[inaudible].[inaudible]
Speaker 3:we are living in a culture and society that is becoming more and more violent, but violence isn't anything new to our world. Violence began back when Cain killed Abel. That's where it all started and we've lived in a violent world ever since. I think it's been accelerated by social media and the 24 hour news cycle. When I was a little kid, I heard old people say, you know, when I grew up, well, when I grew up, we had I, we had about an hour or two a news and that's all we had and have you missed your hour or two? There was nothing. You didn't know what was going on in the world and maybe ignorance was a little blessed back then. Maybe it was the less you knew, maybe the better because the more you know, the more things happen. But again, violence is not something any of us like to talk about. And yet Jesus talked about it. In fact, he, uh, talked about a Violet Gospel. The Gospel to him was violent. We come upon some very difficult verses, but I don't think they're impossible to understand if we look within the context. Uh, and so let's kind of catch the context cause it's all about John the baptist, that it's all about the transition. Now that's going to come with Jesus on the seat. I'm going to introduce to you a word perhaps you've never heard before. Maybe you have, it's called dispensationalism. That was a long word. And what it means is I'm a believer in dispensation. So it was introduced by a guy named John Darby a couple of hundred years ago. And it's simply the idea that God works through different men at different times in different ways, and that he worked in different dispensational times. I'll give Ya. The first was kind of a cognitive between God and Adam that didn't go real well. Uh, it didn't go well at all. And then you had a, a covenant or an agreement between God and Noah. You know, when God told Noah to replenish the earth, it wasn't just the physical God wanted Noah to replenish his own spiritual faith in God throughout the whole earth. And then a different way of looking at it. That didn't go so well. Uh, well I went okay until Noah planted a vineyard and got drunk from the wine of it. And then Moses came along and God had an agreement or a covenant called the law. This was another time period I skipped over it. Abraham Abraham, he made an agreement with Abraham. And Abraham's big message to us was the message of faith that Abraham believed God. It was accounted to him for righteousness. And then Moses came along and God was gave us the law, the dispensation or time period of the law. And then with the arrival of Jesus Christ, the law was fulfilled. And we have entered into the last days of the last 2000 years, which we call the age of grace. Now, it's important to note that God has always been a god of grace from Adam. Right on. If he wouldn't have got of grace, he know he had a destroyed Adam right there. God was Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So in none of these men, the only way men ever had faith in God and they made it, made it to heaven was grace. No one's ever been good enough, but God had a purpose for giving us these dispensations of grace or dispensations of times of which we are in the midst of greats. By the way, aren't you glad we live? When we do? Amen. When Jesus returns and the rapture takes place, the age of grace of the age of the church will be over. Do you understand? We are in the select group of the bride of Jesus Christ. Do you understand? That's a place that Isaiah doesn't hold, that he lied. You doesn't hold that great. Abraham doesn't hold. Moses doesn't hold that place. We are the bride of Jesus Christ. Now, there'll be a lot of people at the wedding, but everybody's looking at the bride. I'll never forget when Whitney got married, beautiful bride, breathtaking, took my breath away. I know she took Landon Caleb's breath away and I'll never forget all the little girls that were surrounding her looking up at her in that big way because little girls start real early planning their wedding. I mean two and three and four years old. They get, they got and they're all looking at Whitney and my sister shimming up to me and she said, see those little girls? Look at your daughter. She did it right and they're just admire that we are the bride of Jesus Christ. We are going to be in heaven and a very special spot and that good. Now you need to know that because when he's going to talk about John the baptist, he's going to say a very shocking thing and let's look at it. But I want to set up John the Baptist for you in your mind, because Jesus asked the crowds, what did you go out into the wilderness to see you made a trip? You know, they always say, build a church in the middle of all the neighborhoods, you know, build it in the right spot and then it would grow. John was out in the middle of nowhere. And when it says the wilderness, it wasn't like a bunch of trees were out there. It was arid and dry and sandy and rocky and hot, and it was a nasty place. And yet the people went to him and he asked him, when you went out there, what did you go to see? And then he asked him, did you go to see a reed driven by the wind? Now, what was the, uh, re, uh, read was a small thin piece of ryegrass that was easily blown by the wind wherever the wind blew, that's where that ryegrass went. I think he was asking them, did you go to see a man who simply told you what you wanted to hear? Whatever the popular doctrine of teaching was, he just gave you what you wanted to hear. That wasn't John. John Never told you what you wanted to hear. He was not a read, easily shaken by the latest teaching and doctrine. And then he said, did you go to see a man dressed in find Lydon and clothing? Man, that wasn't John. John was, John wore the Campbell's hair. I don't know how he dealt with camel hair coat out in the middle of the dry desert. It mean a death it would have. He ate locusts, probably dipped him in some honey. He was a rough character. He was, he had a scraggly wild beer. The Herald, I mean, this was, um, this was an outdoor outdoorsman. This was a man that was rough. It wasn't refined. He wasn't eloquent in his speech. Rough and rugged and ready. Notice what he says. That's the shocking thing down in verse 11 truly I say to you, among those born of women here, he's going to introduce the new dispensation is new age of grace. This is, this is where it is. You see it. Verse 11 among those born of women there has arisen no greater than John the baptist. That's quite a compliment. Do you understand? He passed over Moses and Abraham. It's never been a man greater than John the Baptist hats. That's high, high words. Yet the one who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than He. How can that possibly be true? The person who just gets saved, a babe in Christ is greater than the greatest man who's ever lived under the law. Yes, because a person positioned in grace, a person who has been given the Holy Spirit not to be taken away, whose entire foundation of life from God's perspective is the blood of Jesus Christ where there is no sin. See, that position in its infancy is greater than John. It is in his greatest moment, a beautiful a child born into a house is greater than the servant in the house. No matter how great that servant is, the moment a child is born, they inherit everything within that family as a baby. Is it an amazing, you can hold that newborn baby and you might've had a server in your house that was like a son to you for 50 years. He takes a second spot, he takes, he takes a second step away from that bay. Amazing state again, aren't you glad we're in the age of grace? But then he says this in verse 12 from the days of John The baptist, until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force. That's tough. First is it not? John told me last week, I said, John, how far are you going to preach in math? And you said verse one through 15 well, my first thought was that's too many verses, but that's usually a young man's mistake when he preaches to many verses. But after he studied chapters 11 verse one through 15 and he got the verse 12 he called me and said, Dad, I think I'm preaching from verse one diverse 11 I see. Okay, you read over verse 12 and thought, that's tough, and like a young man shied away from it. I don't blame them. That's a tough verse. He gave the old man to take care of. What's it mean? Well, get some help from Luke chapter 16 verse 60 it'll be up on the screen in just a minute if you don't want to turn there. But Luke Chapter 16 Verse 16 says this, the law and the prophets, you were until John, by the way, this was a different teaching of Jesus about the same thing. It was just in a different setting. That's why it sounds different. The law and the prophets were, until John John ended that dispensation of law sense. Then the good news of the Kingdom is preached and everyone notice forces their way into it. It's a violent act of the will to get into the Kingdom of God. Well, I thought it was easy. I thought you just believed. That's the violent act. That's the violence of the Gospel. That it absolutely presents to mankind, that everything he has ever based his life on himself is wrong and dead and sinful. And when the, when you introduce a new kingdom into a present kingdom, there is always conflict. We are Americans. We live in the United States. We take the freedom and sovereignty of a nation very seriously. Any suggestion that any other country would metal in our country and presently metal in our election is offensive to us that any other country would try to influence how we freely vote. We would hate that. Would we not? We should fight that with all that we have. It is. It is just like an invasion upon our shores. Is it not? When you have a sovereign kingdom and there's another kingdom knocking at the door, there is all out war. There must be when the Kingdom of God arrive in the Kingdom of Heaven and it introduced the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a kingdom that is in conflict with the Kingdom of men. That's why they hated him. That's why they hate us. That's why there's violence. Go on in the text. Look down at verse 12 it said the violence, take it by force. What is that that you and I believing on Jesus Christ. You see the Kingdom of Heaven, one good man set, wrote years ago is not for the interested. It's as for the desperate. It is for those who have seen the end of themselves and, and cry out to Christ to save them. It is believers in Jesus Christ who progressingly want nothing from this world because it is empty and dead and it, it is, it is. We are having an infant station of love bugs this year. Have anybody else notice how many love bugs are out there? Holy smokes. Somebody shipped them in. I go out on my back porch and I mean it's, it's like an, it's like a graveyard out there. It's so thick. I can almost, I can't even see them. So I blow them off. And the worst thing is to try to rush them off pressure, wash them off and wash it. Cause then you've created all these water, puddles of lakes for them to fly into. Karen said, she's looking up on the Internet, natural remedies for love box. Good Luck Karen. She's gonna send me down to ace hardware and Callahan to get blood bug repellent. I said, man, I live out in this town. They just make fun of me out there and labeled me as the village idiot is what they'll do. That's about the worth of this world. It's a bunch of love buds and I know their love bugs are just flying around doing that thing they do. You know, that's what they're doing and it's, it's love for a short season and they don't care. You're just floating around. The only good thing about a love bug, and we'll move on. I know this is, but if you just move on quickly, but when they died, did you know when they die and they get into your, um, the, the, the bed where all the plants are, they're actually a great fertilizer for the plants. So that gives you some kind of hole. But this is about as good as the world gets. This is all they have to offer us. A bunch of temporary flying love bugs that die and are worth nothing, and we are those who aggressively take the gospel and we're aggressively by the, what's this Bobbie Act of our will choose to believe deeper and deeper into Jesus Christ.
Speaker 4:Hey,
Speaker 3:we are not robots that God curves along with grace. We are carried along with grace, but we are too aggressively grab onto grace and grab onto Jesus Christ and grab onto the Gospel and grow in grace. It's desperation is what it is. It's an act of violence to put down your pride and yourself and the opinions of others. We cleaned the Jesus Christ alone. That's a violent thing. It ought to be a, it must be a violent thing clutching to Jesus Christ goes on in verse 13 for all the prophets in the law prophesied until John noticed the end of it. And if you are willing to accept it, if you can handle this, he is Alijah who is too calm.
Speaker 4:Whoa.
Speaker 3:Malakai chapter four is the last verse in the Old Testament. I want to show it to Ya. Malakai chapter four verse five. It's the notice. It's the last verse in the Old Testament before that period is shut out. It says this, behold, I send you in Ligeia the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. That's not his first coming. That's his second coming. When it talks about the great and awesome day, that has not happened. That will happen at the end of the tribulation. When Christ returns to this earth and before he comes, revelation tells us there'll be two witnesses. They will preach on the streets of Jerusalem for 1,260 days. Mark it down to three and a half years. They will stand and preach and preach and pray for three and if you think this sermon might be long, three and a half years of preaching, they'll get them on the, the media of certain media outlets won't cover them, but some will and they'll preach to the world the coming wrath of God and a repent. I believe one of those two witnesses is a lie and it's very possible from this verse that it really is John the Baptist returned in the spirit of Elijah. It says that it is he who is to come, not who was already gone met. Amazing. Now we who are saved will be there looking down, but wouldn't it be great to see John the Baptist preacher? Oh, hereon wild again.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Probably the only town he could walk around and not be noticed as a New York City. He'll think it's so crazy looking. Look at verse 1314 Ah, let's go to 15 he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And then he says in verse 16 this all in the same context of John the Baptist for two. What shall I compare this generation? They, they're like children sitting in the marketplace calling to their playmates and this is what they called across the marketplace. Two things. We played the flute for you and you did not dance. Not at this point. I love the ESV because it says we sang a dirge. A dirge is an old fashions, I think it's an Irish or Scottish word, mealy. A sad melancholy. Saul, my old friend, Verner Parker, who used to go here years ago who loved music. He said, you know I, I asked him about the fiddle and he said I had to quit listening to them and made me cry to, to listen to it play. We played the flute to you. You didn't dance for us. We sang a, you didn't cry. You didn't more. Look, there's nothing more powerful than music. Very few things that are more powerful than music. You see generation of Jay after generation has their instruments to play their music. Not Kids have those bobs in their ear and you can't talk to them cause they're bobbing her head her. We all have our music that we love. James Taylor just came out with a new album. I'm very excited about listening to song after song. We all have our music and music has a reaction. I don't care how stiff yar he, when when the Banjo starts, you just going to start doing this cause he had affects you. Jesus said, we played the flute. You were stiff. You didn't dance. You didn't move your feet. You stood off at a site and evaluated me. John Sang a dirge. You didn't cry when he preached. You studied as a dif at a distance and you were cold as ice. Wow. What an indictment to this generation. He says in verse 18 for John came neither eating or drinking and they say, oh, he's a demon. He's in a state. He didn't drink. He didn't, he, he didn't have the normal operations of life. He's a demon. That was their evaluation. Verse 19 the son of Man came eating and drinking and they say, look at him. He's a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yes, I love that. Matthew included tax collector. Don't you sure got that one in there? No reaction stiff. By the way, that's what religion will do for you. It'll make you[inaudible] coldly evaluating of all things Christian doctrine. Karen and I were talking about a month ago along the lines of reformed theology cause it was just intermixed in her family and we were talking about it because it was a situation that was affecting us. So you've got reformed theology of the Calvinist, the hyper Calvinist. You've got the Armenians, you know the whole freewill. God doesn't choose[inaudible] and then let's broaden the topic. You've got charismatics where the whole tongues thing is go. You've got a prosperity Gospel. You've got, you have so many else springs of Christianity and doctrines that people run with. Karen had the most insightful comment when she said to this. To me, the shame of it is that when people go down those veins, they become cold to Jesus Christ himself. When we stand off and evaluate things and we become judge of things, we are missing out on the power of the Gospel to transform our lives. We're missing out on the person who died for us and that we died with him and we had been resurrected to newness of life and we are to live by that life like bread and wine to us. We take our eyes off of that and battle these side issues has the shame of it. It is a nod and then he says, this is the last, first we'll look at the notice down at the end of verse 19 yet, wisdom is justified by her deans, by her words, some of the King James has by her children. I don't mind that translation. That's a good one. There. Wisdom is justified by her death. What did he mean when these pharisees and these crowds stood at a distance and were cold toward Jesus and John the Baptist look at the result of their life bound up in sin condemning others. Yeah, look at those who follow Jesus Christ. We're happy and joyful and free from wisdom is justified by its results. They called him a glutton, they judged him and missed him, but those who violently seized Jesus Christ for free and in the end, the children of that path caused them to imbibe life on a constant basis. Three things. The Kingdom of Heaven is and always will be in opposition to the Kingdom of men. They do not get along. I was cutting the grass up at the front and I saw a little box turtle go across the road. He was about yea long. He was about 10 12 inches long, and I go, look, Gooligan box turtle and Cooper was up here in the parking lot, play it around, and I thought, well that's a great play toy for Cooper. So I gave the turtle a ride on the lawnmower, which he did not appreciate and brought it up and set it in the open parking lot. Now I know some of you ladies are looking at me with disgust looks, but I want you to know that the dog cannot hurt a box turtle. They got enough sense to shoot their head end and shoot their legs in and for a good hour. Cooper had a great time chasing that. The box turtle all over the parking lot, natural enemies, they were actually just a play toy for Cooper. Even if the turtle popped his head out, Coover would not kill it. He would lick it, but he would not kill it. We will always be an opposition to this world. They are a box turtle and we are outside of that realm. Anyway, I didn't really have that illustration plan, but Larry said I needed[inaudible], you know, plug it in somewhere. So there it is. Not for two. Number two, only the violence break free. Faith is a violent thing. Are you seizing hold of Jesus Christ today? You better because this world gives you nothing. Hey, is your life filled with joy and peace and it's an evidence that you are and we all go through hardship and difficulties. We all have our down times, but even in our downtimes, he is the song of our hearts. Are we on a continual reminder that this world gives us nothing when we begin to depend on other things other than him? Number three, faith. Faith is the violent action required. Never believe that we're just floating on to heaven pilgrim's progress. John Bunyan had a character named Mr. Pliable, Mr. Pliable, just kind of floating along with everything. We are those who reach out every day. If you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ, I recommend the violence of rejecting everything you've ever learned and embracing Jesus Christ as your savior because you're lost in sin. If you're here today and you know Christ, I recommend the violence of every day clutching and grabbing onto him. He's clutching and grabbing onto you. No doubt, no doubt, but it is our faith in that it causes us to grow in grace. Lord Jesus, we pause and we close out the service with a word of prayer and with a song and a minute, and as we sing to you, I pray that if there's anyone here who has never trusted Jesus Christ as their savior, they might claim you. They might come down to these altars on ashamed to admit their need for Jesus Christ and violently take hold of Christ. I pray for we who know you, that we would buy a continual daily act of our violent faith, reject loneliness, reject emptiness, reject sin, reject fear, and that we would trust in a god we would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who is to be our life every day, every moment. Lord Jesus, we love you. We asked you to bless during this time of this song.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].