Amen, so John chapter 9, I want to preach a message tonight called Blind Believers,
Blind Believers, and really in the scripture you see there's of course the literal blindness
that we read about here in John 9 and several different passages where Jesus is healing
the blind, but there's also a spiritual blindness that we all have when we're born in this world,
that we have to have our eyes opened spiritually, we have to be born again, Christ has to give
us light, we have to have the scales fall from off our eyes as it were, but that doesn't
mean that even as believers, even after we've had our eyes opened spiritually, that we can't
have still a form of blindness, and I'll get into what I mean here in a minute, but if
you look there it says in John 9 verse 35, Jesus heard that they had cast them out, and
when they find him he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered
and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast
both seen him, and he it is that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe, and he
worshipped him. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they in which
see not might see. And that's us, that's the believer, that's the New Testament believer
in Christ, that Christ has come to this world, we believed on him, we put our faith and trust
in Lord Jesus Christ, and we have our eyes opened spiritually. That's part of the purpose
for which Christ came. He came that they which see not might see, right? But also he goes
on and says that they which see might be made blind. And of course he's speaking very specifically
about the Jews, okay, because they were ones that trusted themselves that they were righteous,
and Christ came and exposed their self-righteousness in fact to be iniquity and hypocrisy, and
basically made them blind. Everyone said, Oh, the Pharisee, they're the ones that see,
they have the keys, they have the knowledge, they have understanding. And Christ came and
actually proved that they were blind because of the fact that they did not accept Christ,
they rejected him. And he gives them this cryptic answer here at the end, which he's
basically saying, you know, you say that you see, and now therefore you have sin and your
sin remains, okay? And but basically what he's telling them is, you know, you are blind
because you have rejected Christ. And those in this world that reject Christ, they remain
spiritually blind, okay? They remain blind. If you would, go over to 2 Corinthians chapter
number 3, 2 Corinthians chapter number 3. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, if our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not. So the Bible says that them which believe not have
had their what? Their minds blinded. It's a spiritual blindness that is upon the lost
of this world today. That is what they are dealing with. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest what? The light of the glorious
gospel of Christ should shine unto them, who is the image of God should shine unto them.
So again, we can see how the scripture's telling us that when the gospel comes and is received,
it's like light being shed in, it's an illumination, it's a spiritual healing of the spiritual
mind, it's a removing of the scales, okay? It's being made to see spiritually, it's
being illuminated. And of course, those that deny him, those that deny Christ remain blind.
Again, the example of Jews, if you look there in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 13, it said,
and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly look to the end at that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded,
for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away, and the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away in Christ, but even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil
is upon their heart. So what's blinding them is their false religion. That's what's blinding
them. That's the veil that is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord,
the veil shall be taken away. Again, when someone receives Christ, that veil is removed
and they see, they are healed of that spiritual blindness. And again, the point is this, that
the title of the sermon is Blind Believers. So we understand that the lost world is blind,
spiritually speaking. And when we get saved, we're no longer blind. But it is still possible
that even we as believers have a form of blindness. And I want to get into that here in a minute,
but the reason I'm preaching this is because of the fact that being spiritually blind,
even as a believer who is saved, is dangerous because of the fact that blindness often leads
to hypocrisy. You see that here, if you would, go to Matthew 23, Matthew chapter number 23.
In Matthew 23, which is just some of the hardest preaching, in fact, probably the hardest preaching
in the Bible that anyone's ever done, he's just calling them names, he's calling them
vipers, he's just tearing into them. But when you read through Matthew 23, what you see
him often calling them is a few things. One is a hypocrite. He's calling them out for
their hypocrisy. Look at there at verse 15. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for ye compass the sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him
twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. And this is hard preaching, right? But notice
what he says in verse 16. Woe unto ye blind guides. So not only are they hypocrites, but
they are also blind. And he goes on, and if you were to count this, he calls them blind
four times, or five times, rather, when he goes through this passage. So this is something
that's associated with being a hypocrite. These things seem to go hand in hand, being
a fool, being blind, and being a hypocrite. Because this form of blindness that they have
often what, we'll get into here in a second, just read through the passage. He says in
verse 16, woe unto ye blind guides which say whosoever shall swear by the temple it is
nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple he is a debtor. Ye fools
and blind, for whether is greater the gold of the temple that sanctifieth the gold, and
whosoever shall swear by the altar it is nothing, but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is
upon the altar he is guilty. Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater the gift, or
the altar that sanctifieth the gift. Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth
by it and all things thereon, and whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it and him
that dwelleth therein, and he that sweareth by heaven sweareth by the throne of God. So
you can see just over again, over and over he's calling them hypocrites, he's calling
them fools, and he's calling them blind. And when you get down there to verse 24, this
is kind of the blindness that I want to talk about, this form of blindness that even we
as believers can still be guilty of. He says in verse 24, ye blind guides which what? Which
strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. So the blindness that they have, it's because
they're focusing on the wrong thing, and that's what leads to hypocrisy so often, is we get
so focused in on one thing, and you know, in comparing a gnat to a camel, something
that's much less, you know, consequential, something very insignificant in comparison.
You know, that leads to hypocrisy, and sometimes we can be guilty of that even as believers.
We can get so focused in on one little, you know, minutia of doctrine, or what have you,
we get so focused on that that we become blind to the other things in our life that we need
to get right. The camels of our life, as it were. And you know, we see this, you can see
this with people, and even as we were reading in John 9, I'll go back there, you don't have
to, but you see this, an example of this straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel with the
Pharisees. This is something that they were very guilty of. It said, you know, he does
this miracle, and in verse 16 it said, therefore said some of the Pharisees, this man is not
of God. Why? Because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. This is them straining at a gnat. I mean,
he just healed a blind man. He just got a guy that couldn't, even he said, you know,
no man can do these miracles except God be with him. You know, they've never seen it
on this manner. This is something that only God could do. And they're saying, well, he's
not of God because he's not doing it on the Sabbath. Look, you're straining at a gnat,
Pharisee. You know, you're so focused in on, you know, the carnal ordinance of the Sabbath
that you don't even see the power of God working in your very midst. You're swallowing a camel
of hypocrisy. That's what he's getting at here. That's a good example there. So we,
as believers, you know, we might have our eyes opened spiritually today. You know, we're
saved. The glorious gospel of Christ has shined unto us and we can see, but it could
be that even in our own Christian lives, you know, we can begin to strain at a gnat and
end up swallowing a camel as Christians because this is a form of blindness, not just a stumbling
about, not just a not being able to see and groping about in the darkness, but just it's
a blindness that comes from focusing on things that are inconsequential and letting the weightier
matters of life and the Christian life go by the wayside. And, you know, I was trying
to, we'll just go to Revelation chapter three, Revelation chapter three, because I do want
to, you know, back this up real quick. It is possible for even a believer to remain
blind in a way. It says in verse 14 of Revelation three, and unto the angel of the church of
the loudest eons, right? So he's writing unto a church, right? There's a saved people. These
things say at the amen, the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou were cold
or hot. So then now, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee
out of my mouth, because thou sayest what? I am rich and increased with goods and have
need of nothing. Their focus is on the wrong thing. This is their net. The fact that they're
increased, the fact that they have riches, and they think that they have need of nothing.
And they're so focused on that, the things of this world, the goods, the cares of this
life, the riches and the pleasures and everything else, and the increase that they have, and
they suppose that gain is godliness, and they don't realize that they are actually,
what does it say there? And knowest thou not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor
and blind and naked. So part of the problem is that they're focused so much on the things
of this world that they've actually grown blind to their real spiritual state. And it's
caused them to be cold, it's caused them to be, excuse me, caused them to be lukewarm.
And what are they? They're blind. So you can see how even a believer in a way can become
blind to their own spiritual condition. So again, to be blind is to be so focused on
the things that are inconsequential or to be so focused on those things that you what?
That you lose sight of the things that are truly significant spiritually. Those matters
go unnoticed. That's a form of blindness that even we can have today as God's people. So
this type of blindness, what am I referring to? Well, this type of blindness is to be
without understanding. It is a lack of understanding. If it's a spiritual blindness that we're talking
about, it's a lack of understanding. It's a lack of spiritual understanding. That's
why he said, ye fools and blind, right? Because they weren't wise. There was a lack of understanding
with them. Go over to Ephesians chapter five. It's not going to be a real long sermon. This
is just a quick thought. It's something I had, and I thought this would be a good thought
to share. And hopefully, we can get something out of it. And I was trying to think, what's
a good example of this? And just something that came to mind, and when it comes in terms
to a church, we looked at the example of the Laodiceans. That was an example of people
being blind, a whole church that was blind. And this type of thing even goes on today.
Even churches today are blind spiritually to their real spiritual condition, or they
strain at an act. They strain at something so inconsequential that something of real significance,
a camel, goes unnoticed while they're just swallowing it, spiritually speaking. You could
think of all the different things that churches get hung up on. And I'm not against churches
that have some of these things. But if that's what they make, that's what they're there
to do. That's their purpose, to have a member role. I'm not against member roles. I might
do one one day. I don't know. Where you track this person is a member, this person is not
a member. I mean, right now, as far as I'm concerned, if you come to church on a regular
basis and you're saved, you're a member. How do you become a member? You show up, and you're
part of the member. How do you stop being a member? You stop coming to the body. That's
pretty much it. Some churches, they make a really big deal out of this. They really do.
And again, I'm not against churches that do it. I'm just saying that sometimes that can
become them straining at a net. They can sit there and say, well, if you're going to go
to another state, you're going to go to another part of town, you're going to go to a different
church, then that pastor over there needs to get in contact with me, and you need to
get a letter of recommendation, and you have to be in good standing. And look, I understand
if someone's been thrown out of a local church, that church discipline needs to be universal.
But some people go way too far with it. Even if you were in good standing and you wanted
to go to another church, I mean, it's like you got a divorce or something. It's like
you got to get a lawyer involved. And it's crazy. We don't know about, if this is the
only church you've ever really been a part of, you might not know much about that. But
if you spent time in other churches, in IFB churches, this is a thing. It's out there,
where it's like a big deal. And again, I'm not against churches that have church roles.
That's fine. I get it. I can see why they do that. But they can end up straining at
a net. They get caught up over, and that's just an example. I'm just trying to think
of an example. And then something as significant like soul winning, actually going out and
preaching the gospel, they just forget about that.
I mean, their member roles are 100% accurate. They know exactly how many people are enrolled.
They know how much everyone gives. They know everyone's first, last, middle name. You know
what I mean? The tax return, the giving statements go out on time to the right address. I mean,
they have it dialed in. But the soul and the lost aren't getting the gospel preached. And
what is that? That's them straining at a net, and this giant camel called not soul
winning is getting swallowed. And there's a lot of other examples we could go to when
it comes to a church. Churches can get real obsessed with their building, like we are
here, obviously. They can get real into their building, how many acres they're going to
get, how big the parking lot, what color stripes are going to be, and what color carpet's going
to be, and what kind of chairs, and everything that goes along with that. And they can get
so involved. And look, I'm not against any of those things. Go ahead and have them. They're
nice. But don't make that the focus of your ministry, because that's you. And you end
up focusing in. What are you doing? You're straining at a net. In the meanwhile, again,
the gospel doesn't get preached. Doctrine, false doctrine creeps in. I mean, they might
have a real sharp building, but the preacher's getting up and just preaching false doctrine
every Sunday. That's him straining at a net and swallowing a camel. These are just modern
examples of this. And we could go into our own lives and probably see this, if we wanted
to examine our own hearts and see instances in our own lives where maybe we're straining
at a net and we're swallowing a camel. A perfect example of this would be, without getting
too specific, is a lot of people that write the church. You get a lot of emails, right?
And a lot of good ones come in, but there's also a lot of people that write that want
to tell us what we're doing wrong, or tell Pastor Anderson where he's off on his doctrine.
And it's just this monolithic wall of text of just no paragraphs, no indents. Your formatting
alone will get your email unread. It'll get archived in a hurry. If it's physically hard
for me to read it, I'm not going to read it, because there's a lot of them to read.
So the people that take the time to write the nice, short, simple, easy to read, they
get the response. But a lot of times people will write and they'll just start laying in
to whatever doctrine or where we're off, just criticizing the church. And a lot of times
I'll just write back, well, what does your pastor think? What's his church? What does
your church teach? Well, I don't go to church. Well, that's you straining at a net and swallowing
a camel. You might even have a point. You might even be on to something about some small
detail of doctrine or whatever, something about end times prophecy or whatever it is.
And you might even have taken the time to sit there and strain at your computer keyboard
and type that out and thought you just really got us right where you want us. But you know
what? You swallowed a camel called not going to church. And it just takes all the footing
right out from under you. You don't have a leg to stand on. So these are just kind
of modern examples. These are just things I'm going to bring in to kind of get this
point across, that even we as believers who have been illuminated, who have had our eyes
open by the power of the gospel, can become blind in the sense that we what? We lose focus.
You know, we focus in on one little net and we forget about everything else that's going
on around us. So to be blind is to be without understanding. It's to be foolish. I have
you go to Ephesians, right? The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 5, hear now this, O foolish
people and without understanding. So to be a foolish person is to be without understanding.
And notice he goes on and says, which have eyes and see not. So again, he's likening
this foolishness, this lack of understanding as a type of blindness that has happened to
people. Which see not, which have ears and hear not. Look at Ephesians chapter 5. The
Bible says in verse 14, wherefore he sayest, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the
dead and Christ shall give thee light. Isn't that what happened to us? You know, we spiritually
were risen from the dead. We were born again, right, to life eternal. We are those that
were brought back from, we were dead in trespasses and sins and Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, right? He's done that through, you know, and he's given us light, right?
He's given us a spiritual illumination. He's given us the light of his word. You know,
but here's the thing. We have to use that light. We have to walk in it. We have to be
awake. We have to open our eyes and see what's going on. That's why he says in verse 15,
see then that you walk circumspectly. And that's a very interesting word. Walk circumspectly
not as fools, but as wise. Again, so what does it mean to walk circumspectly? Well,
if you just break down that word, you know, circum basically just means around or about.
You could think of a word like circumnavigate, right, to go around the globe, but it just
literally just means around. So he's saying to be, and then you can go a little further,
think about that word circumspectly, like spect, like perspective, you know, or seeing.
Okay, so he's talking about, and that's literally what the definition of the word is, is to
be watchful, right? That's what it means to walk circumspectly, to be watchful, to
be discreet, to be cautious, to be prudent, to be careful. Another synonym would be vigilant
or guarded. You know, that's how we're supposed to walk now that we have this light, not as
blind and as fools. Again, notice there, he says, walk circumspectly not as fools, but
as wise, what having understanding. You know, we've had our understanding enlightened. We're
to walk in this light and to walk, what, circumspectly, meaning we should be aware
of what's going on, what, around us, okay? And, you know, whenever I read this, I always
think about my pastor back in Michigan. He, when I worked for him, he would quote this
verse to me. You know, not a lot, but enough to get it through my head. When I'd be on
the job site, you know, he'd ask me, where is that tool or where is that next bundle
of shingles or where is that, you know, what's coming? And he was trying to get across, you
should always be looking ahead, always think about what's coming next on the job. This
helped me a lot with my job. That's why I'm sharing this because, you know, this might
help you on your job. You know, if you learn to do this on the job site of walking circumspectly,
meaning when you're walking around, you're seeing, okay, that's there, this is here,
I know where things are on the job site, so when it comes time to meet it, I know where
to go. I don't have to spend 15 minutes looking for it. I already know where it is. You know,
where I can see ahead, I'm looking ahead, what needs to happen next on this job. You
know, what's the next step? You're not just standing there, okay, I did that, now let
me just stand here and wait to get told what to do next. You know, it's taking initiative.
It's a type of walking circumspectly, looking about, seeing what's going on, taking notice
of things. And look, you know, you could apply this in a lot of areas of your life. You know,
I bet there's a lot of, you know, moms and even wives, I dare say, that would appreciate
some people in their house that would do this, right? Do you notice the dirty sock? Do you
notice that the trash needs to go out? Do you notice something needs to get cleaned?
Do you notice something's out of place? You know, if you were going to walk, and again,
I'm trying to make this practical. You know, I'm trying to bring this home and put it on
the bottom shelf so you can walk out of here and actually put it to use in your life day
to day. You know, you could walk circumspectly at your job, at your home, and you know, start
to see the things that need to be done. You know, and of course, the greater application
here is in regards to, you know, walking circumspectly, you know, being vigilant, spiritually speaking,
okay? That's the greater application. And that's something that we need to do, right?
He says, see, then you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. And again, part
of, you know, another word to be circumspect is to be vigilant, to be awake, to see what's
going on, which, you know, we are told to be vigilant, right? For our adversary the
devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You know, there's a reason
to be circumspect. You know, if you were in some, you know, jungle, tiger infested jungle
where there's like, you know, big cats of prey that were going to come eat you and everyone's
like, yeah, they're here, it happens, you would probably be pretty circumspect, wouldn't
you? You'd be walking like this, you know, you'd be like, he's not going to get me, you
know, old Tony the Tiger, you know, I'm not going to be his Frosted Flakes, you know,
I'm watching, I'm looking out for him, right? It would be the fool to just be like, well,
it doesn't really matter, you know, I'm just fine, just walking through. He's the guy that's
going to get mauled, right? He's the one that's going to get, you know, killed. You know,
the same thing happens to us spiritually when we as Christians become so focused on whatever
it is, you know, whether it's sin or whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, you know,
we can become so dialed in on one little thing that we forget to look around. And, you know,
maybe it's not going to be, you know, some, you know, it's not going to be the devil as
a roaring lion that's going to get us, but maybe we'll neglect something that would have
been a blessing to somebody. Maybe we'll forget about our brothers and sisters in Christ. Maybe
we'll start mistreating them. Maybe we'll stop being a blessing where we can. Maybe we'll neglect
other things. So we need to learn to walk circumspectly, right? So what? That we don't
become blind believers, people who've lost focus, lost the bigger vision.
So to walk circumspectly, how do you do that? Well, you walk wisely, right? That's what he
goes on and says, the redeeming the time. He says, walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.
So he tells us how to walk. What does it mean to walk circumspectly? How are we going to avoid
this spiritual blindness? Well, you need to use wisdom. And, you know, that's a big, you know,
subject right there in and of itself. And here's the thing, we all need wisdom, you know,
spiritually. We need to have discernment and knowledge and understanding. And where do you
get that? Well, you get that from the Word of God, you know, through the Spirit of God. You know,
the Spirit that dwelleth in us, you know, teacheth us all things, and it guides us into all truth,
and it's with us. You know, the comforter is there. And if we would, that's why the Bible
says in James 1, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God to give it to all men liberally,
and it shall be given him. You know, we need wisdom. If you don't, if you think, well,
I know enough, that's not a very wise thought. That proves right there that you need wisdom.
And if you're going to walk circumspectly, you know, you're going to have to go to God to get
that wisdom, right? So that you cannot walk as a fool, but as somebody who is wise, okay? So it's
there for us. We can have it. It's in his Word, right? The Bible says the law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure what? Making wise the simple.
You know, the Bible is going to take a simple person who, you know, might be very intelligent
when it comes to things of the world, but is very, you know, maybe, how do I put this nicely,
less intelligent when it comes to the things of God, right? And everyone starts out as a novice.
Everyone starts out as a babe in Christ. There's nothing wrong with that. But we need to grow out
of that. That's what the Bible is there for. I mean, a child is very simple in their understanding.
They don't understand the big issues of life. We don't expect them to. Now, we expect them to grow
into that, and we teach them and guide them. And God's the same way with us. He's given us his Word
that is going to do what? He's given us his law that is going to make us wise, make the simple
wise. And look, we need to be wise. Why? So that we can do what? Walk circumspectly, you know,
and not become blind, have our eyes open. Another way you're going to walk circumspectly is by
redeeming the time. If you would, you can go over to 2 Corinthians chapter number seven,
2 Corinthians chapter number seven.
We want to walk circumspectly. We want to use wisdom. We also want to redeem the time.
It says in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 11, for behold the same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly
sort, what a carefulness it wrought in you. So if you remember in 1 Corinthians, you know,
they had the fornicator in the church, you know, such fornication that was not so much
as named among the Gentiles that one should have his own, his father's wife, right? So it was that
kind of, it was a very grave sin, and it was bring your approach upon the name of Christ.
And Paul was saying you need to deal with it. He said deliver such and one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh. And they did that, okay? So in 2 Corinthians, he's following up on that
in part, and he's commending them, right? That they what? They sorrowed after a godly sort.
What carefulness it wrought with you, carefulness, right? It made them what? Circumspect. Made them,
see the big picture, whoa, you can't tolerate the sin in the church, right? It's bring your
approach upon the name of Christ. It woke them up to that, right? It opened their eyes.
It made them sorrow after godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you,
yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, right? He said look,
I wrote that letter, you woke up, you saw what was going on, you got mad. That's what
indignation is. You know, people want to make being mad or angry into this, you know,
terrible thing today. He's praising him for it. Now obviously there's a bad type of anger,
and probably the vast majority of the time our anger is sinful, but that doesn't mean that all
anger is sinful, right? He's saying look, what indignation, yea what fear, yea what vehement
desire, yea what zeal, and I love this exclamation point, yea what revenge. They took revenge,
you know, on what? What is he saying? It was like they were making up lost ground,
right? They were taking vengeance. They were getting something back.
That's what we say, I'm going to get you back, right? What are you saying? I'm going to get
revenge, right? And whenever I read that, I think about that, you know, redeeming the time,
redeeming the time. You know, because sometimes, this is especially helpful for people that have
gotten saved later in life. You know, we might look back in our lives and say, well I wasted
so many years, and we did, you know, it's true. But here's the thing, there's nothing you can do
about that. You can sit there and beat yourself up about it all you want, that's not going to make
you any more spiritual, you know, it's good that you feel, you know, that you sorrow after a godly
sort, whatever, but if you really feel bad about it, the thing is to take revenge on that last,
that lost time. To have some vehement desire, to have some zeal, to take some revenge on that,
to redeem the time, right? You know, I might, you know, like you look at Paul, you know, Paul was
one, he said, born out of due time. And you know what, and what did he, and he had a pretty checkered
past, you want to talk about a guy had a rough past, right? But what, did he let that get him
down? Did he let that stop him? He said, no, therefore I labored more abundantly than they all.
He said, I had lost time to make up for it, so you know what I did? I made up for it.
You know, I went into, I went into overdrive, you know, double time. And that's what he's talking
about here, you know, I think that's a helpful thing for those of us that have gotten saved
later in life, you know, we can still redeem that time. But it's going to take what, zeal,
carefulness? It's going to take what, walking circumspectly, not becoming blind, and being,
you know, focused on the wrong things. So he says, you know, I'll just read to you from Ephesians
again, it says that he walked circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time. Why?
Because the days are evil. The days are evil. So again, this is going back to that idea of being
vigilant, not being, you know, foolish, and not being alert to the evil that is in the world.
And look, this is incredibly important, especially, you know, it's always been important,
obviously. But it's just, you know, we're, this is the time we're living in. And to me,
it just seems like it's getting increasingly more important to be alert to the evil that's out there.
I mean, the perversion and everything that's going on in our society,
and the attempt for them to infiltrate churches, and they're, now they're, you know, the homos are
putting out this, they're getting, you know, they're getting a little slap on the wrist in
the media over that. Did anyone see that, where they wrote that song, that choir?
We're coming for your children. We're going to convert them. Right? I mean, and then they're
like, oh, we were kidding. It's like, no, you weren't. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speak it. That's what we've been saying the whole time. Because if you're not,
if you can't reproduce, you recruit. Okay. And that's what they've been saying in their own
writing since the 70s. And I don't want to go on about that. The point I'm making is this,
is that we are living in perilous times. We can't afford to strain at an end. We can't afford to not
walk circumspectly. Or what are we going to end up doing? Swallowing a camel. Right? Going back
to that illustration of churches, they're doing this. You know, they have the, the camel, you
know, they're, they're straining at being so nice and loving and inclusive that they're swallowing
a camel called, you know, transvestites in the front row. You know, or homos in the children's
ministries. In Baptist churches, that's what's going on. You know, that, so, you know, not here,
but it's out there. So we need to be alert to the evil. We need to be what? Be sober. We need to be
vigilant. We need to be, we need to walk circumspectly. And he says, last of all,
to not be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. You know, I talked a little bit
about this just recently. You know, that's a big topic, the will of the Lord, isn't it?
There's a lot to that. That's why we should be in church. That's why we should be in our Bibles.
That's why we should be praying and asking God for wisdom because, you know, the will of the Lord,
you know, there's a lot to it. You know, knowing what God expects of us, but it's all there for
us to know. If you would, we'll close in Proverbs. Go to Proverbs chapter 17, Proverbs chapter 17.
The point I'm trying to get across this evening is that if we're not careful, you know, you know,
we could, we could like to read Matthew 23 and go, yeah, get him, get him, Lord. Let him have you.
Yeah, you hypocrites, you fools, you blind, you know, and it's an Amen. It's great preaching.
Okay. And it's true. But here's the thing, you know, we have to be careful that we don't fall
prey to that same mentality. And not of denying Christ, obviously, but of just this blindness that
even we can have of straining in and out, becoming overly focused on things that don't really matter
and forgetting about the things that are truly significant in our lives. And that's not what we
want to do. We need to understand what the will of the Lord is. Look at there in Proverbs chapter
17, verse 24, the Bible says, wisdom is before him that hath understanding. Wisdom is before him
that hath understanding. The guy that has understanding, it's because wisdom is before
him, right? And what, you know, I always say, whenever I read that, I think about Bible reading,
because this is where the source of all wisdom. You know, if we want to be a person that has
understanding, we know we need to get wisdom before us. Wisdom in the morning, wisdom in the
afternoon, wisdom in the evening, wisdom day by day should be before us. Because if we do that,
if we get wisdom in front of us, you know, we're going to have understanding. And we don't want to
let the camel of not reading our Bibles, you know, that's not something we want to swallow as
Christians. You know, we might end up straining at a gnat of, you know, of even something good
and say, well, I just do a lot of soul winning. You know, I do a lot of other things. I just focus
all my attention on one thing. Yeah, but do you have wisdom in front of you? We don't want to just
be these, you know, so focused on just one thing. We want to be well balanced as Christians.
Otherwise we run the risk of becoming blind to the things that matter. So he's saying here,
wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but what? But the eyes of a fool are in the,
are what? In the ends of the earth. They're way out there. They're wondering, they're straining
at something that's way off. You know, they're wondering about, you know, is the mask the mask
of the beast? You know, is it the mask of the beast? Is COVID, you know, is the vaccine the
mark of the beast? No. It's not even close. Right. You know, they have these just far out
thoughts. They're just wondering about some strange thing. They're worried about some,
you know, deep, you know, complicated conspiracy theory. And look, I'm not against conspiracy
theories. I believe in some. All right. We can talk about that later. All right. But I don't
sit there and strain at that and make my life all about, you know, whatever Alex Jones is talking
about, whatever's on Info Wars. Look, and I'm not against those things. You know, I, hey, I like me
some Alex Jones, brother. All right. I do, I can even do a good impression. So I've been told.
But I don't strain at that. You know, that impression came easily. And if there was a
time maybe when I strained a little more than I should. Right. But that's not the focus of my
life. Because if I do that, if my eyes are just in the ends of the earth, wondering about something
that's way off, you know, I'm going to get run over by a whole pack of camels. Because I'm not
going to be, I'm not going to have understanding before me. I'm not going to be wise. I'm not going
to walk circumspectly. That's the point I'm trying to get across this evening is that we need to be
well-rounded Christians. We can't just be focused in on one little thing, especially if it's
something that's insignificant. You know, we didn't mean to back up and see the big picture
and make sure that we're, you know, we have wisdom before us, that we're redeeming the time,
that we're, you know, being vigilant, that we're being all of these things that come in the
Christian life. There's, we want to be, get the full package here. And that sometimes requires us
to take a big step back and make sure that we're, you know, have the things that are most important
in front of us and not straining at some little net. Otherwise we'll end up doing what? Swallowing
a camel. You know, we can fall prey to the same thing the Pharisees did in Matthew 23.
You know, we can fall prey to the fact that, you know, that blindness happens to people
and focus in on one thing. Yeah, they can see something really well, but it's the problem is
is that everything else they don't see. We don't want to do that. We don't want to become blind
believers. Let's go ahead and pray.