Knowing the Scriptures

By Michael Klikas

29 October 2006
Adult Education Hour
Acts 22

Introduction:  Last week as we finished going over the previous week we started by talking about where apologetical defenses and evangelistic efforts will not always take place. Evangelism is not always going to happen in our living rooms or at our kitchen tables. Evangelism is not always going to happen on Saturday mornings and on Sunday’s during church. Apologetics is not always going to happen like that either. If only it were that easy. If only those who oppose the truth would be convinced immediately on the first meeting of our apologetical defense. But if it did, we being the king of people that were are, we would soon take that for granite. We would no longer appreciate or even depend on the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of men and women and would soon be puffed up with pride. So thank the Lord for the hard work and effort he allows us to go through. It helps us depend upon and appreciate the work of the Holy Spirit.

The next thing that we talked about was being an encouragement to others. We need to be an encouragement but especially in the area of apologetics. It can wear a person down when they are constantly in a battle for what is right. If you remember we said some of the ways that you can be an encouragement to someone is by first being faithful.

“Encouraging people in doing the work of the Lord will naturally come from true Christians because they have a love for the work of the ministry and for their brethren.” – Pastor Black

Another reason that we need to be an encouragement is because the person involved in an apologetical battle can just be worn down and alone. There may not be anyone willing to hang in there and stand with them over the course of a long battle. Long battles take so much out of you. Obviously those that oppose the truth will not stand with someone or support their efforts to present the truth, so we must be willing for the long run to stand with others no matter how long it takes. Another reason we stated you need to be an encouragement is for this next reason:

Be an encouragement to others around you, because when you get into the heat of an apologetic battle, you are going to need encouragement your self. Give encouragement the way that you want to receive it.

We then moved into the area of differences between a biblical and non-biblical defense. It doesn’t matter what you think or what someone has told you. If what they say is not based on the word of God, then it is not an apologetical defense. What I mean by that is that if you think one way and the Bible teaches that your thinking is wrong then your defense is base on the flesh and is not a biblical apologetical defense. If you don’t know the scriptures then how will know when something is said that is contradictory to the word of God?

So the question that I want to ask you before we move on is would your defense be based on the word of God or on what you have learned and trusted to be true from others without ever studying the word of God to see if what you have been taught is true?

Then the other question I want to ask you as we get ready to move into our study is when someone tells you something about the Bible, or about worship, do you know the scriptures enough to know that what was said is either consistent or inconsistent with the word of God?

As soon as Paul heard the elders say that the converted Jews were zealous towards the law, alarms went off telling Paul something was wrong. But something else happened here that could very well happen to anyone of us. Have you ever been accused of teaching or believing false doctrine? I have and I know others have too. That is exactly what happened to Paul by these elders. Look at verse twenty one.

Acts 21:21 And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

Now the question that we have to ask is did Paul teach the Gentiles to forsake Moses? If that’s true then Paul had to teach that not every word in the word of God was applicable. Now we know that any outward thing done such as circumcision means nothing if the inward man is not changed. Let’s look at some verses in Romans concerning this.

Romans 2:25 – 3:1

Romans 2:25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.

Romans 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?

Romans 2:27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?

Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

Romans 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

Here was the problem, the Jews kept the outward law even after being saved because they were so accustom to the traditions and legalistic aspect of their own law that they thought Christ plus the law equaled salvation. So in order to become saved and keep your salvation you would have to follow the law and everything contained therein. How foolish we are when think we that something other than the Lord Jesus Christ saves us and keeps us. Yet we see this every day in various ways from Christians. What all of us have done in one way or another is we have carried over traditions from our past in to our present day walk with the Lord. It doesn’t matter if you come from a Catholic background, Lutheran background, or even an atheist background because we initially bring these ways of thinking with us. However, it is the Christian who wishes to grow and know the word of God to such extent that as he or she studies, they beg the Lord to change them and reveal any area of their life that is contrary to the word of God and not pleasing to him. Then let me add this, the law is not legalistic. We twist and ad to the law our own fallible rules and regulations that really have nothing to do with God’s moral law. We become legalistic by our traditions and the way we conduct ourselves. “Legalism implies that people are not right with God unless they live up to these legalistic rules. It is putting the emphasis on an outward show instead of God’s inward work in the heart.” – Pastor Black

I’ll give you an example. Before the Lord saved me I sinned like it was going out of style. After the Lord saved me I thought about some of those sins that I had been involved in and thought that the Lord would not bless me in certain areas of my life because of past sinful events. A retribution theology mind set. But that is what I was taught growing up in the Catholic Church, studying under the Jehovah’s Witness for a while, and whatever else the choice for religion in our house was at that time. I first had to unlearn this sinful thinking by learning how to think in a biblical way and see that God’s word is drastically different then the words of men’s religions.

What’s the point you might be saying? The point is that the word of God is the supreme authority and to teach anything that is contrary to the supreme authority is sin that is based in the traditions of men that has no authority at all. The Jews had taken circumcision and turned it into nothing more then a tradition.

Listen to what Stephen says to the Jews in Acts 7:51

Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

The problem is not, do we, or, do we not follow the law? The problem is do we follow the law outwardly or inwardly. If outwardly then all we do is in vain and means absolutely nothing. If inwardly then we should be growing and changing because we know the depth of the law inwardly and what it takes in order to stay away from sin. We do this by obeying the law inwardly and not ceremonially or outwardly. We hear people say all the time that they are a good person, they have never killed anyone, but in fact they have according to the law, as we know. 

So Paul was not forsaking the law of Moses but rather teaching that the outward man means nothing if the inward man is not growing and changing in Christ.

As a result of this, Paul was rebuked because he taught the truth instead of the tradition.

If you teach the truth then you can expect that others who are religious and zealous towards the outward man will accuse you of everything from blasphemy or heresy to being holier then thou. That is why you must be prepared at all times to answer those who would accuse you of blasphemy, heresy, or forsaking the traditions of the church. Let me also say this, it may be more then just one person that levies these charges against you. It may in fact be a whole group or denomination that accuses you, and usually but not always the ones who cry the loudest are the outwardly religious people who have failed to fully study the word of God. Because of that lack of study, mysticism and tradition surrounds their worship.

Now there is nothing wrong with tradition as long as the tradition doesn’t become more important then the word of God. But when traditions and ceremonies reduce the word of God to nothing more then an exercise in religiosity then that’s when there is a problem. As a result of this problem, confrontation is inevitable. Go back to Acts 21 and look in verses twenty two through twenty five.

Acts 21:22 What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.

Acts 21:23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;

Acts 21:24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.

Acts 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

“Paul, the people are upset and what you need to do is show them that you really do keep the law. We have four men who have taken a Nazarite vow and now that their vow is over they have to go shave their heads and purify themselves.”

One of the problems that Paul faced with these Jews is that they were deceived into thinking that they still had to keep the ceremonial law to be clean. Though the outward man may be clean the heart is still as vile as ever. Shaving and washing does not change the heart. If that were the case I would stand in jeopardy of losing my salvation every time I failed to shave and take a shower after getting a hair cut.

Matthew 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Matthew 23:26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

So many times we ourselves are more concerned about the outward appearance then we are the heart. Wow that person must be godly, look at how well they are dressed. Or we think that a person is conservative because of the way they dress. The outward will tell you something about the person, but not enough. Their words are really what will give them away. So what does this have to do with apologetics? You cannot assume that someone believes the truth because they name the name of Christ or because they “look like” a Christian. If I do not know someone I am going to force them into an apologetic conversation to see if they truly know the Lord as their Savior or not. I want them to make a verbal defense of their belief so I know whether they be in the faith or not. I am not going to assume if they are a man that because they are clean shaven, well dressed, and speak well that they are saved. I am also not going to assume that because someone has been a member of a church for twenty years that they are saved or if they are that they are mature in the Lord.

I would hope that that would be the same of others, especially concerning me. If you don’t know me, don’t assume that because I am a deacon that I have got it all together spiritually. What does the Bible say regarding this?

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

We are supposed to do that with the deacons anyway, but just because someone is a deacon doesn’t mean that they have “made it.”

Let’s go back to our text in Acts Chapter twenty one and pick up in verse twenty six. Something interesting is going to take place here. Notice what Paul does here in verse twenty six.

Act 21:26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

Now this is interesting because instead of Paul saying that this wasn’t necessary and creating a cyclone of apologetics by refusing to go and opposing them, he instead goes with these four men to purify himself. John Gill had this to say regarding this portion of scripture.

“Act 21:26 - Then Paul took the men,....The four men that had the vow on them; he joined himself to them, and put himself in the same condition, and under a like vow: this he did, not as what he thought himself bound to do in obedience to the law, and much less as necessary to salvation; but to satisfy weak minds, and remove their prejudices, that he might gain them, and be useful to them; and in such a case he would very easily and readily condescend; but when such like things were insisted upon as points of duty, and especially when urged as necessary to salvation, no one more stiffly opposed them: that is, not separating himself along with them, from what they were obliged by the vow of the Nazarite, as from drinking of wine and shaving, and from everything that was unclean by the law; for this was now done, but cleansing himself afterwards with them: he

entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of the purification: the sense is, that when the days of separation were fulfilled, which the four men had vowed, as everyone might vow what time he pleased, he went to the priests in the temple, to signify it to them, that the time of their purification was expiring:

until that an offering should be offered for everyone of them; as the law directs in Num_6:13 when he proposed to pay the charges of it, or at least part of it.”

Whenever we are dealing with someone who is weaker in the faith it may be that in order to help them along because of what they have learned in the past, we may have to come down to a spiritual level that they can understand and grow at. That doesn’t mean that we do something that would be sinful or displeasing to the Lord. Paul in no way did anything sinful, nor did he not please the Lord. He met these people at the spiritual level they were at. Because the temple was no ye destroyed, it was ok to still sacrifice.

So we have to be willing to meet people where they are at in order to help them to see the truth from the word of God. Notice that I didn’t say that we need to help them to see the truth from the way that we see it. This is what those at Jerusalem wanted Paul to do. They wanted him to see the truth as they saw it.

Now what do we have a tendency to do when we think we are right and want to prove it? We raise our voice a little. If that doesn’t do the trick then we raise our voices a little louder. The louder we are the more right we must be. Instead of the bumper sticker that reads “he who dies with the most toys wins,” our bumper sticker would read “he who yells the loudest is the most right.” Who cares if what we are saying is irrational or not, as long as we can yell louder, we are right. And part of that yelling is due to the preconceived notions and the belief that only we have the truth.

I know I already told you this story, but I have no new stories. Besides, there’s nothing new under the sun. On the day that David and Chara were married, two Jehovah’s Witnesses came to the door. As I continued to open the word of God to them and show them the truth from the word of God, their anger grew and they became irate until the man was yelling at me as he left. He did a great job of convincing me of his truth by how loud he yelled, right? Nope, all he did was affirm that he was still lost in sin and put up a poor apologetical defense of his false doctrine.

This happened to Paul also as we see in verses twenty seven through twenty nine.

Acts 21:27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,

Acts 21:28 Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

Acts 21:29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

Do you know the best way to get a religious person mad at you? Show them the truth from the word of God that exposes their unbiblical traditions and doctrine. It doesn’t matter if the person is a Catholic, a Jehovah’s Witness, a Baptist, oops, I forgot that every Baptist is right with the Lord because we have a corner on the truth, right? Not at all! In every denomination there are religious people who cling to their traditions and false doctrine and have no idea why.

When you expose their traditions and false doctrine they will gather the masses to take sides against you. This could come from within your own family to the people in your own church, or even at work. This is when you better make sure that you know the truth from the word of God or else their rantings will make others think that they are right if you cannot defend the truth from the Bible. The Bible says that we are to stand fast in the faith and you have to be prepared to do that even if no one else stands with you. But in order to stand fast you have to know what you are standing on. Weak doctrine is like standing on quick sand. You can yell all you want about how right you are but eventually you will sink and be nothing more then an after thought to those who are still lost due to false doctrine or are saved but completely misguided in their doctrinal beliefs. So what are some ways we can stand fast? Here are some verses that we will take a quick look at to see how we can stand fast.

1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

Be a man in other words. Men when it comes to looking out for your family, you need to be the lead in everything from teaching doctrine to defending your family from all the false religious doctrines that are out there that will try to entangle you and your family. If the devil can get to the head then whole body dies. If he can get to you then he can get to your whole family.

Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

What is being said here? If there is no unity in the body then it is easy come in and divide the body. Now my wife is a great baker as well as Miss Marva and other ladies in the church. If you are baking a cake and lay out all the ingredients on the table then if someone like my daughter Mary comes along and takes the eggs outside to play catch with her brother then you can’t make the cake. You would be lacking all the necessary ingredients to finish the cake. But if you were to make the cake batter, you could not tell where the eggs are in that batter because they are mixed in. They do not stand out apart from the batter and say look at me, I’m the eggs. The same thing is true about the body of Christ. If we are unified then no matter what happens away from church, we are still united in the Lord and we cannot be separated from the love of Christ. So the unity that we have is not just when we come together for corporate worship, but it extends to our homes and work. Once the ingredients are mixed, they cannot be separated again. We need that type of unity to help each of us stand fast so that when a member of cult comes to the door, the things that we have learned can be applied and we can expose that false doctrine for what it is. But if we were all going in separate ways in our doctrinal beliefs then we would have nothing to stand fast on and would soon fall for anything that came our way to deceive us.

Philippians 4:1 Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

Very simple application here, if you try and stand fast in the flesh you will fall hard and fast in the flesh. But if you stand in the power and might of the Lord then there is nothing that can move you. If you stand in the flesh then you stand alone. But if you stand fast in the Lord then the Lord and your brethren are standing there with you. I understand that Galatians 6:5 says for every man shall bear his own burden. I know that you can’t fully know or understand what I am going through just as I can’t fully know or understand what you are going through. But we can pray for one another and encourage one another so that we are there for each other. We are not on a deserted island all alone.