The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 14, verses 17 through 18.

Tony Clark: You don't honor your parents. Oh, this is a huge one today, especially with the father void that goes on. There are many, especially in this generation, who hate the sound of "father" because it reminds them of a father who either walked out on them or a father who was never there. There's a father void, which is a violation of the fifth commandment, which says you shall honor your father and your mother. You might say he's not worthy of my honor and respect, but the Bible doesn't say honor your father and your mother if they're worthy of it.

It doesn't say that at all. It says it because they gave you life. There's an honor that's due them because they gave you life. Oh, they are going to give an account for how they raised you, how they were there for you, or how they weren't there for you. But the thing is, you're called to honor. You know what honor means? Honor is a word that means to obey and to respect. People say, "I don't respect; you got to earn respect." That's today's mentality. Get out of here with that. You got to earn respect? Get out of here.

This is the generation here, and this is what they say. It's because there's a father void in their life, which is a violation of the fifth commandment. I didn't say that in the first service, so somebody needs to hear that in here. Millennials, you need to hear it. Those of you who didn't have fathers in your life, you need to hear that. Nowadays, even mothers are fooling around, not there, bringing a bunch of guys around. This is crazy. This is a crazy world we live in. It's nutty.

Here's the thing: when we don't honor our parents, or when we covet. When we covet what someone has. Do you know what covet means? Covet means to be materialistic or to be greedy for gain. It sounds like American life. Life here in America. It was covet, this tenth commandment, it was covetousness that nailed the Apostle Paul. He said, "I had not known sin but by the law. I had not known sin unless the law says thou shalt not covet." He said it was covetousness that nailed him.

To be materialistic, greedy for gain. I think this is one commandment that we, especially here in America, we just dismiss. "Oh, I just want that house. Look at that house, I want that house. That's a bad car right there. I'm going to get me one in about a year. By next year, I'm going to get me one. Oh, I must have those pair of shoes. It's a must. I am going to get those pair. Girl, where'd you get those from? I want one just like it." Covetousness.

We think nothing of it, but it's a violation of the tenth commandment. The Bible says godliness with contentment is great gain. God wants us to be content with what we have, but we're never content here in America. You know why? The Bible says the eyes of man are never satisfied. Never. We think, "Oh, if I had them as a spouse, my life would be complete." Then you get them. "Well, I kind of want them over there as a spouse, so let me kick you to the curb and get them over there." The eyes of man are never satisfied. Never.

These are just six of the ten commandments that deal with our relationship with our fellow man. What about the first four commandments that deal with our relationship with God? The first commandment says that God is to be first, that we should love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Is God first in your life? Now, we sit here and say, "Yes, God is first. I give honor to God, who's the head of my life." Cut it out. God is not first in your life, and you know it. God isn't first.

The second commandment says no idols. We know an idol is anything or anyone we put in front of God. A relationship, a job, your children, your spouse, a hobby, a habit—anything or anyone we give our time, talent, and treasure to becomes a god in our lives. The third commandment says do not take the Lord's name in vain. Do not take the name of Jesus, the precious name of Jesus, the name at which demons tremble, the name that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.

We take that name, the name by which we're saved—there's salvation in no other, for there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved—we take that holy name and bring it down to a level to describe our anger, our disgust, or our frustration. We say, "Oh my God. Jesus Christ. God." And we do it all the time. I remember teaching the commandments to my children when they were little kids. It was funny to see them as they were growing up and they knew about the third commandment.

They would hear friends and classmates say, "Oh my God," and they would say, "They said oh my G-O-D." They were even afraid to say it because they understood about violating the third commandment. One of the most precious things you can do for your children is teach them the ten commandments. It's written on their conscience already. If you teach them to memorize what that is on the inside that's pricking them when they do something, then when they are away from you, that conscience will deal with them.

When they violate it, it'll be like, "Oh, that's the fifth commandment. Mommy and daddy taught me. That's the sixth commandment." It will confirm what's already on their conscience. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. The fourth one is to keep the Sabbath day holy, which means that you take at least one day a week that you set aside, that you dedicate to worshiping God. Some of you come to church once a month and you're having a good month. The Bible says at least taking one day that you come together collectively to worship the Lord.

At least one day. For some of you who come four Sundays in a row, oh, it's revival in your house. There are people who can go months calling themselves Christians, who can go months without even stepping foot in church, and they think it's okay. I was talking to somebody last Wednesday and I mentioned something about this, and church, or something in the message I had mentioned. She said that hit her because there are times she just says, "I'm just going to stay home." I was saying that Christian TV doesn't replace church.

Some of you think it does. You say, "Well, I didn't go to church, so I watched it on TV." That replaced your church is what you're saying. It doesn't do that. As we were talking, I said, "Let me give you an example of how important church is. There are several reasons I can give you, that's a whole separate message, but let me just tell you what I told her." I said, "Let's say that your gift is you're a thumb. You're a thumb here at our church." She said, "Okay."

I said, "Now, I can grab this towel here, and if you're not here, we can get by, but not like if you're here. Do you see how we can grip this thing when you're here? When you're fooling around doing whatever it is you do and you're not here, let's say you're the heart and you're not here. We're just looking at each other, looking around at each other. There's no life because you pump the blood through us. Let's say you're a ligament. Do you know what the purpose of a ligament is? The purpose of a ligament is to keep the bones from popping out of joint."

Without you being here, we're popping out of joint at each other, we're ready to knuckle up with each other and stuff, but you keep us in place. You're a peacemaker. You're a ligament. When you're not here, we can get by, but not like if you're here. People don't think about that. I was telling her that each one of these people is important. They're all important here. So, if you're fooling around like you're not important or they aren't going to miss you if you aren't here, yes, they will.

You are important. You provide something here as part of the body of Christ. That's why the church is called the body of Christ. Maybe you medical people can help me, but I have no clue what the spleen does. I know it's something inside the body that's supposed to filter and do something. Maybe you're a spleen. You're some spleen. Whatever that is, you help filter some stuff. But you're important. Doctors today say we can just go take that out, you got another spare. God put all that stuff in there for a reason.

Even if we don't quite understand it all the way, he put all that stuff in there for a reason. Pumping and filtering and carrying on, God knows what he's doing. You're important to the body. Don't think that if you're not here, it's just no big deal. It's a big deal. I do my job and I train and that sort of thing. We can get by if I'm not here. There are folks who come up and teach and give you a good word. You'll get by, won't you? But you want me here. Am I right?

You don't think I want you here? You don't think I want you here? I look out there and I see you, and if I don't see you, then when I do see you, I'm like, "I haven't seen you in a while." I want you here just like you want me here. These are the ten commandments that are written on every man's conscience. This is why Romans 1:20 says man will be without excuse when he or she stands before God. Because they have the witness of creation and the witness of their conscience.

Either in the jungles of South America or Africa, they know that it is wrong to steal his neighbor's axe. Why? Because "you shall not steal" is written on his conscience. "You shall not kill" is written. It says it's written on every man's conscience, excusing him or else accusing him. Now that Jesus came 2,000 years ago, God is now commanding all men everywhere to repent, like Acts 17:30 says, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by Jesus Christ.

This is why God has placed it upon different people's hearts to go around the world to tell the people in remote areas about Jesus Christ. The creator God who has blessed them with rain, fruitful seasons, and good has sent his only begotten Son to die for their sins. If they would repent and put their faith and trust in him, they shall be saved. God has commanded all men everywhere to repent because he's appointed a day by which he's going to judge the world by Jesus Christ.

That would mean they need to hear about Jesus Christ. Let me give you a story I just saw last night. I saw a video of this group of people on some remote island connected to India. It's some remote island that whenever anyone tried to get close to them, these folks just gave them the business. Folks didn't know the language and they just tried, and it was just crazy. It got to the point where India passed a law saying you cannot get within three miles of this island or you're going to be in trouble. They were that vicious.

Someone got there and learned a couple of words, and they knew that they love coconut. Coconut is really good for them, and they can do a lot of things with coconut, but they didn't have any. So they got on this boat and floated. Somebody was videoing, probably had a phone, and they were just throwing these coconuts to them. They were looking, they were grabbing them, and they were like, "Who are these folks?" They were saying those couple of words that they learned. The reason why they were doing that was showing them goodness so they can ultimately win their trust to share the gospel with them.

God placed that on some group of people's hearts to go after this people group that society said were just savages. They wanted to share Jesus Christ because they understood that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent because one day they're going to be judged by Jesus Christ. If we got to give them some bags of coconuts in order to win their trust in order to share Jesus Christ with them, this is what we're going to do. We're going to risk our lives in order to do it.

Now the sad part. I never thought that I would be alive to see this. The sad part is now the world is sending missionaries to America because we have become so ungodly and so liberal, and because we have so many non-Christians here. Why aren't Christians here in America going out to reach non-Christians around us or around the world like we used to lead the way? There are several reasons. I'm only going to give you three. Number one: fear. Fear. We're afraid to speak for God.

Jesus told the disciples that when my spirit comes upon you, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He said I'm going to give you the power, the dunamis, the dynamic power needed to be a witness. We don't rely upon the Spirit of God, so we're afraid and we don't speak for God. The Bible says the righteous are as bold as a lion. We don't see that today. We see a bunch of chickens. We're more like Simba instead of Mufasa.

The second reason is political correctness. It's the reason why we don't share anymore. We don't want to offend anyone. The gospel offends when you tell someone that they are a sinner who needs to be saved. That will be offensive to them. The gospel offends. You speak the truth in love, but it still will offend. People say, "What do you mean I'm a sinner and I'm going to hell? I'm offended." Political correctness. Satan is very crafty. I never thought I would live in this kind of world that political correctness was going to be so prevalent that it shuts us up.

Satan all he wants to do is shut us up. He will do whatever he can to craft things to shut us up, and here it is: political correctness. The third reason we don't share the gospel is disobedience. Luke 10:2 says the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. Jesus said that the harvest of souls is great—so great that there are not enough laborers to bring them all in.

Here is the solution from Jesus: pray to him, the Lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into the harvest. This is where disobedience comes in. Either we aren't praying or we aren't going. One of the two. Jesus said that the harvest is great, but there are not enough laborers out there. But if you pray to me, I will stir up some more laborers to go out. Once again, we are either not praying or we sense that we need to share the gospel with people and we're just not doing it. Either way, it is disobedience.

With Paul preaching this sermon to them about God being creator, and how God had been to them and how good he has been to them, did it stop the people from offering up sacrifices to them? Verse 18 says, "And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitude from sacrificing to them." It stopped them at the moment. But what happened next? You have to wait until next time. We will pick it up in verse 19.

Let me conclude with this: we're only human. Yes, we are. We saw how Paul and Barnabas didn't allow these people to deify them to god status. They pointed them to the God of creation. So, when people are thanking you a little too much, that is the time for you to point them to God as creator. I appreciate you, but it's God who gave me the gifts and the ability. Thank you so much, but it's the Lord. It's his strength. I couldn't do this on my own. It's now time to shift their focus back on the God of creation.

We also saw how Paul used different methods on different people. To the Jews, he used Old Testament Scriptures, and for the Greeks, he used God as creator. With these ideas in mind, when you're dealing with church people or someone with a church background, use the Bible. With people with no church or Christian background, use God as creator, but with either one, use the law—the ten commandments—to bring a knowledge of sin. It is written on every man's conscience.

The question is, do you need to repent and get into a right relationship with Jesus Christ? Maybe as we were going through the ten commandments, they brought a knowledge of your sin. It is time to repent today and surrender your life to him. Many people call themselves Christians, but they never came through the door of repentance. You never repented of your sin; you just maybe said some kind of prayer, but you never came through the door of repentance because you never were brought face-to-face with your sin until today.

Now is the time to surrender your life to him. When you have an encounter with God, the creator of the universe, your life will never be the same again. It's not one of those things where you have to go to church; you get to go. It's not where you better read this Bible; you want to read about the one who sent his Son to die for your sins. You don't just throw up a token prayer; you get to talk to the one who loves you.

The desires are changed. There are too many people who have "churchianity" and not Christianity. You have religion but not a relationship. Today, that can change. There's going to be some people available to pray with you about these things. Father, thank you so much for your word. We pray your Spirit will move in our hearts. We pray, God, that you would do a work among your people here, that your Spirit would draw them to Jesus Christ and bring a conviction of sin. Lord, that you would bind the work of the enemy trying to tell people that they're okay when they never repented of their sin. God, draw your people to you. Your word is true and power. Lord, we pray you draw your people unto yourself. In Jesus' name, amen.

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