Matthew chapter 23 and we're going to look down at verse 24 in case you're wondering as it's on the
front of your bulletin as well. Matthew 23 and verse 24 which reads ye blind guides which strain
at a gnat and swallow a camel and the title of my sermon today is gnat straining camel swallowers.
Gnat straining camel swallowers. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer before we continue.
Father thank you for your word. Thank you for you know there are just so many great just
instructions you give us on how we should be living, how we should be behaving, how we shouldn't
be behaving. Lord please please just help me to just preach this message clearly now and and boldly
Lord to everyone filming with your spirit please Lord help everyone here to just have attentive
ears to want to hear what your word's got to say if you know if that if that convicts them of
something please help them to want to then you know change for the better Lord and just just
help this to be taken in the right spirit as well Lord in Jesus name for all of this amen.
So what does it mean to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel? Well a gnat is a very small
flying bug such as a mosquito like I said earlier so the straining at one so and by the way it's not
straining out a gnat like all these modern perversions like a change it to claim it was
a misprint no it's straining at and that here it gives the image of an overreaction
okay this sort of overreaction having great difficulty swallowing a gnat whilst at the same
time swallowing a huge camel and it is very easy to swallow a gnat I don't know any of you I
remember if you ever do any sport down by riversides things like you ever go running
or cycling or something like that sometimes you can just go through this big cloud of them can't
you know and suddenly hacking it up it's disgusting really it's horrible but it's very
easy to swallow these sorts of things yet there are some that would strain like and act like this
is so difficult to do however on the other hand the image is that they will just easily swallow
a camel it sounds very strange doesn't it but he's basically using the analogy to expose the uneven
standards the hypocrisy of these scribes and pharisees here okay they put all this emphasis
on the little things whilst ignoring or partaking in much bigger sins yeah and I was thinking about
this verse and how there's often a correlation between the two so those that strain at gnats
often swallow camels and those that are swallowing camels often end up straining at gnats and it was
something that I've been thinking about a little while something I've wanted to preach because
being a gnat straining camel swallower isn't a good thing okay it's not the sort of thing you
want to be in life um and sadly they are everywhere in the world okay these people are everywhere
um you can you know we we will come across them in the world everywhere he offended someone whilst
in the process of partaking some vile sin you know just so offensive yet they're doing all sorts of
wicking you get these sorts of people everywhere they're constantly trying to you know pick on
your gnat whilst swallowing their own sort of camel um for example the media outlet so and so
doesn't agree with the new liberal view on this yet they're in the process of slandering that
person you know false accusations false witness all this sort of stuff we just see everywhere
yeah okay so this isn't anything new this is something that's all around us we see everywhere
however there are three types of gnat straining camel swallowers that we deal with in the Christian
life that we're going to look at today okay so like I say it's across the board everyone has
an at least you know everyone probably has done this at some point and we're surrounded by these
people everywhere however there are three in the Christian life that I want to look at today and
number one is a false prophet that's what we're looking at here false prophets let's talk about
the false prophet who likes to strain at gnats and swallow camels now what is a false prophet
in case you're wondering basically they're fake holy men and women okay pretending to teach and
preach the the truths of God then there are many varieties of false prophet many flavors from
just the obvious false religion they are false prophets because they are claiming to be messengers
of God aren't they the imam is a false prophet the rabbi is a false prophet the the buddhist monk
however friendly people try and think they are is a false prophet okay all these people
are false prophets of their own type for us they're not very subtle false prophets they're
pretty obvious false prophets because they they deny the word of God however they are false
prophets okay but then you also have you also have the the false teachers of the true religion
who are false prophets as well so just because someone claims to believe the bible doesn't mean
oh well automatically they must be okay and some of these get particularly subtle don't they but
there are the obvious ones the obvious ones like the catholic priest well it's kind of on it i
think they they claim that well you know what the pope says trumps everything else but they're all
false prophets okay they claim to have some belief in some parts of the bible the bits they like and
they discard the bits they know they're false prophets the the and that's the same obviously
with the anglican whatever here it's the church of england priest with all these different types
the pentecostal pastor in inverted commas they're all false prophets and that even goes to the
to the so-called pastor of a baptist church and sadly in this nation like we talked about with
the baptist union churches the vast majority of false prophets as well okay so we've got
these sort of false prophets everywhere even there's another flavor of false prophet that
we've talked about obviously at length here and we'll continue to talk about is a church
infiltrator type false prophet of which we had a lot here and again they are just another flavor
of false what what what you know what falsehoods are they preaching well look eventually they
either will or at the least their mode of operandum is just to destroy churches rip
churches apart either way they're they're of a type of false prophet now as well as being
the scummiest people around they're also gnat straining camel swallowers okay so all these
people in one way or another are usually some form of gnat straining camel swallower and the scribes
of pharisees here are just a great example of that so matthew chapter 23 and verse 1
where you are in matthew 23 verse 1 says then spake jesus to the multitude and to his disciples
saying the scribes and the pharisee sit in moses seat so these are the religious leaders here
all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works
for they say and do not so sadly there are many people like this out there aren't there they say
one thing they preach loudly one thing but they're doing something completely the opposite verse 4
says for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders but they
themselves will not move them with one of their fingers and think of all these different flavor
of work salvationist teachers out there i mean they're everywhere aren't they they have their own
so-called list of sins that they consider you have to stop you have to avoid things you have
to do to get to heaven they're all hypocrites they lay these heavy burden i mean how many of
the priests and vicars are keeping the commandments that they claim you need to keep to get to
heaven how many of them are keeping those none of them are keeping i mean most of them have
completely ignored leviticus 2013 because the vast majority of them are some form of deranged
perverts aren't they most of them have completely swerved that yet they preach well you've got to
you've got to follow the commandments it's a nonsense and they don't even attempt to move these
burdens with one of their fingers how many of the you can lose your salvation type of people
are living sin free how many of them are living sin free none of them are living sin free yet
they're preaching to people that you can lose your salvation if you partake in whatever sins it is if
you carry on sinning and they have their own kind of list it's all nonsense it's all hypocrite
hypocritical type nonsense how many of the repent of your sins teachers repent of all their sins
none of them and all of us have probably seen he said they're standing there you've got to
repent repent of your sins you're lying for starters and let alone you know all the many
other sins that they clearly partake in a lot of the time are just openly oozing out of them
while they're telling you well you've got to repent your sins good it is madness isn't it
but all their works it says in verse five they do for to be seen of men they make broad their
phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments so phylacteries were basically pouches
with scripture on them so it's basically just all for show okay so they had these sort of some of
them apparently would even wear them up here on their face having on their arms apparently um
these were kind of just open scripture they carry around a few different verses on them and it makes
you think of kind of the false prophet who walks around with his bible who likes to walk around
show his bible who get up behind the pulpit with his bible and then preach something completely
opposite to what the bible says it's all for show yeah it's all to look a certain way you do
sometimes get those types who maybe get tempted by it they'll come into a church and look like
they're just deep studying their bible and everything else and it's all for show yeah it's
all for show so this is this sort of thing these um it says here they make broad their phylacteries
and enlarge the borders of their garments so whenever i think of enlarging the borders of
your garments it always makes me think of friday when you're driving anywhere near a mosque and
all you see is all these guys with dresses on all these guys walking around with the little
pajama outfit underneath and a long flowing dress and usually some sort of stupid hat as well it's
ridiculous and all they're really doing is trying to enlarge the boards of their garments go look
how holy i am and i always get so tempted i don't do it but i'm always so tempted just
wind down the window going why are you wearing the dress mate you look like a weirdo but i don't
yeah but it's tempting isn't it just what are you doing you're quite stressing you don't look holy
yet they think they do don't they they're enlarging the borders of their garments walking
down with their dress down the road maddening isn't it even though deuteronomy 22 verse 5 says
the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man neither shall a man put on a woman's
garment for all that do so an abomination unto the lord thy god it's pretty obvious that isn't it
i mean you walk down the road wearing a dress you don't look holy you look like some sort of cross
dressing pervert however you know holy you you know you claim to be however many funny hats you
wear and everything else and it's the same with the priests the vicars yeah it's exactly the same
isn't it all these priests and vicars with long flowing dresses the little white tag on what's
that about why do they have to wear white tag on their collar again it's all just to be seen of
men it's all to be seen of men it's all to look holy to look ultra spiritual and everything else
it's all to be seen there's all their works they do to be seen of men and if you think about that
that i mean that's a pretty big camel they're already swallowing there isn't it i mean god
said it's an abomination so these these men walking down the road because often we talk
about this with women don't we because there's been a big push for women to dress like men
so you get a lot of women dressing like men and we talk about this a lot when we're preaching
however all these so-called holy men are just the complete extreme the other way they're dressing
like women they're in dresses however they think they're looking holy they're trying to look holy
they're trying to enlarge the borders of their garments and they just basically look like cross
dresses and the bible says that's an abomination so they're swallowing the camel of dressing like
a woman the abomination and then you can just imagine how many gnats in fact we've probably
seen how many gnats that will these guys strain out though so they're cross-dressing down in the
local church cross-dressing to the local mosque how many of these these muslims will strain at
so-called modesty they'll strain at so-called modesty yet walking down the road in a dress
that they'll strain at modesty while they're dressing their women like men oh well as long
as they've got their arms covered oh well as long as they've got their heads covered
well they're just like men in trouser suits and stuff it's ridiculous and again they're straining
at gnats and it's perceived gnats a lot of the time as well and swallowing camels and swallowing
the camels of of cross-dressing swallowing the camels of all the many other things they do as
well how many of these for example these dress-swearing pervert priests and again
we're talking about false prophets here how many of them can you imagine how they would react if
you swore around them if you said a swear word hello we don't want to go out and offend people
but how many of these people will put swearing up here but cross-dressing down here and
cross-dressing is a camel i mean that's an abomination swearing isn't yet that's that's
what we're talking i mean that's what false religion tells you doesn't it because those
sort of things that's the outside stuff that's the outward appearance isn't it what comes out
of your mouth or you know say a swear word you must be so is this person even so i once had a
pass to say that to me one of these persons even saves you should hear what comes out of their mouth
really well they believe him in grace through faith but because they swore
but again it's a gnat isn't it they're straining and that's one in camel verse six says and love
the uppermost rooms at feasts and chief seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets
and to be called of men rabbi rabbi but be not ye called rabbi for one is your master even christ
and year sorry an all-year brethren and call no man your father upon the earth for one is your
father which is in heaven so again you've got these catholic priests and anglican vicars
known as father this father you know o'callaghan or something i'm trying to think of a classic
catholic priest over this country or with the with the anglican priest you know father whoopsie
or whatever it is and you've got the their father this and father that direct contradiction to this
verse they're swallowing that camel in fact they're encouraging it you know they almost
introduce themselves as father this and father that the amount of gnats that they're going to
be straining at though on the flip side and i mean you could probably imagine hundreds of them right
verse 10 says neither be ye called masters for one is your master even christ but he that is
greatest among you shall be your servant and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased
and and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted but woe unto you scribes and pharisees
hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for ye neither go in yourselves neither
suffer ye them that are entering to go in and that's a big one isn't it that's a big one all
of these false prophets have their differing lists of gnats that they strain at whilst
swallowing the camel of damnable heresies okay and that's that's a big one isn't it they just
swallow that one they're straining at this straining at that and there's the obvious you
know just the holy living gnats type thing that all of these guys are buddhists the hindu the
muslim the jew the catholic all the false versions of christianity they'll be constantly straining at
whilst just swallowing work salvation open work salvation and most of these guys are just open
clear as day about it you've got to work your way to heaven the bible clearly doesn't say that
however that's what they're teaching that's what they're preaching that's what they're believing
yet they're getting so upset about these little sins here and that it's it's madness isn't it
they're they're all following some sort of false god in some sort of false way to heaven
but you get it with the so-called baptist pastor like i said too so the sort of how dare you assume
i'm not saved type many will have knocked on doors there's a lot of baptist pastors in this nation
yeah many people here have come across so-called baptist and so-called other by so-called bible
believing type you know pastors a pentecostal pastor will knock on the door they'll claim
they're a pastor they'll and then how dare you assume i'm not saying you even just trying to
preach the gospel to someone sometimes they get angry if you even just ask them questioning about
their salvation just to see what they actually believe and and so offended by that in in your
mind you're like but you just said you could lose your salvation you just said that you could lose
your salvation yet you think i'm rude because i'm asking you what it is that you believe or
showing you that you're wrong the the you shout too much from the pulpit types you heard those
ones before yeah we had um we we in fact i need to speak to uh someone about this after this
because we had a guy come on our channel i preached a sermon on um on calvinism and that
obviously wound up a lot of people because there's a lot of calvinists around yeah they they they get
very upset about this and they always think they're so intellectual don't they and so well
well read and learned and how dare this guy dare to criticize uh the five you know the doctrines
of grace and everything else yeah so i preached this sermon and and i mean it got it got it got
a lot of views yeah it got a lot of comments okay and i think a lot of the views were just people
trying to come on to just comment because they just wanted to have around and then we had this
guy that i that i baptized in poland yeah come on to and straight before i even baptized him i
remember you know i remember saying to brother john like this guy's gonna be a problem yeah
straight he was bulking it when i was preaching he was bulking at me preaching about long hair he had
like it was very questionable you know this little long pretty little bit at the back yeah
he was he was straight away came up to me uh so basically i know look i've got all these people
that come and meet me around my house can i just be a church it's like no you can't just be a church
so it's like well uh you know i you know i was thinking about running for mayor what do you think
yeah so i'm not trying to say mad i was just so tuned in it was like everyone anybody spoke to
this guy was just like what on earth yeah anyway so this guy came on our channel and the first
thing he said about that song was why do you have to shout so much so couldn't you say this without
shouting yeah so i think brother john cornell you know he likes he likes a little online
put down and folks profit types and everything else so he kind of came on and kind of put him
right on a few things and the guy then was you know trying to come across as so learned and
he's so you know he's just why you know he started asking just these bizarre questions
didn't even mean anything trying to sound very intelligent and everything else but point being
that he's straining at the gnat and it's a perceived gnat because it's not even a gnat
of someone shouting from behind the pulpit yeah even though you know clearly there are prophets
in the bible told to cry aloud and spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet however however
he's coming on and trying to criticize and you know basically cast shades of doubt on that
preaching whilst trying to make himself some self-ordained sort of teacher and basically
pastor wanting to be a self-ordained church self-ordained pastor ridiculous isn't it straining
at that swallowing camels and in fact it's not even a gnat but you know some people imagine
that's okay so now these guys like i say they're they're all gnat straining camel swallowers and
the infiltrator type is exactly the same as well so those of you that have had exposure to these
people and everyone who's been coming to this church for a while had some exposure to these
people i remember you know i remember comments such as you know i always have i remember no we're
talking about uh i'll tell you the build up first we're talking about uh some online sermons are
saying oh just like i'm in a bit of a you know i'm always when i listen to sermons i'm in the
car or something and i always get a chance to kind of you know look into this or that with it
when i listen to an online sermon i always have my bible on me and i take notes
you know like what sort of an animal are you you know how dare you how dare you not sit down and
have your butt you know i was like man i'm just a bit pissed i'll take you
maybe you know yeah they want to make you feel insecure they want to make this was a few years
ago now you know a couple of years back and and however this same person i don't know if they
probably didn't have their bible out when they were playing railing attack videos of our pastor
to other church members yet that's okay yeah that's okay and he probably didn't have it out because
he would have had to go yeah that seems like railing where's the two or three witnesses
however that's okay but you watch an online sermon without your bible what sort of a
unholy scumbag are you this is the sort of attitude we got for example you know i don't
like the way you know brother whatever preaches x y and z yeah whilst complaining about it to
our church members whilst in secret whispering about he doesn't like you know my my view on this
or the way i preach that the way i choose sermons i mean you're straining it and that
and you're swallowing the camel of trying to cause division in our church
how about this one you're a bit hard to do an impression here
you're not going soul winning five times a week brother
i don't know if that was any good or not yeah
okay however i'm bullying i'm bullying children
and i'm preaching a false gospel when no one's around when i do go so winning five times a week
yeah again just madness isn't it you know and it's just this constant you know straining and again
you know the nat of apparently you know leading a church and writing how many sermons a week and
all the other jobs that go with it wasn't enough i you know it was like you've got to be going to
every soul winning event and sorry every night it's just straining and that's swallowing camels
okay but they also do it subtly around the church as well these types of people so the idea is to
try and make people feel insecure about things binding heavy burdens and grievous to be born
okay and some of it's subtle some of it wasn't so subtle uh whilst partaking all sorts of wickedness
so they're kind of in behind closed doors all these things are coming out all this wickedness
going on whilst at church going you do what you know you would you would what
no we wouldn't do it you know it's just it's constant just illusion they're trying to create
and again it's it's basically to make you feel just a bit rubbish to make you feel a bit insecure
he said in verse 14 here woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for ye devour widows
houses and thorough pretense make long prayer therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation
they love a long prayer these people don't everyone loves a long breath always whenever
you see these thoughts guys it's just long it starts at abraham it finishes in the book of
revelation you know it's a because it's something you can practice and sound holy about isn't it okay
woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you compass seeing land to make one proselyte
and when he is made you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves and it makes you
think for me that of the where's the discipleship type so some of these guys are like that here but
we've you know there's a load out there as well because these sort of like fake baptist pastors
will be criticizing going to a receptive area and preaching the gospel and they'll be like but you
know where's the desire you know why aren't they all in church you know yet what is that really
because they will compass seeing land to get that prose like because they want their false converts
don't they for them it's no good look going out preaching the gospel to someone if they
if they were saved again them saved it's no good because they want them there they want to make
them into twofold more the child of hell than themselves and that's draining camel swallows
now jump forward to verse 23 verse 23 says woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites
for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have omitted the weighty amounts of the law
judgment mercy faith these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone so these false
prophets are paying tithes on the small gains okay so they're paying their tithes on the small things
but they've missed the main thing and really what is that judgment mercy faith it's the gospel
isn't it judgment the judgment of god mercy the mercy that comes through jesus christ and
how does that come through faith judgment mercy and faith they're the way to your matters they're
the things that we're meant to be teaching people they're the things that that's the most important
bit isn't it and and these guys aren't even saved they're not even preaching the gospel yeah that's
oh we've better better tithe on that on that mint and anise and cummin but notice it does say they
should be doing both okay now because when you hear a sermon like this just to make it clear
look there are some things which are just false nats but it's not that we're saying oh well those
little sins aren't important but the point is people that get so excited and uptight and want
to basically project onto you about the little sins however at the same time they're just
swallowing these massive camels okay yeah they should be they should be paying tithe of mint
and anise and come and he said and not to leave the other one done however they shouldn't be they
shouldn't be just leaving emitting the the gospel the judgment the mercy the faith he said ye blind
guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel okay now the false prophets aren't the only ones
okay they're not the only ones so the title is gnat straining camel swallows you've got number
one the false prophet okay that's an obvious one number two though is the babe in christ the babe
in christ it's not all false prophets so if you have someone in a church or someone some sort of
christians you know are straining at gnats and swallowing camels it doesn't mean automatically
well they must be a false prophet they must be someone wicked because babes in christ also like
to strain at gnats and swallow camels what is a babe in christ in case you're wondering well it's
it's basically a new christian it's a new christian someone that's well not only recently
saved because it's not measured in years okay it's someone who's still a spiritual baby okay
now excuse me like we were all physical babies at some point we were also all spiritual babies at
some point as well okay so this isn't necessarily an insult to someone unless you've been maybe a
christian for 10 20 years and you're still a baby class then you could consider that an insult but
it's still something that can be rectified okay john you'd have to in john chapter three and
verse three jesus said jesus answers said unto him verily verily i certainly accept a man be
born again he cannot see the kingdom of god okay we all have to be born again at some point okay
it's not a slight on you if you're recently saved okay great amen brilliant you've recently got
saying if you're listening to this message now you're probably much further ahead than many of
us when we recently got saved and we're listening to all sorts of terrible messages and false
messages and everything else and trying to make do in a church where they weren't really preaching
anything from the bible so look great okay nothing wrong with that but for many it can be hard for
the pride especially it'd be hard for the pride of those that maybe had some sort of religious
background before as well some sort of bible believing background to some degree and they
can find that really difficult to accept that they're a babe in christ yeah that can be hard
and you kind of and for many they they want to prove themselves really quickly and want to prove
that they're not and what sometimes happens is they start trying to appear to be older than they
are so they try and appear to be more spiritually mature than they are because of the pride because
it's hard to accept look i'm just a babe in christ okay many people might have felt that before had
times of that in the past themselves and it's kind of like the little kid who wants to draw
on a beard you know they can get the black marker pen they draw it on their face yeah they can
really you know some some of some of those pens can make me look fairly good from a distance but
when you get close you've got a drawn on beard yeah it ain't even real okay it's like that all
the ones that kind of let the fluff grow a long time you know to try and look like they've got
a beard and you're like it's fluff man just just shave it off yeah okay it's like that sort of
thing yeah okay the teenager you might have been around these yeah the teenager who walks around
and calls everyone's son you ever had come across hello son how's it going you're like your voice
hasn't even but hello son what's going on and there are those out there aren't there and many
of us have come across these sort of kids before and they're trying to appear to be older than they
are right the little girl who's using her mum's sort of makeup and jewelry and stuff and she's
clearly not old enough to use makeup and jewelry okay and sadly there's a lot of those out there
that their parents seem to encourage but let's not go off on a tangent now but there are many
just many kids trying to appear to be older right well what's the common denominator with all of
those it's all exterior isn't it it's all exterior it's something on the outside to try and convince
you that convince people they're older than they aren't it's all for show and with with the false
prophets here that can also uh that's the case and also it can also be the case with a new christian
okay so of course we're talking about false prophets here but this also could be the case
for new christian in matthew where you are in verse 23 it says in verse 25 woe unto you scribes
and pharisees hypocrites for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within
they are full of extortion and excess so the outside is the easy bit to clean isn't it
you have a cup or a platter or something like that the outside is easy sometimes you get a really
long sort of cup long glass really hard you need to start getting some sort of tool to get it down
the bottom don't you and sometimes it's right at the bottom it's still a bit dirty because people
get a bit lazy don't they with it and yeah quickly get a quick clean at the top outside looks nice
but the inside is the hardest bit to clean and look you you can easy clean the outside you you
could get some reprobate bum off the street and a lot of them are reprobates by the way but again
we won't go off in a tangent on that you get some reprobate bum off the street yeah bring him in
here you could do one of those things like they do on youtube where they clean them up you know
cut their beard and give them a wash or five washes or whatever it is they do and they do
all this stuff you know and and they could look good and put a suit on them they could look the
part yeah they could look they can look the part on the outside if they've had exposure and i don't
know if you've ever noticed how much how many of these guys have you ever spoken to them have had
some exposure to christianity as well it's quite interesting um and so many of these people could
look and sound apart couldn't they okay it's not hard to do that but it's what's on the inside
and there is nothing wrong with cleaning the outside so in case you're thinking oh right
brother Ian i'm taking mr Hart here next week i'm coming in looking like a bum yeah
okay no there is nothing wrong with cleaning the outside but you don't want to put the emphasis
on that instead of the inside okay it's the inside that counts isn't it that's the important bit we
need to put the emphasis on the inside because what happens often is we clean up the outside
and then we start straining at the outside that's the nap we're straining at the outside appearance
and many people can do that can't they rather than thinking about what's on the inside verse 26 he
said thou blind Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter that the outside of
them may be clean also now he's basically just stating your truth here okay so your truth he's
actually speaking we saw at the beginning to the multitudes and his disciples i don't even think
necessarily the scribes of pharisees are here at this point maybe they are listening maybe they're
not okay however it's a truth here that that's what you should do is clean first that which is
within the cup the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also these pharisees
are incapable of really cleaning at least spiritually cleaning anyway they're blind okay
they're blind leaders of the blind he said let them both fall into the ditch now obviously faith
is required to be spiritually clean to be washed of our sins that's a one-time thing okay to be
spiritually clean okay that will only come through faith in christ but that ongoing sanctification in
life okay that that to live right to live a life that's pleasing to god who's already saved us is a
process isn't it okay well excuse me here everyone here knows that it's a process it takes time and
it can have some ups and downs along the way can't it turn to first peter chapter two because the
babe in christ can often be a bit out of sync with this so they get a little knowledge and then as
paul said knowledge puffeth up but charity edified you turn to first peter too by the way
and suddenly with that bit of knowledge it's you know things like you you you shop at tesco
isn't that owned by black rock incorporated you know they own everything okay you can have a hard
time shopping anywhere okay or it'll be something like you let your child read books other than the
bible you know what sort of uh i thought you know i thought that's all we do because they're new
they're spiritual waves they don't really understand okay they're kind of everything
becomes very black and white and very extreme or some of us might you know have been around maybe
people or sadly might have even had in clear i wouldn't fellowship with a christian that's pre-trib
pro-zionist you know what's the i mean and then it will start to be like how could they understand
anything if they've been hoodwinked by that let's just get hoodwinked by stuff okay there's nothing
new about that okay doesn't mean that they're they're a write-off okay first peter too says
wherefore laying aside all malice and all gall and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby so peter's saying
that the newborn babes need to lay aside all of this stuff and grow with the word of god
okay that's what he's saying because part of the problem with the babe okay and look i'm just i'm
hoping we're just going to understand it more and be a bit sympathetic with it because part of the
problem is they can't distinguish the nap from the camel and you're thinking what no how do you not
distinguish a nap from a camel look you find one of the babies in this room and you hold up a
picture of a gnat and you hold up a picture of a camel and you ask them to say which one's which
you're going to get a 50 correct response rate okay it's going to be luck they don't know they're
a baby of course they don't know but that's the same spiritually the spiritual babe just because
they've got saved doesn't automatically now know what's an atom what's a camel do they okay they
they have in fact a lot of the time they're going to be a bit their view is going to be distorted by
their background which for most is going to be some exposure to some version of false religion
even if it's just through the tv and they're going to think that a lot of things are gnats
which are actually camels and things are camels which are actually gnats in fact they'll probably
get a worse response rate than the baby that's just picking by luck
and look there are 20 years saved christy of babies okay just to make that clear it's not
just well okay well let that person off because they've just got saved look they'll be would get
safe and be safe for many years and they're still babies because it's measured spiritually
now the response could be right well i better just i'm a spiritual babe yeah actually you
talk to me a bit here brother in like you know i'm newly saved or maybe i'm not newly saved maybe
i'm newly in church maybe i'm newly you know into reading my bible and stuff like that right time
to read the bible cover to cover 20 times right we need to get a quick routine on this five hours
a day you know we could really get some bible really maybe i'll take a month off work and just
you know i'm gonna i'm gonna accelerate my learning okay now look there's nothing wrong
with reading the bible a lot reading the bible a lot if you want to read the bible a lot but
that's not going to automatically accelerate you because i think a lot of people have got confused
about how many times you read the bible you know how people say that to you sometimes how many
times you read the bible i bet you've read the bible a lot how many times you've read or maybe
you haven't i bet you haven't read how many times you read the bible yeah whatever it is but that's
not really that's not the measuring gauge is it because you can skim read the bible yeah you can
skim read the bible time and time and time again and not taking a word of it okay that's not what
it's about because there are different ways to be fed the word so you know here it's giving the
analogy of a baby here with breast milk you've got what have you got you've got colostrum at
the beginning haven't you okay so you've got the colostrum you've then got you've got the fore milk
you've got the hind milk and there are big feeds there are small feeds there are top ups in the
night there are all these different ways that a baby gets that milk in right which one is the
most important which one's the most important all of them they're all important aren't they
they need all that milk they need all the different ways the different times the different
types of feeds they need it all it's all needed for them to grow and it's exactly the same with
the milk of the word there's reading there's studying there's memorizing there's having it
preached to you hearing it preached that's important right okay hearing the word preached
to you is an important part of getting fed yeah it's not the only part you should also be reading
your bible and reading the bible isn't the only part again you should also be memorizing your
bible and memorizing the bible is it the only part you should be studying your bible as well
okay there are many ways that you should be getting fed by the word of god
and and the truth with it is that most people obviously that have never read their bible are
you a spiritual baby in fact all people that have never read a bible through are spiritual babies
but yet in the same way people that have never come to a church and heard the bible preach
are spiritual babies look if they're sitting at home yeah oh great well you know i sit at home
and i read my bible every day yeah but they've never actually coming to a church and never
actually doing the things of god because you've got to apply it as well here's the thing with the
baby say i get my baby yeah you've got a baby you're feeding them you're getting all those
different types of milk yeah they're getting you know they're getting that colostrum they're
getting that four mil again that they're getting all those different types of feeds at different
times yet you just sit them in a chair and strap them in all day every day week in week out
months turn to years is that baby going to develop yeah you're going to develop that baby's not going
to be able to walk that baby's not going to be able to do much that baby's not even going to be
able to crawl okay because they also need to apply it don't they so we need to apply it to our lives
to be able to grow with it okay so it's like oh well i read i read my bible i'm going to be i'm
going to suddenly be on this spiritual higher plane no you need to apply it to your life as well
and like i say that's why people that don't attend church they're babies
because you have to apply it to life you have to be around other christians as well again how
does that baby learn how does that baby they watch they watch they see they take in they
absorb what's going on they see the sibling they see the parents and they start to do stuff don't
they that that they're seeing and in the same way you need to be around other people to understand
that you can't be you know being a holier than now and this doesn't even make sense it doesn't
even work with real people but yet being you know maybe not caring about this sort of sin or this
sort of that well actually that doesn't work because wow can you imagine what a mess this
church would be if everyone was doing this and it all it's all part of the development it all
goes hand in hand okay now it's the same like i said with the sitting at home youtube christian
as well oh well they're hearing the preaching maybe they're reading their bible yeah they
listen to it oh they you know they listen to three services a week and everything else but
they're not actually going anywhere doing anything just sitting at home they're sitting in that baby
chair strapped into that baby chair you know staring at youtube they're still really a baby
in christ they're a baby in christ they're not really they're not applying any of what they're
they're hearing therefore they're not growing now peter here lists some things that need to be
washed out from within the cup and platter he said in verse one wherefore laying aside all malice
and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings okay so malice is extreme enmity
spite yeah it's like a sort of hatred isn't it okay and look everyone's capable of that guile
is craft like cunning deceit and other people you notice when you talk to them they're just using
guile a lot and you can't you know it's not kind of enough to go you're using guile but you just
know you come away from a conversation going they were just trying to steer it in that direction
they were just trying to steer it here they were trying to somehow show me this through that
conversation they had an ulterior motive to prove this to me or to prove that it's just guile
it's guile yeah and again everyone has an ability to do this hypocrisies okay there's your
nat strainers okay the hypocrites and again he said lay aside all this okay but he's talking
to newborn babes and it's not that the christians any better that the mature christian is suddenly
free from all that but especially as a newborn babe without understanding all of this or so much
of this is almost acceptable and commonplace in the world isn't it and we're trying to wash that
out aren't we we're trying to clean that up and get rid of it but it doesn't just come automatically
the envies the envies and a lot of that straining and camel swallowing comes from envy
evil speakings and that's just i mean there that's just just like a classic camel because so many
people like to publicly strain a nat to embarrass someone yet what they're really doing is just
openly evil speaking to them to make them feel rubbish and swallowing that camel that they're
in the process of doing right and people do that a lot people you see it around churches a lot
people trying to make themselves look good while straining at the nat of someone else and just
swallowing the camel of what their what their goal is with that yeah and look if that's you
if that's you and you're thinking yeah this is talking to me brother in or lay it aside
and as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby
and look and if and when then we will and a healthy church will have all different levels
where babes and just because you're a baby because let me automatically going to do this by the way
so part of this service to encourage you if you are look you need to start to just understand
that's straining it now if you aren't sure don't strain it yeah okay but when we do we do need to
be patient as well and understand that it goes hand in hand i believe with just being a babe
in christ you're going to be a bit you you you're going to just be a bit off with it all your gauge
is going to be a bit off you haven't had it calibrated by the word of god yet you're unsure
what is kind of a wicked sin that needs to be dealt with at the time and what things you just
need to just look that's not something for you to deal with right now and how to stop swallowing
camels as well okay now when we do have that we should be patient we don't want to hate them for
it we should be an example to them and we should be gracious verse three says if so be ye have
tasted that the lord is gracious the lord is gracious yeah and we're trying to we're trying
to be like the lord and we need to be gracious to people we need to understand look we don't need
to hate on that person that person just keeps trying to seems to keep picking up on something
which isn't even an issue to different people in the church that maybe they're just a baby in
christ maybe they're baby in christ we need to be patient with them we need to love them and
hopefully they're going to grow as they grow in the word of god you know and encourage them to be
a good christian rather than just pick on them and start making them feel terrible about the fact
that they're a gnat straining camel swallower okay so but go back to matthew 23 gnat straining camel
swallowers number one was a false prophet number two the baby in christ and number three though is
a carnal christian the carnal christian so it's not just babes in christ that can behave like this
there are seasoned christians that fall into this trap too so what is a carnal christian what's a
carnal christian so this is a christian that's walking in the flesh instead of in the spirit
okay and brother dan preached on that that's that's our closest enemy isn't it the flesh
preaching that last week we don't want to be walking the flesh okay we want to be trying to
walk in the spirit now the thing with it is that we will all have periods of being in the flesh in
fact we'll all probably have periods in it in probably most days of our life where we're in the
flesh and not in the spirit right so it is something that we're all going to deal with
but therefore we want to make sure that we're not straining at gnats and swallowing camels while
we're in the flesh okay and obviously our goal is to be in the spirit now here in matthew 23 again
obviously he's talking to these reprobate pharisees but we are all capable of this too
verse 27 says woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for ye are like unto white in sepulchres
which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men's bones and of all
uncleanness even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity so there's that outward righteous appearance but they're full of hypocrisy
and iniquity within and do you know what happens when christians swallow those camels of iniquity
they pretty much automatically start straining at gnats that's what happens they swallow camels
so then their automatic reaction is to start straining at gnats it's like a compensation
it's to compensate it's like man i swallowed a bit too much camel today i'm gonna have to start
straining at the gnat it's kind of like i'm thinking a bit like this it's it's like the
obese guy in mcdonald's yeah you walk past the window of mcdonald's he's got platters of food
all this nasty frankenstein food made with who knows what all sorts of chemical additives everything
else and then next to it he's got the diet coke yeah and it's like come on man you know you might
as well avoid the aspartame in the diet coke and have the normal coke it's better for you anyway
but forget that yeah they got the diet coke but they got all these platters of like just
just gluttonous food it's like and it's the same thing you get the christian who who they're doing
all this wickedness so it's like i'm going to compensate by straining at the gnat because it's
much easier to strain it's easier for that for that guy in mcdonald's to get the diet coke and
go at least i'm drinking diet coke rather than to just not go to mcdonald's and eat all that junk
because it's addictive isn't it okay well you get the same like i said in christianity so
behind closed doors or even suddenly openly some sometimes openly they're they're guilty
of some iniquity or other and instead of working on that humbling themselves crying out to god and
going can you help me with this thing can you help me with that instead they just find some
gnats to strain out instead okay i'm guilty of this i've got part of that instead i'm just
going to find something to pick on someone else about and that's going to make me feel better
and a lot of people do that okay a lot of people do that and the sad thing is the gnats that
they're finding aren't usually their own gnats it's usually someone else's gnats okay so it's
not well i'm just going to kind of you know try and i'm swelling to canvas i just need to clean
up other areas of my life that wouldn't be so bad but instead they're trying to find things which
apply to other people to make themselves suddenly feel holier than the downright full of iniquity
and hypocrisy sinner that a lot of the time they are look we're all sinners right okay but sadly
when you're in sin when you're in and you know you're in some bad sin that's a lot of the time
when the gnat straining is at its peak yeah so for example you'll see it with the lame churches
the pastor scared of his own shadow yeah where these guys these guys are so paranoid
because of their iniquity that they see gnats that aren't even there okay they're like just seeing
that they're like hallucinating and they're just seeing that's everywhere right for like like
they'll find the supposed that like for example like i said earlier soul winning in an area where
there's no church to direct them to and they're like you know going off to some area where you
they're going to be sheep without a shepherd but you're not even soul winning mate yeah you're not
even so winning yeah and i'm talking about safe people you're saved and your church isn't so
what are you going to complain about the soul-winning techniques of a soul-winning church
that is straining and that is swallowing a camel isn't it and a lot of the time like i said it's
just a perceived gnat it's a gnat that's not even there they're seeing that's
how about how about the straining at the supposed gnat
of preaching offensive subjects they're like that one oh they're you know that person they're
preaching about things they're putting people off it's like but you're not even preaching the whole
council of god you're not even preaching half the council of god so what you're complaining about
you're straining a gnat a perceived gnat and swallowing a camel of being scared to preach
half of the bible in acts 2027 you have to turn there paul said for i have not shunned to declare
unto you all the council of god yeah paul said he had not shunned to declare all the council of god
isn't that something that we should all be aspiring to do as well
straining at their so-called gnat of replacement theology
while seemingly not caring about all the repent of your sins heresy going on around them
i don't even care i've been in these churches they're happy with the other churches preach
repent your sins as long as they don't dare to mention that the jews aren't some special
you know holy people that we should all be licking the boots of as long as you don't dare
to claim that like throughout the whole of your life you're going to go through tribulation that
a Christian will also go through tribulation at the end times oh well i can't believe they say
that oh but that guy is preacher repent your sins that's all right oh oh he's got on his tracks for
plenty of sins oh it doesn't matter yeah and these people i'm saying claim to be saved again i
remember a past like this i was telling him about this church i'd just come from i had to leave in
the end it became ridiculous they're all preaching you've got to repent of your sins you've got to
turn from this you've got to yeah real shame still fellowshipping with them once a year though
but that steve anderson he dared to he dared to preach that the jews aren't god's chosen
he's anti-semitic straining it and that's swallowing a camel isn't it and it's not even a gnat
it's a fake gnat it's a perceived gnat within they're full of hypocrisy and iniquity return
of proverbs chapter 11 but the sad thing is these carnal christian gnat strainers are rife in
churches too and we need to make sure that we're not like that here okay that's something i want
to ensure isn't going to be a problem in our church the problem is is that something that
you might be doing to make yourself feel holier after that recent sort of feast of camels
well it can destroy other christians and therefore the work of god as well okay it's not just that
individual christian you can be destroying with your with your gnat straining it's also sadly
the work of god proverbs 11 verse 9 says an hypocrite proverbs 11 9 an hypocrite with his
mouth destroyeth his neighbor but through knowledge shall the just be delivered now of
now of course you could apply this to the hypocritical lives of work salvation
but equally to the gnat straining camel swallowing carnal christian okay your hippie
your hypocrisy if that's you or if that's going to be you in the future your hypocrisy can destroy
your neighbor the irony is that you're trying to look sound and feel holy whilst destroying
someone else okay it's ironic because you're swallowing that camel whilst you're straining
at the gnat that you perceive in someone else's life and look picking on some nothing issue trying
to embarrass them about some tiny perceived gnat well that is a camel okay that you're swallowing
to do that okay and and your heart yeah your holier than thou attitude is a camel you're
swallowing that camel you're not working you're not trying to deal with that you're instead you're
straining at other people's gnats to and swallowing your holier than thou i'm you know i'm so holy
because i've found something that i could pick on you about it's wicked it is wicked and you
destroy christians with that as well yeah now you might be sitting and going but brother ian you
preach on smaller issues don't you you preach on small issues yeah don't you preach on gnats
yeah but i'm called to preach the whole council of god yeah but look some things are more
net proportion to others yeah some things are right however i'm preaching the word of god from
the pulpit i'm not going up to random church members members to criticize them about their
nats yeah i'm going to preach stuff from the pulpit and sometimes you might feel well i don't know
but i'm not swallowing a camel while i'm doing it i'm going to preach the whole council of god
okay and we're going to go well it's all right to do this while i preach though about something
minor no i'm going to preach the whole council of god but going up to your individual church
brothers and sisters to pick on little things in their life or things that you're noticing
at church and other things no one's asked you to do that you're not called to do that
and in church by the way this includes kids amongst themselves as well okay kids you have
to leave some things to the preaching because look the kids there are playing lovely board
games and everything else but look we're not all listening into the conversation right and kids you
want to make sure you're not straining at that swallowing camels while you're sitting with your
mates yeah okay because look that's not a good look right you know for example well look before
i say that firstly look if someone asks council then that's different okay your brother so-and-so
comes up to you sister says look i need i need some help on this yeah i need i'm having a problem
by all means by all means try and help them they've come to you for help yeah
it's not unsolicited it's solicited advice yeah there's nothing wrong with that i have to go oh
i don't want to say anything lips are sealed no no it's fine it's fine it's no look look if they've
got a problem with something they want help with they want help with it great but it's not your job
to go up to that the only time it is is when it's something really wicked if that's something really
and you think look i need to tell them myself quickly now because i'm here i'm witnessing
something okay but how often is that really happening in a church and it's much more often
the other way around it's people trying to find little gnats to show their strain here and like
i said it so often goes hand in hand with their own their own iniquity their own camels that
they're swallowing so kids that's the same with you okay and you know reproving your your mate
at church because their kids coloring book isn't holy enough or something look that stuff goes on
yeah it's like what sort of a you know you have because the kids will take it on board either from
the parents or maybe they get a bit confused you know and they're hearing something preached and
then they think it's their job look leave the preaching to the guy behind the pulpit yeah
okay well you know there's a unicorn there you know i can't believe you're coloring that in
you should be ripping that out it's like come on yeah that's a nap yeah and you don't need to be
you don't need to be straining at that nap yeah let that person or their parents strain it that
that if they want to strain it that that yeah for example how about and look and on that there's
usually when kids do that and kids can do stuff like this there's probably a bookcase of like
camels at home yeah but case of different camel coloring books and other stuff like that
reproving for example with the adults reproving one of the other ladies or worse even gossiping
about them because their skirt is a millimeter above the knee you know i don't know just what
they came in at you know or whatever it is you know it is it's straining it and that
it's straining it and that because there's usually a wardrobe full of camel outfits of your own at
home yeah different different camel type outfits whilst straining at the net of what the person
wears it's not just in church that god sees you yeah he sees you everywhere oh i'll strain it
the net of the of the oh i don't know about that outfit or saying something to them you know
something and but you're going home to get your pajamas on i mean that's worse right yeah how
many how many women do that and they do do that you know or how about reproving one of the other
men because he watched some youtube clip of something worldly and he happened to let slip
and mention it at church oh yeah i saw this thing on youtube oh no it wasn't it wasn't biblical
breeching it wasn't a hymn but usually there's a search history of all different types of species
of camel on their youtuber account isn't there they're trying to find every camel out there
yeah but oh but someone mentions that look this stuff goes on we don't want to be like that okay
we don't want to be like that okay so if something's so important you need to embarrass
or sometimes even in destroy your neighbor then like i said you know that's okay it's that
important that you feel that look this is for the great good i need to approach this i need to talk
about this yeah that's few and far between but proverbs 27 6 does say faithful of the food
uh the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful so sometimes we do need
warning by our friends and sometimes though you might see something in a friend at church that
you feel that i really need to talk to them about this you know they they they need you know they
need me to help them but you know what generally they need help with is not to swallow a camel
okay it's not the gnats okay the gnats are gonna cut let the the gnats are gonna get
brushed away with time with the preaching with reading their bible with everything else okay
you don't need everyone at church picking on every gnat to tell each other if it's something
that's important you feel this is really important you can see this is hurting this affecting their
life by all means that the wounds of a friend are faithful sometimes sometimes it hurts okay
sometimes those things do need anyways look you know sometimes having a camel pulled out of your
throat and pulled out of your mouth could get a bit painful like dislodge a few teeth however
it may be for the greater good because i'd imagine having it sitting in your in your intestine
that's going to be hard digestion right okay sometimes you need to do that but the rest of
the time look the gnats leave it to the preaching right yeah leave it to their own bible study their
own reading of the bible and and and their walk with god yeah okay so because last thing with
this is when it's a gnat that you're straining at do you know what that tells me you're swallowing
camels you're swallowing camels yeah you want to be publicly straining at gnats in church
you want to be going up and you know and you see this stuff go on well that tells you you're
swallowing camels now i'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and hope that you're
swallowing camels because you're maybe just still a baby in christ maybe you're swallowing camels
because and you're straining at gnats because you're just a bit of a carnal christian but sadly
there are the false prophets that do that as well we don't want anyone to start wondering that either
okay so don't swallow camels very dangerous to swallow a camel so not straining camel swallows
yes they're everywhere but three to be aware of in the christian life number one the false prophet
number two the baby christ number three the carnal christian let's just make sure we're we're we're
not not straining camel swallowers and uh yeah you know a happy church for all that yeah on that let's
pray father i thank you uh for your word and i thank you for this church i thank you for this
church you're just you know great people that love the lord that want to serve the lord that
you know come from far and wide to come to this church and to just just you know want to be a part
of you know your church lord and and you know we thank you for this we thank you for all these
people here we pray that we'll just you know kind of eke out those issues in our lives and many of
us you know can and will in the future and have done you know been these sorts of people that do
strain at the gnats of the spirit of the you know christian spiritual life however you know at the
same hand often we're swallowing camels help us all not to do that lord help us to just be
you know be the sorts of christian the sorts of brothers and sisters to each other you want us
to be lord help us to um to just live for you to want to live for you to want to love each other
to want to help each other grow and and we do that by by not just picking on every small
fault of each other's lord um help us to to to go out this afternoon uh get people saved lord
preach of course we'll help the weather please lord just uh just hold off the rain from us so
we can get out and you know be productive with our soul winning please help those who got saved
yesterday to to want to want to live for you to grow keep them protected from those false
prophets out there that want to cast doubt in their minds and want to want to weaken their walk
lord help us to to return this afternoon for this evening's service and in jesus name for all of this
amen