Amen luke chapter number four the bible reads in verse number one and jesus being full of the holy ghost
returned from jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness being 40 days tempted of the devil
And in those days he did eat nothing and when they were ended he afterward hungered and the devil said unto him
If thou be the son of god
Command this stone that it be made bread and jesus answering him saying it is written that man
Should not live by bread alone, but by every word of god now this chapter starts out with the temptation of jesus christ
I'm, not going to spend a whole lot of time on this part of the chapter simply because
Less than a month ago or about a month ago
I preached a whole sermon called the temptation of jesus christ, and I stole my own thunder and I preached about
Matthew chapter 4 and luke chapter 4 and I already taught all this
So i'm just going to make just a few quick comments on this and blow through this to get to the rest of the chapter
But just a few things that I want to point out here is that the thing that the devil
Keeps questioning over and over again is the fact that jesus is the son of god
You know if you're in matthew chapter 4 he's saying the same thing
Well, if thou be the son of god
Command that these stones be made bread if thou be the son of god cast thyself down for it is written if thou be the
Son of god, so the devil puts a question mark where god puts a period jesus is the son of god
He questions that and all the way back to the garden of eden
That's the way the devil operates just trying to get you to question things
He doesn't always take a direct approach of just coming to you and say hey jesus is not the son of god
He's not going to say that to you
Because that's too obvious the bible says of the devil that his main attribute is that he is subtle
That's what it said in genesis chapter 3 and when he came to them in the garden of eden, he says
Yea hath god said
You know, i'm not saying that he didn't say it
But is that what he said and then when he tells them?
The opposite of what god said because god said and the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
You shall surely die and this is what he says to them
You shall not surely die
Now he could have just said to them you shall not die
That would be more direct right? You're not gonna die. He just said well, you're not gonna for sure die
Think about that. You should not
surely die
So the devil is always subtle and when the devil comes at you with another gospel
The bible says it's not another
It's a perversion of the god of of the gospel of christ. It's not a completely different separate
Gospel that he dreamed up that has no similarity
No, he takes what god has done and he tweaks it a little bit. He changes it a little bit
He perverts it a little bit and that's what you see here. It's a questioning
If you are he doesn't just come up to him and say you're not the son of god
He said well if you are then you should be able to do this and you should be able to do this
And he's trying to provoke him to do things that would be wrong for him to do
And this is how he's going to operate with us. He's going to try to come in the side door
He's going to try to come in the back door and when he tries to creep into our church
It's going to be subtle it's going to be nuanced it's not going to be just an in your face
Heresy, it'll be something that sounds good on the outside or it sounds okay, or it sounds like it's not a big deal
And he'll try to smuggle that in
And that's how he's always operated and how he he continues to operate and so we need to be very careful
That we live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god
Amen
And I find it disturbing somehow i'm just going to be frank with you right now
I find it disturbing sometimes how little people read their bible
Even in our church and even in other churches like ours and you say well
How do you know how much people read their bible? Oh just talk to them a little bit
And when you talk to people you can get a feel for what they know about the bible and what they don't know
And of course i'd never be rude to anybody and I don't point it out while i'm talking to them like whoa
You don't know the bible
Have you even read it one time? I mean, obviously i'm polite and I don't I wouldn't say anything like that
But in my mind sometimes when i'm talking to people
You know, and i'm not angry. I'm just thinking to myself wow
People don't know the bible or people don't read the bible as much as they should and I make a mental note preach on
reading the bible
And even people that have been saved for a long time even in a great church like this other great churches
I get to talking to people and I start to notice that they're not really reading a lot of bible
Because they're not familiar with a lot of the stories
They're not familiar with a lot of the concepts that come up over and over again and even guys who want to be a pastor
Often there's something to be desired when it comes to their bible reading. This is a shame
We need to live by the word of god. Job said i've esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food
We need to live by and look when it says man should not live by bread alone
But by every word that preceded out of the mouth of god, it doesn't mean just live by as in
You know, I live by these rules or I follow the bible when it says live by it's saying, you know, you're ingesting it
as a nutrition source
To keep you strong and alive and growing and thriving. That's what he's saying because he's comparing it to living by bread
Where bread is something that you eat every day to stay alive to get the calories
To get the strength that you need the bible is saying that we need to have a steady influx of the word of god
Coming into us and it's not enough to just read a whole bunch and then you don't read it for weeks
That'd be like just eating a whole bunch of food
And then you're just like well i've already eaten so much food i'm done
for the whole rest of the year
Because i've already read through my whole bible. So i'm going to take three months off but try that with eating
You know, you have to eat every day. In fact
Most people are going to eat more than once a day, you know, it might not be a bad idea
To pull out the bible again partway the day through the day and do a little reading or you know
Pull it out a little bit before bed read it again
You know and and and and just keep keep the word coming in and here's the biggest advice
I could give you on reading your bible is have a plan
Plan
If you fail to plan you plan to fail, all right
If you don't have a plan, you're not going to read the bible very much if you're just like well
I just kind of read it wherever I just open it and wherever it falls I read
That's not a good plan to read the bible
You need to make sure you read the whole bible cover to cover
And some people like to just start at the beginning and keep it simple and just read from genesis to revelation
You know, i've read the bible scores of times i've never done that. That's just not my style. I skip around
You know, I I read this book
Then I read that book because I find that if I read the book that I want to read I end up reading more
But I check them off so that I make sure i'm not just reading the same books over and over again
And I make sure i'm getting through the whole bible
Whole bible whole bible. So whatever your system is get some kind of a checklist
Some kind of a system of bookmarks some kind of an app or whatever you use but get a plan get motivated
Get a system to where you're making sure you do some real serious bible otherwise in our busy society
It's easy for a few days to go by and you think oh, I haven't read my bible in a couple days
But if you actually looked at a calendar, it might have been a week or a month
Because I know that's how it is sometimes
With other things where where you know, let's say for exercise, you know
Let's say i'm trying to do a lot of running and I feel like man
I haven't run in a couple days and then I look at a calendar
It's been like two weeks since I went running or something like that. Well, it's the same thing with your bible reading
You know if it's not a daily habit
If you don't have a system if you're not marking up
I mean look just buy a calendar stick it on the wall
And if you read your bible that day put a big x on it
And make sure that every day has an x on I mean even that is a start
To making sure you read the bible and i'm telling you there are people in the church
That read a ton of bible at faithful word baptist church and there are other people who are not reading a lot of bible
We need to make sure that all of us are in our bibles that all of us know the bible
Because otherwise we're going to be carried about with every wind of doctrine
Otherwise, we're going to be constantly falling into temptation
How are we going to face the devil's temptation without the word of god?
That's what jesus christ himself used to combat temptation the word of god
The bible says thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee
The devil here is trying to tempt jesus in various ways
He's going to try to tempt us in various ways. We need to live by the word of god and be prepared for it
But the devil he wants to attack this idea of jesus being the son of god
This is always the thing that the devil wants to attack
That's why whenever it talks about the antichrist or the spirit of antichrist
In first john and second john
It's always talking about denying that jesus is the son of god or denying the father and the son denying that doctrine
For some reason the devil hates that doctrine
That jesus is the son of god
And that's what we need to focus on and make sure we not this oneness junk this modalism garbage
That basically, you know, it sounds like it affirms that but at its core
It actually ends up denying that jesus is the son of god
By teaching. Well, he's actually the father just in another format. No, he's actually the son of god. Amen
I care what the devil says about it
But anyway, i've already talked a lot about this in a recent sermon
So we're going to jump down to verse number 13 where it says and when the devil had ended all the temptation
He departed from him
For a season and I like how it says for a season there because it goes to show that even if you have a total victory
Over the devil you have a total victory over temptation the the battle's not over
It's only over for a season. There's going to be another battle
And there's going to be more temptation going forward. I you know, we were just talking about this today out soul winning
I don't believe in this so-called deliverance doctrine
That you'll hear taught a lot where you just get a final victory over the sin in your life and you're never even tempted again
You know jesus here had a pretty decisive victory. I mean it's jesus
It's a hundred percent victory. It's a flawless victory and what happens?
Oh, he'll be back
To fight again another day
Well, guess what? It's the same thing
In our lives, so don't let these deliverance types tell you. Oh, you know
You just got to claim the victory and get deliverance and then you'll never crave alcohol again
You'll never crave cigarettes again. You'll never crave gambling again. Listen, I you know, i'm not
Promoting alcoholics anonymous obviously is not a bible-based program
But I will say this they're right about one thing once an alcoholic always an alcoholic
That is the truth and they're right about that. I don't care what these deliverance pentecostals say if you have ever been a drunk
If you've ever been an alcoholic you have that tendency for the rest of your life
And you let better let him to think if he stand to take heed lest he fall and you should never touch alcohol ever again
And don't go anywhere near it
Don't go anywhere near it. You don't you need to stay further away from it than the guy who's never done it
Because you've already shown that you have that proclivity to become a drunkard. You need to stay far away from it
And you know, there are people and and look I don't condone of alcohol at all
I believe that the bible condemns any alcohol consumption
So
I don't believe it's okay to drink one beer. I don't believe it's okay to drink one glass of wine
I'm a complete teetotaler. I believe in complete abstinence from alcohol, but let me say this there are people in this world
who do
Drink in moderation and they just drink that one beer or they just drink
occasionally and they drink in moderation and they drink socially and they only drink a little bit and they keep it under control and it
Never destroys their lives. There are people out there like that not gonna lie to you and say that they don't exist
It's not right, but they're out there
Okay, but listen to me
People who have already been an alcoholic. They've already been a drunk. They can never be that guy
That's what aa is telling them when they say once an alcoholic always an alcoholic you've already shown
That you're gonna go over that cliff
You're gonna go over that line and you will go over it again and again and again and again
And you know what the vast majority of people?
Go too far when they drink alcohol now again biblically any of it's too far
But i'm i'm talking about even what society would consider too far
And so if you have ever been a drunk and let me say this if anybody
At our church gets thrown out of the church for being a drunk because the bible tells us
That if anyone's found to be a drunkard or a fornicator that they're to be cast out of the church
They come back a teetotaler they don't come back as a social drinker
They come back a teetotaler
Or they don't come back at all
Because once an alcoholic always not and look if you've had a gambling addiction in the past you shouldn't even
Watch wheel of fortune or even play jeopardy. You probably shouldn't even play monopoly
And i'm not saying it's wrong to play monopoly
But you know if you had a gambling addiction you probably you shouldn't even be gambling for rupees on the legend of zelda
You shouldn't be doing any gambling and you shouldn't be doing any kind of game shows or gaming or anything
That could get you back into that because you know you have that tendency
We need to understand that even when we win the battle against temptation
Is only for a season the devil's gonna be back
The temptation for drinking is gonna be back the temptation for uh, uh smoking drugs, uh pornography
Gambling whatever it is
The battle will come back and you better be ready to keep fighting that battle
And keep taking in the word of god, you know
You want to just this deliverance doctrine sounds cute because it sounds convenient that you could just kind of just
Win a battle and then you're just kind of on easy street spiritually for the rest of your life
But that's not the way life works
It's a battle all the way to the bitter end
And you just need to just realize that and get ready to die daily for the rest of your life
Die to deny self and take up the cross daily and follow him
The bible says in verse 14 and jesus returned in the power of the spirit into galley
And there went out a fame of him throughout all the region round about
So jesus is filled with the spirit
And he's led to the spirit to be tempted to the devil. He he overcomes temptation. He wins the battle
He comes back in the power of the spirit
Okay, and if we want to have the power of the holy spirit in our lives, we need to overcome temptation
We need to walk with god if we're constantly giving in to sin and the flesh and the devil, you know
We're not going to be filled with the spirit at that point if we're drunk with wine
We're in his excess. We're not going to be filled with the spirit the bible teaches
Ephesians 5 18 so he says he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all
so jesus christ
Is going throughout galley now galley is not judaea
Galilee is a different province
So in the old testament you have these two kingdoms the northern kingdom of israel and the southern kingdom of juda
Well in the new testament the romans have taken over
And the romans have divided up the land into these little provinces sort of like we live in the united states of america
And we've got different states
California arizona new mexico and we can travel really easily between the two and it's all the same nation
But it's broken into these different states or provinces or districts. So under the roman empire it's broken into judaea
Which is what used to be juda
But it's less territory than what juda had so you've got judaea
And then you've got decapolis is another region. You've got samaria
You've got galley and these different regions. And so jesus is preaching throughout galley
Which is not really the hub of the jews down in judaea is further north
In an area where people were actually more receptive to the gospel
Being a little further out from that main hub of the temple and judaea
So he's being glorified of all so he goes to this town. He preaches in the synagogue
The preaching is powerful people are glorifying. Jesus. They're glorifying god
It's he's a he's a success. He's being successful. He's in the power of the holy spirit. He's
Getting people say he's a success as a preacher, right?
But then it says in verse 16 he came to nazareth so nazareth is a city in galley so all around galley
He's been doing great
But then he gets to nazareth
Which is where he had been brought up
And as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for to read
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet azaias
And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written the spirit of the lord is upon me
Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor now, I love that phrase right there the spirit of the lord
Is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, you know
If we're going to be filled with the spirit, what's the point?
What's the purpose of having the power of god the power of the holy spirit being filled with the spirit?
The purpose is to preach the gospel to the poor, you know the charismatic
Maniac movement the charismatic movement or the pentecostal movement has a counterfeit or a fake
fullness of the holy spirit
Where they they roll around on the floor, they speak ecstatically they get excited. They laugh hysterically
They get all wild and emotional and they're crying laughing jumping shouting rolling in the aisles and the pentecostal the charismatics
To them the goal is to get filled with the spirit so they can go to some meeting
and flip out
But it's so easy to see that it's a counterfeit because the one thing it does not lead to them doing
Is actually preaching the gospel to the poor
First of all, they don't even believe the gospel themselves because they have a workspace gospel every single time
They're never teaching a gospel of salvation by faith alone that you it's once saved always saved. They never believe that
It's always a gospel of
Live a good life. Keep the commandments follow christ in order to be saved. It's a works-based salvation
Not a grace-based or a faith-based
Salvation and so they have the wrong gospel. How could that be of the holy spirit if it's the wrong gospel, you know
I'm out soul winning today. I knock on somebody's door and you know, I asked her
What do you think a person has to go to heaven due to go to heaven? She says be good
You know goes to a charismatic church well be good. Oh, okay. Well nuts to jesus then we don't need him
Just be good. Amen
What do we need jesus for? What do we need his death? What do we need his barrel?
What do we need his resurrection that doesn't even enter these people's mind when you ask them how to be safe
It's just oh follow the commandments live a good life be good. The only thing jesus serves for them is just an example
Of how they can be good and get into heaven on their own through their works
The bible says I do not frustrate the grace of god for if righteousness come by the law
Then christ is dead in vain his death doesn't even matter
His death isn't even necessary if you think you're saved by the law by your works by your deeds
It's by grace through faith. They've got the wrong gospel and then when they get filled with the holy spirit quote unquote
It does not lead them to go out and and be a soul winner
It doesn't lead them to go up and down the street knocking on doors house to house
daily in the temple and in every house preaching the gospel
It leads to a lot of ecstatic utterances, but it does not lead to actual soul winning yet
If we go to a baptist church and we see people legitimately
Truly filled with the holy spirit of god. What do we see?
We see them going out and preaching the gospel to the poor and we see them being effective and getting people saved
That's what we see
That's the evidence of the fullness of the holy spirit
It says in act chapter 4 and when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together
And they were all filled with the holy ghost and they spake the word of god with boldness
That's the real fullness of the holy spirit the whole purpose
Of the fullness of the holy spirit is to equip you or enable you to do a job
In this case to preach the gospel to the poor
In the old testament when the spirit of lord came upon them. It was always to preach a sermon
That needed to be preached
It was always to win people to the lord or it was to fight some kind of a physical battle
But it had a function it had a purpose
It's to equip it's not the end in itself. It's a means to an end
The end is to do the works
Of getting people saved by preaching the gospel to the poor the means to that end is getting filled with the holy spirit
The spirit of the lord is upon me
Why because he's anointed me anointed me means he had anointed him with the holy spirit
To preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted
To preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised
To preach the acceptable year of the lord and listen to me
Jesus christ wants us to do the same thing
To go out and preach the gospel to the poor and you know what if you look at that map back there
All the doors that we've knocked, you know, which doors are all pretty much shaded orange anywhere near our church all the poor areas
We do all the poor areas first. In fact the poor areas that are close to our church
We've done seven to eight times town of guadalupe. We've knocked every door seven times south phoenix
We've knocked every door at least seven times now as we get further out and we get into areas that are
Less receptive where we get into scottsdale
Paradise valley gilbert, you know nicer areas awatuki. We knocked those doors one time
And we knocked them after we've already done everything else
Why because we want to go to the poor first, you know, we're out soul winning
And we're doing different indian tribes all over the state
We're focusing first and foremost. We want to get them all done
But we're focusing first on the poorest tribes
And i'm telling you some of these tribes that we go to the people are very poor and and they're not just poor
But many of them are broken-hearted. I mean, I you know every single time I go
I don't know about you garrett
But whenever I go to that white mountain apache have you had people just breaking down crying how many times have you had people break
Down crying you think a lot right almost that almost every time I go there
Somebody yeah people are breaking down crying when you talk, you know, they're broken-hearted
Broken-hearted
Why because of the stinking casinos and the liquor?
And the gambling and the government programs and the government subsidies that has screwed up their life and screwed up their culture
And and and and made it look good to them like hey, we're gonna help you
We're gonna give you all this stuff as they destroy them with alcohol gambling
And free money the worst thing you can do to somebody's give them free money, right?
Because then you make them dependent you make them weak you make them a slave
And so we see those that are bruised in these areas
We see them that are captives and these people are blind and they're broken-hearted
And we need to preach the gospel to the poor
That's our number one mission field when jesus gave a parable
That had to do with soul winning and it's it's where we get the term going out into the highways and hedges
In that parable he tells them go out and first gather the poor
The blind the maim the whole he's saying get the people that are crippled people that are disabled
People that are that are sick people that are poor
You know and then after they went and talked to all those people he comes back and says lord
It is done as thou has commanded and yet there's room
And then he just says go out in the highways and hedges and tell everybody invite everybody so it's biblical to first preach the gospel to the poor
Then to everybody else we start with the most receptive we start with the poor the bruised the broken-hearted
Deliverance is another word for salvation
liberty from
Sin liberty from their wicked lifestyle that's put them in bondage
Liberty also from the punishment of sin eternally in hell if they don't believe on the lord jesus christ as their savior
He says to preach the acceptable year of the lord he closed the book
And he gave it again to the minister and sat down
And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him now. Why is everybody so mesmerized?
Why are they all fastened on him? Why are they all looking at him? Well?
It's not because he stood up and read isaiah because he'd already done that many times and that was his custom
Throughout his whole life. He'd grown up there. He'd done that
And they're they're pretty much used to that
The reason that they're fastened on him is because back they've heard the fame. I mean, he's already hit all the towns
In nazareth and and and his fame is going abroad and then he gets there and then he reads this passage
That sounds like he could be applying it to himself and they want to say, you know, is is he
Just reading isaiah to us or is he saying that that's him?
So they all look at him their eyes are fast on him and then he began to say unto them in verse 21
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears? So he tells them hey, this is about me
That's a pretty strong statement right there. That's a bold statement to make
And all bear him witness and wondered wondered means they marveled they were amazed
At the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. So let me ask you this were they impressed by the preaching
They were impressed. They were blown away. They marveled at it and they had a positive
Reaction to it in the sense that they couldn't really deny this was some good preaching
This was powerful preaching. They wondered at the gracious words that came out of his mouth
So they couldn't really deny that what he was preaching was powerful
That it was gracious that it was wonderful that it was amazing
But what do they say though? What's their reaction to it? Does that mean they all get right with god?
That means they all confess him
as their savior
No, actually they say well is not this joseph's son
They're just trying to find a reason
Not to believe in him not to listen to what he's saying
They're trying to find something that they could throw at him and he said unto them
He will surely say unto me this proverb position heal thyself
Whatsoever we've heard done in kapernaum do also here in thy country
And he said verily I say to you no prophet is accepted in his own country and that that's a pretty interesting statement
No prophet
Is accepted in his own country and he also said a prophet is not without honor
Save in his own country
and in his own house
But I tell you of a truth in verse 25 many widows were in israel in the days of elias. That's elijah
When the heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine was throughout all the land
But unto none of them was eliah sent save unto syrupta a city of zidon unto a woman that was a widow
And many lepers were in israel in the day in the time of elisius. Elisius is elijah
Elisius the prophet and none of them was cleansed saving nayaman the syrian
and all they
In the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath. So on the surface what jesus starts out to say
That a prophet
Is not accepted in his own country
He's starting out to say
Well
In nazareth, this is where i've been brought up
That's why you're not receiving this preaching from me, even though in other places they did receive it. Okay, so he starts out with that
But then he takes it a step further because he uses these old testament examples
That don't just go outside of his hometown, but they actually go outside of the nation of israel itself
They go outside of jewry itself because he starts to say well
god
specifically singled out
These people that were from places like zidon
and syria
to receive special blessings from god
To receive men of god that would come and preach to them and minister to them and heal them and help them
And this has to do with something that's a theme in all the gospels
And especially well
It's a theme in all the gospels. I mean, especially matthew luke and john
But it's it's really a theme
That jesus christ is looking beyond just the jews and that he's going to take it to the gentiles
You know and remember we saw this in luke chapter one and luke chapter two
Where it kept coming up he's going to be a light to light in the gentiles
It's going to be for all men. It's going to be for the whole world
I mean, why do you think those three wise men came from the east?
God's already showing that the most receptive people the people that are coming and working the hardest to get there are non-jews
Because he's there to be the savior of the whole world
And so in this passage, he's already and look this is early in his ministry
This is chapter four. He got tempted by satan right after his baptism
Then he starts preaching throughout galley
He works his way to nazareth very early in his ministry and he's already talking about what you know, what?
A prophet's not accepted in his own country
Syria zidon they flip out because he's already talking about what?
How he's going to be believed on by the whole world. He's going to be reaching out to the whole world
Not just to the jews. They wanted a messiah just for them
Their own political messiah or their own personal messiah just for their country
When jesus christ came to die for the sins of the whole world
He's only just starting in jerusalem. He's just starting in judea, but the gospel is supposed to go to the uttermost part of the earth
Okay, and so that's what we see here and you know, you'll find the same thing in matthew
Pretty early on in his ministry
He's saying hey many will come from east and west and sit down with abraham isaac and jacob in the kingdom of heaven
But the children of the kingdom meaning the kingdom of israel will be cast out into outer darkness
There shall be weeping and ashing of teeth how ironic
That those of us that are here this morning or this evening red yellow black and white
Right, we're not jewish. We're not israelites. We're not hebrews. We're of all different nationalities
whether it be indians koreans black white african whatever and we're gonna be
Sitting down with abraham isaac and jacob our spiritual ancestors
I mean who's excited to see abraham? I am I want to meet him
And then all these jews who are just oh, we love abraham, you know
Oh isaac. Oh god of jacob. Oh, you know and they're at the wailing wall. Oh abraham isaac and jacob
They're never gonna see abraham isaac and jacob except just to beg him for a drink of water, right?
from the fires of hell
They'll be begging father abraham for a drink of water. That's that's their big meeting with abraham
I'd rather meet abraham on better terms than that
And so we see that this is a constant theme in the new testament you have to be blind not to see it
but sadly
When you've been taught your whole life how the jews are god's chosen people and and israel this and israel that
You know, it's hard sometimes to see this stuff even though it's just on it's on every page
Of the new testament's on every page and yet when we preach the truth about this from every page
Of the new testament. Oh you guys believe in replacement theology. You better know we do
Replacement theology. Amen
Christ rejecting israel has been replaced
by spiritual israel made up of all believers red yellow black and white
Old testament has been replaced by the new covenant the new testament
The jews have been replaced by christians there I said it
Oh, yeah replacement of course, what else is there?
But to just ignore something that's on every page of the of the new testament
The bible says here that they didn't like it and and this is about how this is about how fundamental baptists react
When you start telling them
About how you want to get people saved in syria?
even today
I mean even today you try to get syrian saved you try to get the muslims saved
They still react the same way even in baptist churches they'll say but they hate israel
They hate israel
Oh, okay. Well, let's just let them all go to hell then
You know, there's something wrong with you if you don't want to see muslims get saved
I want to go to heaven and and a bunch of arabs be there
I want a bunch of syrians there. I want to see a bunch of iranians and iraqis
I want to see
As many arabs as as many middle easterners as possible
Amen. Oh, but sean hannity's shut up and read the bible
His fame went throughout all syria
It's a blessing
Yeah, but that's our enemy you know what that might be your enemy it's not my enemy
You know why because I have no dog in this fight because you know what my kingdom is not of this world
Because it's christ kingdom is the kingdom that i'm a part of
And jesus christ is the captain of my salvation and you know what I pledge allegiance to jesus
And only an enemy of jesus christ is my enemy
I don't want to get involved in political fights or in wars or in these entangling alliances or these battles in the middle east
You know what? It's just a game
It's just a charade except the difference is that people die
Right and we need to stay out of it and we need to fight a spiritual battle
We need to not wrestle with flesh and blood
We need to wrestle with principalities and powers and with the rulers of the darkness of this world
And with spiritual wickedness in high places and by the way, there's spiritual wickedness in high places in our own country
It's not only other countries. That's not just the middle east folks. That's washington dc
And we got a whole movie about it back on the shelf grab some dvds on your way out babel on usa
So the point is that you know, we
Need to understand that jesus christ had a heart to reach everybody. He started with
Israel because obviously it made sense because that's the old testament covenant people
Those are the people that should first hear the the gospel and so it went first to the jew and also to the greek
but here's the thing he always
Was planning on getting into the whole world and every time he starts preaching that
People get angry they choke on that and people still get angry today
Because they're still messed up in the same way. These people were messed up
but the bible says that when they heard these things look at verse 28 all they in the synagogue when they heard these things were
filled with wrath
Now, why would they get filled with wrath if he says you know what there were a lot of lepers a bunch of
Israelite lepers in the days of alicius the prophet, but you know what? He didn't heal any of them, but he did heal asyrian
And you know what elijah could have stayed at any widow's house
God could have picked plenty of israelite widows, but he had him stay with a zydonian widow
Now what they should have reacted to that is just like huh? That's interesting
That's an interesting bible story
It is it's an interesting point
I wonder why god did that teach us jesus
Because I mean it's kind of a hard point to refute
Yeah
Why did god do that?
Because he's trying to show you that he loves the world
Not just one nation. Yeah
Because he's not a respecter of persons, right?
But they know instead of even though they knew the preaching was powerful they knew that these were gracious words proceeding out of his mouth
They just get mad
Emotion kicks in instead of using their brain to think about the fact that what he's saying is biblical
I mean he got it. He got it right
He got the story right about elijah and elijah. It's all biblical. It's all right there in the bible
But instead they just get mad they rose up and thrust him out of the city
And led him onto the brow of the hill where on their city was built
That they might cast him down headlong. I mean they drag him up there to throw him off a cliff
For being replacement theology
So
That's basically what's happening there
They take him up to the brow of the cliff
They're going to throw him on the cliff and then it says but he passing through the midst of them went his way
Now what what what just happened there? They take him up there. They're going to throw him off a cliff
He just passes right through the midst of them and goes on his way
So I don't know if this is a miracle or if this is just something to happen
Here's how I think it could have been a miracle i'm just you know throwing out some options here
It could have been that they get up there
They're they're an excited crowd and god just kind of confounded them confused
They got a little confused and they where is he, you know?
because there's all the ruckus and he just kind of walks through and just kind of
Slips out and maybe you know because because sometimes god would put people under a delusion
or blindness like for example when they show up to arrest elijah elijah and and you know
He's surrounded
right
and then god blinds the whole
Army
And he tells him oh no, this isn't the guy you're looking for
Let me take you to to elijah and then and then basically he takes them into the headquarters of their enemy's capital city
and delivers them over to the king of israel
And they they didn't realize what they were doing. They just kind of like, okay. Yeah, they're just going along and then they get there
How did we get here? You know, so it could have been something like that
Some kind of a thing where god allowed him to miraculously
Slip through that's why I think probably happened. He was able to just slip through miraculously
or another option could be that he just
You know that they just decided not to go through with it or you know
And the bible could be just kind of leaving out some detail of the fact, you know
How he got away, but you know because it's just not important how he got away
It's just that he got away he escaped. Okay, but however, he did it he got out of there
He escaped why because his hour was not yet come and there are multiple times when
Jesus could have been killed or arrested and many times when people wanted to do that
But it wasn't time yet. He had not completed the works that he was supposed to do
And it's the same way with us as god's people, you know, if god has more works for us to do he can protect us
And he'll keep us alive as long as we need to be until it's our time to go and when it's our time to go
It's our time to go
But he'll he can preserve us even in these type of situations
So don't don't just hold back on your preaching because you say well, I don't want to be in that position
Well, I mean I wouldn't mind getting dragged up to the cliff as long as I can pass through the midst
And get out of there, right?
I mean if you knew you're gonna pass through the midst you don't mind getting dragged to the cliff, right?
I mean, I mean nobody wants to get thrown off the cliff
Now here's the thing as Christians we should be willing to even be thrown off the cliff
But here's my point though most of the time you don't even end up getting thrown off the cliff
Most of the time you end up passing through the midst
Because God is constantly delivering people in the Bible who think that it's over
They think they're doomed think about you know Shadrach Meshach and Abednego or Daniel in the lion's den
Or just all different examples where people look like they're doomed and then they're not
God can do the same thing for us
So a lot of the things that we're so scared of or oh man if I preach this I'm gonna end up having this happen
Or oh if I go soul wedding this will happen
Or if I say this my family's gonna do this
A lot of those cliffs you don't even end up getting pushed off that cliff
But you just constantly live in fear of going off that cliff
When in reality God's plan is that you pass through the midst
Now if you end up going off that cliff so be it
Be willing to go off the cliff
Be willing to go into the fiery furnace
Be willing to be consumed of the lions
But a lot of times people are just literally afraid of their own shadow
They're afraid of a phantom that's not even there
And it paralyzes them and preachers today are not preaching the whole counsel of God
Because of fear
They don't want this to happen when they preach
But you know what if I preach the sermon and this happened I would love for this to happen
Because we're supposed to rejoice when we get persecuted
Because it means great is our reward
You know so you know if I'm getting arrested for preaching
If I'm getting deported or banned from countries
I like it
I'm trying to collect them all
You know so far I've been banned from three countries
I'm trying to collect them all
You know I'm collecting country bands like other people collect beanie babies
Because it's all just rewards in heaven
You know ban me again
Ban me from another one let's do it
You know nobody wants to go to prison
Nobody wants to be killed for the cause of Christ
Myself included
I don't want to do those things
But you know what if that's what happens
So be it
But I'd rather pass through the mist
Until my time comes
But you know what that's up to the Lord
And at the end of the day there's nothing I can do about it
But just trust him
And just walk in his will
And let the chips fall where they may
And that's what the Bible is showing us here
So he passed right through the mist
He went his way
He came down to Capernaum verse 31
A city of Galilee
And taught them on the Sabbath days
And they were astonished at his doctrine
For his word was given to them
And in the synagogue there was a man
Which had a spirit of an unclean devil
And by the way
If you go to synagogue in Tempe
I'll bet you most people there have an unclean devil
But it says
Which had a spirit of an unclean devil
And cried out with a loud voice saying
Let us alone
What have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth
Art thou come to destroy us
I know thee who thou art
The Holy One of God
And Jesus rebuked him saying
Let us alone
What have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth
And Jesus rebuked him saying
Hold thy peace and come out of him
And when the devil had thrown him in the midst
He came out of him and hurt him not
And they were all amazed and spake among themselves saying
What a word is this
For with authority and power
He commanded the unclean spirits
And they come out
And the fame of them went out
Into every place of the country round about
And when the Bible says country
Or it doesn't mean like a nation state
It means the whole region
And we know this because in Matthew it says
His fame went throughout all Syria
Decapolis, beyond Jordan
It talks about how even the adjacent nations
Heard the fame of Jesus Christ
Even in the early stages of his ministry
And he rose out of the synagogue
And entered into Simon's house
This is Peter
And Simon's wife's mother
Was taken with a great fever
And they besought him for her
And he stood over her and rebuked the fever
And it left her
And immediately she arose and ministered unto them
And he said
Well how can Jesus rebuke a fever
Because the fever is caused by germs
This is something that we know now
And germs are living things
Right, they're a living organism
The bacterias and germs and stuff like that
So it makes sense
If Jesus can even command the winds and the waves
Which are inanimate objects
Right, I mean you know the water is not alive
Unless you count what's living in the water
Same thing with the air
He rebukes the winds and the waves
He can rebuke demons
He can rebuke animals
You know, he has authority over all flesh
Over all things
And so he rebukes the fever
The fever goes out of her
Obviously, you know, that's talking about
That which causes the fever
Right, the germs or whatever
He stood over her and rebuked the fever
And it left her
And immediately she arose and ministered unto them
Now when the sun was setting
All they that had any sick with divers diseases
Brought them unto him
And he laid his hands on every one of them
And healed them
And devils also came out of many
Crying out and saying
Thou art Christ the Son of God
And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak
For they knew that he was Christ
And again, he doesn't want to reveal too much
Early in his ministry
He doesn't go around saying early on
That he's Christ, that he's the Messiah
That he's the Son of God
So he's rebuking them
He wants to preach things
And teach things in his timing
In his plan
He's rolling things out
And he doesn't want people to know that too early
So he rebukes them
And doesn't allow them to speak
Because they're
I mean, they know him
They know who he is
They know that he's the Son of God
And when it was day
He departed and went into a desert place
And the people sought him
And came unto him
And stayed him
That he should not depart from them
Now, these people
They want him to stay
They want to hear more preaching
They like the fact that he's healed their sicknesses
They don't want him to leave
But he says unto them
In verse 43
I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also
For therefore am I sent
And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee
Now, this is something that we see throughout the four gospels
And throughout the book of Acts
Is the idea that we need to get the gospel to everybody
We need to get the gospel to all the different cities and towns
And even every village
Every creature
That's God's plan
That's the way Christ and his apostles did it
They did all the cities of different regions
And they'd move from one region to another
And they had a plan
And they covered everything
They split up
They got it all done
And then in the book of Acts
You see them moving
You don't see Paul just go into one place
And just stand in that one place
And just not
You know, you see him
He's going from place to place to place
And then there are other people that become the pastors
That stay in that one place
And continue to lead that person
But even the pastors are told to do the work of an evangelist
Meaning that they're not to just teach the existing church members
But they're to go out and evangelize more people
Go out and win new people to Christ
Go to the other areas
And win people to lord the villages, the towns, the cities
New streets
You constantly need to be knocking on new doors
You constantly need to be going and finding new people to give the gospel to
Whether you're a pastor
Whether you're any kind of a Christian
This is what God teaches
Now, the big thing that a soul winning church like ours will get constantly criticized for
Is because we're not doing follow up
Right?
And this is a big thing that's constantly thrown in our face
Hey, you guys aren't doing effective follow up
You're not discipling people
You're preaching the gospel to people
But you're not discipling them
You're not following up
You're not discipling them
You're not following up
You're not teaching them to observe all things that Christ commanded
This is a foolish accusation
Because of the fact that we go out and we win people to Christ
Who live many times within a certain distance of our church
Where it would be pretty easy for them to get here
You know, they could either drive
They could take a bus
They could come on foot
And if they wanted to get here, they could
And often we even offer people rides
And we're willing to pick people up
And find a way to help people get here
If they're not willing to get their carcass down here
Then that's their problem
That they're not getting followed up or discipled
I'm not gonna sit here
And you can criticize me all you want
I refuse to do it
I'm never gonna do it
I'm not gonna go babysit these people
And coddle them
And hold their hand
And hold a personal church service in their house for them
When I'm here preaching three times a week
They can come here and learn everything that they need to learn
Why do I need to go and just
So that they can just lay on the couch and not move
And I just go and
Why would I go
Right now I'm talking to hundreds of people
Why would I just go talk to that one person
Again and again and again
Who's not even willing to take the step to come to church
Now, if we had an infinite amount of time
Then maybe you could make the case that
Yeah, you should be doing that and whatever
But hold on a second
If I only have a limited amount of time
And there's another guy down the street
Who's gonna go to hell if he doesn't hear the gospel
It makes more sense for me to go down the street to that other guy
Who hasn't even had his door knocked at all
And give him the gospel so he can be saved
Than to just keep going back
No, you're still not coming to church
You're still not coming to church
So, what is it gonna take to get you to church
And by the way, it's awkward
If I invite somebody to church
I give them everything that
Here's the address
Here's the location
Here's the service time
Here's where it's at
Love to see you down there
This is my name
This is my so many partner's name
Come find us
You already have a friend
You know, he'll sit with you
You know, whatever
And then they don't come
It's like, then we come back and it's like
So, you didn't come
So, you wanna come?
Well, they didn't come
I'm not gonna go around
And look, I'm not gonna go around apologizing
To a bunch of repent of your sins
Lordship salvationists
Who just wanna pick apart soul winning
And find something wrong with them
I didn't do enough follow up
Yeah, I didn't do any follow up
I hate follow up
I'm never doing it again
So, there
Put that in your pipe and smoke it
I need to go to other cities also
That's why I'm sent forth
Jesus is being begged to follow up
And he says, nope
Going to the next city
Next city
I love Philip's follow up with the Ethiopian eunuch
Wins him to the Lord, baptizes him
And then he's literally warped away by the Holy Spirit
No follow up
Oh, but what church is he gonna go to?
Do you get him set up in an Ethiopian church?
This stuff isn't biblical
It's just man's attempt to justify not going soul winning
And to pick apart the people who are doing the work
Now, let me say this
We started the church in my house eleven and a half years ago
At the first service, there was my family of five
And four visitors
So, nine people
The next Sunday we'd grown to eight, okay?
From nine to eight
A year later, we were up to seven
But here's the thing
Here we are
Eleven and a half years later
With three hundred and some people that come to this church
Somebody must be getting discipled
Right?
If you start a church with my family and a couple visitors
And then eleven and a half years later
You got three hundred and some people coming every Sunday
Then that tells me somebody got discipled somewhere along the way
Somebody must have got baptized
Somebody must have been taught to observe all things that Christ commanded
Meanwhile, some guy in a church that was running forty and is still running forty
That you can count on one hand how many people they had saved last year
It's like, yeah, but did you follow up?
Did you follow up though?
No, I didn't
I don't want to, I'm not going to
Why?
Because, you know what?
People need to get their butts down to the local church on their own
And I'm not going to go take it to them
And you say, oh well, you know, it's too hard, it's too far
Bologna
Jesus expected people to come to him
He went up on the Sermon on the Mount
And they came to him
He got out on a boat by the seaside
And they came to him
And throughout the book of Acts
Throughout the gospels
They came to him
And you know what?
The people who didn't come to him
Guess what?
They just weren't there
That's why in Acts chapter 1
There's only 120 people in attendance
Even though they'd had thousands saved
They had 120 in attendance
So this thing of, oh, follow up, follow up, follow up
Look, and I'm not against you doing follow up
You can do all the follow up you want
I'm not going to do it
And you can't make me do it
Why?
Because I'm going to go to other cities also
I'm going to go to other villages also
I'm going to go to other towns also
I just want to keep knocking fresh doors
And once we've knocked every door
I'm going to follow up
And you know how I'm going to follow up?
By knocking every door again
I mean, did we follow up in Guadalupe
When we knocked every door seven times?
That's follow up, brother
We even followed up on the people
Who wanted nothing to do with it
We followed up everybody
By knocking every door a second time
And so we need to just not listen to the critics
And the naysayers
And we don't have to like go out
And prove some point to the naysayers
By showing them, okay, look everybody
This is me following up
You know, nuts to you
If you don't like soul winning
Then go jump in a lake
And go to the non-soul winning church
This is soul winning church
And it will continue to be a soul winning church
And you know what?
We're going to go to every village
And every town in Hamlet and Arizona
We've already knocked every door in tons of small towns
And we're going to continue to increase that
Until we, God willing, if God allows us to
We're going to knock every Indian reservation
Every small town
Even small towns that are four and a half hours away
We're going to knock them
Oh, but how are you going to follow up with them?
We're not!
And by the way, there's this cool thing called the internet
Where they can actually listen to the preaching anyway
And guess what?
There's a, did you know there's a Baptist church
In every city in this whole state?
Show me a city in this state that doesn't have a Baptist church
They all have a Baptist church
Oh, but it's lame
Right, and that's my fault
It's my fault that they have a lame Baptist church
Why didn't you get them saved
And cause their church not to be lame?
I'm human
There's only so much that we can do here
And you know what?
I'd rather get somebody saved
And they never get in church
And they never get saved
And they never get in church
And they never get followed up
And they never grow in the Lord
And they go to heaven
Than for them to go to hell
I'd rather be the janitor in heaven
I'd rather be the bottom guy in heaven
I'd rather be the least in the kingdom of heaven
Than to be in the coolest spot in hell
I'd rather be at the
Cause there's a huge difference
Between heaven and hell, friend
You'd rather be in the worst part of heaven
Than in the best part
If there is a best part
Which I'm sure there's not
But you know
That's a pretty big difference, friend
And so don't listen to this junk
Just, you know
We just need to get out there
And win people to Christ
And you know what?
If people don't want to get in church
And grow and everything
That's their loss
They're the ones who are gonna continue
To live a worthless existence of sin
You know
And they need to get down here
And you know
People act like
Oh it's so far to go to church
And you don't understand
And look
There are even people who listen
To my sermons every week
Who go to church
Even in the United States
Where there's Baptist churches everywhere
And here's what they say
Oh well you don't understand
You know
My closest Baptist church
Is an hour away
Or two hours away
Well stop and
Let me just teach you something
An hour away in a car
Right?
Two hours away in a car
That's pretty far, right?
That could be like
60 miles, 120 miles, 130 miles
That's pretty far
Okay but stop and think about this
What about before cars were invented?
How far is an hour away with no car?
Three miles
Because it takes 20 minutes to walk one mile
Okay
So basically in the olden days
If you lived three miles from church
You have an hour each way to get to church
And if you live six miles from church
You have two hours each way to go to church
And guess what people did
They walked an hour to church
You think they all just lived right next to the church
Everybody just lived right there
No
A lot of people are walking an hour to get to church
They're walking two hours to get to church
And what's easier
Sitting on your rear in an air conditioned vehicle
Or walking to church
For an hour
Or two hours
But they got it done
And even the people who lived close to church
Even the people who lived one mile from church
Still had 40 minutes of walking to get there
Right? 20 there, 20 back
Even the people who lived three quarter of a mile away
They could see it from their house
Still had to walk 15 minutes there
But be like
You know
You're in Tempe
I'm all the way to Mesa
I'm all the way to Peoria
Wow
Oh man
You drove all the way from Peoria
I'm so impressed
That's what people have done for the last thousands of years
It took them an hour to get there
And they went on their own steam
They weren't riding riding chariots and horses
They were on foot
Throughout history
That's what mankind has done
And so you think it's just so amazing of you
To drive 40 minutes or an hour
But you know what
That's what everybody's been doing for thousands of years
When these people went to hear Jesus
When they went to the synagogue
They walked to get there
And they got there because it was important to them
And they made it a priority to get there
And so I'm not going to sit there
And take it to everybody
People need to come to church
They need to come here
Or go to another church
That's a Bible believing church
But we can't just follow up with them
And follow up
No
They need to get down here and do something on their own
They're saved
And by the way
At least when we win people to Christ
At least we do leave them with materials
We try to leave them with a Bible
Or a New Testament
Or a Bible
Or a New Testament
Or CDs
Or DVDs
Or something
Or at least the internet is there for them to find materials
So that they can get to church
So let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer