Amen. Acts chapter 6, we left
off with the apostles and particularly Peter and John being confronted
by the Sanhedrin, the high priests, the rulers of the Jews, and they
are presently examining the apostles with a level of fierceness that
constitutes a real threat to their life. And as we are looking
at chapter 5, I want to remind you again that there's a parallel
between what the apostles are dealing with in terms of them
being confronted by the leadership and what you and I looked at
several weeks ago in Revelation chapter 11 with the two witnesses. You guys remember the two witnesses
who bore record to the truth of God, but they were persecuted
by the beast. After their testimony was accomplished,
the beast that rose up out of the bottomless pit made war against
those two witnesses, and they killed them. You guys remember
that. We'll be dealing with a number of those concepts as we go through
the book of Revelation this next several months. And we'll deal
with those themes there and see how they correspond to where
the church is on earth. So I just want to remind you
that what you're dealing with in the book of Acts chapter 5 really
does correspond with Revelation chapter 11. Peter and James,
Peter and John rather, are two witnesses bearing record to the
risen Lord and the truth of the gospel of our risen Lord in the
midst of old Jerusalem, which is the same place where Jesus
Christ was crucified. So they will suffer the cause
of the gospel as they are standing in the face of their adversaries. And in fact, I think the title
of our last outline has something to do with them being confronted
by the beast, being confronted by the beast. I'm not real sure what that is.
Is that the last point? Can you go back up there, Deb?
Let me see. It might be a little bit before that. They may have
it. If not, we are at verse 34. And here is what takes place
after Peter tells the rulers that we are obligated, in verse
32, we are obligated to obey God. Now listen to what he says.
And we are his witnesses of these things. is also the Holy Ghost
whom God had given to them that obey him. So Peter is saying
to the rulers who are saying to Peter and John, why is it
that you guys are doing the very things we told you not to do?
We told you not to preach the gospel. We told you not to proclaim
Jesus as Lord. We told you not to preach the
resurrection in his name. And Peter said in verse 29, We
ought, we must obey God rather than men. And then he gives the
overwhelming reason for which they must do it. First, verse
32, we are witnesses of these things. And so also is the Holy
Ghost whom God has given to them that obey him. And that's a marked
statement. I don't want to dwell there too
long. But if you are a Christian, you are two things. You are a
witness to Jesus Christ. And secondly, you are a qualified
witness because of the third person who operates in your life. That means you are called upon
to bear record to the lordship of Jesus Christ, even in context
where your life is in danger. This is what it means to be a
Christian. And this is why Peter could say
to the leadership, We are in this situation because there's
a greater authority over our life than you. And you and I
know that we are dealing with two authorities. Is that right? The superficial authority of
the Sanhedrin leadership and the old paradigm of the Jewish
church, which is dying and the authentic authority of Jesus
Christ in the life of the apostles who are establishing in the midst
of old Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem church of the living God. This
battle was taking place at ground zero, and it's a fascinating
battle that will continue to culminate in not only confrontation,
but the death of the disciples as we have it anticipated in
Revelation chapter 11. And the two witnesses after their
testimony was finished, they were killed by the beast. And so we read in verse 33, Now,
when the rulers had heard this, they were what? Cut to the heart. You see that? Now, this is a
different cut than we read in Acts chapter 2 around verse 36,
37, where when the men heard these things, they too were cut
to the heart and said, men and brethren, what must we do to
be saved? You guys remember that. There's
a distinctly different word here than in Acts chapter 2 and it
has a distinctly different outcome. There is a cutting or a pricking
that takes place by the Spirit of God when you are designated
to salvation. We call that conviction of sin,
where the soul now capitulates to the reality of its guilt before
God and is ready in a prostrate fashion to hear whatever God
has to say to remedy their problem. This is why the rulers at that
time, the men at that time said, men and brethren, what must we
do to be saved? In this context here, the rulers
are not cut in the sense of being brought to repentance, They're
caught in the sense that they are offended That the Apostles
would dare to actually go contrary to their authority and most Specifically
they are offended because they are preaching Jesus Christ Offended
and this offense really gives us insight Into the demonic influence
that's governing this leadership When you are confronted with
people who are under the auspices of the devil and therefore are
emissaries of the enemy, and you are a child of God, sometimes
you are going to see the hostility rise up in them over against
the truth you share. Now, this is not always the case. You've got to be careful. You
are a sinner. And so sometimes you can be in a state of confrontation
and conflict because of your own sin. Don't ever think that
everything that you do is right. And that every time someone opposes
you, they're bad or of the devil. Sometimes we're wrong, but in
the context in which you know, you know that you are simply
here for the will of God. You are simply in a situation
because the word of God has placed you there. You will sometimes
see the anger, the ire, and even the demonic presence of an individual
who opposes the truth. I'm actually dealing with our
context because this has to do with the highest authorities
in the world. And so far as God is concerned, religious authority
is some of the highest authority in the world. The apostles are
rulers with God. You guys know that, right? The
apostles are rulers with God. You are going to learn this deeply
as we go through the book of Revelation. Those who are true
believers in Christ are seated at the right hand of God with
Christ in a core agency magisterium as rulers over this world your
pastor is a ruler in this world you are a ruler in this world
if you are a Christian you are an authority in this world if
you are a Christian in the eyes of God and therefore to whom
much is given much is what because God has positioned you in his
magisterium as his mouthpiece as his voice as his testimony
to the world that God is true God is true and this is where
Peter John are the foundation of the New Testament Church the
foundation of the New Jerusalem is here speaking to Old Jerusalem
Telling Old Jerusalem we must obey God now Old Jerusalem is
upset because Old Jerusalem is governed by the wicked one and
the same thing they did to Jesus they want to do to these men,
but now you and I are going to be confronted with an intervention
an intervention So in my outline I'm dealing with now, an individual
who rises on the scene here in verse 34, his name is Gamaliel. Listen to what it says in verse
34. Then stood there up one in the council, the council of the
Sanhedrin, that's the 70 to 72 men, a Pharisee named Gamaliel,
a doctor of the law. He would have been by tradition
the pedagogue or teacher of the Apostle Paul. Gamaliel would
have been also the son or the nephew of Hillel, who was the
head of one of two of the major schools of theology in the first
century. The liberal school of theology
by which the Jews were educated in theology and in science and
other disciplines. The other school was the school
of Shema. It was much more a conservative theological school during that
time. And Gamaliel was very much, as
the text says, in reputation, well known by everyone, a doctor
of the law, and had a reputation among all the people. You guys
see that? Among all the people. And he
commanded to put the apostles forth a little space. In other
words, let's develop a separation between the council and the apostles. So what I'm going to do with
you right now is just basically Show you some principles that
I think are critical when you enter into Conflict and Gamaliel
is going to serve as a model of that for us for a second So
we will be able to learn some things from Gamaliel at least
four or five points I was able to draw out of this man's intervention
his stepping in the midst of him Interceding for a moment
and God used him in this context. He's a man who had a reputation,
so he's a good mediator. You can't have anybody to mediate
between two hostile parties. When you have two hostile parties,
if you're going to have a successful mediation, the person that's
going to stand in the gap between the two hostile parties must
be of reputation. That individual must be able
to actually be respected by at least one side, if not both sides,
of the argument. I'm getting ready to actually
share with you principles of conflict resolution. They will
apply to us on a practical level. You get upset with someone, someone
gets upset with you, arguments get to flying, lies or slander,
gossip, twisted, distorted information, you know how that goes, right?
And the only way you can resolve that with that individual because
they are unreasonable is to have a mediator. Now the kind of mediator
that you need is a mediator which already has a reputation for
being fair and honest. so that when they mediate, they're
not in calumny or cahoots with the individual over against you,
because those are the kind of persons that the Sadducees and
the Pharisees and the high priests raised up against Jesus. Just
crooks, low lives, to suborn a false witness against our master.
So you don't want to call anybody to stand in the gap between you
and your opponent. You want somebody that's reputable,
because that mediator will actually have influence. And so Gamaliel
stands forth. I do not know, saints, what it
was that drove him to do it, other than what we're gonna get
into in terms of the character of a good mediator, okay? The character of a good mediator.
So while we deal with that, I will say to you also, just by way
of pastoral care, don't be quick to jump in the middle of people's
business. Do not be quick to want to solve
problems between two brothers and sisters. You're not Jesus. You're not the Holy Ghost. You're
not angels. And there's a good likelihood
that you actually don't qualify to actually mediate that situation.
Not everyone is qualified to mediate everyone else's situation.
Am I making some sense? So I tell the saints when they
are in situations where They are tempted to want to intervene.
I tell them you better be careful because you can actually make
it worse. As the proverb says, he that intermittent in a business
that's not given to him is like taking the dog by the ear and
pulling on it. You'll create more problems than
solutions by your impetuous self-confidence to intervene. So on this situation,
Gamaliel proves to not only be providentially led of God to
do it, but there are certain attributes and characteristics
that are discovered in his in his uh... in his conversation
with the leadership that i want to draw your attention to so
i'll call the media right now the voice reason the voice uh... reason so you have a mediator
you want them to be a person who is reasonable is that true
the voice of reason you want somebody who is uh... emotional
as my sister said, irrational, just not capable of the virtues
of constraint. So now listen to what he says
and I'm calling your attention to four things that are marvelously
set forth both in the scriptures as well as in the mouth of our
Savior, which makes me believe, which leads me to believe that
either Gamaliel heard our master teach which is wholly plausible
or our master taught things of which other of the Pharisees
and leaders are scribes or masters also embraced as principles to
practice. It tells us in verse 34, 33 rather,
35, I'm sorry. And he said unto the leaders,
you men of Israel, take heed to yourselves. Do you see that?
You men of Israel take heed to yourselves. The first thing he
says to them is, before you guys exercise any sort of self-righteous
judgment or draw conclusions, you need to examine yourself
individually and then collectively as a group. Because we have already
discovered, according to statistics, that what one person will not
do being all by themselves. They will indeed do if they have
a group of people behind them or with them, because it bolsters
a kind of courage that's vicarious in nature. What one person would
not do in terms of being bold and confident to act, whether
right or wrong, it doesn't matter whether it's right or wrong.
This is just a sociological insight that people are often driven
by the group dynamic. This is why God tells you, do
not follow a multitude to do evil. This is why God tells the
Christian you are not ultimately culpable to your fellow man.
You're culpable to God. So there must be a strong vertical
dependence before there is a lawful interdependence with people that
are around you. Often when we are raising our
children, what we want to see demonstrated in our children
is a sense of self autonomy or control so that they aren't following
the knuckleheads. We really are trouble when our
children are mere followers. Is that true? And so we try to
teach them how to operate with a level of objectivity and a
level of discretion and discernment. So as to know when the group
is going the wrong way, don't go and have a sense of self uh,
dignity, self, uh, autonomy, a sense of self determination
to say, Hey, I am not driven by the law of the multitude.
The group consensus does not determine right or wrong in this
situation. And so I'm going to back up.
If when in doubt, leave it out. All sorts of little colloquialisms
that we teach our children in order to help them not find themselves
where so many of us have found ourselves just hanging out with
the wrong people. Have you ever gotten in trouble
for hanging out with the wrong people? Association leads to
what? Assimilation. And the government
doesn't care. They like throwing whole groups
in prison. Cause this is a money making system. So lots of people
go to jail for just being in the same vicinity with people
who are acting wrong. Isn't that terrible when you
get punished for somebody else's misdeed, but in reality you needed
to because you had already given up your right to self authentication
when you just followed the group. And so Gamaliel is warning the
leaders about a sort of a rabbit irrational sort of group fervor
that takes place when The the idea is that the group as a whole
is being threatened and certainly this is the case Certainly the
Sanhedrin are being threatened by the actions of the Apostles
now mind you now the Apostles are in the court of the temple
preaching because the angel of the Lord Delivered them out of
prison and the Lord told them to go right back into the temple
and preach you guys remember that So God's starting to fight,
isn't he? Which is what he loves to do
when it comes to his son. I want to share with you four
or five things then under the voice of a reason in the person
of Gamaliel when he says, you guys take heed to yourselves
what you intend to do as touching these men. Can I ask you something? Did Gamaliel know his colleagues? Did he know his colleagues? You
better know he knew his colleagues. Gamaliel knew that his colleagues
were bloodthirsty, hypocritical, self-righteous, covetous men
who would be willing to kill anyone that would get in their
way. Did Gamaliel know that? Did Gamaliel know that they would
kill anyone that would stop them from their agenda? Of course
he did. Just a few months earlier, if not a few years earlier, the
most notable person in that day was hung. Crucified because of
the fervor and passion and decision of the leadership. Crucify him.
Crucify him. His blood be upon our head. Now
they're screaming and crying because Jerusalem has been filled
with the doctrine. They said it. His blood is upon
their head. But here they are now being confronted
again by the two witnesses. And Gamaliel is saying to them,
take heed to yourselves. What you intend to do is touching
these men. And then he begins to lay down some principles.
And I'm going to start with four things. The first one, when he
says, take heed to yourself, he's saying, exercise some discretion. Okay? Exercise some discretion. You guys better, you better exercise
some discretion. Take heed to yourself. The second
thing he's going to do is remind them of what had taken place
just a few years before, verse 36. For before these days rose
up Theodos, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number
of men, about 400, joined themselves, who was slain. And all as many
as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. After
this man rose up, Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and
drew away much people after him." Now, Judas Iscariot. He also
perished, and all as many as obeyed him were dispersed. You
notice what he's doing? He's giving what we would call
historical precedent. Historical precedent. I want
you to mark that historical precedent. He is arguing for a need for
discretion on the part of the rulers because their actions,
if their actions are wrong, are going to result in the exact
opposite of what they are trying to accomplish. You know, when
leadership actually messes up, it actually ends up doing greater
harm, doesn't it? Historical precedent, that means
things have occurred that are a pattern or a pathology of behavior
of which Gamaliel says, you guys remember Theodos, you guys remember
Judas, you remember how they started all kinds of trouble
and they've already tagged Jesus as a ringleader of a sect. They've
already called the apostles troublemakers. And so they're categorizing this
new movement, which the angel calls this way as being something
that is a problem for Israel. And Gamaliel was saying, if that's
really the case, if what you are asserting is true, that what
these men are doing is creating trouble in the same fashion in
which Judas did or Theodos did, well, what happened to those
guys? They all perished, didn't they? They all perished. They
all perished. Now, mark what he says here over
in verse 38. And now I say unto you, refrain
from these men and let them, what? Let them alone. Let them
alone. That's our third one. I'm getting
ready. I'm going to build my point here in a moment with passages of
scripture. Let them alone. Exercise discretion. Remember the historical precedent.
Leave them alone based upon discretion and historical precedent. And
notice what we have in verse 39, verse 38 and 39. And now I say unto you, refrain
from these men. Let them alone. For if this counsel or this work
be of men, it will what? come to nothing. Is he right? In one sense, yes. In another
sense, no. I'll prove it here shortly. Look at verse 39. But
if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it. Is he right now? That's called
an absolute. That's an absolute. If it be
of God, you cannot overthrow it. This is good wisdom. Lest
happily you be found even to do what? And that wasn't even
in their category of thinking. They weren't even remotely close
to thinking that this actually might be of God. And if it is
and I'm fighting against God, this is how irrational the devil
is. This is how irrational the emissaries
of the devil are. This is how they were with Jesus.
And Jesus said, no, no, you are the one who are of the devil.
I am of my God, the father. You are of the devil. And no,
no, no. You're the one with demons, they said. And that's the reason
they killed him. They were irrational. They were. Illogical they were impetuous
They were indiscreet they did not exercise the principles of
restraint necessary to demonstrate the qualifications of biblical
leadership So let's start back at press at discretion and go
through a few scriptures I am remain reminded of James chapter
1 verse 19 James 1 19. Let's go there for a second and
see if that will follow a prescription for where we are in our text.
Now, remember you are a leader, or a mother, or a father, or
a teacher, or someone on the job who has influence over others,
and you are in a situation to which you can speak. Is this
verse applicable to you? Listen to what James says in
verse 19. Wherefore, my brethren, let every
man be swift to what? See that? And then slow to what? And therefore slow to what? Is
that what Gamaliel is saying to his colleagues? Absolutely. He's saying to his colleagues,
you guys are rushing to judgment. I know you because I've been
with you for years. You just did that recently with
Jesus of Nazareth, the head of these guys here. And now you
are ready to rush to judgment again. Slow down and listen. Isn't that a good piece of advice
for all of us? Slow down and listen. Be swift to hear. Isn't that
a powerful and difficult proverb to be swift to hear? Because
it does not mean that you are not in proximity of hearing the
conversation. What it means is your soul is
not in a position to be open to the reasonability or plausibility
of the argument or the explanation or whatever the person that you
are feeling threatened by is saying. Your reason is being
overwritten by your own desires, your own agenda, your own goal,
so that you really aren't hearing the argument. Have you ever been
there? So this is what Gamaliel said. Now, if you listen to these
men, this is what Gamaliel said. Now watch this, saints. Watch
how this works. Gamaliel said, if you listen
to these men, they are saying some things that are both outrageous
and biblical at the same time. Now we're supposed to be religious
men. We're supposed to believe in God, right? We're supposed
to believe in angels, right? We're supposed to believe that
God can do all things according to his will, right? Well, all
these men have just asserted was, listen, God told us to do
this. Now, that's fundamentally called
a presuppositionalist. This is the way I was arguing
with my friend Brandon the other night. Brandon being a evidentialist,
a secular... Atheist whose argument is that
it is not fair for Christians to hold to a presuppositional
position Which states that whatever God's Word says we believe we
don't have to defend God's Word in the sense of trying to find
External ways of explaining God's testimony. All we simply say
is that's God's Word We believe it and that settles it but for
the Secular rationalist They call that argument circular reasoning,
that you start with the premise and you end on that same premise.
And that's not fair to those of us who don't start on the
same premise that you do. Well, what we are saying to that
individual is, is if you start with our premise, you'll see
the reasonability of our argument. You don't have to agree with
it, but you can at least see the reasonability of it. Otherwise
we will always argue apples and oranges, right? If an individual
does not believe that God is, that God speaks, that he's given
us a depository of truth that is faithful, inerrant, and we
can trust it, that individual and those who are presuppositionalists
cannot ever come to any solid agreement. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? Well, now watch this. Gamaliel
listened to the apostles and said, you know what? That's what
we believe. We believe the same things that
they just said. I can't say that because these guys would kill
me too, but technically speaking we believe that. Stay with me
now. Are you guys following me? See the Pharisees said they believed
the Word. Gamaliel is a Pharisee. The Pharisees said they believed
in the resurrection. Gamaliel believes in the resurrection.
The Pharisees believed in angels. Gamaliel believes in angels.
Everything that Peter and John are asserting as the authority
upon which they are doing what they're doing is affirming their
authority. which means if I'm going to be
consistent, I actually have to go, you know what? I don't like
these guys, but I have to agree with them because they're biblical. Am I making some sense? Saints,
but so what Gamaliel is doing is mediating between his colleagues
and the apostles because Gamaliel has had enough objectivity. He
was slow to speak. He was quick to hear and he realizes,
They are not saying anything that's actually heretical Now
we can't prove it and we can't disprove it. This is what Brandon
doesn't like about Christianity See he can argue from his premise
that it's not enough evidence and I've already told him why
it's not enough evidence But he can't discount it. He says
now again, you're cheating Jesse you're cheating Because anyone
can argue that you can't discount it and so he goes to arguing
for pluralism and I say listen As Christians, we're sound enough
to accept the pluralistic paradigm because your views are your views
and my views are my views. Now, if the content of your views
are contrary to the content of my views, then either I'm right
and you're wrong or I'm wrong and you're right, but we can't
both be right. Am I making some sense? So I
don't mind you holding your view, but if your view don't correspond
to my view, then we have a difference of opinion based upon two different
premises. I can live with that. But see
now we have the same premise then we actually have to ultimately
come to some agreement Don't we Gamaliel is actually reasoning
this reasoning this through and he understands. You know, what
these guys are not wrong on a theological level Leave them alone for Gamaliel. You know what? He's saying this
thing might very well be of God So when the proverb says Let
every man be swift to hear slow to speak Let him be slow to wrath. Did they want to execute wrath
on these men? Of course they did. Go with me in your Bible
now, two more verses, Ecclesiastes 7, verse 8. Here's another proverb.
Remember, we're talking about mediating, standing in the gap,
being qualified to, or at least aware of those principles by
which in the exercising of our judgment, we can determine how
to help Resolve conflicts because in our context there's a conflict
taking place. Here's what the problem says
now watch this and this year would affirm Gamaliel And would
affirm James would affirm every wise man and you're are you in
Ecclesiastes? Chapter 7 look at verse 8 better is the end
of a thing than the beginning thereof We quote that a lot don't
we? now from just again a propositional
standpoint the logic of unassailable think about what the proverb
just said better is the end of a thing than the beginning that's
an unassailable proposition I don't really have to work that through
do I obviously if there is an end to something and I'm not
at the end of it I'm at a disadvantage if I start drawing conclusions
at the beginning of the thing right I It would be best for
me to wait and watch that thing all the way through to actually
know what the nature of it is. That's just logical. Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. Now watch this. Your enemies
and minds hate our God because our God sees the end from the
beginning. And our God is able to convince
a few of the human race that better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. And on the premise of us believing
God, who has told us the end of this thing is way better than
the beginning. We can tolerate the process. We can endure the process. We
can accept the struggles that are going on right now because
we know we haven't come to the end of the thing, right? So because
our God has told us that the end is much better than the beginning,
we can actually be patient in spirit. Is that what the text
says? Any of you guys benefiting from what I'm talking about right
now? Listen to what it says the patient in spirit is better than
the proud in spirit Now the unbelieving person like my friend doesn't
like the Bible's claims about the origin of the earth and The
fact that mankind has fallen and all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God He doesn't like that because it
indicts him It actually implies an end. That's not so good for
him right And it demands that if he's a reasonable person with
the kind of end that he must face, he should do something
about that. Don't you think that if you're going to die and face
the wrath of God that you should do something about that? You're
a reasonable man. Think it through. See, so he
would rather tear up the script and draw it up the way he wants
it to. and then tell us that he has a better script than we
do. And what we're saying is, no, no, no. There have been multitudes
of people from the beginning of time who have given us your
script and your script hasn't worked yet. And I hope to keep working through
Brandon with the principle of patience to kind of show you
guys how to put him in a hole. He doesn't know I'm leading him
somewhere. Listen to it. Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. And the patient in spirit is better
than the proud in spirit. And here's another one, verse
nine, watch this. Do not be hasty in thy spirit
to be what? For anger rests in the bosom
of what? Were the Pharisees fools? Jesus
told them more than once, you fools. Here's another verse I
want you to go to with me. Proverbs chapter 19, verse 11.
As we are working through the account, As we're aware, I'm
so glad I backed up and actually dealt with that before going
into chapter six. Chapter six is gonna be a wonderful chapter
about the formation of the church and the growing pains and all
of that. It's gonna be a good study. But I want you to work
with me through the voice of reason in the person of Gamaliel
and how it can work for us too. Here's another Proverbs. It's
not Proverbs 11, it's Proverbs 19. If you are there, verse 11.
In Proverbs 19, verse 11, here is what we are told. I really
agree with this piece of wisdom too. Listen to this. The discretion of a man, that's
what I meant about discretion, defer it is what? When you begin
to deliberate and work through, when you begin to think through
the situation and you know you have a boiling anger at the bottom
of your soul, but you are a thinking person, you can cap that anger
before it's out of control. and you make a bad mistake. Some of us know the consequences
of allowing anger to dictate our decisions, right? Now, a
lot of times, ladies and gentlemen, anger is nothing but a false
front for frustration because you don't know. Now, that one was good. You got
to write that one down. So this is really teaching night
that I'm getting into tonight. This is teaching night. So what
is anger sometimes? And I'm going to show you how
this works all the way back to our childhood. Anger sometimes is
nothing but a false front, a facade. It's kind of a distraction from
the reality that first and foremost, you are perplexed. You are confused. You don't have the answer. The
other thing is you're not in control. You don't like the way
things are appearing. And so you are burning because
you don't like the situation. You are under threat. And rather
than working it through in a rational, reasonable way, you'd rather
just burn the whole thing up. I'm telling the truth. So now
stay with me. This is what gets a lot of us
in trouble in our youth. That's why what I'm teaching
is good. You may not like it, but it's true. You may not like
it, but it's true. This is why catechizing our children,
instructing our children, teaching them discipline, teaching them
the virtue of thinking things through, teaching them how to
reason through is critical because the adolescent spirit will always
be led by anger rather than reason. the adolescent spirit, whether
it be a man or a woman. Most of the time we find ourselves
driven to gravitate towards gangs or getting in groups of gossip
people and just as we're fueling the fire of our frustration that
is rooted in anger because we don't have any control of the
situation. I'm telling the truth. Thank you, ma'am. I needed that
witness. Because I'm looking at almost 100 people in here
of whom I know at least 50% of you agree with me. And that has been our problem
and we can grow up and still sustain that kind of adolescent
Acting out because when we get trapped by situations rather
than working through logically and carefully and patiently We
just want to tear things up Now that kind of lack of control. I'm gonna show you another proverb
here in a moment will destroy a home It'll destroy a family.
It'll destroy all relationships. It'll destroy churches and The discretion of a man deferred
his anger. The presupposition or the presumption
is that we have that anger there, but my discretion will keep me
right. And it is the glory, his glory to pass over a what? Do you know how good you feel?
This is why I said it earlier. When you think your way through
an issue and discover that you were wrong all along. And if
you had pulled the trigger, you'd have been a fool before everyone.
And you go, thank you, God. I kept my mouth shut this time. Now, if we micromanage that,
if we micromanage that, if we capture this principle and micromanage
that, you will be better in your relationships. If you might, let's micromanage
it because now we can own this. The Bible is clear in James chapter
three. that if a man can bridle his
tongue, he will be wise. If the tongue can be bridled,
you will be wise. Is that true? That's indeed,
because you will have passed over so many transgressions by
not just pulling the lever, by not pulling the lever. You know,
some of us are gonna make it to heaven. Some of us are gonna
make it to heaven by simply not doing what we thought we wanted
to do more times than not. Now, I know you feel a little
bit vulnerable when you start a pattern of just not pulling
the trigger, but I'm here to tell you, you're going to end
up making it to heaven. You're going to end up making
it to heaven when you exercise the discipline of restraint and
let conflicts pass because many of them come to pass. If you
just step back, and just let it come and go. You go, I missed
another bullet. I missed another bullet. I missed
another bullet. Now, granted, your life might
be boring, but you're still saved and on your way to glory. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? Your life might be boring, but
you're not in jail. You're not on skid row. You're
not in the deep dark mire of what me and my sisters talked
about last night of making horribly bad decisions and then becoming
so myopic that you turn in on yourself and start doing dope
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Yeah, this is good. And so I
want to take you to one more proverbs proverbs chapter 25,
I believe Yes, it's the last verse in proverbs 25 now Proverbs
25 as a whole is a text that says to leadership, and
I've taught this many times in our last leadership class, I
taught through Proverbs 25, it's a text that tells leadership,
if you are going to be good leadership, you must have self-control. The whole chapter is about discipline
and self-control. And here's how he closes out.
He that has no control, that's what the word rule means, over
his own what? That's right, that's your mind.
That's your mind. Your mind is the wheel, the helm
that drives your life. And your volition connected to
your mind is the rudder putting you in a direction and a projectory
of what you go. If you don't have any control,
it's like being out there on the sea in a boat and you're
turning the steering wheel and nothing's happening because the
steering wheel is not connected to the rudder. Is that right? Now you're subject to the waves
and the winds. And that's how a lot of people
are in life. And the proverb says, when you meet a person
like that, that's subject to the waves and the winds, because
he has no control, the wheel is not connected to the rudder,
so that when he turns it to the left, the boat goes to the left,
he turns it to the right, the boat goes to the right. When you meet
a person who does not have that kind of self-control, leave him
alone. Do not go with a person that's given to change. That's
right. That's an unstable person. Unstable
person listen to what he says he that has no rule over his
own spirit is like a city That is broken down and without walls.
You know what that means susceptible to every adversary Having no
kind of defense no way to protect yourself No way to ward off the
thieves and the crooks and those with malevolent intents to seek
to destroy you That's a bad place to be right You're not a bad
place to be and brothers and sisters all this has to do with
the mind and the heart all All this has to do with the mind
and heart. And all this has to do with the quality of life that
we live, whether Christian or not. Let me make this very clear
to you. Christian does not equal wise. It ought to, but it doesn't. Christian does
not equal wise. I wish it did, but it doesn't.
Having been a child of God long enough now, what I know is you
can be a Christian and still be a fool. Now that is a paradox. because Christians are supposed
to be wise in Christ. and operate in the fear of the
Lord and walk according to his precepts, which would produce
in us discretion and wisdom and temperance and patience, all
of the stuff of the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5. But
you meet a lot of Christians of whom we will say they are
Christian because they can actually affirm the basic doctrinal tenets
of faith that we agree constitutes salvation. But in their decision
making, in their actions, in their character, they actually
practice foolishness. true so obviously what's going
on in some of our Christian brothers and sisters lives is a cognitive
dissonance a just a separation between what they say they are
and What they're doing Right, so you can pray for that person
because they're miserable Because whenever you and I are not operating
in the continuity and coherence of who we are We are in conflict
if I am a Christian but I am not functioning as a Christian,
I am in conflict. That civil war has actually taken
toll on me. You guys understand what I mean
by the civil war? That war on the inside has taken toll and
destroyed my capacity to still stay in control even in the war.
See, if you are a mature Christian, you can manage the war. See we're
in the war didn't we learn that ladies last night? We're in the
war men. We're in the war when you crossed
over into Jordan I'm sorry over into the promised land through
Jordan you entered into the battle But see God gave you 40 years
in the wilderness to teach you how to fight And he told you
when you go in in order to sustain your inheritance, you're gonna
have to learn how to fight. Remember that I And he gave you
a little time because Joshua went before you and Joshua subdued
all your foes and Joshua gave you your inheritance and Joshua
gave you your rest. But then when Joshua went to
glory, he said, now you're going to hold on to it for yourself.
And that's where you and I are right now until Joshua comes
back. That's good. That's good. Because he Joshua's
gone. The Holy Ghost is here, but we
don't pay much attention to him because he does a lot of pointing.
See, the Holy Ghost don't do all this talking these folks
be talking about. You know, the Holy Ghost said this Holy Ghost
said the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost points. You know what he
points to the book? He passed with the Holy Ghost.
He points to the book. He says, get your head in that
book. I've been speaking for over thirty
five hundred years. I got it all coded. It's in the
book. It's simple. It's even in your language. You
want to hear from me, read my book. And so we are called upon to
exercise discretion. We ought to recognize the principle
that Gamaliel was talking about when he deals with historical
precedent. Go with me in your Bible now to Matthew chapter
3. I'm going to show you two things in Matthew 3. He already
gave the argument that there were folks who had risen up.
One was Theodos, the other was Judas, right? And they gathered
a band of folks together. Now in first century Palestine,
you ought to know this. Jesus wasn't the only one going
around calling himself the Messiah. There were all kind of folks
calling themselves Messiah and Jesus. You need to know that.
It wasn't just Jesus running around. There were all kind of
folks saying they were Messiah. They had all kind of religions,
religious views. Some of them was militant. Some
of them were mystical. Other than was syncretistic.
a hodgepodge of, uh, far Eastern, uh, religions combined with some
Judaism, a little bit of Gnosticism, and they would leave folks away
because people love to be led by peculiar folks. People love
to be led by peculiar folks, the people that's just a little
bit different. And, uh, and so, uh, Theodos was a peculiar person
and Judas was a peculiar person, but as Gamaliel said, because
they were not of God, they came to not. Now, I want to share
something with you about that principle. It is not an absolute.
It is not an absolute that one wicked man or one wicked woman
can build a whole system of theology out of half truths and lies and
talk about what he or she has not really seen and create a
whole denomination that can be around for multiple decades,
even hundreds of years. Let me help you with this. It
is not an absolute that every crook con Tom, Dick, Harry, and
Sally who rise up talking about having a vision and halos and
angels and insights are folks who just dissipate into oblivion
and their groups come to not. We have multiple present day
heretical systems who have been around for hundreds of years. So this is not what is called
an absolute. And so when you go into a church or you find
yourself part of a denomination and just because it's been around
for a hundred years doesn't mean it's right. It can be just as
demonic and damning as anything. This is part of the next warning
that we're going to talk about, of which I said Gamaliel had
to have either listened to our master or he had had to draw
from the same well of wisdom that our master did who grew
up in Judaism. Okay. Are you guys hearing me?
So in Matthew chapter 3, here's what our master teaches us concerning
flawed systems, wicked men, and the inevitable doom of false
systems. John is doing baptisms at the
River Jordan, and we read in verse 7 going to verse 10 these
words. This is John speaking. But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees come to his what? He said unto them, oh, generation
of vipers. See, people would tag me and
say, see, that's why I don't like Jesse, because look at the
kind of terms he uses when he greets people. Oh, generation. John the Baptist would not be
popular at this time, would he? He couldn't have a radio ministry
that would last five minutes calling the most popular pastors
in America a generation of vipers. And you know what I love about
John? He didn't intend on getting their approval either. He didn't
go to church one time with those crooks. He never did ministry
with them. Are you hearing me? John the
Baptist never went to the temple. Never. You never found him in
synagogue. When he was anointed by the Holy
Ghost, he left Israel and went into the wilderness. He was a
complete personification of the will of God in his disposition
against Israel. His whole ministry was a complete
personification of antipathy toward that structure and that
system, which was nothing but a facade, a citadel of Satan,
as we're going to learn when we get into the book of Revelation.
John the baptist said if you're gonna hear me if you're gonna
hear from god through me You got to come to where I am because
i'm not going where you are. That's how bad it was And people
because god was already drawing his people came to john And so
what john does is exposes the hypocrites among the pharisees
because they are pretending to come aren't they? Look at verse
7 He said unto them old generation of vipers who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come. Do you guys see that? When we
teach baptism, one of the things we teach is that baptism signifies
the solution of God Almighty against the sin and wrath that
we rightfully deserve. That when we enter into the waters
of baptism, we are agreeing with God that I must die. that if
I'm going to escape the judgment of God, that I must be brought
into union with Jesus Christ and die with him under the wrath
of God that was poured upon him so that I can escape the wrath
of God that's rightly due to be poured upon me. See, that's
what baptism signifies in the area of the justification of
God for the punishment of sins. He said, who who warns you? That's
what he said. He says, did the Holy Ghost start
speaking to you? Bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance see it and think not to say within yourselves.
We have Abraham to our father He knew their theology didn't
he for I say unto you God is able to of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham Now look at verse 10 and now also
the axe is laid unto the root of the trees You know what he's
saying? He's saying that God is already cutting down false
trees that are bearing no fruit God's already cutting them down
See, that's one of those apocalyptic metaphors, analogies that we
don't like. Trees already getting cut down, John says. God, the
Father's already cutting trees down. Now, here's what he says. And now the axe is laid to the
root of the tree. Therefore, every tree which brings not forth
good fruit is what? Hewn down, cast into the fire. Now, what we call that is an
absolute. What that means is every pretending
Christian institution, every pretending Christian person who
appears ostensibly to be a Christian and is perpetrating a fraud,
especially to the hurt of others, will be cut down. That's an absolute. That's an absolute. Here's another
absolute, Matthew 16, 18 and 19. Matthew 16, 18 and 19. Here's
another absolute. for which Gamaliel stated, if
this be of God, there's nothing you can do about it. Just leave
it alone. Here's the statement. Matthew
16. Are you there? Watch this. Here's what our master
said. When once Peter, under inspiration of the spirit from
the father, had articulated that fundamental revelation essential
to affirming what this whole thing is all about. Verse 17,
Jesus answered and said unto Peter, Blessed are you Simon
bar Jonah for flesh and blood had not what? but my father which
is never see verse 17 verse 17 is part of a Presuppositional
stance that we take as believers of which my friend Brandon would
not accept Is that right? See Brandon would not accept
that what we say is unless God opens your eyes. You will never
see the truth. I That's why I told my dear friend
Delia she was calling. Listen, you can sit a man down
and give him a thousand arguments on an evidential level that God
is real and he will never see it. He will never see it. You cannot reason people into
the kingdom. Reason has a has to be a pre
evangelical tool. Reason has to be a pre-evangelical
tool. If you're going to use arguments, you have to use arguments
to demonstrate that their arguments are flawed and to demonstrate
that your argument is as plausible as theirs. That's all you're
trying to do is demonstrate the plausibility of your position,
which God demands that we do. According to 1st Peter chapter
3 15 we are to give a reason to every man for the hope of
the calling that's within us That's a struggle we have don't
we? We're not necessarily capable of reasoning with men on the
basis of logic and on the basis of just sound Propositional discourse
that our position is just as plausible as yours, but when
you can get them to understand it is You still haven't saved
them Without a revelation of the glory of God, they still
operate according to the indictment of Scripture. You know what the
Scripture has said? Men are blind, men are dead,
and men stand in open hostility to God. Those are three major
hurdles to overcome before a person sees the truth. Is that right?
We're going to meet a glorious brother in about three chapters
who would affirm everything that I'm talking about. He was a Pharisee. He was rational. He was logical.
He was sound in scholarship. He understood platonic thought.
He understood Aristotelian thought. He understood the arguments that
went way back in terms of your basic rules, formal logic and
discourse and things of that nature. He understood those things.
What he did not know until he came to know it is that his problem
was in his reason. His problem was his heart, that
God had not revealed the glory of Christ to him. And so long
as the glory of Christ is not revealed to a person, they're
stuck in this mode, right? They're blinded. So you and I never want to think
that we can save somebody by arguing them into the kingdom.
What you're doing when you argue is simply arguing for the reasonability
of scripture's proposition, because the scripture says that the scriptures
are clear enough for a man to be without excuse. Is that true? We don't shrink back and say
the Bible is so esoteric, so filled with flawed arguments
or incongruities or paradoxes and antinomies and twisted logic
and inconsistencies and incoherent thought. I don't believe that
for a moment. It couldn't be God's word if that's the way
the Bible is depicted. No, the Bible is very, very,
very sound, very, very coherent, very, very clear. It's just transcendent. Does that make some sense? God
has to come along in his tender mercies and pull the veil back
and when he pulls the veil back guess what the Bible says you'll
do like Peter and James and John and John 14 when they said ah
Now we understand now you're speaking plainly to us master
See it so master said to John Simon Simon this was not a consequence
of your IQ. This was the consequence of the
father revealing it to you And then he goes on in verse 18 to
say, and I send to you that you are Peter and upon this rock
will I do what? That's God's intentionality through
Christ to establish a kingdom that represents him and the gates
of hell shall not what prevail against it. Is that where we
are in Acts chapter six? Are the gates of hell trying
to prevail the objective of Peter and John and the apostles to
penetrate into the dark kingdom to save centers? What, what did
the master say though? It won't work, right? It won't
work. It won't work. Let's go back to our got one
more thing to do One more thing to do go with me to Matthew chapter
15 verse 13 and 14 You guys tired y'all want to quit right now,
okay good Matthew chapter 50 cuz I'm looking up I got 20 minutes
to go Matthew chapter 15 show you one more. This is where I
had stated that Gamaliel we don't know whether he died and what
the hell are ultimately converted and came to Christ. But what
you will know, and I'll show you in a moment, is that over
time, because of the prevailing witness of the apostles, many
Pharisees and many priests came to Christ in the book of Acts.
They did, but they didn't come through arguments and debate.
They came through the preaching of the gospel and the power of
the Holy Ghost. So here in our text, Matthew
chapter 15, Verse 13 and following. Here's what our master says.
I thought this was quite interesting and you'll see again the echo
of Gamaliel's counsel here. I'm at verse 12. Then came his
disciples and said unto him, Lord, do you not know that the
Pharisees were offended? What else is new? Right? If you're a legalist, the gospel
offends you. If you're a person who are trusting
in your own righteousness, grace offends you. If you're the kind
of religious person that is hanging on your good works, and we tell
you that your works are filthy rags, and that by nature, by
nature, you can keep hell burning all by yourself, you're gonna
be offended by that. When you think you're ready for
heaven based upon all the good deeds you've done, and we're
telling you your good deeds are actually making you worse, There's
nothing but fuel for the fire Because your good deeds are never
adequate enough to meet god's holy standard And then your good
deeds are actually standing over in opposition against the good
deeds that god has already accomplished in christ They actually militate
against the finality of the cross work of christ. They become your
enemies That's good, isn't it? So if you're setting out to do
good deeds to please the father, you're basically saying to Christ,
work, go to hell. Are we learning something? This
is why you cannot tolerate works religion. You can never tolerate
it. How not? I don't care how nice
it is because they dress it up with feel good phraseology and
nice terminology and nice platitudes. Works religionists are the nicest
people on planet Earth. They're nicer than Christians. Can I be truthful? Listen, you
know Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. Now Jehovah Witnesses, they got
a lot of emotional psychological problems because they're legalists.
But you take Mormons and you even take Catholics and you take
some of these other folks who are really just tied to good
works. They put on a facade of performance
and make you feel bad. They make you feel bad because
they're so nice. Am I telling the truth, brother? Make you
wonder, are you saved? They have more of the Holy Ghost
than you do. More patient, more kind. They wouldn't kill a fly. They don't know grace from the
man on the moon. And if the true colors popped
up, they'd kill you. Yes, they would. You get a legalist
or a work monger, an individual that's wrapped up in works religion
and you actually work with them and take them to task on their
confidences and expose them for their false premises of hope
and show them that they are actually walking on rice paper and about
to fall through that rice paper into hell any moment. I'm talking
about the nicest old lady. Her horns will rise up. fire
will come out of her mouth. Am I telling the truth? Yeah.
Because the work monger, the legalist hates grace because
grace tells you you can't do anything to please God. He won't
let you. He has forbidden human works
to be an option for acceptance with him. since his son has already
finished the work. Are you hearing me? This is the
battle with the fight with our nice religious folks. Say, listen,
I know you're nice. I know you're nice, but nice
people go to hell too. Right? It's not that bad people
go to hell, nice people go to heaven. It's just lost people
go to hell. Nice and bad. Right? Here's what our master said.
In verse 13, when he, when they said, don't you know that they
were offended by what you were saying? He said unto them, every
plant he go, he, he, he quoted his cousin. Now every plant,
which my heavenly father has not planted shall be what now
watch this. Here it is. Let them alone. Isn't
that what Gamaliel said? Let them alone. That's such a
wise proper. Now watch this, we're going back
to our text. I got 15 minutes, I'll get a chance to close out
chapter five and we'll come back next week so you can study your
outline and be ready to go deep. This is the most practical piece
of wisdom you could ever receive because some of us by nature
like to argue. Don't you Armando? Like to argue. Me too. At least I did long ago. And
what you have to do is to actually evaluate. This is going back
to the principle of discretion. When he said, take heed to yourselves.
And the proverb says, the discretion of a man will cause him to overpass
the transgression. When you find yourself tempted
to want to enter into debates and arguments with people, You
have to ask the question, what do you stand to lose? And what do you stand to win? You have to ask that. If you
just win the debate and lose the war, don't enter the debate. You guys got that? Don't enter
the debate. Let's say you're responsible
for a lot of people. And you need to exercise your
energies in devoting your time to them. Why would you exert
your energy with somebody that cannot actually advance your
call, but rather hinder your call when you can leave that
alone and stay on point? In other words, it's like staying
in your lane. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Leave it alone. The parable that comes to mind
is that Matthew's 13. We will not go there because
I want to go back and close out our chapter. But our Lord told
the disciples when he gave the parable, he gave eight parables
in Matthew 13, eight parables, from the parable of the sower
of the seed all the way up to the parable of the treasures
that were found by man and then the scribe who took out of his
law book old things and new things. In one of those parables, he
gave the parable of what we call the wheat and the tares. And he gave the analogy of a
certain farmer who went out and sowed his seed. Then he went
home and slept, got up, sewed, slept, got up and sewed, the
normal process of seed sowing. And one morning he rose up and
he saw that he had weed, but he also had tares, right? And the people that were working
for him said to him, do you want us to go and pull up the tares?
And he said, no, let them all grow together. Did you guys get
that? That's amazing. Let them all
grow together until the harvest. God will perfectly separate the
wheat from the tears. He will perfectly separate. What
that teaches us is to not actually enter into realms and dimensions
of dealing with people that's really not within our territory. He says, because if you go to
trying to pull up the tares, you are sure to pull up the wheat
too. What that means is you and I
really don't qualify at the end of the day to determine ultimately
a person's destiny. Like sometimes in our defining
a person as a tare, really what we have done is actually misdefine
a wheat for the chaff that's around the wheat. Y'all didn't
get that one. That's good, though, isn't that
good? That good. See, that just means you're not
a real good farmer. And you saw the chaff around the wheat, which
makes the wheat look like tears until the chaff falls off. And
you call them a tear. When a tear is a tear and a tear
is never the wheat, but the wheat has the chaff around it, of which
that has to be separated for it to be prepared for harvest.
Right. And as believers mature, they show themselves for what
they really are over time. This is why you don't judge anything
before the time. So the patient in spirit is better
than the proud in spirit because those of us who have been Christians
for a long time, here's what we know. Sometimes we will draw
a judgment too soon thinking somebody is lock, sure, saved. Absolutely saved. Because they
bear all of the external fruits of orthodoxy. And they're just
a nice person to you. They actually meet your criterion
for your club. So for you, oh yeah, definitely
they're safe. Definitely they're safe. 10 years later, they're
back acting a fool, clowning, acting as if they never knew
the Lord, and going from bad to worse. Because that's what
happens when you're unsafe. You go from bad to worse. And you
went, what happened? You judged too soon. Then there's
that other fella, or that other sister, whose initial conversion
was authentic and legitimate, But their growth and maturity
was so chaotic, so whimsical, so difficult that it had your
head spinning. Right. And you're going, man,
where are they at? All over the map. And five, 10
years later, guess what? They settle down. They get grounded. They start bearing fruit. and
they start showing themselves to be even more useful in the
kingdom of God in their latter in than they were in their beginning.
Are you guys hearing me? This is where patience and spirit
comes in. This is why Paul couldn't stand Mark kicking it with him
when he started his missionary journey because Mark was a wimp.
And he told Barnabas, listen, man, you can't be a wimp with
what I'm doing. They're throwing spears at us, man. And Mark crying
for his mama, send him home. Remember that? Send him home.
I didn't blame him. When you out there in the war,
you need partners that know how to fight. Send him home. But later on down the line, you
know what Paul said? Mark's profitable to me. But see, there was never
occasion in that context wherein Paul was saying that Mark was
an unbeliever. Paul never did that. I'm saying we have a tendency
to do that. Pulling the lever, drawing final
judgments on people. And you have to be careful not
to do that. Sometimes you just have to let the process take
place. Let them alone. They'd be blind
leaders of the blind. If the blind lead the blind, both shall
fall into the what? Yeah. You know what our Lord is saying
by that? I got five minutes. Go back with me to our text.
What our Lord is saying by that is this, it really requires the
kind of discretion and patience and humility on the part of the
Christian not to think it's your job to go around pulling the
lever on who's saved and who's not. Ooh. Man, how come your hands so man?
Cause I'm always pulling the lever. You got these big old
swollen hands cause you're always pulling the lever talking about
who's saved and who's not saved. One more thing as we work our
way through this verse 40 in Acts chapter six, listen to this.
This is quite interesting. We'll stop here. Acts chapter
five rather. Was this a good study for you
guys? Good. Now watch this. He starts at
verse 39. Now, if it be of God, you cannot
overthrow it, lest happily you be found even to fight against
God. Serious warning. You can't win against God. And
people live their whole lives fighting against God. Can I share
something with you? My friend Brandon is fighting
against God. He is. I know that. That's why I have
compassion on him. How how can you be an avowed atheist listening
to me? No, listen, for years, And now
he rushing to get off work to call. He's actually, he actually
getting off early. And then yesterday he called
and I was so glad to hear from him. I said, Brandon, what you
up to? Oh, nothing. It's like, we getting ready to have a, you
want to go have a cup of coffee or something? Yeah, man. What
you got? Well, I just thought I'd take
you up on what we talked about the other day. Do you know the
Lord's dealing with that man? How you how you go? How you gonna
call and can we just talk a little bit more? You know, while 7,000
people are listening you got a whole Christian audience listening
to you Engaging in dialogue with me because he's struggling Really
what he wants is the key in Do you know that You may not know
that but as I taught systematic theology to us years ago, and
we'll be going back through that next year to 215 I shared with
us that the Bible teaches that when you're a Christian, your
position in terms of the a priori reality of God, this is a presupposition
of the existence of God, is not one wherein you debate it with
people. The Christian does not have to
argue with a person as to whether or not God exists Because what
your Bible says is they already know So now watch this. This is what I taught us because
God is and He has created everything as a witness to his reality in
existence. Are you hearing me? men live
their whole lives struggling with the reality of God. Everything
we are doing, everything we are manufacturing, everything we
are producing is an evidence of our struggle with God. I mean,
all of it. I'm talking about in the deep,
deep crevices of our thoughts, our inner thoughts are toiling
with God. Our words are toiling with God.
Everything we manifest, the imagination of our hearts, all of it is a
toil with this reality. There's a God. And we are seeking
to suppress that reality because of our Our evil heart that's
romans 1 18, right? We are unsuccessfully suppressing
the truth and unrighteousness when we say there's no god. We
are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness Well, we're suppressing
the truth because see if it wasn't nothing there. We wouldn't have
anything to suppress And what the scripture says is they know
me They know me by creation They know me by conscience. They know
me by providence my goodness in their life see If you catch
Brandon on a bad day, he won't let you know it, but he's calling
on God. Have you ever heard the atheist?
Oh God help. Yeah, they do that too. Cause
look, when ain't nobody around, God is a compete convenient person
to call on when you need help. Isn't that right? When no one's
around, God is the most convenient person for you to call on and
the atheist will call on God. So what the scripture tells you
and me is this. If you really wanted to just always have a
one ups man on the atheist, talk to them from the premise of them
knowing that there's a God. Like I've done this with Brandon,
Brandon, you know, there's a God, you know that. No, I don't. No,
I don't. Calm down, calm down, because that's the way he gets.
Brandon gets wired on me. Man, calm down. I mean, you getting
all jazzed about a God that doesn't exist, man. You know, I mean,
that's, we could use you on our team, you know, with the zeal
and passion you got for a God that don't exist, what you would
be if you would come to discover that he does exist. And then
we get to tell him, hey, Brandon, your problem is not your intellect.
Your problem is your heart. I've told him that many times.
Oh, I heard you say that before. I don't agree with you. But that's
the problem. It's the heart. You understand
the heart. They will not believe. They will
not come to a knowledge of the truth. That's our fault. That's
our problem, too. Here's the other thing. Don't
don't talk to the atheist. As if you don't know what it's
like to be an atheist, you would be doing a great disservice to
God. So I told Brandon yesterday, just for the record, because
I know how many people listen, I said, Brandon, listen, man, I understand
what you're going through. I used to be like you. Every
one of us are born unbelievers. It's just the extent to which
that unbelief is nurtured and developed. See, Brandon is a
professional unbeliever. Some of us just didn't reach
that status. You understand? He's a professional
unbeliever. So so he's learned how to unbelieve. You know, some
of the unbelievers that we meet, we can topple them over into
the kingdom in five minutes because they didn't they didn't learn
all the stuff he learned. I mean, he went through seminary.
Boy, that'll make you an unbeliever. I'm just telling you the truth.
But what I'm saying is Christians often give up way too much ground
and way too much territory. And the Bible tells you not to
do it. Talk to them as if they know God and tell them to quit
lying. That's good. That's that's straight
ghetto. I know it's ghetto. Just tell them quit lying. Just tell
the truth. You know, there's a God. Tell
the truth. All right, we're gonna close
in prayer. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for my brothers and
sisters. Thank you for our class. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercy. Prepare us to worship you on Sunday, we pray in Jesus'
name, amen. God bless you.