Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1167 The Authority we will choose. - 2024/10/25
[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Worship Call with Bible teacher Buzz Lawbat. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse-by-verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. From pursuing God, A.W. Tozer for October 25th, humans judge the Lord. Question mark. But in vain, they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, Matthew 59. Mr. Tozer writes this morning, it is a fact that God made us to worship him. And if we had not fallen with Adam and E. worship, would have been the most natural thing for us? Sinning was not the natural thing for Adam and E. But they disobeyed and fell, losing their privilege of perfect fellowship of God, the Creator. Sin is the unnatural thing. It was never intended by God to be our nature. Men and women who are out of fellowship with God, the Creator, still have an instinct towards some practice of worship. And most of our civilized circles, the practice of picking out what we like to worship and rejecting what we do not like to is widespread. This has opened up the entire new field of applied psychology and humanism under the variety of religious disguises. Thus, men and women set themselves as judges of what the Lord has said. And so they stand with pride and judge the Lord. In the Bible, God takes the matter of worship out of the hands of men and puts it in the hands of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to worship God without the impartation of the Holy Spirit. This is the sixth day of the week, and God's created order. The 25th day of the 10th month, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord, and let us turn to our great Lord and prayer. Father in heaven, we come to thee on your terms, not our own. We worship thee and the boundaries that you have set before us. It's more than heavily followed, open up our hearts to the study of your word once again as we continue to grow and grace, the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. My apologies to you. The things messed up yesterday, but we're back today. And what they say, that not your heart be troubled because we want to pick up and bet. You've heard the-- well, actually, the lesson changed. Bethel is here for the lesson yesterday. So anyway, it's been a week of distractions, but we will get back on the sour, and we will continue to press forward. We will, like the old Indian, then what was it? Chief Wadi is at outlaw Josie Wells. We will endeavor to persevere. All right, here we go. We are chapter four and verse 19. Oh, Acts. But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than God. You be the judge, and this is where we're moving up to. This was the first hearing. This was the first-- if you want quality in position, I think I'm using that word right by a religious establishment. This will not be the last time. The religious establishment will continue on. You know, my pastor had said that, and the first time I heard it, I had to raise the eyebrows. I'm not sure about that. And he said, religion is the devil's ace trump. And the devil uses the-- he will corrupt, and he will get into whatever widespread influence. You see, religion is an influence. Education system is an influence. There are so many influences and entertainment. Entertainment, the music, everything. And these things that are widespread, Satan uses. And they're not internet again. Another one. And not that they're intrinsically bad, but because they're so widespread, I'd go back to-- he's mass communicating. And Satan mass communicates through these influences. And religion is an influence. And so he corrupts it in order to go. We must always go back to the Word of God. So here it is, is the religious establishment. And by the way, these Pharisees and the Pharisees and the Pharisees themselves, it was at one point. These were the heroes. These were the heroes of the faith back during the Maccabean wars. And now they are the arch nemesis of Jesus. They were the ones who permitted death, but now they're going to have to face the disciples who are now apostles who's taking the word of Jesus out through Jerusalem and throughout the land there. So this wasn't the first hearing. And it wasn't the first inquisition against Christians. Peter and John will set the president. They will-- this is the first one. They will set the president's. How do I, when I'm brought in to having to give it an answer? First of all, I love the question. I don't know how long ago I was. And I don't know who came up with it. But if you were brought into court and you were accused of being Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? And when it comes time-- and I think that time is coming-- when we will have to stand before the courts, the World Court, to give an answer for our faith. Are we going to stand? Are we going to cave? And it's going to be more so that-- it's not going to be just say, yes, I believe in God. We're going to see that. It's not going to be just, yeah, well, I believe in God. OK, you're good to go. It's the name Jesus that's going to infuriate and does infuriate people at this day. So travel in with the threat. But when the threat doesn't work, it's going to escalate these arrogant religious establishment people, therapists, Annas, and the others. They're going to think, well, we'll bully them. We'll raise our voice to them. We'll point our finger to them. And this matter of this Jesus will just go away. So Jesus said-- and Matthew-- let's read this in Matthew 10, 16. Because this is for all of us, by the way. Matthew 10, 16, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware, men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues. And you will even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. And stop right there as a testimony. That testimony, yes, it is. Martus Martus, this is where we get our word for martyrs. But it is a witness. It is someone who stands before the-- it's actually to give a good answer. So it is the providential hand of God that will put you at that one place at one time. Listen, you have to be prepared. This is a great time. This is not-- this is a great time for us in the sense that we get to stand and speak for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to give that testimony. So as a witness to them and to the Gentiles, and there are many martyrs throughout, and you don't have to die to be a martyr. In this case, it's-- but to stand firm against the-- when the question arises of Jesus Christ and people have been burned at the state, they have been tortured. They have seen their families. And that in itself is not, of course, a good thing. But the opportunity of giving a witness standing firm for the Lord. But when they hand you over, do not worry about what you are to say. For it will be given to you in the hour what you are to say. The Holy Spirit, and sure that we are walking in the Spirit, and the Spirit will be our mouthpiece. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father, his child, and the children will raise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. Look at that emphasis because of my name. But it is the one who has endured to the end, he will be delivered. And not necessarily-- listen, that save right here, and it is so dope that save, that deliver, those that will be delivered and not necessarily save from this life. Not this life, but will stand before the judgment seat of Christ before with the well-done, good, and faithful servant. Verse 23, "But whenever they persecute you in one city flee to the next, for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he becomes like his teacher and the slave like his master if they call the head of the house bells above. How much more will they malign the members of his household? Therefore, do not fear them. For there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed or hidden that they will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness speak in the light, and what you hear whispered in your ear proclaimed to the housetops, do not fear those who can kill the body but are unable to kill the soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy both the soul and the body and hell. And those are the words of the Lord to his disciples. And the question for us is when those times come when we are going to have to give that witness, will we be bold as Peter and John has? Again, they set the precedence for us. So they, the brood of vipers, the religious leaders, they were headed by Kephas, the high priest, and they had to expect that this matter, you know, having arrested Peter and John and hauled them and they expect the matter to be quickly done away with. Again, with some intimidation, a raising of a voice, a pointing of the finger and these guys would cower and they wouldn't have, the matter would be settled right there, some scold 'em but not so. These men were, they stitched, they had confidence. They had the show, they weren't arrogant. Don't get that, don't, don't get that, they weren't, they were humble, they were respectful to the leaders, but nonetheless, they would not cower to them. They wouldn't be disrespectful, they was no insolence and they were no hostility and no foul language, but they stood and they would not be intimidated. Peter and John stood their ground. They knew who they served. They knew who they bowed a new to it. It wasn't to these religious leaders. It was to the Lord Jesus Christ and they would not be shaken. In our time, and this I think pretty much is a thing today, in our time, there's got, you have to know now, you have to come to the time, you have to settle within your own heart, who you serve. And matter of fact, if you realize this, we go through trials every day. We most certainly do. When we come into temptation, when we come into those things that we want to do, when those things that our, our, our 10, our old sin nature is tempting us to say, do this. It's okay. It's whatever form of sin that you gravitate to, we have different sins we gravitate to, different weaknesses. And the question each day is, who do you serve? Who will you serve? Will you bow in need to your own lust, which then takes charge, or will you take charge, or will you take charge to say no, and you, because I serve the living God, I serve Christ, I don't serve my flesh. And then it goes on beyond that, and the systems that we serve in, when they want you to compromise. Who do you serve? Do you serve the system, or do you serve the, serve the Lord Jesus Christ? There comes the governmental authorities, and on up, we have to answer the question before the trial comes. Who do you serve before you even go into that courtroom? 'Cause inevitably, and here's the key. These men are recognized in having walked with Jesus. Have you walked with Jesus? Have I walked with Jesus enough to know who we serve when the challenge comes, and when you're asked, who do you serve? Peter and John standing before the religious leaders reminds me of Moses and Aaron, standing before the great Pharaoh. And Pharaoh there, all arrogant, all pumped, and all this and all that. And here comes humble Moses and Aaron to stand before the Pharaoh, to give him, and to present to him the words of the Lord, to let the people go. I went over yesterday, this is what you call Hootzbach. Did you just call this Hootzbach? And that is the savvy, the intestinal fortitude. I'll call it the Christian fortitude. Christian fortitude, to know your savor so much that nothing stands between you. And you have your Joshua moments, as far as me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So this sets the council off balance. They had already a preconceived idea of this, what's going on. We're going to shake them up again. We're going to bully them a little bit, and then we'll send them on their way. But the action of these two, and their boldness, their Hootzbach, was unexpected. After all, and the idea of the, as Scripture said, coming back to, let's go start verse 16, Acts 4, 16, saying, what shall we do with these men? For the fact is noteworthy, miracle has to, yeah. Just a minute, let's go 13. Now, they observed the confidence, going back to John 4, 13. Now, as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, they understood that they were uneducated, as untrained men. The uneducated, as you were, uneducated is Agramantas, which is pertained to one who has not acquired a formal education, referring primarily to formal training, uneducated, unlearned, he was a fisherman, okay? Both Peter and John were fishermen. And on top of that, they were untrained. It only tastes, I'm sorry, itty-o tastes, and itty-o tastes it, kind of where we get our work for idiots from. It's a person who has not acquired a systematic information or expertise in some field or knowledge or activity. It's a layman, it's an ordinary person, it's an amateur. All right? So, remember that these, maybe not these specific, maybe they were there, maybe they weren't. But at the age of 12, Jesus astonished these leaders, the religious leaders of the temple, the priests, and his teaching and his handling of the word, 'cause they, see, they had the monopoly on being trained. They were educated, they were well-educated. And they were educated, not only in word, but how to handle the law in a sense of teaching, and they were no dummies. These people had a handle on the word. Remember that Jesus said, do what they do or do what they say, but do not do what they do. So they astonished him, it just surprised them. The Faith Life Study Biles says, first of all, for for 13 bonus of Peter and John. The apostles had an unshakable confidence in speaking the truth, despite undoubtedly intimidating circumstances. I'm gonna go back to this for a minute. The world is used to beating up Christians. The world is, they stand on a very solid sound foundation of their unbelief. More so than believers stand on their belief. And they are in the practice of beating Christians up like they're tied up goats. And why? Because Christians are ignorant. They're ignorant of their Bible. And knowledge gives you confidence. These two, along with the others, they were occupied with a person of Christ for the last three years, who's been teaching them and so much more than what we even read in the gospels. Because John said that if all the books, if it was recorded, all the things that Jesus said and done, there would not be enough books in this world to fill it. So these, they were trained. Under the Rabbi, so they had confidence. Number two, they were walking in the spirit. They had the Holy Spirit that guided them and guided. You see, your spiritual life, every day needs nurturing. Your spiritual priorities must be established. You must know the word of God. Wealthful ignorance is not gonna get you through it. And if you come into the battle ill equipped without the word of God, you're going to come away with doubts and parents. Also, parents, let me remind you before you send your children off to school, that they should be equipped because the world of unbelief is ready to pounce on them like a lion, to destroy the faith that they should have received in the home. And let me also remind you there. It is not your pastor's responsibility to train up your children, it is your responsibility. So therefore, you must have the spiritual life to train your children and to grow up in it. All of this is to establish a foundation within your heart so that when you face an unbelieving world, a hostile world against the Lord Jesus Christ, you too can have that boldness of Peter and John roll your shoulders back, stand up straight, chin tough and with a presence in mind, the hootzba, say Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and you cannot be talked out of it. And that requires a firm understanding of the word of God within your hearts. So, 13 boldness of Peter and John, the fake life study bible, the apostles have unshakable confidence in speaking the truth, despite the undoubtedly intimidating circumstances with a finger pointed in their faces, the shouting and everything else, they would not be shaken. Uneducated, this does not imply that Peter and John were ignorant, but that they lacked the formal training in the law of Moses. So they had doctrine within their hearts. Again, they were under the Jesus' teaching for so long, they were firm in their understanding and their education, they knew the scriptures, but they had no formal training in it. Okay, they were, in a sense, laymen. And then go on, they had been with Jesus. This is the only explanation for the apostles' unexpected eloquence and effective speech. They have done their homework. And so our training, once again, emphasis on scripture, develop, and even if you don't feel like it, develop a habit of studying the word of God, reading scripture, reading scripture, right? Reading scripture. Understand, listen with the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit that we have, one of the ministries is that he teaches us. We have a spiritual IQ, don't use your education or your lack thereof as an excuse to opt out a Bible study of reading your Bible. The Holy Spirit compensates for that. And he opens your eyes and your heart. For those, as you just said, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. Ask and it will be given to you. And it is the word of God. It is, our Christian life isn't about how good our commitment of being good or optimistic. Our life is dependent, is a response to the word of God circulating within our hearts and it's a responsibility on our part to be students of the word of God, to take in the word of God, to have it saturated our hearts and our lives. And from that, we will make right decisions when that time comes, when we have to face our own question, when the question is faced at us and the world who tried to intimidate us out of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So as usual, the Pharisees were without words. The people understood that miracles were from heaven and this word miracle that is used here is some mayon. The words of mayon and some mayon is a means sign. And John two two. And both Jesus, ah, is that, no, that's, I'm gonna go ahead and John, John three two. There we go. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are from God. Look at that emphasis. We know that you are from God as a teacher for no one can give these signs, some mayon. And some mayon is miracle. Some mayon is an event which is regarded as having some special meaning, a sign, okay? Well, we'll leave it to that. That you do unless God is with them, okay? And again, I'm reminded emotions and errands stand before Pharaoh and giving them their bona fides. Acts 4, 16, saying, what shall we do with these men for the fact that a noteworthy sign, some mayon, has taken place through them, is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem. And we cannot deny it. There is no defenses. And so what do these people to do? If God is working through these, then anything that the religious leaders do against John and Peter will seem as if they're setting themselves up against God himself. And it most certainly will be. And so they're going to have to handle this situation with kid clubs. And so what are they going to do? They're going to intimidate them further. They're going to raise their voices. They're going to point their finger. They're going to take them out. And but they're going to give them ultimatum. No problem. Again, no problem with what you, with God. They're no problem with God, but they're going to say, they're going to have this, when it comes to this Jesus, this is where they're going to draw the line. No more than this Jesus talk. God got fine, not Jesus talk. That's where we're going to pick up Monday morning. Lord Williamsburg documents closed out. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity. This morning, fellowshiping in your work. We pray heavenly Father. As we, as history continues on, and we don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. We don't know what next week's going to bring. We don't want the election going to bring. We don't know what after election's going to bring. But we know that we are quickly coming toward a time when our own faith is going to be questioned. Where do we stand with this person, Jesus? We might get off the hook by claiming to be God a people. But without Jesus, there is no God in our lives. For Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life that no man comes to the Father, but through me. So I pray heavenly Father that you give us the hoots by. That comes through your work. May the Holy Spirit continue to lighten us the things that we study, make them the source of blessing, challenge, and a foundation forming within our hearts that we will be able to stand as witnesses for our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray these things of Christ's name, amen. All right, notified day in the Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, will the Spirit guide and raptor pending. We'll be back here actually Sunday as we will continue on with our second, the second lesson in revelation. So I hope you with us, so may appear in and out again. See ya. You can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons. And get notes by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
The authority that your choose to follow will determine your future destiny