Amen, we turn the corner on Acts
chapter 14 and opened up last week under points number one
preached the word point number two the continued hostility of
Judaism and we pressed home the issue that we have a pattern
in the New Testament where the Jews particularly in the book
of Acts the unbelieving Jews are the main antagonist of the
gospel and particularly towards the Apostles and And we saw how
in verses one through verse four, the apostles were given freedom
and boldness and confidence to preach the gospel in the context
of persecution. And that was something that we
marked extensively. We saw this over in verse three
through five, these words. So Paul and Barnabas were there
for a long time. They abode speaking boldly in
the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace and
granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. I'll
come back there in a moment and straighten out some of the terminology
there. But the multitude of the city
was divided, part held with the Jews and part with the apostles.
And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and
also of the Jews with their rulers to use them despitefully and
to stone them, they were aware of it. fled to Lystra and Derby,
cities in Lycania, and unto the region that lies round about
it. And there they preached the gospel. This is where we ended last week.
And to sum up again, verses 1 through 7 of chapter 14 can be described
by 1 Corinthians chapter 16, where the apostle Paul said that
an effectual door was opened to him. verse 9 of chapter 16
and yet there were many adversaries an effectual door was opened
in chapter 16 of 1st Corinthians verse 9 and yet there were many
adversaries what we concluded was that at least for the Apostles
the ministry of the gospel was destined to be met with continual
opposition and and hostility, at least for the apostles. It's not always that way in the
kind of severe sense in which the apostles suffered opposition
and hostility, but we can derive from their experience that we
too will suffer when we share the gospel with others. However,
what you and I want to be careful not to do is to make our suffering
for the cause of the gospel equal to that of the apostles. One
of the reasons why we took some time last week to really develop
the language around verses one through six was to show the intensity
with which the Jews, the unbelieving Jews and the Gentiles pursued
the apostles. Verse two, but the unbelieving
Jews stirred up the Gentiles. That language there is a strong
language that means that they provoked the Gentiles. They poisoned
the minds of the Gentiles. They caused the Gentiles to think
ill of the apostles in spite of the apostles' behavior and
message. The latter part of verse two,
and made their minds evil affected. That's a word that can be translated
poisoned. That's the idea of when people are not really grounded
in the principles of objectivity and don't know how to receive
information with critical thinking skills. They can be swayed by
a person's argument to draw conclusions about a thing without weighing
them in the balance and determining first whether or not the claims
that they are being exposed to are valid in their own right,
and whether or not those claims are true of the person with whom
they are addressing as the subject of those claims. And what that
means is if you and I don't know how to evaluate someone's argument,
you and I are constantly then made to be the victims of people's
ill agenda. In the Bible, we call that subversion. Subversion. And Paul talked about
this as one of the tactics of the false prophets to subvert
people's minds. Now, the only reason your mind
and mine would be subverted is that we do not have critical
thinking skills. We don't have those basic ethical
principles of being able to judge righteous judgment. The only
reason you and I would be persuaded as these Gentiles were persuaded
by the Jews is if the natural bent of our soul was to hear
bad news, buy it, and then respond to it. The Proverbs says it like
this in about the 24th chapter of Proverbs, a naughty ear gives heed to false
lips. A naughty ear gives heed to false
lips. And obviously the ear gate is
where information comes in at. And what Solomon is saying is
if your ear is naughty, that means that your ear is not trained
to discern right from wrong. It's simply a wasteland for any
kind of gossip. And when the information is poured
into your ear, then you are moved by that information as if it's
true. In another place of the Proverbs, in the same area around
Proverbs 25, Solomon said, he that is first in his own cause
always appears to be just. He appears to be right because
he's first. And you haven't actually evaluated
the whole argument. That first person comes with
fierce zeal and passion to tell you how they see a thing. And
then rather than you being objective and saying, okay, I feel you,
but I need to hear the whole matter. As the proverb goes on
to say, he that speaketh before he hears the matter, it is folly
and shame to him. And far too frequently in the
Christian church, when it comes to just general conversation
as a whole, we fall prey to gossip. and people's minds are ill-affected
towards other individuals, simply because we are not discerning
in our thoughts about what's being said. The Christian needs
to be very much aware that if they are consistently falling
prey to gossip, you will be wide open for heresy. Heresy really
fundamentally is gossip at the theological level, because everything
that's contrary to truth really gossip. And as the Bible describes
the devil as a liar and the father of it, in whom the truth never
abode, he would be the originator of the line of conversation that
results in people being slandered, misrepresented, and therefore
skewing the minds of people about an individual. Have you ever
been affected by that? Again, I use the analogy and
this is kind of where the concept of poisoning the mind comes in
at poisoning the well. It was an old trick where if
you wanted that well for yourself, you told everybody in the village
near that well that that well is poisoned. And no one then
would go to the well but you. And when you don't want people
to listen to someone who may have information or data that
benefits your soul, like the apostles, you can treat them
with scorn and ridicule and you can slander them. And weak people
will be inclined to buy your argument. That's what's going
on here. Look at what it says. But the
unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds
evil affected against the brethren. Isn't that what they did with
Jesus? Verse 4. But the multitude of the city
was divided. And the part held with the Jews
and the other part with whom? The apostles. Right. We're going
to work through that here in a moment in point number 3 and
4 when we deal with the gospel does divide. But here's what
it says in verse 5 and 6 as we close out this opening introduction
to the advance of the gospel in the midst of difficult times
as Paul stated, in the midst of many adversaries. And when
there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the
Jews with their rulers, Mark now, it has escalated from gossip,
from slander, from evil reports that have moved the Gentiles
against the apostles to now an assault made both of the Jews
and the Gentiles against the apostles. They wanted to despitefully
use them and to stone them. Again, in the original construction,
what this means is they were coming together with these kinds
of plans. Their objective was to not only
despitefully use the apostles, that is, abuse them publicly,
shame them, strip them of their clothing, ridicule them, mock
them publicly, that is, to shame them, Because back in that culture,
the idea of a person being caught for a crime meant that he was
worthy of being shamed publicly. And that's what they wanted to
do. Even as they did our Lord Jesus, they stripped him naked.
They beat him, they mocked him, they ridiculed him. They had
a laughingstock of a party before they killed him. It's called
shaming someone. It's what they wanted to do with
the apostles here. And then they wanted to what? Stone them. So
the Jews had really worked on the minds of the Gentiles, hadn't
they? Really at work. But what I want you to mark is
that in verse 4, it says the city was divided, in part held
with the Jews, in part with the apostles. What does that mean? It means that the truth of the
gospel, in spite of all of this hostility, was still working.
It means that the truth of the gospel, in spite of all of these
storms of allegations and charges, was still working. And for the
believer, this is the way you have to think. When you are in
the midst of the storms of allegations and accusation and charges and
gossip and hissing and noises and people talking in the corner
and you know, there are told moments and undercurrents of
trouble. You need to try to see where
God is in that and where God's people are. Make sure you line
up with God Because every storm is not necessarily a storm where
God is not in it at all. I remember years ago This must
have been about 15 years ago a couple had come to our church
and they were really tired of church squabbles and there were
some undercurrents going on in our church around the doctrine
of baptism and What the couple had said to me, they had two
sons and they were really, I could tell they were really just perturbed
with the trials that went on in the church. How come there's
so much trouble in the church? I thought the church supposed
to be a place of peace. I said, you thought wrong. You thought wrong. You don't
have anywhere in the Bible where the church is an atmosphere absent
of trials. There are always trials in the
church. The question is does that church
have a foundation of righteousness? Does peace rule? When chaos starts
up Is there a joy that is rooted in a people who actually know
the Lord so that for them they squash? Problems before those
problems take over the church. That's the real issue and of
course that couple ended up leaving our church to but ultimately
we discovered that it was because they had some weird and bizarre
doctrinal ideas that didn't reconcile with our view of baptism. And
we came to discover that really what they were perturbed about
was that their views weren't being held. They really weren't
sound in their theology. You might run across one or two
people in your lifetime like that, not real sound in their
theology, not real rational in their thinking. You might run
across one person like that in your lifetime. And so those people
very frequently, are coming and going, coming and going. It's a real gift for you to become
sound in the faith where you're not tossed to and fro by every
wind of doctrine. It's a real gift. The average
professing Christian in the West is tossed to and fro. They don't
know much about anything, but they're coming and going. So
the Apostle Paul and Barnabas are glad because they know the
work is taking place, but this heat has moved them to move from
Lystra to now the regions around Lycaonia, and there about in
the latter part of verse 7 says, and there they preached the gospel.
So let me share with you some fundamental principles in verses
three and four. If you guys have our PowerPoint,
we are at the gospel does divide. Will we able to recover that?
You guys have your outline, right? The gospel does divide. I want
to make sure that you guys understand a few things about division.
It's critical for you to know. If you have a problem with division,
get over it because division is critical to affirmation. Division
is critical to an affirmation of your sonship. Division is essential. When division occurs, a splitting
occurs, that means there has been an exposure of some kind
of weakness somewhere. There has been choices made for
people to believe one thing while other people are believing something
else. In many cases, both opposing views could be wrong. Both groups
could be wrong. But in many cases, what you have
is some believing the right thing and others believing the wrong
thing. That's really the case. Divisions are unavoidable. You
and I deal with divisions all our life. From a little child,
you have had to make choices that divided you from certain
people. You have had to make choices that divided you from
family members. You've had to make choices that
divided you from churches. Those choices were critical in
shaping your understanding and your character. You were exposed
in some cases for being shallow in your understanding of biblical
truth, being swayed by carnal principles and practices as we
had formally acknowledged. And then on the other hand, You
were also graciously Reminded that the lord was keeping you
through discernment in the midst of very problematic issues Well,
you just fortunately made the right choice because god opened
the door to lead you out of an occasion or a situation That
was bad And often when you departed it went from bad to worse Anybody
know what i'm talking about and you became very much aware that
god was protecting you So under the concept of division, I'm
gonna share with you three fundamental principles. First of all, Christ
divided at least three times in his ministry. There was a
division around the preaching and teaching of Christ at least
three times as marked in the gospel of John. So look with
me in your Bible at John chapter 7, 43, 9, 16, and 10, 19, John
7, 43. Let's mark this so that we might
inoculate ourself against the false notion that all division
is bad. Against the false notion that
all division is bad. We don't want to buy into the
notion that every time a situation occurs where there must be a
division, that we are in a bad situation, that's wrong. I'm
gonna start at verse 39. Where our Lord is speaking. He
gave a powerful illustration here at the Feast of Tabernacles
and he says in verse 39 This is John speaking after Christ
had quoted if any man thirst let him come after me out of
his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this speaking
in verse 39 of the spirit which they who believe on him should
receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet a because that Jesus
was not yet glorified. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, said of a truth, this is the
prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come
out of where? All right, so I'll teach you
a theological truth about that here in a moment. Had not the
scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David out of the
town of Bethlehem, where David was. Verse 43, so there was a
division among the people because of him. Do you see that? So stay
with me. I'll give you two or three or
four little things to consider about Jesus being a cause of
division. The scriptures does say that
Jesus is to come out of Bethlehem. Specifically and particularly
both in the ancient writings of the book of Deuteronomy numbers
and then in the minor prophets in the book of Micah out of Bethlehem
shall he come of me or unto me says God who shall be the ruler
in Judah whose goings forth are from everlasting from of old
He shall bear the scepter of righteousness and it was referring
to Jesus Christ who would be the son of David Powerful and
fascinating study that we will be dealing with for the next
12 weeks Jesus the son of David so those who were saying well
now Jesus comes out of I mean David the Messiah comes out of
Bethlehem of Judah, but this guy Jesus he doesn't come out
of Bethlehem of Judah What's going on here? The people have
partial information about him don't they? So their information
is flawed because while they know that Jesus grew up in West
Oakland, they don't know that he was born
in San Francisco. Right? So partial information
can skew your theology. And so what they don't know is
that the scriptures were radically and precisely fulfilled. That
is, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah. We worship the Son
of the Living God every year as we augment his birth around
his magnificent incarnation. And the scriptures are clear
on that, Luke chapter 2, 4, Matthew chapter 1 and 2, etc. But there
was a division because while the people are marveling at his
prophecy Some are saying he could not be messiah because messiah
would have never grew up in the hood Got that Divisions therefore
will come based upon faulty reasoning Based upon shallow understanding
If your understanding is insufficient, you can draw a wrong conclusion
about jesus If your understanding of the Word of God or a doctrine
or a teaching is deficient in that you don't address that doctrine
from a copious awareness of and study of the totality of scripture
around that doctrine, partial knowledge can lead to a wrong
conclusion. Am I making some sense? So this
is what's going on here in John's gospel chapter 7 fascinating
question that they raise As they work through that the pharisees
take advantage of this divisiveness That is taking place and we read
over in verse 47 Then answered them the pharisees. Are you also
deceived? Have any of the rulers or of
the pharisees believed on him? Implication you shouldn't believe
on anyone that we don't believe on Further inference to be drawn
from that if you're the kind of person that's gullible enough
to believe a theological doctrine based upon mere human Precedent
or mere human prominence then you're also weak there, too If
your decision to believe on God is rooted in the belief of men
and not in the belief of the testimony of Scripture Then you're
vulnerable there, too. Is that true? The Pharisees enjoyed
the monopoly of being able to influence the people of Israel
as to what they should believe. But leadership can be wrong.
You got that? Leadership can be wrong. This
people who know not the law are cursed, said the rulers. Nicodemus
said unto them, because Nicodemus was defending Jesus, right? Why? Because the Lord had begun to
draw Nicodemus, right? Openness understanding Nicodemus
began to see Jesus for who he really was and he began to see
his compadres his constituents For what they really were and
he realized that they were not lawful judges. They were not
right judges They were not judging righteously. And so he was compelled
to stand in the gap, right? He said unto them in verse 50
He that came by night being one of them doth our law judge any
man before it hear him and know what he doeth see verse 51 and
You know, they're all talking about who? But do you know who's
missing in the conversation? Jesus. Now, when people are talking
about someone, and it's a whole bunch of people talking about
that someone, but that someone is not there to defend themselves,
you know you are on the brink of gossip again. This is where
character comes in for the people of God. This is where the church
either rises above a social club and becomes the new creature
to which it is called, walking in the principles of biblical
truth, or we collapse and end up falling prey to the same carnal
standards that the world does. And it's, it's a bad testimony
when you got folks divided all around the church out of partial
information, deficient information, wrong information, and bad principles
to boot. in terms of judging righteously. So Nicodemus tried to call them
on the carpet and notice what it says in verse 52. They answered
and said unto him, are you also a Galilean? Now, not only are
they monopolizing their influence on the people by suggesting that
you only should believe what they believe, not only are they
doing exactly what Nicodemus said they were doing, judging
a man before they hear him, They are now committing what we call
an ad hominem attack against Nicodemus They're fundamentally
saying Nicodemus you are not worthy to listen to because you're
a Galilean also They called him a traitor a traitor not knowing
that to call Nicodemus a Galilean was an honor an absolute honor
But you see the Galileans were your poor backyard country bumpkin
Jews who were a hybrid culture of Jews and Gentiles. That's
the regions of Galilee, Naphtali, the area of the Gentiles far
north up from Jerusalem. I've talked to you guys about
that before. in the geography of Palestine, way up north, which
is where we are, but going further up Sacramento, way past Sacramento,
going up way by Red Bluff and further beyond would be the areas
of Galilee. And up in that area, a lot of
poor people, a lot of Gentiles, a lot of Jews live. When you
move more towards Central California, this is where you have your elite
Jews. This is where the temple is. This is where people got
their PhDs. This is where they drive nice
cars. This is where they are fair-skinned. This is where they
don't dare mix ethnic groups. And so these people thinking
that they are the people of God can judge these poor people.
That's where Jesus came from. That's where the apostles came
from. And they had their own dialect too. You know how different
regions have their own dialects? The Galileans had their own dialect.
This is how Peter was exposed for him being with Jesus because
the little girl said, ah, you sound like a ghetto speaker.
I got you. Your language is really bad. Galilee of the nations. And so
the charge now against Nicodemus is both an ad hominem attack,
but even more atrocious is that they make an absolute statement
about their theological perspective that we have discovered years
ago is wrong. Here's their argument. They say,
are you a Galilean also? And then they give him an imperative,
search and look. For out of Galilee ariseth no
prophet. This is what we call an absolute
in theology. That means when somebody stands
up and says, there are no prophets coming out of Galilee, You are
either right or wrong. You're not partially right and
partially wrong. You are right or wrong. And either
people are going to believe you face value and just assume you
have searched all the scriptures. You have spanned the totality
of the word of God. You've got to be right when you
make that kind of emphatic statement. No prophet comes out of Galilee. And they were dead wrong. One of the marquee types of Jesus
Christ particularly in his work of redemption and atonement,
came out of Galilee. And that was the prophet who?
Jonah. Jonah of Galilee. One of the greatest types of
Christ you can imagine in terms of him being sent to the Gentiles,
right? Chapter one, he goes down to
Joppa. Chapter two, he's in the whale's
belly. Even our master refers to his being in the whale's belly
as a type of his atonement. Is that true? Chapter 3, the
whole Gentile nation is converted under his preaching. It anticipates
the Gentiles being brought into the church. Chapter 4, Jonah
is sitting on the hillside hoping that God still kills him because
he's a religious Jew that basically hates his enemies. Beautiful
picture of the anti-type of Jesus Christ. So they were wrong, weren't
they? even though they marshaled all
this evidence up against Nicodemus and even these people who were
divided. So Jesus does divide, because if we were to think this
through, work this through, here Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
yes, but quickly he leaves Bethlehem because he's going to be killed
by Herod if he doesn't. And then when he comes back,
he registers in Bethlehem, yes, but he moves from Bethlehem now
to Nazareth to grow up. That's where God wanted him to
grow up. So God put this stumbling block here to cause the jews
to err God will do that The stumbling block was fundamentally their
lack of diligence in the scriptures The second time that we read
about jesus dividing is in john's gospel chapter 9 verse 16 Look
at john's gospel chapter 9 verse 16. And again, i'm taking you
through this exercise to let you know All division is not
bad Some division is necessary. Other divisions are crucial to
identifying the truth. In John's Gospel chapter 19,
here's what it says. In John's Gospel chapter 9, rather,
here is what it says over verse 15. I'll start. Then again, the
Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. That's
the blind man. You guys remember that account. He said unto them,
He put clay on my eyes, and I watched, and I do see. Therefore said
the Pharisees, This man is not of God. Now this is crazy because
he does not keep the Sabbath day. Others said, how can a man that
is a sinner do such a miracle? And there was a division among
them. Do you understand what happens here again? The body
politic of the leaders are asserting that Jesus is a sinner because
Jesus is not keeping the Sabbath as they perceive Sabbath ought
to be kept. The assumption, once again, is that they have such
comprehensive knowledge of the Bible that they actually are
the stewards of interpretation and they are the ones who would
render what we can do and what we can't do on the Sabbath. And
now they have just said that Jesus is a sinner, which is borderline
blasphemy! because he does not operate according
to their protocol on the Sabbath. Although they could not deny
the notable miracle that was done right in front of their
face. Now, you know what we call this? We call this religious blindness
that destroys the value system that's supposed to be a consequence
of the new nature. That your religious propensities
and bids and your particular views of theology shouldn't blind
you from the reasonable incredible evidence that's in front of you.
If the reasonable and credible evidence is in front of you is
unassailable, incontrovertible, factual, the blind man, everybody
knew was blind from his birth. Everyone knew this. He was able
to call to his witness, his mother, his father, the people in the
church. So obviously he was blind, but now he's healed. The Pharisees
are not even arguing about that at this point, because it's incontrovertible.
They're saying that Jesus couldn't be the Messiah because he did
it on the Sabbath day. Is that crazy or what? But this is how lopsided theology
emerges and becomes denominational in its fruit. Like the Seventh-day
Adventist. Or your Oneness Pentecostals.
Or your Jehovah Witnesses. are a whole litany of groups
who take a doctrinal concept, blow them up disproportionately,
obscure the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ,
and therefore the totality of scriptural truth in order to
press home a doctrinal position that they think is basically
the key to your election. You guys following what I'm saying?
So then now everything is weighed through the prism of that doctrinal
system. That if you, you could have every
other doctrine right, but if you get the doctrine of the Sabbath
wrong as they perceive it, you are in error, you're probably
not saved. This is what we call a major
imbalance theologically. A major imbalance. This is why
we insist that you understand that the real doctrinal truth
that is non-negotiable is the person and work of Jesus Christ.
If you if you depart from preaching and teaching Christ as the central
theological foundation for who you are and what you hope in
you will be swayed by these other systems and they are out there
all over the place I was thinking about this last night as I was
working through a debate an argument about the danger of hybriding
your identity as a Christian I was thinking about this. So
I'll just share it with you. You can think about it. It doesn't really matter
to me. If someone comes to you and they ask you, what are you? And you say, well, I'm Presbyterian.
And they say, well, what does that mean? Well, we Presbyterians
believe this. Or if someone comes to you and
say, what are you? And you say, I'm Baptist. They
go, well, what does that mean? Well, we Baptists believe this.
or someone comes and says, I'm Pentecostal, or I'm Methodist,
or I'm this. Every time you say that, you
destroy the quality of the gospel in a sufficiency to be the sole
grounds of your identity. Every time you say that, every
time you hybrid hyphenate Christian with some denominational title,
You suggest that the term Christian is not sufficient enough for
you to be able to identify yourself with the son of the living God,
the revelation of the invisible God, the word made flesh, the
alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and
the end. When you do that hyphenation, you are fundamentally saying
that for us, you are really not truly Christian unless you're
this. This is true. And some people
will say, well, but this is the kind of Christian that we are.
And I will say this. If you have a hyphenated Christianity,
what's taken away by your hyphenation is your Christianity. What's
taken away by your hyphenation is your Christianity. Cause now
you have to defend your hyphenation. Do you not? You have to defend
why you use that as the means of identifying who you are. I'm
not saying don't go to those churches. I could care less personally.
The only thing I care about in those churches is whether or
not Jesus in total absolute Lord and sovereign and that the Word
of God is Comprehended as the revelation of the invisible God
and the person of Christ and that what they preach and teach
is Jesus Christ and crucified Because if that's the case then
their little hyphen is so small that it doesn't matter However
Very important for us to understand the danger of associating those
little concepts. So that's what's going on even
here We're Pharisees We know more than you guys. Here's how
this goes. Therefore said the Pharisees,
this man is not of God because he keeps not the Sabbath day.
Others said, how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?
Now, what are the common people doing? They're marking the miracle. Are they not? And the miracle
for them is associated with the person's character of which they're
saying he could not be not of God and do a miracle of this
nature. Now, what are they doing? They're
defending the character of Christ based upon the scriptures. They're
defending the character of Christ based upon the scriptures. What
do you mean, pastor? The Jews were taught very well that when
Messiah comes, he would do the kind of miracles that no one
else could do. The kind of miracles that no
one else would do. And this man being born blind,
and everybody knowing, and now sees with crystal clear vision,
they know that only Messiah could do that. Are you guys hearing
me? The devil can't do that. Do you hear me? What the devil
does is what we call lying signs and wonders. You need to know
that. And so for the Jews who were
pedagogued under the law and under the prophetic word anticipating
Messiah coming, these people's hearts were warm enough through
the teaching that they had gotten that possibly what we are dealing
with here is the Messiah. So notice how the Word of God
kept them from falling prey to the authorities of the church.
The Word of God restrained them from now looking at Jesus and
treating Him in an ill manner because of what they are saying,
but rather they hold to the fact that the Scripture said this,
the Scripture said this, and you guys will know this too.
All throughout Christ's ministry, the common people were more inclined
to believe Him than the rulers. Is that true? This is another
occasion where there was a division among them because of Jesus.
I'll show you another one. In John's Gospel, chapter 10,
verse 19. So now, the miracle divided Jesus. In John chapter
7, the saints divided Jesus. And here's another one, John
chapter 10, verse 19. And I'm gonna start back at verse
14 and make our way through 19. And notice again, the division.
I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am known of mine.
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And I lay
down my life for the sheep. Other sheep have I which are
not of this fold. Them also must I bring in, and
they shall hear my voice. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father. Look at verse 19. There was a
division, therefore, again among the Jews for these saints, because
they understood the implications of him being the shepherd of
the flock. which is a messianic role as
well. And because he said he could
take his life and make himself come back to life again. That
power could only be accrued to God that he could raise himself
from the dead. The Jews understood this. And
now they're really trouble because what Christ is doing by his teaching
is exposing his divinity, not only his role as Messiah, Because
see, if you knew your Bible, you'd know Jesus would be quoting
Psalm 23. He would be quoting Jeremiah
23. He would be quoting Ezekiel 34. The shepherd paradigms running
through Scripture. Many of you guys are going to
learn this over the next 12 weeks with David. David was a shepherd boy,
was he not? The shepherd paradigm running
through Scripture anticipates Christ coming as the Messiah
of his people. And they knew this. So here Christ
is now beginning to let them know, in no uncertain terms,
who he is. And yet again, here it is, there
was a division, therefore again, among the Jews for these saints. And many of them said he hath
a devil and is mad. Why are you listening to him?
Others said these are not the words of him that hath a devil.
Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? See the battle? So
they're going to war on a rhetorical and a theological level around
the words of Christ and the words of Christ See now here's what's
going on before we look at our last verse around this last two
points around this What Jesus has done is come into the world
to bear record of his father The testimony that he's bearing
of his father is true and it cannot be overturned The miracles
are real His propositions are unassailable. His claims are
right. It's just that people are not
prepared for who he is. You guys hearing what I'm saying?
His miracles were true. His propositions were right. The conclusions were clear enough
for people to know what he was implying by what he was saying.
He was not hedging his words. He was not being soft. He was
not being subtle. He was being very frank And yet they were not ready for
the implications Now pastor, why was that the case? Well,
because there was this storm going around constantly That
was really overthrowing people's potential for clarity The continued
storm that surrounded Jesus was the noise, and the chatter, and
the gossip, and the ridicule, and the false accusations, and
the ad hominem attacks. He was a child of fornication.
He grew up in the bad place. Messiah wouldn't do this. Messiah
wouldn't do it. So you understand the dust was
constantly in the air. You guys hearing me? The dust
was in the air. So these are not teachings that
are taking place in a vacuum. They're taking place in the storm
of rhetoric, in the storm of arguments, in the storms of accusations. That's the context in which our
master's ministry was engaged. That's the context of the ministry
of the apostle Paul as well. It's a wonder anybody believed
on him with all that mess going on in the church. It's a wonder
even the apostles held on through all that mess. And I'm sharing
this with you in a sort of intensified way to let you know why people
over many years abandoned the gospel. Are you guys deriving
that from this teaching? Please understand, people don't
sit in kind of a free open space around truth. and it not be challenged
by the culture, not be challenged by their own home surroundings
or their circumstances or the noise and chatter that's going
on for 2,000 years. This is where you and I have
to be rooted and grounded in truth because you're gonna face
the storm at some point that's gonna come with a fury against
some of the claims you say you believe. And it's gonna challenge
you and it will overthrow you if you're not rooted in Christ.
Am I making some sense? You will be exposed to some teaching
some information historically that will open up a massive can
of worms and their arguments will be a fury of allegations
of which if you are not discerning if you don't know how to hold
information back and piecemeal investigate it if you're just
overwhelmed by the torrent of the arguments you can be swept
off your feet and sent down the river as Ephesians chapter 4
verse 14 and 15 so clearly state tossed to and fro by every wind
of doctrine and the cunning slate of men that lay in wait to deceive
the simple-minded person. So it's very important for us
to understand this. It's very, very important for us to grasp
that deception is important. Go with me now in your Bible
to 1 Corinthians 11. I'm gonna show you one more verse
and then we'll go back. I'll have two verses, two verses
for us to look at. And I want you to mark these
verses. This one in first Corinthians 11 is what we call the Non-negotiable
Necessary division that will affirm Whether or not you know
the Lord The Apostle Paul laid this down. It was a principle
that is undeniable first Corinthians chapter 11 verse 19 first Corinthians
11 19 Let me start at verse 18 Here's what it says. For first
of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there
are what among you? Now, the common word that we
have all been looking at is the Greek word schism. This is what
we've been looking at all the time. That's our word schism. I want you to mark what he says.
First of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there
are divisions or schisms or separations Party spirits among you watch
this and I partly believe it. Why does he believe it because
the the the premise for which he writes to Corinth is brothers
and sisters letting him know that their divisions in the church
This is chapter 1 verse 10 where they have let him know Paul.
We got problems in the church at Corinth. I Want you to mark
verse 19 now? here's verse 19 for there must
be also what among you a So stop right there who remembers what
I told you heresies were the word heresy who knows to choose
To choose that's what your word heresy means to choose Let me
help you with this if you don't if you don't remember God doesn't
tell you to choose and Preachers tell you to choose. Churches
tell you to choose. Denominations tell you to choose.
God tells you to obey. God cares enough for you to know
that if you choose instead of obey, you're going to always
choose the wrong instead of the right. Are you guys hearing me? It's important for you to get.
For you to get. You and I do not have the intrinsic
capacity choose right. We will always choose the wrong
way. Proverbs sixteen twenty-five
just in case you don't. There's a way that seems right unto a
man. But the end thereof are the ways of death. That verse
right there is the first sin we committed. In Genesis chapter
three. When the devil said, you get
to choose. Isn't that what he said? You get to choose. Now,
God said, don't mess with that tree. The devil says, you got
free free will. You get to choose. And when what
was before them was a choice of the tree of the knowledge
of good or evil, or the tree of life, because they were both
in the middle of the garden. Did they choose the tree of life?
They chose what? That's right. And from that day
on, humanity has been making wrong choices. That's the legacy
of your life and mine. If we ever choose right, it was
God that graced us to do it. You guys got that? If you ever
choose right, you chose by accident. That's what it means to be a
sinner. To be a sinner means to be born early. All have sinned and continue
coming short of the glory. You got that? So so so God uses
the analogy in the Old Testament of humanity being like a bow
That you that you use to shoot arrows And he calls it a deceitful
bow Anybody that shoes shoots bow and arrows know that your
bow has to be both true and accurate in how it's made and structured
so that when you stretch back to shoot your arrow, that the
release of that arrow follows through a bow that is true. Because
if the bow is not true, it will warp in the shot and force the
arrow to go in error. And you and I are deceitful bows.
We look good, but we always miss the target. You got that? No matter how hard we try, There's
not a just man upon the earth that do it good and sin is not
You guys got that that's what the Bible says so he has to make
us new creatures and then he has to fill us with his spirit
For us to ever get it, right Am I making some sense to you?
So here's what he's teaching in 1st Corinthians chapter 11,
which is critical to this lesson tonight on divisions, which I
said are essential he says there must be divisions among you and
What he meant was there must be opportunities to choose Opportunities
that's when an individual has set before them options Now let
me show you how that worked for Corinth and how it works for
you The Apostle Paul along with Timothy Tychicus and a few other
brothers established a church at Corinth You'll see this when
we get to act 16 and acts 18 They established a church at
Corinth in the midst of, again, a bunch of warfare. But the truth
of the gospel was established there. God had told them that
he has many people in that place preach the gospel. But again,
as soon as Paul and the others leave, people started infiltrating
the church. with bad teaching and bad doctrine
and different methods and approaches to ministry, so much so that
they cause the people in Corinth not to even like Paul anymore. In 2 Corinthians, the book of
2 Corinthians, Paul is laboring virtually through the whole of
that book to say to the church at Corinth, listen, we love you.
We've told you the truth. And we're wondering why if our
hearts are wide open to you, your hearts are not wide open
to us. And then he explicitly lays out in 2 Corinthians chapter
11, The whole of chapter 11, but more specifically second
corinthians chapter 11 verses 1 through 8 And I just want to
go through 1 2 and 3 of chapter 11 and show you how this works
We'll come back to first corinthians chapter 11 19 and deal with the
rest of it But listen to what he says in his real concern about
the lost estate that a church of a church that it initially
started off with a single Message of redemption in Christ that
I become now a bastion full of all sorts of false prophets here
It is verse 1 chapter 11 would to God you bear with me a little
in my folly now He's using irony here because he's really upset
Would to God you bear with me in my folly and indeed bear with
me now when he uses this last line bear with me Here's what
he's saying in 2nd Corinthians 11 why he's saying if you can
bear with all of these crooks and hucksters that are in your
church and Bear with me. Put up with me for a minute.
If you can bear all of these cons that have been caught over
and over again, who don't qualify biblically, you know they don't,
but you still listen to them and they still pillage you of
all your money and they still disrupt your peace with all of
these legalistic teachings. Put up with me for a minute.
This is going to be a theme that runs through chapter 11 for him.
Bear with me. He says in verse 2, for I am
what over you? with a godly jealousy. Isn't
that amazing? For I have espoused you to one
husband. See what he did? He said, when
I came to you, I came to you with one objective, to set you
in front of Jesus Christ and preach Christ in such a way to
you that you fall in love with him and commit yourself to him
as his bride. That was his objective. I have
espoused you to Christ. Well, that's what he said back
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 2, right? I am determined to
know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified. This
is the singular message, the singular person, the singular
doctrine of the faithful preacher, Jesus Christ. Here's what he
says. I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy for I've espoused
you to one husband that I might present you a what? Chaste virgin
to what? Do you understand how burdened
Paul is? Because Paul is what we call an eschatological prophet. Eschatology is the study of end
time teaching. Eschatology is a critical doctrinal
component to frame our ethics and to shape our decisions around
what we believe and what we say and what we do. If a man or woman
is not living with the end time in view, standing before God
on the last day, you are in danger of diminishing the significance
of your choices. Because all of our choices, cumulatively,
will set our direction in our course of life. Is that true?
All of our choices, cumulatively, will set our direction. You're
flying a plane and you tilt that plane just ever so slight, over
time it's gonna go in the wrong direction. And one of the errors
presently in the evangelical church is an absence of eschatological
teaching around the fact that we shall all stand before the
Lord on the last day and give an account for the things that
we have done in our bodies, whether good or evil. The preacher must
give an account to God for what he preaches to eternity bound
souls every time they come together. I have to give an account to
God for the vast majority of you who sit under my teaching.
The last day I have to live in view of this reality God will
call me to account as to what I preach and what I taught to
every soul that comes into my teaching ministry and My job
as Paul is to espouse you to Christ To so set Christ before
you that the only way you miss Christ is if you want to miss
him Are you hearing me? If you want to miss christ, it
won't be because I made him so narrow And so small and so insignificant
to you that you had room to look elsewhere Which is again the
mark of much preaching today is about everything else Now
listen to what he says I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy
for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you
as a chaste virgin to christ see isn't that the The friend
of the bridegroom ministry. Remember what john the baptist
said? I'm a friend of the bridegroom My job is to bring people to
the bridegroom. My job is not to take the bridegroom's
place My job is to prepare men and women for the bridegroom
Look at verse three, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent
beguiled eve as the serpent beguiled eve through his what subtlety
subtlety That's his manipulative ways, his cunning ways, his tricky
ways, his complex theories, his convoluted ideas, his philosophical
angles, his emotional targeting. He knew how to get her emotionally.
He knew how to get her psychologically. He knew how to catch her in a
vulnerable point and cause her to question the character of
God. That's what he did. He's a great philosopher. He's
a great psychologist And to me the danger of our present-day
church by and large particularly in the west is way too much psychology
Way too much psychology. There's way too much Emotionalism
not emotion but emotionalism driving people's thinking today
Way too much and therefore much of the ministry is targeted around
how you feel Feel instead of what you know. If you and I make
the larger commodity of our value and identity as a person, how
we feel, we're no different than the animals. Animals live off
of feeling and instinct. Are you guys following me? Let
me ask you a question. Have you ever felt a certain
way and you just knew, you knew based on how you felt You was
right. And you were dead wrong. Dead wrong. I mean, dead wrong. Your feelings had built an argument
for you. It had drawn conclusions. It
made this person right, that person wrong. And it was all
a facade rooted in a mythical ethereal bent that was rooted
in your feelings. Feelings come, feelings go. Feelings are so fleeting. Nothing but the word of God is
really worth believing. At the end of the day, as Jesus
says in the gospel of Matthew chapter 12, heaven and earth
will pass away, but my word will not pass away. And every idle
word that men have said will be brought up in the judgment.
Did you guys follow that? Right. See, and that's the battle
too. This is Dr. Moeller, Albert Moeller,
he's a professor and head of Southern Baptist Convention.
Great speaker, great thinker. He used a term that was derived
by another theologian. He called it cognitive contamination. It's an amazing concept and I'm
just going to share it with you. I talked about it a little bit
earlier. Cognitive contamination is the idea that the dust particles
in the air are filled with so many contaminants that when it
gets inside of your ears, it clogs your ears up and then it
gets into your brain stream and it causes you to have an inability
to actually hold cogent thoughts together. In other words, you
can't think right because your head is contaminated by a myriad
of ideas that are floating around in the air that have absolutely
no basis in truth. Do you get the picture? There's
a room filled with the dust particles of error and falsehood and lies
and gossip and stupid foolish things that have no basis in
reality. But that stuff starts to gather
like dust and then it gets inside your ears and it clogs up your
capacity to actually hear the truth. And you can't put two
cogent thoughts together. Isn't that terrible? Isn't that
true? You meet people and you ask the
question, Do you understand these things? And you come to discover
that they are struggling with how to put together the hard
propositions of scripture. And what you realize at that
point is that they are actually struggling with ideas that they're
holding onto that biblical truth is knocking down and they don't
want to let those ideas go. And so their cognitive thinking
skills are now eroded so that it doesn't serve them to land
on the truth. Now, if you don't know what I'm
talking about, this is Romans chapter 1, where God gives them
over to a reprobate mind because they would not retain a knowledge
of God in their system, to flush their system, to wash their system
out, to clear out their thinking. As the Bible plainly says, Thy
word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against
you. If it's in my heart, that means it's in my head. That means
I can reason through biblical propositions to determine right
and wrong. Where I can't reason through
biblical propositions. I can't determine right and wrong
cannot So here's what Paul is saying in This verse he says
I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety You guys remember that account, right? Do you remember
that? I know you don't I'm not gonna go there, but I don't remember
that account So I'm gonna give you the five D's of the devil. So
I hear cuz I I want to bless you with the connection between
What we are dealing with in the area of division and how the
devil works And how you must be serious about knowing truth
if you're going to be able to actually Walk with the lord in
a faithful way So when our lord said in john's gospel chapter
8 verse 31 if you are my disciple You will continue in my word
and you will know the truth and the truth shall make you free,
right? That's the gospel of john what christ? Emphasized was continuing
in his word Because when you continue in the Word of God,
the Word of God has the capacity to blow all the dust out of the
room of your brain. So that you think clearly. So
that you have room for biblical truth to take resident in your
mind. Am I making some sense? The Word
of God has that ability to clear out your head. Read Psalms 19. In Genesis chapter 3 verses 1
through 7, where the devil comes in, We call these the five D's
of the what? Five D's of the devil. So I use
this kind of as a grid. The first one is distraction.
What did the devil do? He distracted Eve from the tree
of life to the forbidden tree. That's the first thing he does.
Before she could get to Christ, represented by the tree of life,
He intercepted her and said, now, you know what God said about
this tree? Now she's having a conversation
about a tree she shouldn't even be talking about. Are you guys
hearing me? One of the things you have to
ask yourself on a daily basis when you're talking to people
is, is this a distraction? If it's a distraction, you need
to quickly assess whether or not you have an assignment to
correct the distraction or to simply avoid it. Remember Psalm
1? Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly Nor stand in the way of sinners
nor sit in the seat of the scornful Because his delight is in the
law of the Lord and in his law. He does meditate day and night
He will be able to avoid the distraction is called the avoidance
factor You and I will know that we are not rooted and grounded
in God's Word when someone comes along with a distracting doctrine
or topic and it just gets us and we get pulled in and We get
pulled in. We don't even know how to extricate
ourselves from it. Just toed in. By the time they're
done with us, we're all shaken up. Anybody know that experience?
Sure you do. That's how the devil works. The
first one is destruction. The second one is distortion.
He distorted the facts. God did not say. And by the time
she bought into the destruction and the distortion, he was able
to delude her thinking. She was deluded. Well, God said,
don't eat it and don't touch it. She was wrestling with the
devil. Wasn't she wrestling with him
when she wasn't supposed to even be talking to him? She was wrestling
with the devil when she wasn't even supposed to be talking to
him. Have you ever been in a situation like that? You know you shouldn't
be talking to that person. You know you shouldn't be talking
to that person. And your little resistance is
really an evidence that you've gone way too far in. You shouldn't
even be talking to them. Have you ever been in a situation
where you're talking to somebody about something that you really
shouldn't have been talking about? And you start a line in the midst
of it. Can I get a witness? Same folk in the house, you know,
you lie you didn't distort it. You didn't twisted it cuz you
trapped now you're trapped Like like like they got you on an
argument on a theological level about certain things and you're
trying to defend God You don't even know the Bible version,
but you didn't know God said this God said that you even know
the Bible verses That's good, that's good what I just said
it is good I Now, when God set you free from that thing, you
walked away and said, Lord, I don't even know where that Bible verse
is. I don't have no idea whether it was true or not. I was just
trying to get myself out of that situation. I'm telling you the
truth. And it happens because we're
trying to defend God. Without being ready to defend
God. Some situations are not defensible. They are to be what avoided.
Wasn't it the better wisdom of Eve to avoid the devil? Not talk
with him. This is what Paul is going to
teach us in a moment. So after delusion, when you and I are
distracted and when truth is distorted in our minds and we
are deluded and we are arguing off of a false premise, we are
set up for what happened to Eve. Deception. She was deceived. She was deceived. She began to
see that tree just like the devil said. Do you guys remember that? Her eyes changed, didn't they?
Why did her eyes change? Because she had received the
proposition of the devil that distorted her thinking that caused
her to forget what God said. Now all of a sudden it was a
tree to be desired. It was a tree to make her wise.
It was a tree that would make her like God. How did she go
from knowing that that tree was designed to kill you To that
tree being the very thing that would make you like god deception
That genesis 3 account is prototypical of every false church And every
false doctrine. Are you guys hearing me? It's
prototypical of every false church and every false doctrine Every
false church, every false church and every false doctrine is designed
to take the glory away from Christ and give it to you. See, all
the devil wanted her to do was be on his team because he wanted
to be like God. Is that true? That's Isaiah 14,
right? I will be like the most high
God. The whole world right now is operating out of that paradigm,
right? Everybody's their own God. I
like this little, um, this kind of little quip that, uh, Ravi,
Zacharias use Robbie Zacharias use about a departure from biblical
truth that goes like this when God is gone The man becomes God
That's right and when man becomes God the body Becomes the soul
That's right and when the body becomes the soul Eternity becomes
time Did you get it? When God is gone,
man is God. And when man is God, the body
becomes more important than the soul. And when the body becomes
more important than the soul, there's no such thing as eternity. There's only time. This is what
we call the existential secularist who only lives for the now. He's the center of attention.
That's good. Isn't it good? Is that good?
You guys are getting a good study tonight. lot of principles to
learn because that's the battle you're in. I'm sharing this because
I know in the air around most Christians is so much pollution
theologically and philosophically all around the world that by
the time you go to sleep at night you have imperceptibly bought
into some false doctrine or false teaching by and by. And that
if you don't wash your head out By being under the Word of God,
you have imperceptibly shifted into buying into that doctrine
or notion subconsciously. Am I telling the truth? Subconsciously, you begin to
say, it's all right. That's acceptable. Even though
you don't filter that thing through the Word of God, you make it
acceptable because now it's rooted in your feelings because the
dust particles of error and falsehood and silliness and foolishness
and worldliness and carnality have seeped into your brain.
Rearrange your convictions. It's true, true, true. Wherewithal, wherewithal shall
a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereunto according
to your word. With my whole heart have I sought
you. Oh, let me not wander from your
commandments. It's what David was saying, because
he understood that dynamic. Did he not? He understood that
dynamic. All right. What's the fifth one? What is it? Destruction. Destruction. Just like whoever said death,
there it is. These are your five D's of the devil from Genesis
chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. He distracts, he distorts, he
deludes, he deceives, and he destroys. The thief comes but
not to kill, steal, and destroy. Going back to second corinthians
chapter 11. Let me finish this verse I'll go back to our text
and then i'll open the floor for a few questions for the night.
We'll go home Here's what he said. I want you to get this.
I want you guys to get this This is a church that started off
as a faithful gospel church and historically the historical records
is is that the church at corinth was made shipwrecked it ultimately
just Disintegrated into nothing it became anti-apostolic by the
second third century Paul lost that church He shows his love for her and
then he warns her he says but I fear lest by any means as a
serpent beguile Eve through his subtlety so your mind should
be what the particle dust The particle dust of proposition
your mind is what corrupted like the files in a computer. I When
they corrupt in the hard drive or in the software and you see
them fracture on the screen Have you ever seen that? The fracturing
of a program and it just freezes up That's how people's minds
are That your mind should be corrupted from what the what
see that word simplicity That's the term I'm gonna talk about
that briefly and go back So like Christ is not a set of complex
ideas that are disjointed, incoherent, chaotic, and so sophisticated
that you've got to have a PhD to acquire. Christ is not a bunch
of highfalutin theological propositions that are so sophisticated and
disjointed that you've got to get a PhD to put it all together. There is a singularity to God. The word really means simple,
but not simple in the rude sense of being a three-year-old, simple
in the sense of coherent and clear and consistent. In other
words, the truth of God in Genesis corresponds to the truth of God
in Exodus. and the truth of God in Leviticus
and Numbers and Deuteronomy and Joshua and the Judges all the
way through the Bible. There's a coherency to the truth
of Scripture. Are you guys following me? So
much so that Psalm 19 and Isaiah puts it that a wayfaring man
will not err in that way. If you read the Bible with the
simplicity and honesty of a child saying, Lord, show me the truth.
He'll show you the truth. And that truth will be summed
up in one person and his name is Christ. Paul came to discover
this. when he fought against the simplicity
of the gospel in his unregenerate state as a Pharisee, holding
to all of the systems of thought that came from him being under
Gamaliel, and him being a theologian, and him being a Pharisee, buying
into all kinds of mystical notions that the legalistic Jews would
buy into culturally, as well as in terms of their own Jewish
traditions. They were people that were wrapped
up in sophistry, they were wrapped up fables they were wrapped up
in myths this is why Paul told Timothy Timothy avoid all those
Jewish fables and myths that all those people buy into because
they had bought into them they knew how to spin webs the Jews
still do like all of our cultures do what Paul discovered when
he came to Christ what that was that Christ was the center of
the scriptures the center of the universe and the center of
all truth. That the men or the women that
stays with Christ will never go wrong and you will not lose
your mind. You depart from Christ and anything
is possible. Are you hearing me? You depart
from Christ and you will believe anything. A departure from Christ
means you have no armor on. the devil can shoot his fiery
darts which are prepared specifically for your weakness and Kept you
at your vulnerable spot Because he has been watching humans from
the beginning and all he's waiting for you and me to do is take
our armor off and Start thinking that we can breathe God's air
live in God's world and do life and without the whole armor of
God, without Christ being our covering, without Christ being
our wisdom, our counsel, our might, our foundation, our strength,
our covering, our stronghold, without Christ being our everything.
What Paul meant when he said in first Corinthians 2.2, I am
determined to know nothing among you except Christ and I'm crucified
was that he had discovered the superiority the far-surpassing
Superiority of Christ over against all of the other wisdom of the
world Didn't he say it in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 the wisdom
of the world has been made foolish by the gospel The gospel is the
power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes God
has confounded the wise He has demolished the wisdom of the
prudent by the gospel When Paul had discovered about the gospel
was that the gospel was simple enough for babies to be saved
And profound enough to just demolish the arrogant pride and hubris
of your greatest theologians and philosophers It levels everyone
When it's given an opportunity to be proclaimed the gospel And
that's the thing people are giving up to go to hell in a handbasket
The gospel are you guys hearing me the gospel? So remember the
five D's. Cause your mama gonna come with
these, your daddy gonna come with these, your sister, your
coworker, your husband, your wife, everyone who is not walking
by the spirit is going to be used by the devil to come at
you with some of these. Do you guys understand what I'm saying?
Cause Jesus was tempted by even his own disciples around this
stuff. I was thinking about the term rebuke cause I got to preach
in a conference here next month. And I'm talking about the the
the apparatus of preaching and some of the components of preaching
rebuke reprove exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine And
as I was working through the concept of rebuking which you
don't hear much in the church today rebuke Jesus rebuked his
disciples frequently He rebuked his disciples frequently when
you love somebody you rebuked them you sharply correct them
He was so firm with Peter one day. He says, Satan, get thee
behind me. And he was talking straight at
Peter. Peter was so taken over by the flesh. He was so driven
by his emotions that he arrogantly rebuked the master for saying
that he had to go to Calvary. And our master turned and said,
uh-uh, the devil is here. If these disciples buy into this
emotionalism, they will be lost. And he had to rebuke the man
that he was going to give the keys to the kingdom. So that
they could all know you can be deceived if you're driven by
your emotions. Going back to 2 Corinthians chapter
11, 2 Corinthians chapter, 1 Corinthians 11. I want to close here. 1 Corinthians
11, 9. Go back to the heresy thing.
And then we'll come back next week and deal with miracles.
2nd Corinthians chapter 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse 19 here it is
for there must be also heresies among you remember what the word
heresies means To choose among you that they which are what? See the word approved there.
That's the word doki most It means those who have been tested
and proven to be true believers are made manifest Do you see? Look at it again For there must
be also heresies among you. You know what that means? There
has to come all of these doctrines, all of these teachings, because
they test us to see if we're rooted and grounded in the truth.
Every believer has to be tested. You're not going to heaven without
getting tested. No one's going to heaven by a
false faith. Your faith has to be tested in
the fire to see whether or not it came from God. It's sustained
by God because only true saving faith gets you to glory. You
guys follow that? And this is what Paul is saying.
The reason those things are there is to make a distinction between
the elect and the non-elect. Between those who hear Christ's
voice and obey his word and those who don't. That was the division
that was taking place in the days of Christ's ministry. That's
how serious this is. Those which are approved may
be made manifest among you. Got a few minutes for questions.
Anybody got any questions? Any questions? Questions going
once. Oh, way back here. Way back there.
Way back. You raise your hand, sister.
You can get Mike, Mike, Mike over here. Yes. Can you raise
your hand, sis, so he can show up in this big vast auditorium?
There you go. You got a question, too? You got a question? OK. Understanding that our sin sends
us to hell and that God doesn't predestine people to go to hell. That's a great way to construct
it. Yeah. OK. My question is surrounding the
various references to the Book of Life and people being blotted
out. And I kind of see this 1 Corinthians
11 that you're talking about where we have to prove ourselves,
but I don't understand that. Where you have to do what? Where
we have to show ourselves approved or be tested where these choices
are and we have to, believers have to show themselves approved.
Is that because if we're in the Book of Life, Aren't we, aren't
those people believers if they're in the book in the first place?
Correct. So now here's how, here's how the Bible works. So, and
this is where we really want to grow and understanding the
nature of the genre of scripture. This is where you really want
to, I'm teaching homiletics in our men's study. And if you ladies
want to get the studies you can, but I'm talking to men. Okay. So if you hear stuff you don't
like, I'm just letting you know, I'm talking to men. Why did pastor
use that word? Because I'm talking to men about
men things. And men have to be talked to
in a firmer way. Are you guys hearing me? So if
you want to venture over there, you can get the theology because
we have been teaching this for the longest. Understanding the
genre of scripture requires becoming acquainted with Why things are
written the way they are so that we can know how God thinks Otherwise
what we will do is we will imperceptibly read into that text our ideas
So one critical Method of reading the scriptures so that you actually
hear what they're saying before you draw a conclusion is what
we call the observation principle You have to learn how to observe
what the scriptures say before we quickly begin going. Why is
this? Why is that? Why is the other
thing? Have to be able to read it and so what the bible will
do is Right in a way. I want you to get this now Assuming
that you are a covenant child Because the bible is a covenant
Largely Old Testament, new. You guys following me now? It
was not designed for the people originally outside of the covenant.
And therefore covenant people are already catechized in certain
attributes and characteristics and nomenclature that is a part
of the community of faith. So here's one phraseology that
underscores the community of faith. Citizenship in the kingdom. Are you guys following that?
Citizenship in the kingdom. So the assumption is if you're
part of the kingdom, you understand the citizenship principle. That
every citizen has their name on the ledger in that city. And
when God talks about the book of life, he talks about people
being presumably in the kingdom, part of that citizenry. but if
in the process of their life they prove to be false and not
authentically saved, God uses the nomenclature of blotting
their names out. That terminology goes from Genesis
all the way to Revelation. He even warned the church at
Sardis that there are some of you whose names would be blotted
out if you didn't prove yourself to be walking worthy with me.
This doesn't conflict with the idea of election or predestination
or the security of our salvation or the assurance of our salvation.
It simply is using, again, the genre or the device of language
that would say there are people who will pretend to be in the
kingdom. Who God will warn, I will block
their name out if they don't show themselves to be born of
the kingdom. For instance many of the parables jesus taught
because he was he was the quintessential hebrew scholar are parables that
warn about authenticity And genuineness of faith the parable of the wedding
feast Where jesus warned that a person had come into the wedding
feast not wearing a wedding garment That everybody missed him but
the king And when the king came in and saw that he didn't have
on a wedding garment, he said, friend. Now the word friend means
that it is assumed that that person was part of the guests.
But if he was really part of the guests who were invited,
wouldn't he have addressed, he dressed appropriately? Wouldn't
he have put on the right garments to prove that he was actually
invited, but he was actually a crook. He snuck in. Like the devil does he doesn't
come through the front door He's a thief. He seeks to break in
this individual have failed to make their calling in election
sure they have failed to make sure that they were robed in
the righteousness of Christ and Therefore covered in Christ's
righteousness by faith through grace apart from works that garment
which is promised to us is And when we die, it's given to us.
And when we come back, we wear it. You guys follow that? We don't
wear the white robe now. It's only promised to us. It's
vouchsafed with Jesus. When we get to heaven, it's given
to us. But we don't put it on and show it off until we come
back with him on the last day. That's revelation chapter 6 where
they cried under the altar Lord. How long he says until all of
the brethren suffer like you did here white robes were given
unto them so that they might know that there's a day where
they get to Display the triumph of christ grace and power in
their life when we all come back with him in white Does that make
some sense my sister? another question Way over another end might get
to burn some calories tonight boy My question is I was reading
in Mark chapter 11 about how If we don't forgive others God
won't forgive us. That's another principle too.
I love This is where I love and I want you to finish your statement.
This is where I love the reason for which God wrote the scriptures
demands that you think and if it demands that you step back
and And make sure that you are not talking while listening Because
you will we will quickly begin to put our ifs ands and buts
on on on text Because we are assuming that things should be
phrased a certain way Are you guys following me? That don't
make no sense that you would say you would forgive me if I
forgive others that sounds like works religion Right? Is that true? and this is where
the agnostic and the atheist scholar builds a massive argument
against God saying that the Bible contradicts itself all over the
place. The Bible doesn't contradict itself. It's a charlie horse
between our two ears that's going on. We got brain spasms going on
because we don't understand the genre of scripture the device
that's being used in that context to show us something about human
responsibility with the objective of affirming your salvation you
guys follow that logic human responsibility with the objective
of affirming your salvation so now follow the logic what Christ
was saying is is if you and I are walking around with perpetual
unforgiveness in our heart against people there's a great likelihood
that we don't know the grace of God Because when grace operates
in your life The one thing that is going to be withering away
at is your false pride that you have a right to retain unforgiveness
against people Now let me help you. It's a process It's a process
with some of us Some of us are given the gift of being able
to forgive people sometimes almost to a fault but others of us have
to work on it because we've been wounded so severely from our
childhood up. Are you guys understanding what
I'm saying? That the process of forgiveness is a major theme
in my personal sanctification. That's the one God really working
on me on. Right? So every time I get a
little, uh, little hubris, a little bit self-righteous, a little
bit cocky, Little bit presumptuous. I run across a verse like that
and get whacked upside my head again. Oh, you better Oh, you
better slow down boy. Slow down You think you all that
in a bag of chips, but you know, you got an issue with forgiveness
brother and The scriptures are very very serious. The nature
of salvation is rooted in forgiveness If God can forgive you See what I'm getting at there
It's not calling for works, it's calling for the evidence of authentic
faith by a work that glorifies God by demonstrating in your
life something that you don't have the intrinsic personal strength
to do, but God does. Does God have the ability to
work forgiveness in you towards somebody else? Now, if you have
the power to keep God from working in you to forgive somebody, you
got too much power. That power is going to send you
to hell. It simply means that God is not present operating
to restrain that power of envy, jealousy, hatred, animosity,
antipathy, rage, because hatred is a fire. It's a lust that's
rooted in the core of our fallen nature that for some of us is
our core identity. We live off of it. You guys hear
what I'm saying? We live off of it. We couldn't
think of living apart from hate. And it's a morsel of poison that's
slowly seeping into our own system, eating away at us. So this is something that we
have to work on. One more question, one more question. Can I ask
my question? No, my question was, and you
kind of answered it, but I just want to get 100% clear. After
having read that what exactly constitutes biblical forgiveness
Given according to my standards So the best way that I want to
put it is is that forgiveness is a process and it's very important
to Some cannot will it be okay for me that for him to take the
mic now because I need Last question we're gonna take Way over here,
raise your hand. My sister over here. So let me
talk about forgiveness just for a moment, even though it's worthy
of studies, and I think I've done them in the past, okay?
So here's how you can actually manage the concept of forgiveness.
You can manage the concept of forgiveness under three categories.
You can manage the concept of forgiveness on a judicial level
of not retaining a desire for that person to go to hell. That's the first category of
forgiveness. Aphoemi is the Greek term, which
means to simply release. So now, if we haven't been able
to rein in the emotional part, let's just rein in the judicial
part. You know how we can say, I forgive him, but. And so you got all that emotional
stuff still going on. I got that. because intellectually,
you know, it's right to let him go. So judicially, let's let
him go. Cause I won't, I want to be let
go too. But now I have to work on the implications and inferences
of forgiveness on a relational level. So now how do I, how do
I actually work out Saying I forgive that person and then functioning
in that forgiveness on a relational level to other aspects So intellectually
I have let him go on a judicial level on a Practical level I
can let him go so that we don't have to enter act on any level
of relationship Though I am NOT harboring any kind of hostility
towards him. I'm still in the let go and release
mode That's redemption That's redemption. So I've let him go
judicially and I've let him go relationally so that if I see
him, hey, hey, how you doing? We cool, but ain't nothing going
on. That's stage two. Ain't nothing going on. The Lord
bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord calls
his face and shout upon you. The Lord give you his peace,
but we not kicking it. Stage two. Am I helping somebody? Because
see, to tell me to muster up a loving, gratuitous,
emotionally dispositional favor and kindness and benevolence
for someone that rapes my daughter is asking too much of this human
being. five minutes you got that it's
asking too much of me in five minutes I'm we're not going we're
not gonna kick it like that now maybe in God's sovereign
power after about 800 years I might be there now I'm not gonna wish
you no harm And I'll help you if you get a flat. But don't
expect me to invite you over to Thanksgiving or Christmas
while my womb is deep and I'm doing all I can to keep a cap
on me. Now, I didn't forgive you judicially. I don't want
you to go to hell. I don't want you to fear me when you see me
on the street. But don't presume that forgiving is forgetting. not when you have abused my baby. Are y'all hearing me? It ain't
gonna happen unless God does something absolutely wonderful
to me. And he could, he could, but you
cool cause you still living. That's my baby. Do you understand
that? That's my baby. I know what the
law says. So, does that help you? And of
course, if there are less severe issues, then it's easier for
forgiveness, judicially, releasing in terms of not holding that
person, and then the process of reconciliation to occur over
time. That can happen. And in fact,
let me just tighten that up in terms of marriages. That's supposed
to happen like that every day with marriages. Hurry up and
get over that crap. When you're a husband and a wife
and you're one covenantally, though you're two individually,
you hurry up and get rid of that offense so you can rekindle what
is necessary to nurture that relationship. Remember what I
taught y'all? Every marriage that's Christian
is a Bible-based, cross-centered, You got that? Cross center. The
cross is huge in my house. It's so big, I bump into it when
I come in the front door. That's how big the cross is.
By the time I go to talking to my kids, we didn't already dump
that thing at Calvary, because we got to keep doing life together.
By the time I go to talking to my wife, we didn't already take
it to Calvary, because we got to do life together tomorrow
as it gets there. And as far as I know, even though
she sinned against me, her last name still gets there. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? Cross center. And then finally,
spirit aided. Spirit aided. Lord, give me grace. Let that thing go because we
got work to do. I don't want my family to be
distracted by this little bitty thing that ultimately amounted
to nothing. So we live on a Bible based cross-centered
Spirit-aided foundation in our house so we can throw junk away
as Paul says I count all things don't I Just put those things
behind That's how you successfully navigate your way through this
world. Are y'all hearing me? If you don't have a big cross
You got a lot of troubles Because the only thing that can handle
your troubles is a big cross It has to be huge in your life
The cross has to be it has to be massive So that forgiveness
becomes the banner that falls down on that cross so quick jesse,
you know what you got to do If you want the blessings of the
spirit of god you got you with with your family You got to let
that roll brother That ain't nothing but a few dollars That's
just your car your daughter tow up man. That's just your car.
She's still up. You can get another car said she he just burnt down
the house that's all he burnt down the house that's all you
get another house y'all still living you got a few dollars
in the bank go get another house don't worry about the house you
ain't gonna never have a son you better be thankful he didn't
die that's how the lord talks to us the life is more than bread
right My sister, last question. Pastor,
about division and denominationalism, once a leader told me, it doesn't
matter as long as these churches, Christian churches, believe in
the same basic biblical truth about Christ. My husband and I totally disagreed
with this leader. And I don't know, we were labeled
as that prodigal son and daughter for walking away. I was just
reminded when you said, just walk away. So I'm having a hard
time struggling about our friends under that teaching. So how do
I address that? So I'm gonna assume that I got
your question. We can do this. This is the last
one. I know you guys are tired, ready
to go home. Some of y'all gonna turn into pumpkins in five minutes. So be careful about what we call
oversimplification. of a concept. And this happens
in the church way too much too. Oversimplification. So, if you
oversimplify something, you defraud people of all of the nuances
of that particular subject or thing. And that happens in our
soundbite culture a lot. Oversimplification. Like, it
doesn't matter what church you're a part of as long as everybody
believes in Jesus. That's right? Because in second Corinthians
eleven where we were, Paul said that the church of Corinth have
believed in another Jesus, another gospel, and another spirit. So,
obviously, there are different gospels and Jesus is in spirits
floating around the whole church, right? So, you can't just say
we're Christian because the person says, I believe in Jesus. You
know, these folks that's going around here saying saying God
is the mother mother God the coat that's running around here
the mother God call anybody know about the mother God coat Yeah,
you know, this is a extraction from Catholicism, by the way,
okay, it's an extraction from Catholicism They're going around
talking to talking about you know God is our mother got a
special revelation to show you God has revealed this to us and
They're also they also hook people with the statement. We're all
Christians. No, we're not We all might say we're Christian
But now we got to do what first Thessalonians chapter 5 verse
19 through 21 says prove all things hold fast to that which
is good, right? So now it's true in the ideal
sense that if we have our Christology, right and our soteriology, right
our doctrine of salvation and our understanding of Jesus is
true in that sense that we're all Christian problem is when
we examine our Christology in our soteriology if we discover
that there's defects there in all likelihood, there'll be defects
in other places and Defects is going to cause division the other
thing is Well, that's it's just as simple why we will be kind
of broken up into different churches and different quarters where
some folk kind of like this church and that church and that denomination,
that denomination is purely a human phenomenon. I just want you to
get that now. Okay. Like the teachings that
we teach, we don't expect everybody to like what we teach. Uh, and,
and the kind of people that we are, we don't expect everybody
to want to join grace. Like y'all don't know, like I
got like crazy people that worship at grace, like crazy people. My people are nutty. Most of
us got a car that's too short and our dad. Y'all don't notice
that? Y'all don't notice that my people
at Grace are aliens? Have y'all ever saw Men in Black?
That's my people. That's my people here at Grace.
You catch them going to their car and watch the light going
off in the back of their head. Watch it. And we're not normal here.
You have to be special to be part of Grace. Let's pray. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for my brothers and
sisters. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your anointing
tonight. Thank you for causing us to focus on your word. Nothing
could be more profitable for our souls than to engage in a
study of your word at the level of seriousness and humility for
which you have granted us this study. Give everyone traveling
mercies. Give everyone great rest tonight. Give everyone enthusiastic
hearts to worship you on Sunday. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.