Cast Not Your Pearls Before Swine (SS Open Forum)

Introduction to the Open Forum and UK Ministry Report Postscript

0:06 This adult Sunday school class was held on April 25, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:19 A call late last evening indicating that Mr. Garlington is still in South Jersey and was not able to return, and so it has fallen upon me to take the class this morning, and on such short notice, I felt it would be in the best interest of edification, rather than hastily throwing something together, that we should have an open-ended session, as we've had in the past. I look out and see at least several visitors, one or two visitors, and perhaps a word of explanation will be in order, particularly for your sake, as to just what we do when we have what we call an open-ended session or a forum, for discussion of biblical concerns. I think, Phil, we have a little bit too much, Mike. I'm getting a little bit too much. All right. Is that a little better out there?

1:16 All right. Fine. Excellent. Thank you.

1:20 That we, as a church, are committed to a belief that this book that we hold in our hands, called The Bible, is the Word of God, that it is the sufficient rule for our faith, that is, what we are to believe, and for our practice, are to do, and in that conviction, there are times when we open up our adult Sunday school class for questions relative to the meaning or implications of given portions of the Word of God. Now, this is not a forum for debate on matters in which we are committed as a church. We are confessionally committed to what is called the London Confession of 1689, which has a specific doctrinal framework, and those are not matters of debate. They are matters of continued, and we trust, ongoing exploration, that we might understand them more fully, more accurately, but they are not matters that we debate. And so, perhaps, those few words of explanation will be helpful to set the framework for our time together. Now, before we move into any questions which you may have, I do welcome the opportunity to ask a few questions.

2:35 I do welcome the opportunity to put a little P.S., a little postscript upon the report that I brought last week relative to the recent ministry in the United Kingdom. And time ran out when I was giving the report, and I could not bring this little incident, or two little incidents that stick out in my wife's mind and my mind in a very special way, both as an indication of the kind providence of God, and also as an indication of the kind providence of God, and also as an indication of the kind providence of God, and also as an indication of what ripe, mature piety and godliness are in concrete expression.

3:13 When we got on the train to go from London down into the Haywards Heath Cookfield area, Pastor Blaze and Glenwyn went with Mrs. Martin and me to Victoria Station, or took us there in the car, and Pastor Blaze helped us with our baggage onto the train, and then he left us to go back to get his car and make his way back to East London, but then it occurred to him that because I knew that Errol Hulse lived in Haywards Heath, but the church was in Cookfield, that I might wait for the announcer to say, next station Cookfield, and then be on the train until it got all the way down to Brighton. And so he came all the way back with Glenwyn on his shoulders, knocked on the window, found where we were seated, and said, look, you're to get off at Haywards Heath, not wait for the announcer, to announce Cookfield. And we said, all right, thank you, and then got settled back into our seats, and lo and behold, about two minutes later, there he was, at the window again, with Glenwyn on his shoulders, knocking a second time. But now this time, standing next to him was our dear friend Stanley Hogwood, who has been an elder in the Cookfield Church for a number of years, who has spent time with us here in the States, a 70-year-old man who still goes in three days a week to his real estate business in London, and amidst all of the teeming thousands of people going in and out of Victoria Station

4:42 at the rush hour in London on a Friday, the Lord used Pastor Blaze's second return to us to delay him enough that when he was on his way out the second time, who should he run into but Stanley Hogwood? And so what he did is, Stanley didn't see him coming, he just seized hold of him with two hands and said, hello, and Stanley told us later that he thought someone was going, to hold him up or shake him down or mug him or something. And so then Stanley got onto the train, and we had the joy of having some 50 minutes of fellowship with him in the train ride down to Hayward's Heath. And that to us was a kind providence again, that amidst all of the teeming thousands of people that are literally flowing in and out, God should have enabled us to have the privilege of fellowship with our dearly loved friend. And then on the 13th, he said, Sunday afternoon that we were at Cookfield, they had something that is, I don't know if it's unique to the English or whether all people in the UK celebrate their Ruby anniversary. The 40th anniversary is called their Ruby anniversary, and they make quite a big thing of it, even as we do of the silver and golden wedding anniversary. So on the Sunday afternoon, they had a church fellowship at the Hulse's home, and there must have been a good, oh, 60 to 70 of the church

6:07 family present to celebrate the Ruby wedding anniversary of the Hogwoods. Now, the peculiar ministry that the Hogwoods have had through the years has been a unique ministry of hospitality. Their home has literally been a hostel. We stayed there one weekend, Mrs. Martin and I, one of our early trips to the UK, and I think there were no fewer than 17,000 people. There were 17 people sleeping there on a Saturday night, and no fewer than 30 to 35 being fed for the noonday meal on Sunday. So all Saturday afternoon, Stanley and Marion, just like caterers, were preparing the meal and finding their great delight. And he was an officer in the Second World War, and we heard some terminology that we had never heard before. About 7 o'clock Sunday morning,

6:54 he literally went through the hall of their home, knocking on the door and saying, all right now, show a leg, show a leg. And it was terminology we had never heard before. And at first, we weren't quite sure about the modesty of the demand that was being made upon us. Now, that gives you a little idea, if you've not met dear Stanley, of something of his personality. And then, I trust until my dying day that I shall never, never forget his response to the kind words that Pastor Hulse brought and the expression of his love for me. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. And I think that's a great Stanley then turned in the Hulse's home. They have a lower level, large living room that must be, oh, about 15 by 40, 35 or 40. And the people were all in what would be sort of like a racetrack arrangement with Stanley Hogwood and his wife and his daughter and son-in-law and grandchildren all there. And as he was speaking of the goodness of God in saving him as a young man and then giving him a godly wife and the great blessing she had been, that dear, dignified, godly Englishman who is to every cell of his being a proper Englishman,

8:14 we shall never forget seeing Stanley drop to his knees so that he might be at eye level with the children and pleading with those children to come to Christ and to carry on the torch of truth for another generation. We shall never forget. Standing in the upper level, looking down through on this scene and to see Stanley on his knees before those children, pleading with them and treating them to flee to Christ, it was a most moving experience. And as I say, I trust it's one that will be indelibly stamped upon my mind and stirred me up afresh to remember the tremendous responsibility we have in treating our children as well as instructing them in the word of God. I felt really, I really felt bad last week when I was done that I couldn't include those two little items and so I'm glad for the opportunity to add that postscript. All right, now that's the end of the report on the UK. We didn't have time for questions.

9:15 Were there questions that you had relative to that report last week that you wish you could have asked but we ran out of time? Perhaps someone does have a question concerning that report and we'll gladly entertain it. If not, we'll move into...

9:31 into the area of more general questions relative to the scriptures and to the Christian life and experience.

Defining 'Dogs' and 'Swine' in Matthew 7:6

9:40 All right, the time is yours. We usually wait a few moments and if no question is forthcoming, I usually have something in the canon. Yes, Jim?

10:24 All right.

10:29 All right, did everyone hear the question now? In the light of Matthew 7 and verse 6, our Lord's clear command, give not that which is holy, unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet and turn and rend you. And the particular application of the question is to work associates who are unconverted and relatives, at what point does this verse apply and in what way should it influence our relationship to them? Well, there's the question.

11:10 Well, how do we start to answer it? And what we generally do, again, for those who may be visiting with you, rather than me playing the role of the oracle and the answer man, I try by counter questions to help you to come to grips with the principles by which such questions should be addressed. All right, and the first question we need to ask is, what is the thrust, what appears to be the general thrust of what our Lord is saying? He's using figures of speech, obviously.

11:43 We don't have literal holy things that we're going to cast to poodles and dachshunds. Neither are we castring literal pearls before pigs. What is the general thrust of what our Lord is saying? Anyone want to venture an answer to that question?

12:05 Pastor Clark? I think I'll just begin by saying that I think the first thing is that we must, in fact, regard holy things as holy and exercise a care in our attitude toward holy things. All right. All right, so the assumption of the passage is that certain things are holy and other things in that sense are not holy.

12:25 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. It may be proper to give unholy things to dogs, but there is a distinction between holy things and we need to regard holy things as holy. All right? Any other preliminary observations?

12:41 Yes. All right, so your question is, could it be that an application of this is seeking to impart a premature comfort to a soul that has not been sufficiently plowed up with true repentance? All right, anyone else? Any general thoughts on what the verse is addressing itself to?

13:19 Yes, Sam? So the point Mr. Waldron is making is

14:19 that we can't begin to unravel, what this verse says to us and how it should regulate our conduct until we have some clear understanding of the identity of the dogs and of the swine. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs assumes that I know when I see a dog. And we're not to cast pearl before swine. Well, it again assumes that I know what a swine is.

14:45 And the point Mr. Waldron is making is that if we are to identify the dogs and the swine, we must understand the biblical distinction between the simple, that is, an uninstructed sinner and a recalcitrant sinner who begins to scoff and mock at the things of God so that there must be some ability to identify the dogs and the swine. Now, along that line, let me ask a question. Should we assume at the outset from external appearances that someone is a dog or a swine?

15:19 We have between them young, clean hands, possibly the swine being an unclean person, possibly. All right, are we to preach the gospel to unclean persons?

15:44 Huh? No, I meant in the unclean being a sinner at that time. It's one meaning of unclean. All right.

15:58 It's a sacred. All right, but then my question is, are we to give holy things to unclean, is the gospel a holy thing? Yes or no? How did it come to you?

16:11 When you were clean or unclean? Okay, so I don't think the answer lies in that direction of pressing the significance of the swine as an unclean animal. The significance seems to be in the passage notice that if you take some lovely pearls and you throw them at a swine, he thinks you're throwing stones at him and instead of appreciating the worth of your pearls, he tramples them in the mud and then he butts you.

16:39 So in the context, I think the answer does indeed lie in the direction that Mr. Waldron has suggested, that there is a difference among sinners. There is a difference between the sinner to whom the holy things of the gospel are coming and who though he is unclean, he is yet in his native filth, to use the language of the prophet Ezekiel. He is yet in the uncleanness of his unwiseness, hushed, unjustified, unregenerate state.

17:10 He has not been sprinkled and made clean in the language of Ezekiel 36. We are to bring the gospel to such. Take the gospel to every creature. God justifies the ungodly.

Biblical Examples of Applying Matthew 7:6

17:22 But when that gospel comes and people begin to manifest an attitude of scoffing, recalcitrance, the kind of opposition that we see in the ministry of our Lord, in the ministry of the apostles, they begin to manifest, this dog-like and swine-like character when they begin to trample these commodities underfoot and turn and openly and with hostility oppose the one who brings the gospel to them. Now, what did the apostle Paul do in several instances in the book of Acts? I think here we have Scripture interpreting Scripture. What did he do?

18:02 Can you think of those incidents and point to them and perhaps even give us chapter and verse and illustrate them? Anyone find one of those passages in the book of Acts? All right. Acts 13.

18:22 Pastor Nichols, give us the verses and read them. Acts 13, verse 44 and following. All right. Acts 13, verse 44 and following.

18:37 And the next Sabbath almost the whole city was gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy and contradicted the things that were spoken by Paul in blasphemy. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said it was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you, seeing you thrusted from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

19:04 For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, All right. So here you have a clear example of this principle in action. And you'll notice down to verse 51. I'm sorry, when we come down to verse 50.

19:19 But the Jews urged on the devout women of honorable estate and their chief men of the city, stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, cast them out of their borders. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came into Iconium. They did not go back in and continue to preach. They had shown themselves to be dogs and swine.

19:42 And so they no longer brought the word of God to them. Since you thrust it from you as a matter unworthy of serious consideration, and now you turn, and blast them. These holy things and would rend us as the conveyors of these things. They ceased to give that which was holy to those who showed themselves to be of this dog-like and swine-like temperament.

20:06 All right. Yes, Louise. All right. Acts 18 and verse 6.

20:13 We have a parallel passage. Perhaps we can back up to verse five. When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was. constrained by the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook out his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth. I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed fence. So here's a clear example of the same principle. Yes, Mr. Walden. All right. You want

Identifying Scoffers and Applying the Principle to Relatives

21:07 to read those for us, please? Proverbs 9, 7 and 8. Yes. All right. So here again, we have a parallel command, reprove not a scoffer. But the indication is, again, we don't assume any man is a scoffer until he shows himself to be such. Now, you see, that would be an abuse of all of us. We would not assume any man is a scoffer until he shows himself to be such. Now, you see, that would be an abuse of all of us. Now, you see, that would be an abuse of all of us. Now, you see, that's one of these passages, that we make a judgment beforehand that so and so is a dog and a swine, while the way he looks, his general bearing, his general attitude. Well, we don't know that. We must bring the Word of God to all men indiscriminately. And only when under the

21:59 repeated bringing of the Word of God, they show themselves to be in the class of dogs and of swine, does the Word of our Lord apply? Give not that which is holy. unto the dogs, cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under feet and turn again and rend you. If we continue then to bring the word of God in an open, manifest way, we then, in a sense, encourage blasphemy. When they show a blasphemous spirit, we then encourage them to take the precious pearls of divine truth and trample them under feet. And one wonders if that whole spirit doesn't enter, you see, into the 1 Peter 3 passage with regard to wives who have unsaved husbands. He speaks of these unsaved husbands being one without the word. They have shown, as it were, that they don't want to discuss the word. They don't want to sit down and be

22:58 taught by their wives concerning the Christian faith in their need of Christ. So Peter says, by a holy life, win them without the word, the assumption being they've already had the word. Come to them, for no one is one without the word. Absolutely. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So that that would be another passage that would enter in. And by way of application, the principle would apply to our relatives. We must seek wisely, be wise as serpents, harmless as doves, becoming all things to all men, that we may by all means save some.

23:32 Being crafty, Paul says, I caught you with guile. We must use every legitimate means to seek to bring the word of God to them. And when every means and approach, prayerfully and wisely, tactfully, and even with holy guile, draws forth nothing but opposition. And some may even say, look, don't you ever talk to me about this business again. And they do it with oaths and cursing and swearing. Now we have reason to believe that they fit the category of the dog and of the swine. And therefore, we must not continue to give holy things to them. All right. Any question on that approach to it? Yes. Bill, and then we'll come by way of that

Understanding Blasphemy and Parallel Passages

24:18 triangle. All right. Bill, Gene, and then Louise. Yes. They blasphemed. Well, the blaspheming, as I would understand it, would be that they began to speak in an abusive way of the holy things that Paul was conveying in the gospel. To blaspheme is to take sacred and holy things and to speak of them in a profane manner. Isn't that right? Yes.

24:44 Is that the essence of blasphemy? No, not necessarily. Yes, Mr. Clark?

24:53 In Israel, take your Jesus and get him out of here. Take your Jesus and get out of here and take him with you. Yes. Now, in some cases in the New Testament, blasphemy reached its highest expression in that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Again, just precisely what that is, we could go on discussing that for weeks. We could go on discussing that for weeks and never come to any, you know, final conclusion. But generally speaking, I think the proper understanding of blasphemy is abusive speech concerning the divine being or concerning holy things. All right. Yes. Louise, Gene. Matthew 10 and verse 14. All right.

25:43 Here's another parallel passage when our Lord is sending out the twelve. Verse five. There are peculiar things in this commission that do not apply one-to-one to us, but you see, there are in the midst of it, there are abiding principles. Jesus sent forth the twelve saying, go not into any way of the Gentiles, enter not into any city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as you go preach, and then he gives them further directions, and then verse 14, or verse 13. Here's a good, more, as it were, concrete example. As you enter into the house, greet it, and if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if they be not worthy, let your peace return to you. Now, see, not worthy in terms of intrinsic spiritual worth, but if they show a willingness to receive you as messengers of God, and whosoever shall not receive you, you see this verse interprets the previous, nor hear your words as you go forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say, unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Now, of course, one of the peculiar applications of this to this commission, they had

27:03 a limited time to fulfill the mandate of bringing the message of the gospel in this exclusive sense, so there was even a sense in which the long-range, plodding, sowing, reaping process did not apply in this instance as the gospel was going. Going through the twelve in this peculiar commission given at this time with its limitations to Israel. But again, there still is an example of the broader principle that when people showed themselves swine and dogs, they were not to continue to set holy things before them. Yes, Louise?

Dealing with Insensitive Opponents and the Frightening Reality of Apostasy

27:41 Right here, I think we have a clear answer in a passage such as 2 Timothy chapter 2. Now we're envisioning something different, not loved ones and relatives who owe us a lot of money, but who owe us a lot of money. Who openly blaspheme and oppose what we say, but who may even agree, but their lives indicate that they're absolute strangers to the gospel. What do we do with them? Well, we can't write them off. We continue to pray for them, but not only pray for them, notice what Timothy was to do as one who would encounter such people. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 24.

28:39 And the Lord's servant must not strive, that is, be pugnacious and argumentative, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness correcting them that oppose themselves. Notice, not oppose you, but oppose themselves, if per adventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will. In that situation, we just need to pray. That God will continue to flood our hearts with the love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, the love that will give us gentleness to continue to bear with them, and to be patient in laying the word of God before them, until such time as they blaspheme and say, don't talk to me about that stuff anymore, I don't want to hear it from you, and all of the rest, even though they may be utterly insensitive to the reality of what we say, we never know when God may own it. And bring it home with power to their hearts. All right? Yes?

29:50 Well, ultimately, anything that is in opposition to God can be ultimately traced back to Satan, but I don't know that I'd want to attribute it to demon activity directly or to demon possession, though someone possessed of demons, one of the marks of demon-possessed people is that they do frequently blaspheme. That's the heightened expression of the devil's opposition to God. Yes. All right. Paul?

30:27 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

30:32 For from within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts. And I think blasphemies is even listed in that list in Mark 7, is it not? Mark chapter 7? No.

30:51 Pardon? Chapter 3 of Mark. All right. Verse 28.

31:14 All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and their blasphemies with us who are ungrateful. All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and their blasphemies with us who are ungrateful. All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and their blasphemies with us who are ungrateful. Wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme.

31:23 But no, the point we were trying to establish was whether you have an explicit reference there in Jesus' description of the human heart and what it produces in Mark 7, 20. These things proceed out of the heart. Evil thoughts proceed. Fornication, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, and evil eye, railing.

31:47 And of course the railing is a general term for abuse. Or abusive speech, whether toward God or man. Yes. Yes. That's probably where I had it from my old acquaintance with the authorized version.

32:02 It does say blasphemies. And there again one would have to check the significance of the word in the original. But certainly if the heart is at enmity to God and not subject to the law of God, one of the ways it will manifest itself is in a blasphemous spirit. Yes. It is blasphemy. Good.

32:24 That's just the transliteration of that Greek word, is it? Yeah. Yeah. The word we use for blasphemy is just a transliteration.

32:32 That is a letter-for-letter equivalent of the Greek word. And that's what is in the original. Pastor Nichols just checked that for us. All right. Does this give you a working...

32:43 Yes, Ron? All right. There you have a description of the dog who returns to his vomit and the sow to her wallowing in the mire. And here again they manifest that they are dogs and swine by their activity.

33:10 And we must never assume that someone is a dog or a swine. But if their activity manifests that they are such, then we're fooling ourselves to think anything other than that. And of course that's one of the frightening things, brothers and sisters, frightening things, with respect to people who have professed adherence to the Christian faith, gave evidence of some of its transforming power, and then go back to the very things from which God extricated them. That's frightening. Frightening.

33:41 Because these passages are there. It were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn from it and be overcome. Because they did escape to some degree. It says, For if they escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and are again entangled therein, their latter end is worse than their beginning, it were better that they had never known the way of righteousness.

34:11 That's frightening. That comes right into our doctrine of perseverance. They had such a knowledge that changed their lives. But it wasn't permanent.

34:21 Now that ought to scare the liver out of us. And it ought to drive us to our knees. And get me preaching the next minute, the next hour's sermon. But there it is.

34:33 That's the frightening reality. That's not a hypothetical thing that Peter's describing. They were too much realist in dealing with people's souls to describe hypothetical situations as some kind of spiritual boogeyman that would just scare people out of things that really couldn't happen. There are real people who escape the real world and its real pollutions through a real knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and get entangled again and their latter end is worse.

35:05 Are we saying they're saved and lost? No. We're saying they were never truly saved but you never would have known it in their initial spiritual history. You would have sworn on the stack of thirty Bibles they were saved.

35:19 If you had asked me thirty years ago name the five people that you're convinced are saved. It would have been my mother, my father, myself and two other young men that I was very close to. The subsequent history of a couple of them has indicated that they were probably strangers to the grace of God. The past twenty-five years has indicated that what they seemed to have the first five years was not real.

35:48 That's frightening. One of them I used to spend sometimes as much as five, six, seven hours a week on my knees with him in prayer and three and four hours a week preaching on the street corner with him. That's reality, folks. That's reality.

36:08 And that's why this series on perseverance is such a weighty issue. Well, we don't want to get sidetracked on that I said so let's stop. All right. Jim, do you feel satisfied now that you have a working grasp on this text?

Wisdom in Engaging with Heretics and Scoffers

36:23 Yeah. Okay. Raise your voice a little please so others can hear you.

36:49 Well, here again. Don't get involved with him and go not forth hastily to strive. If you're not equipped to handle a Russellite don't you get engaged in a discussion with him or he'll leave you all twisted and tied up in knots and your left leg will be hung around your right ear and all the rest and you'll be in bad shape. So you don't mess around with well-trained heretics unless you are a well-trained person who can meet him on biblical grounds.

37:20 Now, you may want to say, look, I don't want to discuss any of your doctrines but if you give me just five minutes I'd like to tell you what Jesus Christ did for me. Give your testimony and then say, and a Christ who is less than God could never have changed me. Can you testify to such a transformation of the grace of God in your life? Something like that.

37:42 Now, you may want to do that but be very careful about entering into discussion and debate with people that you're not prepared adequately to deal with. You'll be tempting God and you'll be leaving yourself open to having your own faith shaken. You meet a well-trained Arian and he could really shake you up. And then the further step is, even though you may be competent to deal with him, once they begin to show that attitude then you may have to say, that's enough.

38:13 I will not allow you to speak of such things like this in my presence. I will be violating the word of my Lord and then quote this verse. Okay? Yes?

38:49 So again, it's the principle of urging novices to tasks for which they are not competent and we don't question the motive and the zeal that often lies behind that. But when we take the total testimony of the word of God we certainly can question the validity of the practice. Yes? Now, yes, Chuck?

Continuing Good Works and Prayer for Opponents

39:24 I was saying that when a person manifests in a corner it doesn't mean by definition that he can draw up a concern for them. No. It would maintain an attitude of prayer, terrible consent to them, the chaste behavior from the first Peter chapter through to the last passage. Although we don't express it in these verbal and holy things that are there.

39:59 Very good point. In fact, we are told to do good to those that despitefully use us as well as to pray for those who are our enemies. So that's a vital point. Yes, Pastor Nichols?

40:13 Oh. Oh, I thought you were filling up your lungs to make a statement. Yes. That's a very vital point, Chuck.

40:20 When it says, give not that which is holy to the dogs and cast not your pearls before swine and all of the instances we've looked at, I think almost everyone without exception had to do with the verbal proclamation of the holy things of reproof, rebuke, and biblical instruction. And if someone fits the category of a dog or a swine and we are under divine mandate not to give them the opportunity further to blaspheme and to abuse us, that does not mean that the other biblical injunctions pray for those who do evil to you and to do good to those that despitefully use you. Those mandates still obtain as well as what we might call the lesser civil or even social responsibilities that we may have. Here's a wife who has an unsaved husband who may have shown himself to be a dog and a swine with regard to her desire to communicate the gospel. What is she to do? She's to be all the more careful to fulfill all of her God-given obligations as a wife. She's to be submissive to him, loving, considerate.

41:18 Why? She's to be all the more careful to fulfill all of her God-given obligations as a wife. She's to be submissive to him, loving, considerate. Why?

41:27 That without the word, which she's now forbidden to give to him since he's shown himself a dog and a swine in his response to that, he may be won without the word by the holy manner of living of that wife. There's the clear teaching of Peter. So that's a good supplement to what we've considered, Chuck. Thank you.

Discerning the 'Dog and Swine' Temperament

41:45 Yes, Larry? Yeah. That's a good point. When someone shows himself to be this, you can identify him.

42:20 That's when people are going around looking like little lambs when underneath they are an animal. This and that. It's rough. And you have and not only a sneaking suspicion, but you have valid grounds to believe they may be this, but they won't show it in their response to things.

42:37 And they nod and they assent and they smile and agree, but their lives evidence that they are strangers to the power of the gospel. Yes, Sens? Yes. .

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43:25 . . . .

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43:33 . . . .

43:37 . . . .

43:42 . . . .

43:47 . . . .

43:51 Exactly. Now, if you were to continue to do that, then you'd be violating it. Right. You were doing what Ephesians 5 8 says.

43:58 I'm sorry. them and we must reprove them and then if in the face of that reproof they show themselves to be scoffers then the passage in proverbs come reprove not a scoffer they've shown themselves to be scoffers now you will not reprove but you will withdraw yourself wherever possible when the conversation moves in that direction now your physical action has some interpretive words see if you just withdrew yourself well what's she doing that for well now they know so every time you go it's sticking it in their conscience you see because you have interpreted your action by your word and your word has left an interpretive framework for that action but you're not compromising if you don't every time they begin to talk that filthy talk rebuke yeah but no that's right here see usually once is this so often happens once we get into one vein of biblical truth we see how essential it is to view it in the light of all other truths and this is why we emphasize again and again the necessity of systematic theology that is the total witness of the bible in all of its parts must regulate our ultimate understanding of any one of the parts you see we've been dealing with the question of matthew 7 and verse 6 and we've seen the more we bring other scriptures to bear upon it there is no simplistic answer

Discretion in Communicating Deeper Truths

45:26 to the full meaning and implications and outworking of that mandate it must square with all of these other biblical principles yes mr walden i wonder if there is any distinction between what is appropriate to speak of for certain people in other words there may be certain people that are not dogs and swines in the full sense that we've been speaking of this morning but from what point you should not get into what we might be talking about in this particular context that one might call the deeper mystery of the christian faith in other words the bible itself makes a distinction between the fundamental issues and the things that are mysteries that belong to children and i wonder if there is a distinction like that even from president matthew in matthew 13 where christ says all things come to these people in parables because the only ones that are dogs and swines in the sense we've been talking about is there was a certain blindness that had drawn god's judgment upon him in the way that christ communicated with them now my first reaction is that sounds plausible i'd want to think about it a while before i'd say i

46:50 but it certainly does seem to be an extension of that of that principle yes i do think whether we do get into the people that are not really spiritually ready whether they're christians or not in other words we should never involve someone's factually in curiosity does that mean things like the details of anthropology things like the doctrines and life experiences unless people are really spiritually ready for that we ought to avoid all kinds of issues because it simply is feeding the infected in curiosity and not doing ministry yes i think the point that mr waldron is making if i may rephrase it is that in a real sense the explicit directive of matthew 7 6 fits into a larger biblical directive namely that whoever communicates god's truth to anyone under any circumstances must be sensitive to the person and his state to whom he is seeking to communicate these things the writer of hebrews says i had things i'd like to say to you about melchisedec and christ as the great archetype of which of melchisedec was an ectype i'm looking at one of the academy students we had those two words together

48:14 had those two words in our class on Friday morning. But anyway, the technical terms setting aside, the principle is, he said, I have things I'd like to say to you, but, he said, you're not in a frame to take them, and he didn't. And the Lord said that. He said, I have many things to say unto you, but you're not yet able to take them. So he didn't say them.

48:36 He said, how be it when he, the spirit of truth, is come. So there is that principle that we need to exercise discretion at all levels. And many times we have relatives who dearly love Christ and whose lives do manifest his transforming power. Now, we would love to teach them the way of God more perfectly in certain areas, but if we don't have indications that the spirit of God has awakened in them a hunger and a thirst to know the way of God more perfectly, for us to just come on like gangbusters and say, you know, here's this precious stuff, and I'm just so determined you're going to learn it.

49:11 I'm going to cram it into your ears. All we do is further prejudice them against the very truths we want them to love and embrace. And I think that point is a very valid point that needs to be made and constantly kept before us. And then because our hearts are so deceitful, then we say, well, couldn't you hide behind that and make a sinful silence, make a cloak for sinful silence from this verse and its principles? Yes, you could.

49:40 There is no truth. It is not liable to sinful abuse. And you say, how can I be kept from the one and on the other? Well, that's where you're shut up to constant dependence upon the Lord and his spirit and walking before God with a blameless conscience. Because there's just no way you can have a manual that's going to give you all the details of how these various principles of the word of God act upon and interact with one another as you seek to live in the light of them, act upon you and interact. And that's what wisdom is, the ability to take the knowledge and to give a proper expression to it in any given situation. That's wisdom. And we must cry to God for wisdom. That's

50:25 what Solomon did. Give unto thy servant wisdom that he may judge this thy so great a people. And that's why a person of very limited formal education who lives in his Bible and walks with God can be wise way beyond the limits of the world. And that's why we must cry to God for wisdom. And that's why we must pray to God for wisdom. And that's why we must pray to God for wisdom. And that's why we must pray to God for wisdom. And that's why we must pray to God for wisdom. And that's why we must pray to God for wisdom. And that's why we must pray to God for wisdom. That's whatokol feels very important.

Gracious Responses and Observing Changes in Attitude

51:26 Yes. All right. Would you suggest a gracious way to make that distinction to them? Suppose now I had used the Lord's name in vain, and you graciously rebuked me, and then I responded, and I said, well, Dean, I'm really sorry if I offended you.

51:48 I mean, every man's got a right to his own religious convictions, and I'm really sorry, and I'll try to be careful in the future. Now, how would you respond to me?

52:12 Good. You see, there would be a good bridge. Another way you might even say it is say, Mr. Martin, do you really believe what you said to me?

52:21 Do you really mean that you're sorry that you offended me? And if there's any kind of real friendship there, he'll say, well, of course I am. Say, all right, who am I? I'm just a fellow sinner.

52:33 And are you grieved that you offended me? Then what ought you to feel when Almighty God has been offended because you have taken...

52:42 ...his name in vain, and he says he will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain?

52:49 And there you can use, you see, the affirmation of his genuine affection for you as a springboard to put the screws on his conscience that there's one higher than you to whom he is ultimately answerable.

53:02 Yes. All right? Sandra?

53:13 Absolutely. Exactly. And why we need to continue to be civil to them and kind to them and gracious, they may show a change of attitude. And then later on, we may, as it were, not actually put the pearl out in front of them, but begin to take it out of our pocket.

53:30 And they may say, hey, I like that pearl. Whereas before, they trampled it underfoot. There are ways that you can, as it were, introduce indirectly and obliquely spiritual things to see if there is a change in their attitude. And there are ways they can send out their signals.

53:49 They wouldn't come right up and say, hey, look, I made a fool of myself six months ago and I talked blasphemously. I talked blasphemously about your Christ and your Bible. But I've gone through some rough times and I realize I don't have my act together. And I really can't hack it in life alone.

54:02 I'd really like to know more. Now, sometimes people do come, rarely, but sometimes they do come. But that's swallowing an awful lot of pride. But if you throw out a little signal to let them know that those pearls that you've stuck in your pocket because they were about to trample them underfoot or did, that they're not stuck there forever, then if we're sensitive to people, you see, here we come back again to the fact, that this matter of having genuine love for people and love in its very nature is sensitive.

54:30 In its very nature, it's sensitive and it's aware, you see. And out of that awareness, as Sandra has well reminded us, there may be indications that God, in answer to our prayers, is changing that dog and swine-like temperament into one that will be receptive for the Word of God.

54:50 Our time is gone. Yes, final comment.

55:36 Yeah.

55:40 Yes. All right, here again is the example of that very principle. And so we need to be constantly sensitive. And that's costly.

55:48 Because we'd like to be able to just put someone in that category and say, all right, that's what they are. Now I can forget about them and go on to other things. But love will not allow us that luxury. Well, our time has gone.

Closing Prayer

56:00 Let's pray together and thank God for His Word and for our time in that Word.

56:10 Our Father, we are so grateful that we have the Scriptures as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And we are thankful that you have given us a book which is its own self-interpreting revelation of your mind. We thank you that today we have not had to turn to some court of experts to understand the meaning of our Lord's words. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine.

56:40 But as we have turned, from one passage to another, in the Old and the New Testaments, you have shed light upon this text. And we thank you for this. And we pray that our confidence in your Word may be strengthened as a result of this exercise together. And then, our Father, we pray that what we have learned may work itself out as we seek to be witnesses to your grace in a wicked and perverse generation.

57:09 Help us. And hear us. Endow us with that heavenly wisdom, we pray, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.