======================================================================== DON'T GIVE TO DOGS WHAT IS HOLY by Tim Conway ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of discernment in sharing the Gospel, highlighting the need to recognize when to stop sharing the message with those who reject it, comparing them to 'dogs' and 'pigs' who trample on pearls. It stresses the value of the Gospel as the most precious message that delivers souls from eternal destruction, urging listeners to prioritize the honor of Christ over personal relationships and to pray for God to change hearts. The speaker warns against rejecting the Gospel, emphasizing the finality of such a decision and the urgency of repentance before judgment day. Duration: 56:42 Topics: "Discernment in Evangelism", "The Value of the Gospel" Scripture References: Matthew 7:6, Matthew 10:14, Acts 13:46, Luke 19:41, Hebrews 6:4, Acts 17:30, 2 Peter 2:20, Matthew 3:8, John 3:16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of discernment in sharing the Gospel, highlighting the need to recognize when to stop sharing the message with those who reject it, comparing them to 'dogs' and 'pigs' who trample on pearls. It stresses the value of the Gospel as the most precious message that delivers souls from eternal destruction, urging listeners to prioritize the honor of Christ over personal relationships and to pray for God to change hearts. The speaker warns against rejecting the Gospel, emphasizing the finality of such a decision and the urgency of repentance before judgment day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Lord knows best, and undoubtedly there are truths associated with what we're going to look at right here that in our day are most especially needed. Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. And Father, I would ask you to help me now preach, help us all to hear, and to not just be hearers. Help us to be doers of the Word. We pray for the grace of our God to empower us in a way that we need to be strengthened and helped. I ask that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. So, do not give dogs what is holy. Do not throw your pearls before pigs or before swine. I just ask you this, have you ever noticed the animals of Scripture? Does it ever strike you? Just verses like this, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I fought with beasts at Ephesus. You notice that kind of language. It's very interesting. This sort of language is everywhere in our Bibles. Psalm 22, we could have read there before the Lord's Supper. But Jesus cries from the cross in Psalm 22, he says this, Many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me. Again, dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me, they pierce my hands and feet. Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. So, you see it here. You see bulls, bulls of Bashan. You see dogs, the power of the dog. Again, he says, save me from the mouth of the lion. You rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen. The psalmist pleads in Psalm 74, Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts. Isaiah 41 says, fear not you worm. There he's still in the animal kingdom. But now, what is a worm? A worm is not an insect. What are they? Somebody got the Latin word for it? Anyway, it's the animal kingdom undoubtedly. But we get this language. John the Baptist. What did John the Baptist say to the Pharisees when they were coming to his baptism? You brood of vipers. So, this is not foreign to us. If we pay any attention to the Scriptures, get away from here. Herod wants to kill you. And Jesus said to them, go and tell that fox. Or you get this, behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Or to his disciples, he says, behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions. Their serpents and scorpions don't so much mean men and women as much as demons. But Acts 20, 29, Paul tells the Ephesian elders, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. So, what's with all the animal metaphors? We get them all over the Scriptures. I get the feeling of this. Do you ever notice God never takes an animal and calls it by a human name? He doesn't say, you know, of that sheep over there, look at Fred. But he often looks at people and he gives them the title of animals. And it's everywhere in your Bible. And you get the feeling that one of the reasons that God created the animals with certain traits and characteristics is to be a reflection of us oftentimes. I know there's other reasons why he did that for his glory. But one of the things that undoubtedly we're confronted with is this kind of terminology throughout our Bible. I would just say this, what kind of animal are you most like? Here's the thing, in the text before us, Jesus is telling us there are people in the world that you need to identify as being pigs and dogs and you don't want to throw your pearls before them. Probably nobody here would be ready to admit that that's what you are. And yet Jesus says that there are people that are just like this. I mean, in the text before us today, we have these two-legged sorts of pigs and dogs. Do not give dogs what is holy. And do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. And you know what? This isn't the only time that pigs and dogs are mentioned in the New Testament. You can probably think, if you just let your mind... In fact, Peter gives us a text that likewise has both dogs and pigs in it. What the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit. He's talking about people here. And the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire. So he's talking about somebody that's been exposed to the truth. And they seemingly go on with Christ for a season and they go back to their old sin. They go back to their vomit. They go back to their mire. Just like a dog, just like a pig. But you get this. In Philippians chapter 3, the Philippian Christians are told to beware of the dogs. The circumcision, basically the Jews that were God rejecters, Christ haters. Or you get this. All the way at the end of our Bibles, in the book of Revelation. Do you know who's out there in the outer darkness? The dogs. Just think with me about that. Outside are the dogs. And it says, and the sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, everyone who loves and practices the false. But have you ever stopped? I mean, all these things, the fornicators, the adulterers, I mean, murderers. We recognize that terminology. But sorcerers, to start with the term dogs, the dogs are out there. To be a dog in Scripture is not a good thing. That ought to be really out. We're not talking these little cute lap dogs. That's not the idea here. So let's get to the heart of this text. What's our Lord teaching us? I mean, here's the thing. The first five verses, judge not. You know, the world loves that. Judge not, judge not. That's verse 1. But then what does verse 6 imply? Verse 6 implies that we're required to judge who the pigs and the dogs are. What Jesus is doing in verse 6 is He's assuming that His people are going to have the ability to discern the dog from the not dog. I mean, that's, listen, He's expecting that we're going to be able to say, that guy over there is a dog. You say, judge not. Well, wait. Whatever His judge not means, it doesn't contradict this reality that we have to be able to identify this. What you'll remember from the first five verses, which we looked at two weeks ago, is what He's really condemning is hypocritical judgment. That's what's being forbidden. But the reality is that we need to judge with righteous judgment. Listen, brethren, one of the reasons that this text is so important in our day is just basically this. You know, the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. There is a truth. We have to be people that actually are willing to say, there is a truth. And you hold to that truth or you don't hold to that truth. Or what you're teaching is not truth. You say, judge not. Wait, that's not what... Jesus never meant to use judge not in that sense. He meant not to use it in the way where we're judging somebody with a speck in their eye. When we have the inability to judge our own selves, when we got something much greater wrong with us, that's hypocritical judgment. But the fact that we are supposed to be discerning people is everywhere in our Bibles. Brethren, you need to cling to the good. You need to hate the bad. That's what Scripture tells us to do. If you're going to be a Christian and you're actually going to make it to glory, you've got to be a person of truth. It's the truth that sets us free. It's the truth that's behind the gospel. We are people of truth. And the church is the pillar and ground of truth. Listen, we live in a day when people don't like truth. People don't like when there's preachers who set forth truth dogmatically. And they tell the world and they preach from this book. You know, a lot of the flack we get when we're trying to tell people about the truth is they want to attack this book. And the Bible, don't be surprised at that. The devil has attacked this book from the very beginning, yea, as God said. He attacked the Word of God from the very beginning. And he goes after it still. Why? Because he's a liar. And see, he hates the truth. Brethren, we need to be people of truth and we need to be people that are discerning. And we need to be people that can actually say of a truth, that guy is a pig or she is a swine. And you know what? We need to be able to say it because that's what Jesus expects from us. He expects us to be able to have that kind of discernment. If there are people in this world that are bulls, that are wild oxen, that are dogs, that are pigs, that are doves, that are beasts, and on and on. Well, he expects us to be able to recognize who these people are and to distinguish them. And especially right here. It's one thing if you basically just have some kind of indicative where it's just describing something that's true in the world. But the fact is right here, we're actually being told to do something. And so our ability to recognize such people is important if we're actually going to carry out what the Lord wants from us. And what does the Lord want from us? The Lord wants us to do something or not do something based on what a person is. And so if you come across people that are dogs and pigs, He expects us to be able to figure that out. And brethren, you recognize this. We live in a day where there is a massive lack of discernment. We live in a relativistic world. Nobody wants to hear that there is actually a truth out there. It's okay as long as you're searching for the truth or you never have actually gotten there. But as soon as you stand up and say, I know what the truth is, then everybody hates you. Then they can't abide that. They can't tolerate that. Indifference to clarity on things. Brethren, this is rampant in the church. Not being able to express things. Not being able to say things how they are. We need to be people that can actually call something black that's black and white that's white. We need to be able to say what's true. You know the thing about truth? Truth is true. And truth can be examined. And it can be looked at from different angles. And it's still true. And we don't have to hide it. We don't have to be ashamed of it. We need to bring it out. And I'll tell you, one of the truths that we're being taught right here is there are people in the world who are pigs. And there are people in the world who are dogs. You say, that's offensive. Well, see, that's something to take up with Jesus. Jesus did offend people. There's no question about it. But because the truth offends people. People that don't like truth, you know the scripture does describe people who love a lie. They love to believe a lie. Don't be surprised that people that love to believe a lie are going to get upset with the truth. But we need to be people of truth. And we need to see things the way they are. And the truth is, if the Lord had finished his teaching on the subject of judging in verse 1 of Matthew 7, well, we probably would fall into some erroneous thinking about judging. We would never judge. It would lead us into a totally false position. We'd end up afraid to exercise spiritual discernment. And you know, if you don't exercise spiritual discernment, then you don't have spiritual discipline in the church. But clearly we're told to discipline in the church. We're clearly told to identify sin in the church. We're clearly told, I mean, weren't the Corinthians told to put a certain guy out of the church? Why? Because truth dictated. This guy is living with his father's wife, and you need to get the leaven out of the loaf. We need to be able to discern who the leaven is. We need to be people that can take, I mean, doesn't scripture say prove everything? First Thessalonians chapter 5, prove everything. We are people that need to, we need to be able to evaluate. We need to be able to test the spirits like John said. We need to be people of a book of truth, that are able to take this book of truth, and to hold it up and judge the world by what's in this book. We need to be able to evaluate that way. Not hypocritical judgment, but honest, faithful discernment. And I would just ask you this, can you spot a pig when you see one? Because if you can't, then you can't really uphold the text here. Like I said brethren before, if I was preaching just a bunch of subjective sermons, and not preaching just verse by verse through Matthew, through the Sermon on the Mount, I probably would not be dealing with this. But here it is, and I want to be faithful to it. Brethren, what can happen is, we can so easily go to extremes. Judge not on the one hand, we can become over excessive in judgment. Remember, love covers a multitude of sins. And really what happens here is, verse 6 helps to give us some balance. Our Lord doesn't want us to be hypocrites, but at the same time, He does want us to be discriminating and discerning. And so, the question is this, do you have the skills of critical discernment, where you can know a dog when one comes around? Because Jesus expects us to know that. So, what's the picture? Here's the picture. We obviously have the picture here. Imagine a man. You can see the picture. A man has a sack of pearls. You can imagine this. And we can imagine him standing in front of, again, not lap dogs, not little, whatever you call, what do you call your dogs here? What's a cute little lap dog name? Toto. But anyway, this is not the kind of dogs. You know, I've been to India. I've been to places in, I've been to Egypt. I've been, well, even in Romania. You get these packs of dogs and they bite each other and they are just wild. You would not want your children to meet a pack of these dogs. These things are snarling, vicious, dirty mongrels. And then pigs. Don't you love the children's books? Or like the Noah and the Ark books where they paint the pig and he's always smiling? People that draw that have never been around pigs. Pigs are dirty. They were unclean by Old Testament standards. They bite. They're horrible creatures. They will bite you. And in Texas, they've got wild ones that have tusks. And tusks, they will slash you. These things are nasty creatures. The kind of dogs being talked about are the kind of dogs that ate Jezebel. And so, this is the picture. And so, what you've got, imagine these kind of animals, a pack of these kinds of mongrel dogs and just disgusting, biting pigs. And you've got your bag. The things half want to eat you. But you bring your bag out of pearls. And now they're really interested. They're going to throw some food. And you throw those pearls down there. And what happens? Put your hand in there. They throw them on the ground. And they pounce on them at once. Why? They think that they're going to get some kind of food there. But instead, what do they find? They can't chew it. It's hard. It doesn't taste good. These beasts have no use for your pearls. And now you know what you've done? You've made them mad. And now they turn on you. And they're enraged with the uselessness of the pearls. Now, here's the thing. The pearls actually are not useless. The pearls are precious. But you see, the problem is, they have no appreciation for the preciousness of them. All they're looking for is something to satisfy their base carnality, their base lust. And when you throw them those pearls, they turn on you. That's the picture here. So what's the pearl? Well, listen. We know this. We know that in the parable, there was a pearl of great price. What was that? What's that a picture of? Actually, in the parable right before it, there was a man and he stumbles upon a treasure. Brethren, the treasure of all treasures is Christ. And what's being set forth is the salvation that's had in Christ. And the way that gets offered is in the gospel message. And that's the reality. What is it that we have that we give to sinners that they find useless and often irritates and enrages them? They have no use for it. Brethren, it's very, very plain what we're talking about here. What is it that they savagely reject oftentimes? It was a message of Christ and salvation. That which is, brethren, this is what is precious beyond imagination. Being saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's clear what the Lord is telling us here. He's telling us that there's certain people we must not talk to about Christ and His salvation. You say, really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, He actually shows us in other places in Scripture where this reality is. And we'll look at that in a second. There are times to hold your pearls back. So, who are these dogs? That's the question. Certainly the dogs and the pigs cannot simply be all lost people. We know it can't mean that. We can't conclude Jesus is forbidding us to preach the gospel to even people that in our estimation might seem like dogs and pigs. Like, you know, a lot of times we could actually, we could look at prostitutes. In that day, it was tax collectors. Maybe it's the drug addicts. Maybe it's certain homeless people, demoniacs. We come across such people. You see, you could almost get this feeling like, oh, well, they're kind of dogish. They're kind of, I mean, the kind of sins they're involved with are especially beast-like. But that's not it. Jesus said, see, what you have to hear is this. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, to the scribes and the Pharisees, he said, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom before you. And do you know what he said to his disciples? He said that every plant that is not of my father's planting, it's not going to go well. And he said of them, leave them alone. You know, that reminds me of what is said in the minor prophet Hosea when it came to Ephraim and he'd gone after idols. God said, leave them alone. Brethren, what we're talking about here is a certain class of lost people. Not all. Not all. That would fly right in the face of the great commission that tells us that we are to make disciples of all nations. That would fly right in the face of being ambassadors of Christ. But brethren, we know what scripture tells us. The feet. There's, I think of Romans 10. And we have these feet. The one bringing the gospel message. And Paul says this, he said, how are they going to call on a Christ in whom they haven't believed? And how are they going to believe on him? A Christ that they haven't heard. And how are they going to hear unless somebody preaches? And how is somebody going to preach unless they get sent? You see, brethren, obviously, we know that this message of repentance and remission of sins. That message is to go out unto the world. We're not talking all. Paul certainly never interpreted the Lord's words to mean to cease preaching the gospel to the lost. You know what Paul said? Paul said, I become all things to all men. That by all means, some might be saved. That needs to be our attitude. But you know what? Among the lost, there is a certain category of lost person that our Lord has in mind. And the picture seems obvious. Jesus is describing those. Think about what happens. Those to whom we bring the riches of God's revelation. And they have no appreciation for it. Instead, the precious truths of eternal life. They just, they spit them back. It just enrages them. These are the kind of people who evidence a clear hardness against God. They've abandoned themselves to being just vicious or just indifferent to the truth. This is a class of person who's dog-like or pig-like in that they have no use for that which is most precious. Oh brethren, clearly it doesn't mean all believers. How would anybody be converted? Lost will only call upon a Christ they believe in. Listen to this truth worked out. The disciples came and said to him, Do you not know that the Pharisees were offended? They heard this saying. And he answered this. I was speaking of this just a second ago. Every plant that my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone. Let them alone. I'll tell you this. The silence of Jesus is terrifying. Can you imagine Herod? Oh, he looked forward to seeing Christ because he'd heard all about what he did. And Christ came. Can you imagine this? The Savior of the world. And he stands in your presence. And he says nothing. There were times he was silent. And you know what he said to his disciples? He said, Hey guys, you go take the message of the kingdom. And you go heal. And you cast out demons. And you go into villages. And you in the cities. And you look for somebody that's worthy. You look for these sons of peace. You go into their home. And you stay with them. He said, But if you don't find anybody worthy there, shake the dust off your feet. And see there's a finality. He doesn't say, Well you go back there. You know what the shaking the dust off the feet means? You're done with them. It's over. Listen to this. Acts 13.46 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly. They were in Antioch of Pisidia. There were two Antiochs. Antioch in Syria. Antioch in Pisidia. They were at the second Antioch. Listen to what happens. It says, They speaking boldly said, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we're turning to the Gentiles. Do you recognize that? When people spurn the gospel, they have counted themselves unworthy of eternal life. And to have Christ himself or one of his servants basically say, Now we're done with you. See that's what he's telling us. There is a time to be done with people. It's a fearful thing. Again you see it in Acts. The Jews incited the devout women of high standing, leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, drove them out of their district, and they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. Again, Paul reasoned in the synagogue. This is Acts 18. Every Sabbath at Corinth, he tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And the Jews, they opposed him and reviled him. And here's what he did. He shook out his garments and he said to them, Your blood be on your own heads. I'm innocent. From now on, I go to the Gentiles. So he's done with them. This is a truth that you find throughout scripture folks. God being done with somebody. We could go into many other texts, but for the sake of time, we're not going to do that. Our proclamation of the gospel is not to be done mindlessly, and just indiscriminate. If people have had an opportunity to hear the truth, and they reject it, they disdain it, they stubbornly turn their back on Christ, even if it's just a stubborn disinterestedness, Jesus does not encourage us to keep bombarding those individuals with the truth until they believe. Rather, he says, shake the dust off your shoes and move on. And here's the thing, if we persist beyond a certain point of offering the gospel, you know what we encourage? We basically cheapen the gospel. And you basically encourage sin. You encourage this thing to be stomped on by pig's feet. Brethren, don't cheapen the gospel by putting it under pig's feet. Brethren, I think we need to look at something here. We are very prone to an error. Now, I recognize this. In many circles, just simply trying to convince people that they need to not deny Christ, especially people in reformed circles, to actually persuade people that, look, there's a perishing world out there. We are the light of the world. Christ has handed the baton to us. Do you know what Christ did when he came? He went seeking and saving sinners. And you know what he did? He went throughout those villages of Palestine. And what was he looking for? He was looking for his lost sheep undoubtedly, but he came proclaiming this message of the kingdom. And now that baton's passed on to us. And you know what? Sometimes just getting people out of their comfort zones to actually go in search of God's lost sheep is a task. And so I almost feel hesitant to get to a place where I have to say what Jesus is clearly saying here, where it's almost like you want to encourage, but you also want to put the brakes on at a certain point as well. And we can have this wrong thinking. We're very prone to error here. Brethren, we do want to use our might, our resources to widely and universally spread the message, this glorious message into the dark places. But we can either... That's what Paul did. Paul went out preaching the gospel. Where would he go? Into the synagogues. And once the Jews rejected him, then he'd go out to the Gentiles. What was he doing? He was proclaiming the cross. He said he's not going to know anything else but Christ and Him crucified. That was his message. But you know what? We can easily fall into this erroneous mindset that we have to keep on talking to everybody until they believe. That is an error that I've seen. You get Christians that, okay, they've got the courage to go out. They've got a love for Christ that compels them to go out. They've got a burden for souls at least a little bit like Paul had, where his desire for his fellow kinsmen was that they be saved. There's an earnestness there. There's a love for mankind there that compels people to go forward. But we can easily fall into this erroneous mindset that, you know what, when we come across somebody and we give the gospel to them and they don't believe right at once, we can fall into this erroneous mindset that we have to keep preaching until they believe. We have to keep after them. We have to keep on talking. Consider our Lord. Consider the Lord. See, I think this is very instructive. Rich young ruler. What good thing do I have to do to obtain eternal life? Of course, Jesus challenged him about good and he called him good master and we now recognize all that. He said keep the commandments and which commandments and he's going through all this. But listen, brethren, I'll tell you this. He said one thing you lack. What does he lack? Well, he had this idol in his life. What was that idol? It was his riches. He said, go sell everything. Give to the poor. You come follow me. You'll have treasure in heaven. And you know what? The man was rich. The man was sorrowful. And the man walked. And do you know what did not happen? Jesus did not plead with him. Jesus did not say, I think you misunderstood me. I think we'd better have... Do you know what the average Christian would have done right then? Engage that man in another 40 minutes of conversation. Jesus let him walk with no more words to him. Why? Because you know what? Jesus is not up for negotiation. And Jesus threw out his requirement. He threw it out there and the man basically said, no, I'm going to keep my idol. And he walked. And you know what? There's really nothing more to say. If you present people... Did you hear what he offered him? You'll have treasure in heaven. The man basically said, oh brethren. He said what so many say. Brethren, I'll tell you this. If you come and you offer people, I would offer you forgiveness of all your sins. And you don't have to purchase it by your own merit. This was done freely for you. It's yours at the taking. But you do have to purchase it without price. You can't bring your own righteousness. You need to submit yourself to the mercy of the Savior. He has his terms. His terms are total surrender. You lay down your arms and be willing to be saved the way he saves. He will save you to the uttermost. He offers you eternal life. He offers you glory. He offers you'll be the bride of Christ. He offers you joy unspeakable. He offers you such things as you can't even imagine. If people just, whatever, they just yawn. Do you know what kind of insult that is? You just offered them the greatest gift. Pearls and diamonds and treasure imaginable. And they spit at it. And sometimes we have this idea, well if we keep talking to them for another 40 minutes, our continually talking to them is going to persuade them. That is not what Jesus said. That is not by his example what you find. Our Lord didn't stop him. Our Lord doesn't continue. He doesn't plead. He doesn't try to explain in different terms. Brethren, we've got to proclaim the gospel to people. But when we find out very quickly that people aren't interested in what we have for them, you know what the temptation is? The temptation is to feel that, well if we keep talking to them, somehow we're going to change their minds. But that doesn't happen. Brethren, think about what Jesus said here. We are bringing a message that of, do you recognize the Christian message? Do you recognize the things we know from this book? The only hope mankind has. There is no other hope than this. Man has nothing else that he can put his confidence in that will actually hold him up in the end. Jesus calls this pearls. He calls it a pearl of great price in the parable. Do you recognize that? It's highly, highly, highly valuable. He doesn't call it mud. He doesn't call it dirt. He doesn't call it dust. It's not gravel. The picture is of a man who has something extremely valuable. We bring to the world such light that if believed will bring men out of their wretched state. Men are headed to hell. Do you realize what it is to actually have a remedy that saves men from their sin and from the guilt of that sin and the consequences of that sin and from the wrath of God? Do you recognize the wrath of God is revealed against men, against all of their ungodliness and unrighteousness? Brethren, this is going to break forth and explode on their heads. When death comes judgment and with judgment, they're going to have to give an account for everything they've fought, everything they've done, everything they've said, every word they've spoken, Jesus says. They're going to have to give an account for. We will have to give an account for. You actually have the remedy for how to stand in that day and be robed with righteousness. Not your own, but based on the merits of another. It's the greatest news that could ever be given to mankind. And you go to somebody with this greatest pearl of all pearls and they basically turn their shoulder. What an insult! They under pig's feet. And it may not seem like, well, you know, that's my grandmother you're talking about there. We'll call it what it is. You see, this is where one of the problems is. We have these loved ones in our life and we give the truth to them. And because we love them, it's very hard for us. And you know what can happen? You get to where you love your loved ones more than you love the glory of Christ. You say, what do you mean? I mean just this. If you've got a grandmother that you love, but you see, you keep throwing those same pearls at her and her pig's feet just keep stomping on them. You're doing exactly what the Lord says you should not do here. Brethren, if people aren't interested in this treasure of all treasures, stop talking. That's what Jesus is saying. The gospel is precious and should be given to those who desire it. And listen, often dogs and pigs show themselves by their wanting to debate. Brethren, don't debate. Have you ever heard anyone say, well, let me tell you how I got saved. I was in a debate with a Christian and the Christian won the debate and I got saved. You've never heard that. Because debating doesn't produce this. Jesus did not debate with the rich young ruler. Paul doesn't debate. I mean, he gets to a place where he's presented the truth in the synagogue and they opposed it. And he said, your blood be on your own head. You're not worthy of eternal life. And he said, I'm going to go to the Gentiles. Brethren, many will talk to you, but it's just debate. They're not interested in your Christianity. If anything, they're interested in disproving you. They're interested in winning the debate or they're even interested in deconverting you. But they're not interested in the truth. And brethren, I'll tell you this, while you stand there debating with people, you could possibly be speaking to somebody else that is actually interested. Brethren, let me tell you something. I've done so much door-to-door evangelism in San Antonio and I've seen where well-meaning Christians can get in a conversation with somebody and it's very evident. The people, their eyes are glazed over, you know, deer in the headlight thing. Or they just keep looking over their shoulder, like they're not interested. And you get the feeling that the Christian is trying to prolong this talk. You know what they believe. They believe, well, if I can just keep talking to the person long enough, I'm going to make them interested. That isn't going to happen. Brethren, do you know, like Paul comes along, he says, you know what Christ said to him? You're kicking against the pricks. Something was happening in Paul ahead of time. Do you know, one of the things we really want is we want God to bring to us the people that he's at work in. You remember Paul. Paul went down there by the river at Philippi. What did he find? He found Lydia. And God was at work in her heart. You know what's very interesting? Nicodemus. God was already doing something there. God brought Nicodemus to Jesus. Now look, that doesn't mean that the Bible doesn't say we should go forth and tell. It does. But one of the things we want to be asking the Lord for is Lord, bring to us, cause to cross our path, the people that you're working on. We don't want to be these people who just have this idea that if you talk long enough, you're going to convince people. Several years back, we had Jeff Thomas come to our fellowship conference there in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And we had a book table there. And he, during typically each conference, we have one of the speakers go through, or several of the speakers, and make recommendations of books from the book table. And Jeff Thomas recommended this book Now this guy, John Leonard, is a professor at Westminster Seminary. And that's where Jeff went, so he might have some bias there. But he said he thought this was the best book that he's ever read on evangelism. Well, that piqued my curiosity, so I bought it. It's called Get Real. All these other ones are crossed out. And I think that's right. This is the best book that I've read on evangelism. Listen to what this guy says in this book. He said, in traditional evangelism, you would never pass up an opportunity to share the Gospel when somebody asked you. You would open the Bible, go through every single verse in John that spoke about heaven, long after the person's interest in knowing had passed. In a real approach of evangelism, you stop talking long before that point. Don't dampen curiosity Raise it. Never say more than people want to hear. If someone isn't listening to you, stop speaking. Say, you seem to have other things in your mind, so I'll stop right here. Thank you for your time. He says, every time I've done that, people say, no, no, I'm interested. Go on. But he said, I never do, and you shouldn't either. It's better to leave people wishing you'd said more than to have them wish you'd already left. Now, you know what? Even before I got this book, I believed that, and I had that approach. You know what? As long as people showed interest, I wanted to give them information about that interest. If people aren't interested, go. And I've often found that, you know what? If you cut short earlier than what they really want, that leaves them curious. That leaves them wondering. That leaves them interested. If you go on long after they're sick of hearing you, your going on has not been fruitful. It doesn't produce things. So, but brethren, as much as I'm saying this, we need to be like Christ. We need to be like Paul, which means we need to mix our tears with our refusal to cheapen the gospel. You hear what I'm saying? We need to mix our tears with a refusal to defile the gospel. Because Jesus, think about Jesus. He could say of Jerusalem, He looks out over them. He saw the city. He wept over it saying, would that you, even you had known on this day, the things that make for your peace. He wept over them. And yet of the same Jewish people, he said to his disciples, whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. But he said, if they won't receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave the house or town. So imagine this. Jesus is actually imparting to his disciples this instruction. If they won't hear you, shake the dust off your feet. Jesus looks out over Jerusalem. They wouldn't hear. They're the very kind of people you shake the dust off your feet. Yet he wept. Paul says, with Paul, I could wish I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers. And yet it's his very brothers in Antioch of Pisidia that he said, since you thrusted aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, returning to the Gentiles. On the one hand, he could say, I could wish myself a cursed. Seriously, Paul. And cut off from Christ. That's how much he loved the souls of his own kinsmen according to the flesh. And yet of the same people, he can say, you thrusted aside, judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. And we're not going to you anymore. Brethren, it's important that we rightly value things. Let me tell you something. As precious as your mother, your father, your children, your grandparents, your aunts, your uncles, your friends, your neighbors, as valuable as they are to you. What Jesus is saying to us is, look, there's a value in Christ. And there's a value in his honor that goes even higher. And what you don't want to do is just because you love somebody, they're close to you. You keep allowing them to defile the gospel. He's saying, don't do that. Don't cast your, don't continue to cast your pearls at them. Because all it does is defile the pearls. So I just want to end, brethren, our Lord, I want you to really think about this. I mean, our Lord likens the gospel to pearls because they're exceedingly great wealth to be found there. Think of the message. Brethren, people are perishing. All you have to do is stop once in a while and think about hell. Hell, the weeping, the gnashing of teeth, the eternal destruction, the pain, the sorrowing. Brethren, there's something within us that craves rest. You may just read across that. They have no rest forever. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. No rest night or day. You know, you come across that. Is that a small thing to never have rest? Never to be at rest. Constantly gnashing your teeth forever and forever. Just the idea once in hell, once in those flames, this is never going to end. Never. How long have you lived? We're talking never. We're talking you could live a million lifetimes of what you've lived already and it never is going to end. Do you recognize the worth to have a remedy to man's sickness and his leprosy? Do you recognize the value of this? These glad tidings of Christ coming into this world as a Savior to rescue sinners. There's an ark. There's a place to escape the storm. There's a city of refuge. That's Christ himself to get away from the avenger of blood. To live forever in eternal bliss, safe, safe from the just condemnation that your sins deserve. You start thinking for a moment about the things you've done and what it would really be like in the day of judgment. To actually have a message that will allow somebody on the day of judgment to receive the smile of God and to hear well done, good and faithful servant, rather than depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. And suffer the eternal hatred of God to be brought into that place that is eternally a place of love. Brethren, this is the most wonderful thing imaginable. This is unspeakable. I mean, if you really start to think about the gospel, it is remarkable and amazing beyond words. It's the most unimaginably precious message that could be given to mankind. And you wouldn't think so. You wouldn't think so when you hear Sonny proclaim it, or George yesterday, and the way people respond. You wouldn't think so. You would think they brought out the most vile, hideous thing imaginable. Brethren, those who become Christians, you recognize, you think of the richest men in this world. You think of the Zuckerbergs and the Gates and the Trumps and the Warren Buffets and the Bezos and the Musk and all these billionaires. Brethren, do you realize they have nothing on us? Nothing. We have the richest. They will gladly trade place with the least Christian on the day of judgment. We, I don't even want to cheapen it by saying it, but you know what the people in this world, they live to win the lotto. Do you realize we've won it? We have won the prize of all prizes. We have that which if men only knew, if men could only see, and we receive this by faith, but they don't know an eternal weight of glory is how Paul described it. And it's coming to have, just simply to have the anger of God turned away from you and to be accepted by Him. I mean, this is no small thing. We have a message that if believed delivers men's souls from, brethren, from fire, we can almost say it. If I even stuck a match to your skin, you'd be horrified by it. See, it's almost like we can't even imagine this. It's almost like this isn't even real to us. But believe me, this is real. This is just as real as our death is real. And then the judgment is real. And then there is one of two roads. And to have that message to put us on the right road, to put us in a place of safety, put us in the arms of God. Brethren, I'm going to say this, just as we end here, you need to pray, pray, pray, pray, because we need God to change men's hearts. And we need God to bring across our path people that He is working in. That's what we need. We need God to do what He does. He's given us a responsibility. He's called us to do something. But brethren, at the end of the day, we need God to move. We need God to change hearts. We need God to… Lord opened the heart of Lydia. We need Him to do just that kind of thing. Lord, please do that. Bring people across our path that You're working in. Bring them to us. We want Him to bring to us the hungry, the thirsty, those who will to come, those who are being drawn, those who are heavy laden. Brethren, there's no other help. There's no other hope. And I mean, if you're sitting there and you've been under the gospel a lot of times, don't reject this. Don't think yourself clever. Sometimes you get children, you think, children, don't be clever. As though, well, you know, this is the religion of my parents. I don't really need this. I mean, do you imagine that if you reject this offer of this King that He just kind of wrings His hands in despair and gives over to you to, you know, pining away until you sovereignly decide that you're going to come to Him at your convenience? You know what this is saying? You reject this message, you reject it at your own peril. God is not weak in wringing His hands. And when men reject Him, He rejects them. And there are such fearful verses of finality that when you reject the gospel, there is a finality. You come to a knowledge of the truth and you turn away from that. I mean, we have verses that talk about an impossibility of being restored unto repentance. Don't play with your soul. Our King has told you to surrender to Him and submit yourself to His mercy. He comes to you to save you. God commands all men everywhere to repent. Brethren, you're not free to go to hell. If you go to hell, you go against His wishes and His desires. You say, well, I hear He's sovereign. I hear He has an elect. Yes, the Scripture also speaks about Him commanding all men everywhere to repent. If you don't repent and go to hell, you do that against His very straightforward command. Don't think yourself so wise here because judgment day is soon. Life is passing away. You're going to stand before God. And you know what? You may think you're clever right now. You will kick yourself as being the greatest fool imaginable. Don't be a pig. Don't be a dog. That's what men and women are who reject this pearl of great price as though it's useless, as though it's nothing. Father, I pray, help us to be people that are discerning. Oh, Lord, I pray that all afresh, we would have just a renewed, just a renewed sense of the great worth of the gospel, how precious it is. The message, a Christ who died, who rose, who ascended. The fact that we even have a Savior offered to us sinners. What a thing is this. What a hope it gives us. Lord, I pray, if anybody is acting more like a pig or a dog, I pray you'd shake them in their tracks, stop them cold. Lord, we do long to see you, a God whose name is near, near at hand, and doing the kind of things you did to Nicodemus, doing the kind of things you did there in the heart of Lydia. We pray that we would be blessed with seeing you work in our day in just the same way. Thank you. The number of us in this room, Lord, you came to us. You lifted us out of the miry clay. You set us on a rock, a place firm and safe, right in those arms of Christ. We thank you in his name. Amen. If you're visiting with us, we do have some refreshments in the back, in the fellowship hall. We'd love to have you stay and talk with us. You're dismissed. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Qb4_2ijEtTs.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/tim-conway/dont-give-to-dogs-what-is-holy/ ========================================================================