If you have your Bibles this morning, turn with me to Luke chapter 9. I thought we would finish this chapter, but when I got to seven pages of notes just on these few verses, I figured we would go into verses 57 through 62 next week and make that a sermon in and of itself. So, let's begin in verse 51 reading and we'll read all the way down to verse 55. Luke chapter 9 and verse 51 says this, it says, When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But he turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village." Let's pray. Father, as we come to you this morning, Lord, I pray that in this passage that we would see, Lord, how gracious you are, how merciful you are. I pray that you would help us to express those same virtues in our own life. I pray that we would be merciful and gracious to those around us, that we would have compassion upon the lost and compassion even upon our enemies. Lord, we just pray and ask now that you would be with us, that you would speak to us. Lord, I pray that you'll use me to preach your word. Lord, we know that we're nothing without you, and so we ask, Lord, that you would come and show your power and your glory in this place. Lord, convict our hearts, and Lord, we pray that you would build us up in the most holy faith and help us to live for Christ and walk in his steps and not our own. In Jesus' name that we pray, amen. You may be seated. When I was in seminary years ago, I remember one chapel service that I went to. Out of all the chapel services, I remember a few of them, but I don't always remember the content. But there was one particular chapel service where I was sitting there and I was listening to an old man preach who was an old professor. If I recall right, and if I'm right on this, he was probably in his upper 70s, maybe even early 80s. and he was retiring out. His name was Dr. McCormick. And I remember one of the passages that he was dealing with in his sermon was found in John chapter 1 and verse 17. And that verse says this, But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And I remember while he was commenting on this and preaching through this passage, one of the things that he said stuck out and stuck with me, and I've never been able to shake it or forget it, although I've not always practiced it, is this. He said you can have all the truth on your lips, but yet if you do not have grace, you can do more damage than good. As I've thought about that over the years, that is so right. We can have all the truth, and we should be about truth, and we should be about trying to get things right, but yet it's possible to be right, and be true, and hold fast to the Scriptures, and yet have the wrong attitude, the wrong demeanor about us when it comes to interacting with those around us. That's why Proverbs 3 and verse 3 says, Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart." Now, we all believe that truth is very important. It is vital. It's way up here. But the Bible also puts grace, as we saw in John 1, 17, and also Proverbs 3, mercy right up there with truth. They ought to go hand in hand when we are interacting with other people around us. We ought to be not lopsided in our dealings with truth. We ought to be not more focused on truth than we are on mercy and grace. We ought to be balanced, and we ought to have both in our life. But that's not always how it is with us. I know in my own life, that's not always how it's been. There's been times where I've been zealous for the truth, and I probably took truth like a cannon and just destroyed people around me rather than showing mercy and grace at the same time. There's oftentimes, within the evangelical world, movements that will occur, and people will fall into this trap, this sinful trap of trying to be truthful about something, or get their point across, or whatever it is, and they'll just roast people. They don't care who they run over. They don't care how they treat other people, who is the opposition. For example, I'll give you just a few. Some that I have ran into just because I've been around some of these circles, even been in these circles. But I remember in 2003, there was what was claimed the Young Restless and Reform Movement. And that movement has been going on for quite some time, it's died down a little bit, but yet it was a movement towards Calvinism. And I remember in seminary, and even right after seminary, there were many young people They were latching on to these doctrines and stuff, and many right things, and through all of that, they became known for their lack of love, their lack of grace towards those who might get in their way, who might stand in opposition to what they believed, was truth. And so, they would just light people up who did not believe like them. Another group that I've seen do this, back about ten years ago, there was, on a smaller scale, a group called the House Church Movement. And these people, they believed that, you know, they had come to a conclusion based on some things in 1 Corinthians 14, that you shouldn't have any building, and you should just meet in a church. I disagree with that. I think that you can meet anywhere to worship the Lord together and so forth. But I remember if you didn't believe like them, they would just light you up, run over you and act like you were not a Christian and everything else. Another movement. that I've seen over the last probably five years that has developed is the abolitionist movement. Now, I would say I'm an abolitionist because I don't want any abortion. I think abortion should be absolutely outlawed and it should not even take place because it's nothing more than infant murder. But there are some in that group that I have even seen. They will not even go to church on Sunday and worship, and they'll go out on a street corner in front of a church, and some of them have even went in the church, and they'll stand there and harass these people who are pro-lifers, who are also not for abortion, but yet they don't understand their terminology and stuff about abolitionist movement and all that kind of stuff. And without even having a conversation with these people who are supposed to be brothers and sisters in Christ, they just light them up. They disrupt services just to try to get their point across. And we see people do this. And we can all be guilty of this in one way or another. And so the question is, how do you respond when somebody is in opposition to you, when they don't perhaps believe everything like you believe? Now, you may hold truth, and they may hold some falsehood or false teaching or some weird and wacky idea. But how do you respond to them and interact with them? Do you shun them? Do you look down upon them? Do you have no mercy upon them and no grace? Do you fail to realize that at one time you didn't know the truth and you walked in darkness as well? Well, hopefully none of us here are that way. I'm sure Or maybe we have been that way at times. But if we are here this morning and we look at this passage, I hope that we all learn how to respond to those who may even reject us or even reject the truth. And we're going to see that here in this passage in Luke chapter 9 and verses 51 through 55. Now, just to set the stage here, Jesus has been going along doing ministry. He has cast out demons. He has done mighty works and miracles. And here we are. There's a shift right here in verse 51. There's a kind of a climactic point in Luke. And now we're going to move from his ministry in Galilee to his ministry in Jerusalem, where he will go and he will die. upon a cross. And so that's where we are. And here Jesus is still with his apostles and he is going to teach them something else that they need to learn. They learned about the need for faith a few verses earlier when they tried to heal a boy with an unclean spirit and could not do so. They learned about humility in verses 46 through verse 48, but now they're going to learn something about grace and mercy. So let's look at this passage together. We'll start in verse 51. It says, When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive Him, because His face was set towards Jerusalem. In verse 51 it says that when the days drew near for Him to be taken up, or as some of your translations might say, when the days were drawing near for His ascension, when He'd be lifted up on the cross, and when He would die, and when He would be raised up from this earth to heaven, He set his face to go to Jerusalem in those days. So verse 51 says, When the days drew near. This tells us that the time, that there has been a time lapse. Time has gone by since verse 49. When they were arguing about who was going to be first and all of that. when they wanted to stop the man from casting out demons. Time has went on. We don't know exactly how long this is, but we're at a different time, a different day, and when those days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Now, up until this point, Jesus' ministry has been primarily in the Galilee region, which is the northern part of of Israel, up to the north. And he's been there in that area, the Galilee of the Gentiles, that Gentile region, that non-Jewish region, preaching the gospel, healing the sick, casting out demons, and doing all of these things. But now the time is drawing near, and he must go to the cross. He must go to the cross. He knows what awaits him. And it says here, that He set His face to go to Jerusalem. He set His face to go to Jerusalem. In other words, He was determined to go to Jerusalem. Now, why would Jesus be determined to go to Jerusalem? Because it was the Father's will. He knew that He was going to suffer and die and be delivered up to evil men. And not only that, He was going to die, but He was going to be raised from the grave and He was going to ascend up from this world into heaven, and He will come again. And so, He knows that death and suffering await Him. He knows what is about to happen to Him, but He's ready to go. He's ready to go to accomplish the mission for which He has been sent, which is to die for the sins of the world, John 3.16, to accomplish the salvation for all who will trust in the Lord Jesus Christ by faith as Savior and Lord. And He's ready to go to fulfill the promises that were long ago foretold in the Old Testament through places like Isaiah 53 that talked about the suffering servant which spoke of Christ's death upon the cross. He's willing to go and fulfill all of those promises. And that language there, when it says, He set His face to go to Jerusalem, This is a reminder of Isaiah 57 that says, For the Lord God helps me, therefore I am not disgraced, therefore I have set my face like a flint, flint being like a stone, and I know that I will not be ashamed. So that language means nothing more, nothing at all can change his mind. He has a firm resolve to go to Jerusalem for the sins of the world, which was God's plan before the foundation of the world. The Lamb was slain, when? Before the foundation of the world, to fulfill all of the law and the prophets, all that they had said, that's why He is going. And nothing is going to stop Him from doing the Father's will. And so His face is set. He's going and headed south to Jerusalem. But along the way here, we see that along this journey, we see that he stops, or he seeks to stop, at a place where there are Samaritans. And we're gonna see here what happens to him. But he's set his face to go to Jerusalem. Now, this, again, is a pivotal point in the Gospel of Luke. Because, again, before this, he's in Galilee of the Gentiles. Now, he's going south to Jerusalem. And from here on, We're going to just see him make his way all the way there, and we're going to see him begin to speak more and more in parables. Parables because the people had heard, but they did not listen and learn, and so the truth is being concealed from them through parables. when we think about the suffering and the death of Christ that awaited him in Jerusalem, and all that he was willing to go through to carry out the Father's will, should it not also make us evaluate our lives as believers, and determined to follow in the footsteps of Christ wherever He goes? Remember what Jesus said earlier in this chapter, and I think this is interesting. He's going to Jerusalem to suffer, And he told his disciples a little bit earlier in chapter 9, he said that if we are going to follow him, we must do what? Verse 23, if we're going to follow him and come after him, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him daily. We must lose our lives as well. And in fact, in verses 57, through 62, He's going to tell those who are following Him on that road to Jerusalem, He's going to tell them, you must count the cost. If you're going to follow Me, this is what it's going to cost. Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. In other words, if you're going to come after me, it's not always going to be easy. It's going to be difficult at times. But nevertheless, we who are believers must walk just as Jesus walked. And sometimes that's not an easy road. Sometimes it's a difficult road. Sometimes it's a path of suffering. In fact, the Christian life is a path of suffering. It's through many trials and tribulations that we must go through to enter into the Kingdom of God. And so, here, Jesus setting His face towards Jerusalem, He's paving a path for us. It doesn't mean we have to go and get on a literal cross, but we must be willing to follow Him and die to ourselves. This kind of resolve should also characterize our life. Christ. His face is set like a flint. His face is fixed upon going to the cross and dying for the sins of the world. We too who follow Christ, we must count the cost and must be willing to pay the price. And it's not always going to be In fact, it's oftentimes hard to follow Jesus in obedience, but regardless of the suffering, regardless of the pain, we are to follow Jesus in perfect obedience. As the old hymn says, wherever he leads, I'll go. That ought to be our resolve in the Christian life. Here we come to verse 52. He set his face like a flint, he's going to Jerusalem, and now in verse 52 it says this, And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. Now, in verse 52 here, Luke tells us that Jesus sent messengers ahead of him. Now, oftentimes he would do this when he was going to have them go before him and prepare the meal for the Lord's Supper. He sent them ahead of him, and here he does it again, and he sends them to enter a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. This is a place he was going to lodge, and he was going to stay for a moment as he's on his way to Jerusalem. And we know there, as he goes to all of these villages, what does Jesus always do? Well, he heals, he also preaches the gospel, and gives them the truth. And so, they're to go ahead and make preparations for him. These messengers were most likely apostles from among his disciples who traveled with him, who would often go ahead to prepare things. And the Bible doesn't say exactly what all these preparations entailed. It's likely that they were going to arrange or make some accommodations for Jesus to ensure that when he got there, there was a place to stay, maybe some food there, maybe a good place to just rest his head for a while as he made that journey. And this would have included finding a place for him to stay, possibly even informing villagers about Jesus and who he is and what his mission was and what he was seeking to accomplish, which was to travel to Jerusalem. And obviously they knew he was on his way to Jerusalem, so they must have said something about that. And so they went into the region of Samaria and they sought to make preparations for Jesus. Now, we see that the Samaritans were not too friendly. They were not too kind towards Jesus. And the question is, why? And why did Jesus want to go here through one of these villages in Samaria? Why did he want to go to the Samaritans? And who were the Samaritans? Well, in those days, most Jews would avoid traveling through this region, but not Jesus. He wanted to travel through this region, but why would Jews avoid this? going through these areas where there are Samaritans, because there was a great hostility between the Jews and between the Samaritans. And this goes back all the way to the Old Testament. A lot of times things will happen and they'll be carried down for years. There'll still be a rival. There'll still be anger towards one another and hostility. But if we go all the way back to the Old Testament, And to the time when Israel came under the judgment of God, that northern kingdom Israel, it fell in 721 BC to the Assyrians. And when the Assyrians came into that region where the Samaritans lived in Jesus' day, back there in the Old Testament, we know that they deported many of the Jewish people. They took them off into captivity. But we know that there were some who were still left in that region. But also, In addition to this, these foreign occupiers came into that region and they mixed and they mingled with the Jews who were there. And so they intermingled the remaining Israelites along with these foreigners, these Gentiles. And they came together and they created a population of people who were both half Jew and half Gentile, and so these foreigners were known as Samaritans, and these Samaritans were looked down upon by the Jewish people. They were seen as rivals to the Jewish people because they were not fully Jews, because they were not wholehearted Jews, but nevertheless, they adopted many of the Jewish practices. and kind of formed their own cult, if you will. They had their own cultic form of Judaism. They even built their own temple on Mount Gerizim. And remember when Jesus met the woman, the Samaritan woman? She asked the question, you know, you say we are to worship on this mountain there in Jerusalem, but then we worship on this mountain. You know, which is it? And Jesus talked about a time was coming when you would neither worship on this mountain or that mountain, but God is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And so, these people were a form of Jewish people, but they were not full-bloods, they were half-breeds. And so, the Samaritans, they had a form of Judaism, they had their own temple, and they had their own practices, but the Jews saw them as being corrupt, not perfectly pure. And because of all of this, they were looked down upon by the Jews, and there was a rival, amongst them. The Jews hated them and they hated the Jews and they just butted heads. There was a great animosity towards each other. But Jesus here, we see, was not like that. He didn't share the same animosity. He didn't share the same racism, if you will. Instead, Jesus, when He came to that region, He didn't seek to go around it when He went to Jerusalem. He sought to go right through it because He knew that these people, these enemies of the Jews, and Jesus was a Jew, he knew that these people needed the gospel. He knew that these people needed salvation. And he sought to go through there because he loved them. Why? Because God is no respecter of persons. God loves not just the Jews, but the world. And God's plan for eternity past is always not just to save the Jews, but also to save Gentiles as well. But unfortunately though, verse 53 tells us that the people did not receive Him. The people who were Samaritans. Why? because his face was set towards Jerusalem. It appears as though the apostles went there, they made preparations, maybe, I'm just guessing here, they went and tried to find a place to lodge, food to accommodate Jesus, and those who were traveling with them, and something must have came up about where they were headed and where they were traveling to, and so because of that, because his face was set towards Jerusalem, they didn't want anything to do with him. They didn't want anything to do with this Jew who was going there to Jerusalem where all the other Jews were. And so, because of their feud, because of their hate and their animosity towards the Jews, because it was so bitter, they rejected Jesus. They didn't want Him to be there. They did not receive Him. As one commentator pointed out, they would not help anyone travel to Jerusalem. They wouldn't help anyone travel to Jerusalem. The late Jewish Historian Josephus, who was writing in the I guess like around the 1st, 2nd century, he said, the ancient Jewish historian said the Samaritans were also not averse to ill-treating pilgrims going up to Jerusalem, even to the extent of murdering them on occasion. So this was a real intense and hostile situation. Their hatred for the Jews led to the rejection of Jesus. And here reminds us of the words of John 1, 9-10, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. Who was the true light? Jesus. And He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. They had so much animosity, so much hatred towards the Jews, that they were hostile towards this Jew as well. And so they did not receive Him into their town. For many of them here, Here was the chance for the light of the world to come and to preach to them the truth. Here the giver of life, life himself was there. The life was made manifest. It was there, Jesus Christ. But yet they chose to reject Christ. They chose to want to have nothing to do with Him. A lot of it was pure ignorance because they had grown up with such hatred. And so they didn't want anything to do with Him. And they missed the opportunity to receive Jesus into their lives. What an opportunity they missed to have Jesus come there to heal them perhaps physically, to heal them spiritually, to save them from their sins and be able to receive Jesus into their life as Lord and Savior. And I'm sure that there are many For many of them, perhaps this was the last opportunity that they were ever going to have. I'm sure there were some there who ended up dying without ever hearing the gospel, and they rejected it. They died before they got to embrace Jesus as their Savior. There are many people like that today. There are people who will not receive Christ by faith and want nothing to do with Jesus. They want nothing at all to do with Jesus. They will not receive Him. And they don't want Him in their lives. And what a sad picture What a sad picture this is of a man's obstinate unbelief. That's the way the heart of sinful man is. It wants nothing to do with God. The Lord Jesus sends His messengers, the gospel goes forth and is oftentimes preached. to make ready for Him, preparing the way for the Lord, yet the vast majority of people, like these Samaritans, find some reason not to receive Christ. Why? Because it's just like John 3, 19, 20 said, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed." They loved their sin. They loved their hatred for the Jews. And in this case, they held on to that hatred and held on to it so strongly that it blinded them. It kept them from receiving Jesus who was headed to Jerusalem to die for the sins of the world. This is what sin does. It blinds us from the truth. It hardens us towards Christ. And that's what had happened to these people. That's why the Bible says, do not harden your heart as they did in the day of rebellion. Don't harden your heart. And so I encourage you, if you hear his voice today, don't harden your heart, but receive Christ as Lord and Savior if you've never have. Now, as we come to verse 54, we see that the disciples had some animosity still in their hearts as well towards the Samaritans. The Samaritans wanted nothing to do with them, and here we find in verse 54 it says, And when the disciples, James and John, that is the sons of thunder, as the Bible calls them, they were very passionate, very zealous, It says they saw the messengers returning and how Samaritans rejected Jesus and wanted nothing to do. And so what did they do? They said, Lord, do you want us, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Do you want us to call fire down from heaven and just have it wipe this place out? But verse 55 says this, but he turns and he rebuked them, and they went on to another village." Some translations say, based on certain manuscripts, which we won't go into and all of that. But some manuscripts that the King James and the New American Standard are based on say this in verse 55. After they had asked, should we call fire down upon them? Some of your translations may say, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man came not to destroy people's lives, but to save them. He didn't come to destroy, but to save. Now that would fit right with John 3. Jesus didn't come into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world. But that's what some translations say. And whether Jesus said those actual words or not, It is in keeping with Scripture, and we know the Scripture says that elsewhere, as I pointed out in John chapter 3. Jesus did not come. His mission, when He came the first time, was not to destroy men, not to condemn men, but in order to save them. Luke 19.10 says, Jesus said, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. That was the mission, and that was the goal of Christ when He came the first time, to die on the cross for the sins of the world." Now, these apostles, in their zeal, perhaps their zeal for Christ because they loved Him, He was dear to them, their zeal for the truth that He is the Messiah, and there is one way of salvation, and He is it. Out of this zeal, when they saw the rejection of these Samaritans, They were indignant. They were angry. They were upset. They just wanted to destroy that entire village, that whole area of Samaritans. They wanted to kill these Samaritans for rejecting Christ. That was their reaction, these Sons of Thunder, James and John. James and John in Mark 3.17 get that name, and here they're living up to that name. of being sons of thunder. Their zeal, with their zealous personalities, here they are ready to respond drastically and unloving towards these Samaritans who've just rejected Jesus. Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them. In other words, do you want us just to retaliate against these people? Do you want us just to give them what's coming to them? Hey, do you want us to be like Elijah in the Old Testament? He called fire down from heaven against the Israelites' enemies, against God's enemies, and just destroyed these people who were wicked and evil. against the wicked king of Israel. And he did that. And fire came down. We could do that too. We could call down fire like Elijah did. But they did not understand. As Jesus said, you do not understand what manner of spirit you are of. You know, what's in your heart. What's driving these things for you to want to just wipe out these people who are rejecting me and perish under my wrath. You don't understand it. Now, we won't go into all of it, but yes, in the Old Testament, we know that Elijah did call down fire from heaven. We know in the Psalms, there's those what we call imprecatory Psalms, where the psalmist is praying, Lord, you know, crush the teeth of the wicked and do all of these things. And you say, well, how do you harmonize the two? Well, I think that when you go and you look at the Old Testament, and you see the psalmist, there were times like in Psalm 130, I believe it's Psalm 139, when David is talking about his enemies, he also talks about the love that he had for his enemies, and how he had been rejected, and everything else. And so with the psalmist, he's calling out for justice. And we ought to want justice in this world. The Bible even talks about this, upholding justice, and at the same time, mercy. And so we ought to want justice, but we must not just want justice without mercy and grace. The two go hand in hand. In Elijah's day, he was acting as a prophet, as a man whom God was using as an instrument to bring about judgment upon those who were absolutely obstinate and wicked and evil, who knew the truth. These people were blind. These people, I don't believe that they quite understood all that they were rejecting. And so here we see that even though we can call out for justice, even though in the book of Revelation those who have been slain are crying out that they might be avenged for the blood that was shed, for their own deaths, We can cry out for justice at the same time we ought to have mercy towards those who are enemies, those who do not always believe like us, those who don't hold to the same ideas that we hold to, and so forth. even if they're wrong, even if they are a heretic, we ought to have in our heart a desire to see those people not just perish and go to hell for all eternity, but a desire in our heart to see them truly repent. I remember when I was at a church years ago, there was one particular lady that caused, she was one of many, who caused a lot of havoc. This woman was, I believe, clearly, probably not a believer. She caused all kinds of disruptions and problems, and then she was known for her, basically, her potty mouth throughout the town and everything else. But I remember, even though I was so upset at her, and so angry, there was also a soft side, because I knew if this woman died, she would probably perish for all eternity. And I wanted to see her be saved. I wanted to see her come to the truth of God's Word, come to Jesus Christ for salvation. And that was the problem with these apostles here. They just had retribution on their mind. They had just judgment upon their mind. And they just wanted to see the hand of God just wipe these people out. And yes, they were in the wrong, the Samaritans. Yes, they should not have rejected Christ. Yes, they were enemies of God at this point. But at the same time, they also must follow in the path of their Lord. You see, the whole world was Jesus' enemy. Everyone had rejected Christ, including these apostles, until the work of God in their hearts. But what does Jesus do? He's on His way to Jerusalem. To do what? To die that salvation might be provided for those who had rejected Him, for His enemies. He loved even His enemies. And see, that's the problem. They didn't have that in their heart. They didn't have that sensitivity, that love, that grace, that mercy in their heart. And so Jesus is trying to teach them, look, that's not what I'm about. The Son of Man came not to destroy people's lives, but to save them. Not to condemn people's lives, but to save them. And if that's the attitude of the Savior, what ought to be the attitude of His disciples, of those of us who follow the Lord Jesus Christ? And so Jesus here, He rebukes them. He rebukes them for their desire to see these men perish under the wrath of God and for having a spirit towards man that God did not have towards man. You say, well, what type of spirit was that? Well, 2 Peter 3.9, God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. Ezekiel 18.32, for I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord. So turn and live. Ezekiel 18.23, have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not should turn from his evil ways and live? That was the Spirit of God. John 3.17 says, That's the attitude of God. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And so, This is a great reminder for all of us. Maybe there's someone who is in the wrong. Maybe someone who holds views that are unbiblical. Maybe somebody who has views that are not quite right. Maybe it's a brother in Christ that's off a little bit. Maybe it's someone out in the world. Maybe somebody in your family. Maybe your child or whoever it is. This is a reminder that we can have zeal and we can uphold the truth and be straight as a gun barrel with that truth, but yet we ought not have the same spirit and attitude of James and John here. They were zealous, but it was a misguided zeal. It was a zeal without knowledge. They were wrong in the way they were responding to these Samaritans. They used scripture, but did so rashly. They cited the prophets, but cited them in a manner never in such a way they were to be intended to be used. And let me say this, zeal without knowledge is a very dangerous thing. If we have a zeal without knowledge, it's dangerous. One person has said it's like an army without a general. It's like a big ship without a rudder. That's what it's like when we have zeal, but we don't have knowledge, when we don't have mercy and grace accompanying that zeal. Multitudes have done great harm in the kingdom of God with true zeal for the honor of Christ. They may be right, they may be right in what they say, but they just go through like a wrecking ball and they just destroy lives and everybody around them. There are people like this. I've seen people like this. There's probably times, I know there's times I've been like this. And so let this be a warning for us. Yes, we ought to be zealous for the truth. Yes, we ought to be zealous to see people come to know Christ and receive Him by faith. And even if they reject it, we ought to show grace and mercy. We ought to leave judgment up to God. It's also a reminder to show mercy and grace like Christ did. Like Christ did. Think about the mercy of God. What is mercy? Well, it's withholding what we deserve. We deserve wrath. Mercy is God withholding that wrath. That's what mercy is. What is grace? God giving us something we don't deserve. We don't deserve salvation, but God is willing to give it to us. He went and provided it for us through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how we ought to be like God. We ought to care for this heart and the souls of others. We even if they're in the wrong, even if they are, we don't think they're right about something. You can be zealous for the truth, but at the same time show mercy and grace. And this has been the case throughout much of church history that's caused the church to have a spot on it in the eyes of the world. As J.C. Ryle pointed out, nothing can be imagined more contrary to the will of Christ than the religious wars and persecutions which disgrace the annals of church history. Thousands and ten thousands have been put to death for the religion's sake all over the world. Thousands have been burned or shot or hanged or drowned or beheaded in the name of the gospel. And those who have slain them have actually believed that they were doing God a service. Let me give you a few examples of this in church history. In Geneva, there was a man which we all know by the name of John Calvin. in Geneva, Switzerland. And there was also this false teacher who had views of the Trinity that were false. And this man by the name of Michael Servaitis, he was rejected by Protestants and Catholics alike when he came to the Trinity. And there in Geneva, he was rejected, which rightly so, his views ought to have been rejected. But yet, what did they do to this man? Instead of just preaching the Gospel to them, they put him to death. And Calvin, although he wasn't the one who killed the man, he stood behind it all in support of Servetus in 1553. There are other stories similar to this. We know that the Anabaptists, the rebaptizers, we know that many of them were actually drowned by the Reformers who were pro-infant baptism and they decided that if these people wanted baptism, we'll give it to them. We'll drown them. And so they killed the Anabaptists. Then there's others throughout church history as well. We know that Through the years, churches jailed people who held beliefs that were false, hanged witches, shunned unbelievers as though they were untouchable. We want nothing to do with that. I've seen men do that, get to a point where they're so zealous for the truth, and we ought to be zealous for the truth, that they just look down upon anybody that's not like them. including brothers and sisters in Christ. And that's not how we ought to operate. And every time this is done, it brings dishonor to the name of Christ. Yeah, that's not how God responds to the world. Romans 11, 32. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience, so that he may have mercy on them all. And as we see here, that is not the path of our Lord Jesus. That is the path of Jesus. He shows mercy. He shows grace. And He shows mercy to those who have rejected Him. And if someone doesn't receive our message, yeah, we shake it off the dust from our feet and we go on. And yes, we must remember that there will be retribution. It will come. Justice will be served. In fact, when we go over to Luke chapter 10, that's exactly what happens. Jesus will talk to His disciples about those who have rejected the truth. It's not going to be good on that day because the wrath of God is going to eventually fall upon them. But right now, our goal as believers ought to be to take the truth to the world and do it with the right attitude. An attitude of grace and love. Not to condemn men. If Jesus came into this world not to condemn but to save, what should be our attitude? We ought to leave the condemning and the judging up to God. Now, we can judge and say, you're wrong about this. You can say, you're walking in a false teaching and what you're saying is incorrect and you're a heretic and we're going to do church discipline on you if you're a professing believer and you continue to hold to this. We can do all of those things, but at the same time, we ought to have a deep desire to see that person's repentance. As J.C. Ryle rightly put it again, let it be a settled principle in our minds that whatever men's errors may be in religion, we must never persecute them. Let us, if needful, argue with them. Let us reason with them and try to show them a more excellent way. But let us never take up the carnal weapon to promote the spread of truth. Let us never be tempted directly or indirectly to persecute any man under the pretense of the glory of Christ and the good of the church. That ought to be our attitude because it was the attitude of Christ. He came to save them, not to condemn them. Now, had Jesus said, yeah, go ahead. Had they got their wish, James and John, and this fire had fallen from heaven and just wiped them out. Well, Acts chapter 8 and verses 4-8 could have never happened if that would have happened. Because when the church was scattered, because of persecution, after Jesus had died, and He ascended to the Father, and salvation was accomplished, the church went about, they were scattered, and they went about preaching the Word. And listen to this in Acts 8. Philip went down to the city of Samaria. Who rejected Christ? The Samaritans. But later, Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and he proclaimed to them Christ. And the crowds, with one accord, paid attention to what was being said by Philip. When they heard him and saw the signs that he did, for unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many were paralyzed, or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. Philip later goes back to these Samaritans who had once rejected Christ, and now they received Christ. They turned to Him by faith. That's often how it is. You may have somebody that's in your life. Maybe it's a child. Maybe it's a family member. Maybe it's somebody at work. And they just get under your skin. It's like, how can you not see these things? How can you not believe that Christ is the only way? And yet, right now, as you're ministering to them or trying to reach them with the gospel, it's easy just to write them off and say all kinds of bad things about them. We've all done it. And just act like, you know, just disregard them and have no heart for them. It's easy to do that, but let's not forget that these Samaritans were once like that, and later down the road, they came to Christ. How many of you were that way? Maybe your parents, maybe a grandma, grandpa, somebody was preaching to you and telling you the truth, and you didn't want to listen, and you were obstinate. What if they would have just wrote you off and said, have fire come down and consume this guy, or consume this woman? But later on, God began to soften your heart, things began to happen in your life, and here you are today, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must have patience with those on the outside, those who disagree with us. We ought to show mercy and grace towards unbelieving family members, spouses, kids, and to those who do not know the gospel at all. and leave it all up to God what happens to them. We just keep preaching the gospel to them, we keep loving them, and we keep showing them the mercy of God, living out before them the spirit of Christ. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, as we come to you, Lord, please forgive us of all the times that we have been zealous for the truth, and in our zeal for the truth, Lord, we've ran over other people. We have been like a wrecking ball, and we've destroyed lives and turned people away from Christ. Lord, I know that I have done that in my life, and I ask for forgiveness. Lord, I just pray and ask that you would have mercy upon us for all the times that we have harmed relationships, where we have harmed, Lord, relationships with our children by doing this, harmed relationships with spouses and people in society. Lord, I pray that we would be zealous for the truth. We would never stop proclaiming the truth, but at the same time, we would have a desire to see people come to the truth. And I pray that we would show that by our actions and how we interact with them. Lord, we ask these things in Jesus's name. Amen.