"If a young man wanted to join the army Rangers, it would not be a good start for him to buy a rifle and go home and shoot out all his mother's lamps in the living room. And if he were rebuked for doing so, he could not defend himself by saying that he was planning on going into the military and that he was a good shot. Well, yes, you hit all the lamps, but those were your mom's lamps in the living room. That's not the place for this. True biblical balance in such things is the fruit of wisdom, therefore. And such balance is not usually found in hot-headed young men who do not know what spirit they are of. Luke 9, 55. Remember, Jesus had a few disciples who wanted to call down fire from heaven and consume the fellow at Motel 6 in Samaria who wouldn't let them rent a room.
And Jesus says, you don't know what spirit you are. Even though they had a verse, they could point to places in the Old Testament where fire was called down from heaven by the prophet and consumed a captain and his 50. So consequently, prophetic rebukes should come from seasoned prophets from men called to and trained for the ministry of guarding the Church of God. This work, this warfare, should be done by men of some age and wisdom and not by novices, firebrands, and zealots.
And it's not just a matter of the people who don't know what spirit they are of. Remember last night, I said that it's one thing to fight the wolves because you love the sheep. It's quite another to fight the wolves because you love fighting and wolves will do.
So if some young thunder puppy thinks that he is gifted and called to this kind of thing, then he should be willing for this restriction. Every time you employ this kind of weapon on your mother, your sister, your wife, or your friend will be very generous to the time it will take for you to be mature enough to confront the enemy with this kind of weaponry.
As we read through the scriptures carefully, without a pietistic set of blinders, we find that satire, mocking, godly taunting, are routine weapons of choice whenever God's people confront idolatry. Of course, sometimes a fool is not to be answered according to his folly. That's Proverbs 26, 4.
"The most important things to predict are to be answered in all gentleness, 2 Timothy 2, 24, and 25. But in other situations," remember, salad and garbage, "in other situations, a fool must be answered according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceits," Proverbs 26, 5. "And those who oppose the truth are to be rebuked sharply." That's in Titus 1, 12 through 14, and Titus 2, 15.
"False teachers are to be rebuked sharply," the Bible says, "in some situations, "remonstrate with them gently, in other situations, bring them up short."
If idols are for destruction, and they are, then those who bring the tools of destruction to bear will not likely receive praise and kindly words from the idolaters. The idolaters are not gonna be good judges of whether or not you're staying within your scriptural lane.
Our Lord Jesus, when confronted with ecclesiastical obstinacy, showed us this godly pattern for giving offense. Jesus teaches us how to give offense. "Did you know the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" Matthew 15, 12. "Yes, I did." He replies, in effect, "Mission accomplished," verse 13."
"The Lord attacks scribes and Pharisees for their long robes, sanctimonious geegaws, prayer habits, tithing practices, their ways of greeting, their seating arrangements, their hypocrisies, their gold-painted chairs on TVN, and so on. After one such exchange, in Luke 11, 43 and 44, one of the lawyers said that Jesus was insulting them in his indictment too, verse 45. And in effect, Jesus said, "Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder. You lawyers," verse 46, and he goes into them. In short, Jesus was seeking to offend. This is not because Jesus was petty. What he was seeking to offend was the spirit of pettiness. It's not petty to attack pettiness.
It's not legalism to attack legalism.
Now, there are natural objections to such a scriptural warfare against the religiosity of idols. One of the central objections appeals to the fact that we are not Jesus and we are not apostles. So you point to all the scriptural examples and you say, "But Elijah," or "But the apostles," "But Jesus," and the comeback is, "Yeah, but you're not Jesus, pal."
Who do you think you are? You're not Jesus. You're just a Christian. What's a Christian? Someone who's supposed to imitate G.
Well, people say when you use mockery and sarcasm, it could go seriously wrong, right? You're not Jesus and so you could do it wrong and you could make a big mess. I see, are we supposed to imitate the love of Jesus?
Well, yeah. Have you ever seen that go seriously wrong?
Yeah? Has anybody in the name of the love of Christ embraced things that they ought not to embrace?
Tolerated things they ought not to tolerate? I have this against you, it says in Revelation that you tolerate that woman Jezebel. Toleration is no virtue, right? No virtue. It's what you tolerate and why.
So if we're going to imitate Christ, we're Christians, we should want to imitate Christ, we should seek to imitate Him across the board. We should seek, and we should study the Word carefully to make sure that when we're imitating Him, we're not just imitating the fact that He spoke these words but we're looking at the context and the situation. Jesus doesn't, Jesus does not mock the prostitutes and tax collectors, for example. He mocks the theologians and the religious scribes. He mocks the people who are in established positions of authority in the church and who do not protect and feed the church. That's the target of biblical mockery."
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@douglaswils
Pastor Wilson will be delivering not one, but two talk at this years
@FightLaughFeast conference. His titles are 'Education in the Tribe of Benjamin' and 'The Way Out of the Grave'.