So tonight, if you have your Bibles, turn over to Matthew
chapter 3. You know, I titled this message
The silence. Later on, I can tell you another
title. I could have called it, but
we'll wait till we get to that point.
And but in Matthew chapter 3, verse one through 2, it says now
in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness
of Judea saying repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Amen. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for the word of God.
We value your word. In fact, when you look at the
context of Scripture, although, and we know it's about a king,
his Kingdom and his royal offspring, we know this, that
when you boil everything about your word, this truth reigns
supreme that you keep your word, you keep it.
And we're thankful for that. So that's why it's so important
for us to renew our minds to your word, your ways.
And it required us to have a nature that would be willing to
hear you so that we could perpetually have the strength to
put down our flesh and to allow our minds to think on things
above, to think on the things that are of God.
But we need the Holy Spirit to teach us because our natural
study will not do this. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal
the truth that comes from God. And so Jesus, when introducing
the Holy Spirit, he said, now when he, the Spirit of truth
comes, he's going to cause things to come to our
remembrance. He's going to teach us all
things. He's going to guide us into all
truth and he's going to show us things to come.
So Holy Spirit, we thank you that you're here today.
We thank you for this move of the Spirit that's taking place
right now in our services. Through the teaching of your
word You are going to illuminate us so that we can receive the
engrafted word of God which is able to save our souls.
Apply these principles in our lives so that we'll be doers of
your Word and not hearers only in Jesus name and all God's
people said Amen. I do encourage you make sure
that you become a person that always maintains big context
because a lot of times, you know, when you have so many
subjects that you can minister in the word, you can get excited
about very specific ones. And then you can lose context of
everything because you get so centered in on just one
particular aspect of God. You know, I, my wife is really
good at what she calls connecting the dots, right?
I'm really good at connecting the dots when it comes to the
scripture because, you know, God has given, you know, allow me to
when I minister this holistic approach to be able to
communicate scripture. So when you get into a context
of something that sometimes you're like, there's plenty of
things that help you learn and grow and understand certain
aspects that maybe you didn't see before or, or understand
context. What I love about if the Old
Testament was not necessary because we're in the, I like
what Rick Renner said because I'm like, man, that's really
more precise. He said, you know, we call it
the the church age, He said, but really it's the last days.
Now, the church happens to be a part of the last, he said, but
we're in the age of the last days.
So when Pentecost did, it says, you know, in the last days the
Spirit would be poured out on flesh.
So we are in this period called the last days.
That means the next period after this is a catchy tribulation.
That's the transition time between the last days and the
millennial reign of Christ. So, you know, I love the Old
Testament because there are there are things within it that
gives us insight to how things are going to be here.
Now, how do we know this? Because Jesus himself used the
Old Testament to tell us about future events.
Now, he said in the last days, it'd be like the days of Noah.
So if you want to know us our future, go back to Noah's day
and Noah's before the law of Moses.
Are you hearing me so there are progressions.
There was something how many enjoy the Bible reading plan
we're doing this year having the proverbs man this this week's
Jeremiah got has me jacked up this week's Jeremiah.
I'm like, Lord, is that could this be?
So I'm asking questions, Hallelujah.
I mean, because I like preaching out of the books that you know,
you don't always preach out of, but you know, you want to preach
out of them with confidence, knowing where you're going.
Man, there's some things that Jeremiah right now.
I'm like, Lord, I mean, Jeremiah answered some some very specific
questions for me this week and I'm excited about that.
All right, because again it makes everything crystal clear.
Glory to God. So Matthew 3 one through 2 says
this, although I'm not going to be in the Old Testament all
today. It says that John the Baptist
went about doing what preaching repent for the Kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Jesus said until this gospel of
the Kingdom is priest in Matthew 2414 to every nation has a
testimony. Then the end will come.
So G So we can say here that John preached the gospel.
John did repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now look at Luke chapter 3 verse one.
Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tybrus Caesar, when
Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod the Tetra Art,
which is governor of Galilee. And then he has a brother named
Philip, who's a governor of another region.
Then had another brother, OK, that was a governor of a
different region. And the reason why there are
three brothers, their father was Herod the Great.
And Herod the Great when he died, divided his rulership to
his three sons and they had different regions by which they
governed. All right.
Now, Herod the Great is the one who was had an encounter with
the wise men, the astrologers from the east that came into
town with an entourage and an army because of what they were
carrying to present to the king. OK, not like our nativities.
It's not three people. There was quite a few people
that had showed up and it said all Jerusalem was in an uproar
or was in fear or, you know, was concerned.
And you don't get that from three people carrying a little
bit of boxes. With that being said, he came in
and they said, we've come to see the child which is born king of
the Jews. Now Herod the Great is the king
of all of these regions that these three brothers now have
have portions of. And so he in his with his
wickedness, not with concern, not with true, you know,
humility. He says, listen, you know, he
gets his guys out and he says, who's this king that they're
talking about? I'm the king.
I mean, what king are they talking about?
The King of the Jews? I am this guy.
And so they his wise people came up, said, they say, there's a
guy that's going to be born in Bethlehem.
And so he says, now listen, when you see this king come back, let
me know so I can go and worship him too.
Now, did Harry the great want to go worship Jesus?
No, right? We know this because the Lord
speaks to the wise men and say Hey, do not go back and tell
Harry where this kids at. In fact, I'm not even going to
let this kid stay in the community at this point.
I'm going to tell because they've got plenty of money to
be able to travel to Egypt now and stay for till he died.
OK, we're going to take get him out of here and you go another
way. And when they realize these guys
ain't coming back, you know, so then Herod starts killing off
every child that is 2 or younger so that Jesus was not in the
Manger when the wise men came. He was already a toddler because
when they came to him he was at a house not not at a a stable
anyway. OK so with that being said this
is their father who hated the thought of Jesus being king at
the birth I had. There's no indication how much
he communicated with them. The Bible doesn't say that.
But it wasn't till after he died that obviously these guys,
Jesus's father comes back. But because one particular son
was in a particular area, he did not go there at all.
All right. And so Herod is in power in the
realm of Galilee. Luke chapter 3 jump down to
verse 19 and 20 and it says but when Herod the governor of
Tetriarch was reprimanded by him, this is by John the Baptist
because of his wife which was his brother's wife Philip.
So Philip had this lady as his wife and Herod basically seduced
her or she wanted to be with Herod, whichever one, and the
next thing you know she came over to his house and remained
all right. So John is saying to him because
of all the wicked things which Herod had done, Herod also added
this to them all. He locked John up in prison
because John was telling him it is not lawful for you to have
Philip's wife. OK, so John is John is going
about preaching what the gospel and contained within the gospel
is that Kingdom of heaven. People that are in covenant with
God do not take another man's spouse.
Right now when we think about the gospel, all we think about
is Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave.
Have you asked him into your heart?
Do you understand the gospel is good news about the Kingdom,
which includes other things than just being born again?
So when you go preach the gospel, you preach the entirety
of it. If you want to go about
preaching the gospel, then go preach about the Kingdom of God.
And you know one, what's good news is that the good news is in
God's Kingdom, there is a man with a woman that God brings
together and they are to remain together and serve and worship
God. That's good news.
And and if they'll serve God and train up their children, then
the probability that their children following God and it
goes from one generation to the next generation, you know what?
That's good news. So when you talk about parenting
God's way, good news. When you talk about husband and
wife relationship according to God's way of doing things,
that's good news. When you talk about being healed
by the King, that's good news. When he'll provide, that's good
news. It's not just do you know where
you're going to go when you die because Jesus Christ paid the
ultimate price so you could be saved.
That is not the that is not the gospel.
It's part of the gospel. So John is preaching the gospel,
and part of the gospel is to communicate that what Herod's
doing is outside of the good news of God.
Amen. It's outside the good news of
God. Now, what I'm going to do is
we're going to jump over to Mark chapter 6 so that we can get
this account because we see that he locks John up.
But in order for us to understand this whole context,
I'm going to need to insert some additional scriptures within the
Gospels for us to get this full context of where we're going
tonight, because we're talking about the silence.
So Herod the Great knows there's a, a child that has been born
king of the Jews probably communicated this to his boys.
It doesn't say he did, but it doesn't say he didn't.
All right, when Herod gets around, now all of a sudden John
is preaching about this Kingdom, right?
You repent for the Kingdom of God is here, the Kingdom of
heaven is here, meaning it's within your midst.
So now for Herod here, the son, he could say, well, dad talked
about this king that was born at one time and he wanted to kill
him. And, and you know, it's in their
history books of all the children that died during that
time frame, 2 and under males. So it's not like he's not aware
of this. And now all of a sudden this
guy's talking about it. Well, not only is he talking
about the Kingdom of God, but he's also talking about the good
news of the gospel, of which how you should live within the
Kingdom because there's a standard of living.
This is why he uses the word repent.
Repent is not a religious word. It simply means change your
thinking side with God. God's way of living is good
news. It's the way to live.
So he had no problem addressing the government of his day.
John didn't had had no problem addressing the government of the
day with the words that were given to him as a prophet.
And again, if you were here on Sunday, a prophet is speaking by
right of the word of God. He's not speaking his own.
He's representing the word of God.
OK, And is John a prophet? Jesus said he was the greatest
prophet. And if Jesus says he's the
greatest, then John must have been the most proficient.
I'm not saying the rest weren't. We know Samuel was extremely
proficient because not anything he said didn't come to pass.
I'm just saying the reason he's the greatest because he
announces the king. I mean that's why he's the
greatest. But we also know that he his
words were accurate. OK, so in Mark chapter 6
starting in verse 14, it says and King Herod heard of it and
his name and his name had become well known and the people were
saying John the Baptist has been risen from the dead and that is
why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
Now we kind of get into this story after John's dead here in
Mark 6 to understand how John died.
It's at a time that Herod's hearing about someone else named
Jesus. OK, so and King Herod heard of
it, and his name had become well known.
Who's his name? Jesus.
So Herod knows this guy named Jesus.
All right, now for Herod, he has surmised because people are
saying, you know, he's thinking, is this John the Baptist that's
risen from the dead? And that's why he's doing all
these miracles. Now at this point, we need to
jump over why do we, why is why does Herod say this?
Because in John chapter 10 verse 41, it says many came to Jesus.
And we're saying while John performed no signs yet
everything John said about this man or Jesus was true.
So everyone knew that John as a prophet performed no signs.
John raised no dead, no more ray healed no person did not, you
know, turn water into wine didn't change water.
That was bad to be able to be good.
He, I mean, there's no miracle. He called no fire down from
heaven. And you think if anybody could,
because he did have the spirit of Elijah about him, but he did
not call fire down from heaven. No miracle was with him.
Yet his message was so profound that Herod is concluding or
considering that this guy's authority and power, what he has
said, what he had heard, and we're going to see this in the
context. What he had heard from John was
so compelling that now he's thinking if if he's raised up,
that that's probably why the miracles are happening.
OK, so going back to Mark 6, now we'll get back into verse 15, he
said. But others were saying he's
Elijah and others were saying he's a prophet, like one of the
prophets of old. But but when Herod heard of it,
he kept saying, John, whom I beheaded, has risen.
Now, what in the world did John say that Herod became convinced
that it was the one he cut the head off of?
Yeah, that's a really good question.
Well, let's go on. For Herod himself, verse 17 had
sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of
his wife, who was, you know, the wife of his brother because he
had married her. So in essence, I said, leave my
brother, come to me. Verse 18.
For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you
to have your brother's wife. And so the wife had a grudge
against John and, and wanted him put to death and could not do
so. So the wife wanted John dead.
All right, but why couldn't she? Verse 20 right.
For Herod was afraid of John. John's work, no miracles.
But he's afraid of John. He's afraid of John knowing that
he was a righteous and holy man. What's he know about John?
He's righteous and holy, but he's holding him in prison.
He's righteous and holy, holding him in prison.
Why? Because of what he's saying
about him, about about his wife, right.
So he's like, in essence, what's what's, what is Herod's mode of
operandi at this point. Let's silence John.
Let's shut off his voice now. Let's go on said, well, he was
afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man,
and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was
very perplexed, but he used to let enjoy listening to him.
Well, what do you think John was saying to him all those times he
was talking? He's talking about the gospel.
He's preaching things concerning the Kingdom.
He's constantly staying getting in front of the king.
Now, this is not the way, you know, the way most of us want to
be able to go before authorities.
We want to be able to freely go before authorities.
But that but God in this moment, based upon the way hair
function, God is putting his prophet in front of King Herod
often and he's hearing the gospel.
Who's telling King Herod the gospel?
John is all right. A strategic day came when Herod,
on his birthday, gave a banquet. OK, wait a minute before we get
to that. He enjoyed listening to him.
Now let me bring in Matthew 14, five.
Matthew 14, five. Now notice, although Herod
himself wanted to put him to death.
So again, when you read here in Mark, it said that he was afraid
of John. Knowing he was a righteous and
holy man, he kept him safe. Well, when you read that, you're
like, well, he kept him safe. And then he wanted to hear him.
He's perplexed, but he enjoyed listening to him.
But really, what's Herod's heart towards John?
Matthew 14 five Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he
feared the crowd because he regarded they regarded John as a
prophet. So just because Herod kept him
safe didn't mean he wanted him to be safe because the scripture
reveals to us what's going on in Herod.
Herod did not want John to stay alive.
He wanted to silence him. He wanted his voice off the
planet. Hallelujah.
Shut up, Baba Satta. Thank you, Jesus.
Glory to God.
Hallelujah.
Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus.
Hallelujah. So he wanted him killed.
Now let's jump back into verse 21.
A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet
for his Lords and military commanders and the leading men
of Galilee. And when the the daughter of his
wife, which is now who his niece came in and dance, she pleased
Herod and his dinner guests. And the king said to the girl,
Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.
And he swore to her, whatever you ask, I will give it to you,
up to half of my Kingdom. And she went out and said to her
mother, Well, who? Who's controlling the
conversation now? All right, what shall I ask for?
And she said the head of John the Baptist, immediately she
came in a hurry to the king and said, I want you to give me at
once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
And what kind of kid wants somebody beheaded and get their
head? This is very dysfunctional
family people. All right, so and although the
king was very sorry because again, now we know when you hear
he's very sorry, that doesn't mean he didn't want him dead.
We know he wants him dead. But there's something about
John's words. There's still something about
John's word words that perplex him, but he enjoys listening.
There's some kind of context yet because of the the wife.
I'm going to do that bitty. And then he, you know, he's out
there to give his word. At this point, we go on.
It says this. But because of his oath and
because of his dinner guest, he was unwilling to refuse her.
Immediately, the king sent an executioner and commanded him to
bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded
in prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the
girl. And the girl gave it to her
mother. Hallelujah.
Yeah. Happy birthday.
Amen. You know, I mean, that's not how
I would want to pick my way of going, leaving planet Earth for
the Lord personally. But, you know, we all know how
John left the planet. He was beheaded.
All right? So in his mind, he has silenced
him. Yet we opened up Mark Six that
he's convinced himself the voice is back, which reminds me that I
got by the spirit. That's why I was thanking the
Lord. The Lord quicken my spirit
reminded me Abel talked after he died.
Cain killed his brother Abel and the Lord comes in and says
what's up. That's Pastor Earl version right
there, right. Where's your brother?
He's like, am I my brother's keeper?
I don't know. He's like, mm hmm.
He said, well, his blood's talking to me.
Are you hearing me? Do you understand?
This is why they wanted to kill Jesus.
But the blood still talks. You cannot silence the blood.
I say. You cannot silence the blood.
Glory to God, Amen. You need to know this.
Who you are and what you are doing cannot be silenced, Can be
silenced. Even if they were successful to
remove you, you can still be talking.
Hallelujah. Well, he's so concerned about
this and he's hearing about it. This guy named Jesus thinking
it's John. Scholars now again doing some
additional study. Scholars believe that in Luke
chapter 13 verse 31 to 32, it says this, that John, that these
Pharisees come to Jesus and scholars believe, although the
Scripture does not say this, they believe that it was Herod
who sent them. Just that that at that time some
Pharisees approached saying to him, this is Jesus, go away.
Leave here for Herod wants to kill you.
So under the pretense, these religious Pharisees, under the
pretense of we're really concerned about you and your
life because we have heard that Herod wants to kill you.
And so it probably be good for you to like go somewhere else,
man. I mean, we're here to help you.
We don't want you to die. The Pharisees don't want him to
die. We know better than that, right?
No, the Pharisees wanted him just as silent.
I said the Pharisees wanted him just as silent.
Is this not true? So Herod wants you killed.
Whether he sent them or not, they make the statement Herod
wants you killed. And if Herod is convinced that
John the Baptist has been risen from the dead, we already know
how he feels about John, because the last thing he wants is a
risen John to show back up and tell him that he can't have his
wife and then work a miracle. OK, don't want that because you
know Elijah or Elijah, one of those guys, they worked some
miracles when the government tried to come and take who was
Elijah or Elijah? Please someone help me.
Yeah, for the 50 commanders, Elijah, Elijah.
So Elijah, you know, 50 of the the government came to get
Elijah and he says, oh, if I am a man of God, then fire come and
consume you. Well now if John the Baptist has
function into miracles now he could go up and say you going to
let go of the woman? No, I'm not well, I'll call fire
down from heaven. That wouldn't be good, at least
not for Harris. We understand that he was
concerned, but it goes on. And look what Jesus says though.
Jesus said go and tell that fox, come on, say Amen.
He said go and tell that fox, go and tell that fox go and tell
the fox Hallelujah. And you know what, right now I
really want to do that little click, click, tick, tick thing
that that one fox that what's it doesn't have the tail.
What was that? No, the one little show.
Fantastic. Fantastic.
Yeah. And he did a little.
Whatever. I want to do that right now so
bad, but I don't really remember it.
You go tell that fox. OK, Sorry.
I mean, it was just in my mind. What can I say?
All right, Hallelujah. Again, just getting some things
in my spirit right now. So I'm going to I'm going to
pull it up and then and and and I need to be able to look at
this glory to his name. I said glory to his name.
He is the King of kings. Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus. OK, so according to Albert
Barnes, a fox is an emblem of slyness, of cunning, of artful
mischief. The word is used to denote a
dissembler. Herod was a wicked man.
But the But the particular thing to which Jesus here lose to is
his vices is not his vices but his cunning, his endeavoring to
remove him out of his territory. OK, so go back to that verse
again. It says and he said, you go and
tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and before cures
today and tomorrow and tomorrow, and on the third day I will
reach my goal. He said, you go tell him that.
And those are the words Jesus directly communicated through
someone called Pharisees to Herod.
We have no indication whether they went back and told him that
or not. Now again, if the Pharisees who
definitely wanted Jesus dead, they might have said, bro, he
said you were a fox, right? You know, you, you should do
something. I we don't know this because it
doesn't say the scripture doesn't conclude.
So again, we can't technically speculate.
But with that being said, let's turn over to Luke chapter 23.
The silence, say. The silence says when Herod
heard it, when Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a
Galilean. Now we're at the place in
Scripture where Jesus has left the garden.
He has been apprehended. The high priest has, you know,
basically people have come and falsely accused him most of the
night, of which Jesus finally makes this statement because
during the time he's being communicated to by the high
priest, he remains silent. Then all of a sudden they're
like, are you going to say anything?
And Jesus finally said one statement that he knew once he
said it, they ripped their clothes and he said he's
blasphemy. And then it's all they take him
to Pilot. Pilot has a conversation with
Jesus. And Jesus the majority of the
time remains silent. Silent doesn't talk.
He says, you going, are you going to, are you going to say
anything about your accusers? He didn't say nothing.
And then he said, don't you know I have the power to kill you?
And then he responds, he says you have no power unless my
father gave it to you. So at this point, Pilot's wife's
already had a dream about the guy.
And she's like, you need to leave this guy alone.
And Pilot don't really want to deal with this dude at all.
So he comes back and he says, wait a minute, where's this guy
from? He's a Galilean.
Ah, I got you. We're going to send him to
Herod. That's Herod's jurisdiction.
Now we're really getting into government, right?
This is how government is. They pass it from one place into
the next place because nobody wants to make a decision, right?
So we see in government in the Gospels.
All right, So all of a sudden he learned that he belonged to
Herod's jurisdiction. He sent him to Herod, who
himself was in Jerusalem at the time.
Now Herod was very what man, he was glad when he saw Jesus
because he's been hearing about this guy all the while thinking
he's John now it could be that when he saw him, he's like,
well, obviously it's not John. I remember what the guy looks
like. I talked to him all the time.
They definitely a different looking guy.
You know, if it's if it's him, he's reincarnated in a different
body. OK, all right, so it says.
Now Herod was very glad when he saw him for he wanted to see him
for a long time because he had been hearing about him and was
hoping to see him. What see some signs performed by
him and he what questioned him at some This was not a short
time together at some leap, but He answered him nothing.
Jesus is standing before King Herod, who is a wicked man in
need of repentance. Jesus, the King of Kings, the
Savior of the world, saying nothing, but who's talking?
The chief priests and the scribes were standing there
accusing him. Shall we continue?
And Herod with his soldiers, after treating him with contempt
and mocking him, dressed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him
back to Pilate. What did Jesus say to Herod face
to face? When I read this, you know, it's
been a little while. I've this been on a burner for a
little while. I realized Jesus did not preach
the gospel to Herod. Herod's lost.
Herod's wicked. Jesus is standing before a
wicked person and withholds the gospel.
Does it even tell him? Does it tell him to repent?
Oh, it's messing you up right now.
I know it messed you up. It messed you up.
I mean, again, This is why the Bible's so amazing to me.
And you understand this is not out of character for the Word of
God at all. I mean, I just don't have time
to connect all your dots for you.
I'm just staying with Scripture. It's obvious that here is Jesus
now. Has Herod heard the gospel?
He has, but now the person who the gospel is all about is
standing before Herod and will not tell him the Gospel.
Joseph Bench Benson, a commentary, said this.
Nevertheless, because Herod had disregarded the admonitions of
John the Baptist, and had been guilty of the a heinous crime of
putting him to death, Jesus, liberal as he was of his
miracles to the poor and the afflicted, would not work them
to gratify the curious curiosity of a tyrant, nor so much as
answered one of his questions, though he proposed many to him,
probably concerning the miracles which were reported to have been
wrought by him. In this our Lord followed the
rule observed by God in the administration of his moral
government. He bestows on men means
opportunities and assistances, such as, if they improve,
approve, improve them properly, will lead them to knowledge,
holiness, and happiness. But these being slighted by men,
God, after waiting the determined time for wise
reasons, shuts up from them all the springs of grace, and leaves
them hopeless of that salvation which they have so long
despised. This account is literally the
silence of the Lamb. Hallelujah Hallelujah.
Which tells me there's a power that can be bigger than words.
Are you hearing me? With that being said, that's why
James chapter one verse 19 says this.
You know, my beloved brethren, James Tolkien, but everyone must
be quick to slow to you know what we say.
This silence is golden. Now when you need to speak, you
need to speak, but we need to be quiet, need to be quiet.
And you know what, not everyone you need to talk to.
Not everything that's going on requires you to say something.
In fact, Jesus during this time, I mean Jesus, no, no, if I work
a miracle, he's not going to repent.
I mean, I'm not going to change his their thinking.
I'm not going to change them. In fact, they've despised
everything that I sent John to say already.
So when the head of the church shows up, he keeps his mouth
shut. Man, you do not want the head of
the church to keep his mouth shut.
But we need to take a lesson from the head of the church,
which is be quick to because Jesus only spoke what the Father
said, and it's obviously the Father did not say tell him
this. Now, has Jesus said something to
Herod? Not directly, but through the
Pharisees? You go tell that fox, but I'm
not even going to talk to him personally and did not Sometimes
we make demands on hearing from people that God name won't
silent in your life because of you making such a demand to hear
Hallelujah. I mean, we say all the time we
don't deserve salvation, but we act like we deserve to hear,
well, you're going to hear for a season.
We understand that God desires that none would perish, but that
all would come, would come to repentance.
But talking can stop. I mean, just read Romans chapter
1. Romans chapter 1 is very clear
of a conversation happening with individuals.
But they snubbed the things of God, and it said God gave them
over to their depraved minds. And in the last of the last
days, you need to understand I don't want to go there, Lord,
I'm not going to go there, OK? So be quick to hear, slow to
speak, slow to anger, right. For the anger of man does not
achieve the righteousness of God.
Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains
of wickedness and humility, receive the Word implanted which
is able to save your soul. But prove yourselves.
What doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude
themselves. We have to be a doer of the
Word, and to be a doer of the Word is to be caught, not just
reading the scripture and then being a doer that we're hearing
from the Holy Ghost of how to interact and operate in each
situation. Because you understand, you may
know someone at work that is lost.
But again, when we minister on the Lord of the harvest, we talk
about how God sets things up. A lot of times we go and just
start talking about things, thinking that people are ready
when they're not even ready. I mean, because the Bible says
today's the day of salvation doesn't mean it's today.
Today's that person's day to hear from you.
You may actually sound louder if you keep silent and and do the
works. I said, do the works.
I just saw a little clip by a a Pentecostal preacher.
He says, you know, I'm a Pentecostal preacher and I like
Pentecost. You know, he says, you know, and
he said, but the problem is, you know a lot, a lot.
And I love the gifts of the Spirit and as charismatics, we
love the gift, he said, but I sure wish you would be better at
the fruits of the Spirit. He said, because you know you're
going to prophecy and you'll come here and prophecy, but then
you can't walk in self-control, you can't walk in kindness,
gentleness. You know you're not, you're not,
you're not embracing the fruits. He said honestly, I would much
rather have your fruits of the Spirit than the gifts of the
Spirit. So the fruits of the Spirit are
really, and the fruits of the Spirit speak, boy, they speak,
speak when you get up underneath the trial and tribulation and
you are long-suffering, you maintain kindness in the midst
of it. You stay faithful, gentle, these
particular types of things. You, you maintain self-control.
Although you want to flesh out about some stuff.
I mean, it speaks volume. And although you're not saying
anything, your silence is communicating.
It's communicating. So John chapter 10 verse 38, he
says, but if I do them, this is Jesus saying, but if I do them,
though you do not believe me, believe the works so that you
may know that and understand that the Father is in me and I
am in the Father. So here's Jesus, He's like,
look, if I don't do the worst, then don't believe me.
But if I'm doing the worst, even if you don't believe me, if
you're not believing what I'm saying because you don't want to
hear me, look at the fruit. Not only the fruit of his life,
of the way he walked on the planet, but then obviously the
working of the miracles that obviously even the lost
recognized this guy. How in the world can he be?
Now? The religious didn't do it.
What did they do? They're like, man, he casts out
devils in the name of bells above because they're going to
make any excuse to try to discredit the reputation of
Jesus. And for season, Jesus, you know,
in certain situations was able to say certain things, but he
didn't always say stuff. So again, we have to learn when
to speak, but when to remain, you know, because there's a
thing in our US culture today and that is silence is
acceptance. That is not true.
I mean at this point Jesus is silence of all of his accusers
must have me must have meant that I am everything they're
saying about me. But was he anything that they
said No, he wasn't he was righteous holy without spot
wrinkle. He's the lamb and the only one
who can give his life for us. But the the testimonies are to
the contrary. And what does Jesus do in the in
the most pivotal moment of his time on the planet?
Instead of defense, he's quiet. Because what's he going to do?
God had vindicate me and in three days I'm going to get up
out of this thing anyway, and then I'm going to walk around
and show some people, right? And is he seated on the throne
today? Come on, is he seated on the
throne today? So again, know this, there's a
time to talk, there's a time to speak, there's a time to save
the gospel. But then we also have to be
sensitive to the Spirit. Does God want you to inject the
gospel to that person? Does he want you to communicate
this to that individual? Does he want you to say this to
this person? Whatever the case may be, you
know, because again, God knows where people are in their minds
and their hearts what what they've already heard, what
they've already despised. I mean, This is why Jesus said
don't cast a Pearl before the swan.
Well, when do you not do that? And are you discerning enough to
say I'm just not even going to say anything because in that
moment, silence is the will of God.
Not well, I'm let me tell you what I really I'm, what's the
scripture say at this point? The discernment is they don't
want to hear. Why am I even talking to you?
You're convinced that what you
think is what you think, period. And there's plenty of people
there's and, and this spirit is prevailing in the earth, is in
the in our Nation Today, because we see this in the sector of
government. I mean, it doesn't matter what
one side or the other does. There are people who hold
opinions and they are there period.
Despite anything else, they will not go in another direction.
They are convinced it's that way.
And you know what, when, when, when people get into certain
situations. Well, what can you say?
This is why the Lord gave us that verse in Isaiah.
He said no weapon formed against you will prosper.
And every tongue that rises up in judgment, he will condemn
because at the end of the day, you remain quiet.
Let him. Let the vindication come from
him. So there's power in your
silence. It's not accepting.
It's I trust the Lord, I just trust the Lord.
Hallelujah. In First Corinthians chapter 2,
verse four and five, Paul said this.
He said my message and my preaching.
We're not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstrations of
the spirit and of power so that your faith will not rest on the
wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
I think it's very important that as we become studiers of word in
these in these days, you know where Rick Renner wrote a book
called World Going Crazy. When we're in these last days
like this, we seriously need to say, OK, Lord, there's a time to
speak and a time to be quiet. And I need to know when do I
remain silent so that it produces the most power, that it
produces the most power. Because again, when you just
have the fruits of the Spirit functioning in your life and
then you're doing the works, at that point, let them testify and
you can just remain quiet. Because at that point, Jesus
didn't have to speak for himself in the end, because his Father
has. And did his Father get him on
the third day? I said, did he go get him?
Did the Holy Ghost go down? Did he, was he raised up?
Did he split hell wide open right?
Did he conquer death, hell in the grave?
Does he have the keys of death, hell in the grave?
Is he now more than a conqueror? Is he now reigning in heaven,
seated on the throne? Hallelujah.
Is he coming back? And not as a suffering servant,
but he's coming back as the reigning king.
Of that his word reigns supreme, which means whatever he says, he
will do. I said whatever he says he will
do. Glory to God, because God's not
mocked. Whatever man soweth that he'll
also reap. It happened, praise the Lord.
So there may be times you just need to and you produce more
power in that moment than if you say I I encourage you go through
the Scripture and see the times Jesus got quiet.
Now he did talk. This doesn't mean we just stay
quiet because there's a time to talk and and let me say this,
when you talk those who don't want to change, it's going to
make them more aggravated. You can just see it with Jesus.
The Pharisees are like, well, that didn't work.
We sent the guy, they said the stuff and he was able to say all
the scriptures to him and they made him look stupid and we
should probably just leave him alone.
Did they do that? No, let's go.
We going to come back. We going, we going to be better
this time, right? Did it stop Jesus from his
purpose? Did it cause Jesus to fall
apart? No, as long as he kept his eyes
fixed on his Father's purpose, he was able to accomplish this
task. And there were times they came
to kill him. He just the one time,
Hallelujah, I said Hallelujah. So let's work the deeds of God,
let's obey him, let's speak when we should, and let's take a page
out of Jesus's playbook.