Midweek Review #22 (Acts 12:25-13:12)

Resistance to the Gospel and False Teaching

That kind of way, attacking what is ultimately an attack upon Jesus Christ. So there are people who will oppose the Savior, Jesus Christ, with all kinds of false gods and false doctrines. It is appropriate to stand up against them.

You want me to prove that to you? When Paul heard what Elymas said, he turned to him and said, you have your truth, I have my truth. And then he got on his donkey, and he rode off into the distance, and on the back of the rear bumper of the donkey, it said, co-exist.

That's what our text says, right? That's the teaching of the scripture. Okay, here's, I think, the limit of what we're able to do. Although I don't know that this has ever been repeated since this moment.

This would be the upper limit. He says to him, you son of the devil. You enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? That's the upper limit of what we can say.

I think he called him a son of the devil because Elymas called himself what? Bar Jesus, son of Yahweh is salvation. So this is not your ordinary evangelistic encounter. This is an encounter against a false prophet.

False Prophets and Direct Confrontation

So in my dealings with people, when some missionary, who actually came last week, knocking on the door, I'll sit down with them and be very direct that Joseph Smith is a false prophet. Muhammad is a false prophet.

But in an ordinary conversation, you may not need to be that direct or even be attacking anything, just preach the truth. This is a unique situation. Here you have a false prophet, he needs to be dealt with head on.

That's what Paul does. He calls him an enemy of all righteousness.