Grace Chapel Bible Ministries

Worship Call 1178 Attack against the faith - 2024/11/11

In the beginning the earth became formless and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. Darkness was the default condition. It had a hold on the world until God said light and light was. Darkness had to give way when God separated the light from the darkness. And one day there will be no more darkness. So it is that light, the truth, is a threat to all that is dark.

Duration:: 34m
Broadcast on:: 11 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to Worship Call with Bible Teacher Buzz Lawback. 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. In the beginning God created the heavens of the earth and the earth became formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. For whatever time it was, darkness engulfed the earth and it had the monopoly of darkness. Darkness is the absence of light and it would remain that way until God acted and when God acted he caught light out of darkness. And he had darkness move over and darkness could do nothing but abide. A light dissipates darkness. It dissolves darkness and so is the truth. The truth will dispel ignorance. Ignorance can't stand upon its own and you bring light into ignorance and only thing that ignorance can do is to be dispelled or it will attack the light or it will attack the truth. And in the end there will be no more darkness and therefore there will be only truth. From Winston Churchill quote, "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. Ignorance may deride it. But in the end there it is." This is the second day of the week in God's created order. The 11th month, 2024th year of our Lord we do thank you and thank you to the veterans out there that continue to serve our country, our salute to them and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father in heaven we thank you for this opportunity once again to fellowship in your word. Open our hearts to it as we continue to grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen. Good morning my lovely wife here and good morning to you as we start another week and we will continue to press forward in our study in the book of Acts. And these Christ followers, where are we here? These Christ followers were different a lot. I mean they were different. There was something about these people and they were adding to their number all the time. If many were coming to this one, if they were coming into this church and more and more and more, there were those who witnessed previously, witnessed up to words of 500 who witnessed the resurrected Christ. If the atmosphere was changing and their influence and more people were coming to join their ranks and as it was at the Galmillo said, if this is nothing more than just a fad of some type, it's going to fizzle out somewhere or some form, but it didn't have any indication of being fizzled out or going away. It was only growing. So if all of this, at least it would be worth investigating what all these people were actually knowing. Actually if there's a fire somewhere in the city or something or if there's something and people are gravitating that way, then for us it's either going to be run from it or go see what the excitement is. So the question is, do we have that kind of faith today? Does the church have that kind of faith? And Jesus Christ that causes others to want to come and to where the teaching is, to come to where the source of that life. I remember being cycled by my friend and I didn't know of his pastor, I didn't know of his church and I wanted to be a part of his team because he had the truth and I wanted to go to the source where he learned it and therefore the rest is really history. So how a church should be like that is that we've been so impacted by people's lives and we've seen a change in their lives perhaps that we want to go to the source that the water, we want to go to the watering hole that they're drinking out of how that go. So the church was growing and there was a need among the people, just a little bit of review here, there was a need of the people to, there were those people, they were filling the needs, especially those of the widows and so they selected seven men to take care of it. There was a complaint that came up of the Hellenistic Jews, those who were by culture, they were Greeks. So you might call them Greek Jews, those who were more culturally ingrained in the Greek culture than what they were the Jewish culture. But there were those in that church and so there were those that wanted to, there was a complaint came up because the Greek Jews were saying the Hellenistic Jews were saying hey we're, we're, you know, we'd be neglected here, the widows, the cultural Jews are being, there's other ones, but we're not. You know, that something's, something's up here, you know, why are we getting discriminated against? So rather than lash out of it and awe and apostles took, and they did say that should we stop doing what we're doing and waiting on tables and, but it was a genuine problem, obviously. So they elected these men to be, to be the, actually what we'll call the first deacons. Therefore brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and ministry of the word and that's what the people should want them to do. The statement found approval with the whole congregation and that congregation here. Let's see what that word is. Okay, a congregation, a multitude. I was thinking it might be, it's play-thos, it's multitude or it's not, it's not church as we see. It's the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit being his name as first. He is the leader basically over these or the most prominent and we're going to see that why he's going to be prominent. You know, and then Philip and Prakos and Nikanor and I read last night, Nikanor and maybe all of these will end up being martyrs. All of these will be losing their lives. I just read last night that Stephen and Nikanor and I don't know about these other ones, but they will be put to death. You know, so they, and I'll have to look a little bit more into that, Parminas and Nicholas, apostolite of Antioch. And these men brought before the apostles and after praying and they laid their hands on them and the Word of God kept spreading. Note that they did not fill the openings with just anyone. And this was not something that they just flippantly threw out of need. Okay, we have a need here. Let's throw these people at it. This was a careful decision with people that they were going to use. And on the top of the qualification list, they had to have a spiritual life. We were all created as believers. We were created for good works that we should walk in them. But the spiritual life, a ministry before the spiritual life can distract the spiritual life and tear it down. So it would be no good for them. Now, they may have to do it to work and accomplish the mission, but there are a couple things. First of all, for them to be thrown into ministry as a new believer, there may be problems. It may be a distraction from the spiritual life. My friend Pastor Little will have people when he recognizes that a Sunday school teacher or someone in the choir, they're having difficulties with their spiritual life. He will sit them down. He will remove them from one of our positions. They are in that church and they will sit down and they were to attend their own spiritual growth before they were put into ministry. And there's the same thing here that these people had to, these men already had to have a spiritual life in place. Let's talk about Paul's letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy 3-1, talking about elders and positions in the church, overseers and deacons. And these qualifications for the overseers will transcend over to the deacons, same thing. It starts with the overseers of the church, but it'll also, not only this, but there's also qualifications for deacons. Let's just talk about them all. It is just where the statement, "If any man inspires to the officer of the overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do." An overseer then must be a buffer approach, the husband of one wife, temporary, prudent, respectful, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or prognacious, but gentle, peaceful, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household, well keeping his children under control with all dignity, but if a man, verse 5, if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And not a new convert so that he will not be conceded and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach or snare of the devil. Now, deacons did not only this, but also with the deacons, these qualifications come with deacons likewise, must be men of dignity, not double tongue or addicted to much wine or bond of sordic gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These men must also first be testing, then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gospel, gossip, but temperate, faithful, and all things. Deacons must be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and of their household, for those who have served well as deacons obtained for themselves a high standing and a great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Now, the one thing to point out here is that while women are disqualified, I mean, and per the authority of the Bible, that Paul says I do not allow women to teach, to be pastors. They can teach other women and are to fulfill the pastoral role, I should say. Nonetheless, they are qualified to be deacons. This context right here is deacons and it throws up women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gospel, but temperate, faithful, and all things. The context is deacons, so therefore, as I see it here, there are deacons and deaconesses that there are those that women that can fulfill the position of being deacons. First Timothy, that was First Timothy 3-11. And again, Pastor Bolander, my friend, will call them deacons and sisters. Okay, I believe that is a word. Acts 6-5. The statement found approval with all the whole congregation in Nichos Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nikanor, or Nikanor, Temon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, the postlite of Antioch. Some of these, if not all of these, will find out later and see, will give their lives. And I mean being martyred, they will die for that position. How many deacons do we, how many deacons in the church today, you know, that takes on the position knowing that they could give their lives. We go into the military thinking that we might, we could lose our lives, that we could go to war and we could die at war, but in that early church, becoming a deacon, might come down to the point where we are going to die for our faith. Where we are certainly a deacons, along with the pastors and all church leaders, they were on the front lines folks, the front lines. Acts 6-6-9. And these were brought before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them. And the Word of God kept spreading, and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. Stop right there. Would we not want that in our church today, would we not want that in our church today? This is where we need to be praying. I believe that the church may be filled with people, may not be filled with people. But what do we, and this is the thing that I pray for my church about, is not for the seats just to be filled up, but the seats to be filled up with disciples. For those that come from any other reason, it's just for trouble. It's just busy bodies for people. Yes, there are the busy bodies, there are those that are flaunting there. The busy bodies are the ones who are worried about the paint on the wall and the carpet. And there's always the complaint about the heating and cooling. But they're worried about their busy bodies with so many other things, and even in the other people's lives. There's the gossip, there's the troublemakers, there's the wolves and everything else. So, we don't necessarily, while we, let's just say we want a certain clientele, and to fill out our pulpits, or to fill our seats, there's pulpits filling too, but we want those that are generally interested in God's Word. So therefore God's Word must be preached from the pulpit, and those who sit and abuse must be, have their ears open to hear God's Word. And so the Word of God kept spreading, and the number of disciples, a disciple is a learner. Mathetes is a learner, continue to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. So even the priests, there were priests who were changing their allegiance from the current order of coming into the church. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing wonders and signs. The signs are Samayon, they are authenticating miracles. The sign Samayon is an event which is regarded as having some special meaning or sign. As we've said before, it was when they understood this, when Nicodemus went to Jesus said, "We know that you are from God because of no one who apart from being sent from God could do all these wonderful works." And he was doing this among the people, John 4, 4, 8. So Jesus said unto them, "Let you people see signs and ones you simply will not believe." So, but some men from what was called the synagogue of freedmen. Now, we don't know what, doing some work up there, it's debatable who these men were, whatever the church, the synagogue, their meaning place, they called themselves the synagogue, this particular synagogue, the synagogue of freedmen, could be slaves, could be those who have won their freedom. In such a case, maybe from different areas, don't know. But the important thing is we know that here is a group that's going to set themselves up against what the church is doing. They're a smaller unit there, and we find in Revelation where the Lord in Revelation, where to the church, I don't know which church, I forget what which seven church, but Jesus speaks of the synagogue of Satan. That's going to be persecuting. Let me see if we, let me find that in Revelation. Don't know if I got it, we'd have to track it down, but Jesus speaks of the synagogue of Satan that they are the ones that's doing the persecuting of this new church. But some men, from what was called the synagogue of freedmen, including both Syrians and Alexandrians and the Celestia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. So Asia is a key point here because Asia are, the seven churches are in Asia Minor. So the same synagogue of freedmen could be the very synagogue of Satan that is referenced in Revelation, but they were unable to cope with wisdom and the spirit of which he was speaking. Okay, we find here that there are, there are those, let me find something else here coming back here. Where was that? Okay, both Syrians and Alexandrians and some associate and they rose up and argued, let's look at the work argued here and it were argued as Suzette's to express forceful differences of opinion without necessarily having a presumed goal of seeking a solution, a dispute, they were disputed and there wasn't arguing, sometimes arguing is just fine. Sometimes there is the argument of those that they want to, you know, they are arguing because they in disagreement. And there arguing, viewpoint against viewpoint, I don't, debate, I don't disagree with debate, argue only when it comes down when you're arguing just debating with someone that's not going to hear. I think that they're not going to, they're not going to listen, you might say listen to reason. They, and we've had those, there are those that you can recognize them. There are those that will attack and it's not debating their attacking. There's a, there's a difference, there's a line between debating and arguing and acting. We don't win, we don't argue, we don't debate to win an argument. We argue and we debate to uncover the truth. And some, some might be saying right now that, well, we don't argue the scripture. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. When, when, when we, when, when two believers can come together and they'll, they'll debate something and because the one thing is that your heart must be open enough to, you know, to say, why do I believe the way I do? And have I been looking at everything and within the debate when it's covered? It's all right. Listen, it's all right to say, I'm, I was wrong. I didn't see that before. Thank you for pointing that out. And it, it came out in the debate. I, I know that Walter Martin would talk about arguing and debating with, um, how Lindsey. And it's me and how Lindsey, we would argue and we would debate over, over a certain issue. And then after we got done, we'd go out and have, uh, have a spaghetti dinner and we'd be on our way, and we'd be on our way. They were friends and they would argue and they would debate. But there's a difference between someone that you come up with, the other people that will approach you and their sole goal is to cut you down. Is to discredit your face, is to tear down your face, to bring in and to show themselves. And this is especially, look, they love to do it among the group of people. And that's why I'm thinking this is a group of people right here, um, that they're among people. I could imagine that Stephen was approached when Stephen, uh, Stephen was probably teaching. And that's, in my mind, I see was teaching a group of, of people, uh, disciples, we call them, the Theteis. He, um, the Thetaoya and plural. He was teaching them. He was, he was discipling them and they were learning and, um, and there were those from this particular synagogue, a freed man. They, and they, they thought that they were smarter. They, the unbelieving world thinks that they're smart. They think that Christians are idiots. And they would bring up the point and they will, they're already set on their position. Their minds and their hearts will not be turned. All they want to do is tear it down. So they want to make Stephen look like a fool. So they would bring up a point and Stephen, being full of wisdom, would, in the, in the model that Jesus laid out for us, he would, he would gently give the answer and, and, and, and, and, um, and it would show that they were wrong. In humility, a person who is wrong can say, I was wrong and that's okay. But an arrogant person only gets angry when the truth is there. And so they would ask Stephen something else and Stephen would again. And this, and there was no doubt an audience around. So every time there was, there was a question that these, these men thought that they were brilliant questions and we got them now. Stephen would be ready to give an answer. And it wasn't in debate. I'm sure Stephen was gentle in this. He was, he was looking with all sincerity to change the hearts and minds of those who are attacking them. And more than get it, the more fired up these people feel, because they were, they were made to feel like idiots. Now those that seek to attack the Word of God and those who expouse the Word of God, if they can't, if they can't win. And this is the way, this is the way it is today. If they can't overcome the truth, they will seek to discredit and to even eliminate the source of that truth because they can't stand against it. So we must, I think we ought to be discerning on scripture, tell us this, do not cast out pearls before swine. And do not throw, do not give to the dogs that which, which is meant for the children. I think I got that wrong, but don't cast before dogs that, what is that? I'm forgetting that. Let's see what that, let me see if I can find that. Let's see, Matthew 1526. Some of you already know it. There it is. No, that's not it either. Let me see. Well, that's not it either. Oh, well, let's move on. Let's move to Acts 6, 11. Then they secretly induced men to say we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. They screwed up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the council. Here we go again before that, the back before the Sanhedrin and let me see Matthew 522. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court and whoever says, okay, that goes there into the court. Okay, so here it is coming back into the Sanhedrin coming back before the council, coming back to where I figure. And here is I could also understand the frustration of the Sanhedrin because once they had beaten and flocked Peter and John and the rest of the apostles that that would, but that may put the end to all this because no one else would want to be flocked. And here they're still having problems and they've got Stephen now being brought before him, one of these followers of the way. All right, and they cleared up to people and brought him before the council. They put four false witnesses, here we go again, who said this man incessantly speaks against the holy place, the temple, and the law. So we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, okay, at least they put the name this time, this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us. First of all, Moses didn't hand down the temple but he handed down the law and fits in their gaze on him, all who were sitting at the council saw his face like a face of an angel. I mean, not defy it, not angry, not understand, and remember that Jesus said that don't worry if the world hates you, it hated me first. And here it is that Peter, that Stephen has an opportunity now and he will take advantage of that opportunity to get to, remember that he said also, Jesus also said, don't worry about it when they drag you. Drag you in before the leaders, before the governors, don't worry what you're going to say because the Lord will give it to you, the Spirit will give it to you at that time. So here it was, they saw, and this is not just adjectives of saying he was a gentle looking guy, but they were looking in the face of a messenger, a messenger that was about to reveal, or really not reveal to him, but really give them what they already knew. And that is going to be a wonderful survey of the Old Testament, and that's where we're going to get back with, back tomorrow. So until then, let's close out in prayer. Father in Heaven, thank you for this opportunity. Once again, the fellowshiping you were. We thank you for these great examples of heroes of the faith in the early church. We pray Heavenly Father for heroes today that's going to stand for your word without compromise. We pray these things in Christ name, amen. Alright, so now the fine day, Lord, keep your armor on and keep fighting in good fight of faith. Lord, will the Spirit guide and rapt your opinion. We'll be back here in the AM. For joining us, you can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons, and get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]