2023 LBC Bible Conference (1) Speak His Word

Bible Conference Welcome and Opening Prayer

All here. This is our first meeting of our annual Bible Conference. If I remember right, this is our 29th Bible Conference. Right, Sharon? 29th? 29th annual Bible Conference, so we've been at this for a little while.

I want to welcome Mark Hamilton and his family. Mark is coming to us from Buffalo, New York, where he ministers in a church there, as well as serving as a detective on the Buffalo Police Force. Spent the day with his family today, had a great time.

You know, these folks, I think, I got the impression that they thought the Amish were really cool, you know? It's always the case, they're not your neighbors, you know? So we're really glad to have them here, and we're going to be able to interact with Mark in the dessert fellowship that follows, and we're just saying, we're anticipating a great time in the Word of God this week.

So let's pray, and we'll get started, all right? Father, you're good and gracious to us in giving us your Word. You're good and gracious to us in giving those who minister your Word to us, and so now, tonight, we pray that as we worship together, we would be refreshed by the ministry of the Word, and that, Father, you would give Mark the ability to communicate that in a way that is clear and that your Spirit would use it in our hearts.

We are so thankful that we can be together tonight, so we ask that you would help us tonight as we worship and as we listen. We'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Call to Speak His Word

Tonight's message is to speak his Word. Let's stand and sing about the confidence we can have in his Word. Turn to page 364 as we sing, How Firm a Foundation. Give us open ears that you would give us conviction that we might be brought the likeness of your Son.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

My teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and at Canaan and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit for their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of evangelists, fulfill your ministry. May God bless the reading of this word.

Remain standing and turn to page 365 as we sing ancient words.

Christ and the Culture in Acts 11–19

This, these few days to be in the Word of God and have the Word of God govern our minds and our hearts, I'll have you turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts. As you know, we have, those of you that have a program or a bulletin we're going to be talking about, or I want the words to hover over our hearts and minds.

Who's Lord? That's the question that we find ourselves facing and answering in this day and age we live in. Who's Lord? The culture or Christ, or Christ or the culture? As we look at Acts 11 -19, we find ourselves moving through the life of the church, the life of the church which we live day by day.

We are called to look into the perfect law of liberty. We are called to walk in the Spirit. We are called to be unlike the world that we live in, but certainly be a part of the change that we're commissioned to instill in those that are without Christ.

And so as we look at chapter 11, before we get there, I want to kind of set the stage here and let you know where we're going about the culture. When I talk about the culture, I want you to understand, I want to use that interchangeably with the world and kind of push our minds to think well about what the culture is thinking and what Christ has commanded us to think and do in the world that he has made for us, the church that we are a part of.

Every two years, Ligonier and Lifeway do like a temperature check of the church. They take a poll, they take surveys to help the church better understand and equip the church with better insights for discipleship.

If we're going to go into the world as God is calling us to do, as Christ has commanded us, if we're going to go into this world and affect change, call people to repentance and turn from their way into God's way, we have to know what they're thinking.

And I don't want to use that as a staple, so to speak, where we must know every statistic, know everything that's going on into the world. That is not what I'm saying. But I want you to understand and kind of feel what the culture is thinking when you go out to reach the culture, talk to the culture, speak his word to the culture.

So I think this will be very helpful and if you want to look further, you can look at the State of Theology, the stateoftheology .com, that will give us those statistics every two years. And so the culture, we'll use those two words, the culture and the church.

And for the sake of argument, we'll just say the church is really the church. We know everyone is not the church. And whoever defines themselves as a Christian, we know they have different standards. But we'll assume, for the sake of argument, they're biblical Christians and so we'll call them the church.

So the culture has an answer, the church has an answer. And so a couple of things, at least three questions, maybe four. But these are the big questions that the culture is asking or understanding, and we need to understand these same questions.

Does God change? One. And so the question from that broader question is God learns or what the culture is understanding is God learns or adapts to different circumstances. This is the view of the culture.

God changes in this way. He is learning, he is adapting to different circumstances. And what is interesting is the culture, 51 agree and 32 agree, disagree. As opposed to the church, 48 agree versus 43 disagree.

That's the church. Another question. Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God. The culture, 71 agree versus 21 disagree. The church, 65 agree versus 32 disagree. Every Christian has an obligation to join a local church.

The culture thinks 37 agree versus 56 disagree. The church, 68 agree versus 26 disagree. And so these are some of the trends, and these are some of the big ideas that the culture is, what the culture is thinking, and the culture that we're called to invade or infiltrate.

We need to know what they see and what they think. Church trends. God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. 56 of the church agrees with that. Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.

43 of the church agrees with that. And so what are these statistics saying? It's telling us very clearly that the church has replaced our sense of what is proper. The culture has replaced our sense of what is proper by insisting on no standard.

No standard. As a result of our confession, when we say Jesus is Lord, when there is no standard, when there is no objective truth, when everything gets in, what we believe has no impact, no relevance.

And so when we come to the scriptures, and we're looking at the church leaving the home or the headquarters in Jerusalem, going approximately 300 miles away from what they're used to, what they're familiar with, they're going to Antioch to plant a church, and they're going to infiltrate a culture that believes very differently from what they're used to.

And so Antioch, a big city with big city vibes, highly cultured, sensual, shocking. Does these things sound familiar? Because it's no different than America today. Some of the cities in America today are highly cultured, highly sensual, and highly shocking.

They're not shy about their sexual exploits, their sexual ethics. And this describes very clearly and closely what we see on a daily basis throughout the cities of America. Full of idolatry and immorality and no fear of God.

What in the world are we supposed to do? What in the world do we as the church supposed to do? So my goal today is to encourage you. I hope you see me as a brother in Christ. And as a brother in Christ, I just want to encourage you to remain faithful, speak His words, preach His Lord, be a Christian.

Be a Christian.

Antioch, Persecution, and the Scattered Church

Those things are clearly marked out for us as we read the text. Let me read chapter 11, verses 19 through 26. Hear the word of the Lord. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists, also preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.

For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians, as far as the reading of God's holy word. And so, this is what I want to encourage you to do for these couple days.

Because we need that kind of encouragement, we need that kind of reminder to remain faithful. Because in this culture, we are pulled in so many directions. The world is vying for our attention, whether it's social media, the television, the latest news, the latest headline, it's vying for our attention.

And I want to encourage you as we, the church, go into a world that Christ has commanded us to go into, and be faithful, remain faithful. Remain faithful to the message. Speak His word. Preach His Lord.

And be a Christian. Be a Christian.

The Church's Mission Is to Give Christ to the Culture

I believe this, the best thing that you and I can do for the culture, the most powerful way to impact the culture is to give them Christ. And to be unwavering and unmovable in that proclamation. More made up genders, more injustices, more things that are causing you to bend reality.

More lies.

Speak His word. I believe much of what's happening now within the culture has always happened. In other words, there's nothing new happening. There's nothing new happening. There's just a pretty new package, or an ugly package, depending on the way you look at it.

It's always happened, and what needs to happen must happen now by us, the church. Though the people of God are tasked with going into a culture that hates them, that hates the God that we serve, we must go and speak His word.

This will be done through the people of God, making disciples of the nations as Christ commanded. The church will be making disciples, or the culture will continue to make their disciples. And we see that happening day by day.

The same good, righteous, and holy law that was broken, which kicked Adam out of the garden, keeps people away from God when we don't speak His word. We find that in the first verse, as we look at verse 20.

And that's what we're going to be dealing with tonight. Peter has already given his explanation of why he was with the Gentiles, and now the Gentiles, it is evident that they have received from God, they have received the message, and God has approved of them, just like they approved of the Jews.

And now we find ourselves moving on, the church being pushed out because of the persecution of Stephen. And so what's going on here, we'll look at about speaking His word. On three other different occasions following today's message, we want to focus in on that truth, speak His word.

The same good, righteous, holy law that was broken, which kicked Adam out of the garden, it keeps us away from God. The same sins, the same sins, that vomited the nations out of the land, is the same righteous law being broken today.

In other words, again, there is nothing new that is happening. There's nothing new that is under the sun, but there's new ways to express the same sins. There's new ways to express the same sins. So I hope we are not too in awe, because God says these things will happen.

We see them going through cycles throughout the scriptures. The transgender craze, the LGBT perversion and delusion is a breaking of the seventh commandment, just like fornication is a breaking of the seventh commandment.

But it's being expressed in a different way, in a more wicked, more way that causes us to scratch our heads. But listen, it carries the same sentence of death. It carries the same sentence, as Paul reminds us, that people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness are full of all kinds of wickedness.

Inventors of evil. And at the end of that chapter, it says they deserve to die and they know it. They know it. Those who suppress the truth. That's the one thing that we can say with confidence that the sinners understand.

We as sinners that have been saved by His grace, we understand. But more so, those that don't understand the grace of God or have that grace, they have truth. We know they have truth because God says they have truth.

They suppress that truth. They refuse to submit to that truth and love that truth. You have the truth, but they suppress it in unrighteousness. All sinners have the truth which they suppress. When we read this text, as the people of God are entering into this big city with big city vibes, highly cultured, sensual, shocking, all of the sins that we would find in 21st century America expressed a little different.

The evil is the same. The heart is the same. This is what they're going into. Verse 19 says,. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch.

They find themselves in this big city where it's different from Jerusalem. But the task is the same. Speaking the word to no one except Jews. We want to deal with the scattering and the persecution and why they move from the home church or the headquarters into the world.

Well, the command was to go. The command never changed. Christ said go into all the world and preach the gospel. And that never changed. But the death of Stephen amplified that command for them to go.

And actually pushed them into where they should go. The church was scattered to spread the word. The spirit and all his wisdom and powerful all-knowing providence pushed the people of God where they should go.

To plant a church. Another church so that they can spread the word far and wide to all the world. The command from Christ was to go and that the death of Stephen was really a catalyst to move them into the various areas so that the word can be spread even more.

This going was ordained and orchestrated by God in order to spread the word to the Gentiles. The Lord knows whose are his and where they are. And he uses us to get to them. He uses us to go to them. He uses us to be the means of rescue.

But when we go, we have to go and say something. We have to tell them something. We have to share with them something. And that something is his word. That something is his word. Is persecution possible or probable in the life of a Christian?

And to that I say yes. It's not if or maybe. It's when it will happen.

You that live godly.

You and I that name the name of Christ. That confess his name. That Jesus is Lord. Godly living brings a world of trouble. Godly living brings persecution. And persecution is unavoidable to those who live godly.

Jesus says you will have trouble. Paul says through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. He says you must suffer persecution. Ananias was tasked to tell Paul after he was converted how much he was to suffer for his namesake.

Those who rose up against Stephen. This is what happened to the church which brought them to Antioch. Stephen gets stoned. He's witnessing. He's speaking the word to these Jews that disagree with what he is proclaiming.

They disagree with his interpretation of the scriptures. And therefore they rose up and disputed with Stephen in chapter 6 verse 9. And eventually killed him. They were in rage and absolutely beside themselves.

Because he exposed the darkness by speaking the word. He exposed their darkness by speaking about Christ. Disciples, followers of Christ speak his word. And that's all we're concentrated on for tonight.

This one verse in chapter 19 of speaking the word. Before they go on, before they move any further. When they come into Antioch, their one mission was to speak the word about Christ. This is what the church does.

We engage the world with words. Even though we see, as I mentioned earlier, the words that are being spoken. The words that we have always known as normal. Like men and women, boys and girls. Good and bad.

Right, wrong. They're being conflated and twisted and mixed. The church engages the culture with words. What are these words? What are these words? It certainly wasn't ideology and philosophy. It certainly wasn't the latest statistics about what's going on with the culture.

Because again, though those things may be helpful, we don't need to know those things. We need to know the word of God more than we need to know any statistic. Any new philosophy. Any new movement or moment in time that's happening.

We need to know the word of God. John MacArthur says be an expert in the word and you'll know how to answer anyone in the culture. I believe that's true. Fill your minds and your hearts with the word of God.

The wisdom of God. We must know Christ more than we know the culture. And depending on the audience, as we see here in these few verses of scripture, depending on the audience, the Jews were spoken to first and then they were going on to the Hellenists.

But depending on the audience, our speech should reference the truth. Never be ashamed of the truth. Never be ashamed to proclaim His words. Speaking His words out loud, in public. Reference the truth and the wisdom of scriptures.

Not necessarily chapter and verse. You don't always have to get your Bible out or refer to this chapter, this verse. But your word should be flowered with the truth of God's word. Our bloodline should be Bibline.

If you remember that quote from Spurgeon when he referenced John Bunyan. If you pricked him, he would bleed Bibline. How true is that for us? When we go into the culture, we have to be armed with the word.

Jesus and His apostles, the church knew the scriptures. The church was to continue in its teaching. They continued on in the apostles' doctrine. The command is to let the word of God dwell richly in you.

The words, the very message that we speak must be carefully crafted to be Christ-focused. To include all that He taught, affirmed, and fulfilled. When Jesus summarized the law, He says to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

He says nothing of the word will pass away. He says the scriptures are about me. The law pointed to me. Moses prophesied about me. The writings promised me and sang about me. We're one week past almost the resurrection of our Lord.

And when He was on that road to Emmaus, what did He do and bring to the minds of the disciples He was walking with? He began with Moses and all the prophets and He interpreted to them all the things concerning Himself.

And so as they spoke the word into this culture, into this city in Antioch, the words that were spoken to Jews was a specific word. And I want to encourage you that your word must be a specific word about Christ.

It can't be about you, about others. It has to be about Christ. Because we can go off into the woods and go off into rabbit trails talking about us, but it's about Christ. About His truth. About His life and His death.

And you see that narrow-minded focus in the apostles when they preached, when they gave the word of God. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Acts 9 20 proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues saying, this is Paul when he was converted.

He proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues. What did he proclaim? A specific word that He is the Son of God. Very particular, very specific to the Jews only. Proving that Jesus was the Christ. A couple verses later, Paul would say, we preach Christ crucified.

A stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles. 1 Corinthians 1 23, Stephen, before he was stoned, he reminded them that you killed the prophesied son, the righteous one. Philip proclaimed Christ to the city of Samaria and the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch.

Paul proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues over and over again. Very difficult places. But to the Jews, he spoke the word. He spoke His words, the word of Christ. He disputed with the Hellenists who wanted to kill him in the same chapter.

Peter preached right before we get to chapter 11 at the end of chapter 10. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news and peace through Jesus Christ, that He is Lord of all. 10 36. So the message that was spoken to the Jews was that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah.

That was very offensive. That was very offensive to those that did not want to hear that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. Just look at the reaction of those before they stoned Stephen. They were beside themselves, plugging their ears, suppressing the truth.

Isaiah vividly paints this picture in the beginning of his book when he tells the people of Israel, when he proclaims that men will call evil good and good evil. They will call bitter sweet and sweet bitter.

Again, this sort of bending reality and changing the terms of truth. He would go on to say that justice, righteousness, and truth are not present in the public squares. This holds true today. The people of Antioch were invaded by the people of God, the church.

They were to speak a specific word. They were to speak the words of Christ. Justice, righteousness, and truth is ultimately what you're saying and what you're preaching when you preach Christ. And it's under attack everywhere.

When the church speaks the word, it ultimately speaks those three things, justice, truth, and righteousness. JRT, I like to call it, crushes CRT any day. JRT crushes CRT any day. And any other evil ideology and philosophy that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ.

When we look at those that were scattered because of Stephen, they came to Antioch for one purpose. They came to speak the word. And now this specific group came and spoke to the Jews first. Jews only, keeping the order, the God-ordained order, to the Jew first and then to the Greek.

They spoke to their own people. But their own people was not the end. It was not the goal. It was to speak to the world. It was to spread the word to the world. The scattering was the purposes of God.

And when we speak His word, Christ will be exalted. When we speak His word, the culture will be humbled. We don't have to change the word. We don't have to change the message. In fact, we cannot change the message or we cannot change the word.

Because we've been given that word by Christ to remain faithful, to speak His word, to preach His Lord, to be Christians. And we're going to see that. We're going to see that. Everything fed the notion and the goal of remaining faithful by speaking the word, His word, to proclaim or preach His Lord and to be Christians.

Not be a Christian or be Christian-like, but be Christians. Be what God has called us to be and never be ashamed of that identity. Because that's our first identity. It's not our ethnicity. It is not who we have grown up to be.

It's not our mother's and father's wishes for us to be. It is who God called us to be and that is to be His and His alone. To proclaim His message, that one true message, that Jesus is Lord. Over and above the culture and what the culture expects, what the culture thinks, what the culture is, we have to speak His word, the Christ of the culture, the Christ over the culture.

And so our goal is to speak the word so that men might be saved. They infiltrated Antioch so that men might be saved. And we're going to see that. We see that as we read that in the beginning. The result was many, many had believed and turned to the Lord.

We want to speak to the culture to the point where they will turn to the Lord. There's no neutrality. There's no other option. There's either in Christ or out of Christ. Our goal is to speak the word that men might be saved.

Our goal is to speak the word so that the culture will recognize that they are fallen. And they can't get up. They're down and they're out. And they have no help unless Christ comes and rescues them. Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is Lord. And so what is the word says? When we speak the word to not only Jews, but Gentiles. But what does the word says? Romans 10, 8, 9. The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. That is a narrow minded, restricted message. But that is the word that we must speak.

It's not just the word that we pray. But we must proclaim that Jesus is Lord. And that he was raised from the dead. That if we believe and confess that truth. That we will be saved. This is the word that we speak.

And this is the word that we must go into the culture proclaiming. That Christ is Lord. Not the culture. Not the majority. But Christ is Lord. Would you pray with me? Father we thank you for showing us.

Reminding us. That the words we speak are restricted. When we engage the culture. The world that we must proclaim this truth to. We must proclaim your word. We must speak your word. The word of Christ.

It's a word that is offensive. It's a word that people hate. But it is the very power unto salvation. And so God I pray that you would help us. Understand that the task before us. Is not only to go but to go and say something.

And what we say has. Eternal relevance. Eternal consequences. And we pray that from the young to the old. That we would never tire. Nor be afraid. Nor be ashamed of proclaiming this truth. Speaking His words.

Your words bring life. Your words transforms hearts. Your word takes away doubt and unbelief. And we pray that you would do that. Use us for your glory. Use us for your purposes. Those friends and neighbors and family members.

That we have on our minds even tonight. We pray God that we would go. And not just go. But you have placed us in these spaces. For a high and holy reason. To proclaim this word. Your words. Give us power to do so.

I pray that your spirit would go along with us. Beside us and be in us. That we would be filled with your words. Filled with your truth. Your righteousness and justice. Father forgive us for hesitating.

Forgive us for thinking that. Some don't need the word and others need the word. Forgive us for our partiality. Of thinking people are okay. This world, this culture needs you. And we your people. Will bring that truth to those that need to hear.

Father we thank you for. Your sovereign grace. We thank you God that you have. Called us to yourself. May we be jealous. Until those that belong to you come to you. Through our faithfulness. Through our speaking and preaching.

And being the Christians that you've called us to be. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you brother for that challenge. Great challenge.

Alright.

We are going to be meeting in the back. Have some dessert together and. Pastor Mark is going to share the story. His story with us as we always do with our. Our speakers and so. We're anticipating that.

I'm going to pray.

Alright.

And then we'll be dismissed to the back. Father tonight we've heard a challenge. That we must. We must speak the word. I pray father that we would. That we have listened carefully. I pray that as Mark was preaching.

We would be those who would be saying. Where do I need to speak? And how do I need to speak? And to whom must I speak? Father. We are so enamored. With programs.

And.

All kinds of things. That are supposed to change our culture. And we forget the very basic thing. That we speak. Of the Lord Jesus. To those who we know. We speak the truth of the gospel. To others. And in that way.

Change happens. Thank you for this challenge tonight.

Lord.

Help us to think. Deeply about it. And we'll thank you in Jesus name.

Amen.

Alright.

You're dismissed to the back.