Acts 17 is where we are. We're
going to be taking up our consideration in verses 5 through verse 12
of Acts chapter 17. Looking forward to the time when
we get into the Athens portion. But we have come to that area
that we talked about last week, where the apostles have come
to Thessalonica. And we are reminded that God
had given the apostle Paul much grace to persevere and press
into the synagogues, as we saw in verse 2. and Paul, as his
manner was, went in unto them. These were Jews in Thessalonica. And three days reasoned with
them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that
this Jesus whom I preached unto you is Christ. We will not revisit
this at length to talk about the methodology of biblical analysis
and and discernment and actually exposition that Paul uses to
explain to his Jewish brethren that the Bible that they have
is about Jesus. But I will have you to mark that
what we read in verse four is unusual, but at the same time,
usual with respect to the impact that expository teaching does.
Verse four says, and some of them believed. That's kind of
where we left off last week. And some of them believed. Luke
says and consorted with Paul and Silas and of the devout Greeks
a great multitude and of the chief women not a few and We
would see that under point number one Subpoint C. He persuades
a few Jews and many what proselytes now, why do I say proselytes?
because contextually We are in a Jewish what? Synagogue. So
you want to make sure that you understand that the rules are
literal, historical, grammatical, theological, redemptive. So all
of your lights want to go on to identify your context when
you're reading scripture. What's important about our context? What's important is that Paul
has successfully entered into the synagogue of all places. and has had people receive the
Word of God in the synagogue. Remember, Paul's most salient
opponents are from the synagogue. So we're thankful that in this
context, he goes into a synagogue, he preaches for how many weeks?
Three weeks, that's three Sabbaths, that's 21 days. And there are
those who receive the word of God. And then Luke lets us know
the proportion, or he distinguishes those who do. He says, a few
Jews believe. Look again at verse four. And
some of them believed and consorted with Paul. And who is the sum
of them? Obviously the Jews, because that's who he is laboring
to persuade that the Bible is about Jesus. And then he says,
and of devout Greeks, what? A great multitude. I want you
to keep that in mind as we continue working through scripture, because
the historical experiences of the apostle relative to his evangelical
efforts carve out for him his theology. The labors of Paul
as he makes his way, his excursion into Asia Minor and then pushes
up even north further into Macedonia and Philippi and now he's at
Thessalonica. As he looks back on the trail
of ministry he's engaged in, here's what he's doing. He's
developing a biblical theology relative to God's working and
saving a people for himself. And here's what he's discovering.
that in the mystery as we're learning on Sundays of God's
redemptive purposes, God has chosen to save a multitude of
who? Gentiles. Every time he goes
somewhere, a ton of Gentiles believe the gospel. Every time
he goes somewhere. And then again, as we look at
verse four, we are seeing also that some who believe, Jews. So is this not Romans nine? When
Romans 9, Paul is explaining to his Gentile brethren, yes,
indeed, the larger proportion of Jewish people are rejecting
the gospel, but there is always a remnant believing the gospel.
And you see it in this context. So it's important for you to
identify those points when you are working through the history
of scripture and seeing how God actually saves. The other point
about this that I'm gonna call your attention to now that we're
gonna see in verses five and following is that with Paul being
a Jew and seeing all these Gentiles come and being confronted with
consistent and relentless hostility on the part of his Jewish brethren,
wouldn't he feel good anytime a Jew believed the gospel? Wouldn't
he thank God immensely anytime any of his Jewish brethren actually
bowed the knee to Christ? So as we work our way through
the text, we wanna remain sensitive to that because by way of application,
you know it's possible. It's possible for you and I to
be involved in ministry and actually see God working in people's lives,
only in other people's lives, not the lives of our own family
members. It's very possible for us to go lengthy periods of time
where we see grace working through the efforts of those we identify
with in the cause of Christ. And we may be involved directly
or indirectly and get to see God actually saving people or
sanctifying people or bringing people into the kingdom. And
then we think about it, wait a minute, but what about my sister
or my brother or my uncle or my aunt or my mother or my father
or my relatives and go, whoa, I'm seeing others and I'm even
participating in their salvation and not seeing my own family
members saved. And then one day one becomes
really seriously interested in Christ. And then you go, wow,
God actually saved one of my family members. And particularly
if you were involved in that process. So I want you to therefore
be thankful for and appreciate what Paul is experiencing as
he has to deal relentlessly with cousins who hate the gospel,
okay? Most of the time his cousins
hate the gospel. That's a generic term in the
Greek and the Hebrew. Cousin, it could be anybody,
aunt, uncle, brother, sister, cousin. You know, my cousin's
not feeling it. So we read now in verse five,
which will move us to a particular point, verses five and following
these words. It says in verse five through
nine, But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto
them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort." Isn't that interesting
how King James puts it? Just wicked men, okay? "...and
gathered a company." But because this is Saxon language, they
use that real Hamlet-type speech. These are lewd fellows of the
baser sort. You know, the Greek term really
don't put it that eloquent, all right? But I'm just letting you
know, you know, the lewd fellows of the baser sort. Uh, and he's
going to juxtapose these dudes here in a minute with, with the
people that are going to be graciously receiving the gospel. And we'll
talk about that. And they, uh, it went on to say, and they gathered
a company and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the
house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.
And when they found them not, that is Paul and Silas, they
drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city,
crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come
here also. So if you've been tracking with
me through the book of Acts, you'll notice what we have in
our outline here under the hostile Jewish leaders, sub point A,
what does it say? Here we go again. Here we go
again, right? This is a pathology. This is
a pattern. This is a common practice that
Paul is experiencing everywhere he goes. Here we go again. Didn't this just happen a few
verses back? Just right down the road. They
were tearing up things and ripping up the city and wanting to beat
Paul and destroy Paul and Silas. This goes to show you how the
Middle Eastern mindset, and especially in that culture, they can really
go to extremes when it comes to their opposition to people.
You would think that about all they would really wanna do is
debate Paul and Silas over theology, but something has them so viscerally
Oppositional to these men that they want to bring them out and
treat them like common criminals Worthy again to be thrown in
prison. So under point number two the hostile Jewish leaders
Let's deal quickly with the three sub points first what here we
go again So let me remind you what Paul taught in first Thessalonians
chapter 2 verse 2 now we're dealing with the folks in Thessalonica
right now, so Look at what it says in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse
two. But even after that we had suffered
before and were what? Shamefully entreated. What is
Paul doing? He's reminding the Thessalonians
of what him and Silas and his band had to go through to establish
the gospel among the Thessalonians. He's letting them know that they
must remember that as blessed as they are, the Thessalonians,
we're gonna talk about their blessing, It came at Paul and
Silas' personal peril. And notice how Paul uses this
language, shamefully what? So the whole region, if I were
to pull the map back up and show you the region of Philippi and
the region of Thessalonica and the Macedonian area, tells us
that there's such a strong hold spiritually on the people at
large, that if they could have killed these men, they would
have. So I want you to have that backdrop as we enjoy the success
of the gospel in this context. Paul understands that his life
hung in the balance every time he preached the gospel in this
region. Strip you and me of this false
sort of romantic idea that it's easy as you possibly can think
that when you share the gospel with somebody, they're going
to believe it. Also, we can also adopt a sort of an attitude of
thanksgiving that we live in a present culture that's not
so zealous that they would harm us because we share the gospel
with them, right? Right now, you and I probably don't know
anyone that we would say is in danger in the Bay Area every
time they preach Christ. I mean, you can actually preach
radical stuff and people could care less, right? As a whole,
right? So there's pros and cons relative to that. But when we're
dealing with the text, we wanna make sure that we are sensitive
to the historicity and the troubles that Paul went through. Do you
guys remember what Christ said to Paul in Acts 9? You must suffer
many things for my namesake. And that's what we're seeing.
And here's what he says to them. Yeah, so they pull the map up
and you can see up in the area of further north, up past Asia
and Messiah, Symocracy, you see Philippi and Neapolis and then
Amphipolis and the area of Macedonia. We're headed now towards what?
Berea. See Berea? And we are in the regions of
Thessalonica and Berea, far north, northwest up there. And we're
going to be heading to the 18th chapter, which will bring us
into the area of what? Achaia, Corinth, and Athens,
right? Athens is where we are in the 17th chapter, right? You
guys see that? So we're right, he's right around
the corner from a major metropolitan of a sort of a polytheistic sort
of smoggers board, if you will, of cultural thinking in Athens. But up North, he's in Berea,
where we have some very important language to acquire in terms
of understanding it. So again, going back to our second
point, the hostile Jewish leaders, Here we go again, 1 Thessalonians
2, verse 2, and then I want us to look at verses 13 through
16. But you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to hold these
for later, because they're going to come up again in our next point. Subpoint
B, what? The devil uses what? Lies, threats,
and what? Legal persecution. So these are
the tactics of the enemy. And Paul said in 2 Corinthians
6, he said it also in Ephesians 5, he says, we are not ignorant
of his devices. And then he said in Ephesians
six, we know his methods, his devices and his methods. And
what Paul was talking about was when the enemy has put a bullseye
on your back, he always uses lies because he's the father
of lies. Is that true? He always uses threats, right?
Because the threat component in any adversaries quiver is
designed to test your faith. The threat component in any adversary's
quiver is designed to test the genuineness of your faith in
Christ. When you and I are under threat,
we get to ask ourselves, are we willing to lay down our lives
for the gospel? Or we may even merely be under
threat to lose our job, be demoted, go to jail, or be cut off from
a group of people that we like, ostracized. There are many levels
of threat, right? But the question is, when those
threats come, do we value that relationship, be it a business
relationship or a personal relationship at such a level that it threatens
our identity with Christ? Or are we willing to say, you
know, for Christ's sake, I'm going to take this hit and lose
this group or lose this person. or lose these people, or lose
this job. That's why God allows him to
threaten us. Are you guys hearing me? You
and I are made to be honest before God from time to time with threats. Did you get that? I want to make
sure you get that because we are very confident in what we
say we believe so long as the context is not a threatening
context. Let something be in danger to
be taken from us and it will see how valuable and precious
Jesus is to us then. Right? And so the work of the
devil is to lie. That's a major strategy of his
to threaten us. And then to what use legal, what
persecution that's right. Legal persecution. This has been
the historic method of the enemy. So his goal, according to Paul
in Ephesians six, to actually situate himself in the civil
authorities of our world and so govern the political structures
that possess policies and legislation and the power of the sword and
through that means threaten and persecute the believer this is
generally the case throughout the world It's still the case
in many parts of the world now, as you know, where believers
are always in danger of mortal harm by virtue of governments
that are in opposition to the gospel. And as I've stated so
many times, our country is moving towards that direction, whether
you know it or not, very slowly, but not in so overt a way that
you can't see it. The policies that they are developing,
they know are contrary to the moral and ethical precepts of
scripture. They know that these are problematic
for Christians. You guys understand that? They
know it. So you and I are facing a growing hostile beast component
turning towards the believer right now. So John 10.10, you
know it. It'll be contextual here. The
thief comes not but to what? Steal, kill, and destroy. That's right. That's his goal,
steal. If he can steal your crown by dislodging you from your faith
so that you don't run this race looking unto Jesus, who is the
author and finisher of your faith, he's happy. Because whether you
die here or not, when you face Jesus on the last day, having
abandoned the gospel, there's even a greater consequence, right?
So if he can steal your joy, if he can steal your faith, even
if he can't steal your salvation, he wants to steal your capacity
to influence people because of your salvation. There are a lot
of people who are bereft of the glory of the gospel because the
enemy has stolen their joy. And so they have no testimony
of any sort by which God then can be honored because of his
communion with them. Am I making some sense? So we
want to be very careful about the ways in which the adversary
knows how to steal and then also kill. And then ultimately what? Destroy. Right. Here's the final
sub point that's quite interesting to me. And I thank God for it
because God does this too. And let's look at this. In verses
five through seven, It says, but the Jews which believe not
move with envy and took unto them certain lewd fellows, lewd
fellows moving on down and assaulted the house of one who? Jason. And assaulted the one, now why
is he at Jason's house? Because Jason boarded who? Paul and Silas. He kept them,
didn't he? He kept our two brothers, but
the enemy is coming into his house. and he sought to bring
them out to the people, but we are told in verse six, and when
they found them not, that is Paul and Silas escaped knowing
that the house was being pursued by these persons. They drew Jason
and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city. Do you see
the word drew there? Right, and Paul uses that word
advisedly, that word can be also translated dragged. What do you
mean by force? By force, meaning this was not
a dignified experience. This was a confrontation where
they accosted Jason and they dragged him out of his house
and they dragged him to the magistrates, just like it happened in Acts
16 with Paul and them. So these same Jews are rushing
up into Jason's house and dragging him and accusing him before the
magistrates. What does that mean, ladies and
gentlemen? That means whenever you and I identify with the people
of God, and especially those who are vehicles and instruments
by which the gospel is preached, and that gospel is functioning
in power and agitating the contrary powers, your identification with
them is going to set you up to take some heat too. Right? Your identification with those
who are being used by God is going to set you up to take some
heat too. So is Jason's faith being tested now? Certainly it
is. Was his faith tested when he
heard about the coming of Silas and Paul and could have really
averted the matter by saying, you know what, I'm going to stay
low. let these dudes do what they wanna do, but I'm not gonna
make my home the center of their ministry. Because if I do that,
I'm gonna have to deal with the heat that's coming from the political
and religious rulers that are in our society. See that? So for Jason to even keep these
two brothers is to set himself up for trouble because he identifies
with those who are of the gospel. His faith has to be tested too,
doesn't it? So now notice what it says. And when they have found
them, they drew Jason and certain found them. Now they drew Jason
and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying these
that have turned the world upside down and are come hither to notice
the attitude and perspective on the part of their foes. They
are viewing the apostle Paul and Silas and his band as turning
the world upside down. So now this is interesting too,
on a psychological level. I don't know if Paul viewed the
ministry that he was engaging in as turning the world upside
down, but his enemies did. This gives you insight into what
often takes place. And I've shared this with you
too. If you know the Bible, the word of God, and you are gifted
to share the word of God with a level of boldness and confidence,
uh, in your own quarters at work, uh, on the job or at school or
what have you be very sensitive to this reality. that while for
you it's a normative thing and everything seems to be going
well, it could very well be that you're turning things upside
down in the environment that you are in and really troubling
people and starting a wave of agitation that you are not being
sensitive to. And if you're not careful, that
wave which goes out like a tsunami is going to come back and hit
you. And if you're not ready for it,
you're going to go, why was that? Because your faith in Christ
created a Whipple effect that led out and brought a way back
in that said, let's try to get rid of this person. Am I making
some sense? These people have turned the world upside down.
Verse seven, whom Jason has what received. Now they want to blame
it on Jason. Jason is a culprit in there.
See, Jason at receiving these all do contrary to the decrees
of home, right? So there goes your political
Argument, right? I told you he uses what politics
he persecutes legally, right? Caesar is Lord But Caesar is
being opposed by one Jesus Who is also what Lord? Now, what's
fascinating about this particular argument, and we won't deconstruct
it at length, is that this is the same argument that these
same dudes used when they killed Jesus, right? We have no king but Caesar, and
this man makes himself a king, and there can't be but one king,
right? So this is really on a cosmic
level, as you guys already know, a battle between kings, isn't
it? So when you read your Bible and you see that your Bible is
exclusively monarchial, not democratic, not socialist, not any other
political structure, it's purely what? Monarchial. All your Bible
addresses are kings. It doesn't even spend a moment's
time affirming the different political constructs that you
and I debate every day because the way God sees it is that in
the spiritual dimension, the only form of government that
exists is the government of two sovereigns, the Lord God Almighty
and the devil and his imps. who are subordinate to him, and
he reigns as a king over them. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And these two celestial entities are at loggerheads with
each other, joggerheads with each other. They are at battle
with each other. That's the way God sees it. And
that's the way that you and I should see it. And so we read in Revelation
chapter 17 about the 10 kings who for one hour are given power
with the beast and they all have the same mind and they make war
against the lamb and against those that are with him. Remember
that language, Revelation 17, and that underscores the trajectory
of our political systems as we move more towards the end of
time. Are you guys seeing that? We call this what? The ecumenical
movement, right? So an ecumenical effort is being
achieved and sought after by all of the political powers in
their own individual adjustments and power vacuums and desires
to be part of some prominent experience in our world. Ultimately,
it has to all be summed up under one governmental head, bringing
us back to a monarchy. Do you understand that? Bringing
us back to a monarchy. And that monarchy, that single,
single, solitary monarchy will be in open opposition against
Christ ultimately, which means against his church as well. Having
said all that, here's what I want you to observe. Look at what
it says in verse 7. Verse 7, yep. Whom Jason had
received, and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying
that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the
people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. You can create trouble by how
you construct your argument, right? This is a perfect and
classic case of propaganda. This is a classic case of propaganda,
troubling the people, troubling the people as if somehow the
cause of the gospel is a social gospel agenda. As if what we're
trying to do is overthrow governments. As if what we're trying to do
is kind of completely deconstruct worldviews and reestablish political
kingdoms, which is the reason for which many of our churches
historically have vociferously opposed any kind of social gospel
agenda. Because the moment that you embrace
a social agenda that is willing to stand against the political
forces of the world, you have to be ready to take up the sword.
Do you guys hear what I'm saying? The moment you do that, you have
to be ready to take up the sword because if you have no swords,
you have no cause when you go political. If you have no swords,
you have no cause. You can't say that you are a
political movement and you don't have a bite in your argument
or threat. This is why so many times social
gospels become physical and they become conflict oriented. and
they take up arms, or they facilitate the taking up of arms behind
the scenes, like the Catholic Church has done so many times,
and even our own evangelical churches, i.e. the Christian
right, etc., when it thinks that it can actually advance the gospel
through political means. Am I making some sense? Right.
So you got to be very careful. You guys notice when you listen
to me on the radio, how I really try to hold a tension between
being sincerely concerned about political issues without crossing
the line into a rah-rah, let's take up banners and take up boycotts
and take up strategies to oppose this, that or the other. Because
the church has slid into those kinds of unlawful allegiances
many times only to lose. Right? Only to lose. So there's
a real tension between the priestly office of the church and the
prophetic office of the church. That is the right to speak into
society's ills and harms without being compelled to or forced
into the fray of the conflict that people like to get into.
I'm a prophet, I'm not a politician. You guys got that? You're a prophet,
you're not a politician. Your job is not to sit up and
vote and try to get this person out by any means necessary. Our
job is not to be in cahoots with unprincipled people and people
groups that are willing to lie and manipulate and distort facts
to destroy other person's ad hominem. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? That's why I said be very careful
when you slide into these kind of political phrase because they
do get hot and you lose your sense of objectivity and biblical
reasoning because you want your candidates to win. At what cost? Biblical integrity, biblical
ethics, biblical morals, the light of absolute truth, the
axioms of scripture got to go out the window just because you
want to win. You see how the goal of the enemy is to drag
you down into a political construct so that you can't be Christian
or biblical. Now, how many of you guys know
what happens when you take a position of being more committed to an
allegiance to Jesus than you do to politics? You get hated
on both sides. Right? Does that, do you see
that? And you know what they say to you? What good are you?
Why don't you just take a side? And I've been saying this lately
too, it's not new, but you know, who are you voting for? Jesus?
I just gave you the answer, you missed it. It wasn't a question,
that was a response. Who are you voting for? Jesus. I'm voting
for Jesus. Cause I know he can fix the problem.
Who are you voting for? I'm voting for the Lord Jesus
Christ. I vote for Jesus Christ. So what that means for me is
I really don't have a whole lot of confidence in any politician. Sorry. I've been around long
enough to know that they don't know that they don't know that
they don't know. One last thing before we go to
our second point and dive deeply into something that's more appeasing
to our spiritual interests as believers. And I raised the question
at some point, see, They were received, that is Paul and Silas
were received into the house of one, what's his name? Jason.
And I think I wrote why? Who knows the answer? Who knows
the reason for which Jason now pops on the scene in the sacred
text of whom we will not forget for all eternity because he facilitated
taking care of God's choice servants. Why would he do this beyond the
fact of being a believer? They were cousins. So now I know y'all don't study
your outline. I know that. I know you don't
study your outline. You take your outline. You know,
it's cute picture that they do on here, but you don't study
your outline. Go to Romans 16, 21. Let me affirm
that and move on. This is just an aside. Now, remember,
what are the five fundamental rules that we use when we interpret
the scripture? Literal, historical, grammatical,
theological, and redemptive. And so when we are pegging at
those five expository principles, we are looking for all information
and all data that will help us rightly divide the word of God,
right? So notice what Paul did. I can't wait to get to Romans
16 and show you something that I think is so paradoxical about
Paul. I don't know how you can achieve
this. And I wish that I could. I don't know if this is a matter
of culture. I don't know if this is a matter of just, First century
fruit on the part of the apostle Paul You and I know he had tons
of enemies, right? I mean tons of enemies But do
you know this brother has so many friends in the faith Is
just incredible And he would write about him. Romans 16 is
a whole list of brothers and sisters in Christ that he's literally
writing down. Oh yeah. Remember Joe? Oh yeah.
Remember sister Sally? Oh yeah. Remember brother John?
Oh yeah. Tell brother in such and sister such and such this
and that, which means that he was able to negotiate the gospel
in the midst of his hostile enemies, make friends in the faith and
then be true authentic friends. That's no easy task. Do you understand
that? That's no easy task. You and
I are fortunate if we have two or three real friends in our
life. One more thing in the church. So he says Timothy is my work
fellow and Lucius and Jason And suscipitor, my kinsmen salute
you. So he's identifying Jason Suscipitor
as his what? Kinsmen salute you. So the implication
of verse 21 of Luke 16 is that they actually family, okay? That's
not a bad thing. Again, I think I said it earlier,
every now and then God does something kind of amazing for us, doesn't
he? We ended up having a cousin that believes the gospel, right?
And we go, man, that's a trip. You know, you keep your fingers
crossed to God. I hope it's real, you know, but, uh, this is not
the only relative that Paul had that was a believer. And I think
I'll wait till we get to Romans 16 to, to teach on that. So Paul,
as a biographical, let's go back to our text. Now, Paul, as a
biographical study, uh, um, is a fascinating study in itself
because what it tells us is that God, while he gave Paul so much
trouble by way of persecution for the gospel, he offset that
with really dear friends and even relatives who were willing
to identify with the gospel of Jesus Christ because of Paul's
efforts. And that's a great thing and God does do that from time
to time. All right, let's move on. The more Noble Bereans. Let's begin to work with that.
That's our third point. We'll get through the two points. Well,
I have a fourth point. I may get to it myself tonight,
but I think this will be it. The more noble Bereans. Look at verse 10 through 12 in
our outline. And the brethren immediately
sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither,
that is to Berea, we saw that on the map, right? Went into
the synagogues of the Jews. There he is again, right? And
then it says, And these were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
So Luke calls our attention to some really peculiar factors
about the Bereans. Now the Bereans are in the regions
of Macedonia, but they are not part of that, uh, that larger
city, um, group who oppose the apostle Paul and Silas and the,
uh, in the cause of the gospel, these folks in this synagogue
were hungry and they were serious. So we want to just basically
look at our outline, three sub points. And this is quite interesting
because what Luke says is that they were more what? Noble, more
noble. So again, you know, what does
that mean? What does, what does he mean
by the fact that they were noble? Um, what does nobility have to
do with, you know, spiritual virtue? In the first sense, when
you hear the word noble, do you think of any kind of spiritual
attribute? Not really? Well, think about
it. Let's work with that for a moment,
because you're going to find this to be also in the grammatical
sense unsubstantiated. If I peg literal, historical,
grammatical as a rule, what I discover is that there's nothing inherent
in this Greek word that is translated in the English word noble that
would connote anything spiritual. And so I'm wondering, Luke, what
are you up to when you say they were more noble? What do you
mean by noble? Somebody just give me an observation
or give me a synonym for noble in your own mind. Just raise
your hand. Honorable, okay, that's good, honorable. Now, what, that's
a good word, honorable, but what would that mean in terms of spiritual
things? What makes a person spiritually
honorable? Authenticity, is that, would
that, what's that? Would authenticity be a good
correlative or a synonym for nobility? I think it's a stretch,
don't you think? You can be authentic and be a
scoundrel. Don't you think? I'm a scoundrel
and I ain't hiding it. I'm authentic with it. I don't
like you. Right? Right. You know what I'm
saying? I'm a scoundrel. You know, just I'm nasty. I don't
like people. I'm a scoundrel. That's who I
am. Right? Doesn't have any honor to it
or nobility. So what would be another synonym?
Nate, I saw your hand up back there. What? Faith. Interesting. Is that possible? Noble meaning
faithful. Interesting. John. Mature, noble
being mature, interesting. Does he have some, does he have
a point there about nobility being mature? Some say yes, some
say no. Now, I wanna remind you now,
if you don't know anything about the word noble, you're on the
sideline right now, okay? Please understand that, right?
You really are on the sideline, right? If you never even investigated
the basic, you know, meaning of the idea noble, you know,
in terms of its lexical meaning, Dante. Commendable in their ability
to study and think? Right, and I think that we are
only deriving that from the context. If we lift the word out, and
I'm saying on a lexical level, the word nobility doesn't seem
to have any direct application to the fact that they were willing
to study, which we're going to talk about in a minute. Anybody,
another word, anybody? My sister. Royal. That's actually the literal
term. Anybody else? No, nobility don't
mean hungry for Jew. My sister. Huh? Respectable? It's another good word. Another
good word. I know you're cheating, Tamara,
but what? What? Integrity. Is that one of the
synonyms? Integrity. I like that. So, let's
get ready to do something with this. I think I saw honor. What
was the one here? What was yours, my sister? What
was that word that they said? Royalty. Okay. Now, this here is more
of a denotative meaning. Royalty is more of a denotative
meaning. Because we're getting ready to
look at the Greek term here in a moment. I'll show you if y'all
haven't already cheated. Kalde. Aristocratic? All right. Are you cheating, Calday? Okay,
he said, yeah, good. All right, let's tell the truth.
Told you, honest people not going to hell, right? You might as
well tell the truth. Wise? No. That's a good term, but here,
you know, you who are saying that the word noble means honorable,
you are, this here, out of 10, this would be a six. That really
is not the term. Maybe on a connotative level
it would be, but more on a denotative level is royalty. Aristocratic
would have its implication in that the royal line may very
well be part of the aristocratic elite, right? And that, you know,
nepotism is a prominent practice for those who possess money and
wealth. We somehow get our relatives inside the major institutions
so that we keep it among ourselves. Is that true? But what's interesting
about this word is that when you look this particular word
up, it's actually the word from which we get the term eugenics. So the Greek word has a prefix
in it. Who knows what the word you means?
Good. Good. Eulogy is what we say when
we are speaking well of someone. Logos, right? Logos is what? The word. And so eulogos means
to speak good words. So when we use the term eugenics,
what are we saying? Good what? Genes. Good genes. Isn't that interesting? So I just brought that up as
to why it is important sometimes to slow down and let the grammatical
emphasis kind of challenge your synapses and fire off different
neurotransmitters in your brain. What do I mean by that? So for Luke, he wants us to know
that there is a group of people who were more characteristically
bent and that it could have had some genetic component to it. Meaning that there are some of
us who have strong traits in one area as a people group. Others
of us have stronger traits in other areas as a people group.
Are you guys following the logic? And yet others still, and those,
traits can be both genetic and culturally trained and developed
and matured so that certain people you meet will be more predispositioned
to actually reason with you around propositional truth and not be
so emotionally driven like the barbarians of the previous verses. the baser fellows of sort, right? The ones we just talked about,
right? The baser fellows of sort that if they don't agree with
you, they want to hang you from the highest tree and burn you
up, have sandwiches while they do it, right? We would call them,
you know, rank pagans as just one cousin away from the gorilla,
right? What I'm getting at is that the,
because we actually believe in the inspiration of scripture,
you have to slow down and let it speak. now remember who's
writing who's writing who's who's the human author of this text
Luke he's a physician he is using a profound physical term as he
thinks about the disposition of these people. And then again,
when he was talking about the fellows of a baser sort in the
previous verses, but here he says, these were more noble than
those in Thessalonica. So for me, what Luke is stating
is a combination of cultural ethics, and morals that restrain
them from acting in a way that is irrational and unreasonable
simply because their worldviews are being challenged. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? Now watch this. They're not saved
yet, but they have been given a grace to hear out propositional
truth, which makes them ready for salvation at a level that
others are not. So now follow this. So this is
the kind of stuff that missionaries come up against. What do you
mean pastor? Missionaries will go into you
know, the Philippines, the jungles of the Philippines, or go into
Papua New Guinea, like one of our missionaries, or go into
South Africa, or West Indies, or into Central America, and
find the more common natives that are very rudimental in their
understanding and behavior, or to the Amazon, you know, go to
the jungles where people are really, really pagan, right?
where once you learn their language and dialect and start engaging
with them, that if you don't understand their temperament,
you can be quickly hampered in your evangelical objective because
you fail to realize their emotional range and the commitment of their
emotions in the context of dialogue. Am I making some sense? Am I
making some sense? Right. And so there is something
to people growing to become more reasonably driven than emotionally
driven. Right? And what we do want are
people to be more reasonably driven than emotionally driven
because our theology is propositional in nature, isn't it? How am I
going to share the gospel with you if the only thing you do
is feel? How am I going to share the gospel
with you if all you do is feel? If all you do is see, if all
you do is feel and see, I have no gospel for you. Is that true? I have no gospel. Let's, let's
work with this. If all, if you're saying, show
me a sign or a wonder, I have no gospel for you. A perverse
and wicked generation seeketh after a sign and a wonder. I
have no gospel for you. If you're telling me to have
the Holy Ghost give you, uh, the heebie-jeebies, and emotional
liver quivers. I have no gospel for you. Did
you hear what I just say? Let me help you here. So this
is the challenge of the gospel going to all the world. Its job
is to reach the mind. Okay. And the heart which biblically
comprehended, not socially comprehended, but biblically comprehended,
is the center of man's being, which includes his volition,
which volition is always informed by his mind. So in the beginning was the Logos. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. And go into all the world and preach the
what? So the term preaching, kerygma, means to communicate
the authoritative propositional truth of God's Word to people.
So when I run across a group of people whose temperament is
largely emotional, and they are driven on existentialism more
than they are on reason and propositional truth, I've got to build a bridge
to their mind. Don't I? To talk to them. What
gospel do I have for you which does not necessitate me telling
you that you are a sinner. The moment I make that statement,
I am demanding that you contemplate things like God's holiness, God's
justice, God's righteousness, God's law, your responsibility
as a moral agent under God's law and where you stand in reflection
of your own conscious as to having broken that law. Am I making
some sense? Right? You have no gospel to tell men
and women if your gospel does not help them understand where
they stand before God relative to his law. The gospel always
is repent. You are under the wrath of God. It's never just smile. Jesus
loves you. Never. You don't have that in
your Bible. They're there. Let's just pray
and it'll be all right. Holy spirit come upon them and
give them a saving knowledge of christ Even though it won't
be propositional. Just let them feel saved. How
do you feel? saved This is why paul is uh, luke
is driving home the nobility factor of these people who are
now willing to search the scriptures and not have a knee-jerk reaction
simply because people are coming with a foreign or alien doctrine. Okay? This is very important
for us. So under our third point, which
we'll close here tonight, the more noble Bereans, the first
point I call is the nobility of what? Hearing. The nobility
of hearing. Now, are we now not dealing with
propositional issues? The ear hears what? Words, right? And then the ear begins to discern
words, don't they? It gets, it begins to consider
now, what are they saying? And in this context, these people
have the advantage of a medium between their guests and themselves. And that medium was what? The
word of God. Look at the text again, verse
11. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that
they received the what? Word. They received the word. They received the word. Is that how it's done? They received
the word. This is the battle that we're
fighting even in our present day, as we're starting to throw
the Bible out in our churches. They received the word. This
shocked Paul, that as he shared the word with them, he didn't
just get a bunch of arguments that led to ad hominem attacks
and distorted circular reasoning. And then, you know, this kind
of inflammatory move to throw them out of the church. These
guys received the word. So the first thing I wanna call
your attention to under that proposition, they received the
word is that little verb received. Do you see that word verbs received?
That verb received there means to welcome it. There are many
Greek words in the New Testament that are translated, receive,
lumbano, paralumbano, or komai, other Greek terms, which means
to just receive. Some in the passive sense, some
in the reciprocal sense. This particular Greek term means
to welcome it. That's a disposition of heart.
Now watch this. What this means is, is that when
someone says, thus saith the Lord, and you go, was that the
word that you just shared? And once you know it is, you
go, I welcome that. I welcome God's word. I do not
question it. I don't fight with it. We don't
debate. It's not a theological football
to throw back and forth. I receive your word. This is
what Paul, this is what Luke is meaning by the nobility of
these people. This is the idea of receiving the word. And so
let's look at a few verses under the concept of receiving the
word as we have in our concept they receive the word it means
to welcome gladly Matthew chapter 1040 Matthew 1040 is an example
of this in our own in our Lord's own affirmation of his disciples
ministry here's what he says and I like this and I think you
remember this and here you can mark by it the attitude no Attitude
or disposition attitude or disposition of the one who is receiving the
word So in Matthew's gospel chapter 10 verse what 40 listen to what
it says and I'm gonna start back at verse 38 and he that taketh
not his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. There
you go verse 39 he that findeth his life shall lose it and he
that loses his life for my sake shall what I Right, and this
is the cost of legitimate discipleship, right? Now watch what he says,
and he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me
receiveth him that what? Verse 41, and he that receiveth
the prophet in the name of the prophet shall receive a prophet's
reward. Verse 40 tells us that when a person has heard that
you have come to them with the word of the gospel, and there's
a response of welcoming you into their house, That individual
is welcoming the Word of God to have an impact in their life.
And what Christ says is, where people are welcoming you in,
they are welcoming Him in. Right. So what I am interested
in for me is how to determine what I'm witnessing because what
we're learning here in the book of Acts is evangelism, right?
How does evangelism work? Well, it comes with the obedience
of faith. It requires us going with the
Word of God. It requires us facing troubles. but it also requires
us discerning how people respond to it. So we're not quickly running
over this statement and they received the word of God. No,
they didn't just receive it. They received it readily. They
welcomed it. Help me now, saints. We got a
few more minutes. When was the last time you talked to somebody
about the word as a first conversation with them? And they were so eager
and open and welcoming of the word. One last time, somebody
raise your hand. Recently? Okay, one, two, out of 70 people,
one, two, three, four, five, six. Recently? That's good. Isn't
that a great feeling? Isn't it kind of actually remarkable?
Right, so the text tells us that if we see people welcoming, welcoming
the word like that, we have a really, really good chance of seeing
the same outcome with them. So if they welcome the word,
here's what they're gonna do. Going back to our text, if they
actually welcomed the word, these were more noble than those in
Thessalonica in that they received the word, they welcomed the word
with all what? Readiness of mind. Again, that
term readiness means eagerly. Readiness of mind, eagerly, eagerly. They received it with eagerness. They welcomed it and they received
it with eagerness. The word of God. Now this takes
us back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I want you to look at a few
verses in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 where the apostles talk about
this to the church at Thessalonica. And then we will begin to close
down on the Bereans. I want to call your attention
to one more thing about the Bereans. First, they were noble eugenically,
that they were predispositioned by God's sovereignty and His
mercy in their life as human beings not to be so antipathetic
or so so contrary to people so so and you know you just meet
some people the moment you disagree it just flies off the handle
you go where is this dude coming from I mean we just met ten minutes
later you want to fight first Thessalonians chapter 2 notice
what he says over in verse 13 are we there He says these words,
for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because
when you, what, received the word of God, which you heard
of us, watched it, you received it not as the what? Stop right
there. Who knows the difference? What's
the difference? Anybody tell me, let's spend
a few moments here. What's the difference? What is the expressional
difference? between a person receiving the
Word of God from you as the Word of God and a person receiving
the Word of God from you as the Word of men. Who knows that experience? None of y'all? Nobody know? Do you know, Jeff? Okay, tell
us then. What is it? What experience? and either quoting scripture
or just sharing with them some particular point and them recognizing
that there's something that does not. They want to hear this.
We're going to get this on testimony if you got the answer. Get this
mic. I need you to go back there.
Catch my sister back to here. Raise your hand if you've had
this experience. I just want to use this as an example before we
shut it down. What were you saying? I've had the experience of sharing
the gospel. Raise your hand. Raise your hand. Sharing the gospel with someone
who did not see it as something personal to me, but as something
that spoke to their heart, and it was very clear when it happened,
because they received it in such a way that let me know that this
really wasn't about me. Something else must be going
on here, and that something else had to be the Spirit of God at
work in them, causing them to Relish what they were here. Do
you guys identify with what he's stating? Okay, so for me what's
going on with what Jan just stated is kind of a partial affirmation
of what we're dealing with so what we're dealing with is what
I would consider a closed-loop experience and I want to see
if we can Substantiate that okay. There are sometimes when you
share the Word of God with people and you really think that that
in that moment by facial expressions or responses that they really,
really felt what you were saying. Only to find out a week later
they didn't even understand what you were saying. I'm just telling
you. You go, what happened last week? What was last week about? Okay,
so in a sense I hear what you're saying, but the text is actually
doing something more explicit. So if that person with whom you
were sharing the word and you felt like they were really receiving
it to heart, did it would have moved him, moved them to this
next level of manifestation. My sister. Greetings, pastor. Good stand saints. Uh, yeah.
Uh, recently when I shared, um, a track and I was speaking about
the goodness of God to someone, I knew that they had received
the word and they totally just I wasn't even in the picture
anymore because they had a sense of sorrow and it looked like
they were kind of getting down and a little bit depressed. But
then when I let them know what the solution was, of course,
to accept Christ as their Savior and then come on out in fellowship
to hear the word because faith come by hearing and hearing by
the word of God. Then they kind of lit up and they saw that,
okay, I can turn this around. And immediately they wanted to
start confessing a lot of sins that they had been involved in
to me. And so I knew that, of course, it wasn't me, that it
was the gospel. This is great. To me, my sister's
example takes us a little bit further, but not completely.
I'm not being hard, I'm just gonna share with you what I mean
by that, okay? So with Jans, they seem to have
been. There was a perception of it.
With my sister, they were explicitly open to receiving that word and
stating that they were sorrowful, etc., right? Have y'all ever
been there with people? I have too. I've been there many
times as an evangelist with people willing to confess their sin
to Father Jesse. Right? I mean, because that's
what people do. I mean, this is a good moment
for them to do some absolutions and some cleaning up. Only to
find out a week later that there was no real lasting change. Why? Because we are dealing with the
parable of the sower in the seed. So sometimes the seed is sown
on the wayside where people blow it off right away. then there
is that seed that's sown on shallow ground where it receives the
word with joy for a moment. And there seems to be springing
up this repentance and sorrow and they cry, right? And when you've done ministry
long enough, you hurry up and negotiate through that emotional
component with them because you're not deceived to believe that
the emotional feeling is conversion. because it's not. That's why
Luke 8 warns us and they received the word with joy for a while. But when persecution comes, our
challenges over against their faith because now they are identifying
with Jesus, they fall right back. So we're not actually demonstrating,
we're building a good argument, but we're not demonstrating what
Acts is talking about here. Acts is talking about closing
the deal by certain characteristics that I wanted to see if it was
affirmed among us, because I think that this is unusual, that's
what's taking place here. You share the word with somebody
in a grocery store, at the gym, or at the bus stop, and then
they cleave to you. I want to give you my number,
would you give me your number? I didn't know, but this is what
I'm longing for. Where is the next Bible study?
Can I come to church with you? Would you pick me up? Because
I tell you, I knew something was wrong. I need God. Can you give me a Bible? In fact,
I've got one of them dusted off. Can you tell me where to start
reading? Because what you're saying is really resonating with
me. And I need a fellowship. Can
I get see so what we're actually talking about is the work of
the Spirit of God When he convinces a man of sin and then points
them to Jesus Christ Which is their only righteousness and
begins to draw that sinner to Christ They don't ever stop halfway
Because authentic conversion brings you all the way into the
gospel Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? It is very important
for you to know to make the distinction between false conversions and
true conversions, which often people don't know. So that's
good. Don't get me wrong. I'm excited
anytime a person would listen to me for five minutes. But I'm
also mature enough to know that that is no more salvation than,
you know, anything. because salvation is evidenced
by not only a receiving the word of God in a welcoming way, which
doesn't always happen the first time. Like when God's working
with people, he can actually make you mad. That's true. He can actually irritate you,
but because he put the handcuffs of grace on you, you stuck. And now you're fighting with
all get up to oppose what that brother or sister is saying.
And they keep coming back saying, but what about this? What about
that? What about this? What about? And then eventually
they capitulate. They capitulate. And that capitulation
is really what you want to see, because when salvation is taking
place, it's taking place at the level of the will. Are you guys
hearing me at the level of the world? Was there an example over
here right there? Can I, can I use my own example
of myself? No. OK, well, I have another
one. There was a gentleman I met in
church, and he had been saved. But he had been struggling with
something. It wasn't a salvation experience.
But what I did was I simply pointed him to the Bible, to listen to
the Bible, and to measure the Bible with what's being preached.
And his parents came and thanked me later. And now he's gone on
to Bible college, and he's a missionary to Singapore. That's a good example. That's the only person ever,
but praise the Lord. All we need is one. I only need
one. But notice what he stated that
this individual was in church, thought he was saved. That's
a real problem. Didn't have no interest in God
at the level of making this calling an election. Sure. But at the
right time, God used you to tell him to get into the book. So
now watch this as we get ready to shut it down. The key evidence. I have never seen this to fail. The key evidence that people
are really serious about God is they're serious about his
word. As the proverb puts it, the talk
of the lips only tends to poverty, but there's profit in all labor.
When a person is really genuinely called by God's grace, the thing
that they're gonna do is hunger and thirst for God's Word. Please
hear what I'm saying. This is an infallible evidence,
an infallible evidence. Where people are not hungry for
God's Word, the Spirit of God is not working, is not working. is not working. This is why the
text is so explicit for this cause. We give thanks unto God
without ceasing, because when you receive the word of God,
which you heard of us, so faith comes by what you received did
not as the word of men. And here's the point. Here's
the point in this text. They didn't, they didn't question
it's divine authority. They were predisposition to submit
to the fact that this was God's word. and it brought them to
a saving consequence. You received it not as the word
of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. Watch this now,
which what? Effectually worketh also in you
that what? So will you notice that the totality
of this verse with the multiple clauses that it has is all about
the word. Watch it. It says, because when
they received the word, which they heard of us. You did not
receive it as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word
of God, which is effectually working in you, what's working
in you, what's working in us. And this is why John said it
in first John chapter three, verse nine, that he that is born
of God does not continue to practice sin because his seed is in him. What is the seed? The Word of
God. The incorruptible Word of God, the person of the Lord Jesus,
is sown into our hearts through the preaching of the gospel.
And when that seed germinates and explodes, it casts you into
a life trajectory of seeking God. You are seeking God. And where that's not happening,
we're not experiencing salvation. Let's go back to Acts. I'm going
to close in. I'll welcome any questions here in a minute if
you want to make some observations about this. So it closes this
way. These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica in that they received the word of God with
all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures. See? And searched the scriptures.
How frequently? Literally, that's what it says
too, daily. So let's capture that model as we close now. Let's
capture that model. They were in a legalistic church
of an Old Testament paradigm under Judaism, because it's a
synagogue. They have not seen the glory
of God in Christ yet, because the gospel has not come in power.
So they're church folk, but they're not saved. Does that make sense? But they are in a position where
God has nurtured and prepared their life and their mind and
heart so that when once the gospel is preached, they have all of
the resources available for them now to affirm the gospel, which
is the word of God. And when once that gospel is
preached in the sufficiency of God's grace, as it was by Paul,
the first thing they do is make a beeline to the authority, which
is scripture and start searching those things out that Paul had
stated. That's the point of concern that
we have today with our professing Christian church. I can tell
you right now, right here, right at this point. You study a Bible?
Well, not really. Does it bother you? Yeah, sometimes.
What? What? This is the real problem
in our present generation. I don't know who I was talking
with today, but we were talking about that. Oh yeah, I do know
who I was talking with. And the individual was telling
me how they were heartbroken about a relative of theirs that
professes to be a believer, but admits that they have no desire
to study the word of God. You guys got that? That is a
problem. Do you understand that? That's
a major, major problem. Observation, Calde, before we
shut it down. I noticed that a lot of people that become hungry,
initially they have like a pushback or they get offended. And so
they, you know, it's like you know, they may not openly contend,
but most of them have, like, this pensive kind of outlook,
where they're, like, really contemplating. And then they'll come back, even
though they're, like, bothered by it, but they'll come back
and say, what did you mean by that? And sort of, you know,
almost in a gruff voice, but eventually the thing that seems
to come out is that they want to come to the watering hole. Where do you hear these things? Where can I get an understanding
of the scripture? While he's talking, go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. We're going to shut it down here. But the other thing was
the word of men thing, because a lot of my experience is with
ethereal people and people that really have a feeling. In fact,
I was just talking to a family member myself that said, I feel
like God is in me. and I know that because he guides
me and I ask them to give me some evidence beyond their experience
and feelings, what they can see and what they can feel. And so
they were like, well, that's all we have is feelings and experience. And so that's a hard place because
people, like you said, there's no gospel for people who have
you know that ethereal outlook because they're like everything
is is doubtful and then they got to the core of it and said
yeah I grew up in in the islands where we learned and they know
more scripture than a lot of Christians actually they knew
the story of Abigail they knew the story but they said well
we learned my mother told me that there's many ways to God
so we learned Hinduism right along with Christianity of course
so Christ is not really a savior to me he's a great prophet but
he's not I said then you've You've vacated the gospel. He's not
a savior. It's not a sinner's gospel. It's
not the gospel. Right. And so as we look at this
last portion and consider this, and this is a very salient place
to close, because I would say that when we think about many
times the evidences are lack thereof of professing Christians,
and we go, these are concrete evidences that people are not
saved. And yet those same concrete evidences
can be found in people that we would believe to be saved. Did
you guys follow that? Same evidences in people that
we would believe to be saved, which is what makes this particular
reflection or consideration humbling, right? It's humbling because
it's not only the person who doesn't darken the doors of the
church or who comes twice a year, Easter and Christmas, are comes
when they are in trouble. You know, there's a pathology,
right? They get in trouble, they do
something wrong, it gets bad, now they go to church for a hot
minute and get cleaned up and then trail off again. It's not just them, but it's
the people that weekly come to church. But during the week do
nothing by way of any spiritual nurturing or devotion to God
or commitment to God's word. Those are the people that are
in the same category of the people that we're talking about. Because
what we are saying is that it's really not possible to have a
relationship with Christ at the level of only showing up on Sunday
when the resources to hear about him are available 24 hours a
day. Right. And the reason why we
say that is because of the work of the third person. relative
to the Word of God. If you really are a sound student
of the Bible, what you understand is that Christianity is not merely
the embracing of a set of propositional truths, but rather the embracing
of those truths by the enablement of the third person who was given
to make those truths alive and real in your mind and heart. Does that make some sense? so
that you are by that third person who is resident with you continually
urging you to spend time in God's word, to know who he is, urging
you, urging you to do it. And I would say that when we
look at Acts chapter 17 verse 11, and we go, yeah, look at
these brothers, they're more noble, eugenics, They receive
the Word of God not as the Word of men, but as it is the very
Word of God. They're not arguing that, well,
that's your doctrinal position. You hear that frequently. That's
your doctrinal position. That's receiving it as the Word
of men. Because positions are developed and they are codified
by men. So just because we believe in
election, no, that's your view. No, that's the Bible's view.
That's what we would say. And so if people are saying,
no, no, that's your view, but you can demonstrate through the,
uh, tenor of scripture that this is an unsellable doctrine. Now
they're receiving it as the word of man, instead of the word of
God, we got a problem, don't we? Right. That's the other thing,
lip service to the word of God. So, and yet what would we say
is possible? I suppose in our experiences
collectively as Christians, to know believers who are so effete
and so weak spiritually. That's what I would say. That's
what I would say. I think they are a believer,
but the pulse of life is so low that it's almost nil. So what we read in 1 Corinthians
2, about this dynamic that's happening
in Acts 17, which we'll close on, is what the apostle has stated
in verses 10 through verse 16. I'm just going to read it for
its clarity's sake, and then we'll close and we'll take this
up. Who coming out to the park tomorrow?
We're going to have a great time at Heather Farns Park. It's going
to be good. Looking forward to seeing you guys there. Verse
10 of 1 Corinthians 2, but God hath revealed them to us by his
Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things
of God." And then he argues the analogy of the spirit of man. For what man knoweth the things
of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so,
this is what we call parallel clauses. The things of God knoweth
no man but the what? So now the agency of the spirit
is being demonstrated in this text as essential to God revealing
his truths to us, right? That God the Spirit has to reveal
God's truth to us if we're going to know it. But now here's what
he says. Now we have not received, we
have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God. that we might know the things
that are what? Freely given to us of God. And
when Paul uses that, what he's saying is the things that are
given to us of God are given without stinginess. They're not
given to us in a penurous way. They're lavishly given to us.
Verse 13, which things also we what? So what is he talking about?
Contextually, that God has given us his word. The spirit of God
has given us God's word. unfettered, lavishly, as much
as God's Word you want, the Spirit will give it to you. Because
the Spirit wants to reveal the mind of God to us, and in order
to know God's mind, we have to know God's Word. Now watch what
he goes on to say. Which things also we speak not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost, what? We were here last week, weren't
we? comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So can I tag
that again as we close for clarity sake? The Numata, uh, con Numata
there in this context, it's spiritual things that the spirit of God
is bringing together. It's communicating, koinonia,
fellowshipping. He's fellowshipping two kinds
of spiritual things. He's fellowshipping together
the spiritual word of God. with spiritual people. You guys
got that? So the word they're comparing
means to bring together so as to unify. What does that mean? The word of God is spiritual
and it can only be received by those who are spiritual. The non-spiritual person cannot
receive the word of God. This is where our burden is.
You follow me? Do you follow my burden now?
My burden is that if a person calls himself a believer, but
is not receiving God's word, that he's demonstrating by practice
that he's a natural man. That's a problem. That's a problem. Because the believer has been
made to receive God's word. Not forced, made. qualified, gifted, heart open
like Lydia's heart was open to receive the word. Remember, she
attended the word because God had opened her heart. And like
the Gentiles in Acts chapter 11, remember what God has granted
repentance unto the Gentile, opening the door of faith wide
open so that they receive the word of God. That's the gift
of grace that he gives you. So that when that word is taught,
y'all remember, y'all remember when you got saved, You was listening
to everything that said anything about Jesus. Remember that? Everything
and anything that, cause you know, you just didn't want to
miss out on the revelation. I'm not missing out. You sleep
in the radio on and you pop up cause you cut it up. You go to
work with bags in the yard. What'd you been doing? I've been
sitting up reading about, I heard some preaching and frequently,
That's how God works to bring people to sound teaching. Pastor,
you was on at four o'clock in the morning, one morning, as
I was driving my big rig truck down to LA, old boys was on my,
you know, radio, saying, listen to this brother up there preaching
the gospel. Uh, and, and, and that's how
God works. He creates a hunger in you. And
then he makes you compatible to God's word. And here's the argument that
closes out. So the Holy Spirit is the one
teaching through God's word, comparing the word again, there
means to bring it to unity and harmony, spiritual things with
spiritual, spiritual things being the word of God's in a new form.
And then with spiritual, meaning those who are spiritual in nature,
the believer is a spiritual person. Are we not spiritual persons?
So verse 14 says, but the natural man, the carnal man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. He does not receive them,
he cannot receive them, for they are, what, foolishness unto him,
neither can he, what, know them. There is no intimacy, no divine
intimacy on his part with the Word of God at the level of knowing. But when you really want to know
God, you're going to know God through his word at the level
of covenant knowing, right? Like a man knows his wife. That's
how we know God. There's that face to face fellowship
that takes place between us and y'all know what I'm talking about.
When that book is open and you see his glorious face and you
say, hi, Lord, And you enter in deep, profound communion right
there. And it just transcends space
and time. And you are like, this is amazing. I don't wanna go nowhere. I don't
even wanna go to work today. I don't even wanna go to work
today. I wanna just stay right here. Lord, I don't wanna go. Can I stay right here?
I don't wanna eat, don't wanna fast, don't wanna go pee or nothing.
I just want your word. Do y'all know what I'm talking
about? Have you ever been frozen in the scriptures like that? You
know you gotta go to the bathroom. You don't want to. Then you do
like I do. Come on. Have you ever done that? Jesse, what you doing in that
bathroom? I'm studying, girl. I didn't want to miss this revelation. That's just to say that's right.
In the bathroom for an hour and a half. Toilet ain't flushing. I'm just sitting on the toilet.
I can't use the bathroom. I'm so deep into the revelations But he that is spiritual well,
let me finish that neither can he know them because they are
spiritually what discern spiritually discern so discernment discernment
is predicated by a longing to know and Because discernment
requires labor. It requires an intensiveness
of analysis And discrimination that has to be predicated by
a hunger, right? You have to want to know You
have to want to know He that is spiritual is able
to judge everything yet he himself is not judged this is an amazing
statement crazy statement that I've been meditating on waiting
for Romans fourteen when we get into it crazy statement I'll
give it to you for free. We'll shut it down You want it? Okay, so this is important. This
is gonna help you and then it's gonna stop you from messing up
Okay, so the text is telling me That as a believer I am a
mystery I'm a mystery Are you with me so far? So I want you
to get this is going to help you. I've been working on this
for a while now relative to Romans 14 when we get there because
Romans 14 is an admonition by our brother Paul for everybody
that think they know everything about everybody else in the church. So will y'all follow this text?
The person that is spiritual has the privilege and joy of
judging all things relative to the word of God. That's access
to the text. So it's contextually, it's about
the word. Yet he himself is judged of no man. Do you guys see that? So now I want you to think with
me about that for a moment. What does that mean? It doesn't
mean that people don't judge you. Anybody living like I'm
living, people judge you every day. all the time, right? What this text is saying is their
judgments are unlawful. I want you to get this. Every
other human being's judgment about you are unlawful. I want you to hold that. Think about that for a moment.
As a believer, you are a complex being. You're not a simple being. You
know how we say people wear their emotions on their sleeves and
you can see them a mile away? A believer is not that simple. A believer is a complex mystery. A believer is both a human being and the product of the divine
nature. He is simultaneously sinful and
righteous at the same time. And the secret counsels of a
believer's heart are accessible to no one but
his God. The secret councils of the believer's
heart are known by no one but his God. Stay with me for a moment. This is so important for you
to know. Cause people try to throw things
against you and it hits the wall of human opinion, right? I know why you did this. I know
why you did that. I know why you did this. I know
you don't. No, you don't. You think you do. Can I get a
witness? You think you do. I love the
book of Job because the book of Job argues my point. Anybody
know what I'm talking about? all 42 chapters. So he got all
three of his religion buddies. They didn't prayed and fasted
and cry for one week. You know how they do. And then
after one week they go to discretion and wouldn't have to joke. This
is long enough, dude. Now we know what your problem
is. Isn't that right? We know what your problem is,
dude. So from the fourth chapter, All the way to the 40th chapter,
everybody is writing on the chalkboard, here's Joe's problem. And Joe
looks at him and says, nope, you don't have it. Then here
comes the other brother. Joe goes, it's not with you either. Where Eliphaz at? Eliphaz, your
turn. Come on, tell me what you got.
Because they're friends. And Eliphaz writes, God is this
and God is that. And if you wasn't so sinful,
none of this would have happened to you. You know what Joe says? Hmm. I've
checked y'all all out. And three of y'all even come
close to knowing my problem. Isn't that what he said? You
are all miserable counselors, physicians of no profit. You're worse than my enemies.
with friends like you who needs enemies, right? This is arguing my point here
to show you something. But Job's problem, which is also
our problem, which is the reason why you must not exercise divine
prerogative on people. Y'all know what I mean by that? What was Job's problem? It's
the same problem that David had. It's the same problem that Daniel
had. It's the same problem that Moses had. It's the same problem
that Peter had. It's the same problem that Mary
had, that Hannah had, that Rebecca had, that Rachel had, that Sister
Eve had, that your pastor has. You know what that problem is?
We don't even know ourselves. Is that right? So stay with me,
right? Cause what Paul said in Romans seven was this. Now the
good that I would not do, I find myself doing right. And the evil that I would
not do, I find myself doing. And the good that I actually
want to do, I struggle like, I don't know what. And when I
do good, Watch this. And I actually do do good because
there's grace for good doing. Like I'm doing good now teaching.
You're doing good listening. Everything that God calls us
imperatively to do that we do, he gives us grace to do it. Is
that right? Worship is a good thing. Prayer is a good thing.
Confessing your sins is a good thing. Trusting the grace of
God is a good thing. Boasting in Christ is a good
thing. Sharing the word of God is a good thing. Praying is a
good thing. Fellowshiping with the saints is a good thing. All
that's good, right? But it's all about grace, isn't it? Now
watch this. And we all know that evil is
always present with it. Is that true? So sometimes your
God-like friends and brethren who sit at God's elbow and judge
you, you know that God hasn't given them an exclusive, right? Because they don't even know
really how bad you really is. Pastor Jesse, man, you really
tore up and I go in my mind, you boy, you just don't even
know. You really don't know how tore up I am. You don't really
know because you wouldn't even say it that way. If you really
knew how bad I am right now and when you know they don't know,
it liberates you when you understand this text. Did you follow what I just said?
Why does it liberate you? because you're free from human
judgment. You're free. The text liberates
you. Job was liberated. Now, Job was
frustrated, but he wasn't frustrated by anything other than the fact
he didn't know why God was letting it happen. See? He was more frustrated with God
than he was with his three friends. Remember? God had to check. Now,
Job, now stop. I'm trying to, I'm trying to
help you, brother. Stop. Remember chapter 42. If I could
catch up with God, if I could catch up with God, I would tell
God if I could just get my complaint before God, I would lay out my
argument. My argument would be, God says,
Joe, where were you at? And when God revealed his glory
to Joe, Joe put his face in and said, I thought I knew, but I
didn't even know. Because we don't. We don't know as we ought
to know. And the comforting thing about
this text is the privilege to know God is a process. That's a process that doesn't
end even in glory. It goes on and on and on infinitum
in glory. But while we are on that particular
course now, God frees you, child of God, from the condemnation
of men. Did you get that? If you'll receive
it, is that a gift for you? Is that a gift? Yeah. To be further
developed in Romans 14, but it's very important for you to know
that if they can't judge you, you can't judge them. Ultimately,
we can judge acts. We can't judge motives. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for our brothers and
sisters who are here. As we go our way, give us traveling mercies.
And then Father, help us to really enjoy ourselves tomorrow. No
hurt, no harm. Let the kids play until they
just fall out. So all mamas and daddies have
to do when they get home is just drop them off on the living room
floor and pick them up for Sunday morning worship. but no hurt,
no harm. And may we walk in love tomorrow.
May the fellowship be so rich and so sweet that all we do is
talk about you and talk about how we can love one another even
more passionately and fervently. And may we be committed to pouring
into your word more and more and more until we see your face.
You are amazing. And we thank you for your grace
and your mercy in Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. God bless you guys.