What is a Bible Ministry?

[00:00:00] Let's turn to acts chapter 17 once again and continue where we left off there from this morning. [00:00:08] I did not know, of course, that brother Richberg would be here, but it's a fitting. Obviously, his ministry working with printing bibles is kind of a fitting match to what we're looking at this, this evening. So let's look at acts chapter 17, verses one through 15. I'll read that, and then we'll pray. And then I want to read a few sections out of first Thessalonians, really, just to kind of fill in the blanks and help you to see the connections between the beginning of the chapter in act 17 and first Thessalonians and how that they match. They go directly together. And what you have to understand, and this will help you to see it, is when you read the Bible, you have to understand that not everything that happened, not every minute detail is found in every single account. And when we read first Thessalonians, you will see that there were many things happening that just weren't mentioned, that the Lord did not lead Luke to actually write down. But they were all there. They all did happen. And that'll give you kind of a guidepost as you read other passages of scripture and not draw so many conclusions so quick about what is not there. Arguments based upon absence are generally not very good arguments. [00:01:35] Let's look at act 17, verse one. [00:01:38] Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them. And three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging that. Opening and alleging that Christ must, needs, have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas. And of the devout Greeks, a great multitude. And of the chief women, not a few. But the Jews, which believed, not moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also whom Jason Hath received. And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city. When they had heard, they heard these things, and when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word of God with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed also of the honorable women, which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached to Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea. But Silas and Timotheus abode there still. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto Silas with Timotheus, for to come to him with all speed, they departed. All right, let's pray together. [00:03:50] Father in heaven, once again, thank you for your word. [00:03:54] Lord, thank you for your people. Thank you for what you are doing here. We pray that you would continue this great work that you're doing at choice hills among your people, and that the grace of God would be evident among us. Lord, we pray. Father, we ask you to save souls through our ministry and our witness here. Not just the pastor, but especially through each and every person, as we try to share the gospel with those around us. Lord, that the waters of baptism would be stirred as people take their stand and publicly acknowledge their faith in Christ, and that people would grow and that you would do a great work here, Lord, even as you did in Thessalonica, even as you did in Berea. Thank you for the record that you preserved for us here in your word. Lord, would you please bless our time tonight as we look in your word and encourage your people? [00:04:45] In Jesus name I ask. Amen. Now, if you would hold your place here and go to first Thessalonians chapter one. [00:04:59] What I want to do is just read several verses in the first three chapters that kind of fill in some of the gaps and give us more information about Paul's ministry. And what I'd like you to do is, as I read these, I won't spend very much time here, but as I read them, I'd like you to remember the way their ministry in Thessalonica got started and all the events associated with the beginning of it, because he touches on all of these now. This was written sometime later, not a great deal later, but sometime. They had apparently had already gone down to where Corinth is by this time, which is coming up in acts later, but he's writing back to them because by the time that this is written, Paul has already gone to Corinth, probably, but he has not yet returned to Thessalonica at this point. So this is why there's this language in here. Okay. Verse number five of chapter one says, and we saw this morning, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord. Notice this. Having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, you notice that that's all the persecution that came. Jason and his house being assaulted, and those with him because of their association with Paul. Now, Paul left, but those others stayed. [00:06:33] They had to stay faithful to their faith in the midst of persecution. [00:06:37] But that wasn't all. Verse eight. Now, here's this. We have this idea, I think sometimes, I know I do, that when a church is persecuted, when the people of God are persecuted in a certain place, they're just doing everything they can to keep their head above water. [00:06:53] That's not true, because this church in verse eight, though they were under the oppression of persecution, it says, for from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia, that's where Thessalonica is, but Andekiah, that's where Corinth is, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not speak anything. So after Paul had left, now, I think when you read acts chapter 17, you see, I think it's verse number three. Paul mentions. I'm sorry, the writer mentions Paul and Silas in Thessalonica, but Timothy, who was, as we saw before, was on their journey. Timothy and Luke. Timothy's not there. So some people think Timothy stayed at Philippi because, remember, although Paul and Silas had been beaten and thrown in prison and they were asked to leave, Timothy wasn't. [00:07:53] Timothy was also not a full blooded jew, so he could pass off as a Greek. And so some people think that Timothy remained in Philippi while Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica. And that could be because you do see. Well, you'll see it in just a minute. All right. Chapter two. Look at that. [00:08:12] Verse two. But even after that, we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi. Now we remember what happened there. [00:08:23] We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God. Notice with much contention. So Paul saw the handwriting on the wall. After what had happened in Philippi, he knew that those jews showed up. There was going to be trouble, pardon my southern. There was going to be trouble. And there was. The question is whether he was going to kind of pull back because he saw the trouble coming, which is our tendency. Even Paul himself felt that, that pressure to just lighten up, just say less, don't preach as much. He felt that, and he actually asked for people to pray for him, that he might have boldness. [00:09:07] And so we see verse number. [00:09:11] Let's drop down to verse number nine. Notice this. So while Paul is at. Sister Amy, I'm paying attention to your. And what was the 1 hour and our. Okay. Sister Amy told me I don't say that, right. So I'm trying to pay attention. Okay. [00:09:30] All right. Okay. Verse nine. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail. So this is talking about when they were still in Thessalonica for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached unto you the gospel of God. So between the sabbaths, you know what Paul was doing in Thessalonica? He was working. [00:09:55] He was making tents. [00:09:58] See, that's not mentioned at all in acts, but it's there. Right? This is what I'm talking about when I said earlier. [00:10:07] But he did that to set an example of labor and travail, in other words, to work hard. And if you're in the adult Sunday school class, we're going to get to that talking in the book of acts. I'm sorry. In the book of proverbs, as we study that subject. [00:10:23] And he says, verse 13, for this cause, we thank God without ceasing. And this relates to our message tonight, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. You know, that's my prayer. I mean, God knows my heart. [00:10:46] As I try to pray for all of you, I try to pray for the church corporately. [00:10:54] I don't have a grand plan of ministry. I don't have some great agenda, some master plan to implement in phases, or I don't have that. Maybe some people do, and that's fine, but I'm not that smart to have anything like that. [00:11:14] My desire there, and what I try to do is, my hope is that we can look at the word of God and see what it says, and really let it come into our heart, understand it, and that the word would effectually work in us, in you, in me, and all of us. And I know, as I study, it works in me. I know that, and I hope that it works in you. But listen, if the word of God doesn't do a work in each one of our hearts, I certainly don't have another alternative to do whatever needs to be done or anything like that. [00:11:54] There's nothing the purpose driven whatever. I don't have anything like that to offer. [00:12:01] This is why, and I'll say more about this in a minute. As you can see in verse 13, Paul's ministry was solely based upon God's word. That was it. Paul depended 100% on God's. The power of God's word. That is the written word of God, the scriptures accomplishing the work. And he says, that is why what happened in Thessalonica happened. [00:12:28] No other explanation. God used his word. [00:12:32] And in verse 14, he mentions the Jews. Notice what he says about the Jews, verse 15, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us, and they please, not God. So in acts, what do we see? In acts? We see the Jews did this, and the Jews did that, and the Jews did this, and the Jews did that. And we think, man, that's bad. This now, in the letter is where you have Paul telling us what he thinks about it, right? He says, they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved to fill up their sins always, for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. You see that? [00:13:11] That's what Paul thought. He thought what these Jews are doing was absolutely of the devil. Wickedness. [00:13:19] Verse 17. But we brethren, being taken from you for a short time, in presence, not in heart, endeavor the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. [00:13:30] Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again. But Satan hindered us. [00:13:37] Yeah, I read one person, they thought that Satan hindered us was a reference to Jason and his security. In other words, Jason put up some money as a security that Paul would not come back because Paul had been staying with him. I don't know if that's exactly true, but maybe here, just reading between the lines, maybe Paul is saying whatever they were trying to work out so that Paul could return, didn't pan out. The devil's working against him. So listen, Paul can't go back to Thessalonica right now. [00:14:11] But there is somebody that can. And it was likely the person who wasn't there to begin with. Nobody knows who he is. And that's Timothy. Verse one. Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone and sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith. So Timothy went back to Thessalonicus. So they weren't. That's the good thing. Sometimes we read acts and we think, well, Paul was there for a few weeks and he had to leave. And you think, well, they're just left to themselves. No, they weren't. They weren't. I know you guys that have been around a lot of preaching. You have heard people say, know, well, they're only there for a few weeks, and then they're gone, and that church is still. Whoa, whoa. There were other people that were traveling with Paul, and you see their names here and there in the epistles. They were working with Paul, and they were going to these places wherever they could to strengthen these new christians, and they did, and it was effective. [00:15:14] He says, verse three. That no man should be moved by these afflictions for yourselves. Know that we were appointed there unto. And so he says, verse six. [00:15:22] But now when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us, always desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you, therefore we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith. For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. [00:15:46] All right, so I just wanted to read that. I know we spent a little bit of time, but I wanted to read it to fill in some of those gaps in act 17, so we all get a full picture of what is happening. Now, if you would go back to act 17, I want to look particularly at the church or at the missionary effort in Berea, verse ten. [00:16:06] Acts 17, verse ten. And the brethren immediately sent Paul away. And Paul sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who, coming thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now, we know this is Paul's manner. We saw that this morning these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. Now, the word noble in this case, and this is the way we use it as well, comes from a word that basically, it's a compound word that means good born or well bred. Well born. In other words, when you think of nobility, you think of someone who's born into an influential line. If you're into those kind of shows where they have 17th or 16th, 18th century England, my wife likes those kinds of things. And they all speak with a british accent and all that stuff. [00:17:08] When you look at that, you see nobility, people that are born into those families. [00:17:17] This is not that. Though it says they were more noble than those in Thessalonica. In this case, the nobility does not come from birth, but it comes from their response to God's word. [00:17:35] It means they were distinguished from others by the greatness of their character. They had high qualities or ideals. This is what this means. Noble. Noble. Now, why were they noble? Verse eleven. There are two reasons. This is an easy outline here. Two reasons. Because they received the word with all readiness of mind. Number one. And number two, they searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. [00:18:06] Now, to receive the word with all readiness of mind, that speaks to their disposition toward the word of God, to their inclination to it. Their inclination to it. That's an important point. [00:18:23] When they heard it, they received it, and they believed it, right? They believed it was the word of God. And so they understood and knew that they were therefore obligated to listen to what it said. Their heart was inclined to it. [00:18:40] Okay? In other words, you might say they didn't have an agenda except what the word said. Right, number one. Number two, they took the time and the effort, and they had willingness to search the scriptures and to test what Paul was alleging, right? We saw that in verse number three, to test what Paul was alleging by the scriptures. In other words, they weren't lazy with the Bible. They were willing to take the time to read it. Remember, this is a time you have to understand the way this worked. And this is true in the christian history as well. [00:19:25] The synagogues, the people, did not have bibles at home in this period of history. The printing press, Gutenberg's printing press, was not even printed, like had not been invented yet. It would be 1300 years later, before the Gutenberg printing press, which was the first one, would be printed. So their bibles were still scrolls or codices, codices being. It was a book, but it was all handwritten. Okay, so the bibles, like we would call them, the scriptures, were kept in the synagogues, right? Because they were very expensive. So they kept them in the synagogue, the building, even in the christian church. Sometime later, the New Testament and the scriptures were still very expensive because they were all hand copied. They were kept at the church building so the people would come to hear the word of God. [00:20:17] Now, aren't you glad that that's not the case with you? [00:20:21] But you better believe it if you came to hear the word of God, I bet you memorized it, right? A lot more than we do, because that was all you had. Unless you maybe brought something to write and copy what you heard or whatnot. [00:20:35] That assumed you could read and write. So that's what you have, that they're coming to the place of worship. [00:20:42] Paul's talking, and then they're spending time. It says they came and searched the scriptures daily. So they were willing to put the time in to gather together and look at Paul's claims. He brought up verses and they would say, okay, well, let's look at this. Let's look at this passage in Isaiah. Let's look at this passage in Psalm. Let's look at this passage in Jeremiah. And let's see. Is what he's saying true? They took the time to do know that alone. Just the amount of effort that is necessary to know the Bible is something that derails like a huge portion of people. You right? It's just right. [00:21:25] Just. [00:21:28] I'm tired. [00:21:30] Listen, that attitude is not the recipe to be a noble christian. It's just not. [00:21:41] These people. These weren't even believers yet. [00:21:45] Notice their disposition toward the Bible. It was important to them. It was important to them. [00:21:50] Listen, all of us have lazy moments, okay? Every one of us has lazy moments. [00:21:57] But this was their disposition toward the Bible. Now notice verse twelve. I'm hurrying, therefore. So you have. They received the word with all readiness of mind. They searched the scriptures daily. Whether those things were so. Notice twelve. Therefore, because they did the above, therefore, many believed the scriptures were the powerful force to create faith in the hearts of these people. They were converted for one reason, because they saw the truth in the scriptures. [00:22:41] That see the power we were talking about earlier. They saw the truth in the scriptures. [00:22:50] And this is the difference, if you notice, the reason I wanted to cover Berea with Thessalonica is because a comparison is made between the Bereans and the Thessalonians. They were more noble. Verse eleven. They were more noble. [00:23:07] What was the difference in the response? In Thessalonica, Paul was speaking to the Jews in Berea. Paul was speaking to the Jews in Thessalonica. Paul's in the synagogue. In Berea. Paul's in the synagogue. This is what he did everywhere. [00:23:20] What was the difference in response. [00:23:24] The difference was one thing. In this case, one thing. [00:23:29] Their disposition toward God's word. That's it. That's it. [00:23:35] Now, contrast the synagogue in Thessalonica. The Jews. We see what they did in verse number five. The Jews that believe not so they heard what Paul said. [00:23:48] They were the rabble rousers. They were the one that went to the market and found those immoral derelicts that were loitering around the market and had nothing to do and looking for trouble. And they probably hired them and gathered a mob together. So think of what they did. [00:24:07] They associated with thugs. Right? They bore false witness, which is a violation of one of the commandments we've been studying. They raised a riot. They falsely accused God's people. All of these things. [00:24:23] Let me ask you something. Do you think people with such. So few scruples like this are willing to do this to accomplish some end? Do you think they are the ones that are going to be spending time looking at the Bible, testing to see what Paul says? No, that's not what they did. [00:24:40] Their disposition in Thessalonica was not the same as those in Berea. And so their response was different. [00:24:49] They were disinclined. They were indisposed to hear anything that did not affirm their already held views. [00:25:02] Maybe that was because of religious pride. Maybe that was because of envy we saw there. Maybe that was because they loved sin. Maybe because it was uncomfortable for them to consider that they might not have it all together. Might not have it all right. Whatever the case might be, they were disinclined as compared to readiness of mind. They were not inclined toward God's word. They were inclined away from it. [00:25:29] Furthermore, they were unwilling to search the scriptures to see if what Paul claimed was true. And so therefore, what happened. [00:25:40] Verse number five. [00:25:42] They did not believe. [00:25:44] So you have the very opposite thing happening in Berea as happened in Thessalonica. The difference, the disposition they have toward the word of God. [00:25:55] And you know what? [00:25:57] Almost practically every time a person turns the gospel away, the reason can be traced back to one of these two reasons. Either they're disinclined to it from the start. [00:26:14] Knock on some. This happened with. I was with charity yesterday. This is before I almost got bit and nigh into killed by the german shepherd. Exaggerating a little. [00:26:27] Almost. This is before that. Knocked on a door. Lady came to the door. I said, hello, I'm Adam. This is my daughter charity. We're from Choice Hills Baptist church, and we're just coming around the neighborhood trying to tell people about Jesus, she said, very politely, she said, what was it? [00:26:47] Have a nice day, and turned around and walked away. [00:26:50] You see, we can beat ourselves up. I might beat myself up over the lack of opportunity, but was her heart inclined to God's word? No. Maybe it was because I said Baptist. Maybe it was because I said Jesus. I have no idea. She didn't elaborate at all. So I have no idea. The cause for her to turn around and walk away like that, rudely. I don't know. I don't know. [00:27:17] But here's the thing. [00:27:19] If someone is not inclined to give you a hearing, the word of God, a hearing, then that's going to stop it dead in its tracks. [00:27:31] And then sometimes it's just maybe they're inclined, but they're just too lazy to really search it out to find out the truth. Usually it's the first one, though. Generally is, oh, you're Baptist, so I'm not listening, or you're this. I'm not listening. Oh, you said Jesus, I'm not listening, and so listen. They do not have a readiness of mind. They do not have a readiness of know. The only thing that can cure that, that I know of, maybe some of you have better ideas, is prayer. [00:27:58] That God changes their mind, opens their heart, like Lydia, because you can't force the gospel down someone's throat, even though they claim we do, by just telling them, you can't force the gospel. So if they're disinclined, that's going to affect whether they believe. And I know this is very obvious, and I think many people are not willing to consider what we say from the scripture because they're afraid of what might happen if it's true. [00:28:32] Just they're afraid it might be true, and so they turn away. [00:28:38] Now, what I want you to see from verse eleven, let's read verse eleven again. And I want to make a couple of points on this. [00:28:44] These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Now, this is only one verse in this passage, in these two places where the word of God is mentioned. Notice in verse number two, the Bible says in the middle, Paul reasoned with them out of the scriptures. [00:29:07] In verse eleven, Paul gave them the scriptures daily. Verse 13. And when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, notice that over and over, the Lord mentions Paul's ministry of the word of God. Now, I just want to make a few points based on verse eleven that I think are important. [00:29:29] Paul's ministry was a ministry based in the teaching and truth of the word of God. Now, I'm going to make a few statements, and I want you to try hard to, not just because they're going to sound familiar, but I want you to try hard to make sure you pay attention to exactly what I'm saying. Because you say, well, Paul's ministry was a Bible ministry. Yeah, I know that, but what am I trying to say here? I want you to get it. Okay? [00:29:59] Paul's ministry was a ministry based in the teaching and truth of the word of God. Notice in verse two, he reasoned with them out of the scripture. So when Paul went to a place, he had one. [00:30:11] They call it modus Operandi, right? One, mo, he had one way. He did things. One, he took the Bible and he said, this Bible says this about Jesus. [00:30:30] This Bible, the scriptures say x, y, and z. [00:30:36] The scriptures say Jesus was prophesied to die and to rise, and that all that trust in him will receive forgiveness of sins. All right? Paul's ministry was a Bible ministry. It was founded upon the scripture. He had no other method. I mean, you think about the miracles and things, but really, that was not standard. [00:31:02] You notice we haven't covered any miracles lately. [00:31:05] Where did they go? All go. That wasn't Paul's mo. Paul's mo was to go in there and talk and show them, show people what the Bible said. That was what he did everywhere. [00:31:19] So his ministry was a Bible ministry. Now listen to this. Two Corinthians, four, two, it says this, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Paul speaking now, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but notice what he says. But by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. So he says, this is what I did. [00:31:48] I'm not being crafty. I don't have an agenda. I bring you the word, I tell you what it says, and I call you to believe what it says and to trust in the Christ of the scriptures. [00:32:02] You see how simple that is? It's very simple. [00:32:06] There's no craftiness. There's no philosophy. [00:32:12] You might say, even there's very little apologetics, although it does say he reasoned with them out of scripture. There is some debate, but even the debate was to demonstrate that what the scripture said was true. [00:32:25] He had no other tool. [00:32:27] It was just the Bible. It wasn't about him, it was just the Bible. [00:32:31] Two corinthians six, verses four and seven. Listen, he's talking about his being a minister of God. He says, but in all things, approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, he goes further to say, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness, on the right hand and on the left. [00:32:53] You know what? Our Lord said the same thing if you look at John, John five. Look at that. If you would hold your place in acts, because we'll be back here. John chapter five. [00:33:09] The Lord said nothing different than that. [00:33:14] John, chapter five, verse number 39. [00:33:19] Our Lord speaks to the Jews, and he says this. He gives an imperative, a command. He says, search the scriptures. [00:33:29] Search the scriptures. That's what the Bereans did, right? They did. You know what happened? [00:33:35] They believed. So Jesus says, search the scriptures. Look at what they say. [00:33:42] Isn't that simple? [00:33:45] Listen, you and I don't have to be expert soul winners. [00:33:52] We just have to be able to tell people what God says. [00:33:58] It's simple. The Lord didn't make it hard for us. [00:34:04] The Lord says, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, which is to say, you think by you studying the Bible, you're getting eternal life. Well, the scriptures that you're studying, they are. They which testify of me. I'm in there. [00:34:20] If you search them, you'll find me. [00:34:26] So Paul's teaching came. [00:34:29] So our Lord said the same thing as Paul. Look at the scripture. Paul gave the scripture. Here's the second thing I want you to see from this. Paul's teaching came from the scripture, and his teaching could withstand the scrutiny of people testing what he said by the scriptures. And Paul was not offended because people were skeptical of his claims. [00:34:51] Paul says, the Bible says xyz, and they. Hmm, I've never heard that before. [00:34:58] Well, let's look and see. Paul's like, I am the man of God. How dare you question me? No, he didn't say that. [00:35:07] He says, I have told you nothing but what it says. Look for yourselves and listen. If Paul's ministry was not a Bible ministry, that is, he wasn't teaching the unadulterated, pure word of God, they would have picked up on it. [00:35:27] But as such, he was not afraid to let them scrutinize. Look at it yourself. [00:35:34] Look at it yourself. [00:35:36] He didn't see it as a challenge to his authority. Indeed, he rejoiced. [00:35:41] And would God, everyone would try what we said by the scriptures. I hope that you, as a church, you try what I say by the scriptures I'm trying with. I mess up, of course, and I will fall short, but I will try to give you the word of God. You know what? You need to look with your own eyeballs at what it says and see if what I'm saying is what it says. [00:36:10] That's your responsibility. Listen, as a priest of God, which is what you are, right to look at it yourself. [00:36:19] And when we tell other people about Jesus, we tell them what the Bible says about sin, about the gospel, about eternal life and all those things. We just tell them what the Bible says and let them look at it and see for themselves. [00:36:35] You see? Please hear me. Now. It is not enough that we just say the words that are in the Bible. In other words, use the lingo. [00:36:47] My grandfather sometimes would describe that when he would be listening to a preacher on tv, he would say what he says is right out of the Bible. [00:36:56] And usually what that meant, because I knew what the man that he was listening to was teaching. [00:37:02] What it meant is he was using verbiage out of the Bible. [00:37:08] But the question is not whether he uses the words that are in the Bible as his vocabulary. The question is whether what he is saying is what the Bible says, what he is teaching is what the Bible teaches. [00:37:20] That's the difference between being a Bible preacher or a Bible Christian and someone that just uses the lingo. [00:37:30] It must be exactly what the scriptures are actually teaching. And I know, look, every tv preacher in the world, every false prophet in the world, every false teacher uses the Bible, right? They have verses they go to and all that. But using the Bible doesn't mean you're a Bible preacher. [00:37:47] But saying what the Bible is teaching is the difference. [00:37:56] So be careful when someone says it came right out of the Bible. [00:38:00] There's a lot of crazy stuff comes right out of the Bible. [00:38:04] You think about tongues. How many people believe in tongues? I believe in tongues. I do. I'm speaking one right now. [00:38:11] Right, but how many people would you hear that? They believe in speaking in what they think of as an unknown tongue, an angelic prayer language, or however they want to describe it. [00:38:23] Well, it's right in the Bible. Just see it. First Corinthians, chapter twelve. It's right there. Chapter 14. It's right there. [00:38:29] Yeah, it's there. But that's not what the scripture teaches on that thing. Right, but it's right out of the Bible. You see what I'm saying? You understand the difference. You think about the veneration of Mary, the worship of Mary that is practiced in Catholicism, is Mary in the Bible? Yes. But does the Bible teach to worship or venerate her above any other person? No. So just because you use that lingo, the Virgin Mary, it doesn't change anything. It doesn't mean that what we're saying is in the scripture. Right. Be careful of that because we should be scrutinizing and analyzing what we hear by the scripture. Third thing, this right here in acts 17, they searched the scriptures, they tested what Paul said. Therefore many of them believed. This demonstrates that. Listen now, please. Even from the earliest New Testament times, the scriptures alone were the basis of the Christian's faith. [00:39:45] And that's what we say now among Baptists. We say this, the Bible is our sole rule of faith and practice. What does that mean? That means everything is to be measured and examined by the Bible, what we believe and what we do, faith and practice. Now, what does that mean? [00:40:09] That statement that I just said, the Bible is our sole rule of faith and practice. That statement is not the sole rule of faith and practice. The Bible is. But that statement summarizes the truth that we see here. These Christians went back to the Bible. [00:40:24] Does the Bible say what Paul is saying? They didn't even believe Paul the apostle, but they did believe the scripture. [00:40:32] So the basis of their faith was not tradition. [00:40:35] It was not what was commonly practiced in other churches. It was not denominational decrees. It was not trying to curry favor with people. Even our own church's doctrinal statement, not even our own doctrinal statement, determines what we believe and do. [00:40:57] The Bible alone determines that. Now we use a doctrinal statement. We have one to articulate what we believe the Bible teaches. But ultimately, it's not the doctrinal statement that determines it. In fact, our doctrinal statement concerning the scriptures, I printed it out. [00:41:15] Here's what it says. We believe the holy scriptures are the true center of christian unity and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creed and opinion shall be tried and therefore shall serve, should serve as the Christian's supreme and final authority in faith and practice. [00:41:36] That's pretty good. I would say that statement is consistent with what we see the Bereans doing. Right. [00:41:44] And so we have it. But ultimately, not even this is the Standard. The Standard is the Bible itself, is the Bible itself. Again, we're not making light of this. This has an important place. But even this is based on the Bible, or it's supposed to be. Right. [00:42:05] Our teaching must hold up to scripture. [00:42:10] It should be thoroughly scriptural. It must be based purely in scripture. [00:42:18] Now, as a result of their testing, what Paul said by the scripture, when they did believe it, upon what was their faith based upon, upon Paul's oratory or upon the scriptures that they had seen themselves, you know what I want that to be? I want, listen, if you believe anything, as a Christian, as a child of God, if you believe anything, if you have any standard, if you have any rule, anything that guides, and I sure hope you do, things that guide your practices of what you do and don't do and go and don't go and say and don't say and believe and don't believe. If you have any guide, I want that which guides you to be the Bible. [00:43:05] I want that to guide me. Whether it's the music you listen to, what you wear, the places you go, who you marry, what kind of church you go to, if ever you move away from here, any question that could be asked, I want you as an individual to take guidance and direction from what the scriptures actually say, and you know for certain why you do that and believe that. [00:43:43] And so lastly, the word of God alone is still to this day, as we see here, the sole rule for what a Christian believes and does. [00:44:01] Now, this is more, what I'm saying here is more than just reading your Bible every day. [00:44:07] This is acting upon what it says. [00:44:11] It's letting God determine what we believe and letting the Lord determine what we do according to what his word says. It's not just reading the Bible. It's doing the Bible. [00:44:24] You see, these Bereans were Bible Christians, right? [00:44:35] They started, right? [00:44:38] They wanted to see, why do we do this? Hold on. What's the reason for that? And I want to tell you something. [00:44:46] If you ever have a question about why we believe something or why we practice something or anything like that, you feel absolutely free to come and ask. [00:45:02] Listen, I want to be such that scrutiny to what I teach and what we believe is allowed. People can ask questions. [00:45:20] Now, if after having been given the answer, a person chooses to reject it, that's a different question. [00:45:27] We are not free to reject what God says. Right. [00:45:33] But asking, why do we believe this is perfectly legitimate, you know, for your children? I hope you allow that. [00:45:40] I hope you allow it. Why do we believe this? Well, what about this? What about this other verse? That's perfectly okay. [00:45:47] As long as our heart is inclined to it, right. And as long as we're willing to accept what the Bible says and. And we can be a Bible Christian like these bereans were, let's pray together.