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Father, we praise you that you
have made us your chosen, precious children by the sacrifice of
your son in our behalf, Jesus Christ. Thank you in his name. Amen. And be seated. And open your Bibles with me
this morning. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 10, yet again.
We're going to go back to the very beginning of Christianity. It isn't even formally Christianity
yet, but Jesus is sending out his beloved hand-picked 12 apostles,
and he's warning them about what to expect in the world. And it's not a pretty sight.
So let's go right to it. It's chapter 10. I'll read verses
16 to 23 for you this morning. And so Matthew writes, behold,
I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be
wise as serpents and harmless as doves, but beware of men,
for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in
their synagogues You'll be brought before governors and kings for
my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when
they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should
speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should
speak. For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your
father who speaks in you. Now brother will deliver up brother
to death, and a father, his child, and children will rise up against
parents and cause them to be put to death, and you will be
hated by all for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end
will be saved. When they persecute you in the
city, flee to another for assuredly I say to you, you'll not have
gone through the cities of Israel before the son of man comes.
Oh father, we praise you for this, your holy word. May you
be with your servant as I proclaim it father. May you be with the
flock of God this morning as we internalize this, your holy
word. Amen. All right. Not an encouraging set of instructions,
it seems to me. I'm sending you out as sheep.
He's calling them sheep, which are helpless animals. Pastor
Ken used to say, we're all dumb sheep. He used to really emphasize
the dumb part. He always looked at me when he
did that. But he's calling them sheep, which are pretty docile,
innocent, I guess dumb animals and he's putting them out in
the midst of wolves and he's calling society a wolf pack. So he's
warning them to be wise as serpents. and harmless as doves. We've
talked about this already, I'm not going to go into this again
this morning, but that's a difficult combination. A serpent and a
dove, and both must be present in our Christian character as
we witness of Christ in the world. But then he says this in verse
22, you will be hated by all, not you might be hated by all,
not some people might not like you, He's really very strong. You will be hated by all for
my name's sake. You're guilty by association
with me is what he's saying. And then he says this remarkable
statement, but he who endures to the end will be saved. Now this is, as I've said, part
of Jesus' instruction to his 12 apostles as he sends them
out with what? Nothing but a message. They're
not even allowed to bring a change of clothes or a money bag. They
are totally out there, vulnerable in the midst of wolves, as helpless
sheep, hopefully wise as serpents, hopefully harmless as doves,
and hopefully blessed by Christ in their walk. And he tells them,
as I send you out, you'll be hated, you'll be delivered up,
you'll be challenged. So he sends them out really with
nothing but a message. That's really the clothing Christ
gives us. He gives us a message to disseminate
in a world and a place that should have been ready to receive that
message but wasn't. As Paul said in another place,
or they would not have killed the Lord of glory. He tells them
that they will be hated, but that they must endure. It could
be condensed to simply saying, endure hatred until the end. Endure hatred until the end. So how is it, how is that friends
for a gospel message? You will be hated, but endure
it until the end. He who endures hatred until the
end will be saved. The implication is he who does
not endure it, who gives up the message, who tires of being hated
for Christ's sake, I have to assume will not be saved. I've had people ask me over the
years, Pastor, how long do I have to do these things? How long
must I love my enemies? And I would say, you're in luck,
only one lifetime. And they might ask, Pastor, how
long must I give to him who asks and forgive those who offend
me and make offerings to the church and keep the Sabbath?
How long, Pastor? And I would say, not long, only
until the end of your life or the end of the world, whichever
comes first. And so Jesus instructs his disciples to endure. Friends,
we're put here to endure. And if you think that he's being
dramatic, he later says to them, take heed that no one deceives
you. All right, there are deceivers
out there. Many will come in my name saying,
I am the Christ. and will deceive many, and you
will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Boy, is not that the
way of humanity? Somebody calculated how many
years from then till now have been warless years. How many
years of peace in the earth? I think somebody came up with
a number. There's been four peaceful years since then. Wars and rumors of wars are abundant. They are perpetual. See that
you're not troubled. Things are really bad, but see
that you're not troubled. For all these things must come
to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against
nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famine, pestilence,
earthquakes in various places. And these are the beginning of
sorrows. Then they will deliver you up
to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all
nations for my name's sake. So they're going to hate you
until they kill you, and they're going to hate you after they
kill you. And then many will be offended, will betray one
another, and will hate one another. This will turn the church against
itself, it seems. It's too hard. then many false prophets will
rise up and deceive many. How does a false prophet deceive
us in a time like that? He softens the message. He softens
the message because of a fear of men. Paul talks at length
about that elsewhere. And then he says, because lawlessness
will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But again, he
says, he who endures to the end shall be saved. There's the gospel. That is difficult. That's not the popular evangelical
slogans that we're used to, is it? Now somewhere in that prediction,
in that diatribe of Jesus Christ, I'm certain that it's implied
that God loves you and that he will never leave you nor forsake
you, that he will send the helper to assist you Friends, but the gospel of Christ
is far more consequential than some of the evangelical slogans
we peddle today and put forth uncritically as gospel truths.
It seems to me that the Christianity that defined those times, friends,
the Christianity that the Savior calls the disciples to endure
is a death sentence. And we know from history that
it was to those 12 apostles. It's a death sentence with regard
to this life, but it's a life sentence with regard to the next. Indeed, the more we can bring
ourselves to live for eternity in the here and now, the better
equipped we are to endure the hardships of these times and
prepare for the glory of future times, eternal times. So I'm going to make an observation,
friends. It seems almost needless to say
that Christianity is in a better place in our day than it was
in that day. Can I get away with saying that?
I can't stand here and tell you you're all going to be killed
for Christ, but he just told them that, and it was true. And
that better place that we are in is due to the endurance of
the hardship experience by those who went before us. You don't
see a lot of Christians burning at the stake today. Although, as I pointed out many
times, we tend in our delicate era to put forth more palatable
and more positive and more popular themes of Christianity than what
the gospel actually calls for. We say God loves you, and surely
he does. The only enigmatic part, the
only puzzling part, the only part you have to figure out in
those three words, God loves you, is who are the you. Right? Paul, on the other hand, makes
some distinctions. He doesn't just blatantly say,
God loves you. He says, you are the aroma of
death leading to death to those who are perishing. Those who
come with the gospel, they smell like death. True Christianity is an aroma
of death to those who are perishing. In fact, I would say to you that
the many testimonies of God's love for us is the empowering
agent that allows us to endure until the end. Thank God we know
he loves us. Or it would be quite difficult
to strap on those instructions each day and go out as sheep
in the midst of wolves. Well, let me give you some samples
from Romans 5, 8. We read, God shows his love for
us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Friends, he didn't love us because
we were lovable. He loved us for some unknown
reason that it pleased him to love us. We know from gospel of John that
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. John 3 16. So we know that he loved us.
We read this also God being rich, being rich in mercy because of
the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead
in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace
you have been saved. The enigma there again is who
are the us? Now, if us is the whole world, and it seems to
me sometimes it's preached that way, but Paul here is writing
to the saints. The New Testament is written
to those who love Christ. That's the you of the New Testament,
and that's the us of the New Testament. Greater love has no
man than this, that he would lay his life down for his friend. And so God surely speaks of love
for somebody. The Old Testament speaks volumes
of God's enduring love for the saints from Zephaniah. When's
the last time you turned to Zephaniah? The Lord your God is in your
midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you
with gladness. That ought to keep you going
in a tough place. The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness.
And if that doesn't do it, think about this. He will quiet you
by his love. He'll calm you. He'll quiet you
by His love, and He will exalt over you with loud singing. God Himself will sing of His
love for the saints. That ought to give us some confidence
to endure. You know, it's been debated as to whether the angels
actually sang. We always say the angels sang.
Hark, the herald angels sing. It doesn't really say the angels
sang anywhere in scripture. Now, I know you're all going
to go home and check me out, but I think you're going to find out that
I was right. But here it says God actually does some singing.
Friends, Jeremiah too extols the love of God. He said, the
Lord appeared to him far away. I have loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you, God says
in this case to Jeremiah, to his prophet. But as soon as we
can reconcile these twin concepts of gospel truths, the better
equipped we are to answer the why me and the how long questions
of life. Why me, oh Lord, and how long?
All we have to do is look back at Jeremiah's life and say, how
much he endured, and look how much the Lord loved him, both
at the same time. He certainly loves the apostles,
but he's telling them how much they're going to have to endure,
and how long they must do it, just one lifetime. So when we
can reconcile those twin concepts, we will be better prepared to
answer the why me's and the how long's of life. How many times
have you said it in prayer? I have, how long, oh Lord, must
I endure this? Why me? Oh Lord, what have I
done? Surely both hardship and endurance
of hardship and love and rejoicing in his love go hand in hand in
the Christian life, if the Christian life is rightly lived. He promised
them that he would be with them to the end, but he also stipulated
that the years that they had left would be difficult, even
violent years. It ought to come to us with no
small amazement that in a world where the multitudes of needy
pilgrims came to the Messiah for healing and received it when
they came, that Jesus would still need to warn his apostles of
this sort of needless antagonism against the Savior and his close
disciples. They will hate you. After all, I've done for you. You will hate me, Jesus is saying. They came with miraculous cures
for the most debilitating diseases of the times. They were commissioned
to go and to preach as they go. As you go, preach, he said. So
they were commissioned to go, but they didn't go empty-handed,
friends. They came with healing in their
wings. They came with food. They even fed the multitudes
when they came. They came on a divine mission
with divine powers and a divine message and divine instructions from
Christ. He said, you freely received now freely give. Have you got
on your knees and thanked God for all the blessings that you
revel in today? And if you have, recognize you
freely received them, and now it's incumbent upon us to freely
give. There were no collections when
they came. There were no offerings. There
was no charge for the services, services that the apostles rendered.
They just came and freely gave. Jesus came and freely gave. No
one paid him for his sacrifice. He just gave it. Now, I think it was Harry Truman.
Everybody know who Harry Truman is? I think it was Harry Truman
who first said, we could accomplish so much if no one cared about
who got the credit. I know Ronald Reagan said it
later, but I think he was quoting Harry Truman. I didn't look it
up. I'm going from memory. Sometimes
I do that. It gets me in trouble. We could accomplish so much if
no one cared who got the credit. You see, they were envious of
Jesus. The religious elite that hated
him were angry that he got credit for what they wished they could
have done. Multitudes were not following after the scribes and
the Pharisees in those times. Right? When men call bad things
good things, suspect envy. You see that a lot today. Men
call bad things good things. It's terrible. News media, so
untrustworthy. Isaiah wrote of that very thing.
He said, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who
put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter
for sweet and sweet for bitter. When the Lord appeared on the
scene, he not only eclipsed the presence and popularity of the
religious elite of the day, but he did what prophets traditionally
did. Prophets weren't sent into the
world to tell people how good and deserving they were. You
go through the scriptures and you'll find that I'm right about
that. Prophets were sent to tell people how bad they were and
to repent. He rebuked the current leaders and the so-called wise
men of the moment, not to mention kings and emperors. Jesus interfered
with people in high places. He spoke truth to power. Now
I can reproduce for you many instances of such occasions.
From the great sermon on the mount he proclaimed, I say to
you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees, you'll by no means enter the kingdom
of heaven. In other words, you're all sitting here, the multitudes
are here on the hill, and we all know that the scribes and
Pharisees are the righteous people of society. Well, they're not
righteous enough, Jesus said. You've got to shoot higher than
that. Now that was an unpopular thing to say, and the leaders
certainly weren't going to take it lightly. He said elsewhere,
I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have
hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babes. In other words, you're going
to leave here the mountain today after my sermon, and you're going
to know things that these wise men don't know. He said, oh, faithless and perverse
generation, how long will I be with you? Faithless and perverse
generation, how long will I bear with you? The scribes and Pharisees,
he said, sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they tell
you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according
to their works, for they say, and do not do. In other words,
they break all their campaign promises. But all their works
they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries
broad. You know what phylacteries are?
They're little scripture containers. And they wore them right on their
heads. Sometimes on their arm, I think. It's a little box. Jews do it today. They call it
a tefillin. And they put scripture verses in this box and they tie
it to their forehead. as sort of a monument that the
Word of God is in my head and in my heart. And he said, they
make their phylacteries broad. In other words, they take the
whole Bible, I guess, and put it up there. They enlarge the
borders of their garments. What does that mean? Well, they
had embroidered scriptures on the garments. They were very
beautifully clad. They love the best places at
feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the
marketplaces, and to be called Rabbi, Rabbi. They like that. I like to be called Your Grace. Someone said to me this morning,
hi, Pastor Dan. I said, I prefer Your Grace. And they did that. They laughed. In other words,
he exalted the faith of foreigners, and he decried the faithlessness
of the Jews. Have you ever noticed how insulting
that was to the Jews? We saw it just recently. He said
to a Roman soldier, assuredly I say to you, I have not found
such great faith, not even in Israel. And then he could have
said, where it was supposed to be found. I can't find faith
among my people. I wonder how much of that we
could apply in our day. in our lives. He reminded the
religious leaders of the Gentiles of old, whom the Lord regarded
as blessed. He spoke of a Syrian. He spoke
of a Phoenician. Now, Phoenicia refers to Lebanon,
and those are the nations right above Israel. They're still there
today. They still have trouble with Israel today, and they did
then. They were not friendly to Israel
for most of their existence, even to this day. And Jesus goes
out and exalts a Syrian and exalts a Lebanese person, a Phoenician.
And so he says, assuredly I say to you, I've not found such,
oh, I'm sorry. He said many widows were in Israel in the days of
Elijah. So he's going back some hundreds
of years, but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath
in the region of Sidon. The widow of Zarephath was not
a Jew. Elijah could have gone to many needy widows in Israel,
but he went to one Phoenician woman. And then he says, and
many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet.
And none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. It
was extremely objectionable that the prophet of Nazareth would
not exalt the favored status of the chosen people, but he
would exalt these people, but he's proving it to them through
scripture. He would exalt. outsiders before
his own people, it seemed. And that would certainly irritate
his detractors. He outwitted them in their accusations
against him at every turn. Wise men don't like that, when
you outwit them. Most notably, when they asked
about taxes, remember that? He said, render to Caesar that
which is Caesar's, and to God that which is God's. There's
an implication there, friends. Caesar is not God. You see, Caesar
claimed to be God in that time. King of kings, he was called.
That was his title, by the way, Augustus. And so Jesus made no
attempt to be merely polite when he spoke of the indiscretions
of the elite. He took the prophet's role. Prophets
don't adhere well to social custom. Have you noticed that as you
read your Old Testament? They don't adhere well to social custom. It's been said that pastors comfort
the saints and prophets convict them. Jesus does both these things
at once and it seems to me that's the role of a good pastor, to
do both. So suspect envy, always envy. Envy came among the elite
even before the birth of Christ. Imagine that, he's not even born
yet, the wise men come into Jerusalem, they run into Herod the Great,
and they tell him, because this would be protocol, kings from
a far country, they called them Magi, right? They came in, they
went right to the king of the Jews at the time, and they said
to him, we've come because we've seen the star of your savior
in the east, and poor Herod's there pouring over his blueprints
for building greater monuments and things in the city of Jerusalem,
and completely forgot about the stars. But these holy men from
other lands came in, and told him, we came to find the Messiah.
He's been born. And they were duped by Herod,
of course, into giving up where he was. So even before he was
born, people were envious of his position. Herod must've been
sitting there in his chambers thinking, boy, wise men never
came to the East to worship me. He duped them into informing
against the newborn Messiah and famously sought to extinguish
him from the earth, not even considering the collateral damage
to the several or many other infants and families that suffered
in the carnage. You remember? So when Jesus speaks
of opposition, when he speaks of antagonism against his disciples,
against his mission, against his message, he speaks with spiritual
discernment. There's a spiritual enemy out
there. There's an invisible enemy afoot
who plants designs against the cause of Christ in the minds
of unsuspecting men, even wise men. Hence, this speech and this
instruction that we're looking at today. He knows that his disciples
will go out into a hate-filled, antagonistic world. I don't know
that it's changed so much. As I've said, it seems to have. We're not seeing a lot of Christians
burned at the stake today, but we're not seeing a lot of Christians
preach a difficult gospel like this one. And so he concludes, you'll be
hated by all for my name's sake. In other words, you're guilty
of sacrilege before you take a step in my behalf because of
your association with me." It's sacrilege to be associated with
Jesus. Remember when he healed the blind man? Bartimaeus, Gospel
of John, go to. He healed the blind man. And
the Pharisee didn't like that. Everyone saw it happen. They
knew this man since birth. He was blind. And he came in
and what did they do? What happened? They went to the
man's parents to ask the parents if he was born blind and if he
could now see. And what did the parents say?
Jesus said, mother will turn against daughter and father against
son. They said, oh, our son's of age. Go ask him. We're not
going to get in trouble with you guys. and get thrown out
of the synagogue. So they went and asked Bartimaeus,
if you remember this, and he said, who? He said, do you call
this man the Messiah? He said, well, I don't know,
but he healed me, a man born blind. It's never happened before.
What would you call him? Is basically what he said. And
what did they do? They threw him out of the synagogue.
There was a price to pay for saying a simple, obvious truth
about Christ and associating yourself with him. So he gets specific. Verse 17, he says, beware of
men. They will deliver you up to councils
and scourge you in their synagogues. Jesus didn't simply say prepare
for the worst, but rather he says unambiguously that the worst
is coming. That's, I mean, being delivered
up to councils and killed is about the worst, I think, right?
It's one of the conundrums of history that holy men are repudiated
in holy places. Why is it that the place of Christ's
greatest antagonism was in the synagogue where he was being
preached up until the time where he showed up? The synagogue system was a phenomenon
of the intertestamental period. You don't see it in the Old Testament.
It just appears. It happened in between the two
testamental times, 400 years in between, right? And so the,
the system was there. It was like the local church
system. And it's the precursor to that idea, right? We don't
say they don't belong there because Jesus didn't say that Paul preached
in the synagogues, right? They simply pop up. They're simply
there and Jesus goes to them. That's the place where they were
supposed to be learning the scriptures. Learning what Pastor Bill read
today from Isaiah, right? That sounded like it was New
Testament teaching. They became the precursors of
the local churches, the synagogues, and the Lord never repudiated
their existence. We therefore accept them as developments
of the time. But an application for our time
would certainly include a warning that the churches do not fall
into the role of accepting those they should reject and rejecting
those they should embrace. The synagogue system accepted
the people that decried the Messiah when he showed up and repudiated
him. They accepted them, but they
rejected the Messiah himself and his disciples. The churches
should be taught to receive the message of Christ with all the
harbingers of rejection and violence against the saints, as well as
the promises of peace and protection. It's about the message, friends.
Remember when the disciples of John came to Jesus and they said
to him, are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for
another? He didn't say, yeah, it's me. That's me. He didn't
say that. Do you remember what he said?
He said, go tell John that the blind see and the leopards, the
leopards, the leopards are cleansed, the blind see, the leopards are
cleansed, the leopards have changed their spots. There was a method to my madness.
and the dead are raised, and blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord." He identified himself by his message. It was
almost like a secret password. You know? Tell John this. And then John, who knew the message,
of course, could rest in the fact that the Messiah was here. So just as churches, friends,
come with pastors, synagogues come with rulers. Remember rulers?
Remember Jairus? daughter died and Jesus went
he was the ruler of he was he was Peter's local pastor so to
speak in the synagogue in Capernaum where Peter lived and he came
in and he raised the daughter of Jairus now there's some good
rulers and there's some bad rulers and having a Having said that, that some are
good and some are bad, I think we could safely assume that even
the good ones were still misinformed. Nobody was really ready to accept
Jesus. He went to his hometown of Nazareth
and was run out in fear of his life, right? And up until that point, they
would have preached the coming of Messiah. The gospel records
do not deal so much with the council spoken of by Jesus. They'll
deliver you up to councils. You don't see a lot of that in
the, in the gospels, but the book of acts is rife with such
things, isn't it? The disciples are in front of
counselors and Kings all over the place. Steven, one of the
first deacons of the church was the first to go. In Acts chapter
seven, he takes them on a long tour of scriptural truths and
the so-called synagogue of the freed men, right? And he preaches
biblical history pointing to Christ. And then accuses them
of murdering their Messiah. They didn't like that. They rise
up against Steve and stone him to death for his trouble. They
stoned him to death for his message. The things he told them were
not flattering things, friends, but they were true. The gospel
is not always polite. And then we read, and they cast
him out of the city and stoned him, Acts 7, 58. And such as
the gospel and such were those times. Imagine, friends, claiming
that one Jewish holy man healing another of his countrymen was
somehow an abomination to God. His timing was off. Did it on
the wrong day, in the wrong way. And all of that began in synagogues
and continue to take place in synagogues as a result of the
healings of Jesus and the apostles. Now I might've entitled the sermon,
Jesus goes political, but I thought not, but let's not miss the very
next verse and what it says. Verse 18, you will be brought
before governors. and kings for my sake as a testimony
to them and to the Gentiles." In other words, my 12 hand-picked
holy men are going to witness of Christ before governors and
kings. Is that a fair reading of what
we just saw? So I tell you that there are a plethora That means
many historical examples of government interfering with religious enterprises
to the detriment of religion. We see that all throughout the
scripture, all throughout the books of the kings. We saw it
with Jeroboam. Jeroboam rose up. in the North, in the Ten
Tribes, we call them, right? And he became king, and what
did he do? He set up idols, golden calves, no less, in Bethlehem
and Dan, so it would be nice and convenient, you know, so
you could go out and worship the idolatry. And he required
idolatrous worship. That's government interfering
in religion for the bad, not for the good, right? Government-mandated idolatry
has been the hallmark of history, friends. The government mandates
idolatry throughout the scriptures. Let's not forget the statue of
Nebuchadnezzar that he required people to bow down to. The bronze
idol, right? Or was it a golden idol? Shadrach,
Meshach, Abednego, you remember those names, they wouldn't bow
to it. They couldn't bow to it. They'd rather go to the flames
and burn. Instead, they went to the flames and were protected. But government interaction with
religion that has aided the cause of Christ is rarer, but it has
happened. Now, when I began to speak today,
I noted that Christianity is in a better place today than
it was in that day. I think it is. I base the statement
on the fact that we need not presume to be hated. I don't
think we all presume that when someone finds out we're a Christian
that they will hate us. But in Christ's day they did
because they were associated with him and the leaders said
he was a false messiah, false prophet, right? In fact, we might
even be respected in some quarters due to our spiritual status as
believers in Christ. You ever have someone take the
Lord's name in your presence, and they go, oh, I'm sorry, I
didn't see you there, or something like that. I have that happen
a lot to me. And I say, well, it's not about
me being here. It's God who's offended by that. So it's also true that things
are better for us with regard to our public witness than for
them, and that formal government regulations contributed to the
dissemination of truth in the world, and most specifically
in our land. Famously throughout the world,
as a precedent of all history, we have what? A First Amendment.
That's government saying we have no power in this area, we leave
religion to you. That's what the Bill of Rights
is. Those are the things that our founders wisely said government
could not government does not rule in. They do not rule in
areas of personal conscience and speech and worship and such
things. And so we read this, Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom
of speech or the press or the right of people to peaceably
assemble like we're doing now. We're assembling peacefully.
Government can't tell us we can't do it. If they do, we have redress. We take them to court. And they
look at this and they say, you shouldn't have gone in and bothered
those people. They have a right to do it. That's because Christian men who went before
us took the blows that earned us those rights. And who did
they say the rights came from? They're endowed by our creator,
they said. So sometimes it's for the good. And I think maybe
Christianity is in a better place today than it was then. A lot of government officials claim
to be Christians. But whatever you think of mixing
religion and politics, an informed Christian should know that constitutional
freedoms with regard to speech and belief are enshrined in the
laws of our land. Indeed, Christianity may flourish
and did flourish in such a culture where government found its place
before God. Nebuchadnezzar learned that the
hard way, right? But he found his place before
God. That's my reading of the book of Daniel. and it found its place due to
the Christian influences of our founders and a profound fear
of God and respect for Jesus Christ. My fear, however, I should
say, my observation, is that in many cases the church has
pandered to government. In other words, we've become
so tame. What did C.S. Lewis say? He's
not a tame lion, right? When he talked about Aslan, the
symbol of Christ in the Chronicles of Narnia. The church isn't supposed
to be a tame lion. Are we a little too tame, maybe,
that the government has no argument with us anymore? You know, with
our little pride flags on the buildings? You know, Daniel was
searching for a church in Boston and finally he was not happy
with the with the assortment that was available to him, and
friends of him were saying, well, why don't you try this shirt?
Do you know what he asked him? First question, do you have a
pride flag hanging on your building? No? He said, I'll give it a try.
That's where it's come, I mean. I had a friend of mine say, having
a religious conversation, and I mentioned the freedom of religion
in our land, and he said this, thought himself very wise to
have said this, there's nothing wrong with any of the religions.
And I thought to say, except that they all preach falsehood
except for Christianity. That's the only thing I can see
that's really wrong with them, you know. There's only one true
approach to God, and that would be the message of the gospel,
Christ and the Bible, right? But, you know, we think ourselves
very magnanimous. I mean, the church is like, oh, no, there's
nothing wrong with the other religions. No, except that they're all wrong.
They're false in what they teach. Our subject today would almost
certainly violate current perceptions of polite discourse. Friends,
how can anyone reject a gospel of love in a world of safe spaces
and microaggressions? To run around and say God loves
you, nobody's going to argue with that, you know? But when
you start exegeting who the you is of Scripture and who the us
is of Scripture, it gets a little more feisty between the participants. So the church and the world will
not be morally reconciled or theologically agreeable, ever.
And as soon as it seems so, We all ought to be suspect and I
for one have been suspect for a long time. I think our president is kidding
when he speaks of solving the world's problems and preventing
the scourges of war as the path to heaven. Have you heard him
say this? He says it a lot now. He says it a lot, well, if that
doesn't get me in, you know, he says, I think he's being facetious,
but we're not sure, right? So what does that tell me? He's
surrounded by well-known religious leaders, right? Well-known Christian
leaders, some better than others I think but does he really think
if he solves the Ukraine thing that that's the path to heaven
that's a great thing and I'll tell you I hope he solves it
and I pray that he solves it and as a church we've prayed
that he solves it but we get to heaven through the blood of
Christ through faith in his person and in his promises so I'm still
wary of the probability that the spiritual advises he has
before him advocate that very thing I was watching Fox News
the other day, and that came up. It was one of the shows where
there's several pundits. There's always these shows where
there's several pundits talking with each other. And they weren't
being real formal about it, but a lot of them claimed to be Christians
on some of the conservative networks, right? You know that. And they
were bantering around people who have written religious books
and have Bible study courses online, you know, that are news
journalists and stuff. They weren't really sure about
the path to heaven. And one of them said, you know,
I just read a book about that today and apparently you can't
do anything to earn heaven. You just have to have faith in
Christ. And they're like, you know, I've heard that. I mean,
it was like, this was like new stuff. So in other words, these
people that said they were Christians and put themselves forth as Christian
leaders don't know the basic thing of Christianity. Friends,
that's not a Christianity that anyone's going to object to.
Oh, just do good things and you'll be fine. No one objects to that. You know why they don't? Because
they think they're good. They think they're, what would
they say? Good enough. Right? We're good enough. No, I think the president's kidding
when he speaks of solving the world's problems as the path
to heaven. When he speaks of, you know,
stopping all the death and carnage and destruction, which is a wonderful
goal for him to have, Christ is called the Prince of Peace,
right? But it's not the path to heaven.
We can't mix the two. Somebody has to stand up and
say that to him. So the true gospel is hidden
behind peace motives between earthly aggressors. Surely peace
is better than war. What is forgotten, however, is
that humanity is at war against God. And that's rarely mentioned
in such circles. There are several denominations
today who openly embrace secular morality as a God-honored standard. And pride flags fly on the grounds
of many such places of worship today and are heralded as speaking
God's thoughts after Him. Well, why wouldn't you be okay
with that? God loves everybody, right? Verse 19, though. But when they deliver you up,
do not worry about how or what you should speak, for it will
be given to you in that hour what you should speak." This
is not an encouragement for lazy preachers. And I've heard it
preached that way. This is not even in the context
of preachers. This is talked about when an
antagonistic world arrests you for your message, as happened
to the apostles after the time of Christ, right? Certainly all
throughout the book of Acts. After they arrest you and imprison
you and put you before them to explain yourself, he's saying
the Holy Spirit will be with you at that time. He doesn't
say you'll win your case. He says he'll give you what to
say. That doesn't mean, as I've said, I had a gentleman say to
me recently, and this is nothing new, I can't listen to your sermons
because you prepare them. They're not from the Holy Spirit.
I'm supposed to come up here, I suppose, and just stand here
and go, oh, there it is. Now I can talk. I mean, the Holy Spirit always
came to Pat Robertson right on cue. When he looked out to the
camera and he could see the earache in Idaho and the dandruff in
Denver, and he would heal all these people. He did things the
apostles couldn't even do. And I thought, here's a great
man who's done some great things. But that was ridiculous. That
wasn't gospel teaching at all. It will be given to you in that
hour what you should say. So call it preaching politics
or mixing faith with political policy. But don't miss the implication
from our passage today that God is present also in political
arenas. He's present in political arenas.
Or do you forget 1 Samuel, where Samuel came in and anointed Saul?
And God told Saul when he goes in and takes the Amalekites not
to take their stuff, which was the custom in war to do, right? He told them not to take their
stuff, and then Samuel comes in and he says, why do I hear
sheep bleeding? Why do I hear sheep? He goes,
oh, well, the people did that. It's kind of like what Aaron
said when they made the golden calf. Well, we just threw in
our jewelry and a calf came out. Right? He knew it was wrong,
and here was God's prophet straightening out God's king. The prophet was above the king.
There's a great scene in an old movie that I saw once. I don't
know how old the movie was. It was about David. And there
was the scene when Samuel came up to the cave, where Saul was
in there reveling over his victory over the Amalekites, and the
sheep were bleeding in the background. And the two soldiers threw their
swords across the opening of the cave when the prophet came
up with his prophet's robe. And Samuel threw the swords aside
and he said, since when did the affairs of state take precedent
over the affairs of God? No, God interfered in politics
all the time. He went right in there, he sent
his prophet in there, and he told the king, your days are
done. God has found another in the house of Jesse. Right? Let's not forget. that Jesus
himself spoke truth to religion in his home synagogue of Nazareth,
where he and his message were summarily rejected. Let's not
forget that he commented on national leaders and national policy when
it suited his agenda. When some of the Pharisees informed
him that Herod wants to kill you, he said, go tell that fox. Could you imagine a Billy Graham
type saying that about a president or a king or a pope? Go tell that fox, behold, I cast
out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third
day I shall be perfected. Called the King of Fox. Although
I want to tell you, Herod wasn't really a king. This is the son
of the Herod at Jesus' birth. This is Herod Antipas. He wasn't
even a king, he was a Tetrarch. He liked to call himself king. He was a king over a quarter
of his father's kingdom. when one governor said to Jesus,
do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release
you? Jesus said, you could have no power at all against me unless
it had been given you from above. He could have just said, you
know, Pilate, I really don't talk on political issues. I don't
get into that. It's not my lane. I'm a holy
man. You're a government man. We really
have very little to say to each other. No, he didn't say that.
He said, therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater
sin. So what will you say when you're
delivered before councils and kings, governors and princes?
Will you say, sorry, governor, I'm not commissioned to mix politics
and religion? Or will you say that what Jesus
said to one governor, you have no power except that given you
from above? And then open up to Romans 13. When Paul was before king and
governor at the same time, Festus and Agrippa, who was a Herod,
Herod Agrippa II. He was the son of Herod Agrippa
I from Acts chapter 12. This is Acts chapter 26. Festus, the governor of the region,
said to him, Paul, you are beside yourself. Much learning is driven
you mad. At least he gave Paul credit
for having much learning. I always thought that was good
of him. Much learning has driven you mad. And Paul said, I am
not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and
reason. For the king, before whom I also speak freely, he
said, knows these things. Why did Paul say, I speak freely
before the king? because he was a Roman citizen.
He knew his rights. He was brought before Agrippa,
and he knows he can speak freely, and the king must allow it. For the king before whom I also
speak freely knows these things, for I am convinced that none
of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done
in a corner. And then he turns to Agrippa,
King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you
do. The Herods were great scholars of the scriptures, friends. He
says, I know you believe the prophets. And Agrippa said to
Paul, you almost persuade me to become a Christian. But since
you mixed politics and religion, I'm rejecting it. No, he said,
you almost persuade me to become a Christian. How is that a bad
thing? And Paul said, I would to God that not only you, but
also all who hear me today might become both almost and altogether
such as I am, except for these chains. It's an awesome thing
to say to him. And yes, I don't believe Paul
thought of it ahead of time. I think the Holy Spirit told
him that on the spot. And that's why it's in here.
And if the Holy Spirit tells you something on the spot, we
ought to add that to the Bible. That's what always irks me when
people say, oh no, you've got to wait for the Holy Spirit.
With the Holy Spirit speaking to me directly, I ought to write it down and
publish it as Book 67. I would to God that not only
you, but also all who hear me today, which are all these government
officials sitting around in the council, might become both almost
and altogether such as I am, except for these chains." And
where did Paul go when he left the king's presence? He went
into the presence of the emperor, Caesar Augustus. Actually, by
that time, I think it was Nero. Father, we ask that you give
us a balance in what we do and what we see in your Word. We
recognize differences of times, differences of development, but
the same message echoes down through the ages. We are given
it originally. We preach the same message today,
not changing jot or tittle, Father, and striving by the advocacy
of the Holy Spirit who lives and reigns in us, O Lord, to
speak accurately your truths. to a wicked and wayward world. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Hated by all P23
Series Sermon on the Mt: Beatitudes
| Sermon ID | 82425161466011 |
| Duration | 56:08 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 10:16-23 |
| Language | English |
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