Witness Tampering (Part B)

The right spirit is to do what the witness does. We assemble, we worship, we pray, we encourage each other, we adhere to the Word, preach Christ every chance we get. And if the world does not like that, it's too bad. That's our message, that's Christianity. We're not intending to be rude.

But because Satan has blinded them and they opt to do nothing about that blindness, they are guilty. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will continue his study called Witness Tempering in Mark chapter 9. Paul warned in Acts chapter 20 and verse 29, one of the great passages of scripture, he's on his way to Jerusalem to be persecuted for Christ and he's warning the believers whom he had worked so hard to develop to disciple. He says, for I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Then he says this, also, from among yourselves, from the church that you attend, after I'm not here to stand guard on your behalf, because Paul, of course, was given to the church, he himself has given some to be, he goes on to say, and from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

Messing with the witnesses. How do you draw away from Christ to me? My ministry. John, the apostle, he orders this to the church, he says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. While the apostles were still living, they were dealing with these people. So there we see them upholding the scripture, the right way to the flock, appealing to their faith. Saying to those who attended their churches, I know you got problems, but you also have a mission, and you're supposed to do them both at the same time.

One is not supposed to stop because of, your mission is not supposed to stop because you've got problems in your life. You're still called to be a loving, you're still called to tell what you've seen in Jesus Christ. And so, again, this is not a prohibition against validating ministry, but instructions against having the wrong spirit go unchecked. It continues in verse 40, for he who is not against us is on our side.

It is very basic, but we need to hear it come from the mouth of Christ. The impossibility of neutrality. You can't be neutral with Christ.

Well, you know, he's alright. He's one of the prophets, or there are others too. You're either with him and against anybody else who claims to be equal with him, or you're not. Jesus said this himself. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. Each individual should be saying to themselves, what does that mean, gathering with Christ?

Because if I'm not gathering with Christ, am I guilty of making a mess of things, scattering abroad? If a man is in no sense against Christ and his word, then he is for him. If someone begins to disagree with him, well, I don't think that's right, I think it was wrong, then he really doesn't believe. Our Lord warned in Matthew chapter 7, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. So when he makes these claims, Christ does. As we look back again at verse 39, do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterwards speak evil of me, for he who, verse 40, is not against us is on our side. And then couple that with Matthew 7.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. It's all tied in. It's all connected. The New Testament is inseparably connected to the Old Testament and vice versa.

And we love that it is so. So we get to verse 41, he continues, he says, for whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ, surely I say to you he will by no means lose his reward. It's pretty powerful.

He's saying this. He says if someone is ministering to you, being kind to you, blessing you because of me, that's pretty powerful. Imagine if I said that. Well, if somebody does a favor for you because of me, then, you know, they won't lose their reward in heaven. Well, there may be lesser elements of truth in that for us, but not at the absolute as it is here with Christ. And what is this because you belong to Christ? The heart after God.

The heart that is interested in God and what he has to say no matter what. That Daniel, when Daniel opened the window, I don't care what the world is saying. I don't care what they're going to do to me. I have this personal relationship with Yahweh and I'm going to maintain this personal relationship with Yahweh. And if they throw me to the lions, I will probably be eaten. But it will be a meal of someone who has a personal relationship with Yahweh and the lions will love it.

Of course, that didn't happen. God protected him. We read these things in the Bible and we love them. We're drawn to them until it's our turn to face pressure. You know, verses like this. God has not given us a spirit of fear. How many Christians do not hesitate to be afraid? But of love, how many do not look to love? And of a sound mind, how many conduct themselves as though they have lost their mind?

These are questions that we cannot just ignore. In verse 41, again, Because you belong to Christ, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Paul is saying it's the Scriptures that validate it all. Take that away.

You've got some serious questions. He continues, Paul does, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Something as incredible as the resurrection, Paul says, it's got to be connected to God.

It's got to be part of his program. Otherwise, you run the risk of, again, being in Deuteronomy 13, where God says you're going to have people that do some extraordinary things, but if they're leading you away from me, then you're being tested, and it is the devil that is doing the testing, and we're going to find out what happens after that. James says this, If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You do well. So again, my point, these men were witnesses of Jesus Christ and his life. They were witnesses of the Scripture as we are because they believed, and Christ is saying, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward for adhering to the things of the Messiah, of the Christ. That's rewards after life for taking care of the servants of Christ. That's what this verse 41 is saying. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ, assuredly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. So John might be saying, wait a minute, I didn't give that guy a cup of cold water.

I was about to give him a knuckle sandwich, but Christ now addresses it. And John says, and incidentally, this is the only time in the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where we hear the voice of John. Just a side note, when we get, of course, to the Gospel of John, it changes. So verse 42 continues along with, all of this is connected. This entire section that we're considering, that we just stood and read, is all connected together. It's fragmented. All of it has, it started off with their self-seeking.

And it's just developed around that. Verse 42, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. So he's going back to the lesson.

That John interrupted with his, Lord, since you mentioned this whole thing about striving, we found somebody, you know, and now Christ is returning back to what he was saying before John had made the Lord aware of what they had said to the person who was casting out demons. And so Christ goes back to the innocents, but whoever causes one of these little ones. Here's this picture of not only innocents, but harmlessness.

Very severe when we consider, as we move forward, the defenseless. Hostilities today are hurled at believers largely because we follow Christ and not them. We care nothing for their policies that violate God's word. For example, the murder of the unborn. Well, if they don't care about the innocent, you don't get any more innocent as a human being and harmless as the unborn. And if they don't care for the unborn, they're not going to care for me.

They're not even going to care well for each other. And so I should not be surprised that I meet with those who are confrontational because the gospel comes along and says, no, this is the gospel basically. You're going to hell for your behavior, but the good news is you don't have to go.

What is offensive about that? Well, the part about I've got to change my lifestyle to line up with Jesus Christ, whom they don't believe in, because they want to do what they do. And once you wound their petty feelings, you make an enemy out of people in the world who are passionate about doing the things that Christ forbids. All right, accept that. Again, in these days we live in, we never thought, well, I don't know about never, but persecution does seem to be ramping up. Why don't they just come and arrest me and get it over with then?

There's a part of me that just wants to charge and not wait for it. All right, let's provoke this thing. But that's not the right spirit. The right spirit is to do what the witness does. We assemble, we worship, we pray, we encourage each other, we adhere to the word, we preach Christ every chance we get.

And if the world does not like that, it's too bad. That's our message, that's Christianity. We're not intending to be rude, but because Satan has blinded them and they opt to do nothing about that blindness, they are guilty.

Jesus said it this way in John 9. Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. Now you say we see, therefore your sin remains. The point is, we have the gospel and once we share it, their guilt is on them or the opportunity to be saved. John chapter 15, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. And now they have no excuse for their sin because he has spoken and we deliver the word. We take these moments of Christ dealing with unbelievers in his time and we apply them to us dealing with unbelievers in our time. It is so hard, it's so difficult to get someone to see the light. No matter how many screwball things they do, how much they make a ruin of themselves, you just say, listen, it's just one step towards Christ to change all of this for you.

And instead of doing that, they vilify us. 1 John, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. What does that mean? The truth is not in me. What is the consequence of not having the truth in me? Because I become a liar. I become a liar before the God of creation, before the throne of God. I become someone who is dishonest in the presence of God. What is he supposed to do with that?

What is a pure God supposed to do with someone who refuses? The evidence is laid before them. Are we surprised about the fraudulent hysteria that has blanketed the planet?

For the first time since Babel, the entire planet has been forced to lockstep. There's nowhere you can go where someone is not looking for you to wear a mask. Nowhere on earth.

How did they do this? You wait till the chip comes. Wait till the Antichrist says, you know what?

Now you're going to get the chip and if you don't, it's not going to be just denying you service. They're going to kill you. We see it happening right here in front of our eyes to this day. What are we supposed to do? Stand firm, preach the word in season. We have nothing else to give the world worth giving them. They've got everything else. Those destroyers who darken the halls of learning, those professors.

And this is an interesting thing. You can't miss that the universities are spewing out anti-Christianity, anti-Scriptures. And yet they're Christians running to their defense. Why are you picking on them? Fine, I'll pick on you.

You're going to defend them like that. They won't be picking on you, they'll be dealing with you. They sit in the seat of the scornful. How many children grow up in Christian homes, go off to universities just to become unbelievers because of their professors? People who they look to learn things from.

They learn how to sit in the seat of the scornful. They begin with the seminaries. Almost all the seminaries are corrupted.

If you ask me, name one that's not, I couldn't do it. I know there's got to be one out there somewhere. There's always a remnant with the Lord. And then they send out their disciples to the workplace to challenge those who dare say, I don't believe in those things that disagree with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ says, if you mess with a little child's faith, it'd be better if someone tied a transmission around your neck and threw you into the sea.

It'd be better if someone tied a washing machine around your neck and threw you into the ocean. You see, he's saying, listen, let me tell you something. You want to mess with the faith of the innocent, whether they're little children or adults. If you mess with their faith, it's not going to go well for you.

You will drown in judgment. And so he's laying this language out to them that you can never forget. And yet there are people who still do this. They know this verse and they still mess with the faith of the innocent. So again, how many university professors, especially them, have signed up for this particular judgment?

How many parents have signed up for this particular judgment? How many people in the workplace have signed up because they go against Jesus Christ and they want to attack the faith of others and cause them to stumble and fall flat on their face? And how many fall for it? The undoing of the faith. Romans 14, verse 13 resolved this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. Now he's talking about Christians, how much worse it is in the world when they're trying to put stumbling blocks in the way of believers. And they do, and believers fall for it.

Romans chapter 1, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. I don't know, I think this congregation, from what I can understand, I think we get it. But I also know there's a lot that don't get it. They don't see how complete it is, how necessary it is not to back away from this scripture alone idea. Some of you have to learn the hard way, the younger ones. You just can't take the word of the righteous for it. You've got to go out there and make a wreck of your life and then come back and take, hopefully you come back, and then take it.

Skip that step, be righteous from the beginning. What's this talk about depression in youth? Am I missing something? I was a youth once. I had a lot of anger, I didn't have too much depression. There was a lot of anger though, and the Marine Corps just poured gasoline on that. You think you're angry now?

You wait until these drill instructors get through with you, and then you wait until you get out into the fleet. You're going to really be an angry man, and I was. So, looking back at that life, what would I have done if I had just adhered to Christ? I was raised to love Jesus Christ.

Why did I walk away? Many of you men and women, you are Naomi's to other men and women. And of course, make it fit. I mean, the women are Naomi's to the girls, not them. You become Samuel's to you men, to other men. You become this influence, and that's what we were looking at the life of Saul. Saul had Samuel and he threw it all away.

He threw it just away to the point where he would have killed Samuel. And so you young men, you young women, why not be bold in Christ? Why not take that energy and be bold in Christ?

Why not get the answers? One of the first steps to growing is submission to the right authorities. The world gets this. I mean, I remember in the military up on the walls, body and spirit I surrendered whole to harsh instructors and received a soul. Well, I don't agree with that, but I understand the mindset and why it was on the wall. Because they understood that if they were going to make progress, submission was necessary. Well, we in Christ are supposed to know that before them, and we're supposed to know it better.

And that's why when we get to the end of this verse, as we stood and read a moment ago, Christ will end it with, have peace with one another. There is a hierarchy. There's nothing wrong with that. There is a chain of command in life.

There's nothing wrong with these things. If the leaders be noble leaders, these are very good things for all of us. So when Jesus says it would be better, again at verse 42, for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, that should make anybody say, well, I want to make sure this is not what's going to happen to me. Luke 10, verse 16, He who hears, you hears me. And he who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me. There is a chain. There is a link to the throne of God.

And you can either be on that link, part of that link, or not of it. When I think about the youth here, you are 13 years old and up and you're in the sanctuary. Do I have to say, do you understand what I'm saying? Because I happen to think it's very simple. I go out of my way to keep the syllables short in a language that everybody can understand. When my son was three or four years old, instead of reading him about, I don't know, children's stories, I go verse by verse with him and he understood it all because it was my responsibility to get him to understand it all at the time he was reading, as I was reading these things. And I would read right through the Gospel of John. And when I got to words that I knew he wouldn't understand or ideas and concepts, I'd either move past them or explain them.

I think that the Word of God is very understandable. And as far as you hearing the pastor preach, I don't look at anybody when I preach. I look at the corners of the room. I mean, it would be terrible.

It would be terrible to be talking about adultery or something like that. I'm looking right at somebody. So don't go think that I'm picking you out.

Maybe because I wear these spectacles you can't tell where my eyeballs are focused, but I'm telling you they're at the corners of the room. Because I want you to get God's Word. You won't have an excuse. You won't be able to go out into the world and say, well, I never heard that before. I didn't know God said that.

No, it will be the other way around. You heard it. You had a choice.

You were encouraged by people who love and cared for you. What are you going to do with that? Oh, I'll have one millstone, please.

You go have it. I had one lugged around for years. It's like the pilgrim's progress.

He had that burden on his back. Well, I had that transmission tied around my neck. Speaking of which, we've got time.

I can get through the rest of this pretty quickly. There's a story about these three teens, and they're walking around, and they see this transmission out in the field. And they pick up the transmission. First they come across a well, an old well, and they see this transmission. Let's throw the transmission in the well. So the three of them get the transmission up, and they lug it over to the well, and they drop it in. And out the corner of their eyes, they see this goat running towards them faster than they've ever seen a goat or any other animal run in their lives.

Right into the well. And they're scratching their heads, and the farmer, they see a farmer coming, and the farmer says, hey, you boys see my goat? He said, mister, you won't believe it. Your goat came running past us right into that well, running faster than any animal we've ever seen run before.

The farmer said, that's impossible. He was chained to a transmission. So, you think the three dummies would have noticed the chain? That's how we are in life. When we're young, we don't notice things.

It would cause damage. The poor goat, running as fast as he could, being towed under. Well, anyway, I didn't intend to tell that joke. I told it before, and I love telling it. Maybe you'll get it again next week.

We can all laugh. Well, anyway, this again, not disconnected. He says, if your hand, verse 23, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands to go to hell into the fire that shall never be quenched. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.