FOOLS
MUST BE DEALT WITH DIFFERENTLY THAN THOSE WHO ARE WISE. We cannot deal with all
men in the same way. Our response to people must be based on the kind of
character they have demonstrated.
Matthew
16:1-4 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that he
would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is
evening you say, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and
threatening.’ ‘Hypocrites!’ You know how to discern the face of the sky, but
you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 “A wicked and adulterous
generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign
of the prophet Jonah. And He left them and departed.
1. From verse 4: Jesus’ description of
Israel’s religious leaders is reminiscent of Deut. 32:5 where Moses rebuked
Israel for rejecting Yahweh.
2. Deuteronomy 32:5-6 NKJV They have
corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a
perverse and crooked generation. 6 Do you thus deal(repay the )with the LORD, O
foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not
made you and established you?
3. The relationship with the LORD is
ruined when His children no longer act like His children.
4. They had become a grotesque mockery of
what God created them to be
Ever wonder where some of these teens arrested today were raised? Some speaking as a parent say they are the sweet child who harms no one. Yet they destroy store windows, steal produce from the store and take off running when police arrive. Interesting! Who in their right mind would take a knife to a track event in the spring time? Who decides to run down people on a roadway and call it accidental done? But what if these teens are just like their parents. What if they act the same manner and ready to use a weapon just because they are mad about something? Another thought here: young adults carrying signs saying ideas are not illegal? No they are no illegal, but not done in God will bring disaster. They bring consequences like a knife at a Track Meet!
Matthew 12: 39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
A
spiritual adulterous exhibition was presented by the scribe’s and Pharisees
because of their rejection of Jesus
1. Jonah’s experience in the depths of
death would be Jesus experience as well
2. Three days and three nights: Jonah 1:17
Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to
the LORD his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said: “I cried out to the LORD
because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I
cried, and You heard my voice. 3 For You cast me into the deep, into the heart
of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves
passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will
look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my
soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went
down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me
forever; yet YOU have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.
3. Away from God’s presence…a life
threatening situation
4. Going into the belly of Sheol, the
inner part of the earth, the grave
5. From verse 6 the moorings or the bars
of Sheol the land of the dead beneath the great deep; from the pits refers to
Sheol
One thing for certain, fools are liars! They may say the jury is all white when there is only what 4? And the rest are Hispanic and Asian. (total of 12) Liars are known when they can count the crowd for themselves and then tell the journalist there is only white folks on the jury. Lying is sin and is dangerous.
Steve
Hill was founder of Heartland World Ministries Church in Dallas. He was widely
known for preaching the uncompromising message of Christ throughout the world.
He wrote this before his passing into heaven. He wrote: The challenging of God’s authority
goes back to the Garden of Eden, starting with the serpent’s challenge to Eve:
“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Gen.
3:1). This satanic challenge was twofold: First, did God really say that? And
second, God didn’t really mean what He said. After all, you won’t die if you
eat from the tree (vv. 1-5).
That twofold challenge continues to
assault us today. Best-selling authors tell us the biblical text isn’t
reliable, that the biblical manuscripts we have in our possession are
hopelessly contradictory, and that we can know little or nothing about the
real, historical Jesus. Other authors tell us that the Bible is no more than a
collection of religious traditions and that God Himself is nothing more than a
religious myth.
For the most part, though, the
challenge to the authority of the Scriptures is subtler, and some of it flows
out of the deification of man, which says, “The Bible must live up to my
standards. I will judge the God of the Bible based on my morality rather than
the God of the Bible judging me based on His morality.” In short, when the
Scriptures contradict our feelings and preferences rather than crucify our
feelings and preferences and bow down before God and His Word, we question
God’s Word.
Steve Hill
had written this as well: Universal
reconciliation promotes a get-out-of-jail-free mentality—that in the end,
everyone will make it into heaven because of Jesus’ death on the cross. (In
contrast, universalism teaches that all paths lead to God.) There may be future
suffering, but it will be purging rather than punishment, and ultimately
everyone will be saved.
Proponents
of universal reconciliation point to verses that teach that God reconciled “all
things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having
made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). And they point out that
just as in Adam all die, in Jesus all will live (Rom. 5:12-21).
What would
you say if someone attempted to persuade you that Adolf Hitler was in heaven?
“Abomination!” you would scream. “You’re deranged!” Yet that’s a sample of the
fundamental false teaching of this layer of “avalanche snow.” Added to other
layers mentioned previously, we will find the believer’s foundation
deteriorated, and when the storms come in damaging ways, life is extinguished.
Are we feeding on foolishness? Do we really recognize a false teaching that is a strong wind of error? If we think a color of a person makes it right to kill is totally wrong! Character is what counts when standing with God. This is what Martin Luther King extended in his speech before his death. He wanted his children to be known by the content of their character and not the color of their skin! If we are in that place, darkness is coming down quickly!
A. W.
Tozer wrote, "So skilled is error at imitating truth, that the two are
constantly being mistaken for each another. It takes a sharp eye these days to
know which brother is Cain and which is Abel." The apostle Paul also
speaks to the outwardly pleasing behavior of apostates and their teaching when
he says, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising
themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself
as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13-14). In other words, do not look for
apostates to appear bad on the outside or speak dramatic words of heresy at the
outset of their teaching. Rather than denying truth outright, apostates will
twist it to fit their own agenda, but as pastor R. C. Lensky has noted, “The
worst forms of wickedness consist in perversions of the truth.”
Peter
says, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also
be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies,
even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon
themselves” (2 Peter 2:1). Another aspect of true believers is that they have
been delivered out of spiritual darkness into light (Ephesians 5:8) and
therefore will not deny core truths of Scripture like Arius did with the
divinity of Jesus.
Ultimately,
the sign of an apostate is that he eventually falls away and departs from the
truth of God’s Word and His righteousness. The apostle John signifies this is a
mark of a false believer: “They went out from us, but they were not really of
us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went
out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).
Ideas Have Consequences
That God
takes apostasy and false teaching seriously is evidenced by the fact that every
New Testament book except Philemon contains warnings about false teaching. Why
is this?
1. Simply because ideas have consequences.
2. Right thinking and its fruit produces
goodness, whereas wrong thinking and its accompanying action results in
undesired penalties. As an example, the Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s
were the product of the nihilistic worldview of Jean Paul Sartre and his
teaching. The Khmer Rouge’s leader Pol Pot lived out Sartre’s philosophy toward
the people in a clear and frightening way, which was articulated in this
manner: “To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss.” ( are we not seeing baseball players of the majors wearing uniforms and caps to celebrate the LGBTQ folks. God only made male and female)
3. It should be remembered that satan did
not come to the first couple in the Garden with an external armament or
supernatural weapon; instead, he came to them with an idea. And it was that
idea that condemned them and the rest of humankind, with the only remedy being
the sacrificial death of God’s Son!
The authority the Master gave you and me is for putting people together, not taking them apart. We want to get on with it and not have to spend time on reprimands. And that’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello. The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Amen!
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