Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If we can go ahead and find our seats we will get started
And once you find a seat grab a hymnal we will all go together to song number 310
Song number 310 footprints of Jesus
Let's all sing it out together on the first sweet
love you and thank you so much for this church. Thank you so much for allowing us to gather here
on a Wednesday night to sing unto you and hear your word Lord preached and we just ask that you
fill this church with your spirit and bless it and everything they do and it's in Jesus' name we
pray. Amen. All right for our next song let's go to song number 35. Song number 35. When I see my
We're 35.
Thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church if you need one of our bulletins
You can lift up your hand and one of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin on the front
We have our Bible memory passage and we're on verse 12 of Matthew 28 on the inside
We have our service and soul winning times
On the right is the list of our expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them
Upcoming events there's gonna be a cruise missions trip that our evangelist is gonna be going on and some of our church members next week
And so please be in prayer
their mission trip will go smoothly. Also a couple reminders down below on the
back we have our prayer list. We'll kind of go up we'll go through this kind of
update a few things. The Naeems who continue to pray for their grandmother.
We're praying for Miss Charlotte. We've also been praying for the Carlson's
mother. Also we've been praying for
Miss face friend her mom's cancer. We've been praying for the Scots brother
Horace and miss grace been continue pray for their health and also just pray for
Elijah and miss Olivia if you'd pray for
Miss Garcia and it's a praise report because her daughter ended up giving birth just not that long ago and
It's Victoria Elma so it's congratulations to them. She's up there visiting with them right now
Continue to pray for brother Tony's health and then we're praying for brother Foley and his fiancee, which they got some good news recently
So hopefully we'll just keep praying and hopefully everything goes smoothly with that and then also
We'll we're praying for the good ones friend miss Sarah. I've been praying for brother Nick's mother
And then continue to pray for the Afzels, who unfortunately had lost a loved one, their father-in-law.
And so just continue to pray for them.
Also, if you'd pray for brother Billy's friend, Blake Cook, and if you'd pray for his co-worker, Corrie,
and then down below, if you'd pray for the Furs, brother Trevor and Miss Haley, or Hadley, I'm sorry.
and then also if you can bring prayer for Mrs. Ginger's brother.
So a lot of people here on our prayer list continue to pray for them throughout the week,
but we'll say a quick word of prayer as a church family as well.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church.
Thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you please just bless them and continue to help them during their pregnancy.
I pray that you'd help them with their delivery.
Thank you so much for those blessings.
I pray that you'd also be with our church family
that's struggling with illness or sickness.
I pray especially these chronic issues if possible,
if you could just give them a miracle.
if you could just comfort them during their difficulty.
Also, several church members are struggling with flu
and other sicknesses.
I pray that you just please give them a speedy recovery,
help them to also get back into church.
And I pray that you would also just help our church family
that needs favor with their travel
or with their job or their work or.
Anything that's related. I pray that you just please give them favor right now
Please just bless our upcoming missions trips and keep everyone safe
Please give them opportunities to find people and to get many people saved and I pray you continue use this church as a bright and shining light
It's in a Jesus names. We pray amen
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the week. It's Psalm 150
So if you have your
binders it's Psalm 150. Alright that was Psalm 150. Psalm chapter 150 in your binder
or in your King James Bible. Let's all sing it out together on the first.
Praise God in His sanctuary, praise Him in love.
Ferment of His power, praise Him for His mighty acts.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him with love.
Sound of the trumpet, praise Him with love.
and we're string instruments.
singing everybody let's uh as the offering plates are being passed around
let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles the Matthew chapter 11 that's the book of
Matthew chapter number 11
Matthew chapter number 11, the Bible reads,
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf here, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And he, and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John,
What went ye out into the wilderness to see, a reed shaken with the wind?
But what went ye out for to see, a man clothed in soft raiment?
Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in the king's houses.
But what went ye out for to see a prophet?
Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which
shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist, not withstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force.
For all the prophets and the law prophesied unto John.
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias which was to come, he that hath ears to hear let
But whereunto shall I liken this generation?
It is likened to the children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellows,
and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.
We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-biber.
A friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified of her children.
mighty works were done because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorizen, woe unto thee, Bethsaida,
for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at that day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum,
which are exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell, for if the mighty works which
had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
But I stand to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than
for thee. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes,
even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father.
Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Come unto me all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Let us pray.
Heavenly Father Lord, thank you for the chapter of the Bible Lord. Thank you for said fast Baptist Church
I just pray that you'd bless Pastor Shelley film with the Holy Spirit as he preaches unto us and help us to receive your word
And I pray us in Jesus name. Amen. Amen
So we've been going through the book of Matthew, we were here in chapter 11, the Bible says,
and it came to pass. When Jesus had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples,
he departed thence to teach and to preach in their city. So we noticed the Lord Jesus Christ
not only commanded his disciples to go out and preach the gospel and do the works,
but he himself also did the works. Now keep your finger and go to 1 Peter chapter number five for
Good at first Peter chapter number five and I want to show you a verse in here
that is kind of talking about some instructions that Peter gave to other
leaders, especially the elders and those that were in positions of power and
authority. Now
You'll notice in verse number one of 1 Peter chapter five. He's addressing a certain audience that says the elders
Which are among you I exhort so he's exhorting the elders, which is the leaders or the pastors
He says who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also partake of the glory that shall be revealed
Feed the flock of God, which is among you
taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly,
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.
Neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being in samples to the flock.
And so the Bible tells us that leaders, pastors, elders,
they're not to be a lord over the flock.
What does that mean?
Well, there's a lot of applications
we could take from this passage.
One would be often in the idea of just a pastor essentially kind of being overbearing or overstepping his boundaries.
You know, I've heard, I've never really seen this, but I've just heard that sometimes pastors might say things like,
you need to ask me before you buy a house, or you need to ask me permission before you get married,
or you need, you know, just kind of like...
ruling over people's personal lives.
I think that that's bizarre.
I think that that's wrong.
I think that's overstepping their boundary,
but I still don't even think
that that's what this passage is bringing up.
That maybe you could draw from the text,
but what it's really trying to bring up is the idea
that as a leader,
you're not to just simply boss people around
and lord over people,
but rather you're supposed to be in sample under the flock.
And we noticed that the Lord Jesus Christ
did not just simply
order or boss around his disciples and tell them to go preach and tell them to go teach in the cities,
but he himself also went out teaching and preaching and he was an example unto his own disciples.
And so as a leader, no matter what position you're found in, you should always be an example to those
that are under your authority. Whether that's you as the husband in the home.
or even let's just say the wife.
As the wife, you have authority over your children.
You should not just boss your children around.
You should not just only tell them what to do,
but you should be an example under them, right?
You should also be an example as a Christian
and in doing things and working hard.
As a husband, you shouldn't just boss your wife
and your children around,
but rather you should be an example under them
and serving and working alongside of them.
If you have a job, if you're in the workplace,
often employees will resent their boss.
If their boss doesn't actually do much work,
if he's just simply bossing and ordering people around,
and many times what'll help you
in the sight of your employees
is when you come alongside them and you work with them
and you're actually laboring and you're an example,
you're an example unto them.
And the same is gonna be in the church setting
as a great soul winning captain.
You know, if you're a soul winning captain,
you should be an example of soul winning.
You shouldn't be going around bossing everybody else around.
If you are in a position of leadership where you're an evangelist or a deacon or a pastor,
you should be an example on the flock.
You should be showing people how to go soul winning and showing people how to do missions
trips.
You shouldn't just simply just pawn it off on everybody else and just boss everybody
else out.
You know, it would be kind of embarrassing to me if I always have got up and preached
about the importance of missions trips and evangelism and going out and preaching the
Then I myself never went out and just simply actually did what the Bible's commissioning us to do
But I'm just bossing everybody else around and telling everybody else to do it
It'd be one thing if I'm sitting here saying hey, you should tithe and then I don't tithe
It'd be one thing if I'm telling people to go to church and I don't go to church, you know
So as a leader we should be an example and not just simply a Lord
Bossing everybody around and telling everybody else what to do, but rather we should be an example under the flock
Now, what this does not mean is it doesn't mean that there isn't rules, okay?
Obviously, in a church, you're always going to have rules, right?
If you say, hey, we're not going to let women get up and preach behind the pulpit.
That's not someone lording over the flock.
That's just abiding by the rules of the Bible.
Now, there's some rules that we obviously follow that are strictly in the Bible.
Some rules are also just my personal opinion.
So like my personal, I have personal standards for a church.
Like men that come and preach behind our pulpit, they have to wear a button-up shirt and tie.
That's just a rule that I have that if you're going to preach behind my pulpit, that's not
me quote, lording over the flock because guess what?
I follow the same rule.
You know, I'm not getting up here in a t-shirt
and then bossing all everybody else around like,
well, you have to have this type of clothing,
but I'm not gonna do it.
No, no, no, I'm gonna be an example under the flock.
I'm gonna address how I want the flock.
to dress. And so we have rules as a church, but I should follow the same rules and go by the same
guidelines. And a Lord would be someone that doesn't abide by their own rules, that isn't willing to
do the same things and basically come alongside of his employees or subordinates or disciples or
whatever scenario we have. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he condescended amenable estate. He came
and to give his life a ransom is what the Bible says.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ in fact was often accused
of being beside himself because he worked too much
because he was constantly preaching and reaching people.
And so if you wanna be a good leader,
if you wanna be a good boss,
if you wanna have a position of spiritual leadership,
you should be ready to do work.
He that desires the office of a bishop desires a good work.
It's not a good position, it's a good work.
And so, you know, when people are in a position of authority
and they start showing like pride
or they start showing like they care so much more
about the position than the work, that seems dangerous.
That seems like maybe they have a hard issue
that needs to be corrected
because a position of leadership in the church
should be there only for the person that wants to work.
not the person that wants the attention or wants the Lord over people or boss people around but
rather is willing to sacrifice lead by example and do things for others. You know I always say that
A great pastor, a great leader,
is one who's helping others serve Christ better.
That is the position I believe of a pastor,
is one who's helping others serve Christ better.
It's not for you to help me serve Christ better,
it's for me to help you serve Christ better.
And if I'm making decisions,
or a church is making decisions
that are hurting the congregation
and their walk with the Lord or serving God,
then we have to ask ourselves,
are we making the right decision?
We have to kind of reflect and make sure
and emboldening other Christians to serve Christ better.
Now, in Matthew chapter 11, let's keep going through.
I just wanted to talk about that for a second in this verse.
It says,
The works of Christ he sent to his disciples and said unto them art thou he that should come or do we look for another now?
This is very interesting because when Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist earlier in the book of Matthew
He said behold the Lamb of God was taken away the sin of the world
the Bible also told us that when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist that John
had seen the Holy Ghost descend upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible says he saw the Holy Ghost in bodily shape,
descending like as a dove.
And so,
Obviously, you had a voice come from heaven.
This is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased.
The Bible says that God had already told John
that the one to whom you see the spirit descending,
that is the son of God.
That is the Christ.
This is the one.
So he's already had this confirmed.
He's already stated publicly,
behold the Lamb of God,
which take away the sins of the world.
He even told Jesus Christ.
He said, I have need to be baptized of thee.
It's very clear that John the Baptist understood who Jesus was,
had recognized him already, and yet now he's having arguably doubts.
We could say that he's obviously having some level of doubt or insecurity
because specifically he says, art thou he should that he should he that should
come or do we look for another? Why would you look for another?
If he's Christ, if you've already identified that this is the Son of God, then you don't need to look for another. You're already identified it
I'm guessing it's just John is in a low point
And look, prison is a horrific punishment.
Prison is not even a biblical concept
because prison is a worse punishment
than the biblical punishments.
Prison locking someone in a cage
is an evil, evil thing to do.
It's a cruel and unusual punishment.
I think it's unconstitutional.
We should get rid of prisons.
Prisons should not even exist whatsoever.
And when people are locked in a cage,
especially when they're put in solitary confinement,
That can cause a person to go literally insane.
I mean, you just take any of us right now and you lock us in a cage for long periods
of time with no literature, with no communication with other people, you will go in many cases
just literally insane.
And it doesn't matter like it's not like, oh, I can just overcome this automatically as I'm a Christian or I'm spiritual or I'm strong.
No, no, no. It is a mental toil that people will go through being locked in the prison.
We don't even know the circumstances. He may have even been tortured in prison. He may have been beaten.
He may be starving. And look.
If you know anything about marriage,
if your wife is hungry, she's a different person, okay?
And the reality is, just think about some guy
being in prison for a long period of time,
not eating, being beaten in a dark place.
I mean, look, it's very, very easy.
for someone to start having doubts or be confused or be upset or not acting like themselves when
they're in a low point like this. And so it's real easy for us to sit here and say like,
what's happening, John? What's going on? But you know what? You're not in prison right now.
When you're in prison in a really horrible situation,
and then you're standing strong,
then maybe you can say like,
oh, I don't know what the big deal is, John.
But you know what, you're not in his circumstance,
you're not in his life situation,
you're not currently being tortured,
you're not currently starving,
you're not currently in...
potentially solitary confinement.
In some cases, they were in literal shackles.
You know, in American prisons,
often you're not necessarily just shackled all the time.
You may be from a transporting perspective,
but in many cases, you're still at least liberated
in your cell.
I guarantee the prison beds in America
are way better than whatever they were sleeping on.
I guarantee the bathroom situation was better.
I even guarantee the slop that you eat in America prisons
are probably better than the slop
that they were eating in these prisons.
Now I can't verify.
I don't know what it was like.
I'm just guessing it's not a five star hotel, okay?
But it's real easy for us to just sit here
and criticize John.
But you know what, you haven't been in that situation.
So maybe you shouldn't necessarily think
that you're gonna be Mr. Tough.
if you were put in the exact same scenarios, John,
because John the Baptist is a tough dude.
John the Baptist was guy out in the wilderness.
John the Baptist is preaching hard against the Pharisees.
John the Baptist is eating a wild locus and honey.
I'm sorry, locus and wild honey, I guess it's not mixed up.
Locus and wild honey, he wears a rough garment.
I mean, this is a bad dude.
This is a guy that can take some heat.
And obviously if he's questioning,
it must be some intense persecution that is going through.
And let that just be a reminder that
If you have doubts, that's normal.
It's normal sometimes when you're going through a difficult spot in your life
to occasionally have doubts. There's going to be times in your life where you kind of wonder like
Am I on the right path or has got what has got doing with me?
You know, maybe you have the loss of a loved one
I've seen people in a church that I grew up with where they lost their very young baby
I mean, they just lost their baby and that's just I mean, that's got to be incredibly sad
I just can't imagine losing a baby, but you know, you don't give up on church
Just because you had that horrible loss of a child, you know, sometimes people might lose their
their loved one, or they might have marriage issues,
or they may lose their job,
or they may have health issues,
or they may have whatever kind of tribulations
and difficulties they may face, persecution.
People have lost their jobs just for coming to this church.
just for being associated with us.
And you know, that's an intense persecution.
It could cause you to say like, am I on the right path?
Am I doing the right thing?
But you know, in those moments of trial and temptation,
that's where you get to show yourself strong
on God's behalf and say, hey, I am steadfast.
Hey, I do have faith in the Lord.
Hey, I'm gonna trust him.
And you know what, when you do that,
God will show himself strong on your behalf
and he'll often put you in a better place
than you were prior to.
And even if he doesn't,
You know, like John doesn't really get in a better place.
Let's just be honest, but hey,
he's going to be greatly rewarded in heaven.
And we all know that John the Baptist isn't going to regret
his life and hindsight.
It's just obviously in the moment, it may be pretty tough.
And you know, sometimes we have to go through tough things,
but we shouldn't question Lord.
I mean, I'm trying to, I'm trying to make it clear like
We may face the same opposition. We may have the same failure, but it was still wrong obviously John shouldn't have questioned the Lord
He obviously shouldn't have had a lapse of faith, but it's very realistic
It's something that many of us will face now
I will appreciate this about John though even when he does have a lapse of faith
Notice he goes back to Jesus to ask him to have that confidence again
And so we say here in verse 4, Jesus answered and said unto them,
Go and show John again those things which ye do here and see,
the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the limpers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he, whose service shall not be offended me.
You know obviously John the Baptist dying is kind of crazy. You kind of think like why would God allow this to happen?
But I think in some ways, you know, you could just argue that God's allowing this to happen so that none of John's disciples
waste any more time with John and they just all start following Jesus.
He's kind of like a picture of replacement and so
you know okay we're we had the old John but now we're on the new program with
the Lord Jesus Christ just like you had the Old Testament
now we're on to the New Testament program and so sometimes God just allows
these things to perish
just like the Old Testament vanished away was waxed old
and is ready to perish so that we can get on with the new
program and now that they're all the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus obviously tries to comfort John with a spiritual answer.
He doesn't just outright say it.
He just simply kind of gives him a spiritual answer.
And of course, that's how Jesus is.
Jesus oftentimes won't necessarily just tell you,
like, yes or no, but he gives you an answer in the scripture.
And you know, there's gonna be times in your life
where you have questions like,
am I on the right path?
Am I doing the right thing?
Is this scriptural?
And it's not gonna just be necessarily black and white,
just a plain yes, but there will be a clear answer
in the Bible if you have spiritual ears.
Hey, I have spiritual ears.
The poor people here in the gospel preach to them.
There's, then obviously this is a fulfillment
of the Old Testament scriptures.
You know, there's Old Testament scriptures
that talk about the blind receiving their sight,
the lame walking, the leprosy cleanse, and the deaf hearing.
But you know, I guess you could say like,
I don't really like that message, right?
Because verse six,
and blessed is he who so shall not be offended me.
Notice that the true Christianity
is not something that's always popular.
Not everybody wants to.
be associated with Jesus
when this is what's going to happen.
They want it like, hey, I'm going to go to prison?
Well, what's the benefit of me being in prison?
Well, poor people are here in the Gospel.
It's like, I kind of was hoping for like a kingdom
or a chariot, a new Ferrari.
Like, what is this that you're talking about?
But you know, isn't that really...
You think about church today, isn't that a pretty similar parallel?
It's like, oh, why do I have to go through all this persecution and and stress and and problems of going to church?
And all we ever do is go into ghetto areas and preach the gospel to people. Well, bless it as he who shall not be offended in me. Oh
But where are they? You know, I want to have all the nice things in life, and I don't want to face any opposition
And I don't want any difficulty. Okay. Well, bless it as he who shall not be offended in me
You know, you want this good message.
You know, it wouldn't be hard to serve Christ
if only good things ever happened to you.
It wouldn't be hard to serve Christ
if all of a sudden you're just gonna get a brand new car.
It's not Oprah Winfrey's TV show, okay?
It's not like you come to church
and she's just like, and you get a car
and you get a car and you get a car.
Everybody come to church.
It's like you go to prison and your head is going to be cut off and everybody's going to desert you and no one's going to
Like you it's like oh man
He's like what do I get out of this? Well some poor people are gonna hear the gospel
But you know what if you actually love people and you actually don't want people to burn in hell for all eternity
You're like, okay, that's good enough
because you know what? Nuts to all the carnal things of this life,
nuts to cars and houses and money and all the vain things of this life.
You know what? I'd rather have more souls with me
in heaven than to have all the material possessions
and so it doesn't even matter.
John the Baptist didn't even have the material possessions to start with anyways
So don't get offended that poor people are here in the gospel and the rejects of society
I mean this isn't a popular message. This isn't the things that people in this world want
They don't like the blind. They don't want to hang out the lame. They don't want to hang out with the sick
They don't want to hang out with the poor. They put them away from them in society
They want to hide them in society and have nothing to do with them and Jesus is going out and ministering to those who are poor sick blind lame
And blessed are those who are not offended in Jesus Christ.
They're not offended by the gospel.
They're not offended about what the real service of God is like.
You know, a pure religion is to visit the fathers and the widows in their affliction.
That's what real religion is.
It's not a hocus pocus, it's not putting on a black hood
and doing smoke and worshiping little Mary statues
in some big palace somewhere called the Catholic Church.
No, no, that's satanic.
That's of the devil, literally.
No, it's preaching the gospel to the poor, that is the true religion, it's going out
and visiting people when they're in their affliction and trying to get them saved when
they're down on their luck.
That's what the Bible is bringing up.
You could argue that this is not what John expected.
And I'll just say this, you know, serving God over the years, there's been a lot of
things that I just did not expect.
lot of problems that I did not expect a lot of issues a lot of opposition a lot
of things that I was kind of I never dreamed of just frankly speaking but
sometimes we just have to say well I didn't really expect to be here I didn't
really have to expect to deal with this problem but it is what it is and I'm
just gonna keep going hey I didn't want to be in this situation necessarily but
I am and I don't want to quit you know I just don't I just don't want to be a
I want to be steadfast, right?
I want to just keep pressing forward and dealing with hard problems because, you know, if I
don't deal with the hard problems, it's not like the problems just magically go away.
Someone's got to deal with hard problems.
Someone's got to deal with this stuff.
So why don't we just deal with it, right?
Someone's got to go through opposition.
Why not?
Why not us?
This is what some people don't understand.
You know if you'd stop preaching so hard against faggots or something they would they would just go away. No, no look
They're gonna protest somewhere
They will attack someone the left will attack someone. It's not a question of if they will attack
It's who they will attack. So here's the thing someone's got to go through it. Why not just why don't we just take the heat, right?
I mean, why don't we go through the opposition? Why don't we go through the difficulty? Hey, someone's gonna get their head cut off by
Herod, you know John the Baptist like might as well be me
You know might as well be me that has to stand up to him
I mean someone's gonna die someone's got to be a martyr
Someone's got to stand up for Christ someone's got to face the opposition
Someone's got to take this giant down that's defying the armies of the God of Israel
I mean someone's got to do something and he's like why not me?
And the reality is we shouldn't be offended in Jesus Christ when He calls for us to do something difficult.
And even if it is a personal sacrifice.
Do you think John the Baptist wanted to end his life like this? No.
But someone has to do it. Someone had to be John the Baptist.
Someone had to repair the way before the Lord.
Someone had to live this austere lifestyle, a separated lifestyle to end in a martyrdom.
Someone had to do it and you know John the Baptist, hey, he's going to finish the job.
And you know what?
I don't know what the Lord has prepared for me.
I don't know what the future holds before me,
but we should be willing to just walk through
whatever door he has for us,
even if it's a difficult door,
and not be offended, and not give up, and not quit,
and not just be someone that
had the opportunity to serve God, and we decided not to.
We don't get to choose how we get used by Jesus,
but in many cases, we can choose if he will use us.
And so what we should do is just say,
Send me do I do I have a positive message?
Great. Do I have a negative message?
Great. I'll still preach it. Hey, do I have a good future? Great. Do I have a negative future?
Great. I'm just gonna do it. Whatever it is. I'm just gonna go down that path. And you know for John the Baptist it wasn't
It wasn't necessarily a great future, but you know what he's Baptist and we're Baptist and that's what's better
You know being Baptist, right? It's not John the Methodist. It's not John the Catholic
It's John the Baptist and you know it's Baptist are gonna suffer tribulation because they're the real guys
John the Methodist we don't even hear about him because nobody cares
John the United Methodist he doesn't even exist because there's a dyke at their church leading the church, okay?
John the Catholic nobody even knows who that is so it's John the Baptist
That's the one getting the heat preaching the hard sermons getting thrown in prison
And you know of course it's bad this today that are making the difference in this world
You know, I when's it last time you heard like some church of Christ, you know
Reaches lots of people with the gospel church of Christ being protested. You know, it's just like you never heard about these other denominations
It's always the Baptist, isn't it?
That's why I like being a Baptist
Now as we keep reading it says and as they departed Jesus began to say into the multitudes concerning John
What would you out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken with the wind? So I like Jesus. He's saying hey
When you went to go see John the Baptist,
what were you looking for?
Are you looking for someone that you could push around?
What's a reed shaking with the wind?
A reed is essentially just the most flimsy little thing
that just the wind will just blow wherever direction.
It's not like a tree.
It's not like a rock.
It's not something that is very sturdy.
It's just something that's real flimsy
and just the wind can just drive it
in whatever direction it wants, whenever it wants.
Really, you could just call this a politician.
Okay, every politician is just a reed shaking in the wind just whatever whatever direction is being blown
It's just gonna blow in that direction and he's saying hey John the Baptist was not like that when the Pharisees came out to him
He didn't change the message
When the publicans of the harlots came out he didn't change the message when Jesus showed up
He didn't change the message. He was steadfast now. I like this because it's kind of the opposite
If you think about it
to the encounter that Jesus just had, right?
John the Baptist is kind of questioning Jesus a little bit.
He's kind of like having some uncertainty.
And you can see him as almost wavering a little bit.
Whereas then Jesus is kind of talking to them like,
hey, John the Baptist wasn't this reed shaken in the wind.
He wasn't easily wavering or off course.
And one of the ways that I look at this
is it almost seems like Jesus is kind of defending John the Baptist.
He's kind of defending John the Baptist, and he's speaking up for him, and he's trying to essentially keep his reputation.
You know, he's like, hey, you know, I know that this has happened, but Jesus doesn't start like, hey guys, John the Baptist is really weak.
Hey guys, John the Baptist has gone soft, guys.
No, no, he kind of sticks up for John the Baptist, doesn't he?
He's kind of like making it clear like, hey, John the Baptist is good, right?
Verse 8,
But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment.
The old day that wears soft clothing or in King's houses,
but what went ye out for to see a prophet?
Yay, I say, and you and more than a prophet.
For this is he of whom it is written,
behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily, I say, and you among them that are born of women,
they're not risen a greater than John the Baptist,
notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven
is greater than he.
So,
You kind of get this little diatribe from the Lord Jesus Christ where he's kind of like sticking up for John the Baptist
He's saying look this guy wasn't easily. He's not a pushover. He's not easily just led by the winds of this world
Additionally, he's saying he's not like living it up. He wasn't wearing soft clothes
He wore a rough garment because he didn't really care about things of this world. He wasn't going around just living it up
Not only that, he is not just a prophet.
Jesus just flat out tells us he's the greatest man to ever be born.
I mean, that's what he says, he says in verse 11,
among them that are born of women,
they're at not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
So, especially at this point,
I would argue just for all time,
John the Baptist is the greatest man born among women.
Obviously, Jesus is an exception, okay?
We obviously understand Jesus is an exception here,
but he's just talking about, hey, of other people,
John is literally the greatest.
And it's kind of funny because it's just happening right after.
Kind of only John's mistake. I mean if you're gonna argue like John the Baptist doesn't really have mistakes in the Bible
I can't find where he's done anything wrong. I can't find any sin issues
I mean he just seems to be so rock solid
But you could argue like in this one moment in this one passage
He showed a little bit of uncertainty didn't he he showed a little bit of a lack of confidence
But then immediately afterwards, what is the Lord Jesus Christ attitude?
He defends his friend and he sticks up for him and he even praises him public
politically, by saying this guy is the greatest man born among women.
And you know, I think that there's something been lost in society where people don't seem
to just like stick up for their friends anymore.
They have to go to Proverbs 27, Proverbs 27, especially when their friends may make a mistake
or be down on their luck or be having some kind of an issue.
And it's kind of a dishonorable thing and I think the Lord Jesus Christ is showing us an example here
there's other examples of this where
King David
after Saul and Jonathan are slain in battle
that David ends up having a great funeral for them and makes this great
proclamation about them and David just spends his whole time just praising Saul and it's kind of crazy because
For years and years, Saul has just been chasing David,
trying to kill him, attacking him,
doing nothing good under David.
But then in the end of his life, now that he's dead,
David only just praises Saul and just talks positive
about Saul and focuses on all the good that Saul did
and likes Saul.
And that's why you can see
that David was always Saul's friend.
David never stopped being Saul's friend.
He did have to remove himself for physical safety.
He did have to separate from him.
He did try to correct him and his personal exchanges with Saul.
But he never stopped liking Saul.
He never stopped wanting good for Saul.
But at the end of the day,
Saul was David's enemy continually according to the Bible.
And you know, in our lives, this is how we should be.
We should be like David, and we should be like the Lord Jesus Christ,
where we never stop being friends to our friends.
We never stop being friends to our friends.
Now, they may stop being our friend,
but that doesn't mean that we have to stop being their friend,
and it doesn't mean that we don't have to,
we should stop wishing well for those people.
The Bible says in Proverbs 27, look at verse 6.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful now as a friend
Sometimes you have to tell them things that they don't want to hear
So it doesn't mean being a friend doesn't mean that you're always nice to somebody
Being a friend sometimes is telling him like hey, you're wrong
Hey, you're not you shouldn't do this, but you know the reason why you say that is because you actually care about the person
You don't want them to be hurt. You don't want to be harmed. You don't want something negative to happen to them
But it's faithful because you love that person not saying it to criticize them
You're having a private encounter. You're trying to encourage them. You're trying to correct them
But what you shouldn't do is give up on them. Look what it says in verse 10 thine own friend
So this is your personal friend and thy father's friend.
So this is a friend of somebody that was your father's friend.
Forsake not.
Neither go into thy brother's house
in the day of thy calamity,
for better is a neighbor that is nearer
than a brother far off.
So the Bible just says like point blank,
you should never forsake your friends.
You should not be the person that's forsaking your friends giving up on your friends turning your back on your friends
You know what if they do that to you, that's their problem
But you know what we should not be people that forsake friends and give up on friendships and turn against people
No good. I might have to say hey friend. You're a drunkard
You need to stop drinking and as long as you're a drunkard. I'm gonna have to keep some distance, but I'm still your friend
I'm not gonna forsake you. I still love you if you need something
I'm there, but you need to change this in your life, right? Just like teen saw it's like hey
You need to stop trying to kill me right as long as you want to stop killing me
And you want to just hang out and it's cordial let's hang out, but why you're trying to literally kill me
Yeah, I have to kind of stay away
So it's not saying that there couldn't be a separation.
It doesn't mean you don't keep them at distance
when there's an extreme scenario.
But what it is saying, you shouldn't forsake them.
You shouldn't just say like, nuts to you,
I don't want anything to do with you.
Attack them, be evil, be mean, wish them poorly.
We should always be a friend of these people.
Look what it says in Proverbs 25, just to the left.
In verse 19.
Confidence in an unfaithful man and time of trouble
is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.
You know, we shouldn't be that unfaithful man
that if a friend came to us in need,
or if a friend had an issue,
that we would just forsake them, not help them,
not be with them.
You know, whenever the apostle Paul went through
a lot of difficulty, a lot of people forsook him.
I mean, the Bible even says that my first answer,
no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.
That's a pretty sad day. It's a pretty sad day when all your friends just like give up on you
He talks about Asia all of Asia be turned away from me
He talks about onesimus and he praises onesimus because he says he's not ashamed of my chain
But he sought me out very diligently
And according to the Bible, Onesimus is kind of like one of the few peoples that didn't
forsake the apostle Paul that stuck with him.
You know the Bible talks about all the disciples at one point kind of forsaking the Lord Jesus
Christ.
But we kind of see John at least at some point returning or John kind of being there.
John's there when Jesus is being accused of the Pharisees.
We see John there at the crucifixion because he tells him, you know, he's like basically
Behold thy mother, behold thy son.
And so John is kind of just a little bit more faithful
than some of the other disciples,
is not so easily there to forsake the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what, that's the type of attitude,
that's the type of person that we should be,
is that we're not gonna give up on our friends.
And even when they're down on their luck,
even if they have mistakes,
even if they pull at John the Baptist
and they lose a little bit of faith,
that we're still there.
And when we talk to other people about them,
we're talking positively about them.
We're building them up, we're encouraging them.
Look in the ministry, there's been a lot of people
that I've encountered.
Go to Proverbs 11, go to Proverbs 11.
That have had low points.
Or they've just kind of like made some mistakes,
or they've wavered.
And I just kind of tried to encourage them in the moment.
And then when I talked to other people,
I just tried to talk really positive about that person.
And you know, I've seen a lot,
I've seen many people do both.
I've seen people where they struggled
and I tried to encourage them.
And then they just ultimately just kind of faded away
and left and now aren't serving God
and kind of ruined their entire life, honestly,
ruined their entire life.
then I've seen people who kind of were wavering had problems and I tried to talk to them help them they
They took that advice or they got encouraged and then now they're great and look people don't even know
No one even knows that this person had like a
Wavering moment or nobody knows that this person might have had an issue or whatever and you know that should be our desire
Our desire should be to encourage people
and help them when they're down on their luck
and not sit here and try to kick people while they're down,
forsake people when they're down,
when they're not popular,
or when they're going through some kind of evil.
You know, that's a bad attribute as a friend.
That means you're not really a friend.
A friend is not one that's just there
when it's a party and they're handing out money
and gifts and brisket and whatever.
No, a friend's there when it's actually a burden to them.
It's not popular for them.
It's not comfortable for them.
They don't like it.
It hurts them or costs them something.
You know, Proverbs 11 says in verse 13,
a tail bearer reveal his secrets,
but he that is of a faithful spirit can seal the matter.
You don't see the Lord Jesus Christ going around
blabbing about John the Baptist
and trying to be like, hey, remember when John screwed up?
Remember when John got a little confused?
Remember when John was struggling in prison?
And then he's like, hey,
of the men born among women,
there's not a greater risen than John the Baptist.
Hey, John the Baptist, he's our guy.
He's not a reed shaking with the wind.
He's not clothed in soft clothing.
I mean, this guy is the real deal, and he prays him.
Go ahead and view it to Judges chapter seven.
Go to Judges chapter seven.
You know, sometimes we are going to have low spots.
Sometimes we need people to encourage us.
And you know, I'm not excluded from this list.
There are people in this room and there's people outside this room that have helped me when I've been discouraged or I've had problems or
I've been upset or I've been kind of down and you know one of the greatest people to do this should be your spouse
You know, as a spouse, you should be like Jesus was with John the Baptist, where you're
not going to ever criticize your spouse to other people.
You're not going to talk about their failures.
You're not going to bring up their low spots, but rather you're going to talk positive about
them.
And then when you're in the moment with them, you're going to encourage them.
When they go through low spots or difficulties or frustrations, you're there to encourage
And we're all gonna have moments of fear.
We're gonna have moments where we lack faith.
We're gonna have moments where we aren't certain.
And sometimes just better to have that other person.
You know, the Bible says two are better than one.
You know, we're gonna celebrate Valentine's Day
as a country here on Friday.
And honestly, Valentine's Day is kind of a positive thing.
It's kind of a fun thing.
But you know marriage is more than a day more just much more than just the date night
And you know if it was just for the date night
That's not really the better part of marriage the better part of marriage is when you're down on your luck and your spouse is there
The better part of marriage is when you stumble and there's one there to lift you up and to pick you up
And, you know, we shouldn't just celebrate our marriage on Valentine's Day.
That's the one day of the year we celebrate.
No, we should celebrate marriage every day.
And oftentimes you'll draw closer to each other in the difficult times in marriage,
not the positive times.
I'm all for the positive times.
I like them as much as the next guy.
And you know what? We're going to celebrate Valentine's Day and we're going to have a great day.
But let me tell you something. The reason why me and my wife are so close is from some of the bad days.
It's from from some of the dark times and yes, we fought before I know there's other passes out there
They've never fought with their spouse. Sorry
That's happened. Okay. Yeah, we're not perfect. No one's perfect. Okay?
I'm not gonna get up here and pretend like we've never had low spots
I'm not gonna pretend like we're perfect. She is I have a lot of mistakes, okay?
And so I have to work on that, right? But one day I'll get a little better
But at the end of the day, hey, we have problems too and you know, it's great when I'm at a low spot
She encourages me and it's great when she's in a low spot. I can encourage her
and two are better than one is what the Bible says.
Look at Judges chapter seven.
It's talking about Gideon and he's supposed to go down
and he's supposed to fight the Midianites
and he's kind of a nervous about it
and God's been whittling down his army.
But notice what he says in verse 10.
But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Thura, thy servant, down to the host."
Now this is what's interesting is he's like telling him like sneak down there and spy
on the enemy.
And you know, sometimes men of God, they just have to spy on people a little bit, alright?
Okay.
They have to just go down there to the enemy and they have to just see what's really going
on.
Okay.
And he's like, but if you're nervous,
you know, if you're kind of nervous about spying
on what's going on, take Fuhrer.
Now this is what's funny is it says in verse 11,
just in the middle of the verse, it says,
then he went down to Fuhrer as hermit.
He says, hey, if you're afraid, take Fuhrer.
And then the Bible just says he took Fuhrer.
You know, if you can just read between the lines,
you know what that means?
He was a little nervous.
You know, and sometimes it's a little bit nerve-wracking to do things by yourself.
Sometimes it's not as easy to have the courage or the bravery when you have to do it by yourself,
but when you just have another person there, it just somehow makes it a little bit more comfortable,
makes it a little bit easier. It's less fearful. There's strength in numbers,
and so we should be a good friend like Fuhrer. We should be there alongside Gideon and helping him.
We should be like Jesus encouraging John the Baptist
and talking positively about John the Baptist.
We should be the guy that's concealing the matter.
We should be the person that's not forsaking our own friend.
We should not be forsaking our father's friend.
We should be the person that is a faithful friend.
Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty is something that's dying
in our society and it's just, it's just frustrating.
You know, I can't, I was trying to really think
like really, really hard about this.
Like, is there been a friend in my life or is there been someone like this that's needed
me or wanted me to help them and I didn't?
And I really just can't think of one.
I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but for the most part, I don't think that that's
ever happened.
But I can think about the opposite and boy, a lot of people have stopped wanting to be
my friend.
A lot of people have walked away from me and stabbed me in the back and said evil about
And, you know, it's frustrating, it's hard to deal with, it's not fun.
So I do know what it's like to be forsaken.
But at the end of the day, we should not be the person forsaking people.
We should be the person that's there no matter what, and saying, hey, I am your friend.
I am going to be there through thick or through thin.
You know, obviously, I mean, if I had a friend
and he ended up turning out to be like a literal
reprobate or something, yeah, obviously,
I'm just gonna tell him to go jump in the lake of fire.
Okay, I get that.
But apart from him just being a complete
raging, heretic, psychopath, sodomite or something,
like, I'm not gonna forsake people.
I don't wanna give up on people
and we shouldn't be like that.
We should be people that say, hey,
I'm gonna be your friend at the bitter end.
I'm gonna stick with you.
And you know what that means?
Maybe sometimes I'm gonna have a hard conversation with you.
Maybe sometimes I'm gonna tell you things
you don't wanna hear.
Maybe sometimes we might have an issue,
but I'm not gonna give up on you.
I'm still gonna be your friend.
I'm still there to help you.
I'm still there to encourage you.
And you know, just like Jesus is there for us.
I mean, he never leaves us nor forsakes us.
And that's the example that he shows for us
to have the same attitude and saying,
hey, even if John the Baptist ends up kind of struggling,
stumbling, doing whatever,
let us not criticize him, kick him when he's down
and forsake him, let us encourage him
and then talk positively about him and try to help him.
Probably one of the most dishonorable things I could think of
is just kicking somebody when they're down,
especially when they've done only good to you.
I mean, John the Baptist has done a lot of good things for Jesus.
He's older than him. He baptized him.
He prepared the way for him.
He's giving his disciples unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's been preaching.
He's basically just done all this good unto Jesus.
How would it be if Jesus is now going to just turn around?
and bite the hand that feeds.
I mean, John the Baptist is spoon-feeding disciples
under the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they even ask him, they're saying like,
hey, your disciples are forsaking you and going to Jesus.
And he's thinking like, great,
he must increase, but I must decrease.
That's what he says, that's what his attitude was.
but he's literally just spoon feeding disciples on the people,
helping the Lord Jesus Christ, preaching for the Lord Jesus Christ,
doing good under the Lord Jesus Christ, and then how dishonorable would it be
if when John the Baptist has an issue or makes a mistake or does whatever
for this guy to then turn around and then just
kick John the Baptist when he's down, talk negatively about him,
try to hurt him, try to attack him, you know that's so dishonorable.
And you know I've seen that I've seen that recently where people have just bitten the hand that feeds
Attack people and I think it was very dishonorable what they did
You know specifically my sending pastor pastor Stephen Anderson
I've seen a lot of people kick him when he was down.
And what was so dishonorable about it to me
is just even if everything that all these wild,
crazy accusations that people thought were true,
even if they thought they were all true,
they still act dishonorably about it.
You could still be more respectful
and just not kick someone when they're down
and still be friendly towards them
and still not try to attack somebody.
You know, that's just the dishonorable thing to do.
Sometimes you have to tell people uncomfortable things,
sometimes you have to say, hey,
but you know, this is what's so funny to me.
And it's like all these people had to make
a public announcement, do like public announcements
and these public videos and public statements
about how they broke fellowship with him.
And this is what's so funny to me,
is these people have broken foes with lots of people.
And they've only made a public announcement
one time about one person.
Why would you do that if you're gonna break fellowship?
In fact, I'm sure a lot of these people broke fellowship with me
I don't know because they didn't say it, but I'm sure that they did
But you know it'd be the normal way to break fellowship with people just don't invite them to your church anymore
You know
It's a weird way to break fellowship with people is to make a 20 and 30 minute long
Announcement and just sit there and kick them and bash them when they've only done good unto you
Why can't you be like Jesus and actually talk positively about John the Baptist
and sing his praises and just let the issues just
be concealed because we don't need to necessarily kick somebody while they're down.
You know, that's a dishonorable thing to do and it's not being a very good friend.
It's just not being a very good friend. Let me make a four-part series of every
negative thing I could think about John the Baptist.
Let me make a 10-part video series on every negative thing I possibly even though this guy's only done me good and tried to
Help me, you know, I just want to kick him when he's down
You know, that's a dishonorable thing to do
And it shows that you're a bad friend and it shows the lat character and then I don't have confidence in someone like that
confidence in an unfaithful man
He's like having a broken tooth
That's terrible
and it just kind of shows, it goes to show,
I mean, I'm thinking like there's some people
where I've seen they were really good friends with somebody.
I mean, there was somebody that was just hanging out with Pastor Anderson all the time,
hanging out with his family all the time, trying to get as close to him as humanly possible,
constantly inviting them to do stuff, going out and doing events and traveling with him,
doing all this stuff for years and years and years.
And now they're just on a campaign to attack him endlessly saying,
egery, negative thing.
I'm thinking like, why would anybody ever want to be your friend ever again?
Because if you ever turn on them, you're just gonna attack them forever for the rest of your life
You know people that have done me wrong or I don't like anymore made mistakes
I just I'm just like leaving them alone. I can just leave people alone. It's just weird
It's just so weird to forsake someone that you claimed that was your friend to claim. Do you actually love this person?
I mean, it's just bizarre.
You know, David is just running away from Saul,
but Saul is just constantly attacking and vicious and evil.
Why? Because Saul's of the wrong spirit.
David, as soon as Saul dies, he just prays as Saul.
Jesus, hey, John the Baptist screwed up.
Well, you know what? Let's just talk positively about John the Baptist.
And you know what?
This is how we should be as Christians
is we shouldn't go around attacking people that attack us
or we think negatively of, or go get it.
Let's talk positive about people.
Hey, well, correct sin when we need a correct sin.
I'm not saying we don't correct sin.
Obviously, John the Baptist corrected people.
But you know, he corrected them out of love.
Not to destroy them, not to hurt them.
And you know, we should do the same
and we should not be bad friends.
Bad friends.
Don't be a bad friend.
There's already enough bad friends in this world.
Be a good friend, and your friendship is not tested
when things are good.
Your friendship is tested when things are not good,
or when they need you, or when they're down on their luck.
That will be when we see who is a real good friend.
Now look what it says in verse 12 it says in from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffered violence and
The violent take it by force now. This is a very difficult verse a lot of people different ideas
I have just a simple explanation for this
I would just say simply you could think about how John the Baptist is thrown in prison
Isn't he suffering violence?
And I think that the Bible is just trying to prepare us
that are in the kingdom of God.
Those of us that are going to preach the gospel and do these things,
many times we're going to have to actually suffer violence.
You know, we see in the book of Revelation
that some are going to be thrown into prison,
some are going to be even put to death.
We see this is a consistent theme in the Bible,
where the people of God are constantly attacked
for being very peaceful and just loving.
But the Apostle Paul stoned, the Apostle Stephen has stoned,
and they have to suffer a bunch of violence.
And the violence here is literal physical violence for them.
And that's frustrating.
We don't wrestle against flesh and blood.
We're fighting a spiritual battle,
but they're not fighting a spiritual battle
because they're not spiritual.
So they fight the only way they know how?
Dirty.
They fight mean.
That's often how you can even tell who's of God and who's of not the people that are of God they fight spiritually
You know they fight preaching the word of God
When we fight, this is how we fight.
We get up and we just say what the Bible says.
You know how people that are not of God fight?
They lie about you. They sow discord.
They try to get the law involved.
They try to sue you. They try to attack you.
They try to harass you. They try to get you canceled.
They try to get your YouTube videos taken down.
That's how they fight because they're not spiritual, they're carnal.
And they don't know how to fight the right way.
The right way to fight is with the Word of God.
Now also it also had said I don't want to skip over this said not with standing he does least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he
other, there's probably a lot of applications that too.
I just simply think it's referring to the fact
that everyone who's saved is in a more glorified state
than even the greatest man.
That's the way I would explain that,
is that John the Baptist, the greatest man,
is still in a lesser state than someone
who's saved and in heaven.
But it's not that they're necessarily better than him
because obviously that wouldn't make any sense.
Obviously John the Baptist is gonna be great,
You know in the kingdom of heaven himself. I don't think he's just saying John the Baptist is the worst guy in the kingdom of heaven or something
I don't think it's saying like he's gonna be called least in the kingdom of heaven
No, that's the guy that breaks the commandments and teaches men to do so. He's gonna be called least in the kingdom of heaven
I think he's just saying you know
Even if you're the least in the kingdom of heaven, it's still better than the greatest guy on the earth
That's kind of what it's saying verse 13 for all the prophets and law prophesied until John
And if you will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Some people get confused about the Old Testament prophecy of Elijah coming.
Elijah didn't literally come.
John the Baptist is not literally Elijah, but he has the spirit of Elijah.
And he's kind of getting this title from Jesus.
He's saying, Hey, this is Elias.
This is who the Bible was referring to in the Old Testament when it called him Elijah.
And I think it's just the Bible is trying to help us understand that sometimes people go by other names or they're in reference in this way.
Obviously, when you see in the book of Acts, the Ethiopian eunuch.
is kind of talking to Philip, the evangelist.
He's saying like, is the prophet speaking of himself
or of another man?
And he's like trying to, then Philip picks up where he was
and explains to him, Jesus.
He doesn't say Jesus there,
but they were talking about Jesus.
So in the Old Testament when it says Elijah's coming,
it's not Elijah, it was John the Baptist that was coming.
So that's what he means by he says, this is Elias.
When you look at the Old Testament mention of Elijah,
That is John the Baptist. It's not literally Elijah.
Just like many of the Old Testament pictures in the Bible
are not those people, it's actually Jesus.
Like when the Bible says, out of the belly of hell cried I, that wasn't Jonah.
That was Jesus. Jesus descended down into the heart of the earth
for three days and three nights and Jesus was literally in hell
and out of the belly of hell literally cried Jesus.
But Jonah pictures Jesus so we can say, hey, this was Jonah.
But it was really Jesus, right?
And this is Elias, but it's really John the Baptist.
And of course, John the Baptist, I think,
has a special anointing, has a special spirit,
where he has a spirit of Elijah while he's preaching.
Not only does John the Baptist have this.
Elisha has this because Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit and then it comes upon Elisha
and so Elisha benefits from Elijah's spirit and then John the Baptist can have Elijah's spirit
and you know what I believe today there could be a man on this earth that gets the same spirit of Elisha
that comes upon him and it's the same Holy Ghost from the Old Testament that's in the New Testament
power and the might of Elijah.
And you know what, we need men today
to preach with power and might.
We need people to go out there
and preach the gospel of power
and do great works for the Lord Jesus Christ
and not be lame and say,
oh, well, if I was in the days of the prophets
or if I was in the Old Testament,
then I'd do something great for the Lord.
No, do something great for the Lord now.
Hey, preach in the power and the spirit of Elijah now.
And don't be lame and don't act like there's excuses.
No, you have the whole word of God.
Hey, we're Baptist, we can be like John the Baptist, right?
It says verse 16, but where and shall I like in this generation
is likened to children sitting in the markets
and calling unto their fellows,
and saying, we have piked unto you, and you have not danced.
We have mourned unto you, and you have not lamented.
For John came neither eating nor drinking,
and they say, he hath a devil.
The son of man came eating and drinking,
and they say, behold, a man gluttonous and a wine beaver,
a friend of publicans and sinners.
But wisdom is justified of a children.
Now, I would say, you know, where shall I like in our generation?
It is like reading YouTube comments, okay?
With trolls.
Because these children in the markets are the same people.
You cannot satisfy them.
It doesn't matter who you are and what you do, they will criticize you.
There are people out there, it does not matter who you are,
you will only be criticized. You either make too little money
or you make too much money, but you cannot win.
You'll, you'll, you'll, you'll have two pour of clothes or you'll have two nights of clothes.
You'll have two pour of a car or two nights of a car.
You'll have two small of a house or you'll have two nights of a house.
And look, I've seen these same people make these type of accusations towards two different people.
You know, like me and my sitting bastard, bastard Anderson, were kind of different in some ways.
Like he, when he was preaching in his house, he had this tiny like 1300 square foot house for like 11 people to live in.
And I've seen so many people criticize him saying his house was too small and it was like too unbearable for all these children to live there.
And then there's been people that criticize me for having too big a house.
And I'm thinking like, well, which one is it?
Because I guarantee if he had a big house, they'd criticize him.
If he has a small house, they'd criticize him.
If you live in a van down by the river, they'd criticize you.
If you live in a mansion, they'd criticize you.
Because you know, for some people, they're just not going to be satisfied.
And he's saying, hey, this generation is a type of generation
that always has something negative to say
that's always critical,
that doesn't really care what the truth is.
They just don't wanna believe the message.
And it doesn't matter what the reality is.
And you know what, you don't get sucked into the trolls
and the haters and the people that say like,
ah, but you know, he's a wine bibber.
He's a glutton or he doesn't eat good enough
or whatever it is,
because they're gonna always have an excuse
of why they don't serve God.
I mean, when we think about John the Baptist,
he's being criticized for being too austere.
Obviously, he ate and drank.
It's talking about, he wasn't eating super nice meals.
He wasn't drinking really great food.
He was eating locusts and wild honey.
And they're like, this guy's insane.
This guy is a devil.
This guy's a weirdo.
They thought he was a freak, okay?
Then Jesus is eating the best food and the best meals
and they're basically criticizing him saying like,
oh, he's a wine-bibber and a glutton.
But what you have to understand is John the Baptist
does not have a devil.
I mean, who's gonna say John the Baptist as a devil?
No one, right?
So then you have to understand that the accusations
made against the Lord Jesus Christ are also not true.
They're false accusations.
He's not a glutton.
He's not a wine-bibber.
I've literally seen people use this passage
to prove that Jesus was a wine-bibber.
And I'm thinking like you're totally missing the point of this passage. This is a false accusation label, you know hurled against him
He's clearly not a wine-biber a friend of public in the centers. I've also seen them use that to prove this
He's like oh use best friends with the worst people in town false
There were some publicans there were some harlots that decided just to follow Jesus and he was friendly towards those people
He even went to Zacchaeus's household, but at the end of the day these are not people where he's going to the bar to hang out with them
I've heard people say he was going to the Jesus went to bars to hang out with people
I've even heard people say Jesus went to the gentleman's club to hang out with people
That is a wicked and blasphemous false statement, okay?
There may have been a woman of the night, there may have been a harlot that decided to put on normal clothes and go and seek Jesus and
asked for salvation and hang out with him,
but that wasn't him going to these shady establishments
and trying to sin with other people to reach them.
No, no, no.
They were coming away from their sinfulness
and approaching Jesus,
and he didn't turn anybody away that came unto him.
That's what it's really being mentioned here.
But then they accuse him of being a friend
of publicans and sinners,
being a friend of evil people.
Also, sinners here is not just what we think of as sinners.
We think of sinners as like you sin.
Often this is just meaning Gentiles,
because we know like the Roman centurion came unto Jesus
and he went and healed.
and helped other people.
He has Simon the Canaanite.
He's willing to interact with Gentiles.
You know, he deals with the Samaritan woman.
And so in many cases, they would think like,
oh man, how come you're hanging out with people
that are not Jewish or people that are not Pharisees
and everything like that?
He was hanging out with these quote, sinners.
But you know, he wasn't necessarily friends
of these people.
I mean, when he's talking to the woman,
well, he wasn't even that friendly.
He's like, you know, not what you worship.
I mean, he's just like, you know, salvation's of the Jews.
But he was willing to interact with her, wasn't he?
He was willing to give her salvation.
He was willing to preach unto her.
But that doesn't mean he was like their best friend
or something like that.
Now, and wisdom is justified of her children
in the sense that...
No matter what doctrine you have or no matter what belief you have the fruit will inevitably justify that doctrine
if you have a good doctrine if you have a good belief
Inevitably then you'll see the fruit of that and you'll say oh wow that was obviously true
Whereas if you have a bad idea a bad doctrine will end up seeing the fruit of that
and we'll end up realizing, oh wow,
that didn't turn out the way you thought it was
because it was a bad idea.
And then wisdom is end up being justified by its children.
Why are Proverbs so great because they're true
and because they come true?
If the Proverbs never came true,
we would think like this stuff is junk,
we don't wanna listen to this.
The reason why the Proverbs are so great
is because we're like, oh wow, that is so true.
And we constantly see that happening in people's lives.
And so that the wisdom is justified of her children.
That's what the message is meaning there.
It says in verse number 20,
then again, he'd upbraid the cities
where most of his mighty works were done
because they were pent the knot.
Upbraid simply means to scold or to rebuke.
I saw a dictionary claim that ascending him
for upbraid is real.
And that's just a misunderstanding of these two words.
And I don't have time to spend on a sermon on that.
I'd love to.
But the word rail in the Bible, in the King James Bible,
is referring to false accusations.
Whereas a braiding is a scolding or a rebuking,
and it is criticizing very harshly.
But they needed to be criticized harshly
because they had the Lord Jesus Christ come unto them,
preach the gospel, do miracles,
and they didn't believe in Him.
And why would you not scold them harshly?
Because if they don't repent, they're going to go to hell.
He's saying, if you don't believe in me,
boy, in the judgment, it's going to be worse than you.
Worse for you than some of the worst cities to ever exist.
I mean, he's going to bring this up.
He says in verse 21,
woe unto thee, Corzen, woe unto thee, Bethzeta,
for if the mighty works which were done in you
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
They would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Now, Tyre and Sidon means nothing to us,
but to the Jews, they really look down upon Tyre and Sidon.
They think that they're the most evil, wicked type of people,
just of the devil.
They're just scum.
And so for him to say like, Tyre and Sidon,
they're just thinking like, what are you talking about?
The king of Tyres is compared to as the devil
in the Old Testament.
So when it was like bringing up a parallel of the devil,
it brings up the king of tyrants, literally.
And so from their perspective,
this is like one of the most wicked, evil, satanic places.
And it was.
But he's saying, it's gonna be worse for you guys
than Tyre and Zidane.
Not only that, he brings up, it gets worse.
He says in verse 22,
but I say unto you, it shall be newer,
tallower for tire inside in the day of judgment
than for you.
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted in heaven,
shall be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which have been done in thee,
have been done in Sodom,
it would have remained unto this day.
But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and the day of judgment,
than for thee.
That is about the worst thing you'd ever hear.
I mean, he is saying that somehow,
Sodom is not gonna be as punished as bad as Capernaum.
Like in our mind, we're thinking like at Judgment Day,
like the Sodom is gonna be the worst,
Capernaum is gonna be worse.
Isn't that crazy?
But, you know, this is a passage that honestly confused me
because I believe in the reprobate doctrine.
Sodomite deception watch the movie you'll get you'll find out how I feel real quick
Okay, I believe that and I read this passage. I thought like well why in the world would Jesus say
That if the works have been done in Sodom, they would have repented and I didn't really have an explanation for this
And so for the longest time I kind of struggled with this
But then someone pointed out to me that one way to explain this is just simply that
This is before Sodom became reprobate.
So it's just a time issue that if they had come and done works to Sodom way prior to its destruction,
many of them would have gotten saved and repented and the city would have been preserved.
But it didn't happen.
It's similar to Jerusalem because Jerusalem at this time, this is like 30 to 33 AD.
They don't get destroyed until when?
70 AD. Okay. So their impending doom was 70 AD. That's when it was like imminent, right?
That's when it was about to happen. No one was going to come and rescue Jerusalem at that moment.
Right, but now is their moment of rescue now is their moment to repent and if they had repented they would have lasted forever
I mean Jesus said as a mother hen like gathers its chicks
So what I have gathered you like he would have preserved them forever
So there must have been a period of time 30 years or 40 years or something prior to Sodom's destruction
That he's referring to in general they saying hey if people had come to you if you'd seen this mighty works
Whatever you would have repented and this would have stayed
But it's not like the moment that the two angels go down
to see Lot and his family,
that those people are gonna get right with God.
No, no, no, they were all reprobated at that point.
It was already done, it was already over.
There wasn't a chance for them at that point.
So it's just a timing issue here.
But just generally speaking, that whole city
and that group of people,
they're not gonna be judged as harshly still as Capernaum.
Capernaum is gonna be judged even more harshly.
And we should be careful because
We, as Americans, have had the King James Bible,
we've had fundamental Baptist churches,
we've had a great opportunity to receive the Lord
and do great works for Him.
And if we as a group of people, as Texans, as Americans,
do not follow the Word of God, if we do not do what's right,
God is going to judge us very harshly.
And we have to be careful what's been given unto us.
And the Bible says thou shalt not follow a multitude
to do evil, just because your whole city rejects
the things of God doesn't mean you should.
Just because your whole city and your whole town doesn't dress right, doesn't act right, doesn't use the right Bible,
doesn't care about the things of God, you don't join hand in hand because though they join hand in hand,
they shall not go unpunished. The wicked shall not go unpunished.
And yes, you can have a whole multitude do evil. You can have a whole city go bad.
You can have a whole area go bad. You know what? We judge our lives based on this book, not what the vast majority of people are doing.
and God can judge a whole area very harshly,
so we want to make sure that we're right with God personally,
not what the world is doing, not what they're like.
Nuts to them, this is true.
The Bible says in verse 25,
at that time Jesus answered and said,
I thank the old father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent
and has revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father,
and no man knoweth the Son but the Father.
Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give ye rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest under your souls,
for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Number one, Jesus is revealing things,
the spiritual things unto those who are saved.
And oftentimes, it's those who are not necessarily wise and prudent in the world's sight.
First Corinthians, chapter number two, makes it clear that the vast majority of Christians
and people that get saved are not the smartest and the most wise in this world.
It's often those who are simple, those who are poor,
those who are modest, those who are humble,
many of those people.
But here's the thing, it doesn't mean you have to stay that way.
The Bible says that the Bible will make wise the simple.
But many times it's the simple that initially received the things of God
and understand the things of God.
It's not all these NASA scientists and engineers.
uh, people that have studied in college and have higher levels of education necessarily.
It's not necessarily the guys that have the most physical, you know, strength, you know,
we're not just filled with a bunch of NFL stars and athletes and Hollywood's actresses
and we're not filled with a bunch of scientists and engineers, you know, are filled with just
humble people that have normal jobs, that live simple lives and yet you possess so much
because you have the wisdom that's coming from this book.
And that's what Jesus is saying, like, thank you, God,
that you didn't just give all the wisdom to the people that already just had the
cardinal wisdom in this world.
You gave it unto babes. You gave it unto people that were just meek
and lowly and humble. And, you know, that's often the attitude that
gets someone saved just being meek and humble and lowly. I mean, with pride, I
don't think someone can get saved.
You have to first humble yourself and accept the free gift of salvation.
Now the good thing is, he says here,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I'll give you rest.
You know, if salvation were not by faith,
it would be a lot of work, it would be a lot of toil.
And yet, salvation is not work.
If you're a Catholic, boy, you've been working hard
for your salvation.
But if the Catholic would just come unto the Lord Jesus Christ,
he would say, hey, I'm gonna give you rest.
because salvation is rest.
The picture of salvation is the Sabbath.
We enter into his rest.
I cease from my own works,
and I've entered into his rest
because salvation is me resting from my works
and just accepting his free gift of salvation.
The Bible says in Romans chapter number five, three times.
It's a free gift, free gift, free gift.
Romans chapter six tells us that the gift of God
is eternal life to Jesus Christ our Lord.
Salvation is easy, it is simple, it is rest.
Praise God, I don't have to work for it.
It's not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but by His mercy, He saved us.
And when you come unto the Lord Jesus Christ you can enter into rest for salvation
You're eternally secure you're you're in his hand, and you're in the Father's hand
And no man is able to pluck you out of either of their hand
The reason why I can't lose my salvation is because I didn't do anything to get it. I just simply received it
I'm just in his hand. I just trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm saying because it's rest
You know how easy it is to do nothing. It's real easy
Say like what are you doing to be saved? I didn't do anything. I just trusted in Jesus and I'm saved
That's why I seized from my own works. I entered into rest
Isn't that great? Now of course serving the Lord Jesus Christ. There's still a cost
Notice he says for my yoke is easy and my burden is like it's not that the Christian life doesn't have its burden
It's not that the Christian life doesn't have its yoke. Yoke is the rules
Hey, there are still rules to Christianity, but these rules are so much better than if
you don't serve God.
Because when you don't serve God, you know, if you just serve God with your marriage,
the rules in marriage are really nice.
You know it's not nice alimony.
You know it's not nice divorce proceedings.
You know it's not nice your spouse being with someone else.
You know, those are not an easy yoke.
That is not a fun yoke to bear.
You know, these ladies in here that think like staying home
with kids is hard, have the opposite.
Go into the workforce, having a job, having a career,
having all these other things.
That is a different yoke and it will tear you up.
It'll be so much worse than the yoke of being a mother
and being at home.
You know, going to church is an easy yoke.
Being in prison is not an easy yoke being on drugs is not an easy yoke having bad friends is not an easy yoke
And look when you don't serve God and you're not in church and you're not reading your Bible
Look your life is going to be hard the way of transgressors is hard
But when you serve God, yeah, there's going to be some burdens to the Christian life
But it's way easier. You know, it's way easier is coming to church and having a bunch of sodomites yell at you
Then not believing the reprieve doctrine and letting your faggot uncle molester child
Because you didn't believe the reprieve doctrine that is way harder
Than having to deal with these people these dogs. They're gone anyways nuts to these people
You know without our dogs anyways, you know you think that this is a hard life look
I'm telling you the people that don't go to church. I know tons of people that don't go to church
I have tons of family and friends and all kinds of people that aren't serving God and I never look at their lives and think like
Can we please trade?
I'm never thinking like oh man your life. This looks so easy. You don't have problems. No, I'm thinking like wow Jerry Springer
Was going light
Jerry Springer is a light affliction for you guys
Man, what's going on with you guys is rough, it's sick, it's perverted, it's weird, it's
damaging, it's harmful, it's horrible.
I don't want that.
Come and serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
The reason why you think it's so hard is because you just aren't faced with an alternative
reality.
But if you could just play Scrooge with yourself for a moment.
If that angel could come and take you to your alternative reality,
you would be running back.
You would be running back.
Because I'm just telling you, serving God is so much better than the alternative.
Don't let the devil lie to you about it. Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for all these scriptures.
Thank you for this great wisdom that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us here in Matthew chapter 11.
Thank you for making our yoke easy and our burden light.
Thank you for giving us free salvation.
Thank you for being such a good friend unto us.
I pray that you would help us to also be a good example,
that we could be good friends to others,
that we would be willing to bear that light burden
and that easy yoke,
and we would be appreciative of what you've given us.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, and closing.
Let's go to song number 296, song number 296, follow on.
Song number 296 is all singing out together on the first tune.