I want to begin reading in verse
46, Luke's Gospel, chapter 9, verse 46. I've got a subject
this morning that all of us, I think, know something about
because we've all experienced it. I'm going to preach your
experience and my experience. And the title of what I'm going
to say this morning is Pride, Arrogance, and a Misguided Zeal. Now, you know anything about
that? Pride, arrogance, and a misguided zeal. Maybe I should say pride
and ignorance. Ignorance and arrogance are twin
brothers, I think. So maybe we could call it pride,
ignorance, and a misguided zeal. And I'm not speaking to lost
people. I'm speaking to the Lord's people.
To the Lord's people. Now, let's read my text, beginning
here in verse 46 of Luke, chapter 9. Then there arose a reasoning
among them, an argument, dispute, which of them should be the greatest. Now, that's pride, isn't it?
Among the Lord's disciples, but among his apostles. His chief
men. And Jesus, perceiving the thought
of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, and said
unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth
me. And whosoever shall receive me
receiveth him that sent me. He that is least among you in
your own eyes, the same shall be great. Verse 49, And John
answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in
thy name, in your name, doing it in your name. And we stopped
him, we forbid him, because he followed not with us, with us. Now that's ignorance. That's
arrogance. Jesus said unto him, Forbid him
not, for he that is not against us is for us." How do we judge
who is right and who is wrong? How do we judge who is on the
master's side and who is not? We cannot make it personal. It is determined by just that.
Is he for Christ? That's the way we determine it
is. Well, he doesn't do everything just like I do it, but is he
for Christ? They don't come and go with us,
but is he for Christ? Verse 51, And it came to pass,
when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly
set his face to go up to Jerusalem. and sent messengers before his
face, and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him. And they did not receive him,
because his face was as though he would go up to Jerusalem. And when the disciples, James
and John, saw this, they said, Lord, will thou that we command
fire to come down from heaven, and consume them even as Elijah
did?" Now there are misguided zealots. Pride, ignorance, and
misguided zeal. And it all took place in the
hearts of these apostles of our Lord. And He turned and rebuked
them and said, No, you know not what manner of spirit you are
of, for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's life, but
to save them. Now, let's look at these three.
First of all, look at their pride. Back in our text in verse 46. And that's what this is, is pride.
I want you to hold this passage. Lord, I want you to turn over
to Mark chapter 9 with me. Mark chapter 9. This is the parallel
passage to this. And what it shows us here in
the parallel passage is that these fellows realized they knew
what they were doing. Pride is a difficult thing to
keep in check, isn't it? Self-exaltation. You remember the time that James
and John's mother, and I don't know if she did this on her own,
I don't know if James and John asked her to do this, but she
came to the Lord Jesus and she said, I've got a request to make
of you. And he said, what is it? And she said, in your kingdom,
I want my sons, James and John, to sit on your right hand and
on your left hand. Boy, that's pretty high, isn't
it? But you know what? They wanted
that, too. They wanted to be the greatest
in the kingdom of the Lord. Now, that's pride. That's nothing
but old pride. Self-exaltation. I want to be somebody. I want
to be seen. I want men to come and bow down
before me and brag on me and lift me up. I want to see my
name in the lights. It's my race, my faith, and my
grace, as Brother Mahan used to say all the time. I'm so proud. But you know, when it's checked,
it embarrasses us to death. And the Master checked this pride,
and look what they said here in Mark chapter 9. And look in
verse 33. Mark chapter 9, verse 33. And
he came to Capernaum, and being in the house, he asked them,
What was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way? And they held their peace. Why? Why wouldn't they say anything?
Well, look at it. For by the way they had disputed
among themselves who should be the greatest. It embarrassed
them. It embarrassed them. You know
this was what made the devil fall. The Bible seems to indicate
this is why Satan fell. Being lifted up in the condemnation
of the devil, through pride. The devil got proud of his beauty,
and he wanted to be just a little bit higher. He wanted to set
his throne above God. I want to be like the Most High
God. Lifted up in pride, and he sinned
and he fell. And is it not in us, brothers
and sisters? Don't we have to fight against
it? The Apostle Paul had been received up into heaven. And
he saw things and he heard things. He said it was not possible for
him to speak. Glory! He saw glory. He was there
in heaven. Can you imagine that? And he
came back and said, I can't tell you a thing. I can't speak. It's too glorious. And the Lord
began to bless him with all of these abundance of revelation. And you would think if anybody
would be humble over all of this, it would be him. But you know
what happened? He got lifted up in pride. The
great Apostle Paul, yeah! Lest I should be exalted above
measure, the Lord sent him a thorn in the flesh to buffet him. And every time he started to
lift up himself, that old thorn got to pinching him. You ever
get a thorn in your foot? Boy, it's restless, ain't it? You step on it, oh, down you
go. Down you go. Pride. Pride. And I tell you, if the
Lord didn't humble it in us, we'd be a mess, wouldn't we? I want to be the greatest. And
I want all of you in this mass congregation to come and sit
at my feet. And I don't want you to go home
and really check on me. I want you to just take me at
face value. I want you to do everything that I tell you to
do and do it my way when I want you to do it. I'm your ruler.
I'm your king. Pride. Pride. And boy, it gets in us. Somebody
said pride shows itself with two extremes. When we're successful,
we get lifted up in pride. When we feel like we failed,
we're full of despair. And he said, both of them are
pride. I'm so proud, I can't believe I'd fail. I'm too good
for that. The Lord gave them a remedy for
their pride. And look here how he does it
in Mark chapter 9. Look at this. In verse 35, here's
the remedy. And he sat down and called the
twelve and said unto them, If any man desire to be first, the
same shall be last of all. And here's the problem. to be
first. If he sets you first, that's
fine. But the problem is when we desire
to be first. We desire to be over other people.
We desire to have the preeminent. He said, If any man desire to
be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. And
he took a child. Now look at this. Here's the
remedy. He took a child. and set him in the midst of them,
and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them,
Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name receiveth
me, and whosoever shall receive me receiveth not me, but him
that sent me. He said in another place, Except
ye be converted, and become as little children. Do you know
the remedy for pride? It is to humble yourself down,
be like a little dependent child and put yourself in the arms
of Jesus and just stay there. Humble yourself, cast yourself
in the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ and just stay there. If
you think you can do anything, you're not a child. What can
a child do? If you think you know anything,
you're not a child. What can the child know? If you
think you're mighty, you're not a child. A little child is weak. Become, as a little child, utterly
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the next thing back in
our text. Look at Ignatius. Look in verse 49 of Luke. Look back in Luke chapter 9 and
look in verse 49. Boy, I think the prophet knew what
he was talking about when he said, Lord, it's not in man that
walketh to direct his steps. We can't direct our own steps,
can we? We can't even correct ourselves. If the Lord leaves
us to ourselves, we'll be a mess. Absolute mess. Here these apostles
were, walking with the Son of God. God incarnate. And look at the remnant of sin.
Look at the mistakes that these men made. And now they're ready
to make another one. In their ignorance, they were
ready to make another one. Look in verse 49. Look at this.
Verse 49 and 50. And John answered and said, Master,
I don't know if he was bragging about this. I don't know if he
was wanting the Lord to clarify if he did right or wrong. But
he told the Lord this incident that had just happened. We saw
one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbid him. We stopped him. Told him to quit.
And here's why we told him to quit. Because he followed not
us. And here's the way we know that
John was wrong in doing that, because the Master said, Forbid
him not. Forbid him not. You know, we're
awfully ignorant sometimes, aren't we? We run into all kinds of
problems. And we've got to do this. And
here's our problem. We've got to make judgments. We have to render judgments about
certain people. But sometimes we just, in our
ignorance, we don't judge correctly. I've had people come up to me
and say, what do you think about this church over here? And I
say, you shouldn't go over there. Well, how do I know? I don't
even know who goes there. What do you think about what's
that pastor preaching? I wouldn't listen to him or nothing.
I've never heard him. I've never heard him. It's my own personal opinion. But what's it based upon? My
own personal opinion. But I've used it to judge other
people. Are you guilty of that? Isn't
that ignorant? Here's the way, brothers and
sisters, we have to judge other people. And we have to make a
judgment. And there are congregations and
there are pastors that I could not sit under. I just could not
sit under. But it has nothing to do, and
it must have nothing to do, with because he don't do everything
just like I do it. And that was John's problem.
And that was these apostles' problem. The gifts and the knowledge
that these apostles had were no doubt greater than what this
poor man had. John said he just stumbled along. He wasn't articulate. He wasn't
all that plain. So we told him just to shut up
and come and follow us and listen to us. It's all about us. It's all about us. Don't we make
it personal sometimes, brothers and sisters? Don't we make it
personal? Here's the way we judge, just
like the Lord told John and James and Peter and these other apostles
to judge. Here's what this man did. Notice what he did. He did
what he did in the name of Christ. Now, that's good, ain't it? That's
good. But when he did what he did in
the name of Christ, it doesn't mean that he just mentioned the
name of Jesus. That's more than that. When he
did it in his name, that means he did it for his glory. He did it by Christ's authority
in his name. He did it by the authority of
his word. He's exalted his word above his
name. He did what He did in the name
of Jesus Christ. Now, if somebody is doing what
they are doing for Christ's glory and in His name on the authority
of His Word, they may not come up to our standards as far as
knowledge, as far as the way they handle their worship service,
but here is the way we have to judge. Are they doing it in His name? Are
they doing it for His glory? or they do it on the authority
of His Word. And secondly is this, what the
Lord Jesus told him here in verse 50. For he that is not against
us, against us. Here's another way we judge,
and we have to judge this. If we're going to reject somebody
because they won't come and follow us, make sure they are against
Christ. Are they against His glory? Are
they against His cause? Now, there are a lot of organizations
and a lot of denominations that we could just flat out say, yes,
they are against Christ. The reason I talk down and the
reason I criticize Catholicism is very evident. Bob just read
the passage to us, didn't he? They are against Christ. Catholicism
is against Christ. They're against the name and
the glory of Christ. They're against the cause of
Christ. But I tell you, there are some other people out there
that we don't know very well, and we have to be careful about
just outrightly rejecting them and criticizing them because
they're not against Him. And if they're not against Him,
then they're for Him. See that? If it's just a matter,
if Calvinism, if the doctrines of grace, if that's the acid
test, then it's pretty easy to judge. Are you a five-point Calvinist?
If you're not, you better shut your mouth. You better come and
sit under me for a while. See what I'm saying? I wonder
if they ask this man, are you a five-point Calvinist? We don't
make that our acid test, do we? You and I love the doctrines
of grace. We love Calvinism. And I, for
one, can't see that you preach the gospel clearly and plainly
without preaching it. How do you exalt God and put
Him on the throne without Calvinism, the doctrines of grace? But,
brothers and sisters, there are some people, bless their hearts, And I don't know why. I guess
it's because the truth is not being preached as it should be
preached and taught as it should be. But there was a time in my
Christian life that I couldn't articulate Calvinism or the doctrines
of grace. That was something that we come
to as the Lord taught us and opened our hearts to. And those
blessed truths identified with our experience. See what I'm
saying? We've got to be careful forbidding
people because it's our opinion. Because they don't follow us
in everything. A fellow called me a few days
ago and he was scared to death. He said, I've got this one guy
coming to preach. And the boy said, you know, we
don't do everything here like they do. And he said, I am scared
to death that he's going to rake us over the coals. I'm scared
to death he's going to rebuke us severely. Well, ain't that
sad? That's sad, ain't it? When people have that opinion
of us. You know what that is on our part when we do that?
It's ignorance. It's arrogance. And it was in
these four apostles, and our Lord corrected it. He said, examine
things this way. Examine people this way. Get
down deep into his heart if you can. Is he for me, or is he against
me? That's the best way to judge,
isn't it? That's the best way to judge.
Now look at this. Look at this last thing. And
let's begin here in verse 52, looking at the misguided zeal. Look in verse 52. And he sent messengers, he sent
probably his disciples and maybe even his apostles before his
face, and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him. Now look at this, to make ready. Why did he do this? Why did the
Lord Jesus send his disciples ahead to make ready? Did he want
a big meal? Was he wanting an impressive place to stay for
a day or two? Was he wanting to impress Flash
with his entourage like politicians do? We see some of the presidents
and the kings, when they are going somewhere, they send this
entourage, and boy, CIA and the FBI and everybody, and everything
is closed down. Was that his purpose in doing
that? I think his purpose was this. Our Lord does not want
His church dependent upon the world for doing His service. I think that is the first thing. He sent His disciples. He sent His people, His church,
to make ready for Him. I tell you, I'm not for rummy
sales in the church. Are you? I'm not for bake sales
to do the work of the Lord. You never see any place the Lord
relying on the world to further the cause of His people. There in John chapter 4, when
the Lord was hungry, what did He do? Did He say, go into town
and see if you can find some folks that will give us some
food? Let's rely on the charity of the world? He said, go buy
us some food. Go pay for it yourself. We should not depend upon the
world to support the church and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in this world by bake sales and rummy sales and all kinds of
stuff. I don't think that's pleasing
to the Lord. Do you? I think this is the first thing. He sent
His people. He didn't send word to the Samaritans
and say, I want you all over there to give us some charity
and prepare this place. He sent his disciples. He sent
his disciples. Don't look to the world for charity
to perform the Lord's work. Let the church by its own means.
And let the church prepare the Lord His dwellers. That's the
first thing. The second thing, I think, is
this. The Lord is not the author of confusion or disorder. He believes in making things
ready. He believes in preparation. I told my wife this morning I
was going to be embarrassed to say anything about order or preparation. I'm a guy that flies by the seat
of my pants in almost everything I do. But you know, the Lord's
not that way. And He's the best example for
you and I that we can find in the Scripture. If we'll use Him
as our example, things will go so much better in our life. In your family, be prepared. Have order. In your job, in your
business, be prepared. Be diligent in business. Make
things ready. In your worship service, The
Lord forbid that you and I come here this morning haphazardly
without praying somewhere last night. Lord, prepare my heart
for the morning worship." I know for a fact, Wayne spent
a lot of hours in the study last week because Colleen told me. I asked her, was that a good
thing or a bad thing, but she didn't see you very much last
week, Wayne. Preparation. Preparedness. In all that we
do, order, order. God is not the author of confusion. He is the author of order. Let
everything be done decently and in order. Go to the aunt, thou
slugger. Consider her ways and be wise. What is it about the little aunt?
She prepares her food in the summer. She prepares. And when the wintertime comes,
she's got food piled up. She's got food in store. Look
in verse 53. And they did not receive him,
because his face was as though he would go up to Jerusalem. Why wouldn't they receive our
Lord Jesus Christ? One of the things were clash
of cultures. Man, this was a culture clash.
The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans, and the Samaritans
have no dealings with the Jews. The biggest culture clash in
the whole Bible, as far as I know, were these two nations that lived
in the same country. The Samaritans and the Jews.
And it went back for thousands of years. You remember when Nehemiah
and the men left out of captivity and went back to build the temple? These Samaritans were there in
the land then. A king had brought them there
from strange lands, and when the Lord's people went back to
build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they came down
from up in northern Israel where they lived, and they said, We
want to help you build the temple of the Lord. And you know what
they said? You've got nothing to do with our God nor His worship. And they had a spear in one hand,
and man, they'd have used it if they had to. They'd have nothing
to do with those Samaritans. And at that time, rightfully
so. But you, the Samaritans, would have nothing to do with
them. It was a clash of these cultures. Don't we have that problem today?
In the human race, clashes of cultures. We've got a black culture. We've got a white culture. We've
got a red culture. We've got national cultures.
We've got family cultures. We've got a culture. And boy,
sometimes those things clash, and there is but one thing that
can span these cultures and bring peace and bring harmony, and
that's the gospel of the Lord Jesus. It will allow you to keep your
culture and allow me to keep my culture and bring us both
together in peace and in harmony. Let me give you a good example
of this. You hold my text and look in Acts chapter 8. Look
in Acts chapter 8 and verse 4. You remember Acts chapter 8 and
look in verse 4. when the Lord Jesus was sitting
on the well there at Sychar. Probably wasn't very far from
this place here at all. And there came a woman. Where
was she from? Of Samaria. Samaria. And when the Lord began to question
her about a drink of water, she said, We Samaritans don't have
anything to do with you Jews. You know that. You know that. There's this culture clash. But
before she left that day, the Lord Jesus had revealed Himself
to that woman. And she forgot the distinction
between the Jews and the Gentiles. She forgot everything but Him.
And she left her bucket with Him to use and ran back to her
friends, the Samaritans, and said, Come see a man. It's this man who spans the culture
and brings peace and harmony to his people. That's what happened
here in Acts chapter 8. I don't know for sure where the
disciples and our Lord were at when they said, Do you want us
to call fire down from heaven? I don't know where they were
at. But it may have been in this very location right here where
Stephen went down and preached the gospel to them. What if they
had called fire down from heaven? They would have destroyed this
place, wouldn't they? Look at what he says in Acts
chapter 8 and look in verse 4. These were scattered because
Saul of Tarsus was persecuting them. Therefore they that were
scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip
went down to the city of Samaria and preached, look at this, Christ
unto them. Christ unto them. He had to avoid
the culture conflict. He got right to the thing that
would spam the culture. and bring peace and harmony.
What was it? This glorious person, this substitute,
this God, this Savior. He preached Christ unto them,
and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which
Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. Unclean
spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed
with him, and many taken with The palaces that were laying
were healed, and there was great joy in that city. One thing that will heal the
conflicts that we have today between our races, and you know
what will do it? The gospel. One thing that will
bring nationalities together and love each other and harmonize
with one another is the gospel. It's the gospel. You and I are
getting a lot of different cultures in our nation in this time. People
from all over the world have been coming here now, especially
the Hispanics are a flood in this country. Here's what our
concern should be, brothers and sisters. Here's what our mission
should be, is to preach Christ to these people. The government
is going to have to take care of the legal aspect of it. What
you and I should be doing is taking care of the spiritual
aspect of it. We should be reaching out to
preach Christ to these people. Everybody. That was your concern
when those two young boys came over from Africa. More than their
culture, parents, or anything else. It was to preach Christ
to those men. Preach Christ to those two young
boys. Because He spans The culture. They wouldn't receive Him. Culture.
Culture. Look at the harm that's been
done in the means of giving Christ to the nation. Culture. You're
not my culture. It has nothing to do with your
culture. It has something to do with eternal life and forgiveness
of sin. Notice something else about they
wouldn't receive him for this reason also. And it was said
here that he had his face set to go up to Jerusalem. He walked up there with his disciples
and everybody was looking at him. He was popular. The Samaritans knew that he was
a public preacher, that he was doing all these miracles. They
knew that. And now he's come there for a place to eat and
a place to camp out for a day or so. And they come out to look
at him, but he's not even looking at them. He's got his face set
like a flint because he's going to Jerusalem. And these Samaritans
hated Jerusalem so bad because they had their own hill, you
know. Gerizim was their hill. And they wanted people to come
there. That was the hill of blessing. Remember that? Moses sent the
children of Israel into the land of Canaan. Some of them got on
this hill of Gerizim. And it was the place of blessing.
They said, here is the place you ought to worship. But Christ
had His face set like a flint to Mount Zion. Woman, you don't know what you
worship. Ain't that what He told you?
She said, in this mountain is the place where our Father said
to worship. He said, you don't know what you're worshiping.
You don't know what you're worshiping. Why wouldn't they receive Him?
Because He had His purpose set. His plans were set. His desires
were set. And you know something? When
you receive Christ, you've got to receive Him and His purpose
and His plans. He don't receive yours. When
you receive Him into your poor empty heart, you see the whole
Christ, and you receive Him in His purpose, and in His plans,
and in His desires. You follow Him. He's not going
to follow you. And these people said, because
you're not looking to us. Because you've got your own will
and purpose and plans, we ain't going to even receive you. He
said, all right, then I'll just go to another village. I'll go
to another village. And that's what he did. The Lord
Jesus comes to a poor sinner and says, follow me. And the
poor sinner said, well, I've got my own plans right now. As
soon as I finish this, I will. Uh-huh. Ain't going to work that
way. You bow to me. You bow to my
will, you bow to my wishes, my desires. And we have a good illustration
of that and examples of that beginning in verse 57. Look at
this. Look at this. And it came to
pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto
him, Lord, I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest. And the
Lord said, Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man hath no place to lay his head. You better be
careful when you say that. You better be careful when you
say, Lord, I'm ready to follow you. You better know what you're
saying. Because sometimes following Him,
I tell you, it's self-denial. It's taking up your cross and
following Him. Sometimes he leaves where there
is no rest. Sometimes he leaves where there
is no food. There is no lodging. Look in verse 59. He said unto another, follow
me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first. That isn't going to
work, is it? These last two fellows made the
same statement. Me first. Suffer Me first to
go and bury My Father. And the Lord said unto them,
Let the dead bury the dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom
of God." That sounds harsh, doesn't it? It sounds so unkind. But I'm telling you, He has His
own purposes. He's the Lord. And He don't bow
to our will and our purposes. We bow to His. Look what he said
in verse 61. And another said unto him, Lord,
I will follow thee, but let me first. Me first. Go and say farewell
to them which are at my house. And Jesus said, No man having
put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom
of God. He had his face set like a flank
to his purpose. We are not going to receive you.
If you cannot compromise, and least look in our direction,
we won't receive it. Well, then you won't receive
it. You've got to come and bow to Him. Look what they said here in verse
55. In verse 54. We'll vow that we call fire down
from heaven and consume them. Boy, this was something, wasn't
it? What a judgment this was. What
zeal it was. First of all, let me say this
about it. See some things that are commendable
to these disciples? We get on them, and I've been
on them pretty hot and heavy this morning. Here are some things
that are commendable in them. First of all, they knew something
about the Scriptures. They had been reading the Scriptures.
They knew about this incident that took place close to where
they were. About Elijah calling down fire
from heaven. They must have read about that
incident. That's commendable, isn't it?
Elijah was up on the hill, and the king of Israel sent 50 men
up there with their captain, and the captain was pretty arrogant. Man of God, come down. The king
wants to talk to you. If I be a man of God, let fire
come down from heaven and destroy every one of you fellows. And
boy, damn, the fire came and destroyed Elijah sat there a
few minutes, and the king said, 50 more men up there with their
captain. He's pretty arrogant too. He
said, O man of God, make haste and come down quickly. You do
it right now. If I'll be a man of God, let
fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your men. Boy,
the fire fell. 102 men consumed by the fire
of heaven. And boy, this third captain. The king said, I want you to
take your men up there. And he said, I'm going to have
a different attitude than my two brothers had. And he went
up there and fell on his face before this prophet and he said,
O man of God, O thou man of God, you call them far from heaven
and you consume these other men. Have mercy upon me and my men.
Spare us. And the Lord spoke to Elijah
and said, don't be afraid of him. He won't hurt you. And he went down with him to
the king. They knew that story. They were
men that obviously read their scrolls. So that's commendable,
isn't it? And the second thing commendable
in this, they asked the Lord's permission before they did something. That's commendable, isn't it? At least they asked permission.
They didn't get up there and start crying for the fire to
fall. You know, wouldn't we be much better off? If we're going
to buy a dog, if we go pray about it, you say, Bruce, that's ridiculous. I don't know. You may get a biting
dog. I say pray about everything.
In all things, in everything, by prayer and supplication, let
your request be made known to God. If it's worth doing, it's
worth praying about it. They did. That's commendable,
isn't it? I'll tell you something else
commendable. They believed in the power of His will. Wills
bowed that we call down fire. Do you believe the Master has
that kind of authority and power just by willing it? Yeah, they believed. Boy, they
believed that Jesus Christ was a sovereign God. Did they not?
For somebody to do that just by willing it. And they had that
confidence in Him. And fourthly, why did they even
make this request anyway? It was because of the tender
attachment they had to Jesus Christ. They could not endear
Him to be rejected by these Samaritans. And that's what upset them so.
So isn't this good in these apostles? But you know, we love zeal. We need more of it. But I tell
you what, it can be misguided, can it? Their zeal was misguided
zeal. I told somebody the other day,
zeal was like a huge motor in a little car. Boy, he'll get
the speed up quick, but if you're not careful, you'll run over
a whole bunch of people. Zeal has to be regulated, doesn't
it? And it has to be regulated by humility and love and tenderness
and goodness. They were so full of zeal, but
their zeal was so misguided, they wanted to call them fire
from heaven and destroy them. All of them? All of them, I guess. I don't know how you'd spare
one or two here and there if fire fell from heaven. I think
they said, let's destroy all of them. What about the women?
Well, yeah. What about the little children?
Yeah, them too. One person over here is not in agreement with
the rest of these. He'd like for them to matter. Yeah, him
too, him too. Everybody. Man, that's misguided, ain't
it? Harsh. Harsh. And I think also
we see the prejudice here in these apostles. Why were they
so hasty to call down fire on these people? Was it because
they were Samaritans? You know, the Jews had tried
to take the Lord and kill Him, didn't they? In John chapter
10, these apostles were there when the Jews took up stones
to stone Christ. They didn't say anything about
calling fire down from heaven on them. I just wonder if it
wasn't because they were Samaritan. They got so hasty. You and I will accept a lot of
faults and failings in ourselves, but we can't accept it in others.
I will excuse a lot of preachers if they're Calvinist, but not
if they're Armenian. I will excuse my children, but
not anybody else's. Aren't we that way? We're prejudiced,
aren't we? And our zeal sometimes gets the
best of us. And anger can be a good thing,
but boy, it's a bad thing when it's not put in check. Be ye
angry, and sin not. The wrath of man worketh not
the righteousness of God. What's the remedy? What's the
remedy for this misguided zeal? Well, he tells us here in this
last portion of verse 56. Here's the remedy for this misguided
zeal. For the Son of Man is not come
to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Here it is. Here it is. Anything we think, anything we
do, anything we say as the church, as children of God, that contradicts
the very cause for Christ's coming, It's wrong. It's wrong. Why did Christ come? Did He come
to destroy men's lives? No, He didn't, did He? He's a
life saver. I come to save men's lives. The next time you get mad at
your neighbor and you want to tell him off, The next time you
get mad at one of your ex-in-laws, and you hate them and wish God
would send some awful disease upon them and get rid of them, is that the cause for Christ's
coming? Any harm that we seek to do to
somebody, is that the cause for Christ's coming? What's the reason
for us being in this world, brothers and sisters, as children of God? Why has he left us here? Is it
not to promote his cause? Is it not to go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature? This is the motive,
the reason, the aim, the goal for us being here. For his mission
to continue. And what is his mission? Lifesaver. Not to destroy. Not to do any
harm. Not to cause unjust division,
but to save men's lives. If we just remembered this one
point, man, this would regulate our lives. This would change
our lives. All the feuding and fussing and
divisions. We'd be more patient. We'd be
more loving. We'd not be so apt to get angry
with people. If I ever get angry with somebody
and tell them off, and say, I'm finished with you, what have
I just done? I've destroyed that person. In
a sense, haven't I? I've destroyed my cause for being
here. I've slammed the door. Christ
didn't come for that. He came to seek and to save. That which was lost. I love this. Don't you? Don't you love the
way He tells us? He said, I've come to save your
life. We admire life savers, don't
we? Look, somebody's in the county and they're out in the public
swimming place and they're going down for the last time. And here
comes the lifeguard, and he jumps in, and he goes in, and he grabs
them, and he pulls them out to shore, and he pumps the water
out of their lungs, and they live! And what does he do? Oh,
thank you! You've saved my life. You have
saved my life. We read stories about a fireman
busting through the front door, and very late, two or three children
overcome by smoke, and they're basically dead, and he drags
them out, and they put oxygen on them, and they live! And they
say the fireman saved their life. And oh, we put his name in the
paper. He's a lifesaver. Why did Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, come down from heaven, brothers and sisters, to save
your life? And to save your life from so
great a death, eternal death, eternal ruin. Here you are dead
in trespasses and sin. And you're going to die forever.
And what does He do? Oh, He comes down to your heart. And He gives you His life. And
He saves you. He saves your life. That's why He comes. And if we're
doing anything in our personal life with our neighbors and other
people that contradicts that, then the Lord give us grace to
correct it. Because that's why we're here.
That's why we're here. It's not about whether you're
a union member or not. It's not about whether you're
a Republican or a Democrat or a Liberal or a Conservative.
If I let these things separate me and you, then I failed. And we failed. It's about Christ. It's about the lifesaver. It's
about you being saved for all eternity. When all these other
issues have been laid aside and finished and society changes
and culture changes, there's something that will stand forever. And that's what we're about,
isn't it? That's what we're about. Lord bless His Word. Let's pray.