THE SERMON - Cowards Will Go To Hell
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Length
1 hour and 9 minutes
Words per minute
148.85391
Harmful content
Misogyny
5
sentences flagged
Toxicity
38
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Hate speech
39
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Summary
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master, and a good disciple is going to behave like the master. A good disciple, a student, should not expect to have a radically different experience than his teacher if something happens to the teacher. If they persecute the teacher, it is very likely that the student will have a similar experience. There is only one way, ultimately, to escape persecution in this life, and that is to be a bad disciple.
Transcript
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We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.
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Please join me in standing for the reading of God's word.
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Our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 10, verses 24 through 33.
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Again, that's Matthew chapter 10, verses 24 through 33.
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When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,
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at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.
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One final time, our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 10, verses 24 through 33.
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A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
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It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master.
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If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?
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So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
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What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the
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housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him
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who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a pinning? And not one
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of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs of your head are all
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numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who
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acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever
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denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. This is the word of the
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Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead and dive right in. I want to focus our attention
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on verses 24 and 25 the first two verses of the text
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seen here the calling of the disciple what's at stake what the qualifications
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are the conditions the criteria what the cost of discipleship entails
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Jesus says to his disciples a disciple is not above his teacher and the point
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that Jesus is making here is that the disciple, a student, should not expect to have a radically
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different experience than his teacher. If something happens to the teacher, it is very likely that the
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student will have a similar experience, right? If they persecute the teacher, they will persecute
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the disciple, the student. If they persecute the master, they will persecute the slave. There's
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only one way, ultimately, to escape persecution in this life, and that is to be a bad disciple.
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You can be loved by the world, and it's actually not that complicated. It's fairly simple. All you
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have to do is look nothing like Christ. That's all you have to do. And the cost is also
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straightforward. It's heavy. I won't lie. It's a steep cost, but it's straightforward. The cost
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is your soul. You will be denied by Christ before his father and cast into hell. So easy to garner
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the love of the world, easy to escape all forms of persecution from the world, and all it costs you
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is eternity in hell. Now the alternative is to actually be commended by Christ before his father
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who is in heaven, and to experience the eternal bliss of joy and peace in the presence of God
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forever. But the cost of that, namely the cost of discipleship, is that you will endure some degree,
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some measure, at some periodic moments of time, seasons in this life of persecution. Why? Because
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Jesus did. And a good disciple, a good student, is going to be formed more and more into the
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likeness of his teacher. A good servant is going to love his master and obey his master, behave as
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the master behaves, and he's going to slowly, gradually, through sanctification, look more and
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more like his master. So whatever the consensus is of the world toward the master, that will be
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the consensus toward the slave. Whatever the consensus is of the world towards the teacher,
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that will be the opinion that the world holds toward the student. This is inescapable. A good
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disciple looks like Jesus. And if you look like Jesus, you should assume and anticipate
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experiencing what Jesus experienced, which is both sharing in his glory and sharing in his
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suffering. I've written in your notes, true Christian discipleship will always involve at
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least some degree of identification with Christ in his suffering. If we are in Christ, that union
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brings with it a share in both his glory and his rejection. Remember Isaiah prophesying, speaking
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of the Christ. Said he came to his own people, but they received him not. That persecution
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contains within it a rejection. Rejection from the world. The believer, therefore, must count
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the cost of discipleship. Faithfulness leads to conflict. Faithfulness leads to conflict.
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there is a cost to discipleship when it comes to salvation salvation is a work of god's grace
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and god's salvific grace is free it is without cost right all who are weary and heavy laden
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come to me and i will give them rest right jesus promises that he'll give a honey and milk without
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price. So the salvation that we have is free. It is the free gift of God. It is by grace alone,
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through faith alone, in Christ alone. But discipleship, there's a distinction here.
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Discipleship is the lifelong process from the point of conversion, salvation, to the point of
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death, where we are following Christ and becoming more and more conformed into His image. And if we
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are to do this, which is also by grace and the work of the Spirit within us, if we are to do this
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well, then we will experience a cost. We will experience what Jesus experienced, at least some
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measure of that. Some degree of the persecution that Jesus experienced will be our experience
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as well. So there is a cost to discipleship. So again, I don't want to blur lines here theologically.
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Now, that said, there is no salvation apart from discipleship.
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Is it I have to be a disciple and do a good job following Jesus
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and rack up persecution and suffering points in order to earn or merit salvation?
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It is not if we work hard at being disciples and experience the rejection and persecution that Christ himself experienced,
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No, it's if we have, in fact, received salvation freely, completely free,
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then we will necessarily, not to earn salvation, but as an evidence of salvation, we will be good disciples.
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And if we're good disciples, because we've been saved and salvation entails being transformed and being made a new creature in Christ Jesus with a new nature that allows for us and also compels us to live in new ways, to go against the grain, if these things happen by grace alone, as a free gift without cost alone, it will necessarily evidence itself.
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This salvation, this transformation, being made a new creature in Christ Jesus will evidence itself in a new life, in a counter-cultural life.
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And that life of discipleship, that's what will merit persecution.
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So no, it is not be a good disciple, get persecuted, earn salvation.
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No, it is receive salvation as a free gift of God through faith, which is also a gift, right?
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The salvation itself is the grace. Grace is free, unmerited favor, undeserved love. So the grace
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of salvation is free. And the empty hand that receives the gift of grace is faith, which is
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also a gift. So it's the gift of salvation that is grace. Grace is a gift. That grace is picked up
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by the hand, empty hand of faith, which is also a gift.
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apart from God's miraculous work in conversion,
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faith is something that no man is capable of conjuring up
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and the faith that picks up that gift of grace.
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Grace is a gift. Faith is a gift. And if God freely gives you these two gifts of grace and faith,
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then you will be a new creature in Christ Jesus. And all of that comes without cost.
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But the evidence of that, the outflow and manifestation of that is a new life, a life of
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discipleship that looks more and more like Jesus and therefore merits and garners similar experiences
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that Jesus himself endured, namely persecution. That's verses 24 and 25 of our text. Now, John
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chapter 15, verse 20. Jesus is teaching the same concept here. And he says, remember the word that
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I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also
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persecute you. So thus far, what we've discussed is the idea of the student should look like the
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teacher, right? The slave should look like the master. And if the teacher slash master experiences
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persecution, then so will the student slash slave. But to get a little bit more specific now,
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see, John just speaks of persecution. John 15 verse 20. Remember the word that I said to you,
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a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted, there's the word me, they will also
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persecute you. But what's helpful about our primary text for today, namely Matthew chapter 10
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verses 24 and 25, is that Jesus adds a little bit more specificity. He's a little bit more
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particular and clarifying on what form that persecution will likely come. And what is it?
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It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master.
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If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign?
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If they maligned me, that is slandered and lied about me.
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when it comes to the physical persecution of Jesus,
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there have been historically throughout this church age
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or even greater degrees of the persecution that Jesus experienced, even in the physical category.
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Peter himself was crucified upside down. Men were beheaded. Men were boiled alive, drawn and
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quartered. I think I explained that a couple Sundays ago, but it's worth explaining again
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because this is just a fan favorite for the kids. You know, for every mom, you know, tonight having
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to console their kids, you know, that I'm too scared to go to sleep. But being drawn and quartered
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Is where they would use a sword and cut a portion, severing the appendages here, but not entirely, with your arms from your torso and then also your two legs.
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And then they would tie your wrist to two different horses and your ankles to two different horses and then say, giddy up.
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And you would be ripped apart, physically ripped apart.
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Here's the point. There were people who died this way for their faith and devotion to Jesus.
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So there have been people in this church age, in this gospel age, who have suffered even in the
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physical category of persecution as much or even more greater physical suffering than Jesus did
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himself. In our current moment, it's not to say that it could never happen again, but in our
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current moment, it is likely, can't promise, but likely that we will not endure that degree of
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physical persecution. So we will be persecuted if we look like Jesus. We probably will experience
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less physical persecution than Jesus did. However, the words of Jesus, we can't miss this, the words
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of Jesus, they seem to promise that we would experience in another realm of persecution,
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not physical but in terms of speech maligning slandering that we would experience not less
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but actually more persecution than jesus again the text this is verse 25 second half if they
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have called the master of the house beelzebul how much more will they malign those of his household
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and that i think is incredibly applicable and relevant for us probably not going to be martyrs
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could happen. Hope it doesn't. Pray it doesn't. Physical martyrdom is unlikely for us in this
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moment, in this context. But being maligned, that is very likely. And not only is it likely
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or plausible that we might be maligned to the same degree as Jesus or a lesser degree,
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but again the words of christ himself how much more will they malign those of his household
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see christ himself was called beelzebul right he was called satan they they called the son of god
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a son of satan or satan himself there's another context in the gospel narratives where jesus is
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casting out demons you guys remember this where where the pharisees and the religious jewish
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leaders of that day they say of jesus they say well yeah he's casting out demons we can't deny
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that but he's doing it by the power of the prince of demons and jesus says that that's that's dumb
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no a house divided against itself cannot stand what what like what could you explain to me
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the strategic benefit that satan would have for casting out his own kingdoms no that's not what's
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going on but the point is they lied they continually slandered they continually maligned
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rather than recognizing christ as the son of god they called him satan record rather than
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recognizing that jesus was doing things under the supernatural power of god as god they said
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well, the source of his power is actually the devil. This was slander. And this form of
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persecution, men's speech against you, should be anticipated by the Christian in any season,
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in any place throughout this church age, but especially, especially, I think, in our current
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context and where we live today. One more word about this. We saw last week over and over,
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And we can't miss this. Jesus talks about the blessing for those who are persecuted.
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But he doesn't just stop there. He finishes the thought persecuted for my name's sake.
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So it's not just persecution for any reason. I say I am following Jesus and I am being persecuted.
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It's like, when's the last time you even said the name of Jesus out loud?
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When's the last time you were preaching the gospel?
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Like, my brother in Christ, you are not being persecuted for his namesake.
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You're being persecuted because you're a jerk.
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People hate you, but they're not hating you for preaching the gospel.
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They're hating you for preaching everything else other than the gospel.
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and what does that mean his namesake that the overarching impetus of this whole chapter of
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matthew and persecution of the student experiencing the persecution of the teacher and the slave the
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master is being persecuted chiefly for the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom
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the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom preaching christ preaching jesus christ that's
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the big idea now that said we can make this argument i'm not going to get you know too
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too far-fetched where it's like ah is that exegesis i i think you just made that up
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using scripture many of jesus of the 12 his 12 apostles because they were uniquely
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charged by jesus to remain in israel remember we saw that last week stay in you will have not gone
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We believe that in our future, there is a final physical return of Christ and a culmination of
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all things and ending of the gospel age. We believe that. However, we also, I'll speak for
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myself, most of us, I believe that there was a second coming of Christ that is actually in our
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past. So a final physical return of Christ in our future. But there was a second coming, a parousia
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that has actually for us already happened.
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All Scripture is for you, not all Scripture is to you.
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All Scripture is for you in the sense that it's all of Scripture,
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And so the man of God would be equipped for every good work.
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But not all Scripture is to you in the sense that
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every single text of Scripture has in view an immediate human audio.
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And so when Jesus is speaking to his disciples, it's to them.
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It is literally to those disciples who are standing in front of him.
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But it's for us with many universal, timeless Christian principles and virtues and doctrine
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that is for all Christians, all of Jesus' broader disciples and future disciples
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Okay, but as it relates to the disciples, the 12, Jesus said,
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and many others throughout Reformed tradition and thought,
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Jesus, in his body, glorified body, remained at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
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until he finally and physically returns. But in AD 70, he spiritually returned, and he returned
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on the clouds. And these are not happy clouds with little baby cherubim, you know, playing harps.
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No, the clouds signify judgment. The prophet Joel chapter 2 talks about clouds and billows of smoke,
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right? Where do these clouds come from? Little wisp, you know, in the air and there's happy music
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and pretty angels. No, these are clouds that are filled with blood and soot. These are the clouds
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that are formed when buildings topple, when there's destruction and desolation. And so that's
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what's in reference is that Jesus actually did come spiritually, a spiritual perusa, and he came
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in judgment, just as he promised. Matthew chapter 24, he says, this generation will not pass away.
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It's not a metaphor. It's not this type of generation. No, he's saying these people, you who I'm talking to, this literal generation will not pass away until all these things come to pass.
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And the things that are in reference in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24 is not one stone of the temple will be left standing on top of another.
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And all of this came to pass in the province of God, in his sovereignty. Titus came in. He destroyed Jerusalem. He destroyed the temple.
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they didn't leave one stone connected to another because the stones were inlaid with gold. And so
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they actually separated every single individual stone that the temple was built with in order to
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scrape off and harvest all of the gold. And those things happened in AD 70. And that was the
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fulfillment of what Christ said, this generation, not this type of generation, but this literal
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physical generation will not pass away until these things come to pass. Those people that Jesus
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preached through in Matthew chapter 24. It was about 40 years later that they actually saw the
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fulfillment of Jesus' words still living in AD 70. So Jesus says, you will not go through all
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the towns in Israel until I come. And that's speaking of his parousia spiritual second coming
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in AD 70. All right, all that being established. Here's the point. For the 12, okay, and we know
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that you know Judas gets replaced with Matthias but for the 12 and that's who this this text is
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to it's for you for me but to them for the 12 Jesus commanded them explicitly to fulfill the
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great commission but to focus their efforts and attention throughout their lives all the way up
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until his coming in 80 70 in Israel in Israel that was their focus it was the apostle Paul
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who is called to be an apostle to the Gentiles.
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Now here's the point as it relates to persecution,
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specifically persecution coming in the form of slander,
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For the twelve, because their primary harvesting grounds,
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their primary target audience where they're called is Israel.
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of the church, not apostles of Christ commissioned by him directly, but apostles of the church. The
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apostle Paul was an apostle of Christ because he was a witness of the resurrected Lord. Jesus
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appeared to him and called him, but others who did not have that experience. So they weren't
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capital A apostles of Christ, but lowercase a apostles of the church sent by the church
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outside of Israel to different Gentile cities. When they went into their context with their
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hearers non-jewish hearers what what was it in their preaching more often than not that garnered
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persecution well it wasn't so much uh you crucified the lord of glory you crucified the son of god
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that's that that that's a little offensive i'm sure it caused some problems but that was not
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what caused the major problems in these Gentile cities. In these Gentile cities, think of Ephesus
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and the Hall of Tyrannus where Paul is arguing for three hours a day for a long time. He's arguing
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with philosophers and the great debaters of that age and all that. What gets Paul and other apostles
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with him, not the 12, but other guys in these Gentile cities, what gets them persecution? What
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gets them in trouble it's usually not so much their exaltation of christ but it's them toppling
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and demolishing other false gods it's uh it's the great uh goddess artemis it's it's the preacher
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says and these other gods are no gods at all that's when all of a sudden they get persecuted
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that's when they get run out of town that's when they get thrown in prison because they're
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disrupting. They're actually disrupting even their economy, not just religiously and culturally and
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politically, but even economically. The silversmiths and the blacksmiths in Ephesus are losing customers.
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Their bottom line is failing. And now all of a sudden they have a problem. They have less of a
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problem. We see this kind of language in certain Gentile places. They have less of a problem of
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just the preaching of Jesus, even Jesus resurrected, even Jesus as the Son of God, because they're
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content in many places to simply add Jesus as just another additional idol in the pantheon
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of gods. They're content. They're like, sure, we'll take Jesus. We'll, you know, right here
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in between Baal and Molech, you know, we can clear a spot on the shelf in the pantheon of false gods
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and we'll put a little Jesus statue there.
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And that's not really a problem, again, for the Romans, right?
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That's not really a problem for a lot of people in Antioch.
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after being so severely persecuted in Jerusalem,
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is because Antioch actually had in its legal system
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certain provisions that allowed for worship of Jesus without being persecuted. But what you
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couldn't do is say, well, Jesus is the only one worthy of worship. That's when you would get into
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trouble. So again, my point is this, with the 12 apostles called to remain in Israel with primarily
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a Jewish audience, what garnered persecution for them? Preaching Christ. What garnered persecution
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for the Christians who went to a Gentile context outside of Israel? Well, it wasn't so much preaching
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about Christ positively, but preaching about all these other false gods negatively. Does that make
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sense? And I think, I'm always trying to apply the scripture for us. I want it to be relevant. I don't
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want it just to be this heady, ethereal, you know, principle. I want there to be application.
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So in our place and our day, what do you think we're more like? Do you think that our context
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and our culture and the religious culture of our day, is it more like Israel? Where if you say
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However, think of now the apostles and the missionaries
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and is seated at the right hand of God the Father.
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by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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That sermon will not get you in too much trouble.
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Never would I argue for anything less than that.
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oh, and these other gods are no gods at all.
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feminism is no god it is an idol it is worthless it's destructive it's poisonous and it must be
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torn down and destroyed what we have literally an entire economy built on feminism our entire
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economy is built on uh two incomes for each household america we we've gotten so off the
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rails, not just culturally, not just religiously or theologically or politically, economically,
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where America cannot afford, it financially cannot afford to reject feminism without the
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economy crashing. Now, in the long run, it'll get better because obedience to God's word always
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brings blessing. But often with sin, the initial repentance is costly. It gets worse initially
00:32:50.360
And all of a sudden, it will be like the silversmiths and blacksmiths in Ephesus.
00:32:57.080
He's desecrating the temple of the great Artemis.
00:33:00.420
And our own livelihood is now in jeopardy.
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If I say feminism is from the devil and every wife should go home.
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all of a sudden, like the statements I made earlier about, I don't think anyone's going
00:33:26.080
to be crucified in 2025. I might get proven wrong. Do you see what? So when it comes to
00:33:33.480
persecution, again, I don't want you to miss this. As we've seen the last two weeks, it is always
00:33:39.400
persecution. If it be genuine persecution, it is persecution for his name sake. It's not just
00:33:47.680
persecution for your pet ideas and soapboxes. Ask me how I know. I've got a few soapboxes and pet
00:33:55.820
ideas. I'm familiar with this concept. I have received persecution for faithfulness. I have
00:34:02.420
also received persecution for stupidity. I've done a little bit of both. And I hope by God's
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grace that it would be more of the former and less of the latter. That said, real, true, genuine
00:34:14.700
persecution, the persecution for which we will be blessed by God, the persecution that God favors,
00:34:21.380
that God blesses, that pleases the Lord, is always going to be persecution for Christ's namesake,
00:34:28.340
not for our own. However, in that category of genuine persecution for Christ's sake, I think
00:34:34.700
there are two primary subcategories is the way to think about it. You can be persecuted for his
00:34:40.740
namesake, for Christ's sake, for preaching Christ positively, but also for preaching against every
00:34:48.920
alternative to Christ, every false idol that exalts itself over and against Christ negatively.
00:34:55.840
And I think by and large, obviously there are some exceptions. I'm giving a general rule,
00:35:00.540
trying to give a 30,000 foot view so we can see in simplicity, just the general big picture idea.
00:35:06.780
in general for these guys right those that the text is two it's for us but to them for the 12
00:35:15.260
they experienced a lot of persecution for just preaching that Jesus is God and that the Jews
00:35:23.060
crucified the the Lord of glory that got them in a lot of trouble but for others other Christian
00:35:34.100
leaders, apostles, lowercase a apostles and elders and missionaries in Gentile context,
00:35:40.640
if they went there and said, Jesus is the son of God and the Jews killed him. Some of those
00:35:49.180
contexts would be like, yeah, they did. They're not offended by that. They're like, yeah, that's
00:35:56.980
great. Jesus is God. Okay. Here's our pantheon. We currently have 4,537 different gods. And let's,
00:36:05.840
you know, sweep away some cobwebs here and, you know, move a couple of these up. Jesus. We added
00:36:11.420
him on the list. And you said that he came to his own and they rejected him. They received him not.
00:36:19.040
Those other guys over there, they did. Yep. So you're telling me I have to add Jesus to the God
00:36:24.540
roster and admit that the Jews killed him. Great. Great. No problem with that.
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But the second part of the message, the implications, or as the Puritans called it,
00:36:41.020
as we like to, the applications is, oh, by the way, there's one more sticking point.
00:36:45.960
You added Jesus in this pantheon of gods, but all the other ones need to be ground into ash
00:36:55.860
and destroyed. It's only Jesus. All the other ones are false gods. Feminism is a false god.
00:37:04.660
Zionism is a false god. Egalitarianism is a false god. All these other ones are false gods.
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secularism is a false god globalism is a false god all these other idols must be destroyed it is
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only christ and anything that asserts itself as the ultimate orthodoxy the ultimate dogma the
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ultimate religion because that's what we're talking about these are not just ideas in our
00:37:36.540
current context today these are religions these are faith systems we're talking about worship
00:37:43.180
it is absolutely worship the post-war consensus is real and it is a religion
00:37:50.740
egalitarianism is not just an idea it is god in our culture today and when you begin to say no
00:38:01.080
it's only christ and it's the christian worldview and the world as christ made it in the beginning
00:38:09.420
was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and by christ by this word the logos
00:38:16.040
all that has been made was made and he has a natural order for the world that he made and we
00:38:23.240
must abide by it humbly for his glory when you start preaching that all of a sudden you get in
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trouble you just preached jesus loves you he died for your sin like there's a bunch of maggot guys
00:38:38.620
would be like yeah uh-huh jesus and trump amen and don't get me wrong i i appreciate trump june
00:38:49.140
not the best month for trump july seeming promising i'm excited right i think there's a little bit of
00:38:56.340
hope. ICE is now funded. I think the budget is equal to the budget for the Marines.
00:39:04.760
Love it. Love that. That's great. That's great. America might actually have a chance. We might
00:39:11.200
get our country back. That's incredible. Here's my point. I like Trump. Here's my point. That's
00:39:16.500
not my point. My point is this. You can preach Christ positively, and you'll get a lot of
00:39:23.040
acceptance. But when you preach against false gods negatively in our context, that's where you
00:39:30.880
start to get a lot of persecution. So persecution, if it be genuine and pleasing to God, it will not
00:39:38.100
be persecution for your namesake. It'll be for Christ's namesake. That's the only kind of
00:39:42.740
persecution that's genuine. Within that genuine persecution for Christ's namesake, I do think
00:39:47.780
there are two subcategories. Preaching Christ's name positively, and also preaching against all
00:39:55.360
false antichrists negatively. Both of those, I believe, are genuine, authentic forms of preaching
00:40:03.700
Christ. And that, in some contexts, the first one gets you in trouble. In Israel, for the 12,
00:40:11.400
in the first century, the first one, Jesus is God. You crucified the Lord of glory. That got
00:40:19.340
them in trouble. In more Gentile context, like Ephesus, Artemis is not God. And your blacksmith
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business is about to go out of business. That's the one that got them in trouble. And if I'm
00:40:33.600
comparing it, trying to give application and relevancy for us today in the year of our Lord,
00:40:39.840
2025 in America, I think it's going to be preaching against false gods that will probably
00:40:46.120
garner more persecution than positively preaching the true God. You can't do one or the other, okay?
00:40:53.280
I've said that. I want to say it one more time. I'm not advocating for you can just do one. You must
00:40:58.900
do both. You must preach Christ and exalt him, but you also must preach against idolatry
00:41:34.960
Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
00:41:43.420
This one goes against a lot of modern evangelical sensibilities
00:41:47.220
because you might think, hey, you don't need to be fearing man.
00:41:55.380
But instead, the antidote for the fear of man's approval,
00:42:04.960
Right? Yeah, man might hate you, but God accepts you and loves you. Right? You might be rejected
00:42:12.280
by people, but you're accepted by God. But that's not actually what Jesus provides. That is true.
00:42:18.540
But what Jesus explicitly says is this. He doesn't say, do not fear man in his rejection,
00:42:23.720
because you have God in his acceptance. No, he says, no, man can reject you, but God will reject
00:42:30.100
you forever. God will reject you harder. God will reject you far worse. Man might reject you all
00:42:37.120
the way to killing your body. God will kill your body and kill your soul forever. Powerfully
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motivating. That's wonderful preaching, right? Jesus is a good preacher. I mean, he really,
00:42:48.080
he knows how to motivate the people. He's like, hey, you need to fear God. Why? Because he's
00:42:53.840
terrifying oh and the reality is this the only true antidote to casting out lesser fears is a
00:43:06.600
greater fear right it's it's the person who i mean there's so many examples of this but just for
00:43:14.480
instance um there could be someone who's scared to death to leave their home for whatever reason
00:43:20.320
but if they run out of food and they've gone without eating and water food and water long
00:43:26.760
enough well the fear of starvation might eventually begin to override the fear of
00:43:32.520
leaving their home and it drives them out and that's the concept that Jesus is providing here
00:43:38.340
now it's not I'm not saying that that it's not true that for those who are in Christ that
00:43:43.420
that God accepts us and loves us and consoles us the Holy Spirit one of his names is comforter
00:43:49.460
right all this is true and first john even says perfect love casts out all fear so there is an
00:43:55.980
aspect of of the love of the father first john chapter 3 verse 1 see what love the father has
00:44:02.820
given to us that we should be called the children of god and this perfect love of the father for
00:44:08.020
his children uh it does cast out all fears but also so it's not either or but also the fear of
00:44:16.420
God cast out lesser fears. The love of God cast out fear, but also the fear of God cast out lesser
00:44:25.140
fears. And this is what Jesus is saying here. He's saying, look at the big picture. Make a wise
00:44:31.360
decision. Invest appropriately, wisely. Yeah, if you are faithful to Christ, you will be rejected
00:44:41.800
by the world. If you're not faithful to Christ, you'll be rejected by my Father. And his rejection
00:44:49.340
is far worse. One, because his power is infinite. But two, because it's also an eternal duration.
00:44:59.120
His rejection is of greater severity and greater length, greater duration. Man can reject you to
00:45:07.700
to only a certain degree and for only so long and then it's done. But not with God. God can reject
00:45:15.580
you forever and he can reject you completely. That's the idea. Proverbs 1 verse 7 says this,
00:45:23.780
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of
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the Lord is the foundation for knowledge and wisdom. Going back to 1 John again, it's, I wrote
00:45:36.380
a book about it. So 1 John is always just etched in my brain. But 1 John talks about no fear of
00:45:43.260
judgment. So for the Christian, we actually should rest in the love and salvation and justification,
00:45:49.700
acceptance of God to the point that we're not fearing the judgment of the Lord. We should not,
00:45:56.080
our salvation should not be like a little girl sitting on a hillside with a daisy, you know,
00:46:00.280
he loves me he loves me not he no no we we need we desperately need to be assured of our adoption
00:46:07.640
assured that christ uh has loved us and that we have union with him and that the father loves us
00:46:14.440
as his sons the holy spirit dwelling within us our body is now a temple the holy spirit
00:46:19.580
and he is affirming our adoption within us abba father and so we want an assurance of salvation
00:46:26.700
that we're not going back and forth, back and forth.
00:46:35.560
However, although the Christian should not fear judgment,
00:46:42.120
And there's a distinction between the two.
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Fear of the judgment of God versus fear of the Lord Himself.
00:46:56.100
he's promised not to, but still a reverence of his power, a reverence of his glory, a reverence
00:47:02.480
of his strength, of his majesty. And it's the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom
00:47:08.080
and is the fear of God, this great fear that cast out all lesser fears. One of the most powerful
00:47:16.700
things that motivates me day in and day out to where I just don't care. I don't care if people
00:47:23.180
reject me i don't care what people are saying is the fact that i i don't want jesus to deny me
00:47:31.660
before his father and that's how our text ends we'll get there in just one moment
00:47:37.300
all right so first god is sovereign over all things he has the power to destroy the body
00:47:42.560
and destroy your soul in hell forever that said his sovereignty god is in control over all things
00:47:49.780
and he could absolutely decimate you so you should fear him more than man but then Jesus gives these
00:47:57.100
words of comfort immediately following and saying that all of that power all of that sovereignty of
00:48:03.140
God that could destroy you if you're in Christ is now wielded for your benefit so the same God who
00:48:11.780
is sovereign and powerful enough to kill your body and destroy your soul in heaven is also
00:48:16.640
so it's not just fear it's a two-pronged motivation don't fear man because god's scarier
00:48:23.180
also don't feel fear man because god's also more loving it's both god's scarier than people are
00:48:30.080
but also god loves you more than people do so continuing uh verse 27 it says uh verse 28 do
00:48:40.540
not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear fear him who can destroy both
00:48:45.260
soul and body in hell, are not, now look, the power of God now wielded toward your good, are not
00:48:51.180
sparrows sold for a penny, and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from God noticing
00:48:56.220
it, God seeing it, and God allowing it in his sovereignty. Verse 30 now, but even the hairs of
00:49:02.920
your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So what Jesus
00:49:10.140
is saying is don't fear man because God is more fearful, but also don't fear man because God
00:49:16.360
loves you. All the things about his majesty, his power, and his sovereignty that makes him a greater
00:49:22.040
threat also makes him a greater advocate. And if God be for you, who can be against you? And if
00:49:29.500
you're in Christ, he is in fact for you. So even the hairs of your head are numbered. In your notes
00:49:35.960
I've written this. The same God who can destroy the soul is also the one who numbers the hairs
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of our head and governs even the fall of sparrows. God is meticulously in control over all things.
00:49:50.920
Our trials are not random. What happens in this world is not arbitrary. The believer is called
00:49:57.740
to reverence God and rest in His sovereign love.
00:50:20.360
in what He could do to us in destruction and judgment.
00:50:24.240
but also that power if we be in christ is being wielded for us on our behalf and therefore we can
00:50:32.900
rest we can rest assured that god is our shield that god is protecting us that god is providing
00:50:38.780
for us so the power and sovereignty of god over all things even sparrows and the number of hairs
00:50:45.420
on your head, that power produces both reverence, fear of the Lord, and rest, a safety and a security
00:50:55.420
in the Lord. And it's that double, two-sided motivation, reverence and rest, that is the
00:51:02.480
antidote to the fear of man. Last two verses, verse 32 and 33, confessing Christ without shame.
00:51:10.740
we see these words terrifying words Jesus says so everyone who acknowledges me before men
00:51:18.380
I also will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven but whoever denies me before men
00:51:24.260
I also will deny before my father who is in heaven the absolute necessity of public confession
00:51:46.240
The danger of apostasy, turning away from Christ,
00:51:53.920
Those who deny Christ will be denied by Christ.
00:52:36.220
they went out from us because they were not of us.
00:52:49.620
No, they went out from us because they were never of us.
00:52:56.960
There's a way of a person belonging to the visible church,
00:53:01.640
a way of them being baptized and taking the Lord's Supper
00:53:05.220
and participating in worship and the fellowship of the saints
00:53:08.320
and all these things without having ever truly belonged to Christ,
00:53:13.060
without being regenerate, without being justified,
00:53:18.600
So the apostate is the one who belonged to the visible church,
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the apostate is the one who looked like a christian but was not a christian and what
00:53:30.660
jesus is saying is for those who deny me before men i will deny them before my father who is in
00:53:37.180
heaven he's not saying that there's a way of losing your salvation he's saying that there
00:53:41.780
is a way of ultimately manifesting evidencing that you never had that salvation to begin with
00:53:47.900
and one of the chief ways of eventually proving and bearing fruit that you never really were
00:53:54.280
a Christian is cowardice. There's a there's a number of ways to reveal that you are an apostate,
00:54:03.960
not someone who lost salvation, but someone who ultimately never had it. There's a number of ways
00:54:08.840
to do this. You can do this through sexual immorality. You can do this by simply abandoning
00:54:15.540
the church and still being a moral person in many ways. But but you just you don't believe you don't
00:54:26.360
But the way that Jesus found necessary to explicitly mention in our text today with his apostles is cowardice.
00:54:36.360
And I don't think that that should be lost on us.
00:54:39.700
Jesus could have said, you know, I'll deny you before my father if you stop living a life that's filled with the fruit of the spirit.
00:54:49.920
And those things, actually, there's an argument to be made for those things,
00:54:54.800
those forms of apostasy from a whole biblical theology.
00:54:58.500
But the particular type of apostasy that's explicitly mentioned by Christ Himself
00:55:04.160
here in our text is those who deny Him before men.
00:55:11.120
So what kind of apostasy does Jesus have in mind, in view here in our text?
00:55:23.860
That you could still be living a moral life
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and you could even still be a part of the church,
00:55:46.240
who is in heaven. Christianity is a public faith. It's an individual faith, right? It can't just be
00:55:55.420
the faith of your parents or the faith of your forefathers or the faith of your country. Well,
00:55:59.900
I'm a part of a Christian country. No, it actually has to be an individual faith, but an individual
00:56:05.720
faith that is not a private faith. So it is personal. Christianity is a personal faith, but
00:56:12.720
not a private faith. It's personal and public. Even our baptism is public. It's publicly confessing
00:56:21.120
Christ. And that doesn't mean that you have to be suicidal. I'm not saying that you have to stand
00:56:26.920
on your desk in the middle of the workplace, you know, and just start railing against feminism
00:56:31.760
in Christ's name. I'm not saying that you need to get fired. We don't have the benevolence
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fund available for all of you to lose your job which is you know so please you know exercise a
00:56:43.600
little bit of wisdom however however yes be prudent yes be shrewd but but in the name of prudence
00:56:52.860
brothers and sisters last thing i'm going to say in the name of wisdom and shrewdness and prudence
00:56:58.500
don't go to hell that's what's at stake here this is not just a hypothetical and it's not just you
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know just verbose wording no jesus is being literal he's saying that if you're a coward
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you will go to hell if you will not confess him publicly before men he will not acknowledge you
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And it's not that you will have lost your salvation.
00:58:20.680
and we need to have people in our life who help us to not deceive ourselves and console ourselves
00:58:29.840
to think i'm just being prudent i'm just being shrewd no you're just compromising
00:58:36.040
you're just compromising and publicly confessing christ in our context i think it's different this
00:58:44.720
is my opinion all right so i'm suggesting this part i'll preach it a little bit softer
00:59:03.500
I think has a little bit more to do with Ephesus
00:59:15.460
it's a faithfully and publicly acknowledge Christ
00:59:27.620
but also preaching against all the antichrist negatively.
00:59:44.720
because we all know you you can write love songs about jesus
00:59:50.760
and and your life you don't experience person your life immediately will improve
00:59:57.240
you just go take a katie perry song and get rid of the word boyfriend insert the word jesus
01:00:03.920
and and you you'll be celebrated you won't be persecuted there are plenty of people
01:00:11.400
who will publicly say, I'm a Christian. I love Jesus. There are actors who say it. There are
01:00:17.260
athletes who say it. There are politicians who say it, usually with an Israel flag in their office.
01:00:22.760
You know, but there are plenty of people who say, I love Jesus. And Jesus is God. And he died for
01:00:30.140
your sin. Penal substitutionary atonement. And bodily raised, was raised from the dead. And it
01:00:36.380
doesn't get you in a whole lot of trouble. But it's it's then saying Artemis is no God at all.
01:00:45.600
Artemis is a false Jesus. Jesus is Lord and he will share his glory with no one.
01:00:57.740
Exclusivity of Christ and the toppling of every antichrist. I do believe especially in our
01:01:05.800
context today with as many idols as we have as many false orthodoxies and dogmas and religions
01:01:12.500
it's not just ideologies they're religious and our day i do believe that the toppling of these
01:01:18.840
anti-christ is a part of the the public confessing of the true christ and if you do both and again
01:01:28.900
it's not either or it's always it's both but if you do both then all of a sudden you will start
01:01:34.320
to experience some persecution and I think that that is an indicator often not perfect indicator
0.99
01:01:41.980
because you can get persecution for just your own namesake and being dumb and being a jerk
0.95
01:01:46.440
but okay so it still requires discernment but I think in general persecution is a a decently
0.98
01:01:56.040
accurate indicator for whether or not you are truly and publicly professing Christ if you go
01:02:03.560
through your life with zero pushback, with zero persecution, then I don't, I don't know.
01:02:12.960
I just, I'll just say this. I don't want to be you on that final day. I, that's, that to me,
01:02:19.960
that is terrifying. You were a Christian and you found a way to make it through this world
01:03:25.620
This is Jesus scaring his disciples, and I hope by God's grace that you're a little bit scared today.
01:03:31.640
You might stand before him one day and hear, depart from me, I never knew you.
01:03:38.560
And one of the best ways to ensure that you don't hear that is to be a student that looks like the teacher,
01:03:45.380
to be a slave that looks like the master, particularly in the category of persecution.
01:03:56.580
but also to preach against all those idols negatively.
01:04:08.560
And then what you can do is take that persecution,
01:04:24.960
At the end of the day, that's like people are like,
01:04:29.200
One of my lifelong goals, like top tier, don't go to hell.
01:04:33.520
It's like, I'm like thinking about that every day.
01:04:35.620
Seriously, I'm like, don't go to hell, Joel.
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01:04:39.060
Don't go, Jesus, keep me, preserve me, change me, help me,
01:04:46.720
and i i some of you you may think like what do you mean maybe like i'm a coward i am a coward
01:05:02.600
i'm worried about this i'm scared about that like some people think like oh you're so courageous
01:05:11.060
i am constantly convicted of all the ways that i have adopted liberalism all the ways i've adopted
01:05:20.820
modernity secularism like i read these old christian writers and i'm like i'm a lib
01:05:33.440
i i i often am ashamed and asking the lord please help me grant me the gift of repentance
1.00
01:05:42.920
sanctify me change me if i was having a lunch with the puritans i'm pretty sure i'd be put
01:05:51.160
underneath church discipline help me god help me to be a historic christian
01:06:41.440
And there's so many times where we might think,
01:06:57.260
compare yourself to the Puritans, the Reformers, pan out.
01:07:06.020
and saying, well, I'm more courageous than them.
01:07:12.560
You have more courage than the most cowardly generation of people
0.96
01:07:19.900
Looking around you in 2025 cannot be the ruler,
01:07:24.260
the ruler, the measuring rod for what's pleasing to Christ. That cannot be the metric you use for
01:07:30.980
determining Christian virtue. Guys, we are in a sad state of affairs. Are you aware how sad the
01:07:37.740
state of affairs of the nation, of the world, and of the church currently are? So no, you cannot
01:07:44.560
Not just say, well, I'm more courageous than that guy.
01:08:12.900
then come talk to me come come talk to Connor come talk to Michael um and and and seriously have
01:08:21.660
have meet with one of the elders and say um guys I I'm concerned for my soul I want to be faithful
01:08:28.920
to Christ but the last five years I've never had anybody upset with me about my faith and
01:08:36.260
and that concerns me and we'll respond by saying good that should concern you that's good let's
01:08:42.020
talk about that. What does it look like for you in your daily life to follow Jesus? Because to not
01:08:48.540
have any conflict, any pushback, to not have any persecution from men, that's the whole point of
01:08:54.840
our text today. It should scare you. Let's pray. Father, bless your word to your people. We pray
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that you would bring for yourself great glory by the preaching of your word. Whatever I said that's
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not true to your word, I ask, Lord, that we would forget and that it would not stick. But whatever's
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true lord i pray that um that it would not be something that's easy to shove off but it would
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it would remain and and that each of us would have to wrestle with that and uh and that we
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would repent if repentance is needed and that we would be motivated to be more courageous and
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faithful towards you we ask this in jesus name amen