In Matthew chapter 7, verse 6, we read that the Lord Jesus says, "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample the pearls underfoot and attack you as well." We need to ask the question: what is the Lord Jesus saying to us here? What is the meaning of this?
The Lord Jesus said at the beginning of Matthew chapter 7 that we are not to judge brothers and sisters. We are not to condemn brothers and sisters. But does that mean that we should be without any discernment? We may not condemn people, but we must discern what they are. You don't take pearls and throw them before swine. This would seem to indicate, of course, that certain people are being described as dogs and swine. And that, of course, is not exactly very flattering. We don't exactly like to be called either of these.
But one thing we must bear very carefully in mind when the Lord Jesus says this: by using these terms like dogs and pigs or swine, He is not attempting to insult anybody. The fact is that under certain circumstances, there is no better way to describe certain people — their character, their nature — than by these figures. You know, sometimes the truth is not very nice to listen to. We don't like to listen to the truth. If a person is very filthy, very dirty, you may say, "Well, you are behaving like a pig." Excuse me. You are not trying to insult the person. You might say that even of your own child, whom you love very much. You say, "You are like a little pig. You are filthy." You are not being insulting — you are describing the condition. There is no other way to describe his condition but to say that he is as dirty as a pig.
I would say that when you come to know the spiritual truth and degradation of sin, you would say that the pictures of swine and of dogs are really no exaggeration of the condition of some people who are degraded in sin. It is, in fact, much worse than swine and dog. I find that sometimes the comparison of a sinner to an animal is not an insult to the sinner. It is the insult on the animal. Let's consider this statement for a moment. I would take, for example, those people who could put millions or thousands of Jews into gas chambers — to call them pigs or swine is an insult on the swine. The swine would never do a thing like that. Or when you think of those people who attack innocent bystanders and beat them until they are blind or maimed or even dead — no dog ever does that, unless it is a mad dog or a vicious dog. Animals don't do the kind of vicious things that sinful men do. And when it says that they turn and attack you — well, men attack each other all the time. What's exceptional about that?
So we can see that when the Lord Jesus speaks of people in sin, in their sinful nature, as swine and as dogs, He is not only not exaggerating the situation; it is, as we can see when compared to these animals, really an understatement.
So let us pursue this question and ask: what exactly is the Lord Jesus saying to us in these words? First, let us look carefully at these animals, the dog and the swine, and try to see exactly what the Lord Jesus is teaching us from this picture. From this we will soon see, as I've already hinted, that by the picture of dog and swine, He is characterizing the human nature — the carnal nature as it is lost and degraded in sin. And we are going to see the parallel step by step, so we can appreciate the beauty and the truth of Jesus' teaching, even if the truth of it doesn't flatter us or make us feel good.
I hope that Christians are people who are concerned for the truth and are concerned to know that truth, no matter whether it makes them feel good or not. I'm very worried about those people who say they don't like my preaching because it's too severe. They don't like my preaching because it's always convicting people of sin. No, I'm not worried what they think of me. I'm worried about them. Because they say, "I don't like it because it's too severe or too much rebuke in it." The question is not whether you like a message or not. The only question we must ask is: is it true? If somebody says to me, "What you say is not true," then I will be the one who worries. But if somebody says, not that my message is not true, but that they don't like it, then I worry for them.
You will see anywhere in the teaching of the Lord Jesus that He pats us on the back and says, "You are a wonderful guy, you don't need anything more." Have you seen Jesus in any other place saying, "You are really a good person, you don't need to be better"? On the contrary, He says, as to the human nature in its degradation and sinfulness, it is like the dog and like the swine. You don't like to listen to it — it doesn't matter. The Lord Jesus is not here to win votes, neither am I. But if a person is concerned about the truth, he will ask himself, "Is this true? Is human nature really like this?" And when he sees the truth of it, then he is convicted and he repents, and then God's grace comes upon him.
You know, in this connection, I'd like to share with you a few words in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 to 4. Here the Apostle Paul says, in the presence of God, he says to Timothy, "I charge you in the name of Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead." It is a command. In verse 2, He says, "You must preach the word." It doesn't matter whether you think it's the right time or not — you get on with preaching it. It doesn't matter whether the circumstances are favorable or not favorable — you preach the word of God. And then He goes on to say, "You must preach this with patience," that is, keep on going even if you are opposed or rejected, and do this with all the skill and the requirements of the preaching and the teaching of the word of God.
The first thing He says is that you are to convince them — the word is the same word as to convict of sin, that is used concerning the work of the Spirit in John. The second is rebuke. And then He says you've got to exhort them. Does He say anywhere that you have to pat them on the back all the time? Now when you do these things, you're not going to be popular. But Paul commands Timothy to do just that. And He goes on in verse 3 to say, "Because the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine." They don't want to listen to the pure doctrine, the word of God. But they've got itching ears. They want people to tickle their ears. They want people to scratch their back. They don't want to listen to the word of God; they want people to say the things they like to hear. That is a sign of the last times.
But Paul says to Timothy, "Don't you do anything like this." Don't please tickle people's ears, don't cater to their feelings and desires. You preach the pure doctrine of God's word. And that means bringing rebuke where it's necessary. That means convicting of sin where it is necessary. And you do it even if people hate you. And you can see why Paul teaches his student Timothy to do this. Because that's the way the Lord Jesus preached. That is the way we have to preach.
And so we come back to this: the Lord Jesus says the sinful nature — what is it like? Whether you like to hear it or not, the sinful nature is like the dog and it is like the swine. If you have not been changed yet, if you have not been born again by the power of God, then you are like the dog and like the swine spiritually. No matter how beautifully you are dressed on the outside, God looks in your heart and He says, "You are like the dog, you are like the swine."
What do we learn about dogs? The first thing we have to notice about dogs in the time of the Bible is that the dogs were all half wild. In those days, people did not keep their pets, or very seldom kept their pets, inside the house. In fact, very few people kept pets at all. In countries where the standard of living is low, where life is hard, people just cannot afford to keep pets. In those of you who have lived in China, you know that in China we very seldom have pets. And the result was that these dogs — there were dogs around, but they were generally wild or half wild. Rather like the dogs in the Chinese villages. I don't know if any of you have been to Chinese villages. In other provinces, you have the villages, you have a lot of dogs running on the street, and they are all more or less wild. And sometimes these dogs were really quite vicious.
In fact, when we read in the Bible, we find, for example, in 2 Kings 9, verse 10, that the dogs actually eat the human flesh of people who were killed. And these dogs that we read about in Psalm 22, verse 17, for example, are exactly the vicious dogs that we find in these half-wild states. In fact, when I was in Israel — you know, we are used to seeing cats as pets — I was surprised to find that where I was living, the cats were all wild. They lived in the compound near the house, but you could never come near a cat. They would never let you come near them. If you came near, they would just run away. But if you cornered them, you might get attacked. They lived on the garbage thrown out from the house, the sort of leftovers that were thrown out. And so in those days, that's how the dogs were too. They were just living off the garbage that was thrown out, and they were living in the streets.
Now the Lord Jesus says, "You must not give what is holy to dogs." The principle is the same: even if it's a pet dog, you don't give to it what is holy. What does this mean? Under the Jewish law, the animals that were sacrificed on the altar were holy. The priests could eat of it, and sometimes the person who sacrificed — depending on what kind of sacrifice — the offerer could also eat of the sacrifice. Every part of the sacrificial animal was holy. And the law was that you could not take any part of the sacrificial animal and throw it to a dog, not even a bone. From Exodus chapter 22, we see that only unclean meat, unclean things, were thrown to animals.
And that means we can learn several things about dogs and swine. I should tell you, for the point of exposition, that here swine and dog are simply two descriptions of the same thing. The person who explains the Bible and thinks that this refers to two different kinds of people makes a fundamental mistake. In understanding your Bible, there are certain things which stand in parallel to each other. When a statement in the Hebrew or in the Bible stands in parallel, it means it's saying the same thing in two different ways. And this means that dog and swine, therefore, are referring to one and the same thing. It's using different expressions to say exactly the same thing.
Now, we can learn several things about what the Lord Jesus is saying to us about the carnal human nature from swine and dog. We know that swine loves filth and dirt. And so in 2 Peter 2, we read there that the swine that is washed returns back into the mud. It's a very interesting phrase that the Apostle Peter uses there, because it represents those people, those pigs who have been washed. Think of that — you wash a pig. What's the use of washing a pig? You polish it and you clean it and you wash it and you make it all nice and white. As long as you don't let it out of this room, it's fine. But the moment you let it out, what does it do? Oh, it enjoys the mud so much, rolling around in there.
And there, the Apostle Peter says again the same unflattering, unpleasant truth that we have to listen to. He says there are some Christians who are just like pigs. They've been washed, they've been baptized. You see the beautiful picture — washed clean, or baptized. But the question is whether their life has been changed. They've been baptized, but their life has not been changed, they have not been born again. What good is that? If in church you still look like a very clean pig. The problem is you're still a pig. When you go outside, you'll find the dirt and mud so appealing. Washed, and then right back into the mud. These so-called Christians go right back into sin. They are like pigs returning to the mud.
The dog is also a very filthy animal. Anyone who has a dog knows how many swats you have to give it, to train it not to make a mess in the house. Every dog has to be trained — you have to put its nose there and give it a whack to teach the lesson that you don't do this. This is not acceptable, civilized human practice. This is dog culture, not human culture. And 2 Peter tells us another disgusting habit about dogs, which we would almost rather not talk about. But since the Bible mentions it: the dog has a disgusting habit of returning to its vomit. And anyone who has observed a dog knows this is absolutely true, whether we'd like to hear it or not. Dogs and swine — they are both filthy creatures by habit. They have to be disciplined and trained, but let them go for a minute and they return. As far as this second disgusting habit, not even a trained dog can be kept off that.
So the first thing we learn about the human nature in its natural state, without being changed by God, is its love for sin. Look, you have been a non-Christian before. Just think back how you enjoyed the thoughts of sin. How pleasurable they were. Did sin disgust you? As long as sin didn't hurt you, you could enjoy it.
What is the second thing about this animal nature that we can learn? A dog is one of those animals that has no faithfulness to its partner. That is, the male has no faithfulness to the female, or vice versa. And the swine is just like this. Any dog will mate with any other dog. It has no sense of faithfulness to its partner. You know that today they talk about the new morality. The new morality is that really sex is free. You can have sex with everybody. And sex is very natural to human nature. It is perfectly in order in the new morality that you sleep with anybody. We don't need human tradition and human laws and man-made ethics to tie us up. We must be free.
And this kind of thing is described as the new morality. Well, it's about as old as the dog. In other words, man has learned from the dog. He's just going back to the dog, and he calls this new morality. What's new about that? Is evolution going in the reverse? Behaving like dogs, they call this the new morality. In fact, there are animals which are very faithful to their mates, their partners. But not the dog, and not the pig. So we can see that here again, we see the human nature. In the Bible, this characteristic of the dog is mentioned in Deuteronomy 23, verse 18. In the Bible, the homosexual and the people who live in a very loose fashion, those who are sexually licentious, are described as dogs.
Now, the third thing we notice about this animal nature of dog and swine is that it's very aggressive. Dogs are aggressive — it doesn't even need to be demonstrated. We all know that. But you say, "Well, swine certainly are not aggressive." If you say that, it's because you don't know swine. Let me tell you, if you ever go to a farm and you see swine, whatever you do, don't stick your hand out in front of the swine. Because if you stick your hand in front of the swine, the chances are that you'll be minus your hand.
In July of 1970, I was in Switzerland, and I read a very interesting notice in the Swiss newspaper which throws a lot of light on our passage here. In fact, I clipped that notice out of the newspaper. There was a report about a farmer who lived on the island of Sicily, in Italy, in a village that was off the town of Ragusa in Sicily. And there he had seven swine. He was obviously not a rich farmer — he had only seven swine. And one day he went into the pig's pen, as he often did, to feed the swine. But on this occasion, the pigs decided that they would rather eat him than the food he had brought. And these pigs attacked him. The seven pigs bit him, tore him all over. And the result was that when his wife found him, he was almost gone. The newspaper report went on to say that he was rushed to hospital, but he died on the way to hospital.
You have to watch out for pigs. I don't know what the reason was that these pigs attacked him. Maybe they were exceptionally hungry. Maybe he didn't come on time with the food. But these pigs literally bit the hand that fed them. It shows that they have neither loyalty to their master nor to their mates. Pigs, like dogs, can be tamed to some extent, but pigs, like dogs, can be very aggressive. So when I first read these words — "You cast your pearls before swine, and they will turn upon you and attack you" — I thought surely pigs don't attack people. Because I thought pigs never attack people. In China, I saw a lot of pigs, and they all seemed to me to look very harmless. But now we can see, even from this newspaper report, that pigs can be very dangerous under certain circumstances.
And so the fourth thing we learn from the Bible about pigs, as well as about dogs: it is because of all these things that pigs and dogs were declared unclean animals in the Bible. What does it mean that they are unclean? It meant that they could not be used either for God or for man. They could not be used for God — that means they could not be offered as a sacrifice to God. They could not be used for man — that means man could not eat their flesh. They could not be used as human food or for human purposes.
Now here we can see then the human nature in all these things: its love of sin and evil; its unfaithfulness to its mate — unfaithfulness in this very profound sense, precisely because of the connection to the first point, its love for sin, its lust; and the third thing we saw is its viciousness and aggressiveness, which is exactly what human nature in its natural state is — vicious and aggressive. How often we have seen that, even in the lives of those who call themselves Christians. You say something that they don't like and they shoot back at you. They bite back at you. What the Bible calls backbiting. They come back and they bite you, attack you.
And so we find all these ugly things. In fact, unfortunately, sometimes among Christians, even those who seem to have become true Christians or claim to be true Christians — you correct their faults, and what happens? You think you are doing them a kindness or favor, and what do they do? They turn around and they attack you. So we find that stated exactly in Galatians 5, verse 15, where Paul warns the Galatians. He says, "Take heed — if you bite one another and swallow one another, that you don't consume one another." That is really sarcastic. He says, "You Galatians, be careful — if you behave like dogs and swine, you will destroy each other."
Now then, what conclusions can we draw from all this? We see then that the dog and the swine typify human nature at its worst. And if we are lovers of the truth, if we are honest with ourselves, and we have looked at these four points, we would say, "Oh yes, Lord, I was exactly like that. Lord, have mercy upon me, that in my carnal nature I so loved sin. I am so vicious and aggressive. I am so unclean and therefore I cannot come into Your presence." We know that the Lord Jesus speaks the truth to us. Which one of these elements — any element — which one is not true? Which one does not accurately portray our carnal nature? There is not one thing that is not true. This is what I mean by the beauty of Jesus' teaching and its truthfulness.
At once we see that every one of us, in the state in which we were before, had this kind of character. When somebody criticized us, did we not lash back at them? We were vicious and aggressive. So we were. And all of us were partakers of this character. But you see, if that is the case, then all of us were dogs and swine. Then none of us were exempt.
# Give Not Holy Things to Dogs (Part 2)
So if we all are like dogs and swine, if everyone is like dogs and swine, how can you bring the holy things to anybody? There is one important difference, though. There are two kinds of people. Even though both kinds partake of the same nature, yet there is also a big difference between the two.
The one kind is the kind of people who know that they are like this, and they are sorry for it, they are grieved about it. "Why am I like this?" There is one kind of people that the Lord Jesus speaks about at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount — the people who mourn. They mourn over sin. They know that they are evil, they are vicious, but they are sad about it, they are sorry about it. And because they mourn about this, they hunger and thirst for righteousness. They say, "Lord, You are so right. I am like the dog, I am like the swine, but have mercy upon me. I want to hunger for righteousness and truth. My condition grieves me, O Lord. Have mercy upon me."
But what is the other kind of person? The other kind of person is the one who is exactly the same nature, but he is not ashamed of it. He is the kind of person the Bible speaks about who glories in his shame. Exactly as Paul says in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 19: "Their glory is in their shame." And their God is their belly — just like the dogs and the swine. Their God is their belly. Whoever throws them a piece of meat, they will follow that one. This is the kind of person who, therefore, is not only not repentant — he doesn't mourn — he even wants to boast about his sins. These are the kind of people who see no need to be born anew. But notice the other kind: they long to be changed. But this kind — they are very proud of their sins. "Do you know how many girls I have conquered?" They think that this establishes their manliness. I'm sure they don't succeed very well in competing with the dog. The dog can beat them anytime. Are they ashamed of themselves? No, they are so proud of their dog-like nature. They are so proud also of their swine-like nature.
When I was on the ship going from Hong Kong to Europe, there was this doctor on the ship that I may have mentioned to some of you before. And he boasted to me of his sins. He was actually proud of his sins. This is the other kind of nature. And this is the kind of person the Lord Jesus is speaking about here. When He speaks about the dog and the swine, He is speaking to the disciples who have already repented. They also had this nature, but they have repented. They mourned for their sins. They were changed. But the other kind of person glories in their shame and in their sins. The Lord Jesus says, of this kind of people, don't cast your pearls before them. Don't give them the holy thing.
Let us consider for a moment what the Lord Jesus means by "holy thing" and by "pearls." By the principle of the parallel that I have already told you, you will see that pearl and holy thing — these two are illustrating each other. So that the pearl pictures to us what a holy thing is like. What does it tell us about what is holy? Let us consider the pearl.
Now, all of you have seen pearls. A pearl, for one thing, is white in its purity. The pearl is pure. When you look at a pearl, doesn't it immediately strike you how pure it is, how white it is? Holiness is always expressed in its purity. It is the opposite of what is sinful and filthy. Now, immediately you can see the opposite character of the swine and the dog that loves filth, and the purity of the pearl. They stand as extreme opposites.
What else do we see about the pearl? Well, everybody knows the pearl is round. And roundness expresses, of course, perfection, completeness. And that is just what holiness is. Holiness is perfection. It is completeness. What do we mean by perfection? Perfection, when it comes to holiness, means the completeness of our love and our dedication to God. When the Bible tells us that we must be perfect, it doesn't mean that we can be sinless in this life. But we saw that it meant perfect devotion to Him. And one thing we can be perfect in: that my love to Him is one hundred percent. What kind of a person is holy in the Bible? It is the kind of person who loves God with all his heart and soul and strength. And a person who loves God in this way, you can be sure he will not deliberately commit sin.
And what else can we learn about the pearl? The third thing about the pearl we notice, and we all know, is that the pearl is developed through suffering. All of you know that a pearl comes when a bit of sand goes into the oyster. And the oyster, in its discomfort, secretes in its suffering the thing that covers the sand. So the pearl is actually the product of suffering. And we see that holiness, too, comes from suffering — the suffering that comes when we count the cost of discipleship, the suffering that comes when we break with the world, when our loved ones oppose us, when they don't understand us, even when we walk in the path of righteousness and truth, when we are persecuted for righteousness' sake, when we are ridiculed for the sake of the truth, when we have become disciples of Christ.
There is always, brothers and sisters, a close connection between holiness and suffering. Those who have not suffered — you will often see that they know very little about holiness. But those who have suffered, they know what holiness is. The Apostle Peter has a very interesting statement. He says those who have suffered have ceased from sin; they have become holy. If you have not suffered anything for Christ, maybe you still don't know very clearly in your experience the definition of holiness. But if you don't love God with all your heart and soul and strength, when you're always ready to compromise with the world, you'll never suffer anything. Nobody wants to persecute you. And if you think yourself fortunate because you haven't been persecuted, in fact you're very unfortunate. That's why right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus says, "Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake — jump up and down with joy." Why should you have joy? Because you are on the path of holiness. Because you are in the company of the prophets. Every one of the prophets suffered. They were slandered, they were attacked, they were persecuted. Every prophet had that same treatment. Why? Because the prophets always spoke the truth. They did exactly what Paul told Timothy to do — to convince, to rebuke, to exhort. And the people who didn't love righteousness hated them. That's why the Bible says, "All who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer."
And what else can we learn about the pearl? Consider this: the pearl is obtained through great danger. The pearl doesn't just come up and swim to your face. You have to go down, you have to dive down into the depths of the sea to get it. And the pearls in Israel were obtained to a great extent from the Persian Gulf and from the Red Sea. And from there — anyone who has been to those places, and I have been to the Red Sea — the place is full of sharks. The divers who go down for pearls risk their life every time they go down from being killed by sharks.
When we passed through the Red Sea, some of the seamen decided to have some fun. They said to me, "Watch, we'll throw a few pieces of meat into the Red Sea, and you'll watch what happens." And they threw a few big chunks of meat out into the sea. Within a few minutes, the place was swarming with sharks, because of course they smelled the blood. And so these sailors threw out the great meat hooks to try and catch a shark just for the fun of it. They did actually hook a shark, but they couldn't pull it up because the meat hook was too small. Now you can see that these pearls have to be obtained at great danger.
What does that teach us about holiness? It teaches us again of the cost of discipleship. But it also makes me think of the Lord Jesus, who obtained for us righteousness not only at the risk of His life, but actually at the cost of His life.
And finally notice this concerning the pearl. Pearls were enormously valuable. That's why the other day we saw in the parable how a man, in order to obtain a pearl, had to sell everything he had to get one pearl. Today, genuine pearls are still extremely expensive. You can get a lot of good cultured and imitation pearls, and these are also very expensive. The big natural pearls are very hard to come by today. Why are they so valuable? Not only because they are so beautiful, not only because it's so dangerous to get them, but because they are very, very rare.
Holiness today is also very rare. There are lots of dogs and swine around the place, but not very many pearls. Holiness is hard to come by. And anyone who has tried to be holy will know how costly it is — costly for the Lord Jesus to obtain it for us, and costly for us to keep it when we have got it. The world is always trying to take our holiness away, to rob away the holiness of Christ in our life. The world, and Satan, is ever trying to tempt us back into sin, whether by threats or by cunning temptation.
And so we now begin to see what is holy and what is meant by the pearl. But is the pearl — is holiness precious to you? Is the gospel precious to you? How precious is it to you? Is it as precious to you that you have seen its value — that it is worth everything you have got? Like that merchant who sold everything to obtain that one pearl that we see in the Lord's parable. How come other people do not discern the value of that pearl, but that merchant discerned the value of the pearl? Can you see the value of the pearl? Can you see the preciousness of the gospel?
The pearls here represent the holy things, and the holy things represent the gospel, because the gospel is the holy thing given to us from God. How do we know that it represents the gospel and the holiness that God offers to us in the gospel? If you understand the New Testament, you will understand the reason. The holiness — the only way we can have holiness is through the gospel of Christ. There is no other way.
When we understand all this, the whole meaning of the Lord's teaching now should become very clear to us. What is the meaning now we can see? In plain words, the Lord Jesus is saying: don't take the gospel and throw it to those people who glory in their shame like the dogs. Don't take the precious pearls of the gospel and throw it to those people who love sin like the pigs. Why not? Because they don't appreciate the gospel. They regard the gospel as foolishness. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, that the carnal man does not accept the things of God; he regards them as foolishness. And not only do they not appreciate it, they turn upon you and attack you for trying to help them. So that not only are they not helped, they actually commit more sins.
The question, though, is: how do you know whether a person is a dog or a swine in his character? Of course, the Lord Jesus is not saying don't preach the gospel to them, because unless you preach to them, you don't know whether they accept it or not. The gospel must be preached to everybody. But when a person has heard the gospel and he rejects the gospel, the Lord Jesus says then don't keep pushing the gospel at him. Don't throw it at him.
And that is, now you can see, the connection with the next statement of the Lord Jesus that we will look at next week, where the Lord Jesus says, "Ask and you shall receive." You don't ask, you don't receive. That's God's principle. That's why James says in his letter, "You don't have because you didn't ask." And so we can see God's principle is this: He never takes the gospel and shoves it down our throat. And the Lord Jesus says, "You don't do it either. I haven't given you the right to do so." He shows you the gospel. He presents to you the gospel. And if you ask for it, you can have it. Preaching the gospel is like putting salvation in the shop window — putting out the beautiful pearls for you to see. But if you want to obtain it, you have to go into the shop and ask for it. You have to obtain it by faith. But God is not going to throw it at you.
Now, when a preacher or a Christian worker is not just presenting, showing the pearls, but actually taking the pearls and throwing them at a person, then he is misusing the gospel. How did that merchant find that pearl of great price? He must have seen it somewhere. He didn't dig in the mud for it. It was somewhere displayed. And as he walked by, he looked at it and said, "Ah, that's a pearl of great price." And then he wanted it. He asked for it. He paid the price to obtain it.
So the Lord Jesus gives His disciples in this verse a very important principle in preaching the gospel — a verse which, because so many Christians don't understand it, they actually do great damage to the gospel. I have too often seen Christians trying to stuff the gospel down the unwilling throat of a non-Christian. And what is the result? The result is that person becomes even more opposed to the gospel.
How many of us went to mission schools? I went for many years to a Catholic school. And by the time I came out of the Catholic school, I must say I was the most anti-Christian person around. That school put me off Christianity for years and years. I didn't want to hear about Christianity. I didn't want to hear about religion. Why? Because they tried to stuff their religion down my throat. You see, this is the one thing that we must not do. Proclaim the gospel by your word and by your life — more important by your life than by your word. Let the holiness of God be seen in your life. You are the shop window. Or, to change the picture, as Paul says, you are the letter of the gospel written in words that people can see — a living word. And so people can see the gospel, and those who want it, who long for the holiness, for these precious pearls, they will come to you and say, "What must I do that I may have these, too?"
So whatever you do, brothers and sisters, understand the principles. Don't force the gospel down anyone's throat. The gospel is too precious. And when you throw the gospel at people, they think this thing has no value. You are throwing it in all directions. This is the reason why, in our church, for example, we don't give out Bibles as a present, not even to those being baptized. It's the same thing about human nature: what they get free, they think is cheap. Whatever you dish out to them, they say, "Well, I don't have to buy this. It's not worth much." You give a Bible to the non-Christian — that may be a very nice, kind thing to do. Give him some scripture portion, maybe, that's fine. But whatever you do, don't throw the Bible. If he's very willing to have one, he's very desirous to have one, you say, "Well, I'll buy one for you." The best thing is, let him go and buy his own Bible, and that becomes very precious to him. "I paid five dollars for this Bible. If anyone drops it there — hey, careful now, look here, I paid for that." Human nature is very strange. I don't say everybody is like that, but unfortunately, really many people are.
And so here we must conclude, and ask ourselves, if it applies to us, this question: if the principle is true that God turns away from those who reject the gospel — and by the way, I should point out to you that this is a very scriptural principle. When Paul preached the gospel to the Jews, and they rejected it, what did Paul say in Acts chapter 13, verses 46 and 51? He said to them, "Because you consider yourselves unworthy of the gospel — look, I turn to the Gentiles. I'm not preaching to you anymore. I'll bring these pearls to the Gentiles." Do you see what Paul did? They didn't want to hear the gospel. Did he say, "I'm going to preach, and I'm going to preach to you. You sit there and listen"? No, Paul doesn't do that. He said, "I turn away from you." And when he speaks about cleaning the dust off his feet, this is exactly what the Lord Jesus said: when you preach in one place and they reject you, then you go away from there. You go away and even shake the dust off your feet as a witness to them. The witness of what? The point that from now on, you have absolutely nothing to do with them, not even to have the dust of their town or village on your feet. That's very severe, isn't it?
So remember the mercy on the one hand of God, and the severity to those who reject. But the meaning of this passage as it applies to us as Christians is this: those who completely rejected the gospel end up with absolutely nothing, except to perish. But consider those who accept only in proportion, who accept in a limited and reserved sense. Do you not see that in the same sense you cut yourself off from the priceless treasures of God's gospel? That is why some Christians are so poor spiritually.
Let me tell you, in the kingdom of God, there will be very rich Christians and there will be very poor Christians. There will be Christians in the kingdom of God with multitudes of pearls. And there will be some Christians who manage to get saved only by the skin of their teeth, like a person running out of a burning house with absolutely nothing but the pajamas he's standing in. That is, of course, exactly the picture that Paul is giving in 1 Corinthians 3: they are saved, but so as by fire. That is like somebody escaping out of a burning house — they are saved, but they have got absolutely nothing.
When you are in the kingdom of God, brothers and sisters, what kind of a Christian are you going to be? Are you going to be one of these beggarly Christians, or are you going to be one of these wealthy spiritual Christians? In the kingdom of God, there are all kinds of different Christians, ranging from those who have nothing to those who have riches. You store up riches on earth — what are you going to get when you are in the kingdom? If you let the pig nature and the swine nature in you control your Christian life, or dominate in any sense your Christian life, you're going to be a beggar of a Christian — a beggar in this life and a beggar in the next life spiritually. But if you are the kind of Christian who loves holiness and values the pearl, you're going to be a Christian who lives the abundant life, the wealthy spiritual life here and now, and then also in the kingdom of God. That is wisdom.
Have you got treasure in heaven or not? What's the use of having riches on earth? You won't take one half penny with you, one half cent. You're going to leave everything behind, my friend. And on that day, you will see that to have that treasure was the only thing that counted.
So brothers and sisters, we all have the pig nature and the swine nature. And for that reason, we must never be arrogant towards those other people who are sinners. When you look at other sinners, remember: you too are a sinner. I am also a sinner, saved by grace. But for the grace of God, I am like any pig and any dog. I have no cause to boast over anything and anyone. And when I see those people who glory in their shame, my heart is just sad and sorry for them. I have no reason to feel proud in comparison to them. But the scripture tells me that if they reject the gospel, I have to turn sadly away from them. Perhaps the very fact of my turning away from them may cause them to turn back to Christ.
So, don't be wiser than the Lord Jesus. Don't think you know better than the Lord Jesus how to deal with the situation. Don't think that you are kinder than the Lord Jesus. When a person rejects the gospel, sadly but firmly turn away from him. But the very fact that you turn away from him may be the last chance for him to repent. Because that turning away from him may suddenly wake him up and say, "Hey, maybe that's exactly what I needed." Often the thing that was offered and is offered no more suddenly becomes precious. You learn that lesson when you deal with children. When you take some good food and you say, "It's good for you, eat it, eat it" — all the more he doesn't want to eat it. You say, "You don't want to eat it? I'm taking it away." He says, "Bring it back, bring it back." You see — don't think you are smarter than Jesus or kinder than Jesus. That's the great mistake that so many Christians make.
Now you can see that what seems to be such a simple statement of the Lord Jesus has so much riches in it — the riches about how we can progress in the Christian life if we put away the swine nature and the dog nature in us, and then we can obtain these precious pearls. And the lesson in how we are to witness and in giving these pearls of life to others. Let us let God search our hearts to see if we have truly been transformed, whether we are drawing nearer and nearer to God day by day in holiness. Let us be quiet before God.