Part 13

Part 13

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning. February 4th. This is number 13 in our Acts for our Family series. This is chapter 21. Some of the lessons we learn in chapter 21 include don't get too comfortable. We have many stops to make. So there are times when Paul and the other disciples they moved around quite a bit. Sometimes they stayed for a while, but often they God had them move around quite a bit. And that may be the case with us. Then sometimes there are going to be disagreements. Good people disagree. Good hearts will differ. Paul wanted to do something, and some of his loved ones around him didn't think it was wise to do that. And they begged him until finally they ceased and said, Let the will of the Lord be done. It's really a hard thing to get to that spot where you truly want God's will. Most people are so drunk on their will. Even good Christians. They're so, I don't know, just drunk on their will. It makes them feel powerful. They think they can do whatever they want to do, and it's hard to rise above that. It's just part of who we are. James says, you know, get some sense, you people that say you're gonna do this or that. You got you got your plans and you're just gonna do them, and you think that it's just gonna work out. No. No. The attitude should be if God wills, we will do this or we will do that. The same is going to be true when we go through whatever we're gonna go through. You need to fight to an extent for what you think is right, all the time being prayerful and not trying to be bossy or just, you know, want your will. But you have to know, you know, like Ecclesiastes 3 talks about, there's a time for this and there's a time for that. There's a time to fight for what you want, and there's a time to say, okay, God obviously is resisting my will right now, and I will submit to that. We also must be prepared to submit to doing wise and reasonable things to prove our sincerity. The disciples encouraged the apostle Paul to do a few things to prove to the stubborn Jews that he wasn't trying to ruin their religion. That Paul was, in fact, a good Jew and a good Christian at the same time. But we have to be prepared for the fact that some will put the worst construction on our humble, loving acts. The worst construction, um that's that goes along with the commandment, I think maybe the eighth commandment, of not bearing false witness. When somebody does something and you just automatically put a bad spin on it, you're breaking that commandment. We should always try to put the best construction possible on people's actions until we're certain of their intent and the wrongness of their actions. So we have to be prepared to for people to take the good things that we do and turn them around and make them look bad. But God will in his own way, in his own time, bring forth your righteousness, our righteousness, as the noonday sun. God will make the good things you do that you have done with a humble heart, and in his name, he will make them shine when he decides he wants them to shine. Now chapter 22. Paul gives his testimony to several Jewish leaders, and uh we have to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that lies within us. You need to be prepared to give your testimony. You need to think about this. On one hand, Christ tells you don't when you're brought before people to answer for your faith, he will give you the words. But he's not saying you shouldn't think about it beforehand. You need to be prepared. What does being prepared mean to you? It means be prepared. If you want if you're going to clean, you know, a uh a classroom or a mobile home, you're you you do preparation to do that. You get your your cleaning tools and your mops and rags and detergents and all that kind of stuff. You're preparing. If you have a presentation to do, I'm I prepare for these presentations. I prepare for them. I think about them, I take notes, I review my notes and go over them, and I prepare to give these presentations. Just like you need to prepare yourself to give your testimony. Now here are some ideas. Your testimony might include the fact that you have a father who loves God and was searching for the truth in all the wrong places until he found truth in the Lutheran Church. It might include the fact that for 30 years you saw me, your father, you saw my faithfulness and devotion to Luther's teaching, because he knew that Luther taught the truth as Paul gave it to the church. It might include something like for these 30 years we have stood shoulder to shoulder with him, being taught the truth once for all, delivered to the saints. It might include something like we've watched this man strive with all his strength to teach us, our children, and any others who would listen to the proper meaning of baptism and communion in God's word, and to do all he could to keep us from gross sin. And then it might include the fact that we are a multinational family with a heart for the Jewish people. Chapter 23, Paul makes an amazing statement, and I've been considering this for months. I think yesterday morning, finally, maybe I'm not completely sure, but I think I'm I think I'm right. It finally dawned on me what Paul meant when he said he's lived his whole life before God in all good conscience, up to the very day of his testimony. Paul said that, and Paul could say that. Paul even killed Stephen in all good conscience. So I mean he said this to these Jewish leaders after he had killed Stephen. So he killed Stephen in all good conscience because he was following his religion. I'm wondering, is there a hint here of what Christ meant when he said, I would that you were either hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. So I wonder if Christ has more respect for people who are devoted to a false religion than for Christians who profess his name but are half-hearted in their true religion. James says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. In that same context, James says, if any of you lack wisdom, if you don't understand your life, if you need help from God to understand why you're going through the things you're going through, ask of God. Ask God, and He will give you an answer, and He won't make fun of you for asking. He wants you to ask. But James cautions make sure you ask in faith, not wavering. You can't waver. You have to this has to be part and lot of who you are. That with all your heart you want an answer from God, and that you're not double-minded, you're not going two different ways. You don't want some of what God wants for you and some of what this world wants for you. You have to be totally committed in your mind, in heart. I think of Balaam. I call him both ways Balaam. And Balaak wanted Balaam to come and curse the Jews, and he said, I can't do it, because God has blessed them. And then he makes Balach angry and offers Balaam gold, and finally Balaam takes the gold. He was a preacher for prophet. And he finally still curses the I mean, excuse me, blesses the Jews even the second time. But in secret, behind the scenes, he instructed Balaam how he could destroy the Jews and make them a weaker nation. And then first Kings thirteen, I want to read this. Behold, now the background of this is when uh the Jewish nation divided after the death of Solomon. It divided into two pieces the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. In the northern kingdom, Jeroboam who went astray from the Word of God, he made up his own religion, kind of based on you know the Jewish religion, but he had uh a couple of different worship areas built in the northern kingdom, and he had people go worship there rather than having to go to the southern kingdom, Judah, what we call Judah, and worship at Jerusalem. He didn't want his people having to go back to Jerusalem to worship, like God wanted the Jews to do several times a year. So 1 Kings 13 says, And behold, a man of God came out of Judah, so that's the southern kingdom, by the word of the Lord to Bethel. So God calls this preacher who was from Judah and sends them to Bethel, the worship capital that Jeroboam had made. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings, and the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you. So this prophet, sent by God, goes to the false church in northern Israel and says, God is going to raise up a king, Josiah by name. So this prophet names Josiah before he was born, and said, This king is going to burn your bones, your false preacher's bones on this very altar. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign that the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out. And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hands from the altar, saying, Seize him. And Jeroboam's hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw back it to him, draw his hand back to himself. So this king wanted to seize and probably kill this false this prophet, who preached a sermon he didn't like. As soon as the king's hand touched this prophet, it withered up. And his hand which he stretched out against him dried up so that he could not draw it back. The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And the king said to the man of God, entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the Lord, begged the Lord, and the king's hand was destroy was restored to him and became as it was before. And the king said to the man of God, Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward. And the man of God said to the king, If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water in this place. For so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, You shall neither eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came. So this prophet had strict commands about his mission. He was to go to Bethel, pronounce this judgment, not stay there, preach a sermon, and leave, and go back a different way to go home. So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel. So so far the prophet has been obedient. Now an old prophet lived in Bethel, so a false preacher lives in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. And their father said to them, Well, which way did he go? And his son showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone, and he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it, and he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak, and he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said to him, Come with me, come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with you or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came. And the man said to him, Oh, I also am a prophet, as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied to him. So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water. And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back, and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, Eat no bread and drink no water, your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. And after he had eaten bread and drunk he saddled the donkey for the prophet, whom he had brought back, and as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it. The lion also stood beside the body. And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lat lion standing by the body, and they came and told it to the city where the old prophet lived. And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him according to the word that the Lord spoke to him. And he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me, and they saddled it. And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. And the prophet took up the man of God and laid it on his donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. And he laid the body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother. And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried, lay my bones beside his bones, for the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the city of Samaria shall surely come to pass. So an interesting story. And this may be where Paul, the basis for Paul saying, if an angel of God comes to you and teaches and tries to teach you anything, but what I have taught you, don't listen to him. You stick on the right road. You do what you know God has asked you to do, and don't let anything change your mind or your direction. If you do, you will be severely punished. And you have to ask the question. See, everybody wants peace to one degree or another. Everybody wants peace. Excuse me. But you have to ask yourself, what concord, what what communion, what agreement does light have with darkness? Besides none. You have to ask yourself, what do greed and democracy or this America this satanic American dream nonsense have to do with true religion? Today's Christians, they've made the American dream and and and religion one and the same. They have nothing in common. You c you can't make them have commonality. So I'm wondering if hell will be easier than those few who live in union with their false religion. Now, for when Paul said he had lived in all good conscience until that day, the high priest had him struck on the mouth for that statement. And you have to understand that Paul had his conscience changed as he learned the way of truth more perfectly. So Paul killed Stephen in all good conscience, and he's testifying to what he believes years later in all good conscience. He's not a hypocrite. Paul Vannerman told me one time many with less education are doing more for Christ than you. Dr. Bob III wrote me a letter one time. He said he's gonna pray that God shakes me until my teeth rattle for practicing my religion. Steve Soames gave me 24 hours to get out of my counseling office because I was practicing my religion in all good conscience.