Lord rebuke you. How much of the conflict that you endure on a day-to-day basis in your life is the direct result of you being unwilling to withhold your own judgments? How much of it do you cause yourself? That's the question that we should be answering. In Romans 12, Paul tells us, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. And then he goes into this same topic, never take your own revenge. Never take your own revenge. If you want peace in your life, what Paul says here, the sort of peace that Paul had as he awaited his execution in a Roman prison cell, the sort of peace that...

that God gave him to be able to say, the Lord repay him for his deeds. He did me great harm. Be careful about him. The Lord repay him for his deeds. That kind of peace, it's all built on you leaving room for the judgment of God and trusting that God's judgment is better than your judgment, is more appropriate than your judgment. So much of the turmoil we have in our lives, so much of the difficulty and the hardship and the loneliness and the depression and the anger and the deep-seated bitterness that goes on. It's all born out of us being unwilling to withhold our judgments of others. We'll withhold judgments for ourselves and our own actions and our own behaviors, but not for others. And generally, the closer we are to people, the more difficult this is. Because we have more opportunity to see their sins, for them to see our sins, for us to have to exercise this muscle of restraint. In Jude, the angel Michael didn't rush to judgment.

He restrained himself, and all he said was, the Lord rebuke you. Paul says, the Lord will repay him, Alexander, according to his deeds. And again in Romans, never take your own revenge, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it's written, vengeance is mine, says the Lord, and I will repay. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. Isn't that the most contrary thing you've ever read in Scripture? If your enemy is hungry, feed him. Now it is true that a soldier could, you know, if we were to take a wartime analogy, of this and say that your enemy is hungry, your enemy is passing through, that they would come into houses. The story we always hear is they broke into houses and they stole all the food and they raped and pillaged and did all of this stuff. And no doubt that sort of thing does happen. Soldiers are sinners and do wicked things and abuse their power just like anyone else does. But the Bible says if your enemy's hungry, feed him. You wonder if during the time of the Revolutionary War in America, if there were Christians.

And I think there probably were. I've not read accounts of them that fed their enemies. You know how hard that would be to have your enemy into your house and give them food when they're your enemy? If you pass judgment on them, then you'll never want to do that. Do you wives ever not want to cook food for your family, your husband, because you're mad at them? So Michael didn't rush to judgment. Paul didn't rush to judgment. Paul warns us not to rush to judgment. Why? Well, the first reason is you are not the judge. you're not the judge. You may be the one who's been sinned against, and yet you're not the judge. In fact, in fact, the fact that you're the one who was sinned against disqualifies you from passing judgment that's fair. Do you guys know the concept of recusal? The lawyer does. Some of the other guys do. Okay. What it means is that when someone is too close to a situation,

They're too personally invested in it. They recuse themselves. And all that means is that they withdraw from the situation and say, whatever my normal role would be in this situation, I'm going to withdraw from it because I have a personal interest in it. Okay? An example would be in the church. If one of the officer's children needs to be disciplined by the elders, that elder should recuse himself. And that's our understanding among our board, is that if one of our children needs to be addressed directly by the elders, that man and his wife will recuse themselves. They will step out of the situation, literally out of the meeting where the situation is discussed. And the decision-making process is left to the other men. And they're no longer a part of it because they're too closely connected. And that same thing is true of the one who sinned against. You're not capable of passing a...

objective, just verdict. Because you're mad. You realize that's why? Because you get angry and then you're, as much as you tell yourself, no, I'm able to be objective and I'm just going to look at the facts and I'm just going to straight down the line. Don't drink your own Kool-Aid. It's not our place to judge those who sin against us. It's God's place to judge them. And he will. Because he tells us as much in his word. Vengeance is mine. I will repay. That's what Paul's relying on when he says the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. He accepts that truth and says, yes, that is how it will be because that's how God set it up to be. I don't need to concern myself with that. I wonder also, or maybe wonder's not a good word, I suspect strongly that given Paul's history, that whenever he saw someone opposing the gospel, the first thing that came to his mind, was his opposition to the gospel. Him holding the cloaks while they stoned Stephen. I don't think those sorts of sins in his life were ever far from his mind. So there was a time in this man's life, Paul's life, where he was just like Alexander. Just like him. Breathing out threats, trying to haul the Christians off and have them executed for their faith. Causing as much trouble as he could. And so I'm sure he remembered that he was once an object of God's wrath.

The grace of God was the only thing that makes Paul or you or me any different than Alexander. Here's a question. Do you want people to go to hell? You're all quiet because you're all like, well, no, no. But you realize that that sentiment in you means you don't want God to ever judge them. And don't you think that that's why you're so quick to your own judgments? Here's another way of asking the question. Jonah, we'll use him as an example. Jonah didn't like the Ninevites, right? What did he want for them? He, unlike us probably, he wanted God to judge the Ninevites. He wanted to just wipe them out. Just get rid of them. And so when God told Jonah, you need to go preach to the Ninevites, that's when Jonah turns the other way, takes off. He says, I'm not going to go preach to them. I'm not going to go preach that there's a judgment coming to them. And he tells them, he says, the reason I didn't want to do that is because I knew, I knew...

that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and one who relents of disaster. Now, of Paul and Alexander, when he says, the Lord will repay him for his deeds, what do you think Paul's response would have been if he had caught word before his death that Alexander had repented? Do you think he would have been happy? Or do you think he would have been angry? I think he would have rejoiced. But I think far too often we don't rejoice when people repent. And so we're a really mixed bag, you know? Because on the one hand, we don't actually want people to go to hell. We want to pass judgment and just make their life miserable. And then when they repent, we're like the older brother and the prodigal son who says, I've served you from my youth up and this isn't fair. Why does he get the fattened calf? You realize that older brother was angry at his younger brother's treatment. He didn't get the judgment he was supposed to get.

All the while his brother was gone fornicating and being a drunkard and wasting all of his inheritance. You know that older brother was sitting there saying, I'm glad I'm not like him. I'm a faithful one. I do the right things. Stupid brother. No mercy. No understanding. No compassion. And you see it as soon as his brother comes back and his father rejoices. But the brother, oh no, no. So what had the older brother done? He'd passed judgment. Jonah, he'd passed judgment. We, we passed judgment. Paul withheld judgment and was content for God to deal with those who sinned against us in whatever way he saw fit. And sometimes that judgment will be eternal damnation and hell. And sometimes that judgment will be forgiveness and mercy. And we ought to cultivate in ourselves a contentment for God to do what only God can do.

which is pass righteous judgments. Pay for sins. Extract the cost of them. Are you willing to let the Lord deal with those who offend you? That's really the question. When someone sins against you, are you willing to just be sinned against and let the Lord repay them? Or will you have your pound of flesh? Jesus said, whoever strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other also. And so we joke as Christians, we say, well, I've only got two of them. If they hit the other one, well, then it's over. Whoever takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And whoever takes what is yours, do not demand it back. And you should feel, if you see the truth of yourself when you look in the mirror, you're going to feel this like, that's not fair, welling up inside. That's not right. That was mine. They did wrong. That needs to be dealt with. You're right.

It does. Not by you. Now, am I telling parents that they shouldn't discipline their children if they do wrong? Let the Lord mysteriously work on your kids. No, I'm actually not. I'm saying that the Lord sometimes works, he works out his discipline through his channels. He works out his judgment through his channels. And so you who are parents, you're God's instrument to do this work with your children. When they're fighting and they're having trouble, you're the judge. Not because you're the judge, but because God said, you're the judge. You need to judge for those people. In the church, the elders actually have to pass judgments. They actually have to make decisions. They have to say yes and no about all kinds of things. And they do judge. And Paul tells us, or it's Peter who tells us, let judgment begin with the household of God. And so I'm not trying to say to you that there's no place as a Christian where judgment is ever passed.

Because God has set up our world hierarchically, and there are judges that he's put in place. Moses was a judge. Jethro said, you can't be the only judge. Get a bunch more judges. And so judgments are made, but they need to be made by the people and by the institutions that God has ordained to make them. And when you're the offended, you are not the judge. And it's when you'll most... you'll most intensely want to be the judge. When they sinned against you and they did something wrong. I'm sorry. That's life, guys. Like if that's all you take away from this sermon today, take away the fact that you will be sinned against by people every day of your life. And you will sin against other people every day of your life. And that God will judge them and you ultimately for all of it. In his time and in his ways. And he'll do it differently.

for different people. And that's his prerogative. It's a glorious thing for us to take hold of. To do what I'm saying takes faith. It is a distinctly Christian, biblical way of thinking and behaving. You're not going to have anybody else who's not steeped in the Bible tell you, this is how you should interact with being wronged. They may tell you, you should be forgiving. You should, but that's not what I said. I didn't say you should be forgiving. I said you should trust God to judge them. No, it's different. It's a distinctly Christian way to think and to behave. We cry out in our hearts for judgment and for fairness. But when we do this, we forget that God does not deal with us that way. Have you ever wondered why God's let you struggle with sins for longer than you would like to struggle with them? Maybe you do want to be free of them. And praise God if you do. Why does he allow you to struggle with them? So why doesn't he...

Why doesn't he free you or judge you? You know, what's that? His grace is sufficient for us to bear them. And also, in Romans 2, he says, do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? That the reason he withholds his judgments is to give you time to repent. And we think, well, I'd like to be free of the sins, but I don't know what repentance has to do with it. I'd like to wake up and be free of them. Why do I struggle with these sins so long? Well, simply and biblically, probably because in many times you haven't repented or you're not keeping with repentance or you're in a season where you've said, eh, that's not for me. I feel these pressures or I feel these desires or these urges or these stresses or this tiredness or whatever justification you have. And you write yourself a pass and you say, it's okay for me now. But you believe a lie and you think at that time God won't judge you for those things.

God will judge you for those things. In his time, he will judge you for them. And in the way that he sees fit, the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. This is what we ought to say when someone sins against us. The Lord will deal with him. And the Lord might be merciful, and I hope that he is. I'd rather see them repent than be judged. So what's the application? How do we sum all of this up? I would put it this way. Trust God to deal with those who sinned against you. You can tell them that they've sinned against you if you're able to do it with self-control. But trust God to deal with those who've sinned against you. Trust God to bring them to repentance. Bless those who persecute you. Love your enemies. Leave room for the wrath of God. All of these things are of a fabric. I warn you, if you don't do this, you will become a miserable, bitter person. That is the only end of this. It's the only end.

And so many of you are young. You haven't lived long enough. And you haven't had long enough to stew on it for 20 years. But you will. And so you have a great opportunity to lay a good foundation now of trusting God. If you don't, you will become miserable and bitter and angry. Why hasn't he done anything about them yet? Why hasn't he judged them? That wasn't fair what they did to me. You'll get bitter. You'll get depressed. You'll get angry. You'll get sick. These are the choices that we have to make based on these few words that Paul has to say about Alexander who did him great harm, who opposed the truth. So what are you going to do? That's the question for you and for me. Are you going to let go of your bitterness and your anger and your frustration? Are you going to nurse them? Are you going to nurse your private judgments? Maybe you'll try to strike a balance where you're like, well, I just won't tell other people about it, but I'm going to.

Keep it to myself. Martin, the other one's crying now. There you go, honey. That's a bit contagious, yeah. Yeah. Maybe you'll keep your judgments private. Maybe you'll try to keep them at bay. But you're a fool if you try to stand toe-to-toe with these temptations and think you'll come out ahead of them. The only way forward for us as Christians is to trust God to pour out His judgments in His way and in His time. Have you been sinned against in your past? In some terrible way, this is the key to you being able to move forward. By trusting God that, yes, that did happen. Yes, it was terrible. Yes, they sinned. And yes, they will be judged for it. But not by you, probably. So you have to move on. You can't circle back perpetually to it. Remember when I asked you, do you want people to go to hell? And we all said no. And I said, okay. Well, if you don't want people to actually go to hell, that can either be a denial of sins having any consequences.

You know, you just say, well, I don't think any sin should have consequences. But that's not what I think most of you meant by it. I think what most of you meant by it is, hell is a terrible, awful place and it's for all eternity. And no, I actually don't desire that any should perish. And that's good. So then why do you judge them? You follow? Why don't you live like a Christian with them? They sinned against you. It needs to be dealt with by people who are appropriate to deal with it. Most of the sins we deal with in our lives are not going to be life-changing, catastrophic, change the course of your life sins. Sometimes you will. But most of the time, you're going to pass judgments on really insignificant things. You're going to get bitter, not over some big, huge failure, but over a bunch of little ones. And you'll say, Lord, how many times do I have to forgive him? How many times do I have to content myself with your judgments? Seventy times seven. Just 490.

If you don't know what I'm talking about or it doesn't make sense to you, then come talk to me after the service and I'm happy to explain it more. But I think you understand what I'm saying and so the work left for us now is not understanding but implementation. Will you repent of your personal judgments against people and trust God to deal with them or will you not? There's life and rest and peace that comes after trusting God and there's just more of the same of what you've been dealing with if you don't. Let's pray.