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🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 2 Timothy Chapter Number 2, the Bible reads, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who should be able to teach others also. Thou therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that warreth entanglement himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. If a man also strive for the masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say, and the Lord gave the understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even into bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Of these things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord, that they strive not about words to no prophet, but of the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and the world will eat as doth a canker, of whom is hamaneus and philitis, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameeth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, some to honor and some to dishonor. But man therefore purge himself from these, he should be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strife, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. Let's pray dear Lord God, thank you for this opportunity to hear your word preached, just ask that you would be a pastor from here now, to strengthen him, fill him with your Holy Spirit, and please bless the preaching, pray that it would accomplish that which you purpose for, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, okay we're in 2 Timothy chapter number 2, and look down at your Bibles at verse 23, it says, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strife, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. And the time of my sermon this morning is the Fool's Aaron, the Fool's Aaron, and I'm actually specifically referring to the topic of debating, okay, when you debate people, when you get into arguments with individuals regarding doctrine, that is a Fool's Aaron according to the Bible. You say why is that? Well you know the Bible tells us, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him, the Bible says. So when you get involved in strives, when you get involved in debating people, who aren't necessarily really concerned about believing the truth, or being won over to a biblical side, what happens is you become as foolish as they are, because you become angry, you become upset, and at the end of the day you end up wasting your time casting your pearls before swine, as the Bible says, because you're trying to prove a specific point. Now let me just start off by saying that I actually really like to debate people, okay, in my flesh I really enjoy debating people, and one of the reasons why, and I'll just be quite honest with you, is because it's a lot of fun to just shut people down, amen, especially if they're like some sort of false prophet, you know, espousing a false doctrine, and you get into a conversation with someone, whether it be at the door, whether it be online, whether it be with a family member, or whatever it may be, you know, it feels good, okay, to kind of just show them up, and give them some verses, and you know, just kind of shut them down, and prove to the audience, whoever that audience is, that you're right and they are wrong, but let's just be honest is that it's a very unprofitable activity actually, okay, and at the end of the day we can look, we're going to look at many scriptures that actually condemn the act of debating, arguing, striving, and you know there's people out there, namely the Calvinists and the Reformers, who will often claim that debating is biblical, because you know it's apologetics, it's giving an answer of the faith that is in you with meekness and fear, but there's nothing meek or fearful about a Calvinist debating. When you look at those debates, they're often filled with pride, arrogance, they often give a lot of red herrings, and a lot of false information, and so they come under the guise of being meek, and quiet, and righteous, but actually they're very prideful, they're false prophets, and they end up doing more damage than good, and the reality is this is that when people go to a debate for example, and you know they watch two guys going at it about theological subjects, the audience that's going there is already rooting for a particular side, and the truth is no matter where the debate goes, those individuals are going to stick to that side no matter what, okay, they kind of go there rooting for that particular debater, whatever it may be, they're not going to be won over by one or the other if they're already rooting for that particular person, they often go there just because it's more of like a pep rally for them, to kind of show them up, and kind of boast, and have vainglory, but this isn't biblical my friends, it's not profitable, and we as God's people should not be involved in debates, we should avoid strives, we should avoid arguments, and have the spiritual maturity to recognize that it's just not profitable at all, and in fact the Bible specifically says that the discretion of a man to birth is anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression, you see the glory of the person who debates is to win the debate, the glory of the person who's right and is debating is that they can show up that person and prove them to be wrong, but the Bible actually says it's a glory to pass over it, you know to say all right whatever if that's what you want to believe I'll move on, but here's the thing folks is that you know a lot of people don't like that type of glory though, they find it more appealing and glorious to be able to win an argument and show someone up, than to actually dust off the dust off your feet, to wipe the dust off your feet and move on, that's not as glorious, you know you don't get a whole lot of credit for that, you don't get a whole lot of praise for that, but it is a biblical manner of debating people okay, and often you know in the Bible we see that debates, the right type of debating, the right type of disputing isn't made to prove a person wrong and to boast about you being right, but rather to convince them of the truth right, like the purpose of us reasoning with people regarding doctrine and if they're wrong about a specific topic is that we want to win them over okay, and that often requires humility, meekness and things of that nature, virtues that are not associated with pride and arrogance, and as I mentioned people often come to see debates, people who come to see the debates are often already one to a particular side, they just want to see a theological fight is what they want to see, they want to see who makes the best argument, but when they walk out of those doors they're still believing the same things that they believe when they went into those doors, and so go to 1 Timothy chapter 6, we're going to come back to 2 Timothy chapter 2 in just a bit, but go to 2 Timothy chapter 6, and here's the number one thing you have to take into consideration, when you're at the door and someone is posing some sort of argument about a doctrine contradicting you, you got to ask yourself is this person consenting to wholesome words okay, because often you can tell this person is just trying to waste my time right, you're at a door and obviously when I'm talking about debating, to the regular Christian they're not going to be invited necessarily to some sort of theological debate with James White or something like that right, most of the opportunities that will present themselves to you is at the door where you're out sowing right, and again I'll be the first to admit I've gotten to some debates at the door just because you know you get in the flesh and you're just like I'm just going to shut this guy down real quick and move on, but then you end up wasting 10-15 minutes there and you walk away kind of grieved that nothing was really accomplished right, but you got to ask yourself when you're at the door and people start asking you questions, does this person really consent to wholesome words, do they agree with the fact that they want the truth or are they proposing to believe the truth but in actuality they just want to argue, look at verse number three it says if a man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strives of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, listen to this, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing to gain his godliness from such withdraw thyself, it doesn't say from such keep arguing with keep debating them, it says withdraw yourself from them, get away from them, avoid them, and so we see here that a person who doesn't agree with the word of God, they don't agree with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't agree with the doctrine, the Bible says just walk away from them, avoid those individuals, they're going to waste your time, now what does that mean, well we're going to look at it later on but when you're talking to a person for example about salvation and you present three pretty clear scriptures, that salvation is not by works and they just don't agree with that, then you know what they're doing, they're not agreeing with wholesome words, they're not consenting to the words of Jesus Christ and an example that I can give is you know when you talk to Zionists, Christian Zionists who are often the biggest culprits of this subject here of debating because they claim to believe the Bible, they claim to believe doctrine, but when you give them wholesome words, words that are without deficiency of evidence proving that the Jews are not God's chosen people and there's a lot of clear evidence in the Bible, they're just like oh you're twisting that, you know, you give a scripture and they're just like you're taking that out of context even though you just literally just gave them a verse, you didn't even give any context to it, right, and so what does the Bible say about that individual, he is proud, listen to this, knowing nothing, okay, what is he doing, he's doting about questions and strives of words and I can recall multiple instances where I've gone out sowing and I know that a person at the door simply wants to waste my time, you know, and I've even, some extreme cases have been where I've knocked on the door and I've talked to people and they want to argue with me, they want to strive and I literally like have to walk away backwards and they're literally like still talking as I'm walking away, like they can't, they can't adhere to the body language that I don't want to talk to them anymore, right, and here's what they'll often do, okay, and this is just where you got to be careful, is they'll say yeah, yeah, see, you know, you don't want to talk about the truth, huh, you don't want to talk about the Bible, right, and it kind of, they push those buttons, right, and if you're not in the spirit, you're just like then the foot, the steps start reversing and you start like, you know, what was that, what'd you say, you know, but you know what they're trying to do is they're trying to catch you in your words, they're trying to instigate and provoke you and so it's better, listen to this, I know this isn't popular, it's better to take the loss. If they want to believe that they're right and that they beat you in an argument, okay, then let them think that, but see that doesn't fit well with our egos, right, because we need to make sure that they know that we are better than them and we know more scripture than them, but really do we need to do that at the door? No, we don't. Sometimes it's just better to take the loss and just say, because at the end of the day, it's not a loss because we know that they're lost, we know that they're ignorant of the scriptures and we can rest easy in our beds at night knowing full well that we're right and they're wrong, whether they thought that they won the conversation or not, right, and so that's a way for us to determine is this person worth my knowledgeable investment? Are they consenting to wholesome words, okay, and I've talked to people where, you know, you're just trying to fill it out with them and try to figure out, okay, is this person really being honest? Are they sincere? Do they want to know the truth? And I'll give them a scripture and they're just kind of like, that's interesting, actually, I've never seen that before, I'll have to think about that, you know, and then they have more questions, I think that's worth the investment, but if they start like, no, that's not, well, you go to James 2, right? How many of us have gone into an argument with someone James 2, right? They're just like, James 2, and here's the thing, folks, is that when you talk to someone about James 2, to someone about James 2, pretty much, I think, I would say 80% of our church here is an expert at James chapter 2, because we've used it so much disproving people, you know, who try to use it to teach a workspace salvation, but the reality is this, is that we can give them all the evidence and what do they do? They throw a red herring and try to distract you and move the goal post and start talking about something else, and so then you're just like, are you going to even address the fact that you're wrong about James chapter 2? No, they're not going to do that, because they're just trying to waste your time, they don't want to know the truth, they're not consenting to wholesome words, okay? And so it's important for us to realize that a person who doesn't consent to wholesome words is often an individual who's full of perverse disputing, because it's not necessarily wrong to dispute, because when we're talking to someone at the door, we're disputing their claims about salvation, we're disputing their ideologies about heaven and hell and eternal life, but we're giving them the truth, and there's only one right person at the door, right? It's us. Now, people want to call that prideful, but it's fact, because we're quoting the scriptures, and so a person is not consenting to wholesome words, it's full of perverse disputings, in other words, they're twisting scriptures, they are perverting scriptures, they're twisting scriptures to fit their false doctrine and their narrative of their theology or whatever it is they believe. So why do people debate? Well, go back to 2 Timothy chapter 2, and I've already mentioned some of this, but this is one of the main reasons why we as Christians and people who are not saved participate in debates, okay? Number one, it's not because you want to win someone over, it's because you just want to fight. Sometimes people just want to strive, okay? And you know exactly what I'm talking about, because once you get in a situation like this, your adrenaline's pumping, you know? You start getting that feeling, and you're just like, man, I want to shut this guy down so fast. But really, that's not necessarily the emotion that we should be feeling towards a lost person who are really sincerely trying to win over, right? And so why do people debate? Because they want to strive. This is why you have these bunch of bozos who go out every weekend and stand on the street corner with the blow horn and a sign that says, turn or burn, right? And they're street preaching. What do they want to do? They just want to fight with people. They literally just want to strive with people. And you know, every time I go to work in the morning, I go down Beach Boulevard, and there's always every day, pretty much every day, there's a group of Asian street preachers on the right hand side of me. I don't know if they're Gene Kimmers or what, but they're always on the right hand side. And you know, some of their signs are correct. You know, because it does say like, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, which is correct. But other signs are meant to provoke anger. Like you're going to burn in hell. Well, you know what, we believe that, but that's not necessarily the best way to convey that message, right? Where you're at a stoplight on a Monday morning when people are going to work. You know, they're on their way to work on a Monday morning, and the one thing they see on the right hand side is like, you're going to burn in hell. It's like, oh, thanks, you know. You really think that person is going to be thinking, you know what, Christianity is just awesome. I think I want to be a Christian now, you know. No way, they're going to think these people are idiots. They're psychos. They got nothing better to do with their time. And they just want to strive. They just want to argue. And these people, if you were to pull over and talk to them, they would not consent to wholesome words. The vast majority of them just want to argue with you and debate and strive and make a YouTube video where they have a speaker on the side and they're just asking sodomites about their sodomy and why they're... Who wants to do that? That's really popular, by the way. Where you have like these Christian debaters online where they go to the cesspool of sodomy and they literally just want to talk to sodomites about why they're sodomites. It's like, dude, just read the Bible. The Bible will tell you. You don't have to be in close proximity to disease to know that. So what's the point, striving? But the Bible says in verse 24, the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be what? Gentle unto all men, apt to teach patience. Now, one of the reasons I wanted to preach this is because of the fact that I've been guilty of debating. I'll just be honest with you, okay. But I got a question from someone online and this person asked this question in such a way that I thought to myself, all this person wants to do is actually strive. Because they said, what do you tell Calvinist at a door who believes in predestination? How do you shut them down? Like what verses do you give to just prove them wrong? And I'm just like, it just sounds like this guy just wants to fight people at the door. Now, obviously, if a person believes in predestination or they're a five-point Calvinist at the door, I'm going to address the scriptures pertaining to that. But I'll be honest with you, if they're a hardcore five-point Calvinist, they're not going to be convinced. You're like, then what are you going to do? Move on to the next door where a person hasn't been tainted by false doctrine and they're easier to win. Oh, but the Calvinist needs God too. I know, but if he's not consenting to wholesome words, I'm not going to waste my time arguing with them about the five points of Calvinism. It's not worth it. And so this guy, and he was asking about soul winning and it's just like, well, it sounds like you just want to strive with people. And you know, when I first got saved, you know, you learn the truth and then you start learning different arguments for different religions and false doctrines. You kind of want to get into arguments with people at the door. You want to shut people down. You want to kind of flex your knowledge of the Bible on people, but it's not right to do. It's a waste of time and it's actually immature. To want to strive with people. It tells us to be gentle until all men, apt to teach and to be patient. And it says in verse 25, in meekness, listen to this, instructing those that oppose themselves. It's supposed to give instructions regarding the word of God. The Bible tells us you don't have to turn in Proverbs 15 verse 18, a wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. Proverbs 16 verse 28, a froward man soweth strife and a whisperer is separated to chief friends. Proverbs 17 verse 14, the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. What is that referring to? A person who just wants to fight, if you feed into that, you're going to open up a whole can of worms, in other words. It's just not going to turn out right. And I've been in situations with other people where they're out sowing to get involved in some strife and contention and it gets really heated to the point where you're just like, you're like pulling people away. Okay. And in fact, and I don't know all the details to this particular story, but I do know that the person that I'm referring to was a contentious person. There's an individual, I don't know if it was last year or the year before, who was out sowing and this person was known for being very contentious and prideful and arrogant. And he did like to strive. And you know, he was out sowing, he got shot and died. So maybe the first point didn't convince you not to strive. You're like, eh, you know, I kind of liked the glory, but maybe that one will convince you. Maybe you're like, you know what? I think you're right about this actually pastor. It's true. We shouldn't, we've got to be gentle. Yeah. You dang skip it. You better be gentle because you don't know who you're dealing with out there. Now, obviously this guy probably, and don't let this like, like deter you from sowing either. Okay. And by the way, if it's your time to go, it's your time to go, right? I mean, why should we fear death? We're Christians. We're saved, unless you're not saved. But this guy, you know, he had some other issues and I already knew that, you know, he's just known for this. So I wouldn't be surprised if he was at the door striving with this individual, because you have to be pretty angry to take someone's life. Right. And this young guy, essentially, that's exactly what he did. He pulled out a gun and shot him and killed him. End of story. What did he do? He opened the can of worms. Okay. And so it's important for us that when we go out sowing, and obviously that's a rare case, but when we go out sowing that we're meek and that we are kind and that we're gentle with people because of the fact that obviously too, you don't know what mental state people are in. And so if you find, if you find that an individual is getting angry with you, you know what the Bible says? Agree with thine adversary quickly. Right. But that's not something we like to do, right? We're just like, no, I got to get the last word in. I got to get one under my belt type of a thing. No, you got to, sometimes you got to agree with your adversary quickly. And I don't mean like agree with their false doctrine either. The way I interpret that, especially when I'm at the door is that, all right, well, thanks. See you later. Information's on the invite and I'm off to the next door. And if they're like, yeah, that's what I thought. Just kind of like shrug your shoulders and be like, you know, yeah, see, I knew you're right. You call yourself a pastor. I mean, people can push all types of buttons, right? Let them push the buttons and just walk away. I mean, are we really that important that we have to defend ourselves and verbalize our arguments and win every single conversation? No. Sometimes we could just take the loss because at the end of the day, the next door has a win. Amen. We win someone to Christ and then that's even better. Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse three, it's an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. Now, let me also say this is that there are instances where people need to be rebuked and this is not the same as striving. It's not the same as debating. Sometimes people need a strong rebuke because of the fact that they're either extremely wicked. They're trying to stop you from preaching the gospel and that's not debating. That's giving a scorner a strong rebuke so that others will be aware, right? And in fact, the Bible says in Proverbs 22 verse 10, cast out the scorner and contention shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease, the Bible says. So it's often very much important to smite the scorner in a spiritual manner and rebuke someone and walk away. Okay. And I'll give you an example. You know, on Friday we did a live and you know, I wasn't on this live trying to strive with anybody. I'm talking about Belize. You know, I was just on the live talking about Belize and missions and soul winning. And so I did something that we probably shouldn't do, but I'll probably continue to do just because it helps, is we took phone calls. And we're really bad at that. Like we were like Pastor Shelley and Beth in the Baptist, they're like experts at, you know, they're very, they're like telemarketers. They know how to answer the phone and they have like a script and they're really good at it. We're like, who is this? Hello? We're like, oh dang, we hung up on them. You know, we don't really know what we're doing. And we didn't even know the number sometimes. You know, it was just like, what number? And then, you know, Ulysse is over here giving them the number to like the sleep mattress or something. But this guy calls and I just assume everyone who calls is just probably a bad person. It's just me. That's just how I think sometimes. And it's bad. I shouldn't think that way. And so I just, sometimes let me just be transparent with you. I just think the worst in people sometimes, not in my church members, but just people who I don't know. Okay. And so, you know, people are calling and if they take too long to like answer, I'm like, oh, this guy's a troll. This guy wants to start stuff. And sometimes they're just, they're not, it's not that they're like trying to start stuff. It's just that they're from like the south or something. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Why, why are you guys, you know, it's true. Okay. Like, hello? It's just like, you know, it takes them a while to answer. And so, but then there's this one guy who called and then, you know, he kind of took a while to answer and then he was just like, he's like, yeah, I just need to tell you something. And then, you know, I was just like, okay, this guy is, how do you start a conversation like that? You know, he's like, what you're doing in Belize is wrong. Trying to win Catholics to Christ. Shame on you. He's a Catholic, obviously. And so, you know, I was just kind of going back and forth with them and saying, no, it's not wrong. I mean, I win Catholics to Christ virtually every week here back home. Catholics are the most receptive people and they need the gospel. And I love Catholics, which is why I'm like preaching to them. He's like, you should be winning the Muslims to the Lord. You know? And I'm thinking there's no Muslims in Belize though. There's the vast majority are Catholic or seven day Adventists. So then he just keeps going on and on and on. And then I just said, well, if you're trying to stop me from preaching the gospel, then go to hell. So I told him, I said, you can just go to hell. And then I had to like signal because we don't, again, we're not really good at this stuff. So I'm just like, because I'm trying to get the last word in, you know what I mean? I'm like, and he's like, you attack me and all this stuff. But you know, sometimes people need to hear that though, because there's other people listening and you need to answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceits as well. And so there are instances where rebuking a person is very much necessary. It is appropriate. And in fact, let me just say this, you run into a Jehovah's witness, you know, Jehovah's witnesses, you guys cross paths and stuff. I think it's absolutely 100% acceptable to just rebuke that person. You know, I do it virtually every time I run into a Jehovah's witness, I always rebuke them. And depending on what my mood is, you know, I might yell at them too. It really depends. But each and every time they get a rebuke because they're false prophets who are preaching a false gospel. They're not soul winning. They're so killing. And so I believe that merits a major rebuke. Okay. And I don't think that's debating because it's not like, well, show me real quick, you know, and by the way, let me say this, never invite those people into your house either. Because any person who does is a partaker of their evil deeds, according to the Bible. That's another area where people like to debate. And that is sometimes they think, oh, you know, it's a noble thing to invite a Mormon into my house, invite a Jehovah's witness so I can rebuke them, so I can debate them and correct them and show them how they're wrong. But what they're doing is actually wrong. Because the Bible literally says that if you do so, you're a partaker of his evil deeds. God views you as an advocate of that person's ministry when you invite them into your home. Even if you have the truth, even if you have a well-formulated argument against the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, God says don't do it. You know, obviously you're not gonna be able to boast, but you know what, God doesn't care about your boasting. He just wants obedience. Amen. And so, yes, you know, casting out the scorn or rebuking a person is very much necessary. But, you know, not sitting there with a bar stool and a bell where you're arguing with another person. And let me just say this, you know, when it comes to like debating, like the actual debates where people, there's an audience, it's not necessarily who has the truth that wins. It's often the person who's just the best debater. So it's funny because a lot of these events are about the truth, they claim to be about the truth, but often the person who wins is not necessarily the one who has the truth. It's the person who's able to make the best argument. I mean, that's literally in high school what speech class was about. Like how to give the best speech to win the argument. And I've seen people that I personally know get into debates with Calvinists and certain individuals and the people that I know, I know they know the Bible and I know they're right. And watching from the outside, you know, I thought to myself, this Calvinist is trying to catch him in his words. And so they were able to formulate a certain argument in a certain way to kind of throw off that person, that Christian. And it's not that the Christian didn't have a valid point or that they were given the truth because they're right. I mean, they're saved. The Calvinist isn't even saved. But because they formulated a word or they constructed a red herring, they gave a perverse argument that kind of threw them off. It almost made it seem as though the Calvinist won that argument, but we know the Calvinists are wrong. That person is obviously right. They have the truth. And so often when it comes to these debates, it's not necessarily who has the truth. It's the person who's able to make the best argument, whether it's true or not. That's really what it's about because debating is a skill at the end of the day. Okay. He said, well, what if I just build up my skill to debate, then will it make it valid? No, because whoever's in that audience is still not going to believe you who's already against you in the first place. You know, they're just going to ask for a round two or whatever. And so, you know, I think it's far more productive and profitable to just study the Bible, know what the Bible says, and to be spirit filled than to be a person who just wants to construct good arguments and make a good case, you know, for a debate. So why else do people debate? Well, to fight, to strive, but also for vainglory. You know, they essentially want to give glory to themselves. Whereas when we go out and preach the gospel and we go sowing, when we're witnessing to our family members, we want to give God the glory, right? And the Bible tells us, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. What's another reason? To boast. So you can say that you shut this person down, but the Bible says, whoso boasts themselves of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain. You're not boasting that you essentially were able to convince this person of the truth. You're boasting that you defeated them in their arguments. The Bible says in James 3 verse 5, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And this not only applies when we're at the door, but it also applies with your family members as well, right? And I think most of us can attest to a time that we might've gotten into an argument with a family member over our beliefs, over what the Bible says, and it didn't go over well. And in fact, it probably created a greater wedge between you and that person. Let's just be honest. It probably separated you guys that much the more. Why? Because debating really doesn't do anything at all. All it does is create tension and strife. What's another reason why these people debate? Well, to feel a sense of accomplishment. Which leads into my next point, and that is they often do it as a replacement for real evangelism. People often think that debating is like a ministry. You guys know what I'm talking about? It's like, oh, I got this ministry of just debating people. And this is very much a thing on social media. It's a huge thing on social media. And in fact, let me give you an example. I won't name the account. Maybe some of you may know the accounts or whatever, but there's a lot of accounts like, for example, on Instagram that are literally constructed only to debate people. And I know this one particular account that would always upload new IFB preaching and this person, they would just consider themselves to be new IFB, even though they were always associated with pastors who obviously hate the new IFB, but they would always upload a lot of these clips. And this person followed me and I followed them back. And anytime I would upload a video, let me just make a disclaimer about my Instagram, by the way. Very little of the Instagram followers that I have are new IFB. Just know that. Don't be surprised. In fact, the purpose of it is to reach people outside of the new IFB to integrate them into what the Bible actually says. So I have all kinds of people that follow reformers, liberal, liberal Christians, not liberals, but maybe some liberals follow me, but liberal Christians, reformers. I even have some charismatic people that follow me. I even have like Catholics and Orthodox people that follow me who like my stuff, which is weird because I hate Catholicism and they might be mad at me at this point. But I have people from different walks and I don't advocate for what they believe in. Okay. I let them follow me and I follow them because of the fact that I want them to be exposed to the truth. And so sometimes I put out a video and these people will be like, hey, this is a great video. I'm glad you exposed this. Well, this one guy would always go on and say, yeah, but I see on your Instagram that you have this particular phrase on there. Why do you have that? And you just want to argue with people. Like every single time I would upload a video, he would say, I noticed that you call God, you know, Yeshua. Why do you do that? It's like, it has nothing to do with the video I just posted. He's like, oh, I noticed that you, when you pray, you say it's just like, he would make a mountain out of a molehill. He was stranded in that and swallow a camel. And it's not because he really wanted to win that person over. It's because he just wanted to argue with them. And there's multiple times where he would argue with multiple people. And thankfully the account closed down. He said, why did you say thankfully? Because it was unprofitable. You know what accounts I'm interested in? Accounts that win people to the Lord. And listen to this, listen to this, listen to this and get people in church. That's what I'm interested in. You know what I want my account to do? Win people to Christ, expose people to the truth and get people in church. You know what? People have gotten into our church because of the wild olive tree account. Whereas these debating accounts, they don't really accomplish that. What do they accomplish? They just make people mad at them. And they give Christianity a bad name because all they do is want to strive. And they feel as though, well that's my ministry. My Bible ministry of showing what the Bible says and what the church fathers say. And then I have a meme ministry of what the church fathers say. And I have a meme ministry of this and this is how I'm reaching. You're not really doing much though. That's not profitable. And look, I love memes by the way. It's a great way to communicate truth. But not as a replacement for real evangelism though. You know we got Marcos here. He has his new IFB meme account. Follow that account if you want some good memes. But you know what? That's not a replacement for his evangelism because he goes soul winning every week. Virtually every week he goes soul winning and preaches the gospel. And so they'll often use that. And this is why people like James White are always raising money to go to different countries not to evangelize but to debate people. I've debated Muslims and I've debated Catholics and I've debated. Yeah but how many have you won James White? Zero. Yeah you're able to show off all your knowledge or lack thereof. You're able to show off how you can win an argument but you haven't really won anybody to Christ. So people are just investing in this guy to go all over the world to literally fight with other people and make doctrinal arguments against other religions. But it's just not profitable. You know and let me say this. I'd rather go knock on the door of a Catholic who's backslidden as the days long from Catholicism who knows jack squat about what the Catholic doctrine Catholic Church teaches because they're easier to win. Well why don't you go after the priest because they're pedophiles. Why do I want to reach the pedophiles? Why don't you go over the why don't you try to get the deacons and the bishops because they're all reprobate. I don't care about those fools. I'd rather go for the low-hanging fruit and the low-hanging fruit is the backslidden Jehovah's Witness. The backslidden Mormon. That's what I want to go for and in fact it's easier to win them because of the fact they haven't been tainted with all that false doctrine. Oh no you're just afraid to like debate a priest or whatever. No I'm afraid that I might knock him out because I don't like priests because they're pedophiles. So you know I don't I don't want nothing to do with priests you know or the the pastor of whatever they call the elders of the Mormon church. I'm not interested in winning them. Yeah but if you won them they have such a they have such a big influence so you can reach so many more people. Folks those people are reprobate. They will never be won. Those people are damned. They are eternally damned. What we should focus our efforts on are those who are involved in those religions but are ignorant of their doctrine. Those who are ignorant of the Mormon doctrine who are in a Mormon church. Those who are ignorant of Catholic doctrine who are in a Catholic church. Those are the ones we're supposed to win. This is why the Bible says not to cast our pearls before swine. Who are the swine? Who are the dogs? The priest. The elders of the Mormon church. Don't invest your time in that. It's not a replacement for real evangelism. Preach the gospel. Get people saved. It says the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God preadventure would give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And so what am I talking about when I refer to like these unbiblical debates? I'm referring to a systematic argument to prove a person wrong. That's what it is. It's perverse disputing. It's a twisting of scriptures. It's when people cherry pick verses, right? It's when people move the goalposts in an argument. I mean how many times has that done? Moving the goalposts I'm referring to when people present a red herring where they make an argument where they say well no we do you know Catholics we do believe that salvation is through Jesus Christ. Yeah but alone because according to your catechism online it says that the seven sacraments are necessary for salvation. That's literally what it says online and then this is what they'll say oh yeah but it's both though. Well I thought you said it was by Christ alone. Well Christ sanctioned the sacraments, right? What are they doing? It's a red herring. So what am I referring to? Perverse disputings, strife. So you say okay then well what should we be doing? Okay well you know what we should be doing is reasoning with people. Okay we should reason with people. What do you mean to reason with them? Show them from the scriptures how the Bible is true, right? Go to Acts 17 if you would, Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. And look this is why it's important that no congregant ever tries to win over their pastor because it's just not going to end well. I have so many people like what do you think I should tell? How should I present this to my pastor? How should I present this you know to the most important person in the church as far as leadership is concerned? How do I present this? It's like don't. Just keep your mouth shut because you're not going to win them over. In fact you guys are going to end up fighting, striving. Look at Acts 17 verse 1. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica where was a synagogue of the Jews and Paul as his manner was went in unto them in three days Sabbaths, three Sabbath days excuse me, reasoned with them out of the scriptures opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ the Bible says. So he's there for approximately three weeks just reasoning with people and notice he didn't continue on reasoning with them he ended up going somewhere else and what's the result of it verse four and some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas and of devout Greeks a great multitude and of the chief women not a few but the Jews which believed not moved with envy took into them certain lewd fellow fellows of the baser store and gathered a company instead of set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people go to chapter 18 chapter 18. Now one thing that the apostle Paul does throughout his ministry that I think is a great idea is that he does place himself in a position where people might potentially argue with him like a synagogue right now why would he do that because there's there's obviously an opportunity there to get the truth out and it's not because he's trying to win the leaders to the Lord per se it's the attendance of the synagogue which he actually ends up doing and this is why I think it's a great idea when some false prophet who has like 500,000 subscribers invites you to come talk to them I'd do it now that opportunity doesn't come very often but every once in a while does where some higher up guy who has a lot of followers on Instagram or YouTube wants to talk to you about the scriptures you know even if he calls it a debate I would go on there not because I think I'm going to win him to the Lord because I'm trying to get his followers and this happened to me a couple years ago when I was going at it with a guy by the name and he didn't invite me onto his show but he made videos about me and I thought it was great there's a guy named inspired philosophy or something like that I don't remember what it is but he's he's some sort of apologetics debater and he was really mad at me about my videos about alcohol so he made a video about me and I said great so then I made one in response and then I ended up getting a bunch of his followers to come to our side many of them were messaging me like you actually convinced me of this and I really appreciate it and now I'm following you and you know I really like your your preaching I've heard the gospel and you're on your channel I think that's great and I didn't do it because I'm like man I really hope this guy gets saved because you know what the guy teaches so much false doctrine he's probably not going to get saved anytime soon and so I think we should take opportunities to do so you know if some guy who has a million subscribers calls you out and wants to talk to you look I would go there even if I lose I would go on there even if I lost the argument I would go on there just for the sheer fact that there's millions of followers who are going to be watching but you know what I don't go out looking for that though I'm not DMing people with large accounts saying hey you want to debate me you know what I'm talking about like hey you know I saw your videos you want to debate you want to debate you know because I'm not that type of type of guy I'm not that guy this ain't it I'm not that guy and look let me give you another example from this week because the Catholics are really mad at me and they're all my like DMs and they're messaging me and all this stuff I don't know why you know but they're like really angry at me and one particular guy's just just spamming my entire comment section right and you know he's using a lot of these these arguments and red herrings or whatever and so I told him I said accept my request because I was trying to follow him but he went private okay so I told him I said accept my request and he says no because I don't want you to see what's on my account and I told him I said well I already saw your account and then you went private so don't worry I'm not going to expose you for what you have on your account he's just like a really worldly person who's like all into Catholic doctrine so then he DMs me and he's like what's up and he me and what I did this is what I did this is the best thing that you can do okay I called him I just like did a FaceTime and then he answered and I said what's up now I said so go ahead and explain everything you just put in those comments tell it to my face right now and he was just quiet I said you know you're a lot more bold in the comment section than you are looking at my face I thought you were knowledgeable about the Bible so where does the Bible come from because you know he's over here at the bar the Catholics compile the Bible I'm like we don't read your stupid Latin Vulgate I'm like so who compiled it where was it translated from and he's just like oh hold on I'm like oh are you going to catholicanswers.com I said I'll call you back later and just make sure you have all your tabs open of catholicanswers.com you know that shows you it shows us that the vast majority of people who are online who DM you and troll you they don't know what they're talking about they have a lot of time to like look up on Google and they just type it out you know their argument or whatever it's not it's not they're not shooting from the hip it's not knowledge is in their heart or in their minds and so you know it's it's not profitable to just message people and say hey you want to debate hey why because it's not going to help anything okay if the opportunity comes and someone contacts you who has a large platform go for it not because you think you're going to win them but if they have a large following there's an opportunity to reach out to that group of people look at chapter 18 verse 4 and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks and when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ and when they opposed themselves very important when they opposed themselves and blasphemed he just kept on debating he just kept on arguing he just gave another point no he shook his raiment and sent it to them your blood be upon your own heads I am clean from hence forth I will go into the gentiles he's like oh you're opposing yourself or you're blaspheming are you getting a little angry okay then this conversation is done I'm going somewhere else and you know what Paul the apostle was extremely knowledgeable about the bible the man had God's spirit on him he was used greatly to pen the scriptures he knows what the word of God says but hey Paul why aren't you using that you know why because he obviously understands the principle of shaking your raiment and going to the next person because he's not interested in boasting of himself he wants to preach Christ and him crucified look at verse 19 and he came to Ephesus and left them there but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews when they desired him to tarry longer longer time with them he consented not but bathed them farewell saying I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem but I will return again unto you if God will and he sailed from Ephesus go to chapter 24 if you would chapter 24 you know I see what the apostle Paul he knew when it was time to quit he knew when it was time to just quit even when the base resort were raised up to bring up a false accusation against him he still knew when it was time to quit and just go home go somewhere else look what it says in acts 24 verse 25 and as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgment to come Felix trembled and answered go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee so even when he's before the magistrates he's reasoning with them you're in chapter 24 look at verse 12 and neither found me or excuse me and they neither found me in the temple listen to this disputing with any man because people will always point the apostle upon me like see he's disputing he's disputing about the scriptures he's disputing that Jesus is the Christ but here he says that he wasn't disputing with any man neither raising up the people neither in the synagogue nor in the city so is he contradicting himself no what he's claiming is that he obviously didn't strive with anybody he's not arguing with anybody what is he disputing that Jesus is the Christ and when they didn't consent to that all right see you later suckas I'm out of here like I don't what else is there to do if you reject that and that's an attitude that we need to have folks like for example if you want to talk to someone and they're just rejecting the bible if they don't even believe that the bible's god's word I mean what more do we have to talk about it's worthless to talk about doctrine if the person doesn't even believe in the bible like what am I supposed to do then leave with one verse and just walk away yeah but he's like an atheist he's this agnostic and so what so what that's that's on him so true debating or true disputes is reasoning it's admonishing and let me say this it's avoiding what does that mean that means you don't purposely try to get into a confrontation with people especially when you're out there winning souls to Christ go to titus chapter three titus chapter three now I know I'm talking about my instagram a lot because um this is where I see this a lot but in my instagram dms I have three columns of messages one of them is where all you guys are at okay because you know we talk share reels memes whatever the second column is what I call the phantom zone okay and the phantom zone is for people who I apply titus chapter three to where it's just like they don't want to listen it's just like okay I'm expelling you to the phantom zone now look at verse nine I'm explaining what I mean here it says but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable in vain a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that as such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of his of himself so what is the Bible telling us here well first of all avoid stupid questions avoid arguing avoid striving why because it's unprofitable it's vain and then when you're talking to someone and you're giving them biblical proof evidence of whatever doctrine you're talking about if they reject it then it's like okay you're a heretic they've essentially subverted the word of God that means you need to walk away you need to put them in a phantom zone and the reason I say this because literally I have people who will try to propose questions to me and they act like they're sincere but then you give them a bunch of verses and they're just like but they're still got chosen people though or sodomites can still be saved or you have a faith without works is dead or yeah but it's the social it's the social trinity though just all that stuff so I give people the time of day if they if I believe they're sincere but then there's this little thing where you can just swipe and just like phantom zone and never and here's the thing about these people okay because these people are full of debate because there's people that have been there for years you know what's crazy about that list is every once in a while I'll go into that column and it'll say five new messages six new messages they're still messaging me even though I've never I haven't responded to them in the years why because they're full of debate folks if someone's not answering my dm you know just just leave them alone but I can literally go on there right now and it's just like two new messages five new messages it's like does this person not get it like I'm done with you I'm not answering you at all but it's because these are the individuals who are full of debate they don't know when to stop we need to know when to stop okay and recognize that some people have subverted the word of god their heretics and after you know a certain amount of admonitions you know you just you reject them now let me make myself very clear because people when I preach sometimes take me a little too literal and they literally keep it at two admonitions and that's it but you obviously have to learn how to read people at the door though one of the most important virtues that you can learn as a soul winner is to learn how to read people because I've been at the door with people where I'm giving them the gospel for like 40 minutes which is a long time I mean that's a really long time but the only reason I did it for 40 minutes is because the guy was being super sincere he was asking questions about salvation and he was not trying to waste my time he was not striving he just had a hard time understanding certain concepts and there came a point 40 minutes in where the light bulb went on and he's like I get it now tears started flowing down his eyes do you want to get saved yes it just took him a long time to overcome so I'm not saying like you give them two verses you go through your gospel presentation and it's just like hey heretic you're a heretic you've subverted you're a heretic with a k no you gotta read people and realize try to feel them out and say okay is this person really understanding or are they trying to be contentious okay which is by the way that's what's important that Christians listen to this that when you're soul winning you're not being robotic there's a temptation that when Christians learn how to go soul winning they're just they use it they treat it almost like a script because you know you guys work really hard to memorize the verses the illustrations and the concepts and it's just like it's almost like it's just a one-sided conversation too and you almost like get upset if they interrupt you or something it's just like you gotta you gotta interact with people when you're out soloing and I'm all for memorizing verses I'm for memorizing concepts statements illustrations and having that in your arsenal but what I think is far more important is your ability to read someone and and actually have love in your heart when you're talking to them and actually interact with them you guys know what I'm talking about when I say interact with them it means like you know you're having a conversation with them okay and you know you can to the point where if they ask a question it doesn't like you're like oh man what point was I on like point b oh I'm gonna put all my notes here let's see you're going to hell no we already passed that you know it's just like you can like just jump right back in because at the end of the day you love the person and you're literally having a conversation with them and look people I've had people criticize me for this I don't care though I've been Sony for 16 years and it's worked for me when I talk to people I get a little comfortable you know what I mean like there's times when I've like gone Sony I'm just like like leaning on the door and stuff and I'm just like you know and people ask me like why do you do that you know I mean because I'm just kind of like talking to them I'm just kind of relaxed talking to the person kind of let my hands go I'm not saying don't don't get too comfortable you know I mean like hey can I go inside and just like can I use your restroom real quick you know I'm just saying like it needs to be like an actual conversation that you're having with someone not just reading off a bunch of verses quoting a bunch of verses because you're just trying to get to the next door you're just trying to get them to pray there needs to be some love where you are actually reading whether they're getting what you're saying understand and so and part of that is like okay this person is trolling me he's not listening and let me say this I've gone Sony with people in our church where because they're mechanical they actually don't realize that the person is wasting their time and I've been with them it's just like this person is not listening he's not asking these questions sincerely and I'm like I want to go already I'm like and sometimes I'll literally just bump in and be like all right well thanks for your time see you later and they're just like oh okay and then just walk off but it's just like you got to learn when to quit they're not listening anymore they're just trying to waste your time talking about the black Hebrew Israelites you know and so what's more profitable you learning everything about the black Hebrew Israelites or just you learning when it's time to quit I think it's better for you to learn when it's time to quit and realize oh he's a heretic oh he's oh you subverted that's what I think when I talk to someone and they start wanting to argue I just say oh this person has subverted the bible oh this person's a heretic and I say all right well all the information that's literally all the information is right there if you have any questions let us know see you later and that's it and you know they they they snicker and laugh like yeah okay yeah okay hey when you really want to talk about the bible just come let me know or something it's like all right you know you got me go to Philippians chapter one Philippians chapter one so you got to avoid these altercations you got to know when to reject people and then you also have to understand that what we do is obviously defend the bible but defending the bible doesn't mean persisting in an argument defending the bible is making a statement about the bible with verses refuting whatever it is that they're saying and if they're not willing to adhere to that then just walk away that's what it is Bible says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 15 some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some of goodwill the one preached Christ of contention not sincerely supposed to add affliction to my bonds but the other of love knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel so obviously we're supposed to defend the gospel how do we do that well here in church by reinforcing the doctrine of the gospel but also when we're out there preaching the gospel and someone presents a false gospel at the door we defend the right gospel by giving them the truth not by arguing with them for literally an hour and I I know soul winners and they're not here anymore who would literally be at a door for an hour just because they're arguing with someone and in that hour another group got three people saved and that guy got no one saved in fact all they did was give our church a bad name that's really what they did and so it's important for us to realize that you know what's the message this morning the message is simply this you know know when it's time to quit no one is time to give the admonitions learn how to differentiate and let me say this learn how to just be humble and realize you know I don't need to get into this discussion or this debate if they want to walk away thinking then they're right and so be it I don't care and here's the illustration I'll leave you off with okay because if you think about it you know it's hard for us to just walk away because we know way more than they do right like we know way more bible we learn the bible this is our life we read it every single day we study it and so we have a lot of knowledge of the bible and so for us it's just like I can smoke you right now if I wanted to I can just destroy you right now right and here's here's how I'll compare and I don't know how 100 accurate this is so you can debate me later about this if you want but you think about like these monks and I think it's Tibet who like they're like experts in kung fu right you guys know what I'm talking about yeah and you know they break bricks and they're that's like their life is they're just really good and I don't I'm not advocating for kung fu because I think it sucks okay you know if you're going to do something to you know get involved in some real stuff right but these guys you know these guys might be the real deal though okay but you know they do some pretty incredible kung fu I don't know what they call it Shaolin or something and if you think about it's like if you were to get in a fight with them they probably would just destroy you if they wanted to but it's actually like they're not allowed to though so they're not allowed to get into any physical altercation and I don't know if it's because of that's just a religion or part of their discipline is they're not allowed to actually get involved in some sort of physical fight even though they're super good at it well you know what in like manner it's the same thing with us it's crazy how God can give us so much knowledge and the answers necessary to refute so many bad arguments and false doctrines but yet when we're out there he forbids us to get involved in any type of strivings or altercations that's just how it is and you say well you know but I want to though and people need to be told what the Bible says okay then we'll see how much your debate how many rewards your debates will produce you at the millennial reign how about that we'll see how many rewards you get at the millennial reign for all those arguments you won you just got Christ is just going to be like this is a crown of winning an argument and winning that argument with your brother with that stranger at the door with that common section that that common section with the with the threat of 115 comments this this is that crown for you uh no it's not going to be that way just want to I don't know if you believe that that was the case but that's not going to happen I'd rather do things of eternal significance and sometimes people do need to be corrected and I understand especially on social media sometimes you got to answer things because it helps the algorithm right putting comments you know just spamming comments kind of helps the algorithm but at the end of the day we should be characterized by meekness instructing those that oppose themselves and not have this ego of well I need to just debate everyone and argue with everyone it's detestable to be honest with you it's off putting and it's not biblical so let's pray father we thank you so much for your word help us as your people to walk in the spirit lord and and to not get involved in an unnecessary shrives lord uh strivings about the law and avoid foolish questions and I pray lord that you'd help us to be a people who are knowledgeable about the word of god but not abuse it I pray that you'd help us to use it to win people to Christ and to invest in people who actually want the truth which at the end of the day that's what it's about you want us to go to those who actually want the truth not people who want to reject it and argue about it and I pray to you bless this as we go on our way in Jesus name amen