Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Would you? Please turn your Bibles to
second Samuel chapter #6 some of you saying, Pastor, this is
moving pretty quickly. We could do without AC more
often around here. And the answer is what we do
without the AC around here about 10 months out of the year.
But it just happens to be these two months.
That is a little bit of a problem.
And I do want us to give priority to the Word of God this
evening. So I do know that when you're
warm, you're tired. When the pastor's preaching,
there's hot air coming out that makes you even warmer, and then
the sermon goes on. You could be even more tired.
Who knows? So we just want to get right to
the word of God this evening and hope it will be a help to you.
Now, I've quoted this several years ago here at Liberty, but I
do think it's important for me to present to you again tonight
as a way to introduce our message.
It was a speech that was given back by Teddy Roosevelt in the
year 1910, and it was part of a speech that has commonly been
called the man in the Arena. And he said this.
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have
done them better. The credit belongs to the man
who was actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and
sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who come
short again and again because there is no effort without error
and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to
do the deeds? Who knows great enthusiasms, the
great devotions? Who spends himself in a worthy
cause? Who at the best knows in the end
the triumph of high achievement? And who is at the worst, if he
fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither
know victory nor defeat? And in many ways, the first 7
words of this speech are the most important.
It's not the critic who counts. And I love that whole speech,
the idea that without moving forward, there is no moving
ahead as far as you might make mistakes sometimes, but at least
you need to try to move forward the best that you can.
But I will say that this issue of criticism, being a critic,
someone not who notices things and has discernment.
Remember we talked about discernment on Wednesday night.
It's good for a Christian to have discernment, but a level
beyond Bible believing discernment, but rather critics
and being a critic. Critics are loud, critics are
attention seekers, critics are fault finders.
And worst of all, critics are always right in their own mind.
So tonight we're going to find that David is going to be
confronted with a bitter critic. And here's the worst part of it
all. David's worst critic at this
moment in time is his own wife. And so we're look at David
dealing with this issue of getting the Ark of the Covenant
back to Jerusalem where it belongs after the issue last
week with the new cart. But we find that as wonderful as
this day was, there was room still for a critic to try to
take David's joy and bring it down.
So you can remain seated. But we're going to read here in
Second Samuel chapter 6 verse #12 And it says, and it was
told, King David saying, the Lord hath blessed the House of
Obed Edom and all that pertaineth unto him because of
the ark of God. So David went and brought up the
ark of God from the House of Obed Edom into the city of David
with gladness. And it was so that when they had
bare the ark of the Lord, let me try that again.
And it was so that when they that bear the ark of the Lord
had gone 6 paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
And David danced before the Lord with all his might.
And David was girded with a linen ephod.
So David, all the House of Israel brought up the ark of the
Lord, was shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
That sounds like a great time, doesn't it?
And this time it was all within the Lord's will.
But verse 16, as the ark of the Lord came into the city of
David, Michael, Saul's daughter looked through a window and saw
David leaping and dancing before the Lord.
And look at this, she despised him in her heart.
And they brought in the ark of the Lord, and said in his place,
in the place of the midst of the Tabernacle, that David had
pitched for it. And David offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
And as soon as David had made an end to the burnt offering and
peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord
of hosts, and he dealt among all the people, even among the whole
multitude of Israel, as well to the women of his men, to
everyone a cake of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagon
of wine. So all the people departed
everyone to his house. Then David returned to bless his
household. And Michael, the daughter of
Saul, came out to meet David and said how glorious was the king
of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the
handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows
shamelessly uncovered himself. Now, I was just reading that
like I was reading the rest of the text, but I would probably
imagine that if we could have heard or say it, it would have
been something like this. How glorious was the King of
Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the
handmaids of his servants, as one of those vain fellows
shamelessly uncovered himself. I believe that she was speaking
this very sarcastically because she didn't think it was glorious
at all, did she? She despised what she saw from
the window. And it says in verse 21.
And David said unto Michael, It was before the Lord, which chose
me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me
ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel.
Therefore will I play before the Lord, and I will yet be more
vile than us, and we'll be based in my own sight.
And of the main servants which thou has spoken of, of them
shall I be had an honor. Therefore Michael, the daughter
of Saul, had no child until the day of her death.
And certainly this text has given us a lot of twists and
turns, hasn't it? From the ark going towards
Jerusalem to us, a touching the ark to us a dying, to the
resumption of the ark towards Jerusalem, the great joy, and
Michael ridiculing her own husband when he returns home.
It's been ups and downs, ups and downs in chapter #6 but through
it all, here at the end, it's the critic who were left with
this impression of this woman named Michael, remember the
daughter of Saul. And I want us to look at this
issue tonight of criticism in this message that I've entitled.
It is not the critic who counts. Heavenly Father be with us
tonight. I do ask, and I know that this
is not an optimal situation that we have this evening within our
own minds to be able to be in a building that is as warm as it
is outside. But I do pray that you would
work through all of that because I do believe that you've given
me this message and that we're here tonight for a purpose and
for a reason. So I do pray that we would put
aside anything else within our own selves to be able to listen
to the Word as it's given or help me to know what to say,
what to leave in a message, what to remove from the message for
the sake of time so that I can best bring forth the things that
need to be brought forth in the message tonight.
But I do pray to be with us this evening.
Lord, when we leave here tonight, may our first thought
not necessarily be the situation within the building, but may our
first thought be this, how good you have been to us tonight as
you are always good to us and we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
I will say this is not a good sign when you start preaching in
the sweat's already going down your back.
All right, so we're just kind of try to do the best we can here
tonight. Well, there's been a three month
hiatus from what we saw in the message last Sunday night, and
the parade is back on. The Ark of the Covenant is about
to be transported back to Jerusalem as it's supposed to
have been months ago, except the whole problem with the new cart
and as I having touched the Ark of the Covenant and the breach
of God's power being placed upon him.
And verse #12 tells us that it's a glorious scene.
Verse #12 And on it says that they brought the Ark of the
Covenant out of the House of Obed Edom into the city of David
with gladness. And that summarizes the day that
there was great gladness. And may I remind you that when
they did this, we have the corresponding passage in First
Chronicles chapter 15 that tells us that they looked in the word
of God and they found out that they weren't supposed to use a
new card. That they were supposed to use
staves. And that the Levites were
supposed to take the Ark of the Covenant, take those staves and
put it over their shoulders that no one was supposed to touch it.
That no one was supposed to mimic the way the Philistines
had carried the ark all those years ago.
But now it's a time of and it was so great that as they were
taking the Ark of the Covenant, every six steps that they took,
they offered another burnt offering right there on the
ground. It was David almost
overcompensating, if you will, to be able to ensure that God
would bless. And it was a way of David
showing a repentant heart as well to show that, yes, Lord, I
am now following Your word. Where I disregarded it before,
it is now at the forefront in my mind.
It's interesting in verse #14 it says that David danced before
the Lord. Now I was thinking about dancing
before the Lord here for you tonight, and I have a lot of
problems with that. First of all, well, I don't
dance. And #2 the dancing before the
Lord that we see here is not the type of dancing that we would
think of today. A lot of the things that pass in
this world today for dancing is mostly lewd and suggestive.
But what we see here is just an exuberance in David's body that
there is just such gratefulness and gladness in his heart for
what the Lord has done, that what was on the inside just
comes out on the outside. Now, we don't dance before the
Lord today. There's a lot of different
reasons for that. But I will say this, it's OK in
church to at least be excited about church.
It's OK during a message when the Lord speaks to your heart to
at least show that from the inside, the outside.
Listen, you won't get hurt if you raise your hand during a
church service. They won't hurt you one bit, all
right? If the Lord speaks to you
through a message or through song or anything like that, you
know, we're not talking about being wild and out of control in
the House of God. First Timothy tells us that we
ought to behave ourselves well in the House of the God.
But at the same time, again, we're not talking about whipping
ourselves up into an emotional frenzy for the sake of having an
emotional frenzy. We're just talking about the
fact that when God speaks to us, it could be a very moving thing
and it's OK to say Amen. It's OK to say Hallelujah.
It's OK to raise one hand. It's OK to raise both hands.
All right? Don't believe it or not, the
Bible talks about lifting up our hands in the book of Psalms.
There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself.
So here is David dancing before the Lord that says he was gird
with a linen ephod. Now those were priestly
garments. And this is important because
David in his heart was not out there in his kingly robes.
Because if he was out there in his robes, everyone would be
able to identify David, right? Everyone on that parade route
would have seen David and their eyes would have followed him.
But what he wanted to do literally was just to blend in
with the crowd. He wanted to be able to look
like the other Levites that were there in the process of getting
the Ark of the Covenant back. Why?
Because the single and sole focus was to be the Ark, which
meant this, the single and the sole focus was to be God.
He didn't want to be the focus of attention there on that
parade route. And so there he is in garments
that were probably looser and garments that were much
different than what he would normally wear.
And that's going to become a part of what we're going to look
at here in just a second. Well, we see that all of this
takes place in the Ark of the Covenant, comes there into the
city and verse #17 through 19 said that they made Burt
offerings and peace offerings. Then when all that was done,
they took of the meat and they took of bread and then they took
of juice and they put it all together and David sent everyone
home with doggy bags. That's how you know, they were
Baptists all right, because they had a meal and they made sure
everyone had something to take home with them when they were
there as well, with this good potluck that they had there.
And it was a great day. It was a glorious day by every
metric, by any possible way that you would have looked at this
day is that man? This was a great day.
The Lord blessed. The Ark of the Covenant is here
in Jerusalem. The Tabernacle has now been
erected in Jerusalem as well, because remember, there's no
temple yet. We'll see about that in a little
bit more in the coming weeks. But the Tabernacle, that movable
tent where God would meet with man, that has now been placed in
Jerusalem, the city of David. And I mean, things are good.
I mean, who could complain about something like this?
Well, the problem is the critic always finds something to
complain about. The critic always finds
something that's wrong. And unfortunately for David, the
critic lived within his own house.
Look again at verse #16 where it says.
And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael,
Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David
leaping and dancing before the Lord.
And she despised him in her heart.
It's amazing to me that she could look at her own husband.
This is Saul's daughter. Remember to look at her own
husband and see him joyful about the Lord's presence and joyful
about what the Lord was doing in Israel.
And the only emotion that could be invoked within her heart was
this. She despised her husband.
He comes home and she sarcastically greets him.
Oh, how glorious was the king of Israel here this day who has
uncovered himself. And I believe that this issue of
uncovering itself really comes back down to the issue of him
wearing the linen ephah that he was in different clothing than
his normal rural robes. Rural robes would be luxurious
and heavy and long, where a robe for a Levite would have been
much lighter. And there's, it's very possible
that David, in his exuberance, David as he's jumping up and
dancing before the Lord, that he very well might have revealed
himself briefly in a way that, you know, probably wouldn't have
been a very good thing. But it was something that was
inconsequential in the day and probably something that very few
people, if anyone would have noticed.
But Michael noticed, you know why?
Because she wasn't looking at the Ark of the Covenant.
She was staring a hole right into her husband and she saw him
jumping around and dancing and being excited for maybe 1 brief
moment because of the way his garments were and because the
way he jumped up that he may have revealed part of his body
that would not normally have been revealed.
Again, we don't know how much that it is, the Bible doesn't
reveal it to us, but this is all she could focus on.
Oh how glorious you were basically saying this.
Do you realize what a fool you made of yourself out there now?
How sad is it to be excited about having a relationship with
God? And maybe you've been in a
situation like this before. You're excited about what God's
doing in your life. You're excited about how he's
grown you. You're excited about maybe you
were away from him for a while and now you're back in your
relationship with the Lord and someone comes up to you and
says, really, you're going to church?
Who do you think you are? You know what kind of life
you've lived. Oh, don't worry, you'll stop
going in a few weeks. You always stop going to church.
How encouraging is that? Well, the answer is it's not at
all. But it's the very thing that the
critic does. Critics criticize.
Now, before we continue, again, I want to be clear.
Having discernment is important. There are absolutely times in
the Christian life we are compelled to point out when
something is wrong. Amen that there are times that
we're not to to just ignore things that are going on that we
are to confront them as believers.
Listen. A church that is falling in
false doctrine, yes, it needs to be addressed.
A friend who is making poor spiritual choices, Yes, that
needs to be addressed. A spouse who has done wrong to
you, Yes, that needs to be addressed.
A child that needs to have correction, yes, that needs to
be addressed. But I believe there's a great
difference between offering what we would call constructive
criticism today and living the life of a critic who constantly
feels a superiority to others and always feels a superiority
of their ideas to other people. Listen, critics can be found
anywhere. Can they be found in the church?
Absolutely. They can be found in a spouse.
They can be found in a grandparent.
They can be found an employee. They can be found an employer,
they can be found in either a customer or a consumer.
And I will say this, we have to make sure that we are careful
that we don't slip into the habit of becoming a critic even
within our own lives. Discernment, yes, absolutely,
that's biblical. To be able to judge righteously,
it's a command. But to be a constant critic and
to have an air of superiority about yourself and your ideas,
nowhere is the Lord near that type of thinking.
I see four things that I want us to be able to look at here this
evening that are identifying marks of the critic.
Right here in our text. There's four identifying marks
of the critic. And the first is this.
They always look down. They always look down.
I don't think it's a mistake that Michael is looking from on
high through her window down at David.
Now, first of all, let's say this.
Where should Michael have been in the parade?
Where should Michael have been? She should have been excited
that the Ark of the Covenant was coming into Jerusalem, but she
wanted no part of it. I think that's actually pretty
telling because it tells us a lot about the critics spiritual
life that the critic doesn't have, the spiritual life that
they think that they have. But there she is.
She's in her window and she's looking down at David.
Why wasn't she with her husband? Why wasn't she at the
Tabernacle? Instead?
She sat on her perch and she complained.
But what did Jesus do? Well, Jesus had a different
posture. He didn't look down on others.
Rather, he said this, for I am meek and lowly in heart.
He Himself, as we saw this morning, biblically took the
form of a servant. Listen, the only time that Jesus
looked down on somebody in His earthly ministry was when He was
on the cross. The only time Jesus looked down
upon someone, His earthly ministry, was when He was on the
cross. Now listen, before you get too
squeamish on me tonight, that doesn't mean he didn't identify
other people's sin. He most certainly did.
Quite the opposite. He most absolutely identified
other people's sin, but he always identified it with a
purpose to lovingly confront them with the truth.
No, Jesus wasn't being a quote UN quote critic as a servant of
the Lord When he saw that someone was in sin, when he saw
someone needed correction, he brought it to them in love.
Why to lovingly bring them back to God?
When we have those situations where we need to talk to
somebody about something, are we looking down upon them?
No, what we realize is, look man, I am a Sinner saved by
grace just like you are. I'm no better than you are.
I'm just bringing something to your attention because God
brought me through some things and I hope He'll bring you
through some things and I want to talk to you in a spirit of
humility. But that's not what the critic
does. The critic always feels
superior. The critic always looks down.
The critic is not a participant. They are just a surveyor and
they are able survey what everyone else is doing wrong
while they are doing listen to this nothing.
The critic always looks down #2 I also see this.
They missed the bigger picture. They missed the bigger picture
back in verse #20 how glorious was the king of Israel today,
who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his
servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovered
himself. You know, she may not have
actually noticed that wardrobe malfunction that David had for a
few moments if she had actually been taking in the whole scene
instead of just watching her husband with disdain.
Again, what happened with David wasn't great.
If he actually did uncover himself in some way, even if it
was for a moment and most certainly would have been
accidentally. We're not saying that that's
good. I wouldn't suggest it was.
I don't believe David would suggest that it was, but I would
say this it also was a very small moment of a much greater
day. The end result of the day, if
you were to summarize it was not well.
There was a big parade and David uncovered himself.
I think the summary of the day will be this.
It was a big day, and the ark of the Lord and His presence came
to where it should rest in Jerusalem, and there was great
gladness. You know, if you go through life
criticizing every small thing, you will miss that which God has
for you in your life. Listen, we have this problem in
life, and here's one of the great problems of life that we
have. We like to be right.
I don't know about you, but I like to be right.
If I'm at the traffic light and someone does something wrong, I
want to be the one that's right. If I'm at the checkout line, I
want to be right. If I'm dealing with someone in
situations, I'm the one that wants to be right.
And there's nothing wrong with doing things in a right way.
But at the same time, if we're not careful, that can take us to
a place where we become critics because when we perceive that
other people aren't doing things right, then we miss, listen, we
end up missing the big picture. Here's what I mean.
You can criticize the checkout person.
You could be rude to them because of the way that they are
bagging your groceries or the way that they're handling things
and you're just focused on that one thing.
But are you missing the bigger picture?
This is a sole. Let me ask you, if you criticize
them, well, don't. Hey, don't put those together.
What's the matter with you? Are you going to be able to hand
them a track before you leave? Are you able to tell them about
Jesus Christ? Maybe we've missed the big
picture because we're so focused on something small.
Nitpicking your spouse's habits. Comment and how they load the
dishwasher, how they lead the Sox, how they maybe you comment
that they don't load the dishwasher.
Could be anything. You comment, you don't.
You know, one of you likes the AC high.
One of you likes the AC low. Anyway, we don't want to go
there tonight, all right? But here, here's the idea.
You can constantly criticize, but you know at what cost.
Meanwhile, peace in the home fades and your chance to reflect
Christ's love and your marriage starts to decline.
Does that mean you just ignore things in the marriage?
No, but you don't have a spirit of criticism.
You even when you handle issues in the marriage, you do so in a
way that the other spouse is glorified and most importantly,
God is glorified. That you are being a servant.
That you are being this Mike's not normally there, That you are
being a servant to that other person.
Why? Because you see the big picture.
The critic can't see the big picture.
You complain about your coworkers habits.
You don't like the way that they fill out the spreadsheet.
You don't like the way that they do their work.
You don't like the way they handle things.
You're constantly complaining about them.
And again, listen, we understand there are times you have to take
criticisms about a coworker to the proper channels.
But I want to caution you. Are you just doing it because
your pride has been wounded? Are you doing it because you've
been annoyed? Have you really thought about
the bigger picture, which is this?
This is a soul that needs to be saved.
They've seen me read my Bible on my break.
They've heard me talk about church.
I need to make sure that I'm thinking about this right.
Listen, the critic always misses the bigger picture.
Again, I'm not saying that you shouldn't handle things that are
wrong. Have discernment, but in that
discernment understand there is a bigger picture.
Could we even put it this way? There is an eternal picture at
play as well. The critic always looks down.
They always miss the bigger picture #3 They always think too
highly of themselves. They always think too highly of
the Selms. Look at verse #22.
David responds. Or rather verse number, No to
verse #22 He said this. I will be more vile than thus,
and will be based in my own sight, and of the maidservants
which I was spoken of. Of them shall I be had an honor.
David says this. He says, you say that I'm vile.
He says, I'd rather be vile than be what you are.
I'd rather be vile in my own sight and let others look at me
and see me as a servant. David defends himself by saying
he'd rather look vile in her eyes because his approval
ultimately came from God and God alone.
Michael's mindset was this. She goes.
I would never demean myself in such a way.
I would never be out in a parade like that with all the people.
Listen, I literally think that she thought of herself as a
Princess, and she was, in some ways, was she?
She was the daughter of soul. Now, she was married to David,
and she handled herself like a Princess.
I wouldn't be out there. I wouldn't do that.
I wouldn't dress like that. I wouldn't jump up and down.
I wouldn't demean myself. I wouldn't look vile.
But here's the problem. The critic forgets that God's
calling upon the child of God is like our Savior, to be a
servant, and a servant cannot think too highly of himself.
Remember, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus. Philippians chapter #2 The word
servant is found 462 times in the Bible, or rather 462 verses
in the Bible it's more. Sometimes it's listed twice in a
verse. Paul, James, Peter and Jude all
introduce themselves and at least one epistle as a servant
of Jesus Christ. And we mentioned Jude before.
Jude could have led with this. I'm the half brother of Jesus
but it never even comes up in his epistle.
All he mentions is I'm a servant of Jesus Christ.
I'm a servant of my half brother.
He was willing to look low upon himself.
David not only wanted to be seen as a servant, but it shows here
that he wanted to be seen as a servant to other servants.
Again, verse #22 of the maid servants which thou has spoken
of, of them shall I be had an honor.
He says this, I want those other servants to see me the way I was
today as a servant. The critic always thinks too
highly of themselves. But the number four, I also see
this, and perhaps this is the most important thing.
Number one, they look down #2 they miss the bigger picture #3
they think too highly themselves.
And #4 the critics are barren. I don't know about you, but that
last verse, verse #23 kind of stung a little bit.
It seems like it's really harsh, doesn't it?
Read it again. Therefore, Michael, the daughter
of Saul, had no child until the day of her death.
She criticized her husband. She had the spirit of criticism
within her, and the judgment of the Lord was this, that she
never had a child. Now, at first that seems like a
very, very harsh penalty for what took place.
But I do believe there's a greater principle that's at play
here that God wants to teach us here tonight, even though this
took place around 3000 years ago.
And there's, there's one thing that I, I would give to you
tonight. Well, there's two things you
remember. 1, the AC was out. And two, is this.
The critic lives a life of utter barrenness.
The critic ends up living a life of utter bearlessness.
They don't have their own ideas. They don't have encouragement to
offer. They don't build anything of
value. They don't have souls that
they're able to lead to the Lord.
They don't offer hope. They just perch there.
They tear down at others like Michael at her day, at frowning
at Davis dance. They're too caught up in scorn
to grasp joy. They're too empty to join the
song. And just like Michael, the
critic is barren. And God uses Michael as a very
graphic example that if you continue to live the critics
life, if you constantly criticize, criticize and nitpick
and feel above other people, better than other people,
superior to other people, look down, miss the bigger picture,
think too highly of yourself, you will live a Christian life
of utter barrenness. And how sad is that?
Well, Pastor, I've seen some things.
Well, we've all seen some things.
And the question is not whether we should ignore those things or
not. The question is, will I handle
it like a critic or will I handle it like Christ?
I didn't say not handle it. Will I handle it like a critic
or will I handle it like Christ? Perhaps the greatest critics
you'll find in the word of God were those 10 spies that were
sent out into the promised land. There were 12.
Two of them made a good report, 10 came back.
And what do they say? We can't do it.
They won't go. And they criticized everything
about the plan. They're too big, they're too
strong. We can't do it.
And they ended up influencing all of the people of Israel.
Now listen to this. The critics were the ones that
lived a life of utter barrenness.
Why? They all died in the wilderness.
They criticized and criticized and criticized and they died.
Never seen the promise of God. How sad is that?
Doesn't have to be that way. I've dealt with critics here or
there within church life, and that's the way church life is.
And I will say this, the critics in a church often see things in
other people, in the pastor. They see things, but they refuse
to see things in themselves and they can't possibly think that
there could be anything wrong in their life.
What happens? They live Baron, a home where a
spouse is a constant critic. A combatant instead of a
companion is not a house where God is being glorified.
So we have problems in our marriage then.
Do we handle them like a critic or we handle it like Christ, a
coworker who is constantly you're constantly criticizing
the employees, the employers and and you know that if they would
just listen to you for 5 minutes.
This whole business would be straightened out.
Could it be that God brought you there for such a time as this to
be able to show them not the best way to run their business,
but the best way to know Jesus Christ.
And that might require you taking down the notch of the
criticisms a few and instead showing Jesus Christ and maybe a
bit of here's a word from this morning long-suffering.
I'll be honest with you. Critics can get to me sometimes
I try not to live in the past or what people say or what people
have done, but but critics can get to all of us sometimes and
and I have found this to be true.
Remember George W Bush said you don't negotiate with terrorists.
If I was to make a similar quote, it would be something
like this. You don't negotiate with critics
because no matter what you do to try to placate them, they're
never happy. But I will say this, even in
preparing the message this week. And This is why when a pastor
has to get ready for a message, it's not just thus sayeth the
Lord. It's got to go through my heart
first because it was easy for me to think of people who have
criticized me over the years and say, you know what?
They need to hear this message. I hope.
I hope they find it online. I hope, I hope they hope they
rage watch our our services and I hope they find this one.
And they know that I'm talking about them.
And I thought that's probably not from the Holy Spirit.
That's a spirit. All right, You know what the
problem with thinking about critics is this, we always think
of someone else. But the real issue is this.
The critic that we need to worry about is the one you're looking
at at the mirror because you may not have a life of criticism,
but the spirit of criticism can with can live within us.
Now I tell you it'll ruin a marriage.
It'll embitter you with children, It'll embitter you to
your grandchildren. It'll embitter you to extended
family. It'll cause you to go from job
to job to job or from a relationship relationship to
relationship. And maybe you say why I don't
have any long term friends. I just, I'm not finding, could
it be that maybe the thing that is the same in all of those is
you? Well, I have, I don't have
criticism, I have discernment. Well, that's between you and the
Lord. But I would tell you these will
help you understand the difference between the two.
Do you look down on others not participating, just looking down
with disdain? Do you miss the bigger picture?
Do you think too highly of yourself?
Are you barren of spiritual fruit?
It's a good sign that you are a critic.
You know, Abraham Lincoln is revered as a president today,
isn't he? I mean, who's going to say
something negative about Abraham Lincoln today?
But I will tell you this. I just mentioned a couple weeks
ago, I was reading a history of Stonewall Jackson.
And of course there's issues with the Civil War with with
Abraham Lincoln in that book. And I really enjoy Civil War
history quite a bit. And it's amazing to me that the
the manner that Abraham Lincoln is beloved today was not the way
he was thought of during the Civil War.
Why? Our country had never come into
a situation like that before, obviously.
And everyone thought they had a better way than Abraham Lincoln.
Some thought he was too soft, some thought he was too harsh.
And no one seemed to agree. In fact, I would say this, no
one seemed to agree on how great he was until he was dead.
But Abraham Lincoln said something about critics that I
think is very, very good. And he said this.
He said I do the very best I can.
I mean to keep going. If the end brings me out all
right, then what is said against me won't matter.
But if I'm wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right won't make
a difference. He says it's not the critic who
counts. I just need to move forward and
do what I know is right, he says.
And if I'm right, it doesn't matter what people say, because
I was right. And if I'm wrong, it doesn't
matter who tries to prop me up that I was right, I was still
wrong. Just do right.
And when it comes to the Christian life, listen, don't
meddle with criticism. Just do right.
The critic lives a life of utter barrenness.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.