NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Pearls Before Swine
Aired: 2025-01-26
Duration: 01:16:39


=== Who Qualifies to Reprove (14:51) ===

[00:00:00]  Leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform.
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[00:00:05]  Everybody asks, but I'm going to tell you why.
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[00:00:16]  You and I both know that this ministry is willing to talk about things that most ministries aren't.
[00:00:21]  We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.
[00:00:33]  Amen.
[00:00:34]  Let's stand for the reading of God's word.
[00:00:36]  Our text is Matthew chapter 7, verse 6.
[00:00:39]  Matthew chapter 7, verse 6.
[00:00:40]  I'll read the text in its entirety.
[00:00:42]  When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
[00:00:49]  One final time.
[00:00:50]  Our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 7, verse 6.
[00:00:57]  The Bible says this Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs.
[00:01:03]  Lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
[00:01:08]  This is the word of the Lord.
[00:01:11]  All right, please be seated.
[00:01:12]  Let's go ahead and dive right in.
[00:01:13]  By way of introduction, I've written the following.
[00:01:15]  Just as everyone is not fit to reprove, according to Galatians 6 1, not everyone is fit to be reproved, according to our text today, Matthew 7, verse 6.
[00:01:28]  If you're familiar with Galatians 6, verse 1, this is the text that says that if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore such a one.
[00:01:38]  But do so in a spirit of gentleness and keeping watch over yourselves, lest you too should fall into temptation.
[00:01:47]  Long story short, what we know, at least at minimum, from Galatians 6, verse 1, is that there is a criteria for who should be about the business of restoration.
[00:02:00]  Who should actually be about the business taking action, engaged, involved in reproving others, that is, confronting, correcting, Rebuking and reproving.
[00:02:13]  Now, the purpose in all of this is ultimately love.
[00:02:16]  The purpose is not to condemn.
[00:02:18]  If the Lord chooses that the person be condemned, then that's something that the Lord determines Himself.
[00:02:25]  The Lord will soften hearts and sovereignly in His mercy, He will soften hearts and then in judgment choose sovereignly to harden hearts.
[00:02:35]  The Lord determines the outcome, He determines the results.
[00:02:38]  Our job is simply obedience.
[00:02:41]  But in this obedience, not everybody is called to do this work of restoration.
[00:02:47]  Not everybody is called to be a reprover.
[00:02:50]  To be a reprover.
[00:02:52]  Again, Galatians 6 1, you who are spiritual.
[00:02:54]  We talked about this last week.
[00:02:56]  At minimum, what that includes is there's an assumption by way of implication it's talking about you who are spiritually mature.
[00:03:04]  Not every Christian is.
[00:03:07]  Not every Christian is.
[00:03:08]  So, those of you who are spiritually mature, If someone's caught in any transgression, you should go to restore such a one, but not everyone, those who are spiritually mature.
[00:03:17]  And then the next criteria that's offered is that you should do so in a spirit of gentleness.
[00:03:23]  You should do so in a spirit of gentleness.
[00:03:26]  That doesn't mean that you're pulling punches, it doesn't mean that there's no correction at all.
[00:03:30]  If gentle correction is so gentle, a fake sense of gentleness, that the correction is no longer there, then it defeats the purpose.
[00:03:42]  It's gentle correction.
[00:03:44]  That means it really is gentle, but it also really is correction.
[00:03:49]  If you're so gentle that there's no more correction left, then that's not gentle correction.
[00:03:53]  That's not correction at all.
[00:03:56]  And you may be doing it under the guise of gentleness, but it's not true gentleness because true gentleness actually confronts sin out of love for sinners so that they might be restored, so that those who are caught, entangled in any transgression might actually be restored and set free from that.
[00:04:14]  But that's two criteria already.
[00:04:16]  You who are spiritual, that is those who are spiritually mature, in what manner should we confront or reprove others with a spirit of gentleness?
[00:04:25]  And then, lastly, there's also a certain disposition that we should keep among ourselves, which is making sure that we too don't fall into temptation.
[00:04:37]  And again, by way of implication, I think what's in view in terms of what particular temptation is the very same temptation for the sin that the person we're correcting has fallen into themselves.
[00:04:50]  There are some who would argue that the temptation to be avoided here is the temptation to pride.
[00:04:56]  I think that that is a safe assumption.
[00:04:59]  Certainly, we don't want to give in to the sin of pride.
[00:05:02]  But I think it's more specific than merely that.
[00:05:04]  I don't think it's just restoring someone caught in some transgression and watching ourselves to make sure that we're not given to arrogance.
[00:05:13]  I think it's also watching ourselves to make sure that we're not given to the very same sin that that person is caught in themselves.
[00:05:22]  Because one of the things that Jesus is most concerned about again and again, and likewise, I think the Apostle Paul in Galatians, is the sin of hypocrisy.
[00:05:32]  The sin of hypocrisy.
[00:05:33]  That you would reprove one person for a particular sin while, meanwhile, being caught in that exact same sin yourself.
[00:05:44]  So, those are three criteria.
[00:05:45]  You who are spiritual should restore, be the ones to reprove someone who's caught in a transgression.
[00:05:51]  Spiritual maturity.
[00:05:53]  You should do so.
[00:05:54]  What manner?
[00:05:55]  What mode?
[00:05:55]  A spirit of gentleness.
[00:05:57]  So, what kind of person, one who is spiritually mature, what kind of confrontation, what method, a spirit of gentleness, and what heart posture or what guardrail should be in place as you're performing this ministry of reproving and restoration,
[00:06:16]  keeping watch on yourself, a spirit of gentleness, but coupled with a spirit of humility, recognizing that you could fall into the very same sin that you're correcting someone else for, being aware of all these things.
[00:06:30]  The point.
[00:06:31]  Long story short, Galatians 6 1 is talking about going and restoring someone who's in sin.
[00:06:38]  It's not being reproved, that is, corrected, but going and reproving.
[00:06:43]  That you are not the reproved, but in this scenario, you would be the reprover.
[00:06:49]  And the point is that there are criteria, there are conditions that the scripture sets that should be met to go and reprove others.
[00:06:58]  If you want to go and reprove your brother, Then you need to meet certain conditions.
[00:07:04]  Not everyone is qualified to reprove.
[00:07:10]  In our text today, now, shifting from Galatians 6 to Matthew 7, verse 6, in our text today, instead of setting conditions for who gets to reprove, here we find qualifications or conditions for who should be reproved.
[00:07:28]  Not for the reprover, but for the reprovee, the person who is going to be reproved.
[00:07:35]  The Bible sets conditions for both.
[00:07:38]  Not everyone is qualified to go and confront others.
[00:07:43]  And also, not everyone is qualified to be confronted.
[00:07:48]  Not everyone is qualified to be confronted.
[00:07:51]  So, not everyone should go and confront and correct others because you're not spiritually mature, or you cannot do it in a spirit of gentleness, or you're arrogant and blinded and hypocritical and would fall into the very same sin yourself, or already caught in that sin.
[00:08:08]  You have the plank in your own eye.
[00:08:11]  Meanwhile, you're pointing out specks in another.
[00:08:13]  So, not everyone should go and confront because not everyone is qualified for that ministry of confronting, reproving, with the end goal being restoration.
[00:08:23]  Likewise, not everybody is qualified to be confronted.
[00:08:28]  Not just to do the confronting, but to be confronted.
[00:08:32]  Not just to do the reproving, but to be reproved.
[00:08:35]  There is such a thing in this world as those who are swine and those who are dogs.
[00:08:44]  And in the case of swine, And in the case of dogs, we are actually commanded by Christ in Matthew chapter 7, verse 6, not to give what is holy to dogs and not to cast our pearls before swine.
[00:09:04]  And the reason for this is multifaceted, but the first reason is because swine and dogs will not appreciate pearls and things that are holy.
[00:09:16]  Going on in your notes, Matthew Henry, the late great Puritan, he says it like this Throw a pearl to swine, and he will resent it, as if you threw a stone at him.
[00:09:29]  Reproofs will be called reproaches, as they were.
[00:09:36]  When someone is a pig, when someone is obstinate, when someone is deaf, when it comes to hearing, their ears are shut, their hearts are hard.
[00:09:49]  There's An unwillingness to receive reproof, to receive correction.
[00:09:55]  There is a certain point, and as we'll see later in the sermon, we don't want to arrive at this point too hastily.
[00:10:05]  You can err in both directions.
[00:10:08]  You can give pearls to swine, and that is an error.
[00:10:12]  That's a miscalculation, and it can cost you dearly, as we'll see.
[00:10:17]  But another miscalculation is that we can.
[00:10:21]  We can label someone, categorize someone as a swine too quickly.
[00:10:26]  And so you can err in both directions.
[00:10:29]  But the point remains that there really is a category for this type of person a person who refuses to hear, refuses to listen, refuses to see, a person who is not malleable and softened in their heart, receptive to the things of God and the message of God.
[00:10:49]  There really are such a thing as swine in this world, there really is such a thing as dogs.
[00:10:55]  In this world.
[00:10:55]  And the reason why we would withhold our reproving from such a person, correction and confrontation from such a person, is because that person will not respond.
[00:11:08]  But not only will there be an absence of repentance from such a person, not only is that person unlikely to respond, but that person, according to our text, Matthew chapter 7, verse 6, they actually will respond in a sort of fashion.
[00:11:29]  It's not that there will be no response.
[00:11:31]  The reason why we want to withhold pearls from swine and things that are holy from dogs is not because there will be no response, but because there will be a harmful and destructive response.
[00:11:45]  They will respond, but they will respond in a destructive fashion.
[00:11:51]  Again, going back to our primary text to read it once more so that we remember it in our minds Matthew 7, verse 6.
[00:11:59]  Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs.
[00:12:05]  Why?
[00:12:05]  What's the incentive here?
[00:12:07]  What is the reasoning that Christ provides for this command?
[00:12:12]  Lest they trample them, that is, the message, the pearls, the holy things, they trample the reproof, they trample the correction, they trample the truth of God's word that you're offering to them.
[00:12:29]  Lest they trample them underfoot, but it goes a step further, and then turn to attack you.
[00:12:38]  That if someone is truly a swine, if someone is truly a dog, it's not only that the message of truth that you might offer them will fall on deaf ears and that they'll trample the message itself, but they also will be hostile and violent and turn and trample and attack not only the message, but the messenger.
[00:13:01]  That they will not only trample on the word of God, but that they would trample on the man of God.
[00:13:10]  That they would trample.
[00:13:12]  On the one who is reproving and correcting them.
[00:13:17]  And not only would this place yourself into a position of danger, but it also places the reputation of Christ in a place of being threatened, which we'll look at here in just a moment.
[00:13:33]  Psalm 141, verse 5 says this Let a righteous man strike me, it is a kindness.
[00:13:41]  Let him rebuke me, it is oil for my head.
[00:13:45]  Let my head not refuse it.
[00:13:48]  This is the posture of the people of God.
[00:13:52]  This is supposed to be the posture of the people of God.
[00:13:55]  Those who are not swine, those who are not dogs, those who are not so dull of hearing, so hardened of heart, they actually are able to receive reproof, receive correction, and recognize it when it's done properly, when the reproof is true.
[00:14:15]  It's not just any confrontation.
[00:14:18]  There is such a thing as foolish confrontation.
[00:14:21]  There are those who correct and think they're doing so in wisdom, but are actually merely fools.
[00:14:30]  But when true correction comes, and it comes from the Word of God, and it comes by those who are spiritually mature, as Galatians 6 1 speaks of, those who are spiritual, it comes in a spirit of gentleness.
[00:14:46]  And it comes with a spirit of humility, a person keeping watch over themselves lest they fall into temptation.

=== True Correction with Mercy (05:51) ===

[00:14:52]  I mean, it comes from the one who is not a hypocrite, not guilty of the very same things which they're correcting.
[00:15:00]  Someone who is humble, not hypocritical, gentle, and spiritually mature.
[00:15:07]  And this correction in itself is definitively true.
[00:15:11]  It's not bad theology, it's not twisted truths, but it really is a true message from God coming.
[00:15:20]  Through a true conduit, someone who is above reproach, someone who is truly seeking to restore the individual, when that happens, the response from the people of God should embody what we read in Psalm 141, verse 5: Let a righteous man strike me, it is a kindness.
[00:15:43]  That should be our response to good, true correction coming from, again, it's right there baked into the text.
[00:15:53]  Let a righteous man reprove, it is a kindness.
[00:15:58]  Again, we're assuming the same person.
[00:16:00]  When a righteous man rebukes me, it is oil for my head.
[00:16:06]  Now, when a fool rebukes you, when a fool brings correction, it is not a kindness.
[00:16:13]  And it is not oil for your head.
[00:16:16]  You will be critiqued, criticized, corrected, confronted a million times for a million things from this point on to the very end of your life.
[00:16:28]  That's life.
[00:16:31]  We're constantly going to be critiqued and criticized and confronted by someone for something.
[00:16:38]  So, the mark of a Christian is not that they respond to correction, viewing it as a kindness, without any discrimination, without any measure of discernment.
[00:16:51]  Not all correction is a kindness, not all rebukes are oil for our head.
[00:16:59]  In fact, I would argue, because the world is filled with fools.
[00:17:04]  Foolish people, that most of the criticisms you'll receive over the course of your life are not a kindness at all, are not oil for the head at all.
[00:17:16]  Most criticisms you would do well to ignore.
[00:17:20]  But righteous criticism, righteous confrontation, if that be ignored, it will be ignored at risk of your own peril.
[00:17:32]  And all this, what's required.
[00:17:34]  I hope what you're picking up, the common thread throughout all of this, is the urgent and vital need for discernment.
[00:17:43]  That the people of God must be shrewd as vipers.
[00:17:45]  They must be wise.
[00:17:47]  They must be cunning.
[00:17:48]  They must be discerning.
[00:17:51]  And as we already established last week, as we looked at Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 through 5, what is discernment but judgment?
[00:18:00]  That's what we're doing when we seek to discern, when we seek to discern between falsehoods and truth.
[00:18:08]  To see if the correction itself has merit, the criticism itself, does it contain merit?
[00:18:15]  Is it true?
[00:18:16]  Is it fitting?
[00:18:17]  Is it appropriate?
[00:18:19]  And not only that, but exercising discernment not only with the criticism, but the one who is making the critique.
[00:18:26]  Is this person spiritually mature?
[00:18:28]  Are they doing it in a spirit of gentleness?
[00:18:30]  Are they humble and avoiding hypocrisy and keeping watch over themselves so that they don't fall into temptation?
[00:18:39]  As they point out the speck in my eye, do they have a two by four that's protruding from their own?
[00:18:46]  But in all of these questions, as we seek to answer them accurately, what are we doing but making judgments?
[00:18:54]  You can't live life without making judgments.
[00:18:59]  The impetus of Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 all the way through verse 6, our text today, is not that we should have an absence of judgment as Christians.
[00:19:10]  To have an absence, a complete absence of judgment is to be a fool.
[00:19:17]  A fool has no discernment.
[00:19:20]  A fool makes no judgments.
[00:19:22]  And when he does, he makes wrong judgments.
[00:19:25]  Now, the impetus, the command that we see again and again is that we must make judgments, but we should make right judgments.
[00:19:35]  We should make judgments that are true, but seasoned with mercy.
[00:19:41]  We should make judgments that are accurate.
[00:19:45]  That are righteous, that are also coming from a place of humility and gentleness, with an objective and aim of actually restoring someone, not merely condemning them and writing them off.
[00:20:01]  Even in church discipline, the church as a congregation makes a judgment about an individual, but they do so with the prayer and the earnest hope that God might use the mechanism of church discipline.
[00:20:15]  That judgment, in order to convict such a person that they might eventually be brought back into the fold.
[00:20:23]  So, the objective always is love, it's gentleness, spiritual maturity, humility, keeping watch over yourself.
[00:20:32]  But all this requires discernment.
[00:20:35]  All this requires that we constantly be making judgments.
[00:20:40]  Is this person spiritually mature or are they a fool?

=== Misapplied Scripture and Timing (08:10) ===

[00:20:44]  Is this criticism true?
[00:20:46]  Or is it false?
[00:20:48]  It may even be something that's true, but it's inappropriate.
[00:20:52]  How can something be true but inappropriate?
[00:20:54]  Well, you can make true statements all day long, but they're not fitting.
[00:21:00]  They're not timely.
[00:21:02]  It's something that is generally true, something that's even generally biblical, but misapplied.
[00:21:10]  The evangelical church is a master of this.
[00:21:16]  It's not as though Christians for the last 50 years. Have been just going around blatantly saying things that are the opposite of scripture, that would be far too obvious.
[00:21:26]  Right?
[00:21:26]  It's not as though pastors have been going around saying, You should love Satan.
[00:21:32]  No, they say things that are true.
[00:21:35]  The Bible contains them.
[00:21:37]  They even quote scripture, but they quote it at the wrong time and apply it to the wrong things.
[00:21:45]  It's a word that's not timely.
[00:21:47]  I mean, Satan himself used scripture.
[00:21:53]  He didn't go to Jesus and say, You should hate God.
[00:21:57]  No, he's crafty.
[00:21:59]  He's crafty.
[00:22:00]  And so he quotes Scripture.
[00:22:02]  But he quotes Scripture and misapplies it to the wrong person at the wrong time for the wrong things.
[00:22:11]  It's true what he says that the angels will not allow your foot to strike a stone.
[00:22:19]  That is true of God's anointed one.
[00:22:21]  That's quoting the Psalms.
[00:22:23]  David speaks of this when he speaks of God's hedge of protection and shield around the righteous, that he will not allow the righteous to be devoured or overcome.
[00:22:35]  It's reminiscent of what David says elsewhere.
[00:22:37]  He says, Surely I have never seen the righteous go hungry or be without bread.
[00:22:42]  He's speaking of the providence and the protection and the steadfast faithfulness of the Lord.
[00:22:49]  This is biblical.
[00:22:51]  It's true that God protects his own.
[00:22:55]  And especially of God's anointed one that finds fulfillment in David as king, but its ultimate highest fulfillment in Jesus, it is true that God would not allow Jesus his foot to strike a stone, at least not before his time.
[00:23:12]  Not before his time.
[00:23:13]  And we see this throughout the gospel narratives again and again that the people would be riled up because of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
[00:23:21]  They would go around and whisper in people's ears and rile up the people who were easily manipulated.
[00:23:27]  They would rile them up.
[00:23:29]  To hate Jesus, to be against Jesus.
[00:23:32]  And there are multiple times throughout Jesus' earthly ministry where the people are set on capturing him and putting him to death.
[00:23:40]  They even, at a certain point, John chapter 8, pick up stones to stone him.
[00:23:46]  But until it's his time, they're unable to harm him.
[00:23:51]  They want to stone him, but they can't.
[00:23:55]  They want to capture him, but they can't.
[00:23:57]  They want to kill him, but they can't.
[00:24:00]  There are even certain texts in the gospel narratives where it says that Jesus, and it says it kind of in common language, as though in passing.
[00:24:09]  To where, if you're not careful, you can miss how miraculous these statements really are.
[00:24:15]  But it says that Jesus is preaching, and per usual, people hate his preaching and are angered and riled up.
[00:24:23]  And they want to lay hands on him and to seize him.
[00:24:29]  And the very next verse is, But he passed through their midst.
[00:24:32]  And what does that mean?
[00:24:35]  He passed through their midst.
[00:24:38]  They can't touch him.
[00:24:40]  They can't hold him.
[00:24:41]  I don't know.
[00:24:41]  I don't want to read too much into that particular text.
[00:24:45]  But it's possible that it's miraculous, as though he's just walking through the crowd.
[00:24:51]  They're trying to lay hands on him, trying to seize him, and they physically can't in a supernatural sense.
[00:24:58]  That's possible.
[00:25:00]  But either way, the point still remains whether it be within nature providentially or above nature supernaturally, the point still remains that until it was Jesus' time, this text is true.
[00:25:13]  Not a single stone will strike his heel.
[00:25:17]  So Satan isn't lying to Jesus.
[00:25:20]  But what Satan is trying to do is to get Jesus to put God to the test, to get Jesus to force God, his Father, to prove his divinity before his time and through an avenue, a certain means that was not God's preordained plan.
[00:25:38]  And so if Jesus was to listen to Satan in this regard, it would be sin.
[00:25:43]  Even though Satan is quoting the scripture.
[00:25:47]  And this is what Christians, if we're not careful, can do.
[00:25:51]  And this is what Christians and even leaders, historically, at least in recent history, have done.
[00:25:58]  This is what we have done.
[00:25:59]  And so, what's required?
[00:26:02]  Discernment.
[00:26:03]  What is discernment?
[00:26:05]  Making judgments.
[00:26:07]  And what are these judgments?
[00:26:08]  There are so many things that have to be weighed, judged, discerned, assessed.
[00:26:15]  Is it true?
[00:26:17]  Objectively, the message, okay?
[00:26:20]  We've established that it's true, okay?
[00:26:22]  Is it timely?
[00:26:24]  Satan's message was true, but it was said in an untimely manner, trying to get Jesus to do something before his time.
[00:26:34]  Whether it was directly out of the mouth of Satan or whether it was Satan through a person, even one of his disciples, like Peter.
[00:26:43]  Remember, with Peter, Jesus has to say to him, He says, Get behind me, Satan.
[00:26:49]  Because Peter is saying something, wanting Jesus to self preserve, to protect himself, but it's now the time has changed.
[00:26:58]  It's now his time to go to the cross.
[00:27:02]  Isn't that funny that earlier, Satan directly in the wilderness says, Hey, put yourself in danger, throw yourself off the temple.
[00:27:10]  Jesus says, No, get behind me, Satan, as it were.
[00:27:15]  So essentially, the way he said, No, I'm not going to do that.
[00:27:17]  I'm not going to put the Lord my God to the test.
[00:27:20]  But then later, Peter says the opposite.
[00:27:23]  Satan says, endanger yourself, throw yourself off the temple to prove that God is real, that you're his son, because he'll protect you.
[00:27:30]  So Satan says, put yourself in danger, Jesus.
[00:27:34]  And Jesus says, no, Satan.
[00:27:36]  Then Peter says, Don't put yourself in danger, Jesus.
[00:27:41]  And Jesus says, No, Satan.
[00:27:46]  Isn't that so?
[00:27:46]  So then, what's required?
[00:27:49]  Discernment, time, timing.
[00:27:54]  Timing is key.
[00:27:56]  Ecclesiastes, elsewhere in the scripture, speaks of this.
[00:27:59]  There's a time for laughter, there's a time for mourning, there's a time for fasting, there's a time for feasting.
[00:28:08]  It's a time of peace.
[00:28:09]  It's a time for war.
[00:28:11]  The sons of Issachar, what made them noteworthy, worthy of being esteemed and honored?
[00:28:19]  They knew the times.
[00:28:21]  So even just knowing the Word of God does not necessarily make you wise.
[00:28:29]  You can know the Word of God at a surface level that you could quote Scripture, but you could quote Scripture wrongly, missing its interpretation, that is, its meaning.
[00:28:43]  Missing its application, that is the context and its timing.
[00:28:50]  Life requires constant discernment.

=== Discernment in Receiving Rebuke (02:21) ===

[00:28:55]  We need discernment when it comes to receiving a reproof.
[00:28:59]  Is the criticism true?
[00:29:01]  Is the person bringing it mature?
[00:29:05]  Is it timely?
[00:29:06]  Is it fitting?
[00:29:07]  Does it apply to me personally?
[00:29:11]  But we also need discernment not only in receiving reproof but giving reproof.
[00:29:17]  Is this person a swine?
[00:29:19]  Is this person a dog?
[00:29:21]  Will they receive the correction?
[00:29:24]  Or will they turn and trample underfoot the word that I've brought, and not only the word that I've brought, but turn and attack me also?
[00:29:35]  All these things must be considered.
[00:29:38]  Utilizing Matthew Henry, furthermore, he says, Among the generation of the wicked, there are some that have arrived at such a pitch, a fever pitch, such a high degree of wickedness.
[00:29:50]  That they are looked upon as dogs and swine.
[00:29:53]  They are impudently and notoriously vile.
[00:29:57]  They have so long walked in the way of sinners that they have sat down in the seat of the scornful.
[00:30:05]  He's referencing here Psalm chapter 2: standing, or walking and standing and sitting.
[00:30:14]  Psalm chapter 1 or Psalm chapter 2, I can't remember.
[00:30:16]  I think it's Psalm chapter 2.
[00:30:18]  But there's a way of walking in the way of the wicked and then standing.
[00:30:23]  And the gates of mockers, and then sitting among the scornful and the revilers.
[00:30:30]  What Matthew Henry is saying is that there are some generations of the wicked and some individuals among those who are wicked that have arrived at such a high degree of evil that they are looked upon as dogs and swine.
[00:30:46]  They are notoriously vile.
[00:30:48]  They have so long walked in the way of sinners that they're no longer content to merely walk the path of sinners, but they have now sat down.
[00:30:57]  In the seat of the scornful.
[00:31:00]  That there's a progression here.
[00:31:02]  Something that we find not just in the text that he's quoting, or at least referencing, Psalm chapter 2, but we find this throughout the scripture as a whole, that there is a progression of sin.
[00:31:13]  We find this in the book of James, for instance.

=== Progression of Sin and Grace (04:45) ===

[00:31:16]  That sin, beginning at the level of desire, that there are evil desires, and that desire, if it goes unchecked, desire that does not accord with the Word of God, if it goes unchecked, fleshly desire, unchecked desire, eventually it conceives and gives birth to sin.
[00:31:36]  Sin, if it goes unchecked, eventually grows and brings forth death.
[00:31:43]  That's a progression.
[00:31:45]  There's a progression being described in the book of James.
[00:31:49]  That it's not as though someone just wakes up one day, it has solid virtue, solid character, and then decides to do something inexplainably vile.
[00:32:03]  No, the person who does something truly vile, truly heinous, all sin is sin.
[00:32:09]  But there are degrees of sin.
[00:32:12]  The person who says that, well, all sin is equal, that's not true.
[00:32:17]  The Bible doesn't teach that.
[00:32:20]  In fact, Jesus explicitly says that there are some who will receive a light beating and others who will receive a severe beating.
[00:32:30]  Based off of degrees of sin, there's two factors.
[00:32:34]  One is varying degrees of sin, the other factor is varying degrees of grace.
[00:32:41]  Meaning, how bad was the sin that you committed?
[00:32:46]  But also, how much grace did God reveal to you?
[00:32:51]  And that you chose to sin even despite that grace.
[00:32:56]  We see that example laid out or described for us when Jesus pronouncing woes over certain cities in Israel, Tyre and Sidon.
[00:33:08]  And what does he say?
[00:33:08]  He says, it's not just that you've committed worse sins and therefore you were going to incur or curing for yourself more judgment, but he says, if the miracles that have been performed in you, these cities, Had been performed instead in cities of old, pagan cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have turned and repented.
[00:33:32]  But you have not.
[00:33:33]  In other words, what Jesus is saying is not just the degree of your sin, O Tyre and Sidon, is very great.
[00:33:40]  The kinds of sin that you're committing, the frequency of sin you're committing, the degree of sin you're committing.
[00:33:46]  It's not just the sin itself, but it's also the fact that you are sinning.
[00:33:52]  On the backdrop, in the context of having such a high degree of revealed grace, you're not just sinning like Sodom and Gomorrah that was committing vile acts of sin, but you're doing it not just with righteous Lot living in your midst, bearing witness, but you're doing it with Jesus in your midst,
[00:34:17]  bearing witness to the truth of the gospel and performing mighty signs and wonders, proving and verifying.
[00:34:25]  That he is in fact the Son of God.
[00:34:27]  That you're sinning in a city where the Son of God preached to you and where the Son of God multiplied bread and fish and literally fed you.
[00:34:40]  In that context, on that backdrop, you're choosing to spit in his face and sin.
[00:34:46]  So there are degrees of sin, degrees of wickedness, and we know this because the Bible teaches of degrees of punishment severe beatings, light beatings.
[00:34:58]  And we know that what merits a more severe judgment from God is greater degrees of sin committed despite greater degrees of grace.
[00:35:11]  There are some who God has revealed more to, there are others that God, in His sovereignty, has chosen to reveal less to.
[00:35:21]  And so, when we're seeking to discern or make a right judgment about a person, are they a swine?
[00:35:30]  Are they a dog?
[00:35:32]  One of the things that we're looking at is the degree of sin that they've committed.
[00:35:37]  Also, the frequency of that sin.
[00:35:40]  Have they been sinning at such a high caliber for a week or a decade?
[00:35:49]  Is this a mark of their character?
[00:35:52]  Are they known for this?
[00:35:55]  It's not just a moment of weakness, but it's who they are.
[00:35:59]  It's been demonstrated again and again and again.

=== Character vs Momentary Weakness (07:05) ===

[00:36:02]  And then we can also.
[00:36:04]  In discerning whether or not this is a swine or a dog, we can ask the question and have they been doing this sin, high caliber of sin, vile category of sin, not just sin that accords with nature, all sin which accords with nature is still, of course, sin which accords with fallen nature.
[00:36:26]  That's what makes it sin.
[00:36:28]  But there are some sins that don't merely accord with fallen nature, but sins that categorically go against nature itself.
[00:36:38]  For instance, you can have a pagan society that worships Thor.
[00:36:44]  That's idolatry.
[00:36:45]  That's sin.
[00:36:48]  That's also polygamous, where the men take multiple wives.
[00:36:54]  I believe that that's also sin.
[00:36:59]  And that society, if there's polygamy and idolatry, but they're patriarchal, know the difference between men and women.
[00:37:13]  The men are masculine, they fight, they're strong, they provide, they protect, and that society views children as a blessing, and they boast about households with 10 children rather than just one, and don't see children as a burden.
[00:37:32]  That society, theoretically, God's sovereign, He does whatever He does, but that society, theoretically, it's plausible, could last for a thousand years.
[00:37:43]  How do you know that, Joel?
[00:37:44]  This is far fetched.
[00:37:45]  Where are you going?
[00:37:46]  Well, I know that because societies like that have lasted for a thousand years.
[00:37:52]  Throughout history, human history, we have seen pagan societies that did not just last for 20, 30 years, one generation or two generations, but lasted for centuries.
[00:38:04]  Centuries of idolatry, worshiping false gods, centuries of violence, committing war crimes.
[00:38:13]  They would take their opponents.
[00:38:15]  Tribes that they were at war with and do atrocious things that we wouldn't dream of today.
[00:38:22]  These are real sins, sins of violence, sins of idolatry and pagan worship.
[00:38:29]  In some cases, they were misogynistic, not misogynistic by today's standards, which means nothing, but truly degrading towards women, treating wives as slaves without any affection or love for their wife whatsoever.
[00:38:46]  There were these kinds of things, these kinds of sins, real sins.
[00:38:51]  And yet, societies like this still lasted for centuries.
[00:38:58]  Even, I'll go a step further, even human sacrifice.
[00:39:04]  The comparison is often made of, like, well, America is just like pagan societies of old that worshiped Molech.
[00:39:12]  No.
[00:39:14]  No.
[00:39:16]  Do you know why pagan societies in centuries past worshiped Molech?
[00:39:22]  It's because they wanted more children, not less.
[00:39:29]  So, what they would do is they would take one child, usually their first child, and offer it to Molech, pass the child through the flames, and it would be burned alive.
[00:39:42]  A terrible, heinous practice.
[00:39:45]  But even these pagan societies only did that because there was the promise that Molech would make their crops grow.
[00:39:55]  Send rain upon their land, give them peace from their enemies, and don't miss this one give them more children.
[00:40:05]  So they'd sacrifice one so that Molech would give them ten.
[00:40:11]  That's not what America does.
[00:40:14]  Women in America are not going to Molech, it is Molech, but they're not going to Molech, Planned Parenthood, to give one child so that they could have ten.
[00:40:24]  They're giving one child and then Two years later, another child, and then two years later, another child, so that they can have none.
[00:40:31]  In other words, pagan societies that worshiped Molech, that were degrading to their wives, that were polygamous, and that even practiced human sacrifice and giving one child to a false god so that they might receive ten children in return.
[00:40:51]  These societies, as wicked as they were, were still committing sin.
[00:40:59]  That accords with nature.
[00:41:03]  They still recognize that the sky is blue, the grass is green, a man's a man, a woman's a woman, children are a blessing rather than a burden.
[00:41:13]  They didn't want their society to literally die off, right?
[00:41:17]  They recognized they were smarter than us.
[00:41:20]  They recognized we got to have at least two children for two parents.
[00:41:26]  That's the replacement rate.
[00:41:28]  They didn't say, well, Americans can't have babies, so I guess we need to import the third world.
[00:41:35]  The level of stupidity that we have achieved in this generation, this is what I'm trying to help us see.
[00:41:42]  The level of stupidity, and not just stupidity because that's kind, and it's a kindness that our generation and our country does not deserve.
[00:41:51]  Because it's not just stupidity, the level of wickedness, pure, vile, evil.
[00:42:01]  The idea that we would say, I hate children.
[00:42:07]  I don't want any.
[00:42:09]  And my neighbor's children, those who actually do have children, Christians in our nation that have children that are seeking to be fruitful and multiply, I want to make sure that their children don't have a country by the time they grow up.
[00:42:23]  And so we're going to open up the gates and let in strangers and aliens and foreigners that will devour like locusts.
[00:42:33]  All the inheritance that our fathers have worked for.
[00:42:40]  And we're going to do all this while transing kids and obliterating God's distinctions and categories of gender, of nations, of different tribes and peoples.
[00:42:59]  That's a level of wickedness that Vikings would have blushed at.

=== Degrees of Wickedness and Judgment (14:43) ===

[00:43:08]  As they're going to.
[00:43:10]  Blank and pillage other tribes.
[00:43:13]  You can fill in the blank, family integrated.
[00:43:17]  While doing that, if they heard of us, they'd say, Whoa, those guys are bad.
[00:43:27]  Americans?
[00:43:28]  Gosh, I hope I never meet that tribe.
[00:43:36]  Right?
[00:43:36]  Suicide is a sin against nature.
[00:43:43]  Our entire society.
[00:43:44]  Is committing that sin wholesale, corporately.
[00:43:53]  Putting women in combat and positions of civil power is sin against nature.
[00:44:01]  It's not just sin, but it's disordered.
[00:44:06]  There are sins of degree and there are sins of disorder.
[00:44:12]  So the point is this again, using judgment and discernment.
[00:44:18]  What category of sin are we talking about?
[00:44:22]  This man is too aggressive.
[00:44:27]  He's rude.
[00:44:31]  Even at times violent.
[00:44:33]  Okay.
[00:44:35]  That's a sin.
[00:44:37]  It should be confronted.
[00:44:39]  But that is a sin which accords with nature.
[00:44:43]  Hear me.
[00:44:44]  The accords with nature part doesn't eradicate the first part.
[00:44:48]  That's a sin.
[00:44:49]  It's a sin.
[00:44:52]  But it's a sin which accords with nature.
[00:44:54]  Fall in nature, but nature.
[00:44:58]  But if there's another man whose wrist is limp, who doesn't take responsibility, doesn't work, doesn't provide for the members of his household, doesn't seek to protect, is effeminate, is weak, his wife rules the roost, that's also a sin.
[00:45:23]  But that is not a sin that accords with nature.
[00:45:27]  That is a sin that's not just a matter of degree, but a sin that is disordered.
[00:45:32]  So now we're not just speaking of degrees of sin, but categories of sin.
[00:45:40]  There may be someone who is sinning in terms of being immoral, sexually immoral.
[00:45:51]  That is a sin.
[00:45:54]  But there are other kinds of that immorality that are disordered.
[00:46:01]  That it falls into a whole other category.
[00:46:05]  That it's unheard of.
[00:46:09]  Today it's common, but again, C point A, we are uniquely wicked.
[00:46:14]  We are a uniquely wicked generation.
[00:46:17]  In times past, think of what the Apostle Paul wrote when he's speaking to the Corinthians.
[00:46:23]  He says, There are sins taking place that are not even heard of among the Gentiles.
[00:46:32]  What is he saying?
[00:46:32]  He's saying there are pagans, there are non Christians who would blush.
[00:46:40]  They wouldn't even do these things.
[00:46:43]  They know that these things are self defeating.
[00:46:46]  Not only do these things not honor God, no sin honors God, but these things, not only do they not honor God, but it shoots yourself in the foot.
[00:46:57]  It's not just dishonoring towards God, it sins against your own people, sins against your own offspring, sins against your own flesh.
[00:47:07]  Sins against your own family.
[00:47:09]  It's self destructive.
[00:47:15]  So, as we're seeking to reprove others, these are the things we look for category of sin.
[00:47:22]  What type of sin are we talking about?
[00:47:26]  Sin which accords with nature, which is still sin, or sin that is disordered and goes against nature.
[00:47:34]  Not only rebels against God, all sin rebels against God, but it actually rebels and flies in the face of nature itself.
[00:47:42]  Because, what are we trying to determine?
[00:47:44]  There is a progression of sin.
[00:47:46]  Romans 1, right?
[00:47:48]  We quote it all the time.
[00:47:50]  Well, think about it, apply it.
[00:47:52]  Romans 1 gives us, again, just like James, just like Psalm 2, a progression.
[00:47:59]  A progression of sin.
[00:48:01]  And not just a progression of sin as we find it in an individual person, but as we find it in societies, corporately, as a whole.
[00:48:11]  What does Romans 1 say?
[00:48:13]  It talks about how men eventually, as a society, is degrading progressively, more and more and more.
[00:48:22]  Eventually, you reach a state corporately, as a society, where men exchange natural relationships for those which are unnatural, against nature.
[00:48:38]  So there are relationships that are with nature, even though they may still be sinful, like polygamy.
[00:48:47]  And then there are relationships that are also sinful and a higher degree of sinfulness.
[00:48:54]  The category itself is more perverse, more disordered, more upside down, more directly flying in the face, not just rebellion against God, the one who created nature, but against the nature he created itself.
[00:49:14]  So you're seeking to bring correction, seeking to bring reproof.
[00:49:18]  The one you're reproving.
[00:49:20]  Are they a swine?
[00:49:22]  Are they a dog?
[00:49:22]  Okay, let's consider what's the category of sin.
[00:49:27]  Next, what's the degree and frequency of sin?
[00:49:33]  Next, the longevity.
[00:49:37]  How long has this been going on?
[00:49:41]  And then, another, speaking back to the example I gave of Tyre and Sidon Woe to you!
[00:49:48]  Jesus pronounces woes on Tyre and Sidon, but notice this.
[00:49:52]  It's not specifically, now I think the argument can be made, and I would make it.
[00:49:56]  This is my position.
[00:49:59]  I think that the type of sins that Tyre and Sidon was committing were actually worse sins than the sins being committed in Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:50:09]  I really believe that.
[00:50:11]  We know what sins were committed in Sodom and Gomorrah, right?
[00:50:14]  It's the name of the city.
[00:50:15]  We get that.
[00:50:17]  But in Tyre and Sidon, these cities weren't necessarily marked by that particular sin that Sodom and Gomorrah were marked by.
[00:50:25]  But they were committing another sin that I would argue is even worse.
[00:50:31]  And it's the sin of hating the Son of God, rejecting him, bearing false witness about him, trying to get him arrested, trying to get him killed, trying to produce false witnesses in a kangaroo court.
[00:50:53]  Tyre and Sidon were vile in terms of the sin.
[00:50:55]  But that's not, I think that argument can be made.
[00:50:58]  But the argument that's explicit, the argument that Jesus makes, So, it's probably the safest thing to go with.
[00:51:04]  You know, when in doubt, side with Jesus.
[00:51:07]  Jesus says, if the miracles, meaning not just the degree of grace or the degree of sin you, towns, Tyre and Sidon, are committing, but the degree of grace that I'm displaying and revealing, if the miracles, the proof, the revelation, which is grace, God revealing himself through his son, Jesus Christ, miraculously bearing witness this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
[00:51:35]  These miracles, if they were performed in these other cities, they would have repented.
[00:51:40]  You remain obstinate and rebellious in the face of grace.
[00:51:46]  So that would be another marker that we look for as we're discerning, judging whether or not we should correct someone.
[00:51:54]  Whether or not this person is qualified not to reprove, but in this case, Matthew 7, verse 6, they're qualified for the reproof.
[00:52:05]  Not to be the reprover, but to receive the correction.
[00:52:09]  Are they a swine?
[00:52:11]  Are they a pig?
[00:52:13]  What's the degree of sin?
[00:52:14]  What's the category of sin?
[00:52:16]  Does it go against nature?
[00:52:17]  What's the longevity and frequency?
[00:52:20]  Is it every day for 20 years?
[00:52:22]  And then lastly, what's the degree of grace?
[00:52:25]  Right?
[00:52:26]  So then put the sin aside for a moment.
[00:52:28]  How much grace has God revealed to them?
[00:52:31]  In other words, you could find a vile, vile people, theoretically.
[00:52:39]  Speaking in theory, it would be possible to find a people that is incredibly vile, that sins against nature.
[00:52:46]  So the category of sin is of a high caliber.
[00:52:51]  And the frequency and the longevity, they've been doing this for, well, not centuries because then the people wouldn't exist.
[00:52:58]  Not sins that go against nature.
[00:53:00]  You do that long enough, you're wiped out.
[00:53:03]  It just literally doesn't work.
[00:53:05]  It just doesn't work.
[00:53:07]  Okay, but let's say they've been sinful for centuries and in the last generation or two, That sin has progressed to the point where now categorically it's sin that goes against nature, that's incredibly perverse.
[00:53:20]  But here's the one extra detail in this scenario.
[00:53:26]  Let's say they're a lost people group and they've never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:53:31]  Should we, from a distance, without going, but hearing of this discovery of this people, should we determine?
[00:53:37]  Should we judge?
[00:53:38]  Matthew 7, verse 6 is telling us to make a judgment, but to make a right judgment.
[00:53:44]  Should we judge from a distance without any Christian ever going that these people are swine and dogs and therefore determine they don't deserve the pearls, they don't deserve the holy things, we should never send a missionary, never preach the gospel ever at all?
[00:54:00]  No.
[00:54:02]  No, because there are a lot of factors that we can observe categories of sin, frequency of sin, longevity of sin, all this.
[00:54:11]  But there's one category that we've yet to witness.
[00:54:14]  There's a piece of data that's currently missing.
[00:54:17]  And what is it?
[00:54:18]  What do these people do with grace?
[00:54:23]  What do they do?
[00:54:24]  We know what they do in darkness without the Christian gospel being present.
[00:54:29]  But what would they do if God did reveal himself?
[00:54:33]  We know what Tyre and Sidon did.
[00:54:35]  The Son of God walking their streets, doing miracles, preaching the gospel.
[00:54:42]  And Tyre and Sidon says, Nah, don't like it.
[00:54:44]  Let's kill him.
[00:54:46]  All right.
[00:54:47]  Swine.
[00:54:48]  An entire city of swine.
[00:54:52]  And for anyone who thinks that's harsh, remember, Jesus is the guy who told his disciples, and that includes still to this day, you and I, that there are certain contexts and times to shake the dust off of your feet and leave a place.
[00:55:09]  And he actually says, a town, not just an individual.
[00:55:13]  I've given up on this individual.
[00:55:15]  No, Jesus actually carves out a theological category for giving up on entire towns because Jesus is wise and merciful.
[00:55:28]  He's merciful.
[00:55:30]  Jesus does not expect someone to indefinitely, for the rest of their life, bear witness to him and his gospel in places like Tyre and Sidon and San Francisco.
[00:55:48]  Yes, I would make that argument.
[00:55:51]  I would make that argument that it is a city of swine by Christ's standards.
[00:55:58]  This is not a lost people group.
[00:56:01]  That have never heard the Christian gospel.
[00:56:05]  These are not people in a dark jungle that never have seen a Bible or a missionary.
[00:56:12]  These are people who have lived in America that have heard gospel preaching on airways, on the radio, on television stations.
[00:56:25]  Many of them have migrated there.
[00:56:27]  They're not native residents.
[00:56:29]  Very few, it's a very transient city.
[00:56:31]  Very few.
[00:56:33]  Are from cradle to grave.
[00:56:35]  Most people go there and they go there for a reason.
[00:56:39]  One of the reasons is commerce, business, opportunity.
[00:56:43]  But another one of the reasons is because they want to leave places like this.
[00:56:48]  I hate my mom and dad and fly over country.
[00:56:50]  I hate the church.
[00:56:51]  I hate my upbringing.
[00:56:53]  I hate my history.
[00:56:54]  I hate southern morals and biblical character traits.
[00:56:59]  And I'm running away.
[00:57:01]  I'm going to the exact opposite, not by accident.
[00:57:06]  But on purpose.
[00:57:10]  And there are times in history, in societies, where there are real, tangible, geographic places where Jesus says, Yeah, preach the gospel, but maybe skip that town.
[00:57:27]  Now, again, hear the caveat not skip a town that's never had the gospel.
[00:57:31]  I'm not talking about, hey, skip that tribe in the jungle that's never heard the word of God.
[00:57:39]  No, you don't do that.
[00:57:42]  Because that's the last category that needs to be weighed when making a judgment.
[00:57:46]  How do these people respond to grace?

=== When to Leave a Town (04:33) ===

[00:57:51]  Revelation.
[00:57:52]  That's what Jesus is saying about Tyre and Sidon.
[00:57:55]  They have had a high degree, not just a high degree of sin, but a high degree of grace.
[00:58:01]  They've had me.
[00:58:03]  And even with me, there's no.
[00:58:09]  No humility, no repentance, no desire to submit themselves.
[00:58:15]  In fact, they actually are trampling the gospel underfoot, the pearls, and they're also trying to find a way to trample me, to turn and attack me.
[00:58:28]  This lesson, Matthew chapter 7, verse 6, is something that Jesus experienced firsthand.
[00:58:35]  It's not just a principle, it is a principle, but it's something that.
[00:58:40]  He knew.
[00:58:42]  He himself knew this principle.
[00:58:45]  And he modeled it.
[00:58:47]  He's not just giving it a command, something for you, but not for himself.
[00:58:50]  No, he actually obeyed this command himself throughout his earthly ministry until it was his time.
[00:58:56]  Remember what I said earlier.
[00:58:57]  Once it was his time, rather than fighting against, kicking against the goads, once he knew it is time, and this is my Father's preordained will.
[00:59:09]  He prays, John 17, in the Garden of Gethsemane.
[00:59:11]  Let the cup pass, but not my will, but yours be done.
[00:59:14]  And once it's time, and it is in fact the will of God, then Jesus gives himself over to his adversaries.
[00:59:22]  Until that time, you know what Jesus does?
[00:59:25]  He runs.
[00:59:27]  He runs.
[00:59:29]  Oh, what a coward.
[00:59:31]  Well, be careful calling Jesus a coward.
[00:59:35]  Look at his ministry.
[00:59:37]  Again and again, he goes to a town, he performs miracles.
[00:59:42]  People hear about it.
[00:59:45]  And a lot of times, what does he say?
[00:59:46]  Have you ever wondered all the passages where Jesus would heal someone or exercise a demon and he would explicitly tell them, don't tell anyone?
[00:59:55]  Remember those texts?
[00:59:56]  There's multiple of them.
[00:59:57]  Do you know why?
[00:59:58]  Because his primary function, purpose, was preaching, not miracles.
[01:00:04]  The miracles were to validate him as the messenger.
[01:00:09]  But Jesus was, before miracle worker, it's Jesus the preacher.
[01:00:14]  And he goes to preach and he doesn't want.
[01:00:17]  The preaching to be obstructed and hindered by antagonistic crowds that would come with plans to persecute him or arrest him or this.
[01:00:29]  So, what he does is he goes to a town for a little while, he performs some miracles as he's preaching.
[01:00:36]  He tells people, Please don't spread the word that I've done this miracle.
[01:00:41]  The people, of course, typically don't listen because they're pretty excited, it's hard to blame them.
[01:00:46]  The word gets out.
[01:00:48]  Jesus is here.
[01:00:49]  He's healing people.
[01:00:51]  He's casting out demons.
[01:00:52]  He's multiplying food.
[01:00:53]  Then a bunch of people come.
[01:00:55]  With the crowds come bad faith actors.
[01:01:00]  Right?
[01:01:01]  You hit a certain metric of enough followers, enough of a crowd, a big enough crowd, enough people, and bad faith actors will be among them.
[01:01:11]  And then once the bad faith actors get there, what does Jesus do?
[01:01:14]  He says, Oh, look at the time.
[01:01:17]  And he's gone.
[01:01:20]  He's gone.
[01:01:21]  And people try to follow him, right?
[01:01:23]  Like John chapter 5.
[01:01:25]  And John chapter 6, rather.
[01:01:28]  The feeding of the thousands.
[01:01:31]  He feeds them.
[01:01:32]  He preaches to them.
[01:01:34]  And then he gets on a boat and tries to lose them.
[01:01:41]  And they walk around the whole lake and find him.
[01:01:43]  And then a little later, he tries to lose the crowd again.
[01:01:48]  Because with crowds come critics.
[01:01:52]  And many of the critics are not good faith critics, but actually conspiring, actually malicious.
[01:02:04]  And so, Jesus, because it was not yet his time, he's not ready for the bad faith critics to actually succeed, capture him, arrest him, and crucify him.
[01:02:14]  And so, he departs.
[01:02:16]  The doctrine of fleeing, in other words.
[01:02:21]  A thoroughly biblical doctrine.

=== The Doctrine of Fleeing (14:14) ===

[01:02:25]  There are people that you should leave.
[01:02:28]  There are places that you should leave.
[01:02:32]  There are relationships that you should end.
[01:02:36]  Friendships that you should get out of.
[01:02:40]  There are workplaces that you should be writing your resume.
[01:02:46]  You should be shrewd about it, right?
[01:02:48]  You need a job in the meantime.
[01:02:50]  Don't be foolish.
[01:02:51]  All right, have a little tact.
[01:02:54]  But you should be writing your resume and sending it out.
[01:02:58]  You should be thinking, how do I not work for this company for the rest of my life?
[01:03:03]  Because I'm in a den of lions at this company.
[01:03:08]  It is a ticking time bomb.
[01:03:11]  Any moment, someone could find out that I'm a Christian who believes that men are men and women are women, and I'm done.
[01:03:20]  There are places to leave.
[01:03:23]  And there are certain people, whether it be whole societies, Whole towns.
[01:03:31]  I would even argue further than that.
[01:03:33]  Not just towns.
[01:03:35]  You could argue even whole ethnicities, tribes, tongues, languages.
[01:03:41]  Not forever, because every tribe, tongue, and language is going to be before the throne of God.
[01:03:47]  But there are generations where Paul says all Cretans are liars and lazy gluttons.
[01:03:54]  And we know that this is true.
[01:03:57]  Now, even in that scenario, Paul ministered in Crete.
[01:04:01]  He left one of his sons in the faith, Titus, in Crete, to plant a church in Crete, to be led by Cretan elders.
[01:04:12]  So there was still some success, Paul knew, that could take place there, despite degrees of sin, obstinate hearts.
[01:04:22]  So he didn't completely write them off.
[01:04:24]  But we should think about these things.
[01:04:27]  How many mission agencies?
[01:04:29]  Are wasting the widows' mites.
[01:04:33]  Like, should there be something to be said for this people has displayed openness to the gospel?
[01:04:39]  Let's go more.
[01:04:41]  Let's do more.
[01:04:43]  This place, every time we try to preach the gospel, they hate it.
[01:04:50]  Let's do less.
[01:04:54]  You might think, well, what is that place?
[01:04:57]  What place just hates the gospel?
[01:05:01]  And doesn't respond to the gospel.
[01:05:04]  Well, California would be one of them.
[01:05:07]  Israel would be one of them.
[01:05:12]  There's a few places like that.
[01:05:16]  You should do less.
[01:05:18]  Doesn't mean each and every individual, but it means on the whole, in generalities, high percentage of swine, high number of dogs.
[01:05:33]  And this again is not Jesus, just his permission saying, hey, ministry's hard, bringing correction, bringing the gospel is hard, and I'm giving you an allowance, permissibility to throw in the towel if it's too tough.
[01:05:52]  No, this isn't just permissibility, this is Jesus giving us a command.
[01:05:58]  It's not just that Jesus is leaving you an off ramp.
[01:06:03]  Because he's concerned about your personal comfort if things get too tough.
[01:06:08]  No, this is Jesus actually as the one who owns all things, being a shrewd steward and saying, Stop wasting my money.
[01:06:18]  It's actually not him concerned about your comfort.
[01:06:21]  It's not, Hey, sometimes there will be some individuals or some peoples or some towns or some generations or some places that are really, really hard.
[01:06:30]  And that's uncomfortable.
[01:06:31]  And I don't want you to be uncomfortable.
[01:06:32]  And so I'm giving you permission to stop.
[01:06:34]  No, he's saying, No, no, no.
[01:06:36]  I own everything.
[01:06:37]  It's all mine.
[01:06:39]  And everything you're operating with are my resources, my investments.
[01:06:45]  And I don't make bad investments.
[01:06:48]  It's not just you're allowed to throw in the towel if it hurts.
[01:06:52]  No, it's that you're not allowed to waste the master's money.
[01:06:58]  That's what you're not allowed to do.
[01:07:00]  And there's a certain point with categories of sin, degrees of sin, longevity and frequency of sin, and how much grace has this person had.
[01:07:11]  And yet they still rebel against God.
[01:07:13]  How much grace and preaching and evangelist and gospel has this people had, this nation had, this city had, this state had, and they yet still hate Jesus?
[01:07:26]  At that point, it's not just, hey, things were tough.
[01:07:31]  And now you can move to Oklahoma City and have a good life with conservatives.
[01:07:39]  No, it's, no, these people are vile.
[01:07:42]  And you need to stop wasting my investment and spend it better.
[01:07:49]  There's better ground that will receive the seed and produce a crop 10, 30, 60, 100 fold.
[01:08:00]  And you are commanded to be good investors, producing a return for the master.
[01:08:12]  That's the point.
[01:08:14]  So, it's not just your preservation.
[01:08:16]  That's in the text too.
[01:08:18]  Don't do pearls before swine.
[01:08:19]  Pearls, swine, they don't see it as a pearl, you giving them something of value.
[01:08:25]  They just think you're attacking them.
[01:08:27]  Why are you throwing rocks at me?
[01:08:28]  It's a pearl.
[01:08:30]  Why are you throwing rocks at me?
[01:08:31]  It's a loving correction and reproof.
[01:08:33]  Why are you reviling me?
[01:08:35]  They just see it as reviling.
[01:08:38]  They see it as slander, even though it's true.
[01:08:42]  And they're not just going to trample the pearls, the message.
[01:08:46]  They'll turn and attack you, the messenger.
[01:08:48]  So that is baked into the text.
[01:08:51]  Self preservation.
[01:08:52]  Jesus is essentially saying, don't be suicidal.
[01:08:56]  Jesus is a shrewd manager, the master who owns everything.
[01:09:00]  He wants as much out of you in your life, your ministry, as he can possibly get.
[01:09:06]  He doesn't want you to be a kamikaze missionary.
[01:09:09]  He'd rather get 40 years out of your missionary work.
[01:09:14]  He wants a return.
[01:09:17]  So he doesn't want you.
[01:09:19]  To do things that will get you to be attacked, your reputation destroyed, to where no one will ever listen or receive from your ministry ever again.
[01:09:32]  So he doesn't just allow for shrewdness or allow for at times throwing in the towel and moving on, pivoting, transitioning.
[01:09:40]  He demands it.
[01:09:42]  He demands it because Jesus wants a return.
[01:09:47]  Don't go to certain places, don't go to certain people.
[01:09:53]  Don't open your mouth.
[01:09:54]  Don't give that reproof.
[01:09:56]  Not just because you might not be qualified to reprove, but that person might not be qualified to be reproved.
[01:10:04]  That's Matthew chapter 7, verse 6.
[01:10:07]  Use discernment, make righteous judgments.
[01:10:11]  And what do we look for to determine is this a person worth reproving?
[01:10:18]  What category of sin are we talking about?
[01:10:21]  Sin which accords with nature or sin that flies in the face of nature?
[01:10:26]  Not just degrees of sin, but disordered sin.
[01:10:30]  Okay, what's the longevity, the history?
[01:10:32]  How long have they been rebelling like this?
[01:10:35]  And what frequency of rebellion?
[01:10:39]  And then also, what manner of grace, what measure rather, of grace have they received?
[01:10:46]  This person didn't grow up in a Christian home.
[01:10:48]  This person has never really heard the gospel.
[01:10:50]  This person has never read the Bible.
[01:10:53]  This person is unchurched.
[01:10:55]  This person is unevangelized.
[01:10:57]  Okay.
[01:10:58]  Well, then let's give that one an honest shot.
[01:11:01]  Let's work hard at it, knowing that at first there might be a lot of resistance.
[01:11:07]  But if this is a person who has been saturated in Christian doctrine, saturated in the gospel, has grown up in the Mecca of Christendom in the West, and took all of that and said, I hate it, and voluntarily placed themselves in a city or a geographic region.
[01:11:29]  That is dedicated to sodomy, baby murder, and hatred of Christ.
[01:11:38]  Keep your pearls.
[01:11:41]  Keep your pearls.
[01:11:44]  And I know that that seems intense and some people don't like that, but if not that, then my question would just be then what do you do?
[01:11:53]  A lot of people know what they don't agree with.
[01:11:56]  Okay, great.
[01:11:57]  That's great.
[01:11:59]  Quit giving problems.
[01:12:00]  Give me a solution.
[01:12:01]  Then, how do you apply Matthew chapter 7, verse 6?
[01:12:05]  If not that, then who is a swine?
[01:12:10]  Who is a dog?
[01:12:11]  And I think if people are honest, this is what they'll have to admit.
[01:12:14]  Now, it won't help because it's inconsistent and there's no Bible to back it up, but this is what they would have to admit.
[01:12:19]  Well, that deals with individual people, and that description of swine and dogs can never be used to describe people groups, it's only individuals.
[01:12:29]  You can never describe a town.
[01:12:32]  A whole place to which I would just say, Could I introduce you to the Bible?
[01:12:39]  Have you ever read that before?
[01:12:42]  That concept is applied regularly.
[01:12:46]  See Tyre, see Sidon, see Crete.
[01:12:50]  That's entire generations, this wicked and adulterous generation.
[01:12:55]  That's a thing.
[01:12:58]  That's a thing.
[01:13:00]  So let us be wise.
[01:13:01]  Examine yourself, Galatians 6 1.
[01:13:03]  Are you qualified to reprove?
[01:13:06]  To give the reproof, are you spiritually mature?
[01:13:09]  Are you doing it in a spirit of gentleness, actually wanting restoration to be the outcome?
[01:13:13]  And are you humble?
[01:13:16]  Not giving in to temptation, recognizing your own weakness and propensity to sin.
[01:13:21]  Spiritually mature, gentle, humble.
[01:13:25]  That's for someone to give a reproof.
[01:13:28]  Also, who are you about to reprove?
[01:13:31]  Are they a swine?
[01:13:32]  Are they a dog?
[01:13:34]  What kind of sin are we about to correct?
[01:13:37]  Notice not just what degree, what kind of sin, category.
[01:13:42]  What history of sin do we have here?
[01:13:46]  How long?
[01:13:47]  How frequent?
[01:13:48]  And how many times has this person been corrected before?
[01:13:53]  And how has that worked out?
[01:13:57]  How much grace has there been?
[01:13:59]  And in the midst of grace, has there always been obstinate hardness of heart, a refusal to receive correction?
[01:14:10]  Then keep that pearl, baby.
[01:14:13]  Shake the dust off your feet, move along, find a better investment.
[01:14:20]  You're not being harsh.
[01:14:21]  You're not being mean.
[01:14:23]  You're being shrewd.
[01:14:25]  Because Jesus, the Master, he demands a return.
[01:14:29]  He's given you grace, and he expects the grace he's given you over the course of your life to be multiplied in others.
[01:14:38]  So do not waste your time, your whole life, trying to multiply that grace he gave you with one person who, for all intents and purposes, all signs, all indicators point that that person is not going to get it.
[01:14:55]  Can God save anyone?
[01:14:56]  Yes.
[01:14:58]  Yes.
[01:14:59]  But He can do it with or without you.
[01:15:01]  Your job is to be fruitful.
[01:15:04]  To be fruitful.
[01:15:07]  And here's the thing you could write someone off as a swine, and God, in His providence through human agency, could bring someone else who has not yet experienced how obstinate, how rebellious.
[01:15:19]  They actually don't have the data points to categorize this person as a swine.
[01:15:23]  So they're actually being obedient based off of what they know.
[01:15:26]  And what they know is preach the gospel to everyone until they prove.
[01:15:29]  They should be written off.
[01:15:30]  This person hasn't had that experience yet.
[01:15:33]  And then that's the time in the sovereignty of God and His mercy that the gospel actually bears fruit.
[01:15:39]  That has happened hundreds of times.
[01:15:41]  But that doesn't change the first point that if you've been there for years again and again and again and it's no and it's no and it's no, then move on.
[01:15:52]  So you actually are called to move on.
[01:15:54]  Someone else who doesn't have that experience, doesn't have that data point, so they're not able to make a judgment, a right judgment, accurate judgment.
[01:16:02]  They preach the gospel, and maybe that's the time where God causes the seed to grow.
[01:16:07]  Blessed be the name of the Lord.
[01:16:09]  He's sovereign, working all things, all these different parts, moving parts, all the pieces of the puzzle.
[01:16:15]  Our job, again, is just obedience.
[01:16:18]  Obedience.
[01:16:19]  Go, preach, reprove, correct, witness, evangelize.
[01:16:26]  But be shrewd, get a return.
[01:16:30]  Jesus demands his investment.
[01:16:35]  To multiply.
[01:16:36]  Let's pray.
[01:16:36]  Father, bless your word to your people for your glory in Jesus' name.