The Great Divide

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So, what happens
when, like the apostle Paul,
we proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ,
invite people to put their trust in him
for time and eternity,
and warn people about the consequences
should they refuse to do so?
Well, if the text before us this morning
in Acts chapter 13 is any indication,
we can expect a three-fold response
to the proclamation of the gospel.
At the time that we have this morning,
I want to try to walk you through that
as efficiently and effectively as I possibly can.
The first thing that we can expect to happen
is that there will be those who want to hear more.
That is to say, those whose curiosity
is aroused by the good news of the gospel.
Verse 42 of this chapter,
as Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue
after their presentation,
the people invited them to speak further
about these things on the next Sabbath.
Their curiosity was clearly aroused,
and the term that I would ascribe to them
would be the term "seekers."
A seeker is a person who is interested
in spiritual things,
but has not yet come so far as to be prepared
to make a full commitment to the truths
that they have been seeking.
And typically, there are questions
that need to be answered,
objections that need to be overcome,
or simply enough time given
to be able to process all the implications
of the commitment that people are invited to make.
I think sometimes we forget
what a radical reorientation
a person has to go through
in order to become a Christian.
Let me just try to explain that again
in the context of the circles that we often look at.
If it is true that by nature
we are conceived and born in sin,
alienated from God, under Satan's power,
selfish through and through,
then you can see what a tremendous transformation
we have to undergo
to get to a place where we love God above all,
and we love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
That is a huge transition.
And sometimes we forget how much
energy, thought, and time it takes
to come to that level of commitment.
Back in 1975,
an author by the name of James Engel,
together with his co-author Wilbert Norton,
wrote a book, "What's Gone Wrong with the Harvest?"
And the subtitle of that book
is "A Communication Strategy for the Church
and World Evangelism."
And the thesis of their book
is that the Church in the Western world
is failing in its ability to reach out with the Gospel
in part because the harvest equipment of the Church,
in their words, has lost its cutting blade,
which is kind of interesting language.
The harvest equipment of the Church
has lost its cutting blade.
And what they mean by that
is that the Church has failed to understand
the complexity of Gospel communication
and the need to understand its audience
and to meet its audience where they find themselves.
And so out of that came what is known today
as the Engel Scale of Evangelism.
And the genius of the Engel Scale of Evangelism
is that it sort of tries to outline
the varying stages that seekers have to go through
before they can make an intelligent decision
to follow the Lord Jesus.
We won't spend a lot of time on it,
but notice it begins here with a minus eight,
awareness of a supreme being,
no knowledge of the Gospel.
The actual chart starts even lower than that,
if truth be known.
It starts, I believe, at minus 11,
where people don't even know there is a go on.
But in this context,
awareness of a supreme being,
knowledge of the Gospel,
and then there is an initial awareness of the Gospel
and awareness of the fundamentals of the Gospel.
They begin to grasp the implication of the Gospel.
They develop a positive attitude towards the Gospel.
They recognize personal problems
that are addressed by the Gospel,
and then they come to a decision to act,
which then leads to repentance and faith,
and that produces the new birth.
It takes time to make the transition
from not knowing Jesus
to committing your life to Jesus,
and it's very helpful and important
for us to understand that,
because sometimes when you listen to people's testimonies,
it sounds as if it is a miraculous
and instantaneous transformation.
And sometimes it is.
But often we forget that for every instant miracle,
there is typically a process that leads up to it
where God prepares His people.
I often say it's like childbirth.
When the birth moment comes,
it is often relatively fast,
but it's important to remember
it takes nine months to get there.
And in the Christian life,
moments of miracles are typically preceded
by process.
And part of the key to sharing the good news
with people around you,
understanding the process by which God works,
is to understand that people find themselves
on this continuum,
and we have to be able to identify what that is,
answer the questions,
deal with the objections,
and encourage people to put their faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So that's the first group of people
that we read about here in Acts chapter 13,
the group that is interested
in hearing more about the gospel.
This group is so large that the next Sabbath,
the scripture says,
the whole city almost gathers together
to hear this teaching that Paul is bringing.
What excitement it would be if next Sunday,
you all bring the rest of your family,
friends, and the whole community to church
so that they can be presented
with the good news of the gospel, yes?
Let's see what you can do about that.
Number two, there is a second group of people,
and those are the ones who are ready
to commit themselves to the Lord Jesus.
Verse 43, when the congregation was dismissed,
many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism
followed Paul and Barnabas who talked with them
and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
See, not everybody needs more time.
Not everybody has questions that need to be answered.
Not everybody has objections that need to be overcome.
Some people have been so prepared by the Holy Spirit,
they are like ripe fruit that is ready to be picked.
Going back for just a minute to the angle scale
if we can have that back up here.
You see, while the seeker starts maybe at this level,
no knowledge of the gospel, there are some
who are already brought to this place
where they can make a decision to act.
They recognize their personal problems.
They have developed a positive attitude towards God.
They have grasped the implications of the gospel.
They are simply ready, and because they are ready,
they are prepared and ready to make that kind of commitment.
And what they need, if we can have that chart back up,
what they need is to be encouraged to follow through
on their decision in Christ because you'll have noticed
in the text here that it says Paul and Barnabas talked with them
and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
Because all of us know that it's one thing
to come to faith in Christ.
It is another to see it through to the end, is that not true?
It's one thing to have a baby born into the world.
It's another thing to watch that child grow up
and become a responsible adult
and a responsible member of society.
There are thousands of people who make commitments to Christ,
but who never follow through on that commitment.
And so part of our collective responsibility,
let's put that chart back up again for a moment,
is to continue to help them to walk out their post-decision evaluation,
incorporation into Christ and the body of Christ,
growth in Christ, communion with God,
and the whole exercise of Christian discipleship.
Because you see, at the end of the day,
the gospel affects every area of your life.
It is not just, "Oh, well, I prayed the sinner's prayer,
so now when I die I've got fire insurance,
and I don't have to worry about going to hell,
and I'll go to heaven."
No, no, it changes everything.
It changes who you are.
It changes what your values are.
It changes your relationships.
It changes how you handle your money.
It changes how you spend your time.
It changes what in life is important and what in life is not important.
And believers, one of the reasons we gather
and one of the reasons Scripture commands us to gather
is because we are to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
It isn't enough to be a baby Christian.
God wants us to grow up and to be mature,
and the measure of maturity is always that I love God above all,
and I love my neighbor as I love myself.
And what God is after, as you know, is conformity to the image of Christ.
So there are seekers.
There are people who are ready to take the plunge.
But then there is a third group,
and the bulk of the rest of this chapter is spent on those,
and they are the people who reject and oppose the gospel.
Listen to the verses 44 and 45 again.
On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy
and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
And then later on in the passage,
the word of the Lord spread through the whole region,
but the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing
and the leading men of the city.
They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas
and expelled them from their region.
Five things in those two passages
that I want us to focus on in the time that remains this morning.
Here is the first.
Notice that the opposition comes from the Jews.
When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy
and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
Now the Jews in the book of Acts
are on the one hand the physical descendants of Abraham,
but on the other hand they are the followers of the law of Moses.
The term the Jews occurs I believe 48 times in the book of Acts,
and with rare exception it almost always refers
to those who abide by the teachings of Moses
and who therefore are adamantly opposed to the preaching of the gospel.
Rather than seeing the gospel,
the fulfillment of the law of Moses like Paul had been preaching,
they see it as competition
and they become the nemesis to the apostle Paul and his ministry in the book of Acts.
In fact, as the stories continue, you'll see they follow him from city to city
to try to stop the work that he and Barnabas are doing.
Second thing to note then is that this opposition to the gospel,
according to the scripture, stems from their jealousy.
They were a jealous people.
When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy
and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
Let me do a little word study with you this morning.
We don't do that very often.
The word jealousy here is the Greek word zealou.
Look at that for a moment.
What English words do you recognize in that root?
Zealous or zealot?
So the word jealousy here is a word that describes eager passion.
And sometimes it's translated as jealousy,
sometimes it is translated as envy, Philip Hamburg, our overseer in our healing ministry,
often distinguishes between those two words.
I checked with him just this past week.
He defines jealousy as seeking to possess what someone else has,
but envy as wanting to destroy so no one can have it.
Think back to the story in Solomon's day.
The two women came to him with a baby.
One woman said, "This is my baby."
The other woman said, "This is my baby."
Solomon was supposed to decide, remember what he decided?
He said, "Cut the baby in half."
And the real mother said, "Well, then give it to the other woman."
And the other woman who wasn't the real mother said, "Yes."
Cut it in half and thereby demonstrated that she wasn't the real mom
because her envy, if she couldn't have it, neither could the other woman have it.
Envy has a degree of wickedness with it.
And these Jews here are malicious in their opposition to Paul
and to Barnabas and their ministry.
Why are they jealous?
Well, I can think of a number of reasons.
The Bible says it's because they saw the crowds.
So, you know, you've got to picture this.
I mean, this is their flock.
You've got Paul and Barnabas coming in, preaching the gospel,
and they walk off with half their congregation.
That would make you a little upset too, wouldn't it?
Not only that, they are the guardians of the Mosaic teaching.
They know how important it is for God's people to remain faithful to the law of Moses,
and here comes this newfangled teaching, which they don't understand,
which is fully at odds with whatever they have been teaching,
and now they're just supposed to stand by and watch this happen.
You see, the more you have invested in the old system,
the more upset you are when the new system comes along,
and that was certainly true for them.
But it gets even worse because this newfangled gospel
that the Apostle Paul is preaching has room for the Gentiles.
Did you notice that?
Because he says, "Since you are rejecting this gospel, tough luck on you.
I'm now going to the Gentiles."
Well, the Gentiles, from the Jewish point of view,
were the lepers of the lepers of the lepers,
and because they were unclean, there is no way that they could become part of God's people,
short of going through a conversion to Judaism, not a conversion to Jesus.
And if you read on in the book of Acts, you know, chapter 22,
Paul has been arrested, and he's giving his testimony
and telling them how in the early days he was a persecutor of the church,
zealous just like they were, and then Jesus appeared to him,
and through all of that they are listening patiently with beaded breath until what?
He quotes Jesus telling him to go to the Gentiles.
You can read about it in Acts chapter 22,
and all of a sudden they had a major hissy fit.
I mean, they're tearing their clothes, and they're throwing dust in the air,
and they're saying this man doesn't deserve to live.
That gives you a little bit of a feeling how they felt towards Gentile believers.
And if you and I can't identify with it, put it in these terms,
it would be like, let's suppose that we bring somebody in here
who is a recognized child molester and murderer,
and we put him right in the front row here, and we say to you,
this person now belongs in this community, and you better invite him over to your house for dinner
and let his kids play with your kids.
Now, if that doesn't generate something deep in your gut,
then you have no clue about how deep this kind of antipathy can run.
This is how the Gentile, this is how the Jewish leaders felt about Gentiles.
So they were livid with jealousy.
Well, what do you do when you're livid with jealousy?
Well, you begin to speak abusively.
They attack Paul verbally.
When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy,
and they talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
Now, here again, a word study is helpful because the Greek actually uses two different words.
The first word they use is the Greek word "antelegon," which means to talk against.
It comes from the root "anti-lego," anti-against-lego-speak.
And so this word means contradict or to challenge Paul's teaching.
You can imagine them heckling him or arguing that what he was saying was simply not true.
But there's another word in here that you'll recognize immediately,
and that is the word blasphemy.
What English word do you recognize in there almost immediately?
Blasphemy. Now blasphemy, we often think of blasphemy as directed towards God and directed towards Jesus,
and it might have been in this context, but the broader meaning of the word blasphemy
is really to speak profanely or abusively.
And so what we have happening here is Paul is teaching.
These Jews are extremely upset, smitten with jealousy as they are through and through.
So they not only contradict what Paul is saying, but they begin to attack him verbally.
If you can't win the argument in terms of content or subject matter, what do you do?
You begin to criticize the person.
And so here they begin to -- and that's why the NIV in this translation translates as speak against abusively.
They attack not only the substance of his teaching, but they attack him personally.
It becomes very personal very quickly.
Well, what do you do once you get to that point?
Well, you ramp it up. You go to the next step.
And the next step then is that they rally the support of others.
Notice how the passage goes on.
"But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city,
and they stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas."
It's not enough to criticize him. It's not enough to attack him.
Remember, he is a threat to everything they stand for.
And so he must be killed. He must be removed.
Just like earlier, they had Jesus crucified because he was against in their estimation everything they stood for.
They couldn't get their heads around the fact that he was the fulfillment of everything they stood for.
They saw him in opposition to the purposes of God.
So how do you ramp up?
Well, you get people to join you in the rebellion.
And what's significant in this passage is that the people that he stirs up are God-fearing women.
Interesting, isn't it? These are God-fearers.
But they're also women of high standing.
And concerning the men, it says they are leading men of the city. Why?
Because they hold the power and they have the most to lose.
How does he stir them up?
Well, the scripture says he incites them.
To incite somebody is to try to find the places of vulnerability in somebody's life, the places of fear.
And you feed that fear until it turns red hot.
And as I was thinking about this this past week, it occurred to me, you know, some years back when the province of Quebec did the last referendum on separation.
Remember that one with Luchin Bouchard?
And they came within a fraction of a vote of getting that passed.
And I remember listening to that whole debate.
And what struck me about it is that it was all focused on stirring up the alleged injustices of French Canada going back hundreds and hundreds of years.
If we can play on that point of vulnerability, then it is amazing what you can can can just bring forth in a crowd.
More recently, you know, Quebec is now going through this whole Charter of Values things under Pauline Merrois, and it sounds like she might be calling an early election because the polls are supporting her position.
And the Charter of Values deals with, you know, the wearing of religious symbols for people who are in the employment of government.
And again, it is trying to play on the prejudices of the people in order to whip them up into a position.
Well, that's what happens here. And you can just picture.
Can't you can't you just picture how these Jews are going about it with the leading men and women of this community?
You know, God's going to be mad at you because we are allowing this man to destroy the synagogue that your forebears have built and that you put so much of your money on.
Remember, your your your name is on the plaque and the synagogue is going to go down the tubes.
And besides that, this whole newfangled teaching is going to impact the social structure and the social orders of this community.
Pretty soon, this place will be so filled with people who are not Jewish that you lose control over your own synagogue.
Doesn't take very much stirring to get people agitated in terms of where this thing is going.
Isn't that true? There are masters at it. So what happens?
Well, remarkably enough, if you can find people's places of fear and play on them, you can get them to do almost anything in a panic.
And so here you have the scenario where now they actually succeed in doing what they plan to do. Paul and Barnabas are driven out of the region.
They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from the region.
And as Chapter 13 yields now to Chapter 14, you'll discover this sets the stage for the next stage of the missionary journey, which is Iconium.
And if you read the next couple of verses in Chapter 14, they go through the same thing all over again.
They preach the gospel, the people are divided, some people are for, some people are against, the Jews follow them, and persecution breaks out again,
except this time they're going to stone Paul and Barnabas, so they hightail it out of there and on they go to Iconium.
So you have these three groups of people. You have the seekers. You have those who are ready to make that commitment and who can become believers.
And then you have those who are virulently opposed to the gospel and who fight it with everything that is within them.
In the time that remains, what lessons can you and I learn from this missionary encounter in Pasidian, Antioch?
Two things. Let me try to be as quick on this as I can.
The first is that the gospel is inherently divisive. The gospel is inherently divisive.
That is to say, it divides people.
It goes back all the way to the words of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 10 when he first commissions his disciples to go out and to proclaim the good news of the gospel.
He says to them in Matthew 10, 34, 35, and 36, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members of his own household."
It's actually a quotation from the Old Testament, interestingly enough.
Jesus says, "When I come with the gospel, it is going to divide the human race."
And the reasons for that are not hard to figure out. We don't have time to deal with them extensively, but I can think of at least three reasons why the gospel is divisive.
First of all, it lays bare what is in your heart.
Everybody's heart is either oriented towards God or oriented away from God.
And in the initial stages, you cannot tell the difference between the wheat and the tares.
You could have a person hungry for God and a person opposed to God standing side by side.
You will look at them. You cannot see the difference until the gospel comes along and the gospel either takes root or the gospel gets rejected.
Jesus said in the parable of the sower and the weeds to let the grain and the weeds grow together because when it reaches maturity, it will lay bare what is inherently present in the human heart.
Hard for us to understand, hard for us to believe, but it's really true.
Number two, out of that flows the reality that come the day of judgment, there is no in-between. I hope you know that.
You either go to heaven or you go to hell. You're either part of the kingdom or you reject the kingdom.
Nobody's going to argue in that day, "Well, if only I had had more time, I would have embraced the gospel."
Everybody will have had their opportunity. That's why the gospel has to be preached to all nations before the end can come so that everybody has the choice.
What will I do with Jesus? Will I embrace him? Will I reject him?
When the curtain falls in history, you're in or you're out. There is no in-between.
Furthermore, and this is a tough one, the gospel turns the social order upside down.
Remember what Jesus said, "The last will be, the first will be."
In the kingdom of God, your position is not determined by your pedigree. It's not determined by what you know.
It's not determined by your riches. It's not determined by your success.
It's not determined by all the things the world values as identifying a person.
It is determined by your relationship with God and where God chooses to put you.
Remember the song of Mary. She sings with joy that every valley will be lifted up and every mountain will be what?
Made low before the sight of God, everybody is equal.
For that reason, wherever the gospel goes, there is a separation of wheat and tares.
Hard for us to get our head around because we live in the remnants of a Christian culture
and we think somehow or another everybody should belong and everybody should get in.
I wish it were that easy. It is not the truth and I am duty bound before God to point it out to you again and again and again.
This passage is incredibly clear that while some seek, some believe, some will reject.
There are people in your families. There are people that you hang around with in the coffee shop.
There are people that you work with on the job who at the end of history are going to be on the other side of the great divide.
And if nothing stirs us to compassion and to earnestness, that realization won't do
because once you are lost for eternity, eternity is a long, long time.
The gospel is divisive, not only that, but opposition to the gospel should never deter us from doing the work of the Lord.
Notice how the story concludes here. They shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and they went to Iconium.
Two things there they do. They shake the dust off their feet and they go on to the next place.
Now to shake the dust off your feet is an ancient custom to say that you have done your job
and you are not responsible for the decision that people are making.
It hails back all the way again to Matthew chapter 10 where Jesus first sends out his apostles as emissaries to preach the gospel.
And Jesus says if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.
If you do the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
And so when Paul and Barnabas shake the dust off their feet, they are symbolically saying,
"Listen, we've preached the gospel to you. You have chosen to reject it.
The responsibility for that rejection does not lie with us. It lies with you.
And we are not guilty of the judgment that you are bringing on your own head by rejecting the gospel."
This is the only time I believe in the book of Acts where they are said to shake the dust off their feet.
But there's another passage a little bit further on where they are in a similar fashion shaking the dust off their garments.
And that really clarifies what I have just been saying. This is Acts chapter 18 verse 6.
"When the Jews," there they are again, "opposed Paul and became abusive," what does he do?
"He shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, 'Your blood be on your own heads.
I am clear of my responsibility. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. Your blood be on your own heads.'"
Who knows where in the Old Testament that comes from?
It comes from the book of Ezekiel where God says to the prophet Ezekiel, "You are my watchman.
And if you warn people and they do not heed the warning, then my judgment will be upon them because they will have been warned.
If you fail to warn them and judgment falls on them, it will be on your head because you have not done your job."
I wonder how many of us realize that the people in our immediate environment,
and I'm not suggesting we go out and clobber everybody and his uncle over the head with the Bible,
but please understand this. We are the watchmen of God because each of us is a prophet, priest, and a kid.
And if we do not at least warn people what happens when they reject the gospel,
it may well be that their blood will be on our heads on the day of judgment. I don't want to see that happen.
And our obligation is to communicate. You've heard the gospel. Please understand.
If you continue to reject it, God will ultimately reject you.
Because remember I said last week we live in a society where everybody figures they're going to go to heaven because God is a God of love.
And nobody, I've never been to a funeral yet where somebody was said to go to hell. Be a little awkward.
You know, it doesn't make you in friends with the family.
And I'm not saying that that's the wise thing to do pastorally, but I'm trying to tell you what the gospel clearly says.
You and I have that responsibility.
And those of you with a prophetic streak in you, they're saying, yes, let me let me loose.
And those of you that are filled with a gift of compassion and mercy, you're saying, oh my goodness,
I could never ever do that because people won't like me anymore. Well, you figure that out before that.
So he shakes the dust off his feet. And then what do they do?
They go on to a conia. I wonder if you will allow me for a moment to speak my heart about this to God's people.
I have been in pastoral ministry, as you know, for more than 40 years.
And I would say if there is one thing and I want to word this carefully because some of you are going to be mad at me.
No matter how I word this.
God's people spend an inordinate amount of time trying to win people who have already rejected the gospel.
Have you ever noticed that?
We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to bring back those who have chosen not to follow the Lord.
That doesn't mean that everybody that isn't part of a community hasn't chosen to follow the Lord.
Understand that the biblical emphasis lies on the fact that everybody needs to hear the gospel.
I was, oh, a number of months or years ago now, had a tour of Tyndale University College and Seminary.
My niece goes there. Will Vanderlaan from here attends.
And I was struck by the fact that in what they call the Hall of Missions,
which is a hallway that links their seminary building to their college building,
and they're in the process of moving to entirely new building, but that's irrelevant.
They have this huge wall display honoring Oswald Smith.
Now, chances are you may or may not know who Oswald Smith is or was,
but he was the founding pastor of the People's Church in Toronto and a great missionary statesman.
He raised up support for hundreds and hundreds of missionaries
and was keenly influential in the vision, the mission, and the passion of what is now Tyndale.
But one of his fond quotations was, "No one has the right to hear the gospel twice
while there remains someone who has not heard it once."
And so on that mural, they have painted a modified version of that that reads like this,
"Why should anyone hear the gospel twice before everyone has heard it once?"
Sobering words.
So I want to leave you this morning with this.
Who in your circle of influence would qualify as a seeker?
They're open to the gospel, they haven't yet made a commitment,
but they're not antagonistic towards them, towards the gospel,
and they are candidates perhaps for conversion.
They're open to the things of God and they haven't outright rejected it.
So here's the question to ask yourself.
In terms of a seeker, what can I do to help move that person
from a minus eight on that chart to a zero of commitment to Christ and beyond?
What can I do to answer his questions, help resolve the conflicts in his mind,
remove the objections, encourage him incrementally to take a step
that is closer to the kingdom of God?
Should I invite him to church for maybe a special service?
Should I encourage him to sign up for Alpha?
Should I certainly be praying for him?
Can I open up my home and do a home Bible study
where people could be exposed to the gospel?
These Billy Graham videos that we've been showing,
Sunday nights are part of the Hope for America campaign,
and that's precisely how they've been designed.
They have been designed so you can show them in your home,
invite neighbors and friends, and begin a spiritual conversation.
You and I are obliged to participate in the Great Commission in whatever way we can.
Second question, who in your circle of friends do you know
who has already made that commitment to Jesus?
Ask yourself this question then.
How can I use my time, talents, and treasures to help that person
grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus?
Maybe when they encounter a problem, I can be a listening ear.
Maybe when they experience emotional, spiritual, or physical turmoil,
I can be a helping hand.
Maybe when they start drifting off the path because the road is narrow
and the way is hard and the temptations of the world are so powerfully strong,
maybe I can come alongside that person, pray for that person, intercede for that person,
put my arm around their shoulders and help them on the way.
Hundreds of us in this congregation are doing that on a regular basis.
Can we multiply it two-fold, three-fold, or even four-fold?
And then, the tough one, who in your world do you know
whose heart has hardened against the gospel?
They've heard it. They can't claim ignorance.
But they have chosen to reject it, perhaps even chosen to oppose it.
What's your obligation to at least once speak into their life
the consequences of their actions if they will not repent or come to faith?
And as I said earlier, I'm not at all suggesting we go pounding the gospel into them
or repeatedly trying to make a nuisance of ourselves.
In fact, the scriptures are extremely clear on how we should approach that,
and we would save ourselves a lot of grief if we can look at...
Let me find that verse back here.
Titus 3, 10 and 11. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time.
After that, have nothing to do with him.
You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful. He is self-condemned.
I ask you again, who in your world has closed their hearts off against Jesus?
I'm not talking about people who struggle.
I'm not talking about people who just are confused and they are at a moment of crisis in their lives.
No, no. I'm talking about somebody who deliberately has chosen to reject the gospel
because they want to live for this world and not for the world it is to come.
Would you love them enough? Would you love them enough?
To not only pray for them, but also to at least warn them once
that if they continue on this path, they will be lost eternally.
And it just might be what that person needs to hear
to shock him or her into the realization that they're on the wrong path
and that they need Christ and they need to kneel before his cross
and they need to embrace him as the Lord of all.