Stop casting pearls before pigs! - Who was Jesus talking about?

Jesus warned us to not give to dogs what is holy or to throw our pearls before swine. And some of us have heard this before, but if we think about this, this is some really strong language. Some of you may even be like, I don't know if I like the fact that he calls certain people pigs, but yet, at the same time, all of us can think back at a time when we've encountered pig in life. Someone whom you've casted your pearls before, and you started wrestling them in the mud as they pulled you into it, and then we walked away from it feeling worn out, hurt, dirty, and that we've just wasted all of our time. And that's exactly what Satan's plan is with this, to bring pigs along your path, to distract you from the people God has actually sent you, the people whom God have entrusted to you to give the pearls that God have given you to share with them. But so there's two dangers in this whole thing. Number one is we don't figure out that we've been conversing with what Christ calls swine until it's too late. So how do we know that we're actually talking with a pig, as Christ defines? And number two, there's the danger of judging others as swine from our own deception. See, we can risk calling everyone who doesn't agree with us or everyone we don't personally like as swine, labeling them that as an excuse to not incline our ear to them, even if God may well be placing his holy spirit in them to speak to you. Why did Christ use such strong language for these people? How do we discern them? And how do we ensure we ourselves don't become as one of them? My desire is much rather to speak about the pearls that God has given us. The beauty of our salvation, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the truth from Mount Sinai, our messiah himself. But the reality is, unfortunately, that in our pursuit of all that is good, there will be people who, as they persecuted Yeshua, will persecute us to stop us from sharing the pearls that God has given us with this world. And that's why this teaching is necessary, and that's why the messiah warned us himself. Matthew seven six. Do not give dogs what is holy. And do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. The first surprising fact that Christ is trying to tell us is that the pigs he's talking about don't look like pigs. Instead, those who took on the swine nature around Christ were religious men who were well spoken, well dressed, well educated, and who were honored at the feasts, loved by the people. But yet Christ wasn't fooled by their outer appearances. People don't look like pigs, and they aren't pigs, but they can act like pigs when they themselves take on the pig nature and purpose. So for us to understand what Christ is talking about, we simply need to look at the animal itself first. Christ describes a pig as one who tramples underfoot the pearls that you give them. In other words, they dishonor the Holy Spirit. They dishonor the gospel God has given you to share because they lack the understanding to appreciate it. A pig is a pig. You throw a pearl and it's done. It has no appreciation for such a thing. Pigs don't know what pearls are. They're only interested in something that they can devour, and that's what they'll do next. As Christ said, they'll turn and attack you. Proverbs nine seven. Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Has that ever happened to you where there was someone whom you actually loved, and you wanted to help them by sharing what God has shown you with them, and yet all you see is they trample underfoot what you give them, and they attack you for it? That is what these scoffers do. They attack anyone yielding pearls of the Holy Spirit, of humility, love, righteousness, and the gifts of the spirit. Such as the Pharisees, who came against the messiah when he walked by the works of the spirit, like when he healed someone on the Sabbath. We see that instead of them seeing this demonstration of true love and praising it, they get angry, they get uncomfortable, they get hostile, because he's breaking some of their understandings and their rules. They can't get their head past what the spirit is doing in the Messiah. They were so focused on their understanding and their rules that they missed that love is the greatest rule to keep and the very thing that the Messiah was doing. And so people who are as the Messiah describes as pigs have no recognition of the love of the Messiah, and they trample it underfoot, and they hate you for it. As Yeshua said, they will hate you because they hated me at first. The next thing we know about pigs is that they are unclean animals. And Yeshua equated, for a man to become defiled is determined by what comes out of his mouth. Matthew 1518. But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adulteries, sexual immoralities, theft, false witness and slander. Just as a pig is an unclean animal by nature, a person who has these actions are defiling themselves into the same manner as a pig. I want to remind you of how, when Jesus cast the demons into pigs, they asked Jesus, can we go into the pigs instead, an unclean animal. And so I want to submit. In the same way demons desire unclean people, just as the demons desire that which is unclean. It indicates that everything we're talking about regarding the pigs Yeshua addressed is a spiritual demonic issue. And that is why the Messiah called those certain Pharisees who came against him in John 844, you are of your father the devil. But how did he tell us to deal with them? Surprisingly, he said to his disciples to leave them alone. He answered, every plan that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone. They are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit, similar to how God instructs his people to depart from unclean food in the book of Leviticus. So now Yeshua is commanding his disciples to depart from unclean people, because God will deal with them. Every plant that he has not planted will be rooted up. This is why Jesus kept his encounters with these people very brief. He would give them a word of rebuke, or he would give them a correction here or there. But he did not spend much of his time addressing them, throwing his pearls before swine. Instead, he took his pearls to those who needed to be set free and who wanted to be set free. So in the same way, we have to discern very, very, very carefully about people who we are ministering to. There are many types of people in this world, and we should be careful not to label people as swine who are not, but also not to think of all as having good intentions. Proverbs nine eight says, do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you. So there were certain pharisees who were unsure about Jesus, who he went to dine with or meet with late in the night, like with Nicodemus. And he allowed them the opportunity to see him for who he is. But if they closed their heart, if they were scoffing at him, if they started trampling what he had for them underfoot, he departed from them. Just like Yeshua also told his disciples, when you go into a town or a place and they reject you and the message they're actually rejecting the messiah, and therefore shake the dust off your feet and continue on to someone who is more worthy of the pearls that you carry. We have to realize that if we are actually dealing with a pig as defined by the messiah, you cannot change a pig's nature by joining it in the mud. All right? You can go to a den of pigs, and you can jump in the mud with them, and you can try and wrestle them at their own game, but they're not going to come out civilized, okay? You don't play in the mud. You work the fields. When the father comes back one day, what is he going to find you doing? Wrestling pigs in mud? Or as a laborer in the field where the father is scattering his seed upon his people, watering his plants, where a great harvest is? See, there isn't a great harvest in the den of pigs. Pigs are only interested in changing you into their likeness, into treating you as a pig. So to tempt you to act as they act and to engage in their games, people like that will say, listen to me, listen to me. While not allowing themselves to listen at all to you, they will have repentance for you, repentance for you. But they themselves will not incline their heart to the option of repentance. We all need repentance. We all need change. We all need correction. We all need to be sharpened. But at the end of the day, a pig will not allow that. Those people can only be changed by God himself. And this is truly where it gets really heartbreaking for me. Because, brother and sisters, there are people who are drowning spiritually. Like, we're talking in relation to, metaphorically, how the messiah labeled them as pigs. But let's remember that these are people who have been created by God and who are, in actual reality, they're just. They're drowning spiritually. They are dying. And as they're dying, it's like when, if you've ever heard about lifeguards who have to go after someone drowning in an ocean, they are taught that be careful, because if you just go in there and you try and save someone, if they're drowning, they're going to just grab ahold of you so desperately, and they're going to drag you down into the depths of the ocean with them. And so it is with many people who are spiritually dying. They are just grabbing ahold of you when you come for them out of the goodness of your heart. The reality is, is we need to throw them a buoy. We need to throw them something that they can grab ahold of, so that they can start floating and so they can start getting air again and so they can have a sound mind again and so that they can then actually engage with sound conversations again. See, Jesus is the buoy. He is the life raft. He is the flotation device for those who are drowning. You are not the flotation device. You are not the one who in of yourself can save them, but you can throw a line to them, the messiah. And he can. While Jesus did, tell his disciples to beware of those certain Pharisees who were coming against them and to leave them alone. There is certainly a place to address false prophets who are turning people away from the Messiah or his commandments in order to protect the flock. What Yeshua was warning his disciples about was to not allow those people to pull the disciples into elaborate, messy situations. Whilst there is no fruit that will actually be coming from such an interaction, whilst they have a better place to go, better people who have their hearts and ears inclined to the pearls that they have to share. Let's look at some more identifiers of a pig. A pig feeds on garbage. They are known as the garbage cans of the world. That is probably a good reason to not eat them. Basically, they have zero discernment in what they consume themselves. And so it is with these people. They eat whatever they see, whatever is on the ground, whether it is clean or not. They are not satisfied with their own kingdom. Purpose of eating of the manna from heaven and manifesting that manna upon the earth. So instead, they go after Satan's purpose. What was Satan's purpose? Remember how God cursed the snake that you will eat of the dust of the earth. You will be a scavenger. So that is what the pig does. And so this person who is after the nature of his father, Satan, as Yeshua described, is also eating of the ground, not of the kingdom matters, but of earthly matters. They will go after what is most popular, the strange, feel good doctrines, conspiracies that are false. And. And there are distractions and unbiblical things that have nothing to do with the kingdom of God anymore. Whilst trying to label it with the name of Yeshua, trying to label it as being a biblical issue, whilst it's not at all. Just like the Pharisees who came to Yeshua, they had all of their rules, all of their junk that they've been consuming, and they themselves were trying to label these things as holy. They were saying that it is wrong to heal on the Sabbath. It is wrong to pick grain on the Sabbath. It is wrong to go and eat with unwashed hands things that God never made a sin issue. And so people today are making things sin issues that God never made an issue. So be careful, because when you start consuming these things, you start becoming what you eat. And so even though we can innocently start taking these things in, sooner than later, they start changing us on the inside. You are what you eat. And the more that we engage in this, the more we start despising the works of the Holy Spirit that are at enmity with the works of the flesh, which is the nature of the pig itself of this world. See, the Holy Spirit is operating in a place of on high from the kingdom of heaven. And so the more we indulge in the things of this world, the more the things of heaven will offend us when we see it. And the last thing that I want you to see that pigs do is they devour one another. You may have even heard about how some pigs may eat their own baby piglets. They become an enemy of their own kind. Where does this all come from? Revelation 1210 describes the accuser, the persecutor of the brethren. And it says, and I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down to earth. Who accuses them day and night before our God. Then the dragon became furious with the women and went off to make war on the wrast of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Revelation describes that Satan is the accuser of the brethren, and describes the brethren as those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Christ himself those who put faith in Jesus and those who obey Jesus. And yet, when people who say they are believers start doing the work of Satan in being the accuser of the brethren, of those who keep the commandments and who have faith in Jesus, they themselves are starting to act like pigs who devour their own kind, just like the Pharisees, some who came against Yeshua, who started devouring their own kind. Paul himself is a great example of this. Before he met Yeshua on the road to Damascus, he was devouring people who believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, just as he claimed to do so himself. But Christ came to him and said, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He became the accuser of the brethren, and he didn't even realize it. And that's perhaps what's most chilling about all of this is that people who were called pigs as defined by the messiah, they often are the exact type of people who are blind to it and who do not see that at all. And so, as I speak about all of this, we have to start with ourselves and ask God, Lord, am I actually acting like swine and how I treat others? I would like to read to you a short quote from pigprogress.net dot this is a website giving advice to farmers around pigs. And it says, pigs, which savage piglets, can often be identified by their nervous appearance and wild eyes. It is interesting that pigs today are known for eating their young, and they can be identified as ones who are at risk of doing so when they have wild eyes and a nervous appearance. And this is exactly what revelation describes the nature of Satan to be. Revelation 1212 therefore rejoice, o heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, o earth, and see. For the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. Firstly, we see that the devil has come down in great wrath, and because his time is short, he is persecuting, he is trampling, he is attacking, he is devouring, and he is trying to recruit even believers into that mission. And so that great wrath that the devil has upon the earth, coming after believers, he places in those who start manifesting unclean deeds, becoming unclean themselves, becoming a place where demonstration would like to be. And then they start becoming used as a tool of Satan without even realizing it. Not only are these pigs described to have these wild eyes, but they are described to have this nervousness about them. And this is exactly what the Bible describes as the spirit of fear, where God says, I have not given you a spirit of nervousness, of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind. And power, love, and a sound mind are all the things that Satan wants to take from you, that he hates himself. So if you would like to walk in the Holy Spirit, you need to ask your father for power of the Holy Spirit, love of the Holy Spirit, and the sound mind that the Holy Spirit brings us. And so, as we conclude here, I think it's important for us to look introspectively first. Yeshua says that make sure that before you attempt to judge or discern someone else, ensure that there is nothing in your own eye so you may see clearly. And so, brothers and sisters today, ask yourself, have I shown any of these attributes myself? Because we can risk calling everyone who doesn't agree with us as being swine, whilst we ourselves act like swine and are blinded by that nature to not see clearly. Just because someone is coming to correct you, just because someone doesn't agree with you on something doesn't mean that they are a pig as Yeshua described. No. Let us discern those who God is actually sending to correct us or to sharpen us. We are supposed to sharpen one another as brothers and sisters in love, in compassion, in grace, in hospitality, in respect, and showing one another that love. They need to know you by the love you have for them. That's not supposed to be some guessing game. That's supposed to be on the forefront. Because if we don't have that, that's one of the first red flags people are going to see when they look at us, that they are being trained by the Holy Spirit to see that you're acting like a pig when you don't have love. And so they are not going to want to enter any further conversation, debate or whatever with you because you are not composing yourselves after one who's following the Messiah. And so it's important to also discern then those who maybe have a stubborn heart, but yet an inclined heart. See, many people will also listen to what we have to say. Even if they don't agree with it completely. They may still have some debate in their heart about whether it's true or not. They may push back a bit about what you're saying, but as long as they're listening, as long as they're inclining, as long as they're considering, as long as they're not trampling and attacking, keep sharing, keep pouring into them, keeps showing them great love. And that is great. And that is wonderful. Just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't mean they're a pig, right? But when they are actually showing their true nature to you, and if you look carefully at their actions, because by their fruit, you will know them, and you start discovering that they are falling in line with the nature of what a pig is, as we have already outlined in this video, then be careful, because Satan may well attempt to use that person to pull you away from God, to pull you away from whom God has sent you to, and to just waste your time and your energy. Let us have a kingdom. Focus on the harvest that is before us. Not turning to the left or to the right, but to whom God has sent us. And so who will you be? Will you be wrestling in mud or working in the field? I'll see you in the field, Father. I would just pray right now for everyone listening, Lord, that you would help us to see, Lord, our own hearts, our own nature. Are we walking by your spirit? Are we walking by the flesh? Lord, help us to love one another. Help us to love our enemies. For, Father, we bless our enemies. We bless those who persecute us. We bless those who do not know you, Father, clearly. Father, I pray, Lord, that you would illuminate their minds to your spirit and what you are speaking in this time to them. I pray, Lord, that you would give them a heart that is gracious and full of mercy for others. Father, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to have the fruits of the spirit spirit at the forefront of our lives. Father, we repent of our sins. We repent where we have not walked as we ought to walk. When we have walked in the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. When we have set our mind on the things of this earth instead of the things of the kingdom. When we have even wrestled with pigs, instead of walking in the fields. Father, forgive us where we have been distracted. And help us, Lord, to put those burdens off. Yeshua, I thank you that you have said, bring your burdens unto me. Yeshua, I thank you, Lord, we give you our burdens right now. We thank you that you carry us on eagles wings. You protect us. You deliver us from our enemies. And, Father, I thank you, Lord, that on the great day of judgment, you are going to separate the sheep from the goats. But, Lord, I ask that you would help us as your people, to discern ourselves, to judge ourselves most strictly on this earth now, so that when we come to you, Lord, we can stand before you purified. Lord, cleanse us from all defilements of the flesh and help us to shine your light in this world. We pray all of this in the name of Yeshua. Thank you for joining me. If this was a blessing to you, check out this video here about why the Torah movement is still eating unclean. And I want to say a special thank you to all of our partners who've made this video and every other video this month possible. We love you and we'll see you in the next one. Shalom.