Amen, so I'm gonna be reading
Acts chapter 16 starting again at verse 16 verse 15 through
24 And then we're gonna pick up with some review in our first
point I think we have our PowerPoint passion of Christ and men part
2 available, but we're gonna start at verse 15 Verse 16 and
it came to pass as we went to prayer as we were on our way
to prayer Which is the way the grammar would put it a certain
damsel possessed with the spirit of divination met us, which brought
her masters much gain by sooth saying. The same followed Paul
and us and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the most
high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this
did she many days. But Paul being grieved, turned
and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ
to come out of her and he came out the same hour. And when our masters saw that
the hope of their game was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and
drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers and brought them
to the magistrates saying, these men being Jews do exceedingly
trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to
receive, neither to observe being Romans. And the multitude rose
up together against them and the magistrates rent off their
clothes and commanded them to be beat. And when they had laid
many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailer to keep them safely, who having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the
stocks. We'll stop right there. A lot
to work through. The issue that's in front of
us once again is the passion Christ and men The context is
the ministry of the gospel in an evangelical way Where God
is working through his apostles to call men and women to the
gospel But as Christ told the disciples the preaching of the
gospel is going to be met with opposition It's going to be met
with persecution. It's going to be met with trouble
Paul and Silas are not strangers to this trouble that they're
dealing with so for them Peter said in first Peter and in second
Peter think it not strange the fiery trials that you go through
Which are designed to try your faith. So when you're reading
the narrative as you are in our present text Don't miss the Assault
that's taking place on the Apostles the verses. We've just read starting
at verse 19 through 24 is a huge transition by the narrator Luke
Calling our attention to this reality that when you call on
the name of the Lord Jesus and you serve him Passionately you
can expect opposition from the world when you submit yourself
to the gospel and you are operating on a public level particularly
in the context of evangelism, which is where Paul and Silas
are right there missionaries and They're sharing the gospel.
A great work has started with the sisters, Lydia and her household
and many others. And they are frequently now gathering
together as often as they can. That means they are developing
a what? A pattern. It's a pattern of worship, a
pattern of Bible study, a pattern of fellowship. That pattern now
is becoming known to those about the region of Philippi. So what
you want to do when you're a part of a startup ministry, part of
a work where God is in it and calling you to reach people groups
that have never heard the gospel before. You seek a place where
they are willing to hear the gospel. You see if God opens
the door for that gospel to be launched and planted. and wherever
that gospel is planted, that's where you stay. This is Luke's
gospel chapter 10. Remember Christ said when he
sent them out, go ye into all of the land of Israel and wherever
the door opens for you to share the gospel, there you stay and
you work in the cause of the gospel. That means as we've learned
in weeks past, that Paul and Silas wasn't pushing their way
into cities. They weren't forcing their ministry
on people. They were being led by the Spirit
of God, directed by the Spirit of God, as they are presently,
aren't they? Remember, they are operating out of a vision that
was given to them, come over into Macedonia, Help us and as
they are worn their way to Macedonia They are stopping in the regions
of Philippi if we had the map of Paul's second missionary journey
up You guys know we would be in the regions of Asia Minor
where Ephesus and Philippi and the other churches in Macedonia
are and Paul would be in that region with Silas they waited
for a while and then God opened the door for them to find a group
of women praying at the riverside and So with ministry, it requires
biblical strategy, biblical humility, biblical patience. You don't
just force people to hear the gospel. God has to open that
door. So we saw that and we saw how
wonderful God worked in the life of Lydia, the seller of purple,
and how Paul is working with her now in tandem along with
the others to minister the gospel. And we mark now in verse 16,
and as it came to pass, as they went Revival service. Is that what it says? Right as
they went to the gospel concert. Is that what it says as they
went to where? Right. So I was just talking
with my video team upstairs about how unique America is versus
the rest of the world when it comes to those things that God
emphasizes in the cause of the gospel that in the gospel church
When we are actually doing what is required for God to bless
it, prayer is going to actually be a significant role in your
life. Only in Western Christianity,
including Europe, do we feel like we can get away with a life
of Christianity that minimizes prayer. Only in Western Christianity
do you think you can actually minimize prayer and still prosper
and still mature and still be useful and productive in the
kingdom of God. But when you go through the Bible, and particularly
when the New Testament emerges in the ministry of John the Baptist
and our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no way you can read your Bible
just in a narrative form and not know that at the heart of
the life of the Christian is prayer. You can't miss that. One of the things that was so
radical about our Lord Jesus Christ was that the disciples,
when they were called to follow Christ, they were amazed how
that Christ would separate himself from everyone, including them,
for long hours of prayer, even prayer all night long. Once the
disciples saw that this was a trend in pattern for Christ and that
it was absent in their own life What did they ask the master?
Lord teach us how to pray and what that also means is this
you and I will not be prompted to this essential ministry of
prayer Relative to success in the gospel until we see it modeled
You and I will not be prompted to do anything in the matters
of the kingdom of God if they are not modeled What that means
is you and I are far more subjecting to culture than you and I want
to admit. If our culture is very pragmatic,
if our culture is driven by fads, if our culture is shallow, guess
what? We'll be pragmatic, we'll be
driven by fads, and we will be what? Shallow. We are driven
by our culture more than we are the truth of God's Word. That's
unfortunate, but it's the way that it is. And what that means
is that some of us i.e. persons, people, groups, and
churches ought to be models so that people understand those
critical components. And when you model that, you
will move other people into that same practice. This is what we
call mentoring. And where parents don't model
this, their kids won't practice it. Am I telling the truth? Right. So I just call your attention
to that because this is such a remarkable portion of scripture
in the area of Paul's missionary journey to the Philippians. I
am excited about how God has chosen an elect, an elect group
of people out of the Philippian culture here because I know how
demonic the Philippian culture is. And we're getting ready to
deal with that here in a moment. And then we're going to see how
that God delivers Saul and Paul and Silas from their adversaries
Creates a whole nother dynamic testimony of salvation in the
life of the Philippian jailer. That will be another study but
between The joy of a church at the riverside and the Philippian
jailer in his house coming into a saving knowledge of Christ
are the lessons we have to learn so we're gonna revisit tonight
just some basics and then move on and advance in our thoughts
and In your first point the devil goes to church to you guys see
that right the devil goes to church, too We will quickly work
through the observations that we made last week I said that
this idea of this woman joining herself to the Apostles according
to verse 16 where it says a woman possessed of a divination spirit
of divination Met us and what that means is Paul didn't go
seeking her Silas didn't go seeking her she heard about a ministry
taking place and She joined herself to it. So I want you to mark
that because that's gonna come up in our second sub point So
she and she is a slave girl So that has two connotations She's
a slave girl for the enemy. She joins the Apostles band the
Apostles band and And once she joins them, she is now operating
out of her own missional objective as she is the servant of men
who actually use her demonic gifts to draw wealth to themselves,
as we saw earlier. And Luke describes her as possessed
with a spirit of divination. And we call that in the Greek
context, a spirit of Python. That's our Greek term. Pythonos
is the Greek term. And obviously a python is a what?
Snake. And I told you that this comes
out of the first century culture of Philippi, Corinth, and these
other regions where in the pagan temples, their priestesses were
often prostitutes who also divinated into divine means to fortune
tell or prophesy. And they would divine or fortune
tell or prophesy under a demonic spirit that was called the Pythoness
spirit. This Python spirit is prominent
in terms of its manifestation in the Middle East. The Delphi
oracles are a prominent sort of old ancient cultic practice. You can just look up the word
Delphi. And this is really an interesting play on Greek language
because Delphi has to do with what? Brethren, and so the idea
of this Delphi is somehow that this group are brethren the Delphi
oracles and if any of you saw 300 how many of you guys watched
300 300 had the play on the woman that was possessed by the demon
and she would prophesy Breathing and writhing all over the place
you guys remember that and That that's where they got that from
because that was the Greek culture at the time So they're using
that model to show you how the Kings and the rulers and warriors
would go and seek a word from the gods To give to them and
she did a great job Breathing and writhing and twisting and
turning and then a word came out of her in this context this
woman was much more subtle and given to flattery as we work
through our outline and The python spirit attached to the church.
What is the devil seeking to do? What did we learn last week?
What is this modus operandi? Or in the life of those that
are trying to do god's will To distract you right? So here you
are going about the practice of prayer and preaching. That's
a good way to put it the practice of prayer and preaching And here
comes someone who pretends or is seeking to join you, but because
they're under a demonic spirit, they're gonna end up being what?
A distraction. Now, these are lessons that we
have to learn in the church too, because we are such gullible
people in the church that we think that everybody that comes
through the doors are coming through with a positive motive
and attitude. But if you actually been mature enough to know that
church a it's a threshing floor it's a battle zone it's a context
for warfare churches that people frequently are coming in with
ill motives frequently and this is the job of leadership to be
able to determine what is taking place in the life of people what
their motives are when they come in it takes time as you're gonna
see how Paul worked with this Everybody coming in is not coming
in to be saved. They're coming in to get what
they want and do what they want And then you and I have to examine
ourselves because you may come in not even aware of what you
really want And then you can be manipulated to fall prey to
some of the bad habits of other people and find yourself driven
to attitudes and practices in the church that are destructive
to and Whereas you should be coming to learn about God and
learn about Christ and grow in the grace of God and the knowledge
of Christ Your head is turning around like Rosemary's baby Looking
at everything in the church other than God Is that true You have
been distracted And that's the goal of the devil to take your
eyes off of Christ. I many people end up in hell
being distracted by the devil in the midst of the church so
the context is clear that she was a distraction to us why because
of the way in which the apostle paul worked his way through it.
And we talked about this. We said that the devil meant
to distract. We dealt with what we call the
what? 5Ds? And just for those of you that are new, the 5Ds
are what? Distraction. What? Distortion
of the truth, delusion of the mind, and therefore deception,
and ultimately destruction. So the 5Ds are the way the devil
enters in, takes your mind off of the most important thing,
puts it on something that's very tempting that appears to be important. Genesis 3, 1 through 7, he called
Eve's attention to what? The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. The very prohibition that God said, don't even look
at that tree. That tree is a problem. And yet
the devil was able to get her mind on it long enough to deceive
her and cause her to transgress against God, right? That's his
whole goal. If you get your mind off of Christ,
you're gonna sin. If you get your mind off of Christ,
you're gonna sin. And if other pretending Christians
tell you to take your mind off of Christ, they're gonna cause
you to sin too. It's just that simple. The one
task that you and I have until we breathe our last breath is
to keep our eyes on Christ. That's the hardest battle in
the world. We love rubbernecking. How many of you guys remember
that article I wrote in our... Good, y'all don't remember. I
shouldn't even write anything in the pastor's commentary. I
wrote an article about a year ago that said, stop rubbernecking.
And what it meant was, when you come to church, your job is not
to look around and find some trouble to stick your nose into.
Like car accidents on the side of the road and as people are
driving by they slow down and start rubbernecking Looking over
another direction and then they end up in an accident. It's because
they're rubbernecking It's because they're rubbernecking and Christians
rubberneck rather than come in and do their business of being
committed to the throne of God and get the blessing that God
has for those who keep their eyes fixed on Christ. Good news,
that's a good word for you. You really need to think that
through. The Christian that knows how to negotiate his way or her
way or their way into church, get what church is meant to get
for them, then get out so that they can go serve the Lord, that's
going to be a prosperous Christian. Everybody else is going to be
distracted by issues. In any event, It's apparent that
this damsel having sought to flatter the disciples, remember
she used flattery, didn't she? Flattery, listen to what she
says over in verse 17. Then the same followed Paul and
us, this is Luke speaking, crying, saying, these men are the servants
of the most high God which show unto us the way of salvation.
Point, the devil never ever openly opposes the truth. He always
uses flattery or a false form of approval to make himself acceptable
in your midst. He always uses flattery or a
false form of approval in order to get in. That's how he gets
in. Who is he looking for? Who is
he looking for when he is using the task of flattery? He's looking
for the simple-minded. He's looking for the undiscerning
person. He's looking for the individual
who has a need love, a need love. I'm using Rabbi Zacharias' concept
about the human psyche and its makeup. You and I have what are
called need love factors and give love factors. Might as well
learn something now. So what the enemy loves to find
in the church are the people who are vulnerable, who are needy. Because we're all needy of love.
But you better be careful who it is that's dispensing love
to you. So if you are vulnerable to need love, you're going to
make yourself available to any Tom, Dick and Harry that's going
to tell you that you are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
This is called flattery. and you're gonna open your ears
to them. And as Proverbs 17, four puts it, a naughty ear or
a deceitful heart gives itself over to flattering words. Proverbs 17, four, let me show
you what I'm talking about. So you have to be careful that
when you're in what we call the need mode, that you have to discern
who you are going to allow into your space. You cannot just let
anybody that tells you how nice you are into your space. You
have to vet people. Do you guys understand what vetting
people means? You have to vet people. And that means you really
have to be grounded in what we call the protocols of the kingdom.
You have to know how the kingdom operates. Do you see Proverbs
17 4? A wicked doer gives heed to what? And a liar giveth ear to what?
So I remember being arrested by this principle decades ago
when the Lord opened my eyes to the reality that church is
a war zone and not heaven. And I realized at that point,
according to Proverbs chapter 14 verse 15, Proverbs 14 verse
15, that it's important for me to learn how to discern what
people say. Do you see it? Proverbs 14 verse 15, as they
pull it up, It speaks to us. The simple believes every word.
Do you see that word simple? You can write the word gullible.
And that gullible person is the needy person who, whoever gives
you the attention, you feel compelled to now to render attention to
them. If they're going to pay attention
to you, you're going to listen to them because you are needy. Needy love will open you up to
that. How many of you guys know what
I'm talking about? I just want to make sure I'm not talking to myself. Good. And so the simple
believe every word, but the prudent man looks well to his going,
doesn't he? So I lay that out, and there are many other verses
in your outline that can underscore this same truth. But if you've
been bitten by this python spirit in your life, as the Proverbs
says in another place, the tail bearer goes about and speaks
well to you only to destroy you. When they start off nice and
they end up biting you, it's a snake. you do understand that
right um and so i remember the uh the snake and the alligator
having the conversation remember that and the alligator is getting
ready to float across the river and the snake says can i have
a ride on your back across the river and the snake says Might
but here you got to promise me that you're not gonna bite me
and the snake says sure I need a ride, dude I ain't gonna bite
you and as they get on across the river sure enough as he jumps
off the snakes Alligators back he bites the alligator alligator
jumps back and says ouch. Why did you bite me? He said
I bet you cuz I'm a snake Got it Right and so until you discern
that who people are and what they are, you set yourself up
for a lot of trouble. But the question you and I have
to ask right now is, are we snakes? Do we have the characteristic
of flattering to get what we want, inviting people in the
process? So now notice point number two
in our outline, the power to cast out devils. This is really
the context in which this is developing So verse 16 and 17,
verse 17 tells us, The same followed Paul and us and cried, saying,
These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show
unto us the way of salvation. And verse 18 says, And this did
she, how many days? But Paul being what? Grieved. Now, again, Luke is
dealing with this on a very technical level, and we talked about this.
Being grieved is a word that means to be disturbed, to be
annoyed, to be vexed, to be troubled. To be disturbed, annoyed, vexed,
and troubled. Be careful about your own definition
of greed there. The King James, when it uses
the word grieve, it has many means. It really means to be
burdened with the issue. Burdened with the issue. In fact, it means to toil with. to toil with the issues. And
Paul toiled with the issues until it became a vexation. Y'all know
what that's like? Until it became a trouble for
him. Until it became sort of a sore
bondage. Now, there's a virtue that's
about to come out of this for us with regards to these kind
of scenarios. And I love this because this
is part of evangelism too. The ministry is filled with this.
First of all, What we note is that the scenario gave an opportunity
for paul to deal with this demonic spirit. Is that true? So in verse
18, we're going to work our way backwards in verse 18 It says
and this did she many days but paul being grieved turned and
said to the woman. Is that what it says? To the
spirit Be careful. Don't you do this at home? It's
amazing how we think we can do everything the apostles do It's
just amazing. So just don't jump on that because
the church is so naive and ignorant about a lot of things One of
the things I've taught our church over the 20 years that we've
been here is be careful not to operate out of your lane Learn
who you are learn your calling and stay in your place You are
not an apostle You are not a prophet God didn't give you the gift
of casting out devils. Find out who you are and what
you are and what God has called you to do and operate in your
lane. It is really wrong when Christians
think that all of the promises that were given to the apostles
are also given to us. It's wrong. Let me show you how
wrong it is just before I deal with this text. How do we know
that much of what goes on in many of our Pentecostal churches
around casting out devils and healing the sick and all of that
is just a total misapplication of the text of scripture? It
doesn't work. It does not work. I can spend
a long time demonstrating how they manipulate you in terms
of rhetoric and terminology in the areas where you don't have
what we call credible or verifiable evidences. Like they can identify
a spirit in your life and they can cast that spirit out and
you won't know the difference. So because you don't have any
empirical evidence that you had the spirit in the first place,
you can't refute the fact that they cast it out. The reality
is, if you are possessed by a spirit, you will know it. Do not listen
to these cons who tell you they can identify a hundred demons
in your life. The demon of doubt. Who doesn't
doubt? The demon of fear. Who doesn't fear? The demon of
unbelief. The demon of the heebie-jeebies. It's amazing the plethora of
terms they use in order to create a need, in order to exercise
their methods on people's lives. This is nothing more than psychological
abuse. Hear it right now. It's psychological
abuse upon those who are simple and undiscerning. And leaders
in these churches are using these ploys to control people. Because
after all, if they cast out 50 demons in you that you didn't
know about, that you didn't know you had, you are indebted to
them now as some great anointed man or woman of God. Do you understand
what I just stated? Very important for you to know
when you are being hoodwinked in the religious contents Did
this woman actually have a demonic spirit? Of course she did. How
do we know the Apostle Paul? And Luke very clearly affirms
that she prospered her master's whale She actually was able to
tell the future and Much like these wizard wizards today and
tarot card readers and all of your folks who are making money
on television Prognosticating the future and calling up the
dead and giving you vivid pictures of your relatives, etc. Right? What do you call these people?
What are their names? Psychics that's the word Right? Because they'd rather use a more
contemporary word than a religious term. They're a psychic. But
in reality, it's simply demonism working through those people
because of the vast amount of information that's already within
the social construct and because demons operate and move within
the sphere of the unseen and can collect the data needed to
actually paint the picture. Why do I say that? Because magicians
are able to do it and they don't even attribute it to demons.
Magicians are able to do it by just gathering vast amounts of
information around you and painting the picture. More than that,
the theologians have stated that this woman also had the gift
of ventriloquism. That is, to be able to throw
her voice, much like the witch of Endor in the days in which
Saul sought to get a revelation from God as to which way he should
go. Remember that? And I told you
that she did not see Samuel. Because when once you die, you
don't come back so others can actually see you it is given
unto men What how many times to die and after this the what? that's right, and so the very
few times that men did come back such as the Moses and Elijah
who saw the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration and the disciples
observed that but they did not interact with them because they
were observing what we call a state of glory and That was a unique
scenario at that time. But human beings are not. I'm
just telling you better watch out ladies and gentlemen about
that dark dark world of seeing folks. That's a dark dark dark
dark world. In fact, ask the Lord to keep
you from seeing anything he don't want you to see. Because you will inadvertently
contradict scripture you yield to experience over the teachings
of the Word of God. Am I making some sense? Because
if you make your experience to be credible as to not discern
whether or not it's of God or the devil, you are now making
your experiences much more authoritative than what the Word of God says.
So be very careful about that. Nevertheless, in our context,
Paul is exercising what we would call sub-point A under the power
to cast out demons, a patient process. Is that so? Is Paul
being patient? Being very patient. Because this
is really an evangelical paradigm. This is an evangelical paradigm. Here we are going out to do ministry. We understand that our master
said in Matthew 16, verses 16 through 19, that he will build
his church and the gates of hell will not what? which means that
the gates of hell will not successfully resist the assault of the gospel
to break through the bars and snatch hell-bound sinners out.
Because the goal of the gospel is to set the prisoners what?
So it is an assault on hell every time the gospel is preached in
power and a subject that is a slave to sin is delivered. You know
hell is going to fight against that, right? And that's what
our master is saying. So the apostle Paul in his Wisdom
and prudence having already suffered many many assaults hasn't he
many assaults? He's already been beaten to death.
He's already been stoned. He's already been persecuted
He knows what happens when you are in a ministry where the Spirit
of God is breaking through the dark powers of a region He knows
that's coming. So this is not in fact, this
here is small cookies for Paul some chick talking out loud about
how great a preacher he is and That's my vernacular. But that's
what the text says. Notice what it says. And she
cried saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God.
What did Paul pick up on as she was doing that? He picked up
on her intemperance. He picked up on her lack of balance. He picked up on her lack of discretion. Let me help you. Let me help
you discern the difference between the work of the Spirit of God
in the life of people and people who are moved by animating spirits
and animating attitudes and what we would consider just extreme
behavior patterns that are not a product of the Spirit of God.
Have you ever attributed to somebody's flamboyant charismatic, over-the-top
zeal, the fruit of the Spirit, when in fact all it was was a
carnal manifestation of personal egotism, if not demonic control. Am I making some sense? It's
very important for you to know this. You and I can't always
say, that's the Spirit, that's the Spirit, because that person
jumping over the chairs and don't know how to be quiet in the service
and got to stand up and say something every five minutes. The Spirit
of God never works unseemly. The Spirit of God never creates
confusion. That's 1 Corinthians chapter
14 for sure. And then the fruit of the Spirit
is very clear. This is why in the area of 1 Corinthians chapter
14 where Paul is teaching clarity, edification, and order in the
church. Clarity. Don't cackle. Speak clearly. Edification. Don't have everybody
running all over top of each other doing whatever you want
to do in the name of the Holy Ghost and I can't help it Order
let things be done decently and in good order. Is that what that
text says? very clearly because that's the way the Spirit of
God works as Is in all the churches of Christ where your churches? Advocate and allow chaos. It is not the Spirit of God.
I Please be sure that that's nothing but an entertainment
spirit to distract you From their lack of cogent orthodox sound
teaching that the spirit of god uses to anchor you in truth It's
just a distraction This is why when believers start growing
and maturing They get tired of the entertainment They get tired
of the entertainment And they go, you know what he's filibustering
now This is a political term where you get up there and rather
than actually execute the biblically ordained sober job of expounding
the word of God, you're just entertaining the people. And
you're saying the same thing over and over and over again.
And the people are not going deep into the word of God. They're
learning nothing about the truth of the word of God. They did
not get anything out of the text. You might've read the text and
then you started on your hobby horse of anecdotes and stories
and outrageous claims that people would have to spend years debunking. And you drown hungering Christians
and to despair when your ministries are driven by that kind of shallow
Bible-less entertainment. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? It's very important for you, eternity-bound souls, to
know that God does not operate that way. And so over time we
come to discover, you know, this is a problem. And then God's
mercy allows you to hear other resources and you go, man, I'm
feeling that. You start to hear somebody that's
not so flamboyant not so loud not so pompous Simply plainly
expounding the Word of God and your soul drinks it in Drinks
it in and the next thing you know, you're gravitating toward
that truth because you are going finally Somebody's just explaining
the Word of God as it ought to be explained that's exactly what
goes on and everywhere and Those who are called to actually teach
the word do that. There is the blessing of people
who come, but also the temptation of snakes who come too. It's
just the nature of the beast. so we read in the proverb is
a proverb that underscores this I wish I had it where this woman
is described by a proverb I'm thinking this Proverbs 28 14
pull this up you guys can write this down the reason why I pull
this proverb up is because over the years what I have learned
is that the pathology of Christians is so clearly laid out in the
Bible what do I mean by pathology patterns of behavior that when
you follow biblical principles, you can discern the mature, the
immature, and those who are in error. And those are the three
categories. We have mature believers, then we have immature believers.
Now an immature believer can behave as a person is in error,
but they're going to grow up out of those erroneous behaviors. Because God's going to lead them
into development of character and development of understanding.
But the person that's living in the spirit of error, they
persist in that spirit of error. They continue in their erroneous
ways because as Jeremiah chapter 5, 31 puts it, the prophets prophesy
falsely, the priests bear rule by their own means, and the people
love to have it so. So there is, according to the
Word of God, the vast majority of the people like to live in
error. The vast majority of people like
to live in error. Do you see the proverb? Let me
see. Is this the one that I want?
Is it my Proverbs chapter 28, 14? That's a great proverb, but
I don't think that's the one that I want. So I'll leave it
alone because that's not the one that I want. Let me go on
back to our text. Notice what it says here in verse
18. And this she did many days, but
Paul being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command
thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. Do you see
that? And the Spirit came out immediately. Is that what it
says? No, what does it say? Right, so don't jump over that
because one of the things that we are being taught by the Spirit
of God that in ministry where you deal with opposing people
who are operating out of an oppositional spirit is you're using patience. Now you're not avoiding the issue
because what Paul did was allow it to take place for many days,
didn't he? This woman did this for many days for many days for
many days. That's the opening part of verse
18 and this she did for many days And what paul did was to
observe whether or not she was just an immature new novice christian
or whether or not she was just misguided in her uh thankfulness
that she's a part of a ministry now where the word of god is
being explained because some people are and they can be over
the top. If you combine a sort of very
extroverted person who is, you know, A type driven with their
enthusiasm, they can become a little loud and a little bit assertive. That person may not necessarily
be bad, they just need to be reined in. So Paul is putting
up with that as a manner of patience. But over time, he starts to discern,
as what we learned last week, that when you're dealing with
these types of people, the gift that's required, that was the
last point under point number one, what is required to overcome
flattery, overcome the distractions, what's required? Discernment,
right. So he began to discern that this
woman's method was really undermining the ministry. I wish I had the
proverb, but it goes something like this. It is a curse when
your neighbor rises up and blesses you out loud in the presence
of everybody. Ain't that a strange proverb?
But what it's stating is this, when you have people who are
calling attention to you, to everybody else, they generally
have some ulterior motives. Even when they are blessing you,
And so what the proverb says is be careful when people's blessing
towards you is really an ulterior motive It really is a curse And
as I told you many of our churches are into the stock and trade
of flattering each other Telling everybody how blessed they are
and the lord has a calling on your life and the lord wants
to use you this way And the lord wants to come here. Let me Let
me help you meet this person over here rather than having
you sit down Learn the Word of God. Go deeply with God and let
God tell you what your gifts are. Other people are now telling
you what your gifts are and how they want to use you right away.
And this is what we've said before is the Balaam ministry. You guys
remember the Balaam ministry? You probably don't. You're just
saying yes. The Balaam ministry goes like this. Balaam the false
prophet in the book of Numbers, he was a soothsayer as well.
And he rode a donkey. That donkey served Balaam everywhere
Balaam went until the donkey finally saw Christ He saw Christ
when the angel of the Lord stood between him and Balaam with the
sword drawn because Balaam was seeking to curse the people of
God remember that and That she has said uh-uh. This is it. I'm
done if it's my master Balaam are the Lord Jesus I'm going
with the Lord Jesus And you remember the laughable event where Balaam
starts talking to her because he starts beating her because
she wouldn't continue going his way. And he kept calling her
stubborn. And she said, I've been yours
ever since you were, I was with you and I did everything you
wanted me to do, but I'm done now because I'm pressed between
a wall and an angel with a sword. And if you too stupid to see
this angel with the sword, I can't help you. And what I have taught
is that that ass represents undiscerning Christians who are part of false
ministries which drive you according to their own agenda until the
Lord Jesus shows up in your life and shows you the truth. Can
I get a witness? Right. And so you didn't know
that you were merely a slave to another man-made system by
which they made all kind of money off of you. But you knew something
was wrong because they were just using you every time you came
in the church. Some ministries you can't even
breathe because the tactic is to use you up You get lost in
the ministry you get lost in the people you get lost in the
person the famous person You don't even have your own identity
You are absorbed in that ministry and unless God delivers you out
of it You become just a wasteland in your own soul under the burden
of that ministry. Can I get a witness? It's just
true And maybe all of us have been there at one time or another. I have. I know what it's like
to be a young Christian and somebody lay hands on you too quickly
and rush you into service, flattering you. And then you look up and
you realize you are actually vicariously living through them
for them, for their own glory, for the ministry of that person. And they're using you up. And
after five years or 10 years, you realize you haven't grown
in Christ hardly at all. Am I telling the truth? Right. This is what I call the ministry
of Balaam. And yet what Paul is doing here Discerning and
this is where we as Christians have to be careful This is why
I get back to the untempered business of the our charismatic
brothers and sisters who feel like they have the gift of discernment
and want to see some impediment and use some Pathological behavior
that they want to identify as demonic and then want to lay
hands on you and cast that spirit out Paul didn't do any such thing. In fact, he didn't confront the
girl He confronted the demon This is really interesting. So
stay with me for a moment. Again, in your Pentecostal churches
that are not solid in this stuff, in your charismatic churches
that run away in warfare ministry, not really rooted in the word,
driven by ego mentalities. In this context, Paul is making
a distinction between the demon that's abusing her and her own
precious soul. If we wanted to actually stay
here and work through this, what we could surmise by what we call
inference is that he could have easily prayed to God about this
demon and not dealt with the girl. Turning to the spirit,
well, where is the spirit at? I mean, what does the spirit
look like? You don't see a spirit. I mean, you don't see a spirit. So he could have been speaking
towards the girl. He could have been speaking at
her. But he certainly was speaking beyond her because he wasn't
speaking to her. He was speaking to the demon,
much like our master did in his ministry, right? And so this
would not have been an assault on this girl's person. This would
have been an assault. the demon that was controlling
her. Am I making some sense? He wouldn't have been abusing
her publicly and ridiculing her and making her feel bad and going
through all kinds of public shame as people do in false ministries. He would have simply been assaulting
that demon and Paul would have taken time to discover and know
that that's what he was dealing with. And the reason why I call
your attention to and he came out the same hour is because
again, the same hour means that paul turned and said to the demon
these words and we're going to uh analyze this theological content
for a moment before we move on and being grieved he turned and
said to the spirit i command you in the name of jesus christ
to come out of her and he left it there It wasn't a long drawn
out, you didn't have 50 people standing around and the show
and the laying on of hands and microphone passing back to the
girl. Now what's your name demon? You got that all going on in
your African churches all around the world and the demon standing
there talking is nothing but a show. There's nothing but a
religious show. Now if you're incredulous, if
you don't believe what I'm saying, I really I really am sorry. Because what I'm actually talking
about is the character of God. And because we really don't study
and learn the character of God, we are inclined to these shows. And we really think it's God.
And it's not God at all. You don't see that kind of characteristic
trait in the Bible about God. God is not into show religion.
Jesus didn't go around doing that. The Apostles didn't. If
you look at the text very clearly, it was a serious imperative given
to a demon one time. Nothing else went down. There
was no paraphernalia. There was no cameras all over
the place. There was no hoopla. It was just
an assault on hell with a proposition that was affirmed by the authority
of Christ. left there. What's powerful about
that is this. Paul just kept on doing his business
and over the course of that hour that girl was delivered. Do you
hear me? So here's what I'm gonna say
very quickly about this. Paul or Peter or James or John
or Jude or even Christ and all gospel ministers are not in this
thing called ministry for their own glory. Did you hear what
I just stated? This was not about Paul getting
a name for himself because he could cast out devils. Do you
guys understand what I'm getting at? This is why this stuff that
we're dealing with today is so important for you to discern.
He just did his job. With the gift that was given
him the apostolic gift of casting out devils and he moved on Because
he's not building a ministry of casting out devils He's building
a ministry of preaching the gospel It just so happens brothers and
sisters that powerful god-aided gospel preaching sets people
free Do you understand what I just stated God-aided gospel preaching
where Christ is exalted Liberates men and women from the snare
of the devil Very true very true. So just let's work through a
few verses. I'm gonna make this distinction very clear what's
taking place in our outline under point number two pull up our
outline so we can see this a patient process on the part of the apostle
paul he let himself work himself to a point of dealing with it
then finally he confronted her after all of the loud crying
out that she was doing relative to so-called blessing them and
he he's dealing with a woman that he knows and i know according
to sub point c is a tormented but drawn subject of grace do
you see it she's a tormented but what drawn subject of grace
so so what he did was he thought through what his assignment was
because we talk about this in ministry when you have an assignment
There are a number of things that you want to keep in mind
about your assignment. You want to keep in mind your
lane, your capacity, your calling. You never want to do something
that you are not called to do. Second thing, you want to understand
the context in which this assignment has been given to you. Who are
you dealing with? Or who are the multitude of people
you're dealing with? Know your auditors. Know your
audience. Then know the specific case scenario
that you are dealing with. Are you dealing with a case scenario
that's going to require catechizing or lengthy long periods of teaching?
Are you going to have to deal with something much more severe?
This all requires patience when you are evangelizing because
this is really an evangelical scenario. When you're evangelizing,
does your evangelism on this particular assignment require
patience of weeks and months? It may very well. Is it going
to require you holding back your natural gifted temperament as
a human being from being maybe fleshly and dealing with an oppositional
element that happens to be in that particular evangelical assignment?
Are y'all following me? Because evangelical assignments
don't always have everybody behaving. Sometimes people are going to
be very much in opposition to what you're doing, but because
you are not going to allow yourself to be distracted by those parties
that are, you're going to stay the course, you're going to be
very prayerful, very discerning, very objective, and very clear
in your assignment. And then when it's time to deal
with that person, you're going to be very concise, very sharp,
Deliberate and you're gonna let God work and trust that when
you beat the dogs that the children don't cry too bad as Mr. Spurgeon said This is the other
side of how the enemy loves to work when we have to exercise
authoritative discrimination and deal with defiance and demonic
elements that are seeking to divide and distract and destroy
when that entity has to be dealt with and Not even ignorant Christians
get shaken up Are you hearing me? They get all shaken up and
we have to wait as Spurgeon says for everybody to settle down
and realize that the kingdom of God is not a place of clamor
and confusion and conflict and noise It's a place of peace Do
you guys understand that? the gospel ministers are officers
of peace and our job is not to allow clamor and chaos and confusion
and Gossip and distortion and all of that crazy stuff to prevail
because that's the work of the enemy So when you finally have
to deal with something and excise it all you have to wait peace
recovers and those who love peace proceed in the peace So this is where Paul is in dealing
with this particular context. She was tormented, but I like
to say that she was what drawn Now how is Paul operating? He's operating on the principle
that God is what sovereign is God sovereign? No, when God is
sovereign, he'll bring situation in your life and he's gonna ask
you now. Do you believe it's me? Do you believe I'm sovereign? Can I bring a situation in your
life? That's gonna drive you to prayer. I Can I bring a situation
in your life that's just going to disturb your nice little comfort
zone in the pocket you're walking in? Can a sovereign God decide
to use you in a situation that's going to require you now to get
up out of your bed, metaphorically, and go to work? And we've learned
that assignments are counterintuitive. In other words, they are never
something that you are so easily desirous to engage in because
God is working through the spirit. And the spirit and the flesh
are always at odds. Our flesh never wants to do a
spiritual assignment. It requires the humility of our
flesh the subduing of our flesh The grace of god to guide us
into an assignment so that when it's done you if nobody else
knows god did it You if nobody else knows god
gave you grace to want to do it And then he gave you grace
to execute it and he gave you grace to pull out without stealing
his glory That takes grace. And you thank
him that you were just a vessel. Just a vessel, it takes grace. And that's what Paul did here.
What do I mean by drawing? No man can come unto me, Jesus
said, except my father, which sent me, what? Draw him, John
6, 44. No one's coming unto God unless
God is drawing. And when we are working in ministry
and we see God drawing people, we have to understand the nature
of that process per individual. It's God's drawing Paul had to
assert or raise the question and draw the conclusion. Is she
here by accident? We don't believe in accidents
Is she here on purpose? Yes, everything works together
after the counsel of God's own will It's her present behavior
something that we can expect. Yes is something we can expect
Because the adversary is always operating where God's people
are so um what we are dealing with in this context is paul
drawing a conclusion that she is someone to be dealt with with
the hope that she would be recovered jude verse 22 and 23 jude 22
and 23 um this little book of jude and jude is a wonderful
book we might get a chance to talk about him in church history
over these next six months in sunday school because he's dealing
with the time of apostasy as well. His book is a very stinging
book around apostates if you read his language. His opening
language, before we get to verse 22, go with me to Jude verse
1 and 2 and 3. Notice the language and how Jude
opens up his little epistle and it's the book of Jude right before
the book of Revelation. And Jude says the servant of
Jesus Christ and brother of James to them that are sanctified by
God the father and preserved in Jesus Christ and call mercy
unto you and peace and love be multiplied Beloved when I gave
all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation It was
needful for me to write unto you to exhort you That you should
what earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered
unto the saints He said that because contextually there have
been a lot of assaults on the gospel On the character of god
on the nature of christ on the matter of the atonement on the
matter of christ humanity The church was going through all
sorts of warfare and paul and jude was saying you must contend
for the faith And here's what he says in verse four for there
are certain men crept in what? That means they snuck in privately
according to the things we talked about earlier. Flatteries, niceties,
forms of behavior that are unassuming, the nicest person in the church.
They crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this
condemnation. That clause simply means God
wrote about them before time. Whenever you read that word ordained,
don't mix that word ordained up with predestination. People
often do that the word ordained there is Frequently to be understood
as God has written about these kind of people before that's
what we did when we wrote when we quoted the Proverbs God has
written about him before so your Bible will write about behavior
patterns and people and false prophets and even good people
and then you can discern whether or not a person fits that category
of old to this condemnation ungodly men that turn the grace of God
into what a opportunity to sin and they are denying the only
Lord God only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ and then he
warns about them through the illustrations of Egypt and Sodom
and Gomorrah and the destruction of demons and he's just give
some very colorful language about their judgment and we read this
about them over in verse 17 and And I want to make my way through
verse 22 to underscore where Paul is. But beloved, remember
ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our
Lord Jesus, how they told you that there should be mockers
in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly what?
Verse 18 describes false prophets and false teachers who put on
a form of godliness. They mock as if they are for
Christ, but they are in it for their own personal greed and
gain. Do you see it? How that they
told you there should be markers in the last time who should walk
after their own ungodly lust Now here's how he describes him.
Now watch this these be they Who separate themselves? They
separate themselves in order to distinguish themselves to
make them some someone special This is a tactic of the enemy.
So common. I have time to even fully develop
it, but that's what they do. So now if you and you guys can
affirm this, if you really are driven by a spirit of a megalomaniac,
if you are, if your ego is at the center of your being, you
are craving attention. Did you guys hear what I just
stated? You are craving attention. And the best way to get attention
is to distinguish yourself from other people. In other words,
you're not satisfied with being a part of the common lot of the
brethren. Where you're just like the rest
of us. Are you guys following what I'm saying? And I can stack
this up like I will explain it in Affirmative Church History.
The Lord Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 23 these words. You
are all brethren. Call no man your father. Call
no man your master. Don't create these hierarchies
in the church at the level where you start having popes, Archbishops
and bishops and prelates and emperors Because you have one
father and you have one God and you're all brother Now this really
applied to the Apostles. You guys are gonna learn this
in church history how we got away from that But the Apostles
knew that they were all brethren so that no one Apostle had authority
over the other Apostles they had to work together collaboratively
because they were brethren and Here in our text, it's describing
the men and women who feel as if they have a special anointing
that should raise them up and separate them from the rest so
that people call attention to them. Are you guys hearing me? And they are not satisfied with
simply identifying with the common lot of the body of Christ and
working together collaboratively as just brethren. And that's
what happens when you and I are driven by our own ego. This is
what happened to Judas Iscariot the night he separated from the
other 11 You guys hear what I'm saying? And the Apostle said
this happens over and over and over again and he uses the term
central you see the word central again, that's a dangerous word
in our particular context because you and I think of central as
like sexy and and Emotional and stuff like that that particular
Greek term central simply means carnal Fleshly driven by carnal
passions. All right, and Not just sensual
in the emotional, sexual sense, but carnal. And so when a person
is carnal, they're narcissistic. Do you understand that? Just need to drive that home
because we got a lot of that going on. It's only logical,
isn't it? In a culture where on the one
hand, we have our society saying that we don't want to have any
kind of discrimination going on. Everybody ought to be free
to be what they want to be, right? And on the other hand, everybody
is almost a god unto themselves, aren't they? This is a contradiction.
So if, in fact, we are to be discriminating, how is it that
an individual gets to say, I'm this, that, or the other thing,
and if you don't acknowledge me, they're going to fall out,
or file a lawsuit, or this and that. We are a self-contradicting
culture. And narcissism is at the heart
of our present generation. And you guys know this. with
your own kids. Is this true? We struggle to
reign them in and help them understand that life does not revolve around
them. And yet everything in the media
tells them that it does. And this is where you have people
who feel like until they can, and you get this, I'm going to
just make the application. I've seen it in our church with
many young people, you know, the opportunity to go on these
shows, American Idol, you know, America's got great talent. When
you watch these programs, what you are watching are people who
are operating out of need love. Need love. Are you guys hearing
me? That they don't feel like they
have really achieved anything unless billions of people can
see their talent. That's really sad. Isn't that really sad? That's
really sad when you have thousands of people trying to win. And
you see what happens when the judges have to tell her, uh,
your mama didn't tell you the truth. You can't sing child. And they fall out and have fits.
It's the same child 20 years ago that was in the grocery store,
knocking down all the food off the cabinet. And then mama just
walking by like she don't see nothing. And the child reaching
up, snatching at her face, trying to rip her face off while she's
in line. And I just want to pull my belt
off and just get in that tail. I know I'm going to jail here,
daddy. I got a belt. Just, just take the child to
the back and handle your business. That's the culture we're in.
And then when the child is old enough, if don't nobody pay any
attention to them, they strap a bomb or go get a rifle. This
is where we are in our culture because we we don't know how
to help people get grounded in God So that their satisfaction
is in whose they are You understand what I'm getting at very very
important these be the they who separate themselves central not
having the spirit Let's go on But ye beloved building up yourselves
on your most holy faith. Here it is praying in the Holy
Ghost. See it Keep yourselves in the what? See now I love that
line because what Jude and what James and what John and what
Paul is teaching Love works no ill towards its neighbor You
cannot tell me you are operating out of the Spirit of God when
you are violating Principles and ethics of the Word of God
in the body politic. Is that true? You can't tell
me You can't tell me you're operating out of the Spirit of Christ because
the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of love The spirit of love is
not gonna work ill. It's not gonna violate God's
social decorum principles in the kingdom, is it? You have
to be carnal to do that, don't you? So that's what's going on
here keeping yourselves in the love of God looking for the what?
Well, look at the two this is I loved you. Here's what Judah
saying you preoccupy yourself with the principle of love and
you keep your eye on the return of Christ because that's God's
mercy to you and Because between now and then, you and I are gonna
be fighting to survive in the kingdom. And the only real deliverance
is when Jesus comes. Do you see it? That's the only
real deliverance. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. Don't get caught up in churchianity. Looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ on the eternal life. Because when he comes,
he will deliver us out of this mess. He will deliver us out
of this mess. Now, let's continue going because
here is where he instructs you and me. When we are operating
out of an ethic of love, greater love has no man than this that
he does what? And if we're looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ, then we're going to be striving to make sure that when
he comes, we are not ashamed. Is that right? So if we're operating
out of that ethic, we're going to want to be obedient to him
in the evangelical realm, right? Hence the next verse, 22. Some have compassion making a
difference. Do you see it strange? Language
there but what Jude means is when you look at some people
and you consider some people be compassionate enough to make
a distinction between the false prophets who can't be helped
and gullible sinners who can Because this topic was the false
prophets from verse 1 all the way up to that time where he
says they separate themselves They're under judgment But he
says you make a distinction through the principle of compassion when
a person is simply trapped by error and falsehood and need
to be delivered Now watch how he works this through in verse
23 And others save with what? Pulling them out of the what?
Hating even the garments spotted by the flesh see verse 23. That's
what Paul just did That's what Paul did see it Did he pull her
out of the fire? Did he pull her out of the fire?
Did he have compassion on her? He pulled her out of the fire. He made a distinction between
the malevolent spirit that is seeking to destroy and an eternity
bound soul who was brought into his presence by the grace of
God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? He made a distinction. So sometimes in your battles
and assignments, God When he's just warning you against people
who mean you no good He will give you the grace to distance
yourself So that they don't corrupt you Are you hearing me? But other
times when he wants you to see past their behavior to their
bondage He will give you discernment to know that their motive is
simply misguided because they're controlled by false principles
How many of you guys hear what i'm saying? This is important
for you to get important for you to get. Here's the tension
of the gospel. Here's the tension. The tension
of the gospel is that God, he didn't leave us here to run from
people. He didn't leave us here to separate from people. He left
us here to deal with people. But you have to discern your
assignments. That's good, isn't it? Alright,
let's go back and work through this a little bit more. Back
to our text. I'm gonna open the floor 5 minutes for some Q&A
and then we'll shut it down. So this is quite interesting
because the next few verses are going to show us how God uses
a vehicle to advance his servants into another magnificent ministry,
but it's a vehicle that you and I would want to ride in. And
yet God does this frequently with his servants. So you would
think Paul being used by God to deliver this girl from bondage.
Would simply be a a wonderful impetus to just grow the church,
right? Hey, we got a brother down here
who are actually preaching the truth and folks are getting delivered
Isaiah 61 verse 1 2 & 3 the spirit of the Lord of the Lord God has
anointed me by his spirit to preach good tidings unto the
poor to set the captives free To let the prisoners go that's
what gospel ministry is about right? You would think that everybody
would be coming to be saved Look at the way this verse turns out
This is crazy. Verse 19, and when her master
saw that the hope of their game was gone, that's because that
girl never came back. That girl never came back. Ascension
says, I'm free now. I'm free. Hallelujah. I'm free. I'm staying with these brothers
by the riverside. This is the real God who doesn't
beat me down. who doesn't control me by unprincipled
men, who doesn't use me and tyrannize me and force me against my will
and abuse me and shame me. That's what she was going through
with these other hooksters. She's liberated now. She's brought
into a kingdom of principle and character and godliness, righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Remember Legion? Legion didn't
want to go. Lord, I'm with you. Our Lord
says you got to go back and tell folks When a person's delivered
they want to be with Christ. Is that true? Now watch this
Watch this So and when their master saw that the hope of their
game was gone, they caught Paul. You know what? That means they
trapped him They waited for him That's how the enemy works. They
caught him and they caught Silas see it See now this would this
would I'm telling you say are y'all like me I I would say,
Lord, what's up with this? You just used me to deliver a
brother. Now I'm standing before the courts
like a common guilty criminal, right? This is how God works. They caught Paul and Silas and
drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers. Do you see it?
They caught Paul and Silas and drew them to the marketplace
unto the rulers. That is, these guys are being
dragged. They're being dragged. That's the Greek word to literally
drag them. They're being made a laughing stock. They're being
dragged publicly into the marketplace. Into the marketplace. And so,
you can see all of these hundreds and thousands of people are looking
at Paul and Silas and going, they must have done something
wrong. They must be criminals. Because they're dragging them
through the marketplace. Notice what it goes on to say. And they
brought them to the magistrates. Now they're into the courts.
saying these men being what do exceedingly trouble our city
now these folks who caught paul and silas knew the inherent discrimination
and racism that was systemic in that body politic at that
time they knew the prejudice against the jews and they played
that up as a mark to distort the judgment of the magistrate.
So, you guys following me? I'm because I'm cutting this
to short order just to help you understand there's nothing new
under the sun. Nothing new. Now, what does the fact that
these men being Jews have anything to do with what Paul did? But
you see how shallow and how deceptive and how crazy our rulers are?
That they're driven by principles of greed, discrimination, racism,
injustice, levels nothing new is there now watch how this works
they do exceedingly trouble the city and teach customs which
are not lawful for us to what neither to observe being Romans
so now what they do is they bring up trumped-up charges as if Paul
and Silas are going everywhere witnessing knocking on doors
and telling people to abandon their false gods and believe
in the one monotheistic God Jehovah and nothing in your text tells
you they did that. In fact, their ethic was to go
to the riverside with the other saints outside of the city to
do ministry so as not to bother the people in the town because
Paul and Silas knew how wicked the people were in the town.
Are you guys with me? In other words, as evangelicals,
your job is never to start trouble. This is good teaching, you just
don't know. Your job is never to start trouble. Your job is
never to start trouble. We are not troublemakers as a
premise. And so Paul and them are now
being brought up on trumped up charges simply because a hell-bound
sinner was set free. You guys see that? A hell-bound
sinner was set free. Let me read a few more. I'm going
to open the floor. We'll come back and unpack this in a few
weeks. verse 21 verse 22 and the multitude
rose up together against them and the magistrates rent off
their clothes and Commanded them to be beat and when they had
laid many stripes on them They cast them into prison charging
the jailer of charging the jailer to keep them safely and who having
received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison, which
is a dungeon under the main city prison, a dungeon that doesn't
have any light, doesn't have any air. It has no resources,
nothing but stocks to lock you in as if you're going to be left
there to die. So now think about this transition
right quick. This is amazing. One minute you
free preaching the gospel Casting out devil sin folk say the next
minute you cast out of sight under the jail Viewed as the
worst prisoners on planet earth not worthy of water bread or
air You see how quick the scenario
change So simply, you know, because I'm one of these persons that
love to just draw out all the implications of a narrative for
me. And it's because I want to understand
the ways of God. I don't want to have a superficial
knowledge of God. I don't want to have a false
knowledge of God. I don't want to build a synthetic
view of how God works. I don't want to be telling God
he ought to work the way I want him to work because God does
not work the way you want him to work, nor I. So now if I say,
Lord, use me like you use the apostles. Hallelujah. You better
be ready just to handle the way God going to use you. You're
going to be on the mountain top one day and you're going to be
in the pit the same day. And that descent is going to
be so fast. It's going to take your breath
away. You ain't going to be able to enjoy the ride down because
that's what's going on here. Think about what just happened.
Am I boring you guys? Think about what just happened
because where we are today, you get a chance to see this kind
of behavior of mob rule and mass aggression on your television
right now in the very countries that our Lord was sending his
disciples to preach. I'll talk about this on Sunday.
Turkey, Istanbul, is Asia Minor. It's the exact same area where
Paul and them are doing ministry. It is that region that's hot
fire right now with tumults and conflicts. Right now. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Can you imagine the Christians that are trying to do ministry
right now over there? They have to deal with these extreme waves
right now. This is why I say for us here in America, we need
to shut our mouths. because we complain way too much
about nothing. Nothing. Nothing we complain
way too much because God has not put upon us Nowhere near
what our dear brothers and sisters are dealing with over there We
need to shut up count our blessings keep counting our blessings and
when you run out of counting your blessings didn't complain
But I guarantee you if you start counting your blessings one by
one by one you will never get to a point of complaining because
God's blessings to you and me are so manifold and So manifold
that we owe him a debt of love and grace 24 hours a day We should
be the people shouting and rejoicing and thanking God and committing
ourselves to his service Every day of our lives for all the
goodness that God shows us in America all this crazy talk about
this that the other is nothing Nothing even worthy of mentioning
for one moment Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? All right. Anybody
got a few questions? We'll do some Q&A before we shut
it down. Any questions? Y'all just, I'm going to do five
seconds, four or five seconds. I need some runners. Five seconds. I need one more runner, because
my brother's tired. One more runner. Come on, Nairobi. Oh, OK. Come on. Nairobi will
do it. Make him feel good. He's a little
older than you. Make him feel good. Raise your hand up so he
can help you. Cut the mics on. Over on this side, any questions
over on this side? here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here
we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. saturday at the men's meeting about how
um people are watching us they're watching us walk they're watching
us live out our christianity yeah and the african church in
africa has been doing the same thing but they've been imitating
exactly what you've been saying so they imitate it and then they
exaggerate it right and it's crazy because i'll have conversations
with people and these are church-going people who believe that they
are being possessed every sunday or whatever but it's like you
say you're a believing saved christian How can a demon possess
the same space that the Holy Spirit does? 100%. It's a contradiction. Exactly. But people don't see.
It's crazy how people don't see that. Right. And it's been, even
when I was an undergrad, and even when I'm in school now,
people will just be walking to the store, and they'll be rebuking
cars going by. And I'm like, what's going on?
Seriously. That goes on here in America. Yeah. And this is
here. That goes on here in America. And they're very serious about
what they're doing. So my question is, how do you
I mean, obviously you're going to offend someone to some kind
of level, but how do you address it? So you're not asking the
question, how do you say it without offending? I know you're not
asking me that. I know my student, I know my student, Patrick, is
not asking the pastor in the front of all these people, how
do you say certain things that are going to be offensive without
offending? I know you're not doing that. How, how do you do
it, um, cogently and soundly? Cause I mean, there's one thing
to just, you know, lay it on them and, you know, and with,
you know, on without any kind of, well, you're not going to
do that. You're not going to do that. You're not going to
do that. We already learned from Paul.
We're not going to do that. Right. We're going to be prayerful.
We're going to be patient. We're going to wait for the appropriate
moment. But here, and your question is
a question I received earlier today around how do you talk
to people about things that intrinsically can offend? I heard the same
question today. And I said, everything has the
potential of offending people. Everything you say has the potential
of offending people. Everything you say and if you
and I are going to determine whether or not we're going to
tell people things based upon the Potential of his offense.
We wouldn't say anything So you pray and learn how to frame things
in a way that actually creates dialogue around it So when you
are speaking you are not speaking authoritatively to a person with
whom you don't have that kind of rapport So I see now Patrick
got me going into evangelism So I'll just tell you, you're
not going to be an effective evangelist speaking authoritatively
to people you don't know. You have to win people. So you
speak to them graciously, respectfully, and phrase, and poise your words
to simply prompt dialogue about it. So be Socratic about it. Socratic is a device by which
you actually phrase your proposition in a question form. and hope
to draw them out in a dialogical process by which you can now
explain why you are concerned about their behavior. That way
you aren't directly offending them. They may know by implications
that it's an offense, but they will respect the fact that you
labored to make it simply a question for us to talk about. So Patrick,
you do that well, you know that. So, you know, next question. it on? Is it is it on? Talk to
me, brother. No, because it ain't on. What you what you doing Nairobi?
Okay, so they got it cut down up there. Yeah, he got the wrong
one. I'll help you. I'll help you.
I love I love that. There you go. Okay, we are. So,
pastor, I just had a quick question about I was listening to one
of the preachers, mister Paul Washer and he was talking preachers and he was saying that
these false teachers are given to people you know to the people
who don't want to hear the gospel or that have rejected the gospel
as a judgment and I just wanted to get your thoughts on that
no that's true it's true but that's not the whole truth but
that is a central truth Matthew chapter 7 plainly says either
make the tree good or make the tree evil A good tree will not
bear bad fruit. Is that what he said? Right.
So what he's teaching you and me is not to allow our brains
to operate out of a cognitive dissonance, which we love to
do. We love to know that a thing
is really one way, but we act as if it's another. Cognitive
dissonance is when you hold two opposing thoughts in your brain
at the same time without reconciling the fact that you are contradicting
yourself. And so what Jesus says is either let the tree bear good
fruit or let it bear bad fruit. Don't, don't hold in the space
of your mind the idea that you can sow bad seed and get good
fruit or sow good seed and get bad fruit. If the fruit is bad,
the seed is bad. That's what our master is saying.
So he says, you shall know them by their what? Right. The problem
is he's making the assumption that the people to whom he is
speaking have the discernment to know good fruit from bad fruit.
And the problem is in our Christian churches today, we don't know.
So we will say that Joel Osteen saved preaching the gospel and
everybody knows the Lord Jesus in his church because you don't
know how to discern what the gospel is or what actual saving
fruit is. So we got to go back to square
one. What is the gospel? And what does it mean to truly
be saved? And here's another question I've been raising for
years to scholars and professors around apologetics. I asked them,
would they pretend like virtually everybody's preaching the gospel?
I said, so now name for me one false prophet. I said, name for me one false prophet. I'm talking about scholars. Name
for me one false prophet. And when they don't, it's because
they don't want to. Are you guys hearing me? And
when they don't, it's because they don't want to, because it's
politically correct today to make everybody saved and everybody
doing the will of God. And I will say, I remember one
professor who teaches out at Western Seminary out in San Jose. And he's a missionary professor,
and he was talking about all these nations getting saved.
And he was talking about how they were getting saved apart
from the preaching of the gospel, apart from the proclamation of
the word. And I was saying to him, don't
you understand that a good 40% of your Bible, sir, warns about
false prophets and false teachers and false spirits and false gospels. And he froze in his position. Because he just thought no one
in the classes was a class of preachers. No one in the class
would challenge his Statement that God is saving all kinds
of people in these means And when I said don't you know your
Bible talks about strong delusion in the last days? spirits of
error false prophets doing signs and wonders deceiving if possible
even the very elect and And he was frozen in his stance. And I'm like, sir, if you tell
people that these are the ways of God, you're telling them to
throw their Bible away. And once you do that, people
don't have any discernment. Now, here's what happens, ladies
and gentlemen, when that occurs. All you're doing is repeating
a rumor that you cannot affirm. And then when someone solid biblically
comes along, it says, open your Bible to Matthew chapter 24,
2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Jude chapter 1, Revelation chapter
16, Revelation 17, Isaiah chapter 28, Deuteronomy chapter 13, Deuteronomy
chapter 18. Let me show you what the Bible
says about these hooksters and crooksters that God sends to
test you. to test you whether or not you
will serve the Lord your God or follow after other false gods.
See, you and I don't want to be caught out of pocket like
that. You don't want to be caught out of pocket like that. I was
talking to someone today about an individual who swears Oprah
is saved. All right, next question before
we shut it down. anybody right there my dear brother
good to see you boy see you too good to have you in the house
is that your better half by you it sure is i'm glad you brought
her me too just a quick question are we assuming that the fortune
teller was saved or there's any... It's an absolute assumption.
Okay. Okay. An absolute assumption. That's
the only thing. Right. So, so, so what I do when we
teach is, what I say is that, um, depending on the context,
and that's why I stated that the context is evangelism. That's
the context. So Paul is being used. That's
why you gotta go back to the 15th chapter. Paul is being used.
Silas is being used to start a church in Philippi. And there
are believers who are already there who need to be taught the
gospel clearly. That's Lydia and her band, right?
But in the process of preaching the gospel, there are those who
are going to be possessed by demons who need to be delivered.
That's the ministry that was given to them in Luke chapter
10. I have given you power over the enemy, cast out devils, heal
the sick, etc. And so Paul being an apostle
would be able to demonstrate that in this particular ministry
task. The fact that Luke is silent
on what happened to this woman in an explicit way is because
the Bible is very clear that it spends no time dealing with
the dark world disproportionately. It just won't do that. So my
assumption or inference, what I'm drawing from that is predicated
upon the context of evangelism. though I would not be able to
go get an explicit verse to say, the girl's name was this, once
she got saved this. We are assuming that she is because
of the outrage that took place once their masters discovered
she's no longer under the bondage of sin. Plus the ministry of
the gospel is deliverance, isn't it? All right, so next question.
Good observation though, my brother. Way, way in the back. Go ahead
on, go ahead on AJ. I just had kind of a general
question. I just wanted to ask, you know,
with all the stuff that's going on, you know, in the news and
all that stuff, how do we just keep our eyes on Christ and be
focused? Because it's just strong, you
know, it's just pulling us in constantly. Give me an example. Let me see if I can work with
you. I'm going to put my Dr. Phil hat on with Brother AJ right
quick. He warned me that his question
was going to be general, right? Yeah. Let's get specific. How
are you being drawn in to the point where the gospel is not
effective in your life? It's just chaotic. It just seems
like we're losing order, and people are just doing what they
want to do. We have no say in it, you know, and I'm trying
to seek God's sovereignty in it because I believe in it and
I trust in it, but it just, it's just hard to keep, you know,
that focus on Christ when, you know, when this person gets shot
and this person's, you know, the, these political issues are,
are trying you as a, you know, as a person. So I just, I don't
know. I don't know if there's, do you
know, do you know anybody that got shot? Not personally. Okay. Do you know, are you, are
you, um, private to any of the political harangues that are
going on either here in the Bay Area or across the nation? Are
you just simply talking about stuff you're watching on the
television? It's mainly TV. Okay. So let me, let me start
with AJ as a model. AJ has to cut the TV off, especially when the media has
the kind of impact that you're stating that it does on your
emotional stability. And this would be true for other
people who get wrapped up in other forms of entertainment
too. If you're wrapped up in other forms of entertainment
where you're just spending five minutes in the gospel, but you
can't wait to get back to your other form of entertainment,
then your main diet is not God. It's something else. And you
will never overcome the flesh when your main diet is not God.
This is the thing that burdens my heart with the church today. What burdens my heart is that
we really think we can do 40 hours a week or how many hours
in a day over the course of 7 days and tip our hat to god for 2
hours on Sunday and actually think it's going to work. It
does not work. It cannot work. You cannot prosper. You cannot grow. Do you guys
understand what I'm If you and I are not pondering
the path of our ways, if we're not diligently guarding our hearts,
for out of it are all the issues of life, if we're not asking
the Lord, as I said in my opening prayer of Psalm 119, this division
three, incline my heart unto your testimonies and not unto
my covetousness. Draw me, O God, and I will run
after you. Keep the door of my lips so that
I don't say anything perverse or wicked. We are going through
Psalm 16 right now. I challenge you to follow us.
Preserve me, oh God. Preserve me, oh God. For in thee do I put my trust.
Preserve my whole being. Preserve my mind. Because that's
where the warfare is. Preserve my heart. because that's
where my emotional commitment is. Preserve my heart because
that's where commitment is. You can learn a lot in your cranium
and your heart still be given over to the idols of this world.
Preserve my heart because that's where my emotional attachment
is. Preserve my faith. But that's where my convictions
are. My faith is my conviction. And if I am not being preserved
in my faith, I'm hearing all sorts of things, but I don't
have any conviction about anything. So that's ever learning and never
coming to the knowledge of the truth. And what David said is,
God, you have to preserve me. Not just watch over me, preserve
me. Take my heart, take my mind,
take my convictions, take my life and cultivate it. Labor-intensive preservation
is a shepherd that leads his sheep besides still waters and
green pastures Through dark valleys and is near that sheep to get
them where they gotta go. You better start crying Cry Cuz
hell won't you Hell won't you Hell won't you You know, I've been reasoning
through this for like 30 years I've been trying to think So
Lord, am I wrong? Am I overzealous? Is Pastor Jesse
crazy? And am I putting too much into
this Am I wrong because I could be wrong I could be just the
only fool in here who thinks I really need to be immersed
in God 24 hours a day if I could Because we don't prosper You
guys do understand whatsoever man's souls that shall he also
reap And this is what I know That when I cut the tv on and
watch it and see what I see I'll say that's exactly what the lord
said would occur Keep me oh lord keep me And then I have to be careful
about how much I watch that stuff See, I believe that the believer
must understand that he is set apart to God. Unless you don't
believe that you're set apart to God, then you're not going
to sanctify the Lord God in your heart and in your mind so that
you'd be ready to give an answer to everything that's assaulting
your identity. One more question. We're going
to shut it down. One more question. One more. Anybody got another question?
All right. So that's it. And let's stand for prayer. I
got one question. You got a question? Yes. OK. On Ezekiel 33, where
he's appointed as a watchman for the people, and he has to
warn them. And if he doesn't, then they
die. God says the blood would be on
him. Right. Does that apply to us
as Christians? In some ways. in some ways, be
very careful in some ways, but contextually, that applies to
me. As a leader. That's right. As
a pastor. That's right. As a leader, as
a watchman. So I don't get to just do hopscotch
over the scriptures. I showed you how I did that,
right? How to play hopscotch over the scriptures, which is
what a lot of churches do. don't want to deal with the hard
doctrines. Mm. Don't want to challenge people's
souls. I don't get to play hopscotch over the scriptures. I don't
get to say, oh lord, this one, they're not going to like this
lord. They're not going to like this. They're not going to like
this lord. I don't want to say this because
that's what Joel Osteen does. Yeah. He plays hopscotch over
the hard things of And every one of you who have
been hearing my voice for years, you get to tell God that Pastor
Jesse did not tell you the truth. And reserved for me is the lowest
hell. Oh, man. I'm actually going to
be thrown under hell underneath the politicians. Now, that's
bad. That's bad. That ain't funny. Father, we thank you for your
mercy and your goodness and your kindness. And we thank you for
apprehending the hearts of those who came out tonight. We love
and adore the fact that you are a God of compassion and your
passion for sinners is that you raise up people who will go out
into the highways and byways and share the word like the apostles
did. And you are saving people. You are saving people. Hallelujah.
Use us, use us, call us, grow us, mature us and send us to
tell men and women about Jesus and to show them that the word
of God is right and all your works are done and true. Not
one of your prophecies will ever fail. And even though the earth
be cast into the midst of the sea, as David said in Psalm 16,
I have set the Lord always before my face. I shall not be moved. I shall not be moved because
I see him who loved me and gave himself for me. May that be the
case for AJ. His family and all of our families may we may we
by the grace of God put Christ in in our face So that he is
such a revelation to us that everything else pales in comparison
And we long to see you we long to see you one day in reality
grace us Oh God to deal with the hell that's coming to America
Grace says Lord because you've declared that it's coming. It
will come it's already here and when these things break out help
us to do what the Apostles do and as we'll learn, sing hallelujah
to the Lord God who is sovereign and almighty even though they
throw us in jail. Silence what you want to sing,
what you want to sing, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of
prayer that calls a soul from a world of care and many other
songs that are in the songs of Zion by which we boast in a God
who is able to take us through the darkness and lead us on out. And now, Father, as we go our
way, give us traveling mercies. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.