Pearls, Pigs, and Preaching

Matthew 7:6 ““Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”

Prayer

Introduction

My whole life, I have been taught that we are to preach the Gospel message to everyone.

Some will even go so far as to say that you should preach the Gospel, Preach the Gospel, and preach the Gospel, and if necessary use your words.

While I disagree that your life alone preaches the message of Jesus, I do agree that our lives should be devoted to furthering God’s Kingdom.

After all, didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 28:18–20 “... “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you..” ?

It is clear that we are to preach the Gospel to the world!

Amen

In fact, in the parable of the sower (Really the parable fo the soils), one of the few parables that Jesus actually explains, he doubles down on this thought that we are to preach to everyone.

Matthew 13:1–9 “...Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!””

The whole idea here is that the preacher, the one who sows the sead, does not often know the soil on which the seed will fall.

Yet we, as sowers, are to cast the seed so that the Holy Spirit may grow it where the soil is fertile.

It is also clear, though, that not all soil is the same.

You see the message is the same, but the people to whom the message is given are different!

And that brings me to my first point.

Jesus was a discerning preacher.

We live in a post-Christian culture in America.

Our founding documents are based on Biblical principles.

The average American, even the non-believer, can probably quote John 3:16.

Certainly they can quote Philippians 4:13.

And most of all, they know, THEY KNOW, that Jesus taught to LOVE Lottie, Dottie, and Everybody!

Right!

Problem is they have no idea what Biblical Love really is.

They have no idea that Biblical Love is a VERB not and emotion!

If fact, the world will tell you that to love is to accept!

They will tell you quick, fast and on the double, that Jesus ate with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes.

As one commentator put it:

We think that if we offend someone that it is not love.  And we hear it so often when people say,

“A God of love will never offend anybody.”

“A God of love will never lead me to hurt people’s feelings.”

“A God of love would never hurt people’s feelings.”

I’m here to tell you, folks, that ain’t Biblical love.

Cause what these folks fail to do when they tell you that Jesus loved prostitutes, sinners, and tax collectors is read the next couple of verses where Jesus called them to repentance and a new life in HIM!

They love to quote John 8 and the woman caught in adultery.

They love to tell you how Jesus didn’t cast a stone at her, but they forget that the encounter ends in verse 11, and not verse 10 when Jesus says:

John 8:11 “... go and sin no more.”” !!!

These same people also have not read John 6.

Here Jesus , in one of His seven “I am” statements teaches that he is the BREAD OF LIFE.

He says: John 6:47–56 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”

And the Bible teaches that John 6:66 “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”

But what you do not see is Jesus running after those who were offended and left Him so say, “No, no! Come back! I’m sorry I offended you. I just want to love you!”

In fact, 78 times in the New Testament, Jesus made statements that were offensive to His audience!

And that does not include the times that he taught in offensive parables or when cleansing the temple and turns over the tables of the money changers.

In fact, if we go back to the end of the parable of the soils, we see that Jesus actually tells His disciples exactly why he taught in parables.

Matthew 13:10–15 “...He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’”

Here He outright told the disciples that His teachings were not for everyone. It could not be any clearer.

As one final example of this teaching from Jesus, let’s look at Matthew chapter 10.

This is when Jesus sends out the disciples two by two to preach the Gospel to the house of Israel.

He tells them to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons.

But look at what he says about who to talk to and more importantly who not to deal with:

Matthew 10:11–15 ““Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

Now I ask, you church, does that sound like the lovey, dovey touchy feely Jesus of the Modern US church?

That brings us to our passage for today.

I want you to keep in mind the context in which Jesus is bringing this message.

As He is wrapping up the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus in the verses immediately preceding this verse teaches:

Matthew 7:1–5 ““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘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, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Now I’m not going to go down the rabit hole of this teaching, cause that’s a whole other sermon in and of itself.

But suffice it to say, Jesus is teaching that we should judge WISELY.

That we are to use Biblical principles to evaluate others after removing sin from our own lives.

Then He says: Matthew 7:6 ““Do not give what is holy to the dogs; ...”

You see, not everyone is built for Kingdom Living!

Not everyone is meant to understand and accept the teachings of Jesus.

I dare say, under authority of the Bible, that not everyone sitting in a pew in church on Sunday morning is really open to the message of the Gospel or is worthy of partaking in the Lord’s supper!

You don’t believe me, turn with me to the First letter of Paul to the Corinthian Church

1 Corinthians 11:27–32 “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”

Here Paul, like Jesus in our passage today, is teaching that you should not give what is holy to someone that is unworthy.

In fact, Paul goes so far as to say that if you are unworthy, and you partake in the Lord’s supper, you heap condemnation on yourself.

This is completely in li ne with what Jesus is saying.

That which is holy should not be given to those that are unholy.

What Jesus is doing is applying what He has just taught in the preceding 5 verses to spreading the Gospel message.

He is teaching us to judge correctly when we are spreading God’s Word.

He is saying, in effect, once you have taken the log out of your own eye, now you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Most of us never stop to think about this:

WHAT IF YOUR BROTHER LIKES THE SPECK IN HIS OWN EYE?!?!

WHAT IF HE DON’T WANT TO RID HIS LIFE OF THAT SIN?!?

WHAT IF HE SAYS TO YOU, “YOU CAN PREACH ALL THAT JESUS TO ME YOU WANT TO, BUT I’M GONNA KEEP DOING WHAT DOGS DO!”

“I’M GONNA KEEP LIVING MY LIFE HERE ON THE STREETS WHERE CAN’T NOBODY TELL ME WHAT DO DO!”

See some people love SIN far more than they love anything or anyone else, including God!!!

So don’t give to dogs what is holy, cause if you gave that dog the gift of Kingdom of Heaven, and he rejected it the first time, then next time he might just turn on you like a pitbul and tear you to pieces, or worse yet grab you and pull you into the streets with him.

Jesus also said: Matthew 7:6 ““Do not ... cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”

Everybody knows that pearls are precious.

They are valuable.

They are beautiful.

And they are amazing creations.

Just think about how they are made.

A little bit of grit, just a small little thing gets trapped in that oyster.

Then that oyster turns that little speck of nothing turns into that beautiful pearl.

Is it any wonder why Jesus likens the pearl to the Kingdom of Heaven?

After all the gates of the New Jerusalem will be mad of pearls.

But here, the Lord Jesus is referring to something much more valuable than a mere pearl.

Turn with me if you would to Matthew 13:45–46 ““Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Jesus, here in chapter 13, and I would argue in our passage today in Chapter 7 is likening the Kingdom of Heaven to the precious pearl.

But think about what Jesus says will happen if you offer that precious pearl to the unclean pig.

Not only will they ignore it, because they do not understand the value in it.

Not only will they reject it as something that has no use for them.

But they will trample it under foot and turn to tear you to pieces!!!!

See around here we know how mean pigs can be.

We know that if you ever want to get rid of a body, you feed it to the pigs because the only thing you’re gonna have to pick up is the teeth.

And that brings me to my final point...

How do we apply this passage to our lives?

I want you to bare with me here. I promise I’m gonna bring this home and land this plane.

On September 11, 2001, tragedy struck our nation.

It is a day that I doubt any of us over the age of about 30-35 will ever forget.

Like Pearl Harbor Day, or the day John Kennedy was killed, or the day the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, the world stood still.

That we all remember.

But what you may not know is that September 11, 2001 was also the dawning of a new era both in America and in the World in relation to religion.

You see, September 11, 2001 was what ushered in the era of the Four Horsemen of the New atheist movement.

Daniel Dennett

Same Harris

Christopher Hitchens

Richard Dawkins.

For those of you who don’t know these names, They wrote books like Letter to a Christian Nation, The End of Faith, God is not great: How religion ruins everything, and most famously The God Delusion.

Dawkins famously said, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Their teachings can be summarized in the following statement, “God does not exist. and I hate Him!”

It is interesting that none of them have ever written anything against Islam, the ideology that sparked their new atheist movement.

Never the less, the new atheist movement kicked off a firestorm of people leaving the faith for atheism.

A recent Pew Reseach study found that the number of Americans self-identifying as Christians dropped from 78% in 2007 to 62% in 2019.

To put a point on that, this means that the number of US Christians went from 234.9 million people in 2007 to 203.5 million in 2019 despite the fact that the US population rose from 301 million to over 328 million in the same time period.

That is 25 million souls lost!!!!

Now you may be thinking right now, “Harsha, what does this have to do with our passage today?”

I’ll tell you what it has do do with it...

I have watched countless Christians depate the likes of Dawkins and Hitches, and Harris.

I have watched numerous platforms, including Christian podcasters interview these so-called men of reason.

I have seen these videos shared hundreds, thousands, and even millions of times, including by people who identify as Christians.

And I say to myself, “Why are we giving that which is holy to the dogs?”

Why are Christians continuing to platform these folks?

Why are we as Christians even tuning in to listen to these folks whose hearts are so hardened that they will NEVER accept the Gospel message.

Dawkins recently was asked what it would take to convince him that God existed and he said, “ I don’t know that anything could.”

When pressed, and asked if he walked out of the house and saw written in the stars in multiple languages, “I am God, believe in me” would he conclude then that God existed, Dawkins replied that he would not because he would be more likely convinced that he was either hallucinating or that aliens had somehow monkeyed with the stars than that God really existed.

These men, and the many millions of others who have been influenced by them are militant against the Gospel message, and I urge you, Saints, to use good Biblical discernment and not give to dogs that which is holy.

Don’t platform them.

Don’t watch their videos.

Don’t read their books.

And encourage others that you love to avoid them as well, lest they be dragged into utter darkness where their will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

If you evangelize to someone like this, and they reject you, shake off the dust from your feet, and leave them alone, lest they turn on you, devour you, and try to lure you away from the true and living God.

What’s worse, is that some of the pigs, lead so-called Christian churches.

In a video released on TikTok about 5 years ago, so-called “Reverend Brandon Robertson” of the LGBTQMNOP camp openly stated that Jesus, in his interaction with the Syrophonecian woman had to repent of His racism and change His mind because she had “spoken truth to power”.

That my friends is BLASPHEMY.

And the sad thing is this: Roberston doesn’t really have that large of a social media following. He has about 17 thousand followers on X and 276 thousand on TikTok, which by socail media standards is not that big of a reach.

But his videos have over 7.2 million likes, and there have been over 8.5 million videos regarding Robertson’s teaching.

We must STOP helping the likes of Robertson.

See Robertson has been given the pearl.

He has a degree from the Moody Bible Institute.

He has studied the Word.

He has a PhD in Theology

But he has rejected it.

He denies that the Bible is the Holy Infallbile Inerrant Word of God.

He has trampled it under foot.

And he has turned to steal away, if possible, even the elect of God.

And sadly, we as Christians—true blood-bought born-again children of the King—have helped him and othes like him get their teeth into people and dra them with him into a firy hell where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.

We must stand on the Word of the Living God.

We must hold fast to His teaching.

Yes, we must preach the Gospel to all that are in the sound of our voice.

We must sow the seed.

But when we meet the likes of a Dawkins, or a Hitchens, or a Roberston, we must judge rightly as Jesus has called us to do.

We must not waste our time or the precious pearl of the Kingdom of God on those who would trample on it and turn to tear us to pieces.

And instead, we must dust off our feet, and move on to the next man, woman or child who might just be the next soul who will be saved by the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must invest our time, and efforts and teaching on those who are open to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must pour into our new converts, disciple them, and turn them into evangelists who will make disciples of disciples.

We must give that which is holy to those who are willing and open to treating it as holy.

We must use our precious time and energy on giving the pearl of the Kingdom of Heaven to those willing and able to accept the grace and mercy of God.

Closing Prayer and Invitation.