we read from the book of Luke chapter 11. We're gonna be reading verses 14 through 23 again. And he was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke, and the multitudes marveled. But some of them said, he casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say, I cast out demons by Beelzebub. If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by who do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, He takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's bow our heads. Our Father, we come before you, the God of all the earth this morning, Lord, who rules over the heavens. And Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to pray for our country and to read from your word and to hear your holy voice in it. Father, we thank you for the evidence that you are God. And Father, we ask this morning that we would each be convicted and willing to submit to you, Lord, as sheep following the shepherd. Father, it is not our job to do anything but to follow. Lord, we ask, Lord, that you would help us. Lord, that you would give us hearts that are willing to learn. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. We've been looking at this section for a couple of weeks. We looked at the purpose of miracles and why it was so offensive. It was interesting. I looked up a couple of Just thinking about this, I looked up online, you know, what historians gave testimony to Jesus Christ that he was a miracle worker? And would you believe there was three or four in the first century that reported on Jesus Christ of Nazareth that he was, quote, a known miracle worker of the times. Now, they didn't give their testimony that he was true, but that the testimony went out. And you got into this, and as I was looking at some of the articles, one of them talked about, well, you know, that it could either be completely true, completely false, or that it's been Christianized over time to make it fit. And you ask, well, what's Christianized? Well, that's when Christians went back and they changed the word of God and they wrote in what they wanted it to say. And that's obviously something we don't believe in when it comes to the Bible. There's no reason to believe in it. All the manuscripts agree in every major doctrine and book. And we have letters, even from the first century, which we could reconstruct the whole New Testament out of it. The overwhelming evidence is that this has not been changed. But one of the things that they pointed out that was really interesting, and again, especially seeing this was an agnostic website, you know, we're not sure if there is a God, and if he is, he probably does not do miracles, and the Bible is, you know, one of those websites. And they said, you know, the one time you can tell that the Bible is actually true, that there was a source document, is when they tell you something that his enemy said about him that would be embarrassing to the gospel, like Jesus casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. And I just thought about that and I thought, you know, there you have it. You have the very evidence of God that his enemies have to credit the fact that he is casting out demons, that he is in fact genuinely casting out demons. They have to credit it. And here we have agnostics in the present day that are ignoring that fact that his enemies believe he was doing miracles. And I just thought, how hard can our hearts get? And how blind can our eyes be that we would take the very evidence that God has given us and we would turn it upside down? We'd say, well, we don't know if the rest of that was true, but obviously his enemies doubted that he was God because they credited this to Beelzebub and you just ignored the fact that what they credited was that he had just done a miracle. And you think, how blind? How willfully blind and ignorant are people. And that is exactly what the Pharisees are. They are willfully blind and ignorant. God has done these miracles to prove that God sent him, Jesus was sent by God, that God spoke through Jesus Christ, all the words that he spoke were the words of God, and that he was, in fact, God in the flesh. And of course, the Jews wanted nothing to do with this. And they wanted nothing to do with this because he told them that the system that they had built up over all these years and their rabbis and their degrees and all their doctorates and their philosophies that had grown were worthless. They were human works, they were based on man's invention, not based on the word of God, and that they would not get them to heaven. And they were so proud of that. We have done all these things. If you take this away, what have I? Well, the answer is, this is what each one of us has to come to, the point where everything that we claim to and cling to has been stripped away from us, and we are humbled before God. And we say, all right, Lord, whatever you say. Here am I, take me, I'm yours. And that's the point we must come to. That's the point. Jesus is confronting the Pharisees. Last week we looked at Matthew 12 and we looked at their plan. Jesus has been doing miracles and they literally get together and make a plan on how to destroy him. And we're going to see at least two of the things that they have planned listed here. They're going to talk about a third one, that he's been born of fornication, but the primary one is that he doesn't honor the Sabbath, and that he's doing these things by the power of Beelzebub, and also that Oh, they're going to ask a sign from heaven. They're going to ask a sign from heaven. And they're going to try to force God into their mold. And if you won't do this, we refuse to believe. And their interpretation of scripture is off on that. We'll get to that in a bit. But right now we're looking at Jesus casting out the demon. And last week we looked at Jesus starting to reply to this plan. And he looked at the wisdom, a kingdom that is divided itself is brought to desolation, a house divided against itself falls. And just, you know, the idea of a civil war within a country, how destructive that is. And if Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? And just the foolishness of saying that. Then we looked at his second response to that same thing. Moreover, if I'm casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, who are your sons using, seeing they use my name? And this, of course, was in Luke 9, that there were those that were going around using the name of Jesus and either performing genuine miracles in his name or at least believing that in his name they could perform miracles. We don't know what actually was happening, but we know they were using his name. And Jesus said, let them alone. If they're not against me, they'll be for me. They can't speak against Christ if they're actually using his name to do miracles. Now, This is almost the opposite here, but he's calling them. He says, let your sons, let those be your judges. These are your children. We saw from Acts that the seven sons of Seba that went in and tried to cast out a demon in the name of Paul and in the name of Jesus and were driven out naked in a frame, they were the sons of the chief priest. So it's very obvious that the children of these leaders are using Jesus' name. They see him and they see the miracles as genuine. They see the power of God being displayed through him. And all that does is continue to add to their judgment, doesn't it? Doesn't it? And Jesus is coming. He's given them, again, this is, if you went back to Matthew for the timeframe, And Matthew's got a long portion on this same subject. And right after Matthew 12, we come into Matthew 13. And in Matthew 12, this is the last time Jesus is talking openly, clearly, and lovingly to the Pharisees. From there on out, his teaching is going to switch to parables that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear. It's the message is being taken away from them. The first step of judgment, God is closing their ears. because they've refused to repent. They've refused to come to Christ. And from that point on, if you read through Matthew, every time he addresses the Pharisees from then on, it's, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're under a curse. You're, you know, and it's very confrontational, very in your face, very, you must repent. And even that is in love. You know, I think that whenever God deals with us, whether it is lovingly and gently like he's doing here where he's actually reasoning with them, or whether it's confrontational like Nathan when he came to David and he said, you are that man. And David's heart is cut to the quick and he's smote and he falls down on his knees. How can you say that is anything less than the love of God? It is God caring for His own as a Father. Sometimes, you know, He starts with us and He reasons with us and He disciplines us and He guides us, and if we refuse to hear that, Eventually, He must come with correction. And it's very strict and it's very hurtful, but it's still there for our growth and for our good. Every son He loves, He disciplines. So, Jesus has been reasoning with them. He's given them the two reasons. And obviously, if you take these two reasons and you put them together, it is very clear Jesus is not casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. It's just, it's obvious. And he starts now in verse 20 with a but. And again, in the Bible, when you have a but, you have a complete change of direction. We don't always use it that way in English, but you see it there in the Bible very clearly. It is a stop and a turn, and usually it's a 180 degree turn, and it is that here too. He is talking about casting him out through the power of the devil or but. Now he's casting them out through the power of God. And he wants them to think. In this whole section, as I've been thinking about this for the last couple of weeks in myself, I have titled this For Me or Against Me. There's just no other options. You know, we like in our day and age to make the world gray and to say, well, you know, there's a lot of area there, a little bit of black, a little bit of white. Christ never did that. Christ never did that. And I am challenged by this. I am daily challenged by this. I get told, you know, you should leave some options, some wiggle room out there for people, you know? And I'm told what? By God's word though. I'm to preach the truth. I'm to stand on God's word. I am to declare it to the best of my ability, to the clearest that I can make it fit. I'm not to, Not to say, well, you know, it could be this or it could be that. No. I mean, there are certain verses. We looked at one the other day in being baptized by the dead on Wednesday night. And I can tell you honestly, I don't know of anyone that can actually look at that verse and say concretely, this is what it means. We can tell you some of the things that it doesn't mean based on the rest of God's word. And we can tell you how we think it means based on what we can interpret it in the Greek. It's a difficult passage. But when we come to passages that we know, we must be dogmatic. And when we build truth, we are building a foundation that doesn't move. This is, these are the, you know, when we talk about sin, we understand that all of us are born as sinners. That's original sin. We don't have to sin to become a sinner. We're born with sin in our hearts, desiring and wanting to sin. This is children and every one of us has started in the same place and we build these truths and we lay out the foundation of the gospel in this doctrine. So Jesus is here turning from that and he's laying out another foundation that he is God. He is God, and I want you to enjoy this because this is a beautiful section. We have, we actually, since the spiritual warfare movement started in the 1990s, and these different books have coming out, we've kind of become embarrassed of some of these passages, and we shouldn't be. They're the Word of God, and Jesus is talking to them, and this should be an encouragement to all of us over who is God and how powerful He is. So let's start, he says, but, all right, that's the change. He'd throw everything else out, and let's turn to see, it says, if I cast out demons with the finger of God. Okay, again, both sides have agreed that he is doing this, that this is happening, the demons are leaving, people are being delivered. And the if there is whose power, whose authority is Christ using? And I love what he says. He says, I cast out demons with the finger of God. The finger of God. Now, if you look at this phrase, the finger of God, I want you to think, what does that signify? Well, first of all, it's of God, right? We get that. It's of God versus of demons. But there's something else, and that's the idea of this word finger, right? You don't look at a finger and go, what a strong finger. Boy, look at the muscles in that finger. I just can't believe that finger can do that. I've never heard that my whole life. What's a finger? You know, a finger by itself isn't that strong, is it? You need the whole hand. You need the arm to get involved. And I think there is definitely a point here of this. I want you to listen to some other verses that talk about the finger of God, because this is not the only place that talks about this. Exodus 8-19. And you don't have to look these up. This is in the midst of the plagues on Egypt. And you remember the first plague was the water turned to blood and they took their little jar of water and the fake prophets there were able to do it in front of Pharaoh. And oh, see, we can make blood too. And then the dust turns to lice. And they look at this and they go, hmm, because it just starts to give birth to lice everywhere, you know, very gross. And they say, this is what? Exodus 8, 19. Then the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart grew hard and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said. Okay, this is the point where they start to realize they cannot do this on their own. There's no way this is being faked. You know, you think about the first one, you know, they did it to the little thing of water and Moses goes out and says, all right, try this on for size. Here's the Nile River. Boom. All the water in Egypt turns to blood. And you know what? They couldn't turn it back because they really had no power. and certainly not against God. And now they come to the lice and they're looking at it and they go, ooh. And they said, we're not even gonna get involved in this one. You know, we're just staying out. This is the finger of God. And the idea here is God is coming into Egypt and in each of these plagues, he's showing his power over the gods of Egypt. And the gods of Egypt do not hear, they do not see, they do not travel, they do not walk. They have no life in them. And even with Satan, you know, being involved in the religions behind the scenes, when God comes into the picture, how much power does Satan have left? None. None. And even the magicians are starting to understand it. And they don't say, this is the arm of God. We'll get to the arm later, right? You know, that power of God. This is not the arm of God. This is what? The finger of God. They realized. Here they were worshiping the Nile. You know, they could change a pot of water into something red, but when God changed the water into blood, he changed all of Egypt in an instant. And all the fish died, and the animals died, and the people had to dig wells, and they looked and they said, now this is power. You know, you look at it, they're not saying, our God came close, you know, it was the right side of the river, and then it was two thirds of the way out, and it was three quarters, and boy, he held on, but no. This is the finger of God. When he spoke, our gods were done. They were done. There's another verse also in Exodus. And this one, I think you all know, and when he had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. And I just, I kind of put this together because this is the judgments of God, and when God makes a judgment, again, there is no question of whether you get to interpret the judgment how you want, or you get to make the judgment. You know, Lord, let's just give us a little leeway on that one, thou shalt not covet. We can desire, heavily desire it. We just can't, covet is only when I, I don't know, obsess about it for a long period of time. You don't get to do that. God has said, thou shalt not. It is written in stone for a reason. You know, he could have written on animal skins just as easy. Couldn't he have? But instead he put it on tablets of stone to show that it was unchangeable, unchanging, ever the standard of God. Again, John 8, 6 is very interesting. This is when they bring to him the woman in adultery and Jesus doesn't even, you know, what should we do with her? Moses commands that we stone her and he's been teaching there and he stops and he writes down in the dirt, And it says, they tested him that they might have something to accuse him of, but Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger. And you wonder again, was not this maybe the law of God? And just, again, the power of God. There's no issue here. Here they are trying to test him. He just stops and starts writing. And pretty soon they start leaving as their hearts convict him. And again, Daniel, judgment again. In the same hour, the finger of a man's hand appeared on the rote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. He just saw the finger. Remember that teckle-teckle Mepharsin or something like that? You've been judged and found wanting and your kingdom is taken away from you. This kingdom they thought would stand for eternity with these huge gates that were well-known and the infinite water supply of the Euphrates River going underneath the wall and being brought through the city. And what happens? The Medes and the Persians divert the Euphrates River and they march in unopposed and take the city in a single night. And the kingdom ends after 70 years. And again, it's simply the finger of God. There is no question when God declares judgment on a people, on a God, on a nation, on us, that what He has declared will happen. We do not get to choose, we do not get to argue, we do not get to suppose, we do not get to debate. He is God, and we are here. And so Jesus uses this term. He says, if I, with the finger of God, cast out demons. Now what he's, you know, again, there's no question if he's casting out demons. And to really understand this, you have to understand there was, they would give them all sorts of incredibly awful remedies. And I can't remember which ones were for sickness and which ones were for demons and spiritual, you know, possession and stuff. But stuff like, you know, don't change your clothes for 10 years. Stuff like, you know, just awful things for your health, for Hygiene for smell, just incredibly atrocious things. If you really want to get cured, this is what you need. You need an egg that, you know, and this egg will stay with you and rot. And this will drive the demon out. And it was awful. And here comes Jesus. And what does he do? Depart. Don't bother this person anymore. And the demon is gone. Immediately, the deaf person stands, the mute in this case, stands and speaks. He's completely delivered, healed of all the afflictions, everything that was there. This is not a contest between God and Satan in which the outcome is in doubt. And God uses that same term. The finger of God has just been shown. There's no question of who has the authority, who has the power. God is ruling from heaven above, and at his command, the demons depart. They have no choice. Even if you remember the one on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, where there was 2,000 or more, our name is Legion, for we are many. Could have been as many as 5,000 in an individual. Jesus said, depart. They said, can we go into the swine? It wasn't, you know, we don't want to leave. Can we go into the swine? He said, go. You know, even in their obstinacy and their desire to provoke Jesus, they ended up bringing glory to God. Did they not? Great fear came upon all of them. Why? Because they saw the power of the Lord. And it's the same here. The power of the Lord is there. And this is what Jesus is pointing out to the Pharisees. You might not want to listen. It doesn't really matter. The power of God has been displayed with an incredible boldness. Incredible power. Satan has been overcome like that. He says, if I cast out demons with the finger of God, then what? Surely, surely. Before we go on, let me just go back. You know, he does use other terms to describe himself. I just want to, we're going to give you two verses because I want you to think about this because this is beautiful. All right. The other one is this Isaiah 41 10, fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will uphold you. I will uphold you with my righteous right. No hand. my righteous right hand. It's not just the finger of God there, but when it comes to our salvation and our preservation, It's his strong right hand. The right hand was always, they assumed everybody was right-handed, and so your right hand was viewed as the good hand, as the strong hand, as the pure hand, all of that. They said, with my righteous right hand, I will uphold you. And God talks to us about, you know, as we walk along in this life, following Him, and we're struggling, and there's trials, and there's temptations, and there's testing, and He says, don't worry. Fear not. I am with thee. You know, be not dismayed. I am thy God. I will not leave you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. That's who's holding us. And there's one other one. or two other ones. First of all, Isaiah 53. Most of you should remember that one. You go, oh, I know Isaiah 53, right? Let me read it to you. Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Well, here comes from hand to what? Arm. Is the arm stronger than the hand? Better believe it. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Who is this? Jesus Christ. And what's he called? Let me read that first verse. Who has believed our report to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. He's called the arm of the Lord. And then in Deuteronomy 33, 27, the eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. Are the everlasting arms. We are saved with an eternal redemption. and underneath are the everlasting arms keeping us. This is our God. When He fights against Satan, it takes His finger to defeat the enemy. But to save us, took His arms and His hands. As Jesus had to come and take on flesh and die and pay for sins, and then we are kept and held and supported by the power of God's hand and arm. What a beautiful thought. What can Satan do if the best that his kingdom is defeated by the finger of God, who will deliver us from the arm of the Lord? And that is exactly what Romans 8.34 says. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who has died, furthermore has also risen. Who can condemn someone who is in Jesus Christ? Why? Why can you say who can condemn him? Because the price has already been paid for all his sins. And he's risen and where is he? He's even at the right hand of God in making intercession for us. This is our God. So now he says, if you understand this, then surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. And, you know, he asks us to consider this. This is the last time he is really reaching out to the Pharisees. And he's talking to them very clearly so that they can understand. And he says, there's a result of all this, surely, surely, you know, without a doubt, You can believe on this. You can put your faith in this. Again, I look back at this agnostic that was talking about how, well, we know this actually happened because even the enemies of Jesus said this about them and they haven't changed this. And I thought, here we go, right there, surely Jesus Christ is God. It's there. They have just closed their eyes to it. And he's coming to the same people, the Pharisees, the agnostics of his day that didn't want to believe he is God. And he's saying, surely, without a doubt, truly, truly, you can go to the bank on this. You can bet your life on this. There is no doubt about this at all. What? The kingdom of God has come upon you. Now we read through that and I think in English we just pass right through it. It's just so easy. And yet I want to take you back into the, I don't remember where it is, into the Old Testament Kings, 1st and 2nd Kings. Remember Elisha and his servant and they're in the city of Samaria and every time the king has come against the Jews. Elisha has told the king, don't go out there. When you go, go this way because there's an ambush set up there. And he keeps delivering Israel out of the hands of their enemy. And the king says, who is the spy? And one of them says, it's not a spy, it's the prophet over there. So he says, gather the army, we're gonna go get the prophet. And so they come and they gather around the city and they've totally isolated the city and there's horsemen and chariots and all of this. It's not in Samaria. What is it? It was in Damon or something. And the servant looks at Elijah and he says, Master, what shall we do? And Elisha just kind of chuckles. And he prays and he says, Lord, open the servant's eyes that he may see. And he opens his eyes and he sees what? The mountains are full of the armies of the Lord. There's no competition here. There's no need to fear. One angel would come in Hezekiah's time and he would kill 185,000 men of the army outside of Jerusalem and he would do it in a single night. A single angel just passing through the ranks. Die, die, die, die. 185,000, all of the mighty men and the leaders. King James says they woke up dead. They woke up to having them dead, right? They woke up to seeing them dead. An angel of the Lord had passed by and now we have a myriad of angels surrounding them. The hills are full of them. This is our Lord. This is our God. And this is what Jesus is saying. He says, the kingdom of God, the King has arrived. His power, that word is among you. There's several translations. One of them is overtaken. And I don't know, I just, I like that. The expression like during the middle of the night, the army arrived and you open your eyes, what? You see the power of the Lord. It's everywhere. You know, Joshua and the men of Israel. Marching through the night, 30 some miles or whatever, they get to the town that's under siege that they've made the covenant with and they what? They set the armies up and they attack at sunrise. And God gives a great deliverance. And when the battle is going long and the sun is going down, Joshua says to the Lord, may the sun stand still and may the moon not move. And God stops the earth. And gravity doesn't fail and the atmosphere doesn't leave and the rules of science are broke. The earth simply stops in place until God is satisfied. When Joshua doesn't kill enough, the hailstones come from heaven. And it says there were more that were killed by the hailstones than were killed by the armies of Israel. Because the army of the Lord was there. And it had overtaken them. And they did not realize it. Joshua knew it. He knew the Lord was there. And he had the courage to ask. When Jesus Christ is here talking, there is no difference. The King of Heaven is standing before them and He is telling them, the Kingdom of God has come among you, has overtaken you, is present here today. And you have just seen it. Because the King has spoken and Satan has fled, a defeated foe, unable to stand even for a moment against the power of the Lord. And surely this is giving testimony, and I don't use that word by accident, surely this is giving testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And that Satan is nothing more than a created being with borrowed time and borrowed power. When the Lord says it is enough, it is enough. And it is over. He then gives a very simple illustration. Men have twisted this. In our day and age, it's used to support the doctrines of binding demons. It's got nothing to do with that. Christ never said, I bind you, Satan. In any place that he's, he said, get thee away from me, depart. He was the king. He says this, when a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, that's the idea of Satan having possession of this vessel, filling him with this demonic spirit. He's got a palace, it's there, it's his, it's under his control. His goods are in peace. There's no war. Why? Because Satan is greater than we are. But when a stronger, then he comes upon him. when Jesus Christ arrives on the scene and the King of Heaven is there and overcomes him, the finger of God, no need for a long-drawn-out dispute, no need for chants, no need for fastings. Depart. He overcomes him. And he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and he bides his spoil. He takes that man and he leads him to the Lord and he says, come and follow me. This is the testimony that they had just seen. Man has been delivered. Jesus, surely the King has arrived. He ends with this statement. Verse 22, or 23. All of this is done. This is the last statement to the Pharisees. He says this, well, at least in this direct thing, he says, he who is not with me is against me. And he who does not gather with me scatters. Now, I want you to think about this because I, the more I have thought about this this week, the deeper this grows, the deeper this grows. We know that there was a time back in Luke 9 when Jesus allowed those who weren't with him but were using his name. He said, those who are not against me are for me. Those who are using my name. They cannot lightly say something against me. Let them alone. Let them continue on at that. point in his ministry. And now he's moved over to this other side and he's saying, if you're not for me, you're against me. He's talking to his enemies, the Pharisees. They claim the name of the Lord. They claim that they followed the word of God, but they failed to stand for Jesus Christ. They failed to take the line of truth. And Jesus will not allow you to walk in the middle. He says, you're either with me or you're against me. And he draws the line hard and fast. And he says, you're not with me. So if you continue on to say these things, you are fighting against God. You are making yourselves the enemy of the kingdom of heaven. You know, one of the questions some unsaved Jewish friends of ours had before they came to know the Lord, was what sin did Israel commit that God drove them from the land for almost 2,000 years? What sin did they commit? What gross unbelief was there? What gross perversion of morality? What sin was it that drove the people out of the land from AD 70 all the way up until 1948? And when they read the book of Matthew and they came to know that Jesus Christ was their Messiah, and that they had asked for his blood to be accredited to them and to their children, it broke their hearts. And they understood that their sin was truly a great sin. Because the king had come among them and he had given testimony, and it was surely obvious to anyone who had eyes to see, that Jesus Christ was Lord and deserves all of our worship. And that there are no secondary paths that you can squeak by. You're either for Christ or you're against Christ. You're either scattering or you're gathering. Now I want you to notice I got four things just to think about real quick. three actually, but notice first of all how this goes, this end teaching goes against the grain of the world today. We are supposed to be tolerant. We're supposed to be open for discussion, open for debate. We're supposed to be, that's what loving is and kind is. And I'm supposed to be empathetic, putting myself in your shoes and agreeing with you that you are right to some degree in what you're saying. I understand how you could be angry in this. I understand how you feel this way. Not just sympathizing, I'm so sorry you're feeling this way, but I understand. I hear you. And Christ says what? You're either for me or against me, or either gathering, proactively drawing in, or you're what? Proactively scattering abroad. There is no middle way. You're either drawing toward the Lord or you're pushing away from God. If we know truth and fail to speak it, Are we not scattering? I was confronted by this just a couple of weeks ago that I was speaking too much truth and that I should, you know, allow others the opportunity to think and debate and choose and, you know, maybe you don't know everything. And I love the person who said this. But I have to ask myself also if we know truth and we fail to speak against it. Again, these issues are not secondary issues. They're primary issues of salvation and of church orthodoxy. And if we know truth and we do not speak it, are we gathering or scattering? If we fail to identify sin as sin, here's another one of our days. It's not sin, it's just someone who has an addiction. It's just someone who is made different than us. It's just someone who's confused, someone who's a little off, has something wrong with them, not wrong with them, different from us. God's Word doesn't call it that. What does God's Word call it? Sin. Rebellion against God. And God is very clear that those who practice such things will not inherit eternal life. If we fail to acknowledge that sin is sin, what about then? We are not gathering, we are what? We are scattering. If we fail to encourage attendance and growth in the church, I'm not being legalistic here, but we are commanded to assemble together to encourage one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching, and yet there are people today saying, oh, the church's time has passed. We need a new model, we need a new way, we have the internet, we have this, we have that, we have all these other means of reaching these things, and church is an old institution. Are we gathering or are we scattering? We're scattering. you know, to the person who was confronting me with his opinion, if we fail to teach in season and out of season. Any idea what out of season means? You know, the idea was presented that I should only teach in the church, only during that 45 minute lesson time, and possibly if somebody comes up and asks a question, but only in the church. What does out of season mean? When it's convenient, when it's inconvenient, absolutely. Possibly when they wanna hear it and when they don't wanna hear it. What does out of season mean? Do some time, think about it. Are we gathering or are we scattering? How should this impact our family? Point two. How should this impact our family? We're either gathering or scattering. Are we actively teaching and showing the principles of gathering to the Lord? Do they see this in our life? Oh, come and let us worship together. How my heart longs to be in the Lord's house today. Are they watching us? Are they seeing in our personal life, in our public life that we are coming to God? What does it look like? Now, I don't want to list, because each life is different. Each time a life is different. But are we gathering or scattering? Christ says if we're not actively setting ourselves to gather, What are we doing? We're scattering. How many times have we seen this in the history of those that we know and we love? Oh, we brought our kids to church, but we didn't come. Where are their kids today? Very few of them are still in church. Praise the Lord for the couple that made the choice, but are we gathering or are we scattering? How about in the church? How about in the church? Do we teach about salvation, about holiness, about the true love for God and my neighbor? Or do we just make people feel kind of comfortable? Give them a nice thought for the day. Something that they can just think about. Are we gathering? Are we really trying to build up? Listen to the standard God gives us for the preaching of the word of God. All right, listen to this standard. This is from Ephesians 4, 11 through 15. It says, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Okay, that's everybody who's teaching the word. And by the way, the gift of God is Jesus Christ, who is the word. For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. That's what the primary job of teaching and preaching is. It's getting people ready to go out and minister on their own. So that they can go back out and they can say, this is what the gospel is, this is what this is, this is what that is. For the edifying of the body of saints, what's that? That's pointing out the things that need to be cut off. edification, till we all come to a unity of the faith, a unity that is based on our faith in the Word of God, that it stands strong, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect or complete man, to a measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ, that we were a model of Christ. Okay, I might not be Jesus Christ, but I can be a tiny model of Jesus Christ. that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. New teaching comes out, everyone goes, oh, this is so great. You go, hold it. There's nothing new under the sun. And you go back to God's word and you start checking it out and you start saying, no, we've missed here and we've missed here and we've missed here. You get your verse lists together. by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but we speak the truth in love and may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. That is the preaching that God is wanting in the church. That's bringing us to Christ, making us a statue, a fullness of Christ. Are we scattering or are we gathering? I leave you with that because that is Jesus' last word to a people that are rejecting Him. Surely the Kingdom of God has come upon you. God has spoken to us as well and His message has not changed. Are we gathering? If not, then we are scattering. Let's close in a word of prayer. Our Father, we come before you today, and Lord, I ask for each one who hears these words. Lord, may we all fall before your throne and ask you, Lord, for help that we would gather. Father, lead us, please, into the ways of the Lord. Teach us from your word that we would not be children tossed to and fro by every wind and the cunning craftiness of men in their deceitful plotting. But Lord, that we would grow up into the statue of Christ, into the fullness of Jesus Christ. And Lord, that we would rejoice in you. Father, we have such a privilege to be in you. May we not give it up for the sake of men. Father, we ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.