Body:
Please stay with us and at the end of the program we’ll let you know where to send your questions for Dave and Tom to respond to in a future Contending for the Faith. You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Now, our final segment. UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES We resume our excursion through the Book of Acts, here again are Dave and Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, and the name of the program, as Gary mentioned, is Search the Scriptures Daily, and it’s our privilege to go through the Book of Acts, which is where we are now. Dave, we want to encourage our listeners to, if they have the opportunity to go along with us, check us out. It’s God’s Word that we are pointing to and this day, this age where we see the situation in the church, people have to get back to the Word, the Word of God, the Word of God. So, we are in Acts chapter 4, and we will pick up with verse 32, and I am going to read right to the end of the chapter. “And the multitude of them that believed were of one hearts and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Jo’ses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Dave, is this instruction for us, how far do we go with this today? I mean, this doesn’t seem like a command, as we mentioned in our earlier segment. Dave: Well, it’s an example given to us by the early church of the way they lived, and certainly, they must have been living as God wanted them to because this is the second time now it said they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And the apostles are right there leading in this, and so forth. Now, we have to read the Bible with understanding and after our last segment, you know, we’re trying. This is a bit easier to understand, although I think the last one was. There is no command to marry or not to marry, you don’t command people to be celibates, and so forth, which is a grievous error, and you don’t command them to sell their goods. We’ll get into the next chapter and find out that, in fact, it clearly says that, while the property was in your hands it was yours to do with. We’ll find someone who, simply, lied. The problem was they claimed to have sold it for a certain price and given all of that to the church and actually they sold it for a lot more. So, that’s not the issue, and it would be a false impression to imagine now that we must join a community and we pool everything together. Rather clear what went on. It was extra land that they had that they didn’t need, it was extra houses that they had that they didn’t need, because the New Testament talks about the church in this house, the church in that house. We get a little farther on in the Book of Acts, they are having a prayer meeting in a house. So obviously, everyone didn’t sell all their houses that they had, they weren’t then living in the streets, these people didn’t suddenly become hippies and they are just roaming around. Furthermore, this is not communism and the language is rather precise. The distribution was made as people had need. Unfortunately, a lot of people claim to have needs that they don’t really have. There is no selfishness that entered into this. And verse 32, Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, they had all things common. In other words, you need something? I’m not going to be stingy about what I have got. On the other hand, you have exhortations in the epistles if you don’t work, you’re not going to eat. The church is not in the business of supporting indolence, it’s not in the business of encouraging sloth, so that is not what is to happen here either. Tom, you remember, Animal Farm, you remember what happened there. Some of the animals complained against the pigs and thought this was all to be equal, and remember, the pig said, Yeah, we are all equal, but some of us are more equal than others. And I could tell you of plenty of stories of people that I have known who were prisoners of the Soviets’ or the Red Chinese and the selfishness that they say on the parts of the communist bosses who ran the show. Tom, I’ll never forget being picked up by a young man in San Francisco at the airport. He had been in the Bible study I had, a camp you know, and I knew him quite well and he got off into—well, almost, liberalism and so concerned about the poor, and we should be concerned about the poor. But Jesus said, The poor you will always have with you. And he became part of an organization, I won’t mention the name of it, and he picked me up at the airport and he was very disillusioned. Because the guy who was the head of this organization in that area—they caught him. He was robbing the organization of money that was supposed to go to the poor. The human heart hasn’t changed, and Tom, I have helped a lot of poor people in my day. I remember people that were in terrible circumstances, and we would help them out. Maybe, give them some new clothes, for example, and next week when we picked them up to take the children to Sunday school, half of the buttons are torn off, because they were not going to take care of those things. So, we are not to encourage laziness, we’re supposed to be diligent, we’re supposed to work hard. So, we don’t want to get that impression out of these verses—We’ve got a free ride now, and the church is going to sell everything and then we will divide up the money. Well, what do you do when that money is gone? So, this is not what it’s talking about, but it is telling us we are not to be selfish, self-centered. We are to be generous, we’re to love one another, care for one another, and if that were done today in the church, the needs would- really be met. So, I think that’s all it is talking about, and it’s amazing what the Holy Spirit has done in the life of these people, because these were people who were selfish. These were people who said, No, that’s mine—a dog in the manger—you can’t have it. Well, you don’t really need it. Yeah, but it’s mine. And suddenly, they have be told of the Holy Spirit, they have believed that Christ rose again from the dead, they have accepted Him as the one who paid the penalty for their sins and their lives have been transformed, they are born again, Christ is now living in them. And so, what these verses are telling us is, here is a remarkable transformation that took place in these people’s hearts and lives, and this is what the early church was about, and it would be wonderful if it were that way today. Tom: Dave, the Lord has provided everything, He has given us His teaching, His Holy Spirit. All we need to do is to be willing to obey what He says. Dave and Tom will resume their discussion on the topic of salvation next week, we hope you can join us. This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Is God hiding from us? Have you been looking for Him but have been unsuccessful? Why should we even bother? It is astonishing how many millions of otherwise seemingly intelligent people are willing to risk their eternal destiny upon less evidence than they would require for buying a car, or even a low-carb food item. Where will you spend eternity? Can you know? There is no more important question to be faced and answered. Seeking and Finding God, In Search of the True Faith, is the new book from Dave Hunt, published by The Berean Call. Readers of Dave’s An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith, will recognize and appreciate that this handy volume includes revised exerts from that powerful work. Lecturer and co-author of The Seduction of Christianity, Dave Hunt: I wrote, Seeking and Finding God, because the Lord brings across my path many people who need to know Him, and who want to know Him. I wrote it, really for myself, because I think it’s the ideal book to give to people who are seeking. A powerful tool for evangelism and discipleship, convenient to carry and inexpensive to give away. TBC is also making this book available in case quantities for personal evangelism and ministry use. Seeking and Finding God, In Search of the True Faith, the latest from Dave Hunt is now available, information on how to order in just a moment. And now, to tell you more about our ministry, here is TBC Executive Director, Tom McMahon: The name, The Berean Call, is taken from the Book of Acts, chapter 17, verses 10 and 11, where we find the apostle Paul entering the synagogue in the Greek City of Berea after he had just come from Thessalonica. To these Bereans he preached that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah sent from God. They were commended for being noble, or fair-minded, not only for their willingness to hear what Paul had to say about the matter, but more specifically, because they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether or not what the apostle was saying was found in God’s Word. That’s what we hope to encourage through this ministry. Our mission is to alert believers in Christ to unbiblical teachings and practices impacting the church. We want to exhort believers to give greater heed to biblical discernment and truth regarding what they are accepting as spiritual. We hope to supply those who profess to be Biblical Christians with information and materials that will encourage the love of God’s truth. Hopefully, we can help mobilize believers in Christ to action and obedience to the scriptural command to, earnestly contend for the faith, found in Jude 3. And finally, our prayer is that we can be used of God to stimulate Christians to look to the Bible alone as their rule of faith, authority and practice in living lives pleasing to our Lord and Savior. Gary: If you are a serious student of God’s Word, we offer a wide variety of items that you will find helpful, from books and tracts to audio and video tapes, CD-ROM, our internet website and much more. For a complete list of materials or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708, call us at out toll free order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org. If you would like a copy of this broadcast, ask for Program #1705, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. Get a pen or pencil ready, we will repeat our contact information in just a moment. Nest week, we will continue our series of programs entitled, Selections from Beyond Seduction, and, Is psychotherapy beyond the Bible? In Religion in the News, The down-under exorcist, we’ll take a look at that story and address the question: Are we in a last days’ revival? We hope you can tune in. If you have questions or comments about this program, we urge you to contact our offices. Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry, is made possible by God’ grace, your prayers and your financial support. I’m Gary Carmichael, and for Dave, Tom and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for tuning in, and invite you to join us again next week. Until then, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily. For more information about The Berean Call, write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708, call us toll free at our order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org. Join us again for Search the Scriptures Daily, featuring Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon.
