Learning About the Lord's Custom Made Yoke

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Thanks for joining us today on the Line of Fire. This is Michael Brown, delighted to be with you, and here to edify you, build you up, strengthen you, encourage you in the Lord today.

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866-344-TRUTH. So, like, we open the phones on Friday. We've been trying to do that as many days as we can, cover a lot of subjects we want to talk about. I've also got a news item from Australia involving a Christian leader there that is a Christian leader in the business world that's a real eye-opener, or in the sports world, I should say, in the sports world. But as a businessman, that's an eye-opener and a reminder of why we say what we say, why we have been warning, why we have been shouting for years. As I address in my book, Silencing of the Lambs, there is really an attempt to cancel us simply by holding to biblical Christian convictions. As I said a few days ago and wrote about it, if you're a Christian leader and you don't have a target on your back, something's wrong. If you're a Christian leader and you're not spoken against, something's wrong.

Oh, we should have a great reputation with outsiders in terms of people of integrity, people of honesty, people of morality, hardworking, solid marriages, solid in our finances. Yeah, we should be outstanding in those categories so that there's no reproach we bring to the gospel for that. Peter writes about it. He said if you suffer, suffer as a Christian, not as a meddler or busybody or swindler or something like that. If you're going to suffer, let it be for Jesus. But that being said, we will have targets on our back as we obey the Lord and honor him.

Okay, you've all heard these words. Jesus said this. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Fifty years ago, plus I memorized that in the King James, many of you know those words, come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. So what was Jesus saying there?

And what does he mean when he says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light? So first, let's go through this, but what I'm going to share with you I think is really going to be helpful. Whether you're a new believer, whether you've been in ministry for decades, I think this is really going to be helpful as we open this up for you today.

And I've got an article that will be up on the stream on this today or tomorrow, opening this up as well, so you'll be able to share it very, very easily on stream.org. So, burden down, heavy laden. Well, it could be burdened by sin and guilt, it could be burdened by hardship and suffering, it could be burdened by the difficulties of life in this world, it could be burdened by religious legalism.

Any of those categories, right, he's inviting us. In the immediate context, he's praising God for how he reveals himself to the simple and to the children, and it hides himself from those who are wise in their own eyes and things like that. So there's not a deep context before that that limits what he's talking about with those who are burdened or heavy laden.

So it could mean any of those categories. When we come to Jesus, truly, not just come to him to get something from him, but come to him to transact our lives, come to him to lay our lives down at his feet, come to him to receive his life, we receive rest. Rest in what ways? Well, we're set free from bondage to sin, and as we're set free from that, it brings peace and rest. The burden of guilt lifts off of us, that brings rest.

And we're not under a religious system of do's and don'ts trying to please God from the outside in, and that brings rest. And certainly when he talks about his yoke, he's contrasting it with the yoke of dead religion. We see that because what follows immediately, as Matthew recounts it, is Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath and Yeshua's disputes with some of the religious leaders about what you can and can't do over the Sabbath. Now, in Mark and Luke, that passage, in terms of the healing of man in the synagogue on the Sabbath and then picking grain in the fields on the Sabbath, so those passages immediately connect to the passages about the wineskins.

You can't put new wine and old wineskins. Here, Matthew connects it with this teaching, this saying. Each of the Gospel authors is putting things in certain orders for certain reasons.

Some things clearly chronological, and others a teaching put here to coincide with an event there to convey a larger meaning, larger significance. So that's what you have here. So certainly there is a contrast with his yoke versus the yoke of dead legalism, rules without relationship, standards without a savior, laws without love, trying to transform from the inside out. That's what legalism does. And then it heaps all kinds of extra burdens on you that God does not put on you.

That's what legalism does. And Jesus says, come to me, you'll find rest from that as well. But what does he mean when he says, my yoke is easy and my burden is life? I mean, didn't he tell us to leave everything and follow him? Didn't he tell us to strive to enter in through the straight gate and to walk on the narrow path? Didn't he say we have to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow him?

Didn't he say that those that follow him would be hated and persecuted as he was? How is that easy? What about that is easy? This is talking about death to the flesh. This is talking about going against the grain of the world. This is talking about hardship, suffering. Jesus said in John 16, 33, in this world you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world.

So, how is it easy? Well, let's first understand what he actually means, what the Greek word means. It's actually Christos, which is close to Christos, which is Messiah, just so happens.

They're unrelated, by the way, but just so happens that it's close. Let me read to you what the the lonida lexicon of semantic domains explains this in terms of this word Christos in this context, that it means pertaining to that which is pleasant or easy with the implication of suitability. Pleasant, easy would be the way to translate it. But notice that with the implication of suitability, the yoke the Lord has for you fits just right. Greek scholar C.L.

Spieck, the French Greek scholar, explains it like this. It is a well-conditioned yoke, one that is not rough and does not hurt or chafe the neck. So the yoke that the Lord puts on us, now notice he says take my yoke upon you, so we come in his service, we come under his rulership. You won't find rest until you do that. But the yoke that's put on us fits just right.

It's actually comfortable. Think of that. Now, what does that translate out to mean? Let me play a clip for you, those of you who remember the movie Chariots of Fire Academy Award winner, one of the great Christian movies made by Hollywood. It's a great scene.

Eric Liddell is an Olympic-level runner for England. He's called to the mission field. He and his sister are devout believers. He's about to tell her that he's been accepted to go to China on the mission field, but the clip is not working at the moment. All right, for some reason, our YouTube clip is not functioning, so I'll recount the scene. So he's with his sister, and he gives her the news. Hey, I'm accepted to go to China, right? And then she's excited to hear it, and he says this.

I believe, this is Eric Liddell in the movie, I believe that God may be for a purpose for China, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. To give it up would be to hold him in contempt. You were right. It's not just fun. To win is to honor him. So he was telling her, I'm going on the mission field. That's God's purpose for me, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. I'm going to run in the Olympics first, and then I'm going on the mission field, and that, of course, was the will of God, and that, of course, is what gave him international fame, and that, of course, is what drew so much attention to his testimony, and that, of course, is what inspired the movie Chariots of Fire.

So what's the point? The yoke that God has for you fits right. When you surrender your life to him, Lord, not my will but yours, not my plans but yours, not my purpose but yours, not my desires but yours, you surrender your life to him, and you take his yoke on you, you find, this is what he made me for. Now, you have to crucify the flesh along the way.

Yes, of course. And there are times when we just have to humble ourselves and get low and serve someone else, but there's even grace to do that. But the thing is, here, you look at my schedule and say, how do you do what you do?

If I sat down and told you what one of my months looked like, and then the attack we get and the resistance we get and the accusations and all the garbage that we deal with and what we're able to produce and put out and to travel and everything else, you say, how in the world are you standing at the end of the month? I'm thriving. I'm blessed. Because God made me for this, because I'm doing what he called me to do, and because his grace empowers me.

It's not me, it's him. Paul says, I worked harder than all the other apostles. 1 Corinthians 15, he says, but it wasn't me, it was God's grace at work in me. So God puts the wind in your sails. So when you really, categorically, truly submit your life to God and take his yoke on you, it fits right. You find, this is what he made me for.

There's grace to do what he called you to do. All right, got a little more to say on this than I want to take some of your calls. 866-348-7884.

Phone lines are open. This is how we rise up. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-344-TRUTH.

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AskDrBrown.org. Okay, John Wesley said this, he said, though I'm always in haste, I am never in a hurry. So what exactly did that mean? Though I'm always in haste, so he's always moving, he's active, I'm never in a hurry. Well, the rest of the quote explains it. He said, I never undertake any more work than I can get through with perfect calmness of spirit.

All right, so let me read this again. Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry. I never undertake any more work than I can get through with perfect calmness of spirit. Wow, so in my own life, I'm running, I'm pushing, but when I realize, okay, you're getting in the flesh, you are pushing hard, you're taking on too much, you are trying to do too much, step back. Okay, don't push it, step back, worship God, relax, do something else, step back, because there's always grace to do what I'm called to do. Look, I look at people, you know, homeschooling mom with six kids, she's got two in diapers, she's got kids at all different age groups, and you know, and there, she's teaching them, she's still got to cook and clean, she doesn't have a housekeeper, husband's out working 12 hours a day, so he's pushing hard, and she's there, she's involved in church, and she serves here. It's like, how, how, how can she do that? Well, God gives her grace, it's her calling, it can be challenging, and sometimes you're at your wits end, but then you come to God and he gives you the grace.

I look at other people, what they do, I think, how in the world do you do that? But there's grace for them. I've watched people forgive. You know, forgive someone that murdered their child and they said, okay, you're going to jail, you're getting your just sentence, but I personally forgive you and pray for your salvation.

I think, how do you do it? Because there's grace to do what God calls us to do. So, many people, just because something's hard on the flesh, like, I don't feel grace to do that. What you mean is, I don't want to. What you mean is, I would, I'm a spoiled baby, and I, if I don't feel good doing it, I'm not going to do it. I'm a spiritual prima donna.

Well, that's just immaturity. But, if you're really walking with the Lord, and your life is yielded to him, then you'll know, okay, something's not right here. Do you have a car that has auto lane correction, so as you start to move out of the lane, the steering wheel vibrates, you feel it's like, oh, what's happening? Oh, I started to wander out of the lane.

Or maybe not, but you've been on the highway, and as you start to go off the lane a little bit, there's gravel on the side, so immediately you hear that, you feel that, oh, that wake up. That's how it should be with our walk with the Lord. When we're taking on something, it's like something just doesn't feel right. Now again, if you're not disciplined, and if you're not yielded to the Lord, then it may just be your flesh doesn't like you. Now this fast doesn't feel right. Getting up early in the morning to pray doesn't feel right.

It may just be our flesh doesn't like it. But when you receive grace to be disciplined, and you honor the Lord, you say, Lord, I just want your will. I don't want my agenda, but your will, he will give you the grace. If you have to humble yourself and get low, if you have to let someone else take the credit for something you did, there'll be grace, and God's like, I got you here.

I got your back. His yoke fits just right. So don't try to take on somebody else's yoke. You don't have their anointing, you don't have their grace, you don't have their background, you don't have their makeup, you don't have their calling.

You try to do what they're doing, it will not succeed. But when you are honoring the Lord and doing what he's given you to do, you'll find his yoke fits just right. If I could draw up a perfect job description of my life, I'd be doing what I'm doing. Yeah, I'd be doing what I'm doing. I mean, obviously, if I had 100 hours a day to do more of everything, but I'd be doing what I'm doing. I'd be doing it even more effectively. I'd be reaching even more people. We'd be seeing even more fruit.

But in terms of my role, I'd be doing what I'm doing. It's a joy. It's glorious.

It's wonderful. But in 2020, I came to the end of the year, or came to the end of 2019 looking into 2020, and I thought, you know, I've been traveling too much. I wasn't burnt out. I wasn't tired. I wasn't struggling.

I was on the road a total of about 200 days, including travel days and ministry days. And I just thought, no, I'm running too much. It's not what God wants.

He wants me to slow down some. And my schedule remains intense, but there's been a definite slowdown, and taking one weekend a month, roughly, just to pray and be with the Lord has been life-changing. So find the Lord's yoke, submit to it, and you'll find it is suitable for you. I hope that helps. I really felt strongly to share this with you today. All right, let's go to the phones, and we'll start in Charlotte, North Carolina, with Reege. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thank you. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. Got a couple of questions. The first one is, and just to give you a little bit of background, over the past, I guess, four or five weeks, I've had Jehovah's Witnesses coming to my house to speak to me, right? And although I do not agree at all with their theology, they have brought up some interesting points, which I decided to research. So one of the ones was the name Yahweh in the Old Testament.

My question to you is, of course, they say Jehovah, but my question to you is, the first part of my question is, why has Yahweh been removed or replaced, the name Yahweh, been replaced throughout the Old Testament? And then the second part of my question is, because of that, I'm considering changing over, I read the ESV now, but I'm considering the literal standard version. I was just curious if you had any feedback or any familiarity with the literal standard version.

I'm not intimately familiar with it, but I would recommend the ESV rather than that, just to be candid. It's going to be better overall. So as to why it says Lord, capital L, small caps O-R-D, rather than Yahweh, is because over the centuries, the name was considered too sacred to pronounce, and by the time of Jesus, from what we can tell, the custom was to not say that name, but rather to say Lord instead. That's why in the New Testament, when it refers to Yahweh, it just says Kurios, Lord. It doesn't say Yahweh.

We don't have any Greek manuscripts or other Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that say Yahweh or try to put that in Greek. Instead, it just says Kurios, because that's how you call them at that point, Lord. So it was honor and respect, and that was the reason for it over a period of time. And the fact of the matter is, since they are sharing the wrong pronunciation of the name anyway, what good is it doing?

You know what I'm saying? How does it change anything to say, okay, let's just put Yahweh 6,000 plus times in the Old Testament? It doesn't change anything. When we say Lord, that's what we're talking about, the God who created everything. But yeah, it was just, by the time of Jesus, it could be centuries before, the name was considered too sacred to pronounce. And that's why the oldest Greek manuscripts we have don't have his name, but rather Kurios, Lord, instead.

Well, thank you, I appreciate it. Yeah, and it's been the Jewish custom. You know, if you are a traditional Jew reading the Scriptures, when you see that name, you know don't say that, say Adonai instead. But either way, I'm fine with the name being restored, you know what I'm saying? If in our culture we honor God by saying the name, and the best we understand is it was pronounced Yahweh, that's fine with saying it. What you want to look for is if you see capital L, then small caps O-R-D, that's the translator telling you, that's not the normal word for Lord, that's the name, Yahweh, there. And then every so often you'll see it with capital G, small caps O-D, God, and it's the name there. You will find, if you look at, say, the CSB, Christian Standard Bible, you'll see the name Yahweh used more there. You may want to take a look at that, it's free online at Bible Gateway to look at and check out. But, you know, it doesn't necessarily add anything because we know who we're talking about, that's the key thing. By the way, are you familiar with the CARM website, C-A-R-M dot org?

I am not, no sir. Yeah, so check that out, type in Jehovah's Witnesses, you'll get a lot of good information there, CARM dot org. But the bottom line is that this is not a conspiracy of Christian translators to keep some sacred truth from you that the Jehovah's Witnesses have discovered. And their translation, the New World Translation, is one of the worst that's ever been produced. I mean, Bible scholars who, yeah, I mean, it's really, you know, when I read it, it's like, this is sad, it's so bad.

And then they have no assurance of salvation, you know. I tell you what, stay right there, we'll be right back. As soon as you stay there, we'll get to some more calls on the other side of the break. Remember, to get our emails, we've got a big announcement we want to send out to you next week.

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That is the number to call, 866-34-TRUTH. I just read another great quote from John Wesley. He was asked how he got through so much work and so short a time. He answered, brother, I do only one thing at a time and I do it with all my might.

Whoa, that's a bit of a rebuked husband or a distracted age, isn't it? Yeah, read, back to you. Sorry to cut you off right before the break, but when I was saying the New World Translation is a terrible translation, you were about to say something. Yeah, no, I was going to say I agree with you because they bring it over and I look through it and, I mean, there's so many errors in it.

I don't want to say it's laughable because, like you said, it's sad. But there are some things that they've made me think, not think to convert to being a Jehovah's Witness, not by no means, but just kind of like I was unaware of how many times that Yahweh was in the Old Testament and things like that. Excuse me, but even whenever I've pointed out some things, even in their own version, that's inconsistent. They kind of don't respond well to it because, of course, they think Jesus was created and they don't think he's eternal, and the main reason for that is, I believe it's Colossians 1.15 where he's referred to as the firstborn. Well, when I came back with Will in a Song, David is the firstborn. He's referred to as the firstborn, and he definitely wasn't the firstborn, so obviously that's some sort of status.

Perfect, yeah, that's what it is. It means the one who has preeminence. He's the firstborn over all creation, so it means the one who has preeminence.

That's the meaning of it. In John 1.1 where in their version the word was a god, so you ask them, how many gods do you have then? I thought we were only supposed to have one god. It looks like you have two gods. And then John 8.58 where Jesus says, Before Abraham was, I am, and they actually invented something in Greek.

I don't know if they ever fixed it, but they called it the present indefinite tense, and they translated it differently. So Greek scholars, look at it, really it is laughable if it wasn't so tragic. And then when you ask them about their testimony, so what's the Lord done in your life?

Tell me about how you came to faith and how he forgave your sins and the hope of eternal life. They don't have any of that. They didn't have a conversion experience. They didn't get born again, have their sins forgiven. They don't have assurance of eternal life.

They hope if they work hard enough, you know, they get in their quota and work hard enough, then they'll be able to serve as like slaves in the millennial kingdom and then hopefully get eternal life. And you know the race of like he wasn't crucified on a cross but an execution stake, and that's the meaning of the Greek staros. Well, you can make a good case that it was a cross and it was called staros, but either way, what does it matter? You know what I'm saying? It's like if he was hung on a stake or hung on a cross, it's the same redemption, the same blood that was being shed, but they'll make it like, there's a scandal. It's like, no, it's just a translator's debate, but most are happy with cross, so we leave it there, you know, and that's the imagery that we have from the ancient world.

But if you run into other things, the CARM website is really helpful, CARM.org. And then at a certain point, if it's clear that they're not open and they're not willing to change, if you don't see them questioning or just even look in their eyes and see the things they're registering, maybe with one of them, then, you know, you just walk away from it. Many, many years ago, I was coming home from school and I was in high school, so coming home from school almost 50 years ago, I pull up in the driveway and there's a woman walking away from the house. Turns out she's a Jehovah's Witness. So we start going at it immediately, and every verse she throws at me, I throw a verse back at her, and I could see it through her, and I had talked to other Jehovah's Witnesses, and it didn't register. It was just like they were programmed.

And whatever I said, they had their answer. But I could see it shook her. And over a period of time, she came out of Jehovah's Witnesses.

When she did, I asked her, whatever happened when you talked to my mom? And she said, oh, I'm not really interested in religion, but wait for my son to come home. He'll convert you. He converts everybody.

So that was my mom back then. But may the Lord give you wisdom and use you. God bless Reed. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Let us go over to Raleigh, North Carolina. Susan, you are on the line of fire. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. Help me understand. You know, we have fathers and sons of the Holy Ghost. And I've been taught that Jesus is also God. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

So if that's the case, and I'm having a hard time between my heart and my head comprehending this. So help me understand how he can be God. But then if he's God, when he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and he says, if it's your will, take this off. When he's on the cross, he says he's praying to God. If he's God, then who is he praying to? And there's the conflict I have.

Yeah, sure. Of course, you're not the first person to ask this question, because it's the fact of God taking on human flesh. So this is what we call the mystery of the Incarnation, that God at the same time was God and yet human.

So as the Son, so God is Father, Son, and Spirit, so as the Son comes into this world, he takes on humanity fully. In other words, it's not just like clothing that he's wearing. He was born a baby. He literally crawled. He literally learned to speak. He literally grew in wisdom and in physical stature, right? And in self-consciousness. In other words, at a certain point, he begins to realize who he actually is.

It's not like Jesus as a baby could speak a hundred languages and could fly, and he made believe that he was doing baby talk and learning to crawl, right? So he was literally human. So as a man, he slept. He got tired. He got hungry.

He ate. He had human emotions, but he never sinned. So as a human being, he prays to his Father. But you'll see in John 17, he asked God to give him the glory again that they had before the world began. And he says, I came from you. He understands he came from God and is going back to God and that he has authority to reveal the Father to people.

So it's simply that he is fully human. So as a man, he also prays, but he prays in a unique way. He prays to Abba. He prays to the one from whom he came and to whom he is returning. And he prays as one without sin.

But if he had to eat and drink and sleep, if he could have joy and sorrow, then why wouldn't he pray? In other words, he's still a human being as well as God. So it's Philippians 2, if you'll meditate on it, verses 5 through 11.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. It talks about what he does, how even though he's in God's very form, he doesn't hold on to that, but takes on the form of a servant and now lives this out, dying a criminal's death on our behalf. I mean, he was literally whipped, he was literally crucified, he literally died, he literally felt agony, and he literally prayed as a full human being who is also fully God. And it's mind-boggling. It does shatter the circuits of our brain, but that's how deeply God reached out to save us.

And I know the physical part of him, he's becoming a man, and I understand that part. But it's how can he be both, how can he be the man and God? Because he's God. In other words, only God could do that. Do you believe that God, God being triune, Father, Son, and Spirit, right, that the Son could come and walk among us physically?

Do you believe he has the power to do that? Well, I do, but I guess in my finite mind, you know, we're like children, we're very limited in what we can really comprehend, and I'm prime on that one. But I think I'm still trying to make sense of it on the human level here, and it doesn't make any sense to me. Right, so you have to ask God for insight, because it's talking about a spiritual truth, right?

You have to ask God, open my heart and open my mind to understand this. Look, I know factually that God always existed, right? My logic tells me that, that there had to be a prime mover, a prime cause, that matter could not be eternal, that something had to come from somewhere, as opposed to from nothing. So I know it's factually true that God always existed, but I can't get it.

It short circuits my brain, but I know it's true, right? You know, let me just throw one thing out. We know that we were once in the womb, correct? That we have no consciousness of it, no memory, but we were sentient beings. We were doing stuff, right?

We were moving around and we responded to certain things, we would kick and so on. It's a reality. Can you comprehend that you were once living inside your mother's womb?

But we know it's true. So the more we think about it, so the idea of God taking on human flesh and God walking among us, and yeah, if I think about it, like if somebody, oh, this person, they claim to be God, you're right, sure, human being God, it seems preposterous, and yet I know the reality of it. So Susan, go to God and just say, I believe it's true, I don't get it, I don't understand, would you give me insight? And that's where like sometimes if I think, think, think, think, I don't get it. When I step back and just kind of meditate on the word, it clicks in. He gives me an insight.

It's like ah, ah, that's it. So ask him for revelation. If you look in Ephesians 1, Paul prays a prayer for the Ephesians, and he prays that they would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God better. So what I've done, and I learned this from others, is to take the prayers that Paul prayed for the churches or for Timothy or for others and to pray them for ourselves, and Ephesians 3, there's another prayer. So if you look in Ephesians 1 and then Ephesians 3, you'll find prayers that Paul prays for the believers in Ephesus.

Change them and pray them for yourself. Lord, I pray that you would give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation that I may know you better. Or in the third chapter, that we may know the depth and height and breadth of the love of God, which it surpasses knowledge.

How can you know something that surpasses knowledge? That's why we pray for it. So that's what I'd encourage you to do. Look in Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3. You can read through other letters of Paul as well for this. And the prayers that he prayed for the believers there, pray them for yourself. And then meditate on Philippians 2, especially verses 5 through 11. Philippians 2, verses 5 through 11.

You have the facts, right, as you say in your mind, but may the Lord grant revelation in your spirit so that it clicks. Ah, that's it. We'll be right back. This is how we rise up. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, going to go back to the phones in a moment, but so you can hear this, as it happened in the movie Chariots of Fire, I alluded to it earlier. So Eric Liddell explaining to his sister, Jennie, why he is going to run in the Olympics before going on the mission field. And by the way, if you've never seen the movie, watch it with your whole family. It's just incredible. I saw it once in the theater with Nancy decades ago, and at the end of the movie, one of the dramatic moments, a big race, Nancy hears something like, looks to see what it was, it was me, I was at the edge of my seat, just so caught up in the movie.

But here's the scene that I quoted earlier. I decided. Okay. I'm going back to China.

The mission ourselves are accepted. Oh, I'm so pleased. I've got a lot of running to do first. Jennie.

Jennie, you've got to understand. I believe that God made me for a purpose, for China. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.

To get it up would be to hold him in content. You were right. It's not just fun.

To win is to honor him. Jennie. Jennie. Yeah, what a line.

I'm going to be contempt to not do it, contempt for God. Wow. Wow. All right, before I go back to the phones, let me just reference this situation in Australia. I'm not going to go through the entire article, but there's a Christian man in Australia.

I wasn't familiar with this at all. Andrew Thorburn. And he was appointed the CEO of the Essenton team.

So this is what, an Australian football team, the Australian football club. And so he's appointed as the CEO, right? So he's been around. He trusts it. He's a respected businessman and all of that. And he's also chairman of City on a Hill Church, which is pro-life and stands against homosexual relationships, right?

As the Bible clearly does. So he's the CEO for one day and he quits. He quits.

Why? Because he found out that his views are considered unacceptable in the organization. Even though he said he didn't fully agree with the sermon that was preached about someone talking about how to survive same-sex attraction as a Christian. It was preached in a church.

Of course it was preached in a church. It should be preached. If you're dealing with same-sex attraction, here's how to deal with it as a follower of Jesus. Of course we should help people deal with that.

And it can be freedom and transformation. But certainly start with saying no to that desire. Deny yourself. Take up the cross.

Follow me. This is gospel. The gospel. Basic stuff. Living for Jesus. Following the Bible. Basic stuff. God made men for women.

Women for men. Basic. Foundational.

Right? This is what the church has held to for 2,000 years in which every true Bible believer who follows the scripture does hold to. And if you claim to be a Bible believer and don't hold to it, then you're wrong. You're in error on that point.

This is basic stuff. He had to resign. After one day he had to resign. And he said he's always treated people fairly through his career.

Obviously he wouldn't have gotten where he is. He's never discriminated against people based on anything in their lives. If they're qualified for the workplace, they work. They do what they do. And he treats them with respect. But no!

Friends, this is why we've been warning you. This is why we've shouted for almost 20 years now that those who came out of the closet want to put us in the closet. The average gay and lesbian person is not an activist.

The average gay and lesbian person is living a life like everybody else. They got a job. They may have family.

They have their activities and friends. And they just want to live their lives and be left alone. And let their relationships be as accepted as heterosexual relationships. I would say that's the majority of those who identify as gay and lesbian. But the activists have been very clear for years. Those who came out of the closet want to put us in the closet. We've shouted it for 18 years now, but this is just the latest example in tolerant, diverse Australia. Alright, let us go back to the phones.

This time, alright, I was going to, whoa, whoa, I was going to Perry in South, Southern California. I guess he couldn't hold, but his question was about Matthew 11-11. Truly I say to some, truly I say to you among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Right, so what Jesus is saying is that with his ministry now, he has inaugurated the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, breaking out on the earth in a new way. That those who are born from above now will experience a relationship with God on a different level than those who came before. Or will have a different status than those who came before.

There were those who were waiting for this era, and there are now those who begin to experience this era. He says that the prophets, wise men, longed to see what you're seeing, but didn't see it. Let me read to you from the end of Hebrews chapter 11. So even though John was the greatest prophet of all time, in that he announced the coming of the Messiah, right? Moses had his stature in what he did, Elijah had his stature in what he did, Isaiah, Jeremiah wrote their books and all of that. But John had the unique status of being the forerunner and saying this is him, this is the Messiah, right? So he has that unique status in the kingdom beyond those who came before. But the least, just a 10 year old child born again today has a different state that they're in, a different place that they're in, a different greatness that they have beyond John and all who came before. Simply because we're on the other side of Jesus, that's all. We're on the other side of Jesus coming into the world, dying and rising from the dead.

It's that simple. So look at what it says about the heroes of faith. I'll start reading in chapter 11 verse 32 in Hebrews.

What more shall I say? For Tom would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, remained strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sown in two.

They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. So in other words, until the believers came along who now met the Messiah and were born again through faith in him, and now the messianic era breaks through, a transition era, the kingdom of God advancing on the earth as we await the kingdom coming in fullness with the return of Jesus, the messianic era advancing on the earth as we await the return of the Messiah for the full establishing of the messianic kingdom. We've been in a transition age for these 2,000 years, a time of already and not yet of God's Spirit being poured out, and yet it is not the ultimate fullness of what we will see, of the power of God being demonstrated through the gospel, and not yet the final and greatest demonstration of his power, of forgiveness of sins and new life, but not the fullness of that new life when we are completely without sin.

So it's already, and not yet, we receive the deposit, the down payment of that which is still to come. That's what confuses some people. If this is the messianic era, why are there still wars?

We're in the transition age. The Messiah has come. He was rejected as part of the plan of God. He dies, rises from the dead. The message now goes out to all the world.

It continues to spread around the world at the appropriate time. He will return and establish his kingdom on the earth, and after that we go into the eternal age. But all those waiting in the Old Testament, they couldn't get the fullness of what they were waiting for without us, because the body doesn't become whole until the Messiah comes and brings together the saints of all the ages.

In any case, there may have been a different aspect to the question, Matthew 11 and 11, but just having the verse there, I wanted to address it. Okay, one last reminder. We've got a really exciting announcement to send out that I think is going to be relevant to every one of you, virtually every one of you.

I can almost guarantee it. So make sure you sign up for our emails. It's a special free resource we're going to be announcing. AskDrBrown.org.

A-S-K-D-R Brown is the website dot org. Sign up for the emails, get our free mini e-books sent to you, and get on our welcome tour that you'll really enjoy. All of our friends that are in Southlake, Texas area, aside from some teaching that I'm doing just for students during the day, we've got some ministry. Friday night, well, let's just see, the greater Dallas area. Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday morning, three different locations, different meetings, we'll be teaching, preaching, so check my itinerary. Also at AskDrBrown.org. And if you're on our email list, you'll get an email, or you've already gotten it, telling you I'm coming your way. Bless you.