So we are in Acts chapter 9. Again, I'm going to start at
verse 23, go through verse 31, and we'll pick up at many days
in your outline and see what we can do with that. And after
many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him,
but their lane of weight was known of Saul, and they watched
the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took
him by night and led him down by the wall in a basket. And
when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to
the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and believed
not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought
him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the
Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had
preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And he was
with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spoke
boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and Disputed against the
Grecians, but they went about to slay him Which when the brethren
knew they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to
Tarsus at that time the churches had rest throughout all Judea
and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear
of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit Ghost and
were multiplied thus is the reading of god's word in your outline
under after many days is where we will be Taking up our study
after many days. It's over in verse 23 Now you
and I have talked at lyft about verse 22 last week How that the
apostle paul labored? Diligently to prove to the jews
that jesus was the christ And that his criterion for proving
this was scripture And we drew the application from Paul's life
that if we're going to persuade men and women of the truth, that
we have to have a knowledge of the word of God. And we have
to have the capability of demonstrating from the scriptures that Jesus
is the Christ. And that also means that while
sometimes we can persuade people to a certain degree to consider
Jesus Christ based upon our own testimony. It's always gonna
be the word of God that's actually gonna do the work of bringing
about a conversion in a person's life. You and I will be playing
tricks on people if we think that the gift of gab or being
able to manipulate people emotionally or to tug on their heartstrings
because of our own testimony will bring them to Christ. No,
it's the word of God that God uses to bring men and women to
an actual saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And that's because
the word of God is the authority of God by which men and women
are brought under conviction. So we are recalling John chapter
16 verse 13 where Jesus says, and I will send the comforter
to you, even the spirit of truth who will guide you into all the
truth. He will not speak of me. He will not glorify himself rather,
but he will speak of me. He will take the things of mine.
and show them to you. And so the apostles were promised
by Christ that they would receive the third person. And when the
third person came, which is the spirit of God, what you immediately
learn through the book of Acts, and we are at the ninth chapter
now, is that the spirit of God would bring back to mind of the
disciples, the apostles, the word of God. And so it was the
scriptures that stood as the medium between the apostles and
the people. According to verse 22, that's
exactly what Saul did. He preached from the scriptures
to the Jews, as we learned the word, proving their means to
convince them by a clear and sound exegetical, expository,
verse-by-verse handling of the word of God to the point that
they were convinced for many. And then on the other hand, as
we see in verse 23, the Jews took counsel to kill him. So
under after many days in your outline, there were two things
we considered. One, the many days here is a euphemism or phraseology
that Luke is using. He doesn't give us the specificity
of the time. But when we draw the conclusion
from the rest of the word of God, we are actually talking
about three and a half years. So I want to affirm that by going
to Galatians chapter one and show you what is taking place
here. Now, whatever we are reading the Word of God. You have to
read it in its context. Sometimes the context will be
literal, and sometimes the context will be connotative instead of
denotative. In other words, it will connote
something, it will imply something that's larger than the literal
meaning of the Word. So in Galatians chapter 1, the
Apostle explains to us what happened. I'm going to start at verse 18.
We were here last week, but I want us to look at it again. me start
at verse verse 15 where he talks about his own conversion but
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's woman called
me by his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach
him among the heathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood you guys see verse 16 so verse 16 tells us that the apostle
Paul did not actually go to any man to actually get his gospel
or even understand what salvation was. For him, it was a crisis
of a personal confrontation with Jesus Christ, which brought him
to his knees. Him being brought to his knees,
he was in that house on the street called Straight, struggling through
for three days the reality of Jesus Christ as it corresponded
to all of the people that Saul had consented either to putting
them in prison or as with the case with Stephan, putting him
to death. What is Saul doing in that house
on the street called Straight? He's getting his theology right
in a crisis mode. He's on his knees, he's blinded,
if you guys recall. The light of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ blinds Saul and he's on his knees. then God sends Ananias to lay
hands on him so that he might receive his sight be baptized
and then enter into the ministry of which Jesus told Saul he would
engage in. Saul is saying here in verse
15 and 16 that it was a direct revelation of Christ to him that
he didn't get his gospel in a borrowed fashion. Now this is something
that You have to be careful about because this is what we call
an apostolic experience, meaning he was one of the apostles. And
as such, he had to have seen the Lord Jesus for himself in
his post-resurrected state. I say that to say this. There
are some people who will always attribute to themselves the unique
and sometimes one time event of scripture and make that application
to themselves. The reality is, is that most
of us do confer with flesh and blood when it comes to the gospel.
And what do I mean by that? That you and I hear the gospel
from someone else and the spirit of God uses that mechanism of
someone preaching the gospel to you to bring about a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ. You and I are always operating
on the law of testimonials. And this is designed to keep
us humble. You and I don't have a one to one relationship with,
uh, with Christ our God, as the apostles did not one person in
this room or for the last 2000 years. Um, uh, less the apostles
can say, I saw Jesus face to face. I heard his voice directly. I have a personal relationship
with him. apart from the spirit of God, apart from the Bible,
apart from other human agency. If you tell me that, I will say
that you are nutty. I will not accept your assertions
as factual because they will militate against the scriptures. Remember what we learned in Acts
chapter eight, when the Ethiopian eunuch was headed back home from
Jerusalem and he was reading what? The scriptures. And God
has sent who Philip to help him understand the scriptures. It
was in the mediation of the scriptures and the work of Phillips preaching
that brought about a saving revelation in the life of the Ethiopian,
right? That Ethiopian would not go back to Ethiopia and say,
I met Jesus personally. Jesus talked to me personally.
There was no human mediation. There was no instrumental means.
God just started talking to me from heaven. And that's how I
know I'm saved. No, he didn't say that. He'd
go back and say, God sent the preacher and a teacher who expounded
the scriptures and the spirit of God worked through the scriptures
to reveal to my soul the reality of Jesus Christ. That's the mechanism
that God generally and normatively works in, and he will not work
Any other way because according to Romans chapter 10, how shall
they hear without a preacher? How shall he preach except he
be sent and so this mechanism is the inviolable process that
God used however would Saul According to Acts chapter 9 as we saw it
Christ intervened directly Did he not because this was an apostolic
calling? Today we do not have apostles
Just let's settle that now Those who allege to be apostles are
farce, they're crooks, they're scams, they're liars, or at least
they are naively deluded. And you must not submit to the
proposition that they are apostles because it has far reaching implications. If in fact they are apostles,
they have the capacity to bring revelation to you and me equal
to the scriptures. At that point, the scriptures
now are contended with by someone's alleged authoritative experience
from God. Am I making some sense? And so
God has already given us a closed canon called the word of God
by which we can judge everything. And we need not even wonder whether
or not we are dealing with an apostle. the truth since the
word but here's what he says over verse 17 and 18 neither
when I up to Jerusalem to them work which were Apostles before
me now verse 17 tells us that Saul stayed in Damascus as we
learn many days preaching the gospel to the Jews in the synagogues
of Damascus Damascus is way up north from Jerusalem It says,
neither did I go up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before
me, but I went into where Arabia and then returned again to Damascus.
So we saw last week that when Paul, when it says that Saul
was many days with them, it's including that short period of
time after his conversion that he's going into the synagogues.
They want to kill him. That is the Jews. So he takes
off for three and a half years and gets his gospel even more
cogently developed. And then he comes back to Damascus.
He comes back to Damascus. He does not go to Jerusalem right
away. He comes back to Damascus. And the time that he did go up
to Jerusalem, as our text will tell us here in our account,
he did not see all the apostles. All he saw was Peter. James notice
what it says over in verse 18 and 19 then after three years
I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and a boat with him see
how many days 15 days But other of the Apostles I saw none except
James the Lord's brother So this here is what we call the historical
context of what Luke gives us in a very terse Elliptical statement
back in our text go back to our text Verse 23 and after many
days were fulfilled the Jews to counsel to kill him It's quite
remarkable before we move on to our second point If you had
a PowerPoint you can pull that back up think about this Our
outline says that Saul the top of our outline the title is Saul
the new kid on the block, right? You remember the Commission that
was given to him look over in verse 15 and 16 of chapter 9. Are you there? But the Lord said
unto him, that is Ananias, go thy way for he that is Saul is
a chosen vessel unto me, a chosen vessel unto me. Now we, we developed
that, did we not? We taught according to the word
of God, that every one of us who are actually children of
God who believe on Christ were chosen in Christ. You believe
in the doctrine of election. Do you not? We believe that God
chose us. We didn't choose him. And when
God chooses you, he chooses you not only to salvation, but to
service. He chooses you not only to salvation,
but to service. And the analogy that he uses
all through the scriptures is the analogy of a vessel. See
the vessel there? Just to touch on that a bit.
Um, and I've shared this with our guys in our men's meeting
and you can take this for what it's worth. When God calls you
a vessel, he calls you to be nothing but a receptacle by which
he gets his job done. When he calls you a vessel, he
is saying that you do not contribute anything to the process of him
using you other than availability. And even that is not something
that is intrinsic to you because he makes you a vessel. When you
and I are called vessels, we are simply available for God
to use us any way he wants to. And it's not conditioned upon
our intellect, our acumen, our wisdom, our knowledge, our abilities. A vessel is nothing but a tool
that God pours something into and then pours out on something.
So it is really a humbling metaphor. When you and I say, Lord, make
me a vessel for your use. You better know what you're talking
about. Because when he makes you a vessel, what he is saying
to you and I is we actually have no choice in the matter as to
how he's going to use us when he decides to use us. But if
we are privileged to simply be used in the hands of a sovereign
God, that will be enough. By the way, as I continue to
develop this point, as we now develop a bio of Saul, this is
the reason why God doesn't use a whole lot of people. because
most of us are too dignified to be vessels. So vessel is simply
an inanimate object that God takes. The vessel doesn't argue
with God. It doesn't debate with God. It
doesn't tell God what assignment it wants. It doesn't tell God
how to do it, when to do it, where to do it, who to do it
with. The vessel is simply a vehicle at complete disposal to God. Let me say it one more time.
And this is the reason why they're not a whole lot of people being
used by God, because we're too dignified to be simply vessels. What's the next point here in
this in the same context? Look at verse 15 again. Remember,
Ananias was trying to tell the Lord about how bad Saul was.
Remember, And the Lord said, Ananias, you go your way. Because
he's a chosen vessel unto me, now watch this, to bear my name. So now you've got the contents
that go inside the vessel, right? What's the content? The name
of the Lord. What's being poured inside this
empty vessel? The glory of God. The name of
God, the fame of God, the character of God, the will of God, the
purpose of God, the plan of God, the nature of God, the scheme
of God. That's what is all entailed in
the idea of the name of the Lord. Because when once God pours out
of Saul his glory, everyone's going to know God. Magnificent. Magnificent. For he is a chosen
vessel unto me, watch this, to bear my name before, what, Gentiles? And what, kings? And what, the
children of Israel? That's a triad. Saul doesn't
know it, but he has a lot of work to do. He doesn't know it,
but he has a lot of work to do. And what I want you to do is
appreciate the biographical sketch we get of Saul, because immediately
upon his conversion, the first thing he's doing according to
verse 20, It's straight way. He's preaching Christ in the
synagogues that he's the son of God, right? And remember we
talked about that. That's all great. It's in his
nature. He was qualified. He was gifted. Remember the spirit
of faith that God gives us second Corinthians chapter four around
verse 13. We believe therefore we what speak. So he's preaching
the gospel in these synagogues, but guess what's occurring persecution,
opposition, hostility. These people, want to kill him. So look at verse 16. Not only
does it say in verse 15, go your way because he's a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles, Kings and children
of Israel for I will show him how great things he must suffer
for my name sake. So what I want you to appreciate
about Saul is that he's a new kid on the block. He's passionate
about God and deep down inside what's moving Saul is a revelation
of God's glory. As we learned in our conference,
the purpose for which we preach Christ is that we might receive
a revelation of his glory. And hopefully that revelation
would induce in us a love and passion and desire to reach people
with the gospel. But that's never going to be
without some kind of negative consequence. So let me go back
to the idea of being chosen. When you and I are chosen by
God, we are chosen by God to bear his name. When you are called
to bear the name of God, what that means is you've got to actually
live in a world that's hostile to God's nature, representing
God, being willing to be spit on for Christ's sake. That's
what the word vessel means. Second Corinthians chapter four
around verse seven or eight, but we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. I share it with you. That word
literally means a spit pot, actually a refuge pot. It was the most
common vessel in the Roman culture where you used it for everything. And so the idea is, is that when
you and I are bearing the name of God in this adverse world
in which we live, we're going to take hits for it. So let's
imagine what's going on with Saul. He's preaching the gospel
in the synagogues and he's convincing these Jews that Jesus is the
Christ, is he not? He's demonstrating by the word
of God that they cannot logically invalidate his claims of Jesus
being the Messiah. That he is demonstrating through
the efficiency of biblical exegesis that you cannot conclude any
other thing but this is the Christ, that's verse 22. And what is
the net result? They hate him for it. So under
after many days not only are we dealing with three and a half
years in first Kings 18 one I don't want you to go there uses that
same kind of analogy with regards to to Elijah that after many
days the the Lord allowed it to rain again after Elijah had
declared that there was gonna be a famine in the land remember
that and how many years was that famine in the land three and
a half years and God uses that number three and a half frequently
to describe the nature of tribulation. So it's fundamentally the same
amount of time that we're dealing here with Saul having gone into
Arabia before coming back. And so we are told here in our
PowerPoint under after many days, it was three and a half years
that encompassed all of this ministry where Paul is preaching
in Damascus leaves and comes back. But ladies and gentlemen,
not only are the Jews wanting to kill him, that's verse 20.
Three, right? But this is quite amazing too,
because he go, it goes on to talk about him coming back. Notice
what it says over in verses 26 and following. And when Saul
was come to Jerusalem, he has say to join himself to the disciples,
but they were afraid. Uh, well, cause the Jews had
wanted to kill him. They let him down in a basket.
He got out of Damascus when he came to Jerusalem, they say to
join him, but they were all afraid and believe not that he was a
disciple. Now think about the, The controversy swirling around
this man saw, right? Think about this. Some of the
some of the believers are able to embrace him. Many of them
are not able to embrace it because they're still dealing with how
he was in their mind before his conversion. And they're still
waiting for credible evidence that he's authentically a believer
and not just some Trojan horse coming into the kingdom ready
to explode on them, which was always a probability. And I'll
show you something about the tenuous nature of the early church
ministry. Verse 27, but Barnabas took him
and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he
had seen the Lord in the way that he had spoken to him and
how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And so when we read here in verse
27, but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and
declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, which
apostles are we talking about? Peter and James, Galatians chapter
one. Remember, not the whole of the
band. We don't get to see the whole of the band till we get
to chapter eleven, twelve through fifteen, where Paul and Barnabas
finally go up and meet the whole group and actually establish
the grace of God as the primary feature of the gospel. So we
read here now in verse twenty eight and then verse twenty nine. And then we're going to work
through our points here. to draw some things out of it. So Barnabas
took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto him
how he saw the Lord in the way, had spoken to him, and how he
had preached boldly at Damascus. This information apparently had
not gotten to the apostles. Verse 28. And when he was with
them, coming in and going out at Jerusalem, verse 29, and he
had spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, disputed against
the what? Grecians, but they went about
to slay him. It's amazing. So under after
many days, I do have the term lovers of darkness. Do you see
that? Is that in your outline? Let me chat with you a little
bit about that. And we talked about this last week under the
idea of winning debates and winning arguments. This is verse twenty
nine. And then your outline is the title is hated by all men
for Christ's sakes. That's point number twenty nine
in your outline. hated for all men for Christ's
sake. And I said, there's a difference between winning arguments and
winning souls. How many of you guys remember
that conversation? Good. Now this is very important right
here because the goal of Saul was not to create all these enemies.
These enemies are a byproduct of human nature being fallen
and hating truth. And this is just par for the
course when it comes with the prospect of sharing the gospel.
I need you to get this. Even you and I, when we share
the word of God, and when we come out and become believers
in Christ, you're going to have enemies simply because you are
of another kingdom. You guys got that? Now work with
this for a moment. We can have enemies because of
our own foolishness, our own insensitivities of our own sinfulness,
we can have lots of enemies. Don't ever conflate or justify
having enemies because of your own sinfulness. I had someone
come to me, I think it was last week maybe, and they were really
upset with themselves because they thought about how in their
younger days, in their zeal, they had created a whole lot
of mad relatives, if you will, going around talking about Jesus.
And they reflected upon the manner in which they did it. They were
both not accurate in their doctrine, because a lot of times when we're
young in the faith, we're not accurate in our doctrine. We're
ready to run and tell people about Jesus, but we're not really
clear on the doctrine ourselves. And sometimes in our passion
and in our zeal, we offend people because we are insensitive. So
now they don't like us, or they have an aversion to us, or they're
defensive towards us, or they're mad with us. And we wanna call
that suffering for the gospel sake. That's not suffering for
the gospel sake. That's just the folly of our
lack of temperance and sensitivity towards people. And because our
fruit is not yet ripe. Do you understand what I'm getting
at? What do I mean by that? Well,
our fruit not yet being ripe is this. that we had not been
tempered enough by the spirit of God, by him bringing to reality
that we are just as sinful as the people that we're talking
to. A lot of times there's an underlying self-righteousness
in us when we are novices and brand new in Christ, where we
actually think we are better than other people when we go
to share the gospel with them. And that attitude is going to
be rebuked by the Spirit of God every time. God is not going
to allow you to actually advance the cause of the gospel in any
saving way in people's lives while your attitude is funky.
Why? Because you are stealing God's
glory when you do it. Remember what I said? And I'm
talking from great years of experience to be a vessel is to be without
any personal interest in the matter whatsoever that if God
is going to use you and me as a vessel we have to have been
taught that this is not about us so that the process by which
he uses you to share the gospel with people effectively while
on the one hand because the word of God is a two edged sword you
have some people who don't like you, what they don't like about
you is the word that you shared and the God that you exalted,
not so much the manner in which you presented it. See, you and
I can obscure the actual message by an attitude or mechanism or
methodology by which we communicate it. Am I making some sense? And
so in this context, it's very important for you and I to know
that what Saul is dealing with here I believe going back to
his brethren and simply sharing the scriptures and it creating
this hostility And you and I have to be careful to know that that
will occur I remember sharing this years ago in my first few
years as a Christian now I want you to go to Proverbs 29 9 and
I want to show you a principle there, but this was two years
ago I thought in my naivete that everyone that I shared the gospel
with would just topple over and believe the gospel and and trust
Christ and come to Christ. Cause it was me who was telling
them, man, you know me, I'm, I'm, I'm your boy. You know me. I mean, I wouldn't do you wrong,
man. You know, you can take my word
for it. Uh, and then to my chagrin, what I came to understand was
I was actually creating enmity, uh, between me and them because
of some things I did not know. What I did not know and what
you may not know is that the Word of God is a sharp, sharp,
sharp, sharp sword. The Word of God is. And when
you share that word, you and I have no idea as to what level
it penetrates and cuts people. You and I have no idea what circumstances
God has shaped and put into position and provided by which when you
and I share the word of God, what that impact is going to
be. You and I don't understand at all how that in his providence,
he may have caused the person with whom you're going to share
the gospel to be put in such a high level of sensitivity that
when once you share that word, they're going to come apart at
the seams and they may be, they may very well be utterly hostile
towards you. That had nothing to do with you.
It had everything to do with what God was doing in them. But
if I'm taking a position of being a vessel, then I'm going to be
ready to take the hit because this is not about me. Am I making
some sense? Going back again to what Christ
said about Saul, he's a chosen vessel unto me. He's going to
bear my name. See, an idea of bearing now is
suffering under. So we take up the name of Christ
and we bear his name to the Gentiles kings and the children of Israel.
And so we're going to suffer for it. I want you to hear a
proverb. Mark this now. If a wise man contend with a
foolish man, do you see that? Effectively, that's what we're
doing when we share the gospel with unbelievers. You got that? If a wise man contend with a
fool, and Solomon is using his words wisely here, a wise man
represents the individual who has come to know the Lord Jesus
Christ, the true and the living God, and the spirit of God has
wrought in him what we call the fear of the Lord. That is the
fundamental definition of a wise person according to the opening
verses of Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of what? So a wise man is a person, man
or woman, that fears the Lord. And that fear is a fruit of grace
by which in your new nature, now you honor and you reference
and you respect and you exalt God as being the highest of all
beings who is in control of everything, who governs the universe and
is your God. That particular view that you
hold now, it dictates your character, it dictates your attitude, it
dictates your worldview. Here you are now sharing with
an unbeliever that there is a God, that he is personal, that he
is universal, that he is sovereign, that he runs the universe. He
is the God over all flesh. He's the father of spirits. And
the man who is saying there is no God has to answer to that
God immediately. Now you are militating against
his worldview. You're military, militating against
his theses. You're crashing his theses. Oh,
watch this. It's one thing for you and I
to oppose people's theses. It's another thing for the word
of God to enter in and oppose people's theses. See, it's one
thing for your words and mine, which are powerless, to engage
an individual in a debate or opinion fest. And you'll know
it, when the power of the word of God is not accompanying what
you and I are talking about, people are not that offended
by you. Because your opinion is no more
authoritative than theirs. And so you guys can dialogue
and you can discuss and you can have conversation. Y'all can
even laugh. But as soon as you go to using
the authoritative word of God as the criterium for your basis
of conviction, as soon as you go, thus saith the Lord, you
have now pulled out a sword that has the capacity to pierce into
the heart and sever and divide soul and spirit. It is able to
now discern the thoughts and intents of that person's heart.
In spite of you, you're not discerning their heart. The word of God
is. And so the word of God is piercing through areas of that
person's reality and that person's being and making them uncomfortable
at levels that they don't want to be uncomfortable just because
you shared the word of God. That's how sharp the word of
God is. This is where you and I with the word of God have to
be very careful because you can add insult to injury by both
quoting scripture and then heaping upon that person your own agenda,
your own desire to not only push the sword in, but thrust it all
the way through and cut them to the quick. And now you're
offending them. Remember, the word of God is
going to do it. And so what the preacher said is, if a wise man
contends with a foolish man, watch this, whether he rage or
laugh, who's doing the raging or laughing? The foolish man.
So now here's how the depiction should go. You and I should be
sharing the word of God in a context of humility with a real sensitivity
that the person with whom you are sharing the word of God is
at a major disadvantage. They don't have an appropriate
armor to defend themselves against biblical truth. And if the spirit
of God wanted to, He could cut so deep into that person's soul
that that individual could rage to the point of wanting to physically
hurt you. Have you ever been in a discussion with people around
biblical truth of which you were unsuspecting as to how deeply
they were really offended and that thing just kind of set off?
And the next thing you know, why are they really going off
like they're going off? Because you were unaware of how
deep that word cut into their soul. And now you got to be ready
for the consequences thereof. That's always possible. And so
what you and I want to be able to do with people, particularly
unbelievers, is you and I want to share the word of God with
a level of meekness and humility, with a kind of decorum that separates
us from the word's intention to do what it's going to do,
because the spirit of God is going to do what it wants to
do. And you and I maintaining the assignment of speaking the
truth in love. Did that make some sense? It's
very important for you to get that because we would want to
be able to win the argument that when I shared the Word of God
with that individual, I really wasn't trying to be pompous or
proud or self-righteous or arrogant or win an argument. See, really
what I'm talking to you about right now is the goal of apologetics
or evangelism, properly speaking, is not about winning an argument.
The goal of the Word of God is not about winning an argument.
If you win the argument, You've won nothing. The goal of preaching
and teaching is to win souls to the Savior. Am I making some
sense there? But in the process of the unavoidable
use of the word of God, when you share the word of God with
a foolish man, that man whose worldview is there is no God.
Therefore, there is no absolute truth. Therefore, there is no
depository of truth that reflects absolute truth, which affirms
the reality of God. That is, they don't believe the
Bible. When you contend with that person and you share with
them the word of God, outwardly they may laugh or they may rage. Watch this now. Either way it
goes, they have no rest. Are you hearing me? What that
means is when you go away from that discussion, remember, that
that discussion was uncomfortable for them. So stay with me a little bit
because see what I'm actually talking about is winning people.
What that means is I actually am hoping that I have another
conversation with them. Maybe even two or three. How
many of you guys listen to my Monday program? Okay, at least
50-60%. Do you see how I deal with people
on the radio? You see how important it is to deal with them with
that kind of tactfulness and carefulness? rather than just
winning the argument, because I want them to continue listening.
I want them to continue listening, even if they disagree with me.
I want them to get on the hook. I want God to hook them and bring
them in, because this is not about me winning an argument
is about me helping people come to realize that they are subverted. The word subverted means condemning
yourself and actually operating, operating contrary to what intuitively,
you know, is true. That's good. Let me help you
get that again, just in case you missed that. To be subverted
is to be condemned within yourself. We're getting ready to go through
the book of Romans. There's going to be a two-year study through
the book of Romans, okay? Because this, Romans is the treatise. It's the, it's the Magna Carta
of the gospel, 16 chapters. We got work to do in Romans.
Well, what Romans plainly tells us is that men know truth, but
they spend every ounce of their energy pretending that they don't. So there's a ongoing and unending
subversion of their own soul over against the reality of things
that you and I have the privilege of saying they already know.
But for the sake of the process, you and I have to try to persuade
men and women of the truth that God says already is resident
in their life. But they will argue vociferously
even to the point of killing you or dying themselves and going
to hell against the truth you share with them. What that means,
ladies and gentlemen, is we are in a spiritual warfare when it
comes to communicating truth. Also, what that means is, is
that because we're in a warfare, in a fight, you and I want to
live to see another day with them until there is that day
where they bow the knee to Jesus. Now for this to make some sense,
before we go back, Take that faceless individual of whom you
already are thinking that you have to share the gospel with
and put a family member there. You got that? Put your child
there. Because whether you know it or
not, the day is coming when you have to do the same thing that
you're doing with people who are not your flesh and blood
with your own child. You're going to have to try to
win your child to Christ. That's humbling. The very child
that you raised up in the church, raised up in the gospel, taught
them at your laps, spoke to them in their ears, they heard the
word in your womb, they heard the word in your lap, that very
child you're gonna have to try to persuade when they get old
enough and stupid enough to think that they know more than what
mom and daddy have taught them. Now you have to use the same
patience and tactfulness with them to see them come to Christ.
Now this makes sense, right? Because do you know how painful
it is to womb your child with the word of God, just because
you want to win an argument. See what I'm getting at? You
don't want to do that. You want to win them to Christ.
So this is why God tells us to start with our family. This is
why when I preached on the glory, preaching the gospel for the
sake of winning the battle, I talked about the three areas, categories
that we have to be careful about the gospel itself, the church,
and then the family, because the enemy is assaulting all three.
So you and I have a high calling to try to reach our family members,
do we not? So as we're going to go through
the book of Acts, and we're going to get back to our point here
in a moment, you have to know that Saul is preaching to some
of his own relatives. Saul is not, he's not preaching
to everyone that is not his relative. Some of these folks are his family
members. And as we're going to see down the line, many of them
come to Christ as they will with us when we're patient enough
and preaching the gospel with the kind of attitude and the
kind of methodology that God honors. So again, my point is,
is that as we are dealing with the ministry of the word, we
wanna be sensitive to not only winning the argument, but we
wanna win the heart. We want the end game of the product.
And we saw that under hated by all men for Christ's namesake. Now I want you to go back to
verses 25 through 27 and deal with something I thought was
quite fascinating. Here's Saul. Is preaching the
word and he's preaching it in the context of people having
a real struggle with him I mean we already served saw that that
the Jews really didn't believe him because he had already Opposed
the faith they were struggling but verse 25 tells us this There
were those in verse 24 who wanted to kill him who hung out at the
gates day and night. That's serious, isn't it? That's
a serious conviction But then verse 25 says then the disciples
took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket
I like this because I have the point Protection an act of what
that's in your power. That's in your outline protection
an act of love Protection an act of love and this happens
a number of times for Saul in this first of all he does have
the blessing of the disciples in verse 25 and Secondly, he
has the advocacy of Barnabas in verse 27. We get to verse
26. And when Saul was coming to Jerusalem,
he had said to join himself to the disciples, but they were
afraid of him, did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas
took him and brought him to the apostles. What I am actually
doing is thinking out loud as I wrote my outline out. Boy,
Saul is the new kid on the block. He then jumped in with both feet.
He's preaching the gospel. Some people are believing we
don't see a whole lot of that evidence here because there were
many already Christian But certainly the Jews are trying to kill him
then we look up in the Grecians want to kill him So you got Jews
and Gentiles against him, but there are also disciples who
are helping him Some of the disciples get him over the wall He comes
to Jerusalem the Jerusalem brethren don't want him. But here comes
Barnabas to his rescue So can you see in this warfare that's
going on? This is a warfare This is a battle
being raged a waged against the gospel and the target now is
Saul because he is being used mightily by God as a vessel now
watch this and God is Resourcing him with people who actually
are walking in love towards him. Let me see if I could bring this
home Because this is the nature of Christianity So you got these
terrorists out there wanting to kill Saul, but you also got
Christians who are willing to hazard their lives to get him
over the wall. That's the grace of God. Do you
understand that? Because see, their act of love
towards Saul puts them in danger with the same group of terrorists
who wants to kill Saul. Do you understand how vital it
is for us to have a kind of love that does more than demonstrate
a sentimentality towards someone. It's interesting. Did you understand
what I just said right there? We have to think this through.
See, we can go past these verses so quick and not actually put
them in context and deal with the real, real substantive implications
of a transformed life. So when you and I are saved,
you know what God pours into our heart? The love of God. We
learn this in first John chapter five, verse one, that when we're
begotten of God, we love him that begot us, and we love everyone
that's begotten of God. Now, I want you to think that
through with me for a moment, because in our marriage class,
I'm getting ready to teach us that when we define love, we
have to define love in its highest, most noble and virtuous terms,
particularly when we're talking about covenant. because you and
I can have a love that is so depleted of any real tangible
and concrete virtues that it amounts to nothing but a feeling
without any capacity to do anything. Let me see if I can help you
with that, if I haven't persuaded you already. You know, it's possible
to say, man, I love you, man. And actually have nothing inside
that kind of love that moves you to do something for that
person. Can I say that again for a moment? Because see, this
is where, for those of us in the marriage class, and the marriage
class is always a type of Christ in the church. For you to say
you love me, you better tell me what kind of love that is,
so I can put your love in a certain category. Because when such circumstances
and situations come my way, that merit a quality of love that
does not fit your definition? Are you ready? I'm not calling
on you. If your love is merely the love
that says, man, I like you dude, but I ain't gonna go out of my
way for you. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is so good. This kind of contemplation is
critical because this gets at the heart of relationship. And
I've said this for years. I've heard from so many professing
Christians, man, I love you. And those same Christians have
stabbed me in the back. Or when a major test came against
me, they were nowhere to be found. Are you hearing me? And there
was a point in my young Christian life where when people said,
man, I love you, I was like Dracula. That's garlic to me. Don't even
don't even say that because you're getting ready to show me that
you're actually my enemy. I saw that as a precursor to
people betraying me. And it happened more than once.
So what that means is for you to lightly say, man, I love you
and you don't define that love in a tangible, qualitative fashion
means nothing. Are you hearing me? Now, just
as a caveat, this is where relationships in marriage are so very poor. Because husbands and wives will
say, I love you. And in many, many cases, the
quality of the definition of love is so depleted that one
or both of the spouses have no way of knowing what that means.
Because on an everyday basis, it has no efficacious virtue
to it whatsoever. The reason I'm exercising your
thoughts on this now is it's very possible for us to use words
frequently that have no meaning whatsoever. The most powerful
words in the world are I love you. Are you hearing me? Listen to me. That's why I don't
use them that much. Now, I may love you passionately,
but I'm not going to just flippantly go around saying, I love you,
I love you, because I may not love you the way you need to
be loved. You understand what I'm getting
at? I mean, I may love you on the level of saying, you know,
you cool with me, dude, but I may not have the quality of love
that you need in the time of trouble. So all this, I love
your stuff, that can be smoke and mirrors. It can be a level
of hypocrisy. It can be a self-condemnation because it's one of the language
dynamics that we use in the church. Gotta be very careful. Now, I'm
not saying don't say it. Do say it. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? Because the usage of the term,
I love you, is massively therapeutic. I want to help you with that
too. As I'm dealing with couples in relationships, One of the
things we have to learn how to do is understand the power of
words, right? So you use the term, but make sure you know
what you're saying, because God might just call you on it with
that individual and prove that your definition of love for that
person is so inferior that you might as well not have said it.
See what I'm getting at? But certainly protection and
active love. If I'm in trouble, And I need
the resources of a body politic to help me get from point A to
point B. And that means you have to now exercise putting yourself
in harm's way for me. And you actually do it. Guess
what? Without a doubt, I know you love me. Because greater
love hath no man than this, than that he laid down his life for
his friends. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So I'm fascinated about the progression of Saul, the
new kid on the block. We're not even calling him Paul
yet. Mean, you know, it's gonna be on when we call him Paul,
but he's getting love from the brethren even at Saul right now
Because God is working in the midst of conflict and trial Bringing
the church together in the midst of their tribulation because
we need each other They already see early on how important Saul
is to the gospel That they are willing to hazard their lives
for him. So protection an act of love.
There's a couple of principles We can run through them. We've
got 25 minutes or so Remember, child of God, there's always
a time to flee. Put that ace in your pocket,
too, OK? I love this growing up in the
hood. The way you survive the hood, and I taught martial arts
for years, and I've been training in martial arts ever since I
was a little child, 12, 13 years old, started off with Wing Chun,
moved all the way up to Kajikempo, Kempo, Karate, Kung Fu, stuff
like that, right? All to survive on the streets,
because On the streets, when you're on the streets on your
own, you got to learn how to survive. We got a lot of young dead brothers
and sisters because they did the wrong thing at the wrong
time and did not know how to survive on the streets. I'm saying
this as a lesson. One of the things you learn in
martial arts is when to fight and when to run. The word Kung Fu, Kung Fu means
long life. Long life is a word, a blessing. Are you following me? But the
old people would tell you that means you learn when and when
not to fight. Thus you live long. And so as
a youngster, we had to learn how to run. I've talked about
it a lot. Running has saved my life many
times. Can I get a witness in the house?
See, I got a few thugs in the house. A few thugs in the house.
It's cool. Because, see, I can share something
with you that I learned at 17 years old, fighting full contact
karate and having a bunch of cats in the neighborhood, in
the Bay Area here, between San Francisco, San Mateo, and the
Oakland area, back in the middle 80s. No, middle 70s. This is
when Bruce Lee was very popular and Black Belt Jones, all these
facts. So, you know how we are when we're teenagers, because
we have not formed our own identity, we actually mold ourselves into
other people's images until God saves us from that folly. You
guys know that, right? So, there was a dude that I knew, we called
him Chucky, very good martial artist. We were all at a party
in San Mateo. Something went down, right? Can I just use that phrase? Something
went down. And so Chucky was a good fighter,
man. He could get down. And I guess
he's standing out in the street, whipping on two or three dudes.
We have been taught because I learned martial arts in the hood. We
have been taught whenever there's conflict, immediately leave the
premise. Don't even wait. Don't wait to
see it escalate. Don't wait to see it blow up.
Don't have to be in a position to actually have to testify to
what you saw. Is that good thug martial arts?
That's good thug martial arts, isn't it? So, no, this is what
we learned. We'd be at parties and a couple
dudes be acting a fool. Immediately we would pull out.
We gone, we rolling. Because we didn't want to be
there, even though we could handle ourselves, to have to deal with
unintended consequences. Well, that same night, my boy
Chucky was killed right in the middle of the street. Well, y'all
go, uh, y'all act like folks that will die. Listen, he had
an ego trip that got the best of him. He thought he was in
a martial arts movie. You know how martial arts movie
you beat up 20 dudes. Let me help you with real life.
Can I help you with real life? If you can get past one dude
in the streets, you didn't done a lot. Because the adrenaline
level when you're actually fighting people is so high that if you
aren't at the best of conditions, you just hoping you get out of
that fight alive. Let alone kicking and punching
20 dudes. Somebody hits you upside the
head, you flip and roll, jump back up and start fighting back.
Watch this. That's the movies. Are you guys hearing me? I'm
trying to make an application of practical wisdom here. Chuckie
thought that he was in a Bruce Lee movie and he was fighting
against gangs. Didn't know it. The guy just
went to the car and said, Hey, you got karate. I got a 44 Magnum. Boom. So Chuckie wasn't wise,
was he? So he didn't know the scriptures
as a time to flee. So, And Christ gave that ethic
to his church because he knew the rage and vitriol in the heart
of man against the gospel. Are you hearing me? That it would
be easy to just take a person that they don't like because
of what you preach and kill you. Case in point, while I have your
attention, just recently in the Middle East, a Christian man
and his wife, In the middle of a completely Islamic culture,
I think it's Afghanistan, they were just beaten to death just
two weeks ago. Beaten to death by a slanderous charge raised
against them that they had eviscerated the Koran. Well, they use those
kind of things when they want to kill you. They hadn't eviscerated,
they hadn't even talked bad about the Koran, nothing. There was
some kind of business deal that didn't go down right. And so
a couple of people stirred up the whole neighborhood, the whole
neighborhood. It was over a hundred people
that hunted them down. So many people that the police
couldn't even stop them. What's my point? The rage and
hostility in the heart of man is so massively evil by nature
that principles like knowing when it's time to get out of
here is critical to your survival in mind. This is what our Lord
is saying here, a time to flee. And then the ultimate sacrifice. There's gonna be a time when
you have to lay down your life, but that's only when it's time.
And finally, the love of Christ abounding through trouble. That's
what we see here in our text. I just want us to mark that,
the love of Christ abounding through trouble. So we read over
in verse 28, and he was with them because of Barnabas advocating
for him going in and going out, and he spoke boldly in the name
of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians, but they
went about to slay him. Which when the brethren knew,
what did they do? They didn't tell him to stay
on the scene of the crime or the hostile environment. It's
time to move. You guys got that? See, once
the brethren knew, and how did they know? They lived in the
culture. How do you know? You hear the whispering. You
hear the murmurs. You're right there with the guys
talking about, we don't like this dude. He's getting too much
advantage on us. Every time he comes into the
synagogue, somebody's hearing him seriously. We're losing battles
theologically, philosophically with this guy. We got to get
rid of this guy. Now, if somebody loves you and they hear that
somebody's setting to harm you, what are they going to do? They're
going to try to warn you, if not remove you out of harm's
way. If they love you, Am I making some sense? If they love you,
and that's what I'm saying. Saul is becoming beloved among
the brethren simply because they have the same new nature. They've
been born again. They have the same heavenly father.
And these Christians have now overcome the fear of what Saul
used to be and love him for who he is now. So now watch how over
time, when we come to know the Lord and we start doing good
in the kingdom of God, when we start doing good in the kingdom
of God, it will erase all of the bad stuff that you were known
for. Do you see that logic? See, Saul is known for being
the terrorist, killing Christians. But what the believers have been
able to do for a season now, at least three and a half years,
is watch this brother take hit after hit after hit after hit
for the gospel. There is now an authenticity
to Saul that the Christians know that makes it worth them saying,
you know what? We're gonna protect this brother. And this goes to
show the nature of the fellowship of the people of God too. How
we hang in there during difficult times, And we work through our
issues together. See, trouble will smoke us all
out as to whether we are real or not. Am I making some sense? It will smoke us all out as to
whether we're real or not. Whenever we go through the little
shakings and little troubles and little difficulties, I always
take a position as a pastor and overseer to watch who's going
to stand and who's going to fall. Who's going to run and who's
going to be willing to actually endure always? Because that's
how you know, you never know who's really on your side until
the heat is on. You never know. And God always
does that. He always shakes it up so he
can have a pure body. Authentic members. So, you know,
we have constituents, we have visitors, and then we had a brethren. Y'all got that? We got constituents,
we got visitors, then we got the brethren. That's the nature
of the kingdom. That is just the nature of the
kingdom. And so Saul was being protected by the brethren under
our next PowerPoint. Uh, we all need an advocate and
that's fundamentally what Barnabas did in verse 27. And this, this
needs to be marked out too, because I want you to lift this out as
a virtue. So, and when Saul, verse 26, and when Saul was coming
to Jerusalem, he has saved to join himself to the disciples,
but they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was
a disciple. What do you do when you know someone has the character
and integrity to be in the mist, and yet you got a group of people
whom you love and care about who are not quite persuaded of
the same? What do you do when you are dealing
with someone who is viewed suspiciously by a group of people with whom
you actually have some rapport. You guys understand the scenario
on painting? I just want you to get this now because you'll
be in this situation. And I've learned this too over
many, many years of being in the ministry. Conflicts are unavoidable. Misunderstandings are unavoidable. rushing to judgment, drawing
conclusions, being hasty in our decisions, judging people superficially,
all that stuff happens. It all exposes the weaknesses
and the lack of maturity in us. If a gossip enters into the church
and it latches hold of people who are unprincipled, according
to Proverbs 26, Those people are like wood and the gossip
is like fire. And you can be sure they're going
to transfer that fire to other people. And unfortunately, people
are more like wood than they are like stone. So you can get
gossip running all through the church because people are more
absorbent of gossip than they are of truth. Are you following
me? Trying to lay down a foundation
here. And so then an individual, poor individual, with whom a
situation emerges, it may have no truth at all in somebody's
speculation, somebody's accusation, somebody's gossip, somebody's
slander of that individual. But then the next thing you know,
half the congregation has a negative attitude toward that person.
And nobody drew the line of biblical truth to say, where was the source
of this accusation coming from? Because see, listen, now watch
this now. If we can get to the source, we can stop virtually
every fire at the source. Because the source is always
known to be what they are. When you got a gossipy person
that doesn't have control over their tongue, that does not know
how to guard their words, you can never trust that person.
Even when they're telling the truth, don't listen to them.
I want you to hear me now. When you got a gossipy person,
that doesn't have control over their words, please take two
steps back because they may be telling the truth this time. But you don't need to endanger
yourself by becoming dependent upon them as a source of information
when they have a trendy track record of distorting facts. This
is very important. So sometimes a person may be
put into the test that God brings about where they're accused of
something that's not true. Well, according to the Word of
God, we're supposed to judge righteous judgment, that we are
not to be hasty in our judgment, that we are to diligently examine
the matter, both Old Testament and New, to determine whether
there's any credibility to this allegation or not. And it's supposed
to be contained and done in a fashion that does not take our eyes off
of Jesus Christ. And like a lot of times in your
church, there are your megalomaniacs who all they want to do is get
attention on themselves. They don't know that it is the
horrible crime of trying to take the whole church off of the centrality
of Jesus Christ. Now, the church is at peace when
the larger majority of the church is focused on Christ. This is
why gospel churches and I'm a part of a gospel church, are largely
churches of peace. Because we don't buy into gossip.
We don't play the gossip game. As soon as we find out you're
gossiping, we're getting ready to isolate you and quarantine
you because of that Ebola virus that's in you. Because it's antithetical
to the gospel. And then the poor person that
has now been slandered must have an advocate. So stay with me
now. There are times when every one
of us needs an advocate. And how blessed are you when
you are either one who needs an advocate and God provides
one for you or God makes you an advocate? Am I making some
sense? And frequently we will play both
sides of that issue depending on where we are in the economy
of God's kingdom. Barnabas whose name means son
of consolation is serving as an advocate for our brother in
the book of Job Job is struggling with Accusations that are coming
from him coming at him from heaven and from his brethren Is he not
Job is struggling and in fact, those accusations are coming
so hard at Job if Job didn't have the helmet of salvation
on He would have been done with But you know what he did in his
weakness. He cried out. I He cried out, he said, oh,
that there were a days men between us. Pull up that verse for me,
let me show you what I mean. This is Job 9 33, I'm gonna show
you a principle. Here's what he said. He says, in his argument
with his brethren, he says, neither is there a days men between us
that might lay his hand upon both of us. That means when two
people come into controversy and argument, and you aren't
able to resolve that argument yourself, the blessing of having
an advocate who can stand between you and your accuser And your
accuser may be even your family member. Stay with me now. It
may be your husband or your wife. There are times when we are opposition
with one another. Is that true? And you need what?
A daisman. Someone that can represent you
and represent them and actually clear up the matter. This is
the mystery of sinfulness in our life. In the larger redemptive
sense, who is that daisman? It's Jesus Christ. He stands
as an advocate between you and the father. He stands as an advocate
and days meant between you and God, not just you and the devil
because he's done with the devil in that regard, but he's standing
between you and God because God has a controversy with you as
a center. And in order for you to be made right with God, there
has to be an advocate who's already right with God. And as he is
also appropriate for you, this is where the incarnation comes
in at. For Jesus being both God and man, he is able now to represent
us as a man and represent God as God, and actually resolve
the conflict that exists between us and God. And he's the only
dazeman that can do it. But the rule of the dazeman is
this. This is why I like the word dazeman. Do you see that
phrase? Here's the rule of the dazeman.
In controversies, it often gets so dark that we don't know the
truth from the lie coming or going by all of the words that
get said. So again, I want to make this
as practical as possible. You know how when we get into
conflicts and arguments with people, words abound, don't they? They abound and abound and abound
and abound. So much so that we don't know
where it started and where it's going. Watch this. And so because
you and I are too subjectively involved in it, we need someone
with some objectivity to come in, stand between us and them,
and bring some clarity to the matter. Is that right? Absolutely. Paul talked about
this in 1 Corinthians 6. I only say that to say this.
Barnabas is an instrument in the hand of God to represent
Paul to the brethren because Paul has to get on about the
work of the ministry. But this goes to show that you
and I, as the body politic, we can be very limited in our information
that can hinder us from making decisions critical to the advancement
of the purposes of God without an advocate. You guys got that? So again, here's how this goes,
just in case you didn't, just want to share it. Mob rule is
not divinely authorized. In other words, the church doesn't
operate on democracy. In other words, the majority
is not automatically right. Got that? So I have to say it
again. Democracies don't promote righteousness. Just because the vast majority
of the people are holding to a certain view against an individual
or a group doesn't mean they're right. So what I'm saying is
we don't want to advocate democracy because that's nothing but mob
rule. Those folks in that village that killed those two Christian
men and wife just a week ago. Mob rule. They allow the momentum
of their anger and hostility because of a flame thrown in
the midst of them. And because they were unprincipled
people who did not want to seek out the truth because they didn't
care about the value of human life because they didn't fear
God and they weren't pursuing truth. All they wanted was blood. That's why David said, Lord,
you've given me three options for disciplining me because I
counted the people. And the Lord says, the angel
of the Lord, Plague I give you over to men. He said Lord don't
give me over to men because men are unmerciful David knew something
about men didn't he? I'd rather suffer a plague David
said or I'd rather suffer the Lord chastening me But don't
give me over to men because men do not have intrinsically The
gift our capacity to be merciful See, when once mankind unleashes,
he destroys it all without any mercy. And you've seen that.
You've seen that. And you wonder how on earth could
people act that way? Because we are vile sinners by
nature. And without the restraining grace
of God, we will act just like beasts. So we all need an advocate. We need a daysman. Also, that
was a test of everybody's faith, was it not? The trial that Saul
is going through here in Acts chapter nine, along with the
people of God, it's a trial of faith because we're still trying
to figure out who's on whose team. Is Saul on our team? Is this the way this works out?
So it's a trial of faith for everyone. And then finally, by
their fruit, you shall what? I love this. That's Matthew chapter
seven, verse 15 through 20. You don't have to go there, but
our Lord gave an agricultural analogy that's consistent within
his logic. And here's how the logic goes.
Every seed buried herb brings forth fruit of its own kind.
Now I want you to follow the logic with this. This is very
important because you and I will sometimes operate illogically
around trying to determine or conclude or assess a person standing
with God. We will say, I know they're Christian.
Oh, I didn't heard this so many times over the years, scratch
my head, watch this. They love the Lord. But when I follow the trail of
their life, I don't see the evidence of them loving the Lord. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? I don't see that kindness. I
don't see that courtesy. I don't see that consistency.
I don't see that pattern of grace. I don't see that interest in
the kingdom. All I really see is the opposite. But you're telling
me they love the Lord. You know how religious folks
talk? Because like when people want me to bury somebody and
they want me to believe they're saved. Oh, pastor, they really
love the Lord. Well, when the last time they
went to church, it's been a while. Well, what's the evidence that
they love the Lord? Well, what do you mean? See what I'm getting
at? And at that point, you know, we have to actually deal in some
truth, don't we? We laid his brother in the casket
and he didn't tow up the world and everybody know he hate God.
but because of sympathetic, sympathetic loved ones, they won't want me
to say he loved the Lord. Well, now you can say he loved
the Lord. I'm going to preach the gospel to the living. Can
I do that? You, you can get up here and say, he loved the Lord.
I'm going to preach the gospel to the living and we'll wait
to judgment date to see if he loved the Lord. But, and now
what I'm getting at is this, what I love about Matthew seven,
if you, if you committed to memory, This and this is true in the
relationship thing too. It's very difficult to disassociate
Marital paradigms with the church. It's very difficult to disassociate
marital paradigms with the church Are you hearing me? because the
church is a bride and Christ is the head and The relationship
between the head and the bride is a relationship out of which
derive every principle Essential to the relationship of the folks
in the church who say they love their husband as is in relationships. So now when my master, who is
also my husband, tells me I shall know them by their fruits, my
job is to judge fruit. The only concrete evidence I
have about you is what you say and do. That's all I got. And see, when once I confine
myself to the principle of the consistency that every seed bearing
herb bears fruit of its own kind, If the fruit I see is consistent
with a bad seed, I have no right to actually contradict nature. Did you guys get that? I have
no right to contradict nature. Now I might censor myself because
I love you, but the reality is you shall know them by their
fruit. You'll know. You can pretend
all you want, But when you do that, you are inviting cognitive
dissonance for yourself. You're inviting a conflict of
the facts in your own mind. You're creating headaches in
your own head. This is true again in relationship. It's crazy because you know love
is a law. Do you know love is a law? Do
y'all know that? Love is a law unto itself. So,
help me now. Can you help me? How can beating
somebody to death, be an expression of love. Oh, I know he loved
me. Girl, he didn't just hit you
upside the head with a bat and he loved you. Oh, I know he loved
me and he just didn't abuse you. Will you hear me? Your love is
perverted. And see, we have to actually
deal with these factors because on the ground level where we
are dealing with life, Either our definition of truths are
going to be concrete and accurate because they are consistent with
reality, or we are asking ourselves to live in a world of deception. And this is where people's lives
fall utterly apart, where the facts don't line up with the
claims. Am I making some sense? This
is why I'm asking that you shall know them by their fruit. If
somebody beat me down and destroying me and and doing everything they
can to harm me, are you ready? They don't love me. Even though they'll say I love
them, that's the strange thing about relationships, isn't it?
No, I watch this. No, you don't. You don't love
him if you're doing that to him. You don't love her if you're
doing that to her. You actually hate them. You're simply self-deceived.
Got it? And so it's very important for
us to understand that you shall know them by their fruits. Saul is among
a body of true believers. I got one more point I want to
develop and close out here. One more point. Can I get your...
keep your attention? Because I just want to make sure
that I wrap this up. This is beautiful. So now notice what it says over
in verse 31. Are you there? Then had the churches
rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were
edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort
of the Holy Ghost and were multiplied. Do you see what verse 21 describes
for us saints? It describes a burgeoning, growing,
productive, fruitful increasing of the Kingdom of God. Verse
31 is the atmosphere and condition Any church that you and I would
want to be a part of now look at it again I want to just extract
one point just one point then have the church's rest Do you
understand that rest in the midst of turmoil? They had rest now
when you and I come to Christ guess what we want rest We don't
want turmoil Watch this and this was throughout all Judea. I Galilee
and Samaria where most of the hostile opposition was They had
rest in the place where it was formerly hostility and opposition
you guys got that so God actually rewarded the believers with a
restful Condition and state in the midst of warfare and conflict
for a certain reason we're going to deal with that so first rest
is established in the soul and We talk about this in the marriage
series, do we not? There are three stages that we all operate
out of. Either rest mode, fight mode, or what? Flight mode. Those are the only three places.
Only three places. Don't let me get started. So
that naive young lady drags the cat in. You know who the cat
is? This cute little boy she like.
She dragged the cat in the house. Daddy, I want you to meet Whoever. I'm about to say a name, I don't
want to do that. Because it might be one of y'all names, so I'm
not going to say it. That I want you to meet, essentially.
So I look at this cat. She's dragged in the house. And
I look at him, and there are three things I'm looking for.
Either this young man is settled and rested because he got his
priorities straight, or he's all jacked up in his head, and
he's fighting everybody, including me, as an authority because he
didn't grow up right. or he's on the run because he's
a fugitive and he's subverted within. Now watch this now. No
sane daddy wants their daughter dating a dude that's fighting
and on the run. Did you hear me? Now watch this.
Let's flip it around because the dude, your son, he'll drag
a cat in the house too. You understand? By the tail.
She cute with her weave and all that, OK? But when you set her
down and you start talking with her, we looking to see if she's
at rest, because she's settled, clear, got her priorities straight,
understand what she wants, and knows how to respect boundaries
and respect authority. No, she fighting. Two minutes
into the conversation, she debating with me. I'm going to say, son,
listen. at your own risk. Do you hear
me boy at your own risk? Or if she's in flight mode, you
have to understand what you're getting into when you start dating
somebody with the objective of entering into intimacy and covenant.
If they're jacked up, the chances are the marriage is going to
be jacked up if they don't come in with rules of engagement.
This is what we're learning. A lot of us went in without any
rules and the whole thing got jacked up, didn't it? Same thing
in the church. You go into a church. It amazes
me how people want to come to grace this Sunday and join next
Sunday. I said, what on earth do you
think you're doing? Want to join next week? You don't
know what kind of church we are. We could be a bunch of schizophrenic
people one week happy, the next week ADHD, the week after that
OCD, you don't know, you ain't spent no time with us. You ain't,
you ain't, you haven't, haven't hung out and went through any
pressure with us. You ain't seen us on our bad
day. You want to join next week. Well, that's just as ridiculous
as wanting to marry someone without going through the whole process
of understanding how they fare in difficult trials. Am I making
some sense? So here's a principle for the
church of the living God and this is something we operate
out of because it's a biblical rule That if you want to see
prosperity if you want to see blessing if you want to see growth
if you want to see maturity in the church You have to make peace
a law in the kingdom You have to make peace a law in the kingdom
You can't live on controversy You can't live on arguments and
debate. You can't live in a context of
always fighting. Am I making some sense? God does
not bless a church that all it wants to do is fight with people.
Or a church that doesn't mind scandalizing her husband by letting
people come in, seeing them fighting all over the place. You notice what the text says?
Then they had rest. throughout all Judea and Galilee
and were edified walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort
of the Holy Ghost. Do you see that? They reverence
God and they walked in the enveloping comfort of the Spirit of God's
presence to affirm all of the person and work of Jesus Christ,
which is the security of the believer in our life so that
we are not living in this kind of depleted, anxious, fearful,
running type of state that demonstrates that we don't have the resources
necessary for us to live for the glory of God. I'm going to
talk about this again, that if you and I are in a fighting mode,
our flight mode, we are acknowledging that we don't have the resources.
Am I making some sense? We don't have the resources.
And when you're in the kingdom of God, we allege to have the presence
of the third person who can afford us those benefits. So here are
some basic principles that flow out this particular ethic Romans
chapter 14 17 says the kingdom of God is righteousness peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost, right and We are told in the book of
James chapter 1 verse 19 and 20 that the righteous That that
we are to be slow to speak quick to hear and slow to wrath you
guys got that slow to speak Slow To speak Don't be quick to speak
quick to hear and slow to wrath. Don't be quick to arguing and
fighting with people. Got that? And then the text in
James chapter three, verses 13 through 18. I wish I had time.
I don't because I'm 10 minutes overdue, but the last verse says
it like this. And this is something I learned
years ago because I've been part of churches. All they did was
fight. Have you ever been part of churches? All they did was
fight. See, I told you, it's just like marriages. Some marriages,
all they do is fight. Is that true? All they do is
fight. That marriage can never prosper when all you're doing
is fighting. It's true. The fruit of righteousness is
sown in peace to them whose principle ethic is peace. So both in the
church and in the family, what must rule as law in the household
is peace. We're not going to let chaos
rule in the house. We're not going to let madness
rule in the house. Drama is not going to dominate
our household. Our kids are not going to grow
up under the unprotected banner of stress and anxiety because
mom and daddy always fighting and arguing. They're not going
to grow up and become sick because of the transfer of that kind
of atmosphere taking away from them every necessary biological,
biophysical, emotional, and psychological well-being factor that comes
with an environment of rest. Am I making some sense? So you
demand rest in your household and therefore you demand the
Prince of Peace, the King of Peace, the Lord of Peace, the
Spirit of Peace, the Kingdom of God has a rule in your house.
It has to rule. And when it does, you will see
the fruits of righteousness when it rules. Let's close in prayer.
Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for my brothers and
sisters. Thank you for the lessons we are learning from the early
church. May we continue to be a part
of that represented, exemplified as well. We are undone people
in ourselves. We are in ourselves unable to
achieve any of these noble virtuous goals. It's not in us. Oh God, but you are. And because
you are in us, we have every hope, every right to expect,
believe, and to know that you can do all things. You can bring
to pass in our life, these kinds of fruits of righteousness by
which you are glorified and you are honored. And men are saved
through the evangelical fruit of our life by which they get
to freely eat. And we give you all the glory
for it. As we go our way, give us traveling mercy, prepare us
tomorrow for our class. Again, we pray in Jesus name.
Amen. God bless you. you.