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A sinner can repent, but stupid is forever.

A sinner can repent, but stupid is forever.

JULY 26, 2022

/ Programs / Key Life / A sinner can repent, but stupid is forever.

Steve Brown:
A sinner can repent, but stupid is forever. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
That was Steve Brown. He doesn’t want to be your guru and he’s not trying to be your mother. He just opens the Bible and gives you the simple truth that will make you free. Steve’s a lifelong broadcaster, author, seminary professor, and our teacher on Key Life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible open it to the 15th chapter of Acts. And if you’ve been with us, we’ve been looking at church government by looking at a church meeting. Finding how they did it in the beginning, how God honored it and what happened because of it. And we’re learning some things. And I know that there, this can be kind of boring, but it’s important. This is a very important chapter in the Bible, the 15th chapter of Acts. And we’ve looked at a number of things like authority and submission and leadership, a biblical norm, a measurement to make sure we’re doing the right thing, etcetera, etcetera. And then yesterday we talked about the importance of love and we saw how the decision, which was a decision to not offend their Jewish brothers and sisters. This was about Gentiles. He was talking about love and the importance of love. And I ended the broadcast yesterday and I wanted to talk some more about it, but didn’t have any more time. When you go to Jesus, stay there until you get loved. Don’t leave until that happens. He doesn’t need your help. He’s doing fine before you came along. He’s going to do fine long after you’re gone. So, just sit there and let him love you. You know, I’m convinced that a lot of the narrowness and the anger and the condemnation and the throwing rocks at each other has to do with Christians who left before they got loved. Jesus is about love and you can see it taking place in this church meeting, in the decision that was made, so considerate, so kind, so loving when it was directed to the people of God who had been there for a very long time. Honor the fathers honor, the old people, honor those who were there long before you were there, honor the people on whose shoulders you have stood. It’s called love and it ought to be manifested over and over again by the people of God, Romans 14:15.

If your brother is being injured by what you eat

And that’s what they were talking about in the 15th chapter of Acts.

by what you eat. You are never, you are no longer walking in love.

I Corinthians 8:13.

If eating meat causes my brother to sin, I will not eat meat.

And so, I love this. I love this about this church meeting in Jerusalem. They were so kind, and they were so loving that it became the mark of the early church. Now, let me show you something else. Not only the necessity of all the things we’ve been talking about ought to be taking place in the church, but there is a necessity of common sense, plain old common sense. It’s verses 28 and 29. And we’ve talked about those verses, but you’ve got to know that it’s a manifestation of love and leadership and authority and submission, but it is also really, really street-smart. It’s really, really wise. One of my favorite quotes and I gave it to you in the teaser for the broadcast today is from Billy Sunday. And he said, I love it. Every time I say it, I kind of get a smile.

A sinner can repent, but stupid is forever.

I used to quote that often to my students and, who were preparing for church of ministry. Listen, ask God to give you a Biblical knowledge, proper exegesis, a knowledge of apologetics and eschatology and soteriology. But say Lord, along with all of that, please give me common sense. I had lunch with my African American beloved friend, Jerry Parries. And you’ve heard him on a number of our programs on Key Life. And I love that brother more than I can tell you, but he has a tendency sometimes to be out of the box. And we were having lunch and he was telling me some things that were out of the box, that he believed and they were quite Biblical. In fact, I changed some of my views because of what he said, but he said, my son believes these things too. And I said, Jerry, do you preach these every Sunday? He said, you think I’m crazy? What’s wrong with you? Of course, I don’t. I don’t tell everybody everything I know, every time I see them, I’ve got to use some common sense. And my son doesn’t, if he believes it, he says it, but he’s going to learn, he’s young. Common sense, that’s a gift from God too, in fact, if I were Paul and I were listing the Fruit of the, no, not the Fruit, but the gifts of this Spirit. And I don’t believe that that list that he gave is all of the gifts of the Spirit. I would include common sense as a gift of the Spirit, being street-smart, knowing how to do things in a way that doesn’t offend everybody and destroy the church. And that’s exactly what’s going on here. It’s good old fashioned, plain old common sense. I’ve told you that story and I’ve referenced it, the imagery before, that when Barry Goldwater was running for president, he was different. And he would go into Tennessee and speak against the Tennessee Valley Authority. And they hired a bunch of people. He’d come to Florida and speak against Social Security. And he would go, well he, you get the idea. And one of his Senator friends said to him, Barry, I know you have to walk through that field where that bull is, but every time you walk through that field, you don’t have to wave a red flag at that bull. What was his Senator friend saying? Exactly what you see manifested in the 15th chapter of Acts. And that ought to be a part of what Christians do and how they live both in the church and out of the church. And it’s good old fashioned common sense. Sometimes our witness, you get the feeling that people are witnessing for Christ. You’re going to hell, if you don’t change right now. If you, you are wrong and the Bible teaches that you’re wrong, you ought to repent and be right, like me. That’s dumb, that’s wrong. I used to do a skeptics forum, where we invited unbelievers, atheists and agnostics, and I was the only Christian I allowed to come, to come and ask questions. It was an interesting experience and I did it a number of times over a multi-week period. We would do about seven or eight weeks. And they could ask any question they wanted to, and I promised not to pray over them or be too religious about them or beat them over the head with a Bible. Just to be as honest as I could, to answer the questions that they ask. And it was a great ministry. A lot of those people became Christians and are even now serving Christ. But at any rate, they had all kinds of questions. And do you know what the hardest thing was in skeptics forums, it was to keep from saying, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Do you have the brains of an amoeba? Do you ever read a book? You ever think an original thought, if you ever did you wouldn’t say something that dumb. I never did that. You know what I said? That’s really interesting. Let’s talk about it. You say, no, that was not untrue. It was interesting. Just not in the way they took it. What was I doing? I was doing Acts 15. I was using good old common sense. And that works in church government, in church meetings and what we do in the church, how we decide things in the church, Jesus told us, count the price before you go to war, count the price before you build a tower, be sure and plan, and don’t be surprised with what happens. That’s wise. That’s common sense. And we’re going to talk a little bit about it tomorrow because it’s also the Holy Spirit and it’s supernatural. But as a matter of fact, Christians are not naive. They are not shallow. They are not silly. They are the smartest, street-smart people on the face of the earth. Ought to take place also in the church. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. You might think meetings are boring. They are, and by extension that studying a meeting would be even more boring. But no, so much to learn here at Acts 15 about leadership, loving others, and common sense. More good stuff tomorrow, hope you will join us then. Now, I don’t know if that’s the actual sound of an exploding wineskin, but it makes me smile. You’ve heard that phrase before, right? But what does it actually mean? Well, Steve spoke about that in a sermon called The Sound of Exploding Wineskins based on Matthew 9. Get your free copy of that sermon on CD by calling us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] and ask for the CD. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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