Don't Give To Dogs What Is Holy by Tim Conway

the lord knows best and undoubtedly there are truths associated with what we're going to look at right here that in our day are most especially needed do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs let's they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you and father i would ask you to help me now preach help us all to hear and to not just be hears help us to be doers of the word we pray for the grace of our god to empower us in a way that we need to be strengthened and helped i ask that in the name of the lord jesus christ amen so do not give dogs what is holy do not throw your pearls before pigs or before swine i just ask you this have you ever noticed the animals of scripture does ever strike you just verses like this paul says in first corinthians chapter 15 i fought with beasts at ephesus you notice that kind of language it's very interesting this this sort of language is everywhere in our bibles psalm 22 we could have read there before the lord's supper but jesus christ from the cross in psalm 22 he says this many bulls encompass me strong bulls of beishan surround me again dogs encompass me a company of evildoers encircles me they pierce my hands and feet deliver my soul from the sword my precious life from the power of the dog so you see it here you see bulls bulls of beishan you see dogs the power of the dog he says save me from the mouth of the lion you've rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen the psalmist pleads in psalm 74 do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts isaiah 41 says fear not you worm there he's still in the animal kingdom but now what is a worm a worm is not an insect what are they somebody got the latin word for it anyway it's it's the animal kingdom undoubtedly but we get this we get this language john the baptist what did john the baptist say to the pharisees when they were coming to his baptism so this this is not foreign to us if we pay any attention to the scriptures get away from here herod wants to kill you and jesus said to them go and tell that fox or you get this behold i'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves or to his disciples he says behold i've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions their serpents and scorpions don't so much mean men and women as much as demons but acts 20 29 paul tells the ephesian elders i know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock so what's with all the animal metaphors we get them all over the scriptures i get the feeling of this do you ever notice god never takes an animal and calls it by a human name he doesn't say you know of that sheep over there look at fred but he often looks at people and he gives them the title of animals and it's everywhere in your bible and you get the feeling that one of the reasons that god created the animals with certain traits and characteristics is to be a reflection of of us oftentimes i know there's other reasons why he did that for his glory but one of the things that undoubtedly were confronted with is this kind of terminology throughout our bible i would just say this what what kind of animal are you most like here's the thing in the text before us jesus jesus is telling us there are people in the world that you need to identify as being pigs and dogs and you don't want to throw your pools before them probably nobody here would be ready to admit that that's what you are and yet jesus says that there are people that are just like this i mean in the text before us today we have we have these two-legged sorts of pigs and dogs do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs unless they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you and you know what this isn't the only time that pigs and dogs are mentioned in the new testament you can probably think if you just let your mind in fact that peter gives us a text that likewise has both dogs and pigs in it what the true proverb says has happened to them the dog returns to its own vomit he's talking about people here and the sow after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire so he's talking about somebody that's been exposed to the truth and they seemingly go on with christ for a season and they go back there to their old sin they go back to their vomit they go back to their mire just like a dog just like a fig or you get this in philippians chapter 3 the the philippian christians are told to beware of the dogs the the circumcision basically the jews that were god rejecters christ haters or you get this all the way at the end of our bibles in the book of revelation do you know who's out there in the outer darkness the dogs what what just think with me about that outside are the dogs and it says and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral murderers idolaters everyone who loves and practice the false but have you ever stopped i mean all these things the the fornicators the adulterers i mean murders we recognize though that terminology but sorcerers why to start with the term dogs the dogs are out there to be a dog in scripture is not a good thing that ought to be really we're not talking these little cute lap dogs that that's not the idea here so let's get to the heart of this text what's our lord teaching us i mean here's the thing the first five verses judge not you know the world loves that judge not judge not that's verse 1 but then what does verse 6 imply verse 6 implies that we're required to judge who the pigs and the dogs are what jesus is doing in verse 6 is he's assuming that his people are going to have the ability to discern the dog from the not dog i mean that's that's listen he's expecting that we're going to be able to say that guy over there is a dog you say judge not well wait whatever his judge not means it's gotta it's it's it doesn't contradict this reality that we have to be able to identify this what you'll remember from the first five verses which we looked at two weeks ago is what he's really condemning his hypocritical judgment that's that's what's being forbidden but the the reality is that we need to judge with righteous judgment listen brethren one of the reasons that this text is so important in our day it's just basically this you know the church is the pillar and ground of the truth there is a truth we have to be people that actually are willing to say there is a truth and you hold to that truth or you don't hold to that truth or what you're teaching is not truth you say judge not wait that's not what jesus never meant to use judge not in that sense he meant not to use it in the way where we're judging somebody with a speck in their eye when we have the inability to judge our own selves when we got something much greater wrong with us that's hypocritical judgment but the fact that we are supposed to be discerning people is everywhere in our bibles brethren you need to cling to the good you need to hate the bad that's what scripture tells us to do if you're going to be a christian and you're actually going to make it to glory you've got to be a person of truth it's the truth that sets us free it's the truth that's behind the gospel we are people of truth and the church is the pillar and ground of truth listen we live in a day when people don't like truth people don't like when there's preachers who set forth truth dogmatically and they tell the world and they preach from this book they don't you know a lot of the flack we get when when we're trying to tell people about the truth is they want to attack this book and the bible don't be surprised at that the devil's attacked this book from the very beginning yeah as god said he attacked the word of god from the very beginning and he goes after it still why because he's a liar and see he hates the truth brethren we need to be people of truth and we need to be people that are discerning and we need to be people that can actually say of a truth that guy is a pig or she is a swine and you know what we need to be able to say it because that's what jesus expects from us he expects us to be able to have that kind of discernment if there are if there are people in this world that are bulls that are wild oxen that are dogs that are pigs that are doves that are beasts and on and on well he expects us to be able to recognize who these people are and to distinguish them and especially right here it's one thing if you if you basically just have some kind of indicative where it's just describing something that's true in the world but the fact is right here we're actually being told to do something and so our ability to recognize such people is important if we're actually going to carry out what the lord wants from us and what does the lord want from us the lord wants us to do something or not do something based on what a person is and so if you come across people that are dogs and pigs he expects us to be able to figure that out and brethren we you recognize this we live in a day where there is a massive lack of discernment where people it's we we live in a relativistic world nobody wants to hear that there is actually a truth out there it's okay as long as you're searching for the truth or you you never have actually gotten there but as soon as you stand up and say i know what the truth is then everybody hates you then they they can't abide that they can't tolerate that indifference to cl to clarity on things and then brethren this is rampant in the church not being able to express things not being able to say things how they are we need to be people that can actually call something black that's black and white that's white we need to be able to say what's true you know the thing about truth truth is true and truth can be examined and it can be looked at from different angles and it's still true and we don't have to hide it we don't have to be ashamed of it we need to bring it out and i'll tell you one of the truths that we're being taught right here is there are people in the world who are pigs and there are people in the world dogs you say that's offensive well see that's something to take up with jesus jesus did offend people there's no question about it but because the truth offends people people that don't like truth you know scripture does describe people who love a lie they love to believe a lie don't be surprised that people that love to believe a lie are going to get upset with the truth but we need to be people of truth and we need to see things that the way they are and the truth is if the lord had finished his teaching on the subject of judging in verse 1 of matthew 7 well we probably would fall into some erroneous thinking about judging we would never judge it would lead us into a totally false position we'd end up afraid to exercise spiritual discernment and you know if you don't exercise spiritual discernment then you don't have spiritual discipline in the church but clearly we're told to discipline in the church we're clearly told to identify sin in the church we're clearly told i mean that weren't the corinthians told to put a certain guy out of the church why because truth dictated this guy is living with his father's wife and you need to get the leaven out of the look we need to be able to discern who the leaven is we need to be people that can take i mean doesn't scripture say prove everything first corinthian or 1st thessalonians chapter 5 prove everything we are people that need to we need to be able to evaluate we need to be able to test the spirits like john said we need to be people of a book of truth that are able to take this book of truth and to hold it up and judge the world by what's in this book we need to be able to evaluate that way not hypocritical judgment but but honest faithful discernment and i would just ask you this can you spot a pig when you see one because if you can't then you can't really uphold the text here like i said brethren before if if i was preaching just a bunch of uh subject uh subjective sermons and and not preaching just verse by verse through through matthew uh through the sermon on the mount i probably would not be dealing with this but here it is and i want to be faithful to it brethren what what can happen is we can so easily go to extremes judge not on the one hand we can become over excessive in judgment remember love covers a multitude of sins and what really what happens here is verse 6 helps to give us some balance our lord doesn't want us to be hypocrites but at the same time he does want us to be discriminating and discerning and so do you the question is this do you have the skills of critical discernment where you can know a dog when one comes around because jesus expects us to know that so what's the picture here's the picture we obviously have the picture here imagine a man you can see the picture a man has a sack of pearls you can imagine this and we can imagine him standing in front of again not lap dogs not little whatever you call what what's what do you call your dogs here what's a cute little lap dog name toto but anyway this is not the kind of dogs these are you know i've been to india i've been to places in in i've been to egypt i've been well even in romania you get these packs of dogs and they bite each other and they are just wild like you would not want your children to meet a pack of these dogs these these things are snarling vicious dirty mongrels and then pigs don't you love the children's books or like the noah and the ark books where they paint the pig and he's always smiling the people that draw that have never been around pigs pigs are dirty they were unclean by old testament standards they bite they're horrible creatures they will bite you and in texas they've got wild ones that have tusks and tusks they they will slash you these things are are nasty creatures that the kind of dogs being talked about are the kind of dogs that ate jezebel and so this is the picture and so what you've got imagine these kind of animals a pack of these kinds of of mongrel dogs and and just disgusting biting pigs and you've got your back the things half want to eat you but you bring your bag out of pearls and now they're really interested then you're going to throw some food and you throw those pearls down there and what happens you put your hand in there they throw them on the ground and they pounce on them at once why they think that they're gonna get some kind of some kind of food there but instead what do they find they can't chew it it's hard it doesn't taste good these beasts have no use for your pearls and now you know what you've done you've made them mad and now they turn on you and and they're enraged with the uselessness of the pearls now here's the thing the pearls actually are not useless the pearls are precious but you see the problem is they have no appreciation for the preciousness of them all they're looking for is something to satisfy their base carnality their base lust and when you throw them those pearls they turn on you that's that's the picture here so so what's the pearl listen we know this we know that in the parable there was a pearl of great price what was that what's that a picture of actually in the parable right before it there was a man and he stumbles upon a treasure well brethren the treasure of all treasures is christ and what's being set forth is the salvation that's had in christ and the way that gets offered is in the gospel message then that's that's the reality what is it that we have that we give to sinners that they find useless and often irritates and enrages them they have no use for it brethren it's very very plain what we're talking about here what is it that they savagely reject oftentimes it was a message of christ and salvation that which is i brethren this is what is precious beyond imagination being saved by the lord jesus christ and it's clear what the lord is telling us here he's telling us that there's certain people we must not talk to about christ and his salvation you say really oh yeah yeah he actually he actually shows us in other places in scripture where this reality is we'll look at that in a second there are times to hold your pearls back so who are these dogs that's the question certainly the dogs and the pigs cannot simply be all lost people we know it can't mean that we can't conclude jesus is forbidding us to preach the gospel to even people that in our estimation might seem like dogs and pigs like you know a lot of times we could we could actually we could look at prostitutes in that day it was tax collectors maybe it's the drug addicts maybe it's certain homeless people demoniacs we come across such people you see you could you could get almost get this feeling like oh well they're kind of dog-ish they're kind of i mean the kind of sins they're involved with are especially beast-like but that's not it jesus said see what you have to hear is this jesus said to the jewish leaders to the scribes and the pharisees he said the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom before you and do you know what he said to his disciples he said that every plant that is not of my father's planting it's not going to go well and he said of them leave them alone you know that reminds me of what is said in the minor prophet hosea when it came to ephraim and he'd gone after idols god said leave them alone brethren what we're talking about here is a certain class of lost people not all not all that that would fly right in the face of the great commission that tells us that we are to make disciples of all nations that would fly right in the face of being ambassadors of christ but it it would brethren we know what scripture tells us we the feet there's we i think of romans 10 and we have these feet the one bringing the gospel message and paul says this he said how are they going to call on a christ and whom they haven't believed and how are they going to believe on him christ that they haven't heard and how are they going to hear unless somebody preaches and how is somebody going to preach unless they get sent you see brethren obviously we know that this message of repentance and remission of sins that that message is to go out under the under the world we're not talking all paul certainly never interpreted the lord's words to mean to cease preaching the gospel to the lost you know what paul said paul said i become all things to all men that by all means some might be saved that needs to be our attitude but you know what among the lost there is a certain category of lost person that our lord has in mind and the picture seems obvious jesus is describing those think about what happens those to whom we bring the riches of god's revelation and they have no appreciation for it instead the precious truths of eternal life they just they spit them back it just enrages them these are the kind of people who evidence a clear hardness against god they've abandoned themselves to being just vicious or just indifferent to the truth this is a class of person who's dog-like or pig-like in that they have no use for that which is most precious oh brethren clearly it doesn't mean all believers how would anybody be converted lost will only call upon a christ they believe in listen to the listen to this truth worked out the disciples came and said to him do you not know the pharisees were offended they heard this saying and he answered this i was speaking of this just a second ago every plant that my heavenly father is not planted will be rooted up let them alone let them alone i'll tell you this the silence of jesus is terrifying can you imagine herod oh he looked forward to seeing christ because he'd heard all about what he did and christ came can you imagine this the savior of the world and he stands in your presence and he says nothing there were times he was silent and you know what he said to his disciples he said hey guys you go take the message of the kingdom and you go heal and you cast out demons and you go into villages and you're in the cities and you look for somebody that's worthy you look for these sons of peace you go into their home and you stay with them he said but if you don't find anybody worthy there shake the dust off your feet and see there's a finality he doesn't say well you go back there you know what the shaking the dust off the feet means you're done with them it's it's it's over listen to this acts 13 46 paul and barnabas spoke out boldly they were in antioch of pisidia there were two antiochs antioch and syria antioch and pasitia they were the second antioch listen to what happens it says they speaking boldly said it was necessary that the word of god be spoken first to you since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life behold we're turning to the gentiles do you recognize that when people spurn the gospel they have counted themselves unworthy of eternal life and to have christ himself or one of his servants basically say now we're done with you see that's what he's telling us there is a time to be done with people it's a fearful thing again you see it in acts the jews incited the devout women of high standing leading men of the city stirred up persecution against paul and barnabas drove them out of their district and they shook off the dust from their feet against them and when tyconium again paul reasoned in the synagogue this is acts 18 every sabbath at corinth he tried to persuade jews and greeks paul was occupied with the word testifying to the jews that the christ was jesus and the jews they opposed him and reviled him and here's what he did he shook out his garments and he said to them your blood be on your own heads i'm innocent from now on i go to the gentiles see he's done with them this is a truth that you find throughout scripture folks god being done with somebody we could go into many other texts but for the sake of time we're not going to do that our proclamation of the gospel is not to be done mindlessly and just indiscriminate if people have had an opportunity to hear the truth and they reject it they disdain it they stubbornly turn their back on christ even if it's just a stubborn disinterestedness jesus does not encourage us to keep it bombarding those individuals with the truth until they believe rather he says shake the dust off your shoes and move on and here's the thing if we persist beyond a certain point of offering the gospel you know what we encourage we basically cheapen the gospel and you basically encourage sin you encourage this thing to be stomped on by pig's feet brethren don't cheapen the gospel by putting it under pig's feet brethren i think we need to look at something here we are very prone to an error now i recognize this in many circles just simply trying to convince people that they need to not deny christ especially people in reform circles to actually persuade people that look there's a perishing world out there we are the light of the world christ has handed the baton to us do you know what christ did when he came he went seeking and saving sinners and you know what he did he went throughout he went throughout those villages of palestine and what was he looking for he was looking for his lost sheep undoubtedly but he came proclaiming this message of the kingdom and now that baton's passed on to us and you know what sometimes just getting people out of their comfort zones to actually go in search of god's law sheep is is a task and so i almost feel hesitant to get to a place where i have to say what jesus is clearly saying here where it's almost like you want to you want to encourage but you also want to put the brakes on at a certain point as well and we can have this wrong thinking we're very prone to error here brethren we do want to use our might our resources to widely and universally spread the message this glorious message into the dark places but we can that's what paul did paul went out preaching the gospel where would he go into the synagogues and once the jews rejected him then he'd go out to the gentiles what was he doing he was proclaiming the cross he said he's not going to know anything else but christ and him crucified that's that was his message but you know what we can easily fall into this erroneous mindset that we have to keep on talking to everybody until they believe that is an error that i've seen you get christians that okay they've got the courage to go out they've they've got a love for christ that that compels them to go out they've got a burden for souls like say at least a little bit like paul had where his desire for his fellow kinsmen was that they be saved he there's there's an earnestness there there's a love for mankind there that compels people to go forward but we can easily fall into this erroneous mindset that you know what when we come across somebody and we give the gospel to them and they don't believe right at once we can fall into this erroneous mindset that we have to keep preaching until they believe we have to keep after them we have to keep on talking consider our lord consider the lord see i think this is very instructive rich young ruler what good thing do i have to do to obtain eternal life of course jesus challenged him about good and he called him good master and we now recognize all that he said keep the commandments and which commandments and he's going through all this but listen brethren i'll tell you this he said one thing you lack what does he lack well he had this idol in his life what was that idol it was his riches he said go sell everything give to the poor you come follow me you'll have treasure in heaven and you know what the man was rich the man was sorrowful and the man walked and you know what did not happen jesus did not plead with him jesus did not say i don't i think he misunderstood me i think i think we better have do you know what the average christian would have done right then engage that man in another 40 minutes of conversation jesus let him walk with no more words to him why because you know what jesus is not up for negotiation and jesus threw out his requirement he threw it out there and the man basically said no i'm going to keep my idol and he walked and you know what there's really nothing more to say if you present people did you hear what he offered him you'll have treasure in heaven the man basically said oh brethren he said what so many say brethren i'll tell you this if you come and you offer people i want to offer you forgiveness of all your sins and you don't have to purchase it by your own merit this was done freely for you it's yours at the taking but you do have to purchase it without price you can't bring your own righteousness you need to submit yourself to the mercy of this savior he has his terms his terms are total surrender you lay down your arms and be willing to be saved the way he saves he will save you to the uttermost he offers you eternal life he offers you glory he offers you'll be the bride of christ he offers you joy unspeakable he offers you such things as you can't even imagine if people just uh whatever they just yawn do you know what kind of insult that is you just offered them the greatest pearls and diamonds and treasure imaginable and they spit at it and sometimes we have this idea well if we keep talking to them for another 40 minutes our continually talking to them is going to persuade them that is not what jesus said that is not by his example what you what you find our lord didn't stop him our lord doesn't continue he doesn't plead he doesn't try to explain different terms brethren we've got to proclaim the gospel to people but when we find out very quickly that people aren't interested in what we have for them you know what the temptation is the temptation is to feel that well if we keep talking to them somehow we're going to change their minds but that doesn't happen brethren think about what jesus said here we are bringing a message that of do you do you recognize the christian message do you recognize the things we know from this book the only hope mankind has there is no other hope than this man has nothing else that he can put his confidence in that will actually hold him up in the end jesus calls this pearls he calls it a pearl of great price in the parable do you recognize that it's highly highly highly valuable he doesn't call it mud he doesn't call it dirt he doesn't call it dust it's not gravel the pictures of a man who has something extremely valuable we bring to the world such light that if believed will bring men out of their wretched state men are headed to hell do you realize what it is to actually have a remedy that saves men from their sin and from the guilt of that sin and the consequences of that sin and from the wrath of god do you recognize the wrath of god is revealed against men against all of their ungodliness and unrighteousness brethren this is going to break forth and explode on their heads when death comes judgment and with judgment they're going to have to give an account for everything they've thought everything they've done everything they've said every word they've spoken jesus says they're going to have to give an account for we will have to give an account for you actually have the remedy for how to stand in that day and be robed with righteousness not your own but based on the merits of another it's the greatest news that could ever be given to mankind and you go to somebody with this greatest pearl of all pearls and they basically turn their shoulder what an insult they under pig's feet and it may not seem like well you know that's my grandmother you're talking about there that that we'll call it what it is you see this is where one of the problems is we have these loved ones in our life and we give the truth to them and because we love them we it's very hard for us and you know what can happen you get to where you love your loved ones more than you love the glory of christ you say what do you mean i mean just this if you've got a grandmother that you love but you see you keep throwing those same pearls at her and her pig's feet just keep stomping on them you're doing exactly what the lord says you should not do here brethren if people aren't interested in this treasure of all treasures stop talking that's what jesus is saying the gospel is precious and should be given to those who desire it and listen often dogs and pigs show themselves by their wanting to debate brethren don't don't debate have have you ever heard anyone say well let me tell you how i got saved i was in a debate with a christian and the christian won the debate and i got saved you've never heard that because debating doesn't produce this jesus did not debate with the rich young ruler paul doesn't debate i mean he gets to a place where he's presented the truth in the synagogue and they opposed it and he said your blood be on your own head you're not worthy of eternal life and he said i'm going to go to the gentiles brethren many will talk to you but it's just debate they're not interested in your christianity if anything they're interested in disproving you they're interested in winning the debate or they're even interested in deconverting you but they're not interested in the truth and brethren i'll tell you this while you stand there debating with people you could possibly be speaking to somebody else that that is actually interested brother let me tell you something i've i've done so much door-to-door evangelism in san antonio and i've seen where well-meaning christians can get in a conversation with somebody and it's very evident the people their eyes are glazed over you know deer in the headlight thing and or they just keep looking over their shoulder like they're they're not interested and you get the feeling that the christian is trying to prolong this talk you know what they believe they believe well if i can just keep talking to the person long enough i'm gonna make them interested that that doesn't want to happen brethren do you know like paul comes along he says you know what you know what christ said to him you're kicking against the pricks something was happening in paul ahead of time do you know one of the things we really want is we want god to bring to us the people that he's at work in remember paul paul went down there by the river at philippi when he find he found lydia and god was at work in her heart you know what's very interesting nicodemus god was already doing something there god brought nicodemus to jesus now look that doesn't mean that the bible doesn't say we should go forth and tell it does but one of the things we want to be asking the lord for is lord bring to us cause to cross our path the people that you're working on that we don't want to be these people who who just have this idea that if you talk long enough you're going to convince people several years back we had jeff thomas come to our fellowship conference there in the dallas fort worth area and we had a book table there and he during typically each conference we have one of the speakers go through or several of the speakers and make recommendations of books from the book table and jeff thomas recommended this book now this guy john leonard was a professor or is a professor at westminster seminary and that's where jeff went so he might have some bias there but but he said he thought this was the best book that he's ever read on evangelism well that peaked my curiosity so i bought it it's called get real all these other ones are crossed out that's not but and i think that's right i this this is the best book that i've read on evangelism listen listen to what this guy says in this book he said in traditional evangelism you would never pass up an opportunity to share the gospel when somebody asked you you would open the bible go through every single verse in john that spoke about heaven long after the person's interest and knowing had passed in a real approach evangelism you stop talking long before that point don't dampen curiosity raise it never say more than people want to hear if someone isn't listening to you stop speaking say you seem to have other things on your mind i'll go i'll so i'll stop right here thank you for your time every he says every time i've done that people say no no i'm interested go on but he said i never do and you shouldn't either it's better to leave people wishing you'd said more than to have them wish you'd already left now you know what even before i got this book i i i believed that and i had that approach you know what as long as people showed interest i wanted to i wanted to give them information about that interest if people aren't interested go and i've often found that you know what if you cut short earlier than what they really want that leaves them curious that leaves them wondering that leaves them interested if you go on long after they're sick of hearing you you you're going on has not been fruitful it doesn't produce things so and but brethren as much as i'm saying this we need to be like christ we need to be like paul which means we need to mix our tears with our refusal to cheapen the gospel you hear what i'm saying we need to mix our tears with a refusal to defile the gospel because jesus think about jesus he could say of jerusalem he looks out over them he saw the city he wept over it saying wood that you even you had known on this day the things that make for your peace he wept over them and yet of the same jewish people he said to his disciples whatever town or village you enter find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart but he said if if they won't receive you or listen to your words shake off the dust from your feet when you leave the house or town so imagine this jesus is actually imparting to his disciples this instruction if they won't hear you shake the dust off your feet jesus looks out over jerusalem they wouldn't hear they're the very kind of people you shake the dust off your feet yet he wept paul says with paul i could wish i myself were cursed and cut off from christ for the sake of my brothers and yet it's his very brothers in antioch of passinia that he said since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life behold returning to the gentiles on the one hand he could say i could wish myself a curse seriously paul and cut off from christ that's how much he loved the souls of his his own kinsmen according to the flesh and yet of the same people he can say you thrust it aside judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life and we're not going to you anymore brethren it's important that we rightly value things let me tell you something as precious as your mother your father your children your grandparents your aunts your uncles your friends your neighbors as valuable as they are to you what jesus is saying to us is look there's a value in christ and there's a value in his honor that goes even higher and what you don't want to do is just because you love somebody they're they're close to you you keep allowing them to defile the gospel he's saying don't do that don't cast your don't continue to cast your pearls at them because all it does is defile the pearls so i just want to end brethren our lord i want you to really think about this i mean our lord likens the gospel to pearls because they're exceedingly great wealth to be found there think of the message brethren people are perishing all you have to do is stop once in a while and think about hell hell the weeping the gnashing of teeth the eternal destruction the pain the sorrowing brethren there's something within us that craves rest you may just read across that they have no rest forever the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever no rest night or day you know you come across that is that a small thing to never have rest never to be at rest constantly nourishing your teeth forever and forever just the idea once in hell once in those flames this is never gonna end never how long have you lived we're talking never we're talking you could live a million lifetimes of what you've lived already and it never is gonna end do you recognize the worth to have a remedy to man's sickness and his leprosy do you recognize the value of this these glad tidings of christ coming into this world as a savior to to rescue sinners there's a there's an ark there's a place to escape the storm there's a city of refuge that's christ himself to get away from from the avenger of blood to live forever in eternal bliss safe safe from the just condemnation that your sins deserve you start thinking for a moment about the things you've done and what it would really be like in the day of judgment to actually have a message that will and allow somebody on the day of judgment to receive the smile of god and to hear well done good and faithful servant rather than depart from me you workers of lawlessness and suffer the eternal hatred of god to be brought into that place that is eternally a place of love brethren this is the most wonderful thing imaginable this this is unspeakable i mean if you really start to think about the gospel it is it is remarkable and amazing beyond words it is the most unimaginably precious message that that could be given to mankind and you wouldn't think so you wouldn't think so when you hear sonny proclaim it or george yesterday and the way people respond you wouldn't think so you would think they brought out the most vile hideous thing imaginable but brethren those who become christians you recognize you think of the richest men in this world you think of the zuckerbergs and the gates and the trumps and the warren buffets and the bezos and the musks and all these billionaires brethren do you realize they have nothing on us nothing we have the richest they will gladly trade place with the least christian on the day of judgment we i i don't even want to cheapen it by saying it but you know what the people in this world they live to win the lotto do you realize we've won it we have won the prize of all prizes we have that which if if men only knew if men could only see and we receive this by faith but they don't know an eternal weight of glory is how paul described it and it's it's coming to have just simply to have the anger of god turned away from you and to be accepted by him i mean this is no small thing this we have a message that if believed delivers men's souls from brethren from fire we can almost say it you if i even stuck a match to your skin you'd be horrified by it it's almost like we can't even imagine this it's almost like this isn't even real to us but believe me this is real this is just as real as our death is real and then the judgment is real and then there is one of two roads and and to have that message to put us on the right road to put us in a place of safety to put us in the arms of god brethren i'm going to say this just as as we end here you need to pray pray pray pray because we need god to change men's hearts and we need god to bring across our path people that he is working in that's what we need we need god to do what he does he's he's given us a responsibility he's called us to do something but brethren at the end of the day we need god to move we need god to change hearts we need god to the lord open the heart of lydia we need him to do just that kind of thing wait lord please do that bring people across our path that you're working in bring them to us we want them to bring to us the hungry the thirsty those who will to come those who are being drawn those those who are heavy laden brethren there's there's no other help there's no other hope and i mean if you're sitting there and you've been under the gospel a lot of times don't reject this don't think yourself clever sometimes you get children you think bro children don't be clever as though well you know this is the religion of my parents i don't i don't really need this i mean do you imagine that if you reject this offer of this king that he just kind of rings his hands in despair and and gives over to you to to you know pining away until you sovereignly decide that you're going to come to him at your convenience you know what this is saying you reject this message you reject it at your own peril god is not weak in wringing his hands and when men reject him he rejects them and there are such fearful verses of finality that when you reject the gospel there is a finality you come to a knowledge of the truth and you turn away from that i mean we have verses that talk about an impossibility of being restored into repentance don't play with your soul our king has told you to surrender to him and submit yourself to his mercy he comes to you to save you god commands all men everywhere to repent brethren you're not free to go to hell if you go to hell you go against his wishes and his desires you say well i hear he's sovereign i hear he has an elect yes the scripture also speaks about him commanding all men everywhere to repent if you don't repent and go to hell you do that against his very straightforward command don't think yourself so wise here because judgment day is soon and life is passing away you're going to stand before god and you know what you may think you're clever right now you'll kick yourself as being the greatest fool imaginable don't be a pig don't be a dog that's what men and women are who reject this pearl of great price as though it's useless as though it's nothing father i pray help us to be people that are discerning oh lord i pray that all the fresh we would have just a renewed just just a renewed sense of the great worth of the gospel how precious it is the message a christ who died who rose who ascended the fact that we even have a savior offered to us sinners what a thing is this what a hope it gives us lord i pray if anybody is acting more like a pig or a dog i pray you'd shake them in their tracks stop them cold lord we do long to see you a god whose name is near near at hand and doing the kind of things you did to nicodemus doing the kind of things you did there in the heart of lydia we pray that we would be blessed with seeing you work in our day in just the same way thank you so the number of us in this room lord you came to us he lifted us out of the miry clay you set us on a rock a place firm and safe right in those arms of christ we thank you in his name amen you're visiting with us we do have some refreshments in the back in the fellowship hall we'd love to have you stay and talk with us but you're dismissed [Music] you

Channel: SermonIndex.net

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Tim Conway

Id: Qb4_2ijEtTs

Length: 56min 42sec (3402 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021