Timothy: Let’s consider why you need Jesus.
Intro: Welcome to the Consider Podcast where we turn our minds to consider wisdom, madness and folly. Join the host Timothy and Jacob on a quest to have God enlighten the mind according to verse 25 of Ecclesiastes chapter 7. So, I turned my mind to understand. To investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly. Ecclesiastes 7:25. The Consider Podcast examining today’s events and Paulorrow’s realities at www.consider.info.
Timothy: How’s it going today, Jacob?
Jacob: It’s going good.
Timothy: We’re going to begin to add some glue to everything that we’ve been looking at to kind of bring together some pieces and probably in a couple podcasts, we’ll get down to actually how you become a disciple, how somebody gets started. Today, we want to take it slow as possible and Jacob, you feel free to slow me down. This is crucial to becoming a disciple. We’re asking the question really well why would I want to be a disciple of Jesus, why do I need Jesus? This is not presented in the church at all. If you think it is, please contact us and we’ll begin to fellowship together.
God says that we are worthless. Let me repeat that again. God says we are worthless. And when he thinks and I’m going to use me for an example because that way nobody else’s feathers can get too ruffled although they’re not going to like this. When God looks at Timothy Williams apart from Jesus Christ, he sees somebody that is worthless. In fact, I fill his heart the very heart of God with pain. It’s like a father or a mother that has children, they love that child, they pour out everything for that child. All the goodness is laid there and then that child turns to a life of sin or complete crime or whatever, and so the parents are filled with pain when they think of that child. There’s no real pleasure taking place, because when you look at that child all you can see is the child for what it really is.
I’m going to use the serial killer as an example, because everybody pretty much agrees that serial killers are bad. Although you will see parents say, I’ll stick by him, I’ll love him no matter what or her if she’s committed the crimes or whatever. That’s not how God use it. God does not say, I’m just going to stick by mankind no matter what he does. We do all understand that there is a heaven and hell, right Jacob?
Jacob: Yeah.
Timothy: And of course, we all think that everybody else is going to hell but ourselves. But let’s just assume for the moment that everybody in the world unless you’re fully disciple in Jesus Christ is headed toward hell. That’s where everybody is headed and going. There’s a reason why God is sending everybody to hell. You don’t send things of value to hell. You don’t send good things to hell. Hell is considered a garbage dump. You get rid of things that are unable to be redeemed. Things that cannot be purified. Let’s go ahead and play the file here Jacob that will lay out some basic scriptures that we’re going to look out that prove at least intellectually to people or at least that God wrote it down that we are indeed worthless.
Video: Welcome to the Consider Podcast where we’re going to contemplate the fact that God regrets having given you life. Indeed, God is filled with pain when He considers what he created. Let’s consider Genesis 6, Mark 10, and Romans chapter 3. Genesis chapter 6 verses 5-6. The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was greedy that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
Mark chapter 10 verse 18, “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No, one is good — except God alone.” Romans chapter 3 verses 10-18. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans chapter 3 verses 10-18. The Consider potcast. Examining today’s wisdom, folly, and madness. www.consider.info.
Timothy: Jacob, let’s go and start at Luke chapter 11 verse 13. We first want to look at the fact, and by the way let me emphasize here this is not an intellectual discussion. I know that most of the Christian church has reduced Jesus down to principles or concepts or talk or just different, what am I trying to say, what’s the word I’m looking for? Principles, laws, methods.
Jacob: Values.
Timothy: Values, thank you. this is a gut wrenching deep that we’ve looked at before in other podcasts. To accept this, means to allow the Holy Spirit to convince you and to show you that it’s true. Since Romans and we’ll get to here in a moment says that no one seeks God. It’s not like we go pursuing to find out that we shouldn’t have good self-esteem then in fact a good self-esteem is a lie. That we’re all worthless. It’s all tainted. It’s all full of sin. It’s completely corrupt. We’re evil in nature. In Luke chapter 11 verse 13. Jacob, why don’t you go ahead and read that passage?
Jacob: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Timothy: So, we see here Jesus is talking and he makes the point that we’re evil. He goes, “If you then,” and it’s like there’s this pause here, just to remind everybody who they are. Because he’s talking about the gift of and I want to emphasize in the metallics a Holy Spirit. He says, “Though you are evil, know how to give gifts.” Our point here at the moment is Jesus Christ himself stated and says that we are evil. The truth will set you free if you humble yourself. If you don’t want to humble yourself, you’re going to get angry, upset, persecute, justify, whitewashed. The excuses go down the line. Let’s just accept for a moment that Jesus is a very clear. There’s not a parable here. This is not something talking about that’s abstract and concept. “If you then, though you are evil know how to give good gifts,” and he goes on to talk about that.
Timothy: Let’s go to Matthew chapter 12 verse 34. We’re to repeat it again, and he’s not talking to the Pharisees here he’s just talking to everybody. “You brood of vipers,” now think about that moment. Apart from Jesus Christ, I’m a viper. Jacob’s a viper. We’re all vipers. Snakes that are slithering over each, full of venom. We’re just evil in nature. There’s just nothing upright. There’s nothing good. It’s like as low as we can get in the dust to kind of do our evil deeds. We’ll see here in a moment Romans says we practice deceit. Most people spend their time at home and in church practicing how to justify whatever it is they’re doing. They may pray about it. They might even quote scripture. But they’re practicing deceit. Again, Jacob read verse 34 of Matthew 12.
Jacob: “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Timothy: Think about the absolute nature of what Jesus just said there. He called us evil. And then he says, how can you say anything good? There isn’t one thing good you can say. You can agree that Jesus is Lord. You can agree the earth is round. You can agree that sunshine is good. You can agree that God created the whole universe. You can agree to all those things. But the truth is it’s coming out tainted. It’s puffing ourselves up. If I’m a scientist and I come in with all kinds of conclusions or whatever, and say, oh, the universe is this and the stars are that. And black holes are this and quantum physics will prove this. Am I not though I might be stating a factual truth. Evil in my pride and intent Jacob?
Jacob: Yes.
Timothy: Now this is true for grandma. This is true for that cute little son or daughter that you have that was born. We all know this to say well appoint the politicians and certainly say it’s true. Why do we think we’re better than the politicians? We’re voting for them. Well, I guess in some cases we’re voting for them, right? “You brood the vipers, How can you who are evil say anything good?” A man apart from Jesus Christ or a woman apart from Jesus Christ is not capable of saying anything good. I don’t have to wait for people in the world to betray me or to say bad things or whatever. I already know. I know what’s in their heart because you know why? Because God has shown me what’s in my heart apart from Jesus Christ.
And I know that I am like every other person in desperate need of Jesus Christ. That I’m evil without him. If we let this sink in, it’s going to get pretty easy to hate your own life if you want to hunger, thirst for righteousness. I mean, if you realize that you’re evil and you realize things are really desperately bad and you want to give those things up, hating your own life is not an offensive thing, right?
Jacob: Correct.
Timothy: I mean, if you got some a dunghill or something, I don’t know. I’m trying to use kids as example. They’ll play in the most grosses of things because they don’t think it’s bad. Once they realize it’s bad, then they don’t want to pick it up. They don’t want to play with it. They realize, you know, that’s not something I should be doing. We’re a lot like that we got to be taught, no, no that’s wicked what you said is wicked, that’s what’s distained it. That’s why when people first become baby Christians, they’re corrected a whole lot. One of the first words you have to teach a child is “no”, and everything they pretty much do is wrong doesn’t mean you get onto them all right at once. But the ability to do a lot of good things just is not there because they haven’t been trained in that. So, we’re brood of vipers and if you leave a brood of vipers, what do they breed Jacob?
Jacob: More vipers.
Timothy: Even more vipers. So, the church is a place where you go to get cleaned up. Where you go to gain the righteousness. In other words, that’s why so many churches are just so pathetic. It’s because nobody’s being cleaned up. Nobody’s walking around going with an attitude, I’m a viper. I need to be cleaned up. So, you can see why churches are saltless just corrupting part of nature. They’re not transforming the world as if that’s what Jesus calls to do. They’re causing more corruption because what? When’s the last time and I’ll do the usual question thing Jacob. You heard anybody church go man I’m such a viper. I’m such a snake.
Jacob: Yeah, no.
Timothy: When’s the last time you heard about say I just can’t do anything, right.
Jacob: No.
Timothy: In Sound Doctrine that was not uncommon to hear that I can’t do anything right. Because why righteousness Jesus Christ holiness was being held up. And when that is held up you begin to see if you’re willing to stick around and humble yourself. You begin to see just how evil you are. Now a lot of people will get eventually tired and leave. We got all that down. We’ll come back to that more later. But to be convinced by the Holy Spirit that you’re evil. See it’s one thing to read this scripture and somebody go, yeah, I’m viper I need Jesus Christ. Now there’s a cleansing process. There’s a growing process. We need to see that we’re little brats. We need to see that we can’t say anything good. It’s all tainted. Until God begins to clean us up until we allow him to do that. And that’s why you need Jesus Christ. That’s why you need to become a disciple of Jesus. It’s Jesus has got to clean you up. Not clean up your old nature, but give you a brand-new nature and we’ll get into that much further on.
Alright, let’s just go on to convince ourselves with facts and truth. Let’s go to James chapter 3 verse 6. And Jacob, I’m going to let you read all of 6 & 7 & 8 of James 3.
Jacob: “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
Timothy: Kinda coming back to the viper thing here is a little bit. “It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Let me those of you that are Christian or thinking about becoming Christian when was the last time you were confronted or convicted or even suggested that your conversation your tongue is not the best. But let’s read through this again. Verse 6, if you don’t think that you’re evil that you’re completely corrupt that you’re filling God with pain then you’re calling James chapter 3 verse 6 a lie. Of course, what you’re doing here is what? Using your tongue to corrupt the Word of God. The tongue all so is a fire.” Without Jesus Christ and when I say that, I mean the full message of the gospel. Not this pretty Jesus, smiling Jack Jesus you get, we’re talking deep conviction by the Holy Spirit.
When I first came to Jesus Christ, he was really hammering down the tongue and every word begin to be measured and called the conviction. I wish I could say was immediately cleaned up, but it wasn’t it took some time. Because why? James 3:6 says, “It is a world of evil.” All kinds of different cultures of evil. All different kinds of environments of evil. It is a world of evil among the parts of the body. Our tongue is a rich source and I hate to use the word rich, but a rich source of evil and corruption. That’s one reason why people don’t believe me when I tell them the truth. Because intrinsically we know that we’re liars. Intrinsically we know we lie and don’t tell the truth.
I remember there was a story a guy was talking about that he got pulled over for a speeding ticket. And the policeman came over and started to give him the ticket and then he found out he was a veteran and that kind of thing, and so he just let him off with a warning. And so, he was kind of happy about that. But the world of evil he said, yeah, he let me off with a warning that was great. Well, he should have turned and said, no, I was speeding. I deserved the ticket. It’s what I want. We practiced a seat. And that’s just one simple minor I don’t even know if that made much sense, did it Jacob?
Jacob: Yeah, it does. Both people are corrupt too. By the way, the cop doesn’t uphold the law and gives a pass when he wants and the other guy takes the past because he doesn’t want to be accountable.
Timothy: Correct, and we talk ourselves in and out of things. It says that our tongue is a world of evil that corrupts the whole person. Until the Holy Spirit begins to take hold of your tongue and by that, I mean begin to, you have to surrender. He’s not going to force himself. He’s not going to just come in and force you to have a good tongue, you have to surrender each day. You had to be convicted about the things that weren’t quite right. I don’t want to start repeating the bone from marrow scriptures but this is some very fine cutting and purification. It corrupts the whole person.
Look at this, “Sets the whole course of his life on fire.” Everything that he does is destructive in nature. It’s a fire that consumes his soul. It’s a fire that consumes other people around them. It sets the whole course of his life on fire. It just sets it in a certain direction. And is itself look at this sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. You see we’ve already tasted hell and I don’t mean that metaphorically what is it saying there in James 3:6, Jacob?
Jacob: It’s saying that your life is going to be a living hell.
Timothy: Yeah, it is itself set on fire by hell. It’s as if the fires of hell are reaching in and touching our tongue. And so, we harness that tongue for evil. We’ve talked before easily see this within politicians and government and prosecutors and police and those in power. It is itself set on fire by hell, and we all reap the destruction from that. Verse 7 says, “All kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man.” But verse 8 tells us how helpless we are. And this is another reason why you need Jesus Christ. James 3:8, “But no man can tame the tongue.” I’ve seen men that have tight reigns on their tongue but they’re secretive and they’re destructive in that quietness. “No man can tame the tongue.” It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. Deadly poison.
We’ve certainly experienced that with prosecutors and police that their tongue just sits there. They just can’t wait to accuse. As King County prosecutors said, they are happy to do so. That’s because the tongue is itself on the fires of hell and playing Satan as the user comes very naturally to anybody. Let’s go to James chapter. What did you want anything to say there Jacob on any of this so far?
Jacob: No. Nope.
Timothy: Okay, let’s go to Genesis chapter 6 verse 5. Jacob, why don’t you read verses 5 & 6.
Jacob: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”
Timothy: And before you say this is Old Testament, because well that that’s Old Testament. Of course, we have no, and I’m going to get here a little bit in a moment when God chooses certain people to do good things. But people will say this is the Old Testament. Well, Jacob read Matthew 24:12. What does it say? Actually 12 & 13.
Jacob: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Timothy: Jesus is telling us that toward the end of things and we certainly most people would say, we’re kind of in the end of things. It looks well we’re more in the end of things than we were in the beginning, right?
Jacob: Yes.
Timothy: So, if God’s heart was with pain during the days of Noah and if he was grieved then that he made man. And then Jesus says in Matthew 24 verse 12 that, because of the increase of wickedness the love of most grow cold, do you think God is filled with less pain or more pain?
Jacob: More pain.
Timothy: Of course. The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every intonation, every. Loving your child, loving your wife, loving your husband, praying, searching, I don’t know. Everything there is no like well everything but one or two things or three things we’re totally absolutely corrupt. You know what? And the sooner you stop striving to be good, the faster the peace Christ can become in your life. People spend a lot of time and a lot of energy whitewashing themselves, making excuses, running from the Lord. If they just took 1/10th of that energy and humble themselves before God and let God change them, the peace of Christ will begin to fill them. This really is a truth that sets us free.
Once this began to sink in deep in my heart, there was the joy that came from the Holy Spirit with because then I’m free. I’m free from striving to be good in the sense under my own power which I can’t do, and rather surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit which will transform me. He who raised people from the dead and he who heal people is certainly able to purify the heart, is able to work obedient, is able to tame my tongue. But what’s before that can take place is I have to be convicted deep within my soul and spirit that I can’t tame my tongue, that I’m not good, that there’s a world of evil that I’m a viper that I’m full of deadly poison. And no matter how good other people think I am or what I’m doing for the Lord, or whatever might be in my sinful nature in who I am who I was born as is completely absolutely 100% vile and only would breed destruction and misery upon everybody else. That’s the conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on earth. So, you’re a regret. I’m a regret. Jacob, you’re a regret.
Jacob: Yes.
Timothy: And I don’t regret saying it. It’s actually a huge dream. That I need Jesus. It causes me to fall down and say Lord I don’t want you to be grieved that you made me. Make me holy in the image of your son. Do your work. What does that take? Now we begin to see a little bit more I hope. Why we have to pick up our cross why we have to deny ourselves why we have to fall to the ground and die and lose our life and why we have to hate our whole life and hate our father and our mother our wife and our children our brothers and our sisters and have to surrender everything to come before our Lord. Because everything is tainted, pick the most happiest marriage you know. It’s tainted, it’s selfish. It says, “The Lord was grieved that he had made man on earth.” You might as well put your name in there. “And his heart was filled with pain.”
Alright, well let’s go to Romans chapter 3 starting in verse 10 and let’s meditate on this a little bit or consider it. Verse 10 of Romans 3 says, “As it is written.” So, this is solid. And by the way this is an Old Testament part that he’s quoting for all you people that want to whine about it being old or New Testament. But we’re reading it in the New Testament. “As it is written.” It’s solid. It’s down. It’s like if it came on stone, came on the type of paper there. Whatever it might be, it is written down. This is not going to be moved. It’s not going to be changed. It’s written in heaven, it’s solid.
Mid Point
“There is no one righteous, not even one;” So, don’t bring me your pretense. Don’t act like it. If you’re not going to bring to me this humility that we’re looking at here and this truth here, then don’t try to fellowship with me because I bring this This is what I embrace. This is what I love. This is truth. This is actually for me complete freedom and joy to say I am not righteous in anything. Not one thing apart from Jesus Christ. Is there any righteousness in me? Verse 11, “There is no one who understands.” We are as a stupid as stupid can be. I don’t know why people; well I do know why. But they come to the church. They ask Jesus in their or I know there was a church the other day you just check a box that says say yes to Jesus. We’ll get to that later. But no one understands. We have when we first come to Jesus Christ. No understanding of who he is. We don’t even seek him. Go ahead and read verse 11 again there Jacob.
Jacob: “There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.”
Timothy: No one who seeks God. He has to come down and grab us. That’s why I just refuse to say I sought God because that’s not true. He reached down and he grabbed me and presented me with the message of the cross and begin to hammer those nails in and made me pick up that wood and push me to the ground and humbled me. I know what I’m talking about. I have experienced that power. I know this is not intellectual for me. This is not something that’s some abstract concept. I don’t even preach it so that somebody else can be beaten down. If you don’t want this, go on your way because you can’t fake this.
You can’t fake this and it’s not even worth trying. They’re going to rebel against this kind of conviction day in and day out for as long as it takes that God’s going to bring into your life so he can bring the new life of Jesus Christ. If somebody doesn’t want this, they’re going to get frustrated very fast and leave because they’re constantly justifying their own pride and their own sin and they will not tolerate the truth that they do not seek God, they’re not righteous, and they don’t understand a single.
So, Jacob, I want to give you room to talk here if there’s something you want to say. But when’s the last time people walked into church and before they came to church, they reminded family and friends, dad’s stupid. We’re all ignorant here. Let’s go to the house of God to listen to what God might have to say, or go into the prayer closet and okay, God, why are we super surprised when we go into the prayer closet and he tries to come to us with massive amounts of conviction or to teach us. Because we don’t seek him anyway, and we’re just stupid. We need to be educated and that doesn’t mean a classroom college bible study kind of thing. What that means is brokenness and humility and the loneliness of Jesus Christ. That’s what God’s trying to work is the very image of Jesus. Now it gets worse than this. Jacob, anything you want to say so far?
Jacob: Well, the church nowadays, it’s so watered down. They roll up all of these verses into a one time, “Ask Jesus in your heart.” They’ll agree. Oh yeah, you’re worthless. Oh, you need to seek God. Oh whatever. And then okay great. Say that you’re a sinner. Okay, we’re going to baptize you and then bam. You’re a new creation and these no longer apply to you. That’s what’s out there.
Timothy: It is and we just don’t seem to realize we need to wash our robes and not to mention that blood is only powerful and active if it’s moving. That kind of that calls on the blood of Jesus you just talked about. The blood’s not moving, so nothing’s cleansed. The day my blood stops carrying away debris within my body, guess what? I’m dead. So, there’s a constant cleansing going on. It’s worse than that. Verse 12 says, “All have turned away.” It’s not that we’re not just neutral we don’t just sit in the world and go, yeah, okay I’m not seeking God. that’s kind of, I’m sitting on my front porch just enjoying the scenery and yeah, I just don’t want to be bothered. That’s not what it says. Verse 12 says, “All have away.”
We actively put forth energy to move away from God. We’ll look for any other gospel. We’ll go to any other church. We’ll listen to any other podcast. We’ll do anything that we can. We’ll turn away from the fact of what God is telling us here. I’ve often said that if people spend as much energy and time as they did in fighting God is seeking God how much holiness they would have in their life from God. “All have turned away,” and by turning away it says they have together. Look at how it’s a group. It’s always a group. It isn’t ever that just one person leaves. When one person leaves two or three leave. It just kind of pulls people away. It’s always a group thing and when one persecutes, they all come together very easy and nice. The Pharisees group together, the Sadducees group together, all together. In the same way in the church When there’s a holy church, they come together to be made holy.
When a church comes together to really seek and hunger and thirst for righteousness, then the Holy Spirit will come and do it. It’s together as a body. In the same way, they have together become, what does it say? What’s the word there, Jacob?
Jacob: Worthless.
Timothy: Worthless. You are worthless. Apart from Jesus Christ we are worthless and guess what? We kind of stay worthless because even when you get Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ in you that’s a value not you. So, in terms of good self-esteem or who we think we are, we’re always in a worthless needful state. “Have together become worthless,” look at this, “There is no one who does good, not even one.” No one. “There is no one who does good, not even one.” So, everybody that to be a Christian, they go in, they get up in the morning, they brush their teeth, they take the mouthwash, they look in there, and they go, you know what? You don’t do one good thing, not even one. And if God left you alone today, you just turn your back on him with all the zeal that you could.
It’s by his powerful grace that we’re moved and he works and wills, his love and his grace. And we’ll get that in a moment. What I want to sink in here right now is why you need Jesus Christ to move the good things of heaven through you. The quality of God, his holiness, his power, his love. I’m repeating myself again, but if you’ll see this clearly, you’re only going to hate that which is worthless.
Now, if a house burns down and it’s totally ashes and I say, well, you need to hate that house. How about you give up that house? You go, yeah, not a problem. It’s worthless. We don’t want to humble ourselves. We’d rather hold on to our pride. Most people as we’ve talked before, we’d rather go to hell and hold on to their pride. We all became God’s in the Garden of Eden. We’re ready to sell our soul, we’re independent, we can think I don’t want to follow a man. Yeah okay, well fine. Adam followed Eve, Eve followed Adam and everybody worship Satan at the same time and we all together became worthless. So, play that little game for a while practice your deceit seems what people like to do best.
It moves on, he just doesn’t stop at this point. You think we’d get the point; we have become worthless. No, one’s good, no one seeks God. Verse 13 says, “Their throats are open graves.” Would you like to a Christian dentist or have somebody and they go, open your mouth, looking and go, man, you got a lot of Paulbstones in there. I’d see a lot of bones. See a lot of bodies and dead and decaying things and saying, their throats are open graves. That means, Jacob, what does that conjure up in your imagination to say that you open your mouth and you look down someone’s throat and there would be an open grave there.
Jacob: I think it certainly could speak to the fact that one per since graves is plural, there’s like how much bad stuff and how much bad influence you can have on all these other people around you. That out of one throat, there’s multiple graves.
Timothy: Everybody will admit, whether you’re on the left or the right side of the political game. Each side says oh it’s a mess. It’s terrible. The world’s caving in. Freedom’s disappearing, right? They’re both saying the same thing. And yet when you look both sides, it’s all death. It’s all graves. It’s all a bunch of bones walking around. It all smells rotten, doesn’t it?
Jacob: Yeah.
Timothy: That’s because there are throats for open graves. I don’t really like applying it to political stuff, because political sounds like it’s this abstract thing. It’s people that make up political movements. So, whether it’s a church or a home or a family or a father, a mother, a woman, a man, or whatever, whoever you meet that’s not embracing the full message of the gospel. Their throats are open graves and if you look inside, you’re going to see a lot of dead things. It goes on to say their tongues practice deceit. It’s what they naturally speak. Understand, we try to hone it in. When you practice something, you try to become really good at it, right?
If you’re going to practice playing tennis, you’re really going to go at it or if you want to become a golf pro, you got to practice at it. So, we practice to become perfect in whatever it is we want to do or whatever hobbies we have. But we all by nature by our simple nature, practice deceit. We practice our little white lies which are really not white lies. They’re just lies. They’re just a different shade of color. Then there’s gray lies, black lies, all those kinds of things. Their tongues practice deceit.
Once again, I bringing up prosecutors in the land, that’s what they do for a living. They practice deceit. And not to leave out defense attorneys or those that are really guilty. We all practice deceit. It’s just if you want to see it clearly, yeah you just kind of go there or listen to political speech or whatever. We all know this is to be true, but it’s weird how, well it’s not weird because in our sinful nature we’re not appalled at these things. What we really want is our politicians to be more perfect in their deceit. That make sense?
Jacob: Yeah, I mean well everybody is deceitful in whatever area or way that they want to be and so it’s easy just to point the finger at someone else who’s deceit is more obvious to make yourself feel better.
Timothy: For sure. And we just want the person that we either hire or vote for to be able to be so good at deceit. They’ll give us what we want or what they want to do and so they sound better than the other guy. How often do we say we’re voting for the person that’s the least of two evils kind of routine. Again, I hate to bring up politics but everybody seems to be able to relate to that. This is one reason, one major reason why if you become a true disciple of Jesus and he begins to take control of your tongue and to crucify the wickedness and to clean it up People will persecute you and even prosecute you because they know they’re liars and they know that someone so is liars. So, they assume you’re lying. So, the biggest way to get persecution is just to actually tell the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit.
When God cleans you up and you begin to actually say no, this is what it is or this is the truth and you’re pursuing that truth and you’re seeking to be extremely clear and solid as to what the truth is according to the Holy Spirit. You no longer practice a seat. They’re going to Assume you’re lying somewhere. Because they don’t know the power of God. It goes on to say, “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” It’s not like we just corrupt our own lives. There’s a poison that gets injected in other people and it’s right there in the open, right there in the lips. So, it can be a kiss of a friend. But if he’s not in Jesus Christ it’s a kiss with poison on it. It can be a woman who’s a friend, and she can give you a kiss on the cheek, and there’s going to be poison in those lips. “The poison of vipers is on their lips,” and that’s who we are in Jesus Christ.
There’s all kinds of books and things of how to win and influence friends and how to say certain things or there’s even books how to always win your court case or do whatever. It’s a poison where you try to paralyze the other person or you try to make them dead in their actions so that you can gain advantage over them, so you can consume them. It’s a poison of vipers that’s just right there oozing and dripping, and whoever we touch no how lightly or whether we strike or whatever we do, it brings its destruction. This is why families fall apart. This is why governments fall apart. This is why in any industry it just completely begins to become paralyzed and corrupt. We see it in the entertainment business. You see it everywhere. It’s just nobody wants to repent or I should say very, very few people actually want to repent and say, God, I want you to put sweet honey on my lips. I need the Holy Spirit that deals with my tongue because you’re going to fall under a lot of conviction.
It isn’t like God’s just going to play at this and go, okay well, here’s some nice holy sounding words for you to say. That’s to practice deceit. Psalms says that, “God desires truth in the inward parts, deep down inside.” It’s going to require a new creation. Somebody brand new. He’s not going to clean up who you are. He’s not going to clean up your life. He’s going to give you a new life and a totally new person because the one that you are and who you are now. The that you are is what? Worthless, full of poison. He goes on to say in verse 14, “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” We kind of get in a point here. “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
We grumble about other people. We grumble about life. We grumble about the weather. We grumble about the pastor. I’ve seen whole churches destroyed by cursing and bitterness and just whining against Lord. I don’t like the cross. It’s too heavy. This comes in with too much Does it ever stop? I’ve heard too many to keep going with this. Verse 15 tells us something else about our nature. “Their feet are swift.” We’re not even slow about this. We’re fast to get up. You see a crime is committed. The mob hits the streets and go we want justice. We want blood. We want it done now. And all the facts aren’t even in. They’ll call it a hate crime or this or that or whatever it is or they were wrong. They don’t even know the facts. They don’t even care about the fact. “Their feet are swift; swift to shed blood.” When I was a young man, I was fast to make my point or to stand up or to do whatever. “Their feet are swift to shed blood.” You certainly see this within the pro-abortion groups. They’re just fast and furious to commit blood to bring it.
Verse 16 says, “A ruin and misery mark their ways.” Ruin, really. We can’t really look, it’s amazing how many people you look around the world and you can pretty much get everybody to agree the world is ruined or heading to ruin, right Jacob?
Jacob: In ruins.
Timothy: In ruins. We can certainly I think get most people short maybe of a both a billionaire a millionaire. The world is a miserable place, is it not? “So, ruin and misery mark their ways.” That’s, oh yes, misery was left here, ruin was left over here, the government destroyed over, the law enforcement cause misery over here. There’s ruin and misery. They’re just swift to go for the blood, the jugular to shut somebody down, then we curse other people, we’re bitter about them. All those things, they just kind of tumble over each other one after another. It says, “Ruin and misery mark the ways.” We can get, everybody probably to agree that ruin and misery is what this world’s about. How come nobody wants to repent? What’s the problem? You’re not even giving up anything. We all want something so petty. That’s why sin is so stupid. It’s so pathetic. You’re going to trade the holiness of God for a car or for a family or for some particular item or for greed or whatever it is.
Verse 17 says, “And the way of peace they do not know.” You try to explain to these people. No, this would bring about peace and they’re going to they’re going to persecute you for it. We’re eventually going to get into, well, how do you get peace into a family? How do you get love into a family? How do you get peace into society? How do you get love into society? We’re going to get to that. They’re not going to know they’re not even going to understand it and most of them, there might be some that repent. Most of them are going to be swift to sPaulp over because it’s not what they want to hear. When push comes to shove, the drug addict wants his drug. Push come to shove; the politician wants his power. Push come to shove; the prosecutor wants his praise. Push come to shove; the police like practicing deceit. Otherwise, they’d give it up. They would give it up and become honest holy individuals. And what’s the root cause of all of this? Jacob read Romans 3:18.
Jacob: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Timothy: That’s the problem. There’s no fear of authority. If people in government feared God, they would not be pro-abortion. If the police feared God, they wouldn’t shoot our dogs. They wouldn’t falsely accuse. They wouldn’t destroy our homes. They wouldn’t do all the things that doing. If my neighbor feared God then we could be at peace and there would be holiness and righteousness. The first church in Acts chapter 9 verse 31 says, “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace.” Why were they able to enjoy a time of peace? Certainly, God kept the governing authorities down. But there’s a little bit more to it.
It was strengthened. Well, why was it and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. Again, this is by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t by potlucks. This isn’t by entertainment. This isn’t by just having a group of people come together dancing around. It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It grew in numbers and here is the key. Living in the fear of the Lord. Once you begin to admit that you are worthless and that you fill God with pain, you’ll become fearful then of his judgement, and you’ll begin to live in a type of fear that brings peace, that brings strength and that brings encouragement. It’ll come with deep conviction and rich life at the same time. Jacob, take us on out of here.
Outro: This has been the Consider Podcast at www.consider.info where yesterday’s folly is today’s madness. In the beginning, the unrepentant sinners words are folly. At the end, they are wicked madness. Ecclesiastes 10:13. Judgement begins with the house of God. Therefore, let everyone who loves the Lord with an undying love pick up their cross and walk the talk. As Peter the wrote. “Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Be self-controlled”. First Peter 1:13-14. The Considered Podcast, examining today’s events and Paulorrow’s realities. www.consider.info.
End
The Consider Podcast
Examining today’s wisdom, folly and madness with the whole gospel
www.consider.info
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