The Nonbeliever's Favorite Verse: Restore, Don't Destroy

Hey everybody, you're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners.

If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at greg.harvest.org. Again, it's greg.harvest.org.

You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. Surprisingly, not everyone wants to hear the good news. In fact, Pastor Greg Laurie says, be ready for some to act with outward hostility. Jesus says, don't give what is holy to dogs. 1 Corinthians 1 18 says, the message of the crucifixion is insanity to the lost. So what do you do if someone laughs in your face?

You just walk away. Why? Don't cast your pearls before swine, and don't give that which is holy to the dogs.

That's why. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Among the highest paid professions, all 10 in the top 10 are in the medical field. Anesthesiologists top the list. Their knowledge comes at a premium, but they can save your life. What believers know is worth even more spiritually, and it can save a life for eternity. But some resist hearing the life-saving good news.

What then? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us be ready for those times when the hearers don't have ears to hear. Turn to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7.

And we are in our Salt and Light series. And the title of the message is the non-believer's favorite verse. And the verse that you will often hear from a non-believer is judge not lest you be judged.

Right? And when does this happen? This happens usually when we are talking to them about their need for Jesus Christ and telling them that maybe they need to turn from their sin and they get really indignant and they say, well doesn't the Bible say judge not lest you be judged? In other words, will you please go away now? It is their verse that they quote to make you stop talking to them. And the second favorite verse of non-believers is, let him that is without sin cast the first stone. Now the problem is they totally misinterpret what those verses mean. So let's read the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 7 verse 1. Judge not lest you be judged for with what judgment you judge you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. Why do you look at this speck in your brother's eye and not consider the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, hey let me remove the speck from your eye and look a plank is in your own eye hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye.

Then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Do not give that which is holy to the dogs or cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces. All right. So here are some takeaway truths from these verses.

Point number one if you are taking notes. As Christians we should be discerning but not condemning. Let me repeat that. As Christians we should be discerning but not condemning. Again verse 1. Judge not lest you be judged. Now the better way to translate the statement of Christ in Matthew 7 verse 1 is not judge not lest you be judged but rather condemn not lest you be condemned.

There is a big difference. I am to make judgments. I am to make evaluations. I am to use my discernment but having said that I am not to condemn a person. I judge for identification not for condemnation.

Point number two. Our desire should always be to restore not condemn a person in sin. Let me say that again. Our desire should always be to restore not condemn a person in sin.

We want to restore them. Here is what Paul says in Galatians 6 one about someone who has fallen spiritually. Brother if someone is caught in sin you who are spiritual should kick them while they are down and tell as many people as possible. You ever read that verse? No you haven't because it is not in the Bible. I just made it up. But by the actions of some you would think it is in the Bible. Someone stumbles hey kick them when they are down and tell everybody about their fault.

No the Bible says love covers a multitude of sins. I want to help you. See that is what you do when someone has fallen. Your objective is to restore them again.

Number three. I cannot see a speck in my friend's eye if I have a telephone pole in mine. Matthew 7 verse 3. Why do you look at a speck in your brother's eye and not consider the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, oh let me remove the speck from your eye and look a plank is in your own eye. And so he is making a point that we are so quick to go after minutia in one Christian's life when we are guilty of a lot worse in our own life. And so the idea here is not that I should not try to help somebody who has you know some sawdust in their eye or a sin in their life. But before I can do it I have to get it out of my own life.

He says first remove the plank. First confess your sin. You know forgiven people should be forgiving people. And if you are so quick to judge others here is my question for you. Are you prepared to be judged with the same type of judgment you give to others? Because that is exactly what Jesus says. Verse 2.

With the judgment you judge you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. So be careful. Point number four. Some people just don't want our help.

Some people just don't want our help. Verse six. Don't give what is holy to dogs nor cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces.

Casting a pearl before a swine is giving something valuable to someone who does not care. Pigs like to live in slop and filth. That is how pigs roll. The reason they live in the slop is that is actually how they cool themselves off. And that is where they are comfortable. So you go up to your pig and a number of years ago not so much today but pigs were very popular as pets.

Remember that some of you? People would get these little pot-bellied pigs. And it was a really great idea when they were little and then one day you wake up and you have like this giant hog running up and down your hallway. But if I give a pearl to a pig a pig is not going to appreciate a pearl.

I give him some fresh garbage. Now we are talking right. So that is the point. Casting your pearls before swine is offering something valuable who does not care. Let me say it another way. Casting your pearls before swine is sharing the gospel of someone who does not want to hear it.

When I was a brand-new Christian I went out sharing my faith and I was with a young guy younger than me and we walked up to this really big biker dude. Right. All tatted up. Wearing the vest.

No shirt under it. And I thought OK you know. And so the little guy that was with me started sharing the gospel with the biker and the biker looked at him and said shut up man.

I will punch your face in. And I said OK let's go. Now this little guy says no. And he kept like preaching at this biker.

And the biker is getting really irritated. And then finally the little guy says to him OK we will leave but because we are casting our pearls before pigs I am thinking. OK this is an in-house verse. OK. This is a verse we quote to explain something.

That is not the one I quote to the person I am talking to. Now maybe it was relevant but there is a time and place for everything and that was not the time. Sometimes when you are sharing with people they will turn on you. Years ago we were in Hawaii and we were out swimming around with one of the local guys there. And so we had masks and fins on and stuff. And so he said oh check this out. And down at the bottom there was some netting and there was a shark caught in the net. And so this guy says I am going to go free the shark with my knife. And we are thinking this is amazing. So we are all just kind of we are really close watching. And this is you know a large enough shark to bite you.

OK. It wasn't like a 30 foot great white but it was a big enough shark. So I don't know why. We are all just watching.

It is so interesting. Because the shark looked like it was dead. So he goes down there cutting the net and the shark isn't moving.

Cuts the net. And all of a sudden the shark comes alive and comes out and he is swimming toward us and suddenly we realize that is a shark and we are close. What are we doing here? But we were so fascinated by watching this we weren't thinking rationally right. Sometimes when you are trying to help someone they will turn on you.

And that is surprising to us. Because I am trying to help you. I am trying to tell you how to be forgiven of your sin. Well go away. I have a friend who is a dermatologist. Someone who is an expert in all things pertaining to your skin. And in fact whenever I am with him he kind of looks at me and goes stop looking at my skin.

Just stop. Like just look at my sleeve you know or something. But he was in a store and he was shopping and he saw a lady with a very large malignant melanoma on her head. He knows what a malignant melanoma looks like. There are different kinds of skin cancer. There is basal cell carcinoma which is the most common. There is squamous cell. A little medical lesson here. There is squamous cell. And then there is melanoma. And the first two you can have burned off or they freeze them. Maybe you have had that done.

I have. And then there is a melanoma. That is very serious. You need to get that removed immediately because it can potentially metastasize and be fatal. So he sees a large malignant melanoma on the face of this woman.

He is very careful the way he approaches her. He says ma'am I am a doctor. I am a dermatologist. This is what I do for a living. And I believe you have a malignant melanoma on your head.

And I wish you would come see me tomorrow at my office. And she got angry at him. And she wanted nothing to do with him. That is a big mistake. But when you dare to say to someone I see something that is a problem they will get mad at you sometimes. Or like that shark they will turn on you.

So sometimes that happens. So what do you do when you are sharing the gospel with someone and they don't want to hear it? You are going to be surprised by my answer. Walk away. Walk away. You don't have to push it. Now sometimes people say they don't want to hear it but they really do. Ok. So you have to pray the Lord gives you wisdom. But really there are some people that literally don't want to hear it. And there might come a moment where you just say well look I am going to walk away.

Why? Jesus says don't give what is holy to dogs. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Emails, letters and phone calls from listeners are so encouraging to us.

And they let us know the effectiveness of these studies. Hi Pastor Greg. I want to thank you for helping me learn and understand the word of God.

I also wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your sense of humor. Even in my darkest times when I listen to your sermons I can go from crying to laughing. Keep up the wonderful work of God and God bless you and your family. What an encouragement to hear that Pastor Greg's teachings are helping this woman and many others like her.

Let us know how these studies have impacted you. Send an email to Pastor Greg. Greg at harvest dot org.

Again that's Greg at harvest dot org. Well we're considering some interesting instruction from Jesus today. Sometimes we face hostility in sharing the gospel. What does Jesus say about that? Don't give what's holy to dogs.

Pastor Greg continues now. What is the deal with dogs nowadays by the way? I mean I love dogs okay. Dogs are great. I've had a lot of dogs.

I don't have one at present. But people with dogs it seems to almost be getting bizarre. You know everyone with the dogs everywhere. And you know taking them in every place and and you know feeding the dog off the dog off the table and and acting like the dog is one of their children. And you already know pushing the dogs on the strollers.

It's so weird. And I actually read an article from a travel magazine about all these amenities they have for dogs now. There's hotels for dogs. This is the latest thing. And you can go and get your dog a massage therapist.

And I'm not making any of this up. And one hotel offers a special podicure for the dog. Not a pedicure.

A podicure right. There's even a dog surf package at a hotel down in San Diego. The author of the article wrote about his own experience dining with his dog. He said quote, I guess a dog can be a pretty good date. Okay.

Whatever. He says, I told the waiter when he arrived with our entrees of filet mignon for my dog and salmon for me. And then the bill came and I noticed the dog's meal was more expensive than mine. But at least there was enough left over in the doggy bag so both of us can eat later.

The phrase get a life comes to mind. But apart from that you know your dog doesn't want a podicure. Do you know your dog does not want a massage therapist. Your dog wants to eat junk out of a gutter. Your dog wants to drink toilet water.

You know why? Because your dog is a dog. And that's what dogs do.

So we take the holy things of God and we offer it to someone that has no appreciation whatsoever for it. You might just walk away. They might even laugh in your face. 1 Corinthians 1 18 says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are headed for destruction but for those of us who believe it's the very power of God.

Another translation of that verse says the message of the crucifixion is insanity to the lost. So what do you do if someone laughs in your face? You just walk away. Why? Don't cast your pearls before swine and don't give that which is holy to the dogs.

That's why. There is a time when you say we are not having this conversation. Even Jesus did this. Do you realize that? Even Jesus did this. Jesus had a prolonged conversation with a cruel Roman governor Pontius Pilate. But he did not say a single word to King Herod. You ever notice that?

Why? Because Jesus knew that Herod had no interest whatsoever in his life or ministry or his teachings and so literally when he appeared before Herod he was silent. There is an interesting passage over in the gospel of John chapter 2. It says when Jesus was in Jerusalem people noticed the signs he was doing. And they noticed that they pointed to God and so they entrusted their lives to him.

That sounds good. People saw miracles and they entrusted their lives to him. Oh but read the rest of the verse. But he did not entrust his life to them. What?

What is that? I don't understand that. Let me translate it another way. They believed in him but he didn't believe in them. Well I thought God wanted to make himself known to every person.

Yes he wants to make himself known to every person who really wants to know him. But there are people that say they want to know him but they don't want to know him. These people were drawn to Jesus because they saw his miracles but they had no interest in his message. It is that way today in church. Some people come because oh I like this or I like that.

Some peripheral thing. But they are not really into a relationship with Christ himself. Listen. If a person really wants to know God they will listen to the message of the gospel.

In fact it is a way to really test someone. Because people say all the time I am seeking truth. Oh are you? Yes. I want to know the truth.

Oh well that is amazing. Well listen I would like to share with you some truth from the Bible. Please put that away. What is the Bible? I believe it is the truth. I don't even want to hear it. Have you ever read it? No. Well can I quote to you from it because I don't want to hear the Bible. Well no but Jesus said I am the way the truth. No I don't want to hear about what Jesus said.

Put that away. I don't want to. And all of a sudden they get aggravated and angry with you. Ok I suggest to you that person does not want to know the truth. Because if they don't believe this is the Word of God. If they believe this is just a bunch of made up stories. What do they care if you believe it?

What do they care if you quote it? It is not true right? No it is not true. Full of contradictions. Ok right. Could you show me one? No but it is.

Alright. You can believe that if you want to. But really what you are saying is you know there is power in the message of this book. This is the same reason that people take the Lord's name in vain. Why they punctuate a sentence with the holy name Jesus Christ.

Why would you do that? A person will say I am an atheist. And then some irritates them and they will say Jesus Christ. You go oh wait why would you say Jesus Christ? Do you believe in Jesus?

Of course not. Why do you say the name Jesus Christ? Why don't you say another name? Why don't you say Hare Krishna?

Why? Why don't you say Buddha? Why not Buddha? You say Jesus Christ. And you say you don't believe in Jesus Christ yet you use His name like that. I think again just like with people not wanting to see the Bible in their own way they are acknowledging the power of the name of Jesus Christ.

I actually do. So if you want to know the truth God will make Himself known to you. God will reveal Himself to true seekers because the Bible says God speaking those that seek me will find me. Maybe some of you need restoration. You have broken your arms spiritually. You have fallen and you can't get up. You don't know how to get right with God again. There was a time when you were close to Jesus and you read your Bible every day and you prayed and you went to church and everything was great. And then one thing led to another and you hung around with some people that got you going the wrong direction. And before you knew it you were back in the pit.

In fact before you knew it you were worse off than you were when you were a non-believer and you came to Christ the first time. You thought how did I get here? I hate this. But more to the point how do I get out of here? How do I get out of this pit? Well you need help.

Someone will reach down and pull you out. And the Lord will pull you out and He might do it through a Christian friend who will give you a helping hand and say here is what you need to do. You need to admit you have sinned.

Own it. Don't make excuses for it. And make a break with the past and start following Christ.

You can be restored no matter what you have done. But there are some of you that maybe have never asked Jesus to come into your life. You have never asked Him to forgive you of your sin.

And this is all kind of new to you. Well look He can come into your life and forgive you and transform you. Because 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ the very Son of God came to this earth. He was born in that little manger in Bethlehem. And then He lived a perfect life. And then He died a perfect death on a cross. He voluntarily went to the cross and died for your sin and for my sin.

For our sin. He paid the price for all the wrongs we have done. He absorbed the wrath of His Father in heaven that should have come on you and on me.

And He took it on Himself. He paid the price for our sin. And then He rose again from the dead and now He is alive of course and here with us. And He is standing at the door of your life and He is knocking.

And He is saying if you hear His voice and open the door He will come in. Would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like to be forgiven of your sin? Or would you like to be restored to God?

It can happen for you right now. In a moment we are going to pray and I am going to extend an invitation for you to ask the Lord to forgive you of your sin. An opportunity for you to ask Jesus to be your Savior and Lord.

Or an opportunity for you to get back up on your feet spiritually because you have stumbled and you have fallen. So respond if you need to as we pray. Father we thank You for Your Word to us.

We thank You for Your love for us and sending Jesus to die in our place. And Lord Jesus I pray that Your Holy Spirit will now work on the hearts of those that are here and those that are watching who do not yet know You. Help them to see their need for You Lord. Help them to come to You. Help them to believe in You.

Help them to be forgiven by You. Right now we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. An important closing prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie. And if you would like to do as Pastor Greg suggested and make things right in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg will help you do that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. We can all use some help sharing our faith, right? Sometimes unbelievers ask some tough questions, don't they? Well we have a resource that will give you new confidence in sharing Christ. It's called Person of Interest by retired cold case detective J. Warner Wallace, Jim Wallace. He uses what he knows as a detective to investigate the person of Christ and who he claims to be.

It's a factual view of Christ. Well Jim is with us today. Pastor Greg?

I wanted to ask you this. You know Jesus said people don't come to the light because they don't want their evil deeds exposed. Sometimes people put up a smokescreen.

We don't even know if they believe that things are espousing but they throw a lot of things that you may be hoping that you'll just go away. How do you know Jim when it's a smokescreen that one should try to answer each of their objections or if it's just really a person that isn't going to respond to anything you say because they're choosing to not believe in Jesus because they don't want to change the way they live? Yeah well there's three reasons why anyone rejects the truth claim, right? One is rational.

They don't think there's enough evidential reason for this. The second one is emotional. They've had some experience with other Christians, with their parents, whatever, that they emotionally respond. And the third is volitional. They just don't want to ever bend their knee.

Well it turns out that almost all... That's a great summation. Well yeah all of this, if you think about all of what you hear from people, it's going to sound like it's a rational objection. So the volitional objector, the emotional objector is going to say something that sounds like it's a rational objection but it's actually probably emotional or volitional. I actually think that almost 80 percent of objections are volitional and some are emotional and a very small percentage are because people haven't even investigated the case one way or the other. But they'll say, oh there's no reason to believe in miracles. Is that really your objection or is there something else?

And so you can ask good questions. One of the questions a friend of mine, Frank Turek, and I always ask is, if we could demonstrate evidentially that Christianity is true, would you become a Christ follower? Well I don't think it's true. No, no, I'm saying if this is a thought experiment, if we could somehow demonstrate this beyond any doubt that this is true, would you become a Christ follower? You'd be surprised some people would say no. And if that's the case, you know it's not a head issue.

It's a heart issue, right? And so what we do on juries is I don't spend a lot of time, but there are some people that prosecutors do not want on the jury and there are people that defense attorneys do not want on the jury. I call these ones and fours. There are people who are too entrenched in their view. They're not going to change their mind.

They're not going to be fair. We're looking for twos and threes. People who are on one side or the other but they are open-minded enough to listen to the evidence and make the right inference.

So what we have to do I think as I'm talking to people, I have to figure out are they a one and a four? I mean, this is somebody who right now God has not moved them into position three. And so I can spend all this time and they're just going to, they see me as a, you know, they're a hammer looking for a nail. And this is on, and by the way, social media exposes these kinds of people quickly.

You probably see this on Facebook. You've got family members you've tried to communicate Jesus to, and they will, basically they're just a hammer and you're the nail. And at some point you have to realize, okay, I'm going to now, instead of spending a lot of time preaching at them, sharing evidence with them, I'm now going to be in pray and model mode. I'm going to be praying that God, this is my own parent, my own dad is in this category. You pray for that person and you model Christ for that person.

And then at some point I think God will flip that switch for that person. You know, I think what I love about the way you present this truth, Jim, is it's like, it's knowledge on fire. It's like it's knowledge. This is filled with information that's going to help people.

But you're on fire. You're passionate about what you're doing. This is not just something in academic pursuit.

It is that. And you have so many footnotes to back up what you've said. So this is clearly a well-researched book, but yet at the same time, I love your passion because ultimately your goal is to just see people come to believe in Jesus Christ. Well, a lot of it's from listening to you, to be honest. So passion is contagious. And if you say, hey, you know, why is it my kids aren't as passionate as I'd like them to be?

Or my friends are? Well, are we as passionate? Because what happens is passion begets passion. So it's from listening to your radio show that has helped me to be passionate as well.

Well, thank you very much. Passion is contagious. And I think you're going to get some of that passion when you get a copy of this book by G. Warner Wallace called Person of Interest.

You can see that Jim knows what he's talking about here. And you're going to have it right in front of you. All the footnotes, all the facts, even the illustrations made a very understandable.

So you don't have to be a great academic to understand this. This is something for everyone. As Jim described it to me, it's a kid's book for adults. So we want to get you a copy of Person of Interest by J. Warner Wallace as quickly as possible. And so for your gift of any size, we'll get it into your hands and you're going to love this.

Yeah, you absolutely will. The full title is Person of Interest, Why Jesus Still Matters in a World That Rejects the Bible. And it's our way of showing appreciation for partnering with us so these daily studies can keep coming your way.

It's only through listener investments that that's possible. So get in touch today with your donation and we'll be glad to thank you with the book Person of Interest. You can write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, Pastor Greg, a few moments ago you spoke of the need to get our hearts right with God. Could you help someone who wants to do that very thing right now?

Yes, I'd be delighted to. Listen, as you've listened to this program today, maybe something's been happening inside of your heart where you're sensing, I need to do this personally, but how do I do it and what do I do? Let me help you. It's very simple.

In fact, it's so simple you may be shocked. God, this relationship with him is just a prayer away. The Bible says if you will call upon the name of the Lord, you'll be saved. So I'd like to lead you in a prayer where you do just that. You call on the name of the Lord.

This can be the moment where you change your eternal address literally from hell to heaven. Just pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for me and rose again from the dead. Jesus, I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In your name I pray, amen.

I know. It's such a simple short prayer, but you just called on the name of the Lord and you know what? He heard that prayer and if you meant that prayer in your heart, he answered that prayer. Now let me help you to get started on the right foot in your new life in Jesus Christ. The greatest adventure awaits you, the life of walking with God. I want to send you what we call a New Believers' Growth Pack that includes the New Believers' Bible and a whole lot more.

And let me be the first to say to you congratulations and welcome to the family of God. Yeah, and to get that free New Believers' Growth Pack, just ask for it if you prayed along with Pastor Greg to receive Christ. We'll be glad to send one your way free of any charge. Write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. The Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

Trials, problems, challenges, it's a part of life. As believers, how do we cope when life has brought us to our knees? Important insight coming next time on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. The preceding podcast was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Learn how to become a Harvest Partner, sign up for daily devotions, and find resources to help you grow in your faith at harvest.org.