Thank you.
Please read the page number 62.
Thank you.
Amen.
All right, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church.
We'll go through a couple announcements real quickly.
First, we want to count up intimidated.
Let's start in the back section.
Any salvations to report...
three, two...
anybody else?
All right, Zeph got five.
Good job, Zeph.
He's the best soul winner at this church, right?
My son's Zeph.
Six.
Anybody in this section?
Salvation's to report.
Anybody?
No.
This section, anybody?
Two.
All right, so six and six.
We have 12 extra to add.
All right, great job, everybody.
And we do have soul winning this afternoon around 2.15 p.m.
A couple other things to announce.
There's the things on the upcoming activities list,
but there's some things that are not,
such as basketball later today.
You can ask Brother June.
Five to seven is the time.
Five p.m. to seven p.m.
So basically after soul winning,
if you wanna partake in that.
Let's see, next week we're planning to start choir practice.
And also we do have the sign up sheet back there
for those that wanna come to the anniversary in Pampanga.
And so whether or not you're gonna be riding
with the church vehicle or coming separately,
we still wanna know how many people are coming
because we're gonna figure out how much food to order.
But we're gonna be doing it at a venue
because if you've been to our new location in Pampanga,
there's not room for 50 people, right?
It's a lot smaller than this building.
So we're gonna be renting out a venue for the service.
We expect to have a lot of people.
So it should be exciting.
It should be a great time.
Of course, we'd love to have you come,
but sign up back there.
And if you have any questions about that, let me know.
And of course, our anniversary at this church
is on the fourth Sunday of November, November 27th.
Also, we will be renting a venue.
It will not be located here.
It's at a place very close to Gulai Street.
So I'll give you more details in the coming weeks.
But anyways, that's it for announcements
while Brother Rafi lead us in another song.
Thank you, Brother Rafi.
We're gonna be doing it in English.
So let's do it.
Hymn number 138.
Do you know how to speak English?
Hymn number 138, the heaven of rest.
First, let's do it.
My soul is an exile.
First lines are ready.
Sing.
My soul is an exile.
And I've seen some world in sin and dispense.
Till I heard a sweet voice saying,
Make me your joys.
Let me into the heaven of rest.
I'll anchor my soul in the heaven of rest.
I'll sail the wide sea no more.
But the best makes me the one to meet Thee.
In Jesus' life, saying, Nevermore.
Once again, I yielded myself to His standard and praise.
And they take me home of the world.
I've never spent long.
And I anchor my soul in the heaven of rest.
Do I know?
I've anchored my soul in the heaven of rest.
I'll sail the wide sea no more.
But the best makes me the one to meet Thee.
In Jesus' life, saying, Nevermore.
I'll sail the wide sea no more.
In Jesus' life, saying, Nevermore.
I'll anchor my soul in the heaven of rest.
I've anchored my soul in the heaven of rest.
I'll sail the wide sea no more.
But the best makes me the one to meet Thee.
In Jesus' life, saying, Nevermore.
I'll sail the wide sea no more.
I'll anchor my soul in the heaven of rest.
I'll sail the wide sea no more.
I'll anchor my soul in the heaven of rest.
I'll sail the wide sea no more.
But the best makes me the one to meet Thee.
In Jesus' life, saying, Nevermore.
Amen. For scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 17.
Acts chapter 17.
And as our custom, we will be reading the entire chapter. Acts chapter 17. Please say amen if you're there.
Amen. Acts chapter 17, verse 1.
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a 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 Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus who might 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 woman 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 to the rulers of the city, said, 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 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 had received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Therefore many of them believed, also of honorable women which were Greeks, and of men not a few.
But when a Jews of Thessalonica acknowledged that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and steered of 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 and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was teared in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Therefore disputed he and the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and the market daily with them that met with him.
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say?
Others some, He seemed to be a setter forth of strange gods, the gods that preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him unto Iropagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is?
For without bringing certain strange things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things mean.
For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an answer with the inscription, To the unknown God, who therefore gave your earthly worship, came to give my eyes to you.
God hath made a world in all things therein, seeing that He is the Lord of heaven and earth, that all the time the temple is made with hands,
neither is worshiped with men's hands, as nobody did anything, seeing He giveth it to all life and bread and all things.
And hath made it once that all nations of men could dwell on all the places of the earth, and hath determined at times before appointed, in the balance of their habitations.
They should seek the Lord, if aptly they might feel after Him, and find Him, that we have been not far from every one of us.
For in Him we live, and move, and have our being, as certain also of your old poets have said, for we are also His offspring.
For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that a God hath invited the golden silver of stone, graven by arts and by device.
And at times when this ignorance of God winked at, but now He meant all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed a day into which He would judge the world in righteousness,
when hath manneth He hath ordained, whereof He hath given His first unto all men, and hath He hath raised them to the dead.
But when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, Who will hear they again of this matter?
And so Paul departed from among them, howbeit certain men gave unto him, and believed, among them which was Dionysius the Eurypolis,
and all who named them theirs, and others with them.
The blessing of God is with us, right?
For again, heaven, the thankfulness is given unto us, and for it is with thee blessed are so many our fellows, that God hath heard the blessing of God.
Just the pitching of your word of the spade, which we have in today, is in your prayer.
Alright, we're here in Acts chapter 17, and we're going to be finishing up our series on false philosophies,
or at least I'm not planning on preaching more sermons in this series.
Obviously there's always new false philosophies coming up, so perhaps in the future.
But we talked about the Epicureans last week, and I want to talk about the Stoics today,
because those are the specific false philosophies mentioned in the Bible.
So go to verse number 16. Verse 16, the Bible reads,
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred on him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Therefore they disputed he and the synagogue with the Jews, and with devout persons, and the market daily with them that met with them.
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him.
So we talked about the Epicureans last week, and here it mentions the Stoics.
So, these are kind of competing philosophies of that day.
It's kind of like the Sadducees, Pharisees, Iglesia, Nokristo, Undatingdaon, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness.
That's kind of like what we have here with the Epicureans and of the Stoics.
And some said, What will this babbler say?
Others said, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods, because He preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him unto Ariopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is?
For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things mean.
Now, turn your Bible to 2 Peter 1.
2 Peter 1.
And so who are the Stoics and what did they believe?
Well, this philosophy was founded by a guy by the name of Zeno, and he was born in Cyprus.
And when he was younger, before he started his philosophy of Stoicism, which was named after the location that he met,
he met with the two influential cynics.
So there's a group of people known as the cynics of their day.
And that's now an expression or a word in the English language where you're a critic or a cynic.
And it was actually a group of philosophers named the cynics, and it's actually a modern day word.
And the term Stoics, that's also a modern day word.
Because you think of somebody who has a Stoic expression, like no emotion, no real passion.
Because the Stoics were very anti-passion, and so the word means basically no real emotion.
He's got a very Stoic expression.
So the word cynic and Stoic come from various false philosophies of the Greeks.
They have modern day names.
Now, it says, Stoicism took its name from the hall where he taught, and it preached self-control, fortitude, and justice.
Passion was seen as the cause of all evil.
By the 14th century, English speakers had adopted the word Stoic as a general term for anyone who could face adversity calmly
and without excess emotion.
By the 15th century, we'd also begun to use it as an adjective, meaning not affected by or showing passion or feeling.
So we're going to look at three just very basic points about the Stoics and why their philosophy is false.
At the end of the sermon, I'm going to explain to you how to get people saved that are like the Epicureans or the Stoics.
And point number one, one thing the Stoics taught was that all of our beliefs come from human wisdom.
Basically, you have a certain amount of wisdom, you have a certain amount of knowledge,
and they would just sit there and debate and talk about everything for hours and hours,
and who could prove more intellectually and through wisdom that they're correct.
So basically, they rejected the idea of a scripture that would teach them.
Well, what the Bible says is our beliefs do not come from human wisdom, but they come from what the Word of God says.
The Bible says in 2 Peter 1, verse 16,
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we may note unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
For He received from God the Father honor and glory, whom there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory.
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with Him in the holy mount.
Peter himself actually experienced things that he saw and heard with his own eyes and his own ears.
And yet he sees these things, but he also says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy.
This is why in Acts 10, when he converts Cornelius, he sees this vision and he doesn't believe it.
He's like, something doesn't make sense because it does not make sense to me scripturally.
And he says, even though I saw something, it's like, maybe it's a test, I don't really know.
Because the more sure word of prophecy is not what you see or hear, but it's what the Bible says.
This is how we get our beliefs.
And it says, where until you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn,
and the day star rise in your hearts.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture as of any private interpretation.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3.
2 Timothy 3.
I mean, people debate about a lot of topics in 2022.
And they try to just argue about which of these is correct, this is my opinion, this is my opinion.
I mean, people debate about the LGBT and some people say they should get married, some say they shouldn't.
It's a big debate. And what do they do? They use human wisdom.
Right? Somebody might say, well, they're not harming anybody.
Right? And others say, well, I mean, it's wrong.
But what you should do is say, well, what does the Bible say?
And what the Bible says is, it is wrong, and they are harming people.
Right? The Bible actually gives the answers, but here's the thing.
We don't have to sit around and debate about it for hours.
Somebody tries to tell you that you're wrong, why can't they just marry who they want?
Because this is what the Bible says.
Right? It's not a matter of human wisdom to determine your beliefs.
I mean, in today's world, it's like a 50-50 split on abortion.
And some people say, well, her body, her choice.
And the other side would say, well, that's actually not her body.
It's the body of that baby, which is obviously what we believe.
But why do we believe this? Well, this is what the Bible says.
It's not about using human wisdom to determine what you believe.
It's based on what does God's Word say.
And if God says something, that's what we believe.
Right? The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16,
All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness.
The Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And you know what? There's a lot of churches that teach, like, dispensational theology.
And what they believe is there's certain books that don't really apply to us.
They don't really mean anything to us.
And they say, well, you've got to rightly divide the Word of God.
And it's like, you know, a piece of pizza.
It's like, you know, you cut it in half.
These are two completely different halves.
Cut it in half again, you've got fourths.
Cut it again, you've got eighths.
And it's just like, you only get that one eighth.
Well, that's not what the Bible says.
I mean, most of the Word of God is the Old Testament.
Does that mean we should never read from the Old Testament?
I mean, maybe some people wonder.
You say, Brother Stuckey, you preach through a lot of Old Testament books.
Well, most of the Bible is Old Testament.
Doesn't it make sense?
I'm spending a lot of time on the Old Testament.
Right?
Daniel, Solomon, Ezra.
There's a lot to cover in the Old Testament.
On Tuesdays, Genesis, you say, why?
Because, I mean, most of the Bible is the Old Testament.
And I believe that we can preach through Ezra 4 and learn something.
I mean, doesn't that sound like a New Testament type of sermon?
Right?
People creeping into church.
Same things we see in the New Testament we can learn from all of the Word of God.
And the Bible says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
As Bible-believing Christians, when it comes to what we believe,
the question should not be what I've been taught or what seems right to me,
but what does the Bible say?
Right?
Go to Hosea chapter 4.
Hosea 4.
Now, look, obviously, you know what?
People can come to different conclusions on certain things in the Bible,
and there might be topics where people have different opinions
because they see the Word of God a little bit differently.
They have different opinions about things.
But here's the thing.
What you believe should be based on what the Bible says.
And if you believe something and somebody shows you something else
that contradicts what you believed, right?
You know, I'll give you an example of just like a Bible doctrine that we believe.
We believe and teach a post-tribulational rapture,
a pre-wrath before the wrath of God, but post-tribulational rapture.
You say, why do you believe that?
Well, I mean immediately after the tribulation, right?
I mean after, I mean, I don't even know how to explain something so obvious, right?
After the tribulation.
But, you know, what some people say is they won't have any verses
or they'll just have a verse here or there or whatever,
but they'll say, and here's the arguments I've heard.
I don't believe that God would create a house and put His people inside
and then set it on fire.
We're not appointed unto wrath.
I get it.
It's not the wrath of God, right?
The tribulation is not God's wrath, but that's human wisdom there.
I don't believe that God would set a house on fire with His people inside.
It's like, yeah, you know, I agree with you, but what's your point, right?
Because we don't believe that we go through God's wrath.
I mean we're not appointed unto wrath as God's people.
We're raptured before the wrath of God.
It's like they don't even understand what we're saying
or they just choose to be willingly ignorant about it,
but they're using human wisdom.
I just don't believe that God would allow His people
to go through so much persecution.
Have you read the Bible?
I mean what part of the Bible are God's people not going through persecution?
What part is it, yea, in all that will live God in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution except those that are during the end times?
I miss that part of the Bible,
but what I'm saying is this, you know,
they're using human wisdom for what seems right,
but it doesn't matter what seems right to you.
The Bible says there is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Look, what seems right to you is largely based on where you grew up
and what culture you're from.
If you grew up in a certain culture, certain things might seem normal to you
that, you know what, they don't seem normal to other people.
When I first moved here, it was a shock to the system
every time I saw a guy wearing a dress.
It's not really a shock to my system anymore.
You say, well, I see it all the time.
There's this big, you know, feast in Angeles Pampanga yesterday,
this Catholic holiday, you know, this weekend and Monday,
and it's like there were idols everywhere.
There was homos everywhere, right?
And it's just like those are two things that, quite honestly,
you don't see a lot of idols in the U.S.
And, you know what, it's a bit of a shock to the system
when you see people worshipping statues and idols,
but then you get used to it because you're around it.
And here's what I'm saying.
If you grow up in this environment, that's going to seem normal to you.
One thing that does not seem normal to any of us
is people bowing down before a cow and worshipping it.
Why? We didn't grow up in India or Nepal, right?
You know, so it's not normal to us.
But, you know what, if you grow up in India, that's not going to seem really weird, right?
You know, my mom said she saw on a TV show about how this couple was getting married,
and it's like there's some sort of show or whatever where someone marries a foreigner,
and they're marrying somebody from India.
It's like, well, before we move into the house, we've got to let the cow come inside to bless the house.
Now, here's the thing. I mean, it was very strange to the American,
but not to the person from India. You say, why?
Because that's just normal over there, right?
I mean, it's common, so it feels normal.
What I'm saying is, the environment you grow up in, certain things are going to seem normal.
My parents and my family tree is very conservative compared to the average person.
Everybody thinks abortion is murder.
So if somebody were to say, hey, abortion's okay, it'd be like, what are you talking about?
But yet 50% of this world say abortion is okay.
And see, what you believe is largely based on the environment you grow up in,
but as a Bible-believing Christian, you have to have the attitude,
doesn't matter what I grew up in or what I was taught, what does the Bible say?
The Bible says in Hosea 4 verse 6,
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because I was rejected in knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me,
seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
The Bible says God's people are destroyed. Why?
They lack knowledge.
You can't do what's right if you don't know what you're supposed to do.
And in our world today, people don't even know what the Bible teaches.
They make decisions based on what they're taught or what seems right to them,
and they destroy their lives because of ignorance of what the Bible says.
Now, here's the thing. I expect that from unsaved people.
They don't understand the necessity of reading the Bible.
As a saved person, and based on what I preach,
read therein all the days of thy life.
If you've been at our church for several years,
you are without excuse if you're not reading the Bible
and if you don't know the Bible for yourself.
Because not only do I preach through the Bible and give you a lot of verses,
but I try to encourage you to read the Bible for yourself.
Once we get to January again, it's going to be New Testament Bible reading challenge again,
and we're going to try to encourage you to read the New Testament.
Now, it's up to you at the end of the day whether or not you do that,
but as the Bible says, our beliefs should come from what the Word of God says.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Go to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1.
I mean, literally in their culture, you know,
homosexuality was extremely common.
Right? You know, the Greeks are known for bragging about
basically introducing homosexuality to the Persians.
That was one of the things that they bragged about.
Here's the thing. In our culture, people would debate on gay marriage.
In their culture, they would debate on pedophilia,
like whether or not a seven-year-old is appropriate enough or old enough.
That is literally the sort of stuff that they would debate about in the Greek culture
because homosexuality seems very normal to them because it's everywhere.
And so they would debate about the pedophiles,
whether or not that's wrong or whether or not it's okay for a seven- or eight- or nine-year-old.
But see, that's because of the environment they grow up in.
But here's the thing. If you grew up there in Greece,
you would probably think it was completely normal for a guy to be with a guy,
even if you're not a homo yourself.
But then the question is, what does the Bible say?
Right? And you know, when people get saved that come from different cultures,
sometimes this book can be a shock to the system
because there's so many things in their life that they have the wrong beliefs,
that they misunderstand things, and it's like, well, what does the Bible say, though?
It doesn't matter what you think. It matters what the Word of God says.
One thing about the Stoics is they denied a holy book to guide their lives.
They said human wisdom.
Another thing, you're in Genesis 1.
They deny all miracles. They do not believe in any miracles.
Everything takes place by natural means,
biological, scientific, mathematical.
Everything is just natural means.
Although they generally do believe in a God,
they don't believe in a God that will perform miracles.
They think everything takes place in natural means.
Well, the problem with that as a Bible-believing Christian
is there are a lot of miracles in the Bible.
And it starts with Genesis 1 and verse 1.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,
something that you cannot logically explain,
something you cannot scientifically explain.
In our modern day, you've got evolutionists and atheists
and all these theories of evolution and the Big Bang Theory
and punctuated equilibrium
and all these different things that they believe.
And they're trying to logically and naturally prove everything.
.