Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: How do we endure a very deceptive, lie-centric world where you can't believe anything you hear anymore? And the devil seems to be working overtime to deceive. And the Bible says it's going to get worse; deception is going to be on the rise. What do we do?

Curt: Though misinformation abounds, Pastor Brett Meador says it's the truth of Scripture that will remain.

Brett Meador: Second Timothy 2:15, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." That's what we need to be about.

Curt: The disciple Stephen faced fiery opposition for boldly proclaiming Christ. Though falsely accused, surrounded by hostile religious leaders, Stephen remained full of faith, wisdom, and the Holy Spirit. Pastor Brett Meador reflects what believers can learn from Stephen's response in standing firm before those rejecting the truth of Christ from Acts chapter 6 in today's word.

Brett Meador: We're introduced to a guy named Stephen. Stephen's truly one of the heroes of the Bible, and he doesn't have a giant story recorded in the Bible. It's really a single event that we read about. Who is this guy Stephen? Well, first of all, he's the first named member of the Hellenists that are going to be talked about here in Acts chapter 6.

Now, what's a Hellenist? It's a person who's been influenced by Hellenism, which is basically the Greek worldview. Now, how is a guy who's possibly a Jew a Hellenist? Maybe he's not a Jew. Stephen's a Greek name. The word *stephanos*—does anyone know what a *stephanos* is? It's a crown. The *diadem* is a kingly crown. A *stephanos* is like the Olympic wreath around your head if you won the victory.

We're going to see Stephen's name is appropriate as he's going to win the victory. Some people might say, "No, he lost." But if you know the whole story, he actually won. It's kind of cool. But *stephanos*, it's a Greek name, and most believe he was part of the cultural diversity of the church, which Jesus mandated, if you remember, to preach to all nations in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.

Stephen is also the first non-apostle who's going to now stand before the Sanhedrin and defend the Christian faith. That's kind of important. We're going to see that. So this is the story. We pick it up here in verse 8 of chapter 6 here in the Book of Acts. Acts chapter 6, verse 8. It says, "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then they suborned men, which said, 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.'

And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, and set up false witnesses, which said, 'This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.'

And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." What a story. Can you imagine? Stephen, what's going on? He's disputing, debating with all these guys from really all over the known world—parts of Northern Africa, Asia Minor—disputing, debating. But they don't know what to say. He's out-debated them.

That's what it says in verse 10: "They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake." So what does the other side do when you're trying to argue or debate or make a compelling case? What does the other side do when they don't have a good argument? They start attacking character, and they make lies, and they start calling people names.

And that's exactly what's going on here with Stephen. Stephen's just been speaking truth. But these guys are still saying he speaks against Moses and the law. Don't be surprised if you're actually saying something that makes a difference as a Christian. Don't be surprised if people take your words and will twist them and make them go a different direction.

That's just human nature. That's what we're seeing today in our culture and our politics for sure. Now, what were they debating about here in this? I just want to show you that they're kind of throwing the same arguments against Stephen as they did Jesus. And they were false arguments. Remember they said Jesus is going to tear down the temple and Jesus is against the Law of Moses.

Question: Was Jesus against the Law of Moses? No. Did Jesus break the Law of Moses? No. Did Jesus break the laws of men? Yes. The dumb traditions that they added to the laws of Moses. But the lie was, "He breaks the Law of Moses." No, he didn't. He broke your dumb traditional laws that you added to the Law. Jesus was a fulfiller of the Law, not a breaker of the Law.

What was the purpose of the Law? You know, it's interesting because that's one of the things they're saying of Stephen. "Stephen is against the Law. He's speaking that the Law is no good." Is that what Stephen was saying? Stephen, Jesus, Paul—never dissed the Law. They never did. But they're actually articulating what the purpose of the Law was.

And let me just remind you from Galatians, this is probably the most definitive description. This is Galatians 3:21. It says, "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under—we're all breakers of the law—that the promise of faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified—not by keeping the law—but justified by faith. After that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For you are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Talk about racism and gender issues and all that. What makes us all united in Christ? Jesus Christ, being saved by His grace through faith.

Verse 29: "And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." How do you obtain justification? What's justification? It's "just as if you'd never sinned." How do you get to heaven? By keeping the Law? No, by faith in Christ Jesus. That's how you're saved. That's the whole point. The Law was sort of a black backdrop to make you realize, "Oh man, we're doomed."

And then Jesus swoops in and says, "But I love you so much that I paid your penalty for being the breaker of the Law. I died on the cross for your sin in your place substitutionarily. And when anyone repents of their sin, confesses with their mouth, believes in their heart and is saved and is baptized, we're the people that get to say, "Praise the Lord, we're saved by grace through faith, not of our works, not of ourselves. It is, in fact, a gift from God."

That's the truth of the matter. But the world likes to lie. And you know, it's easy to start blaming the world or the Arab-Israeli conflict or all the troubles in the world. I think Satan's the wizard of Oz behind the curtain. He's the deceiver, he's the liar. What was the story in the very original sin in the Garden of Eden? Well, Satan was doing his thing, the same thing he's doing today.

Let's look at this just for a second. Satan in the Garden of Eden—oldest trick in the book. Literally, people say "literally" all the time and it's not literal. This is literal. The oldest trick in the book of the Bible is there in the Garden of Eden. And what happened? Well, the first thing Satan did was he began to dispute God's word. When did that happen?

Well, if you remember, God told Adam and Eve what to do, what not to do. He very clearly defined that for humanity, Adam and Eve. Well, Satan comes slithering into the story in Genesis chapter 3, verse 1, where it says, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"

What's the first words that came out of the little slimy lips of Satan? "Hath God said?" He's questioning God's word. The first thing he does is questions God's word. That's Satan's M.O., and that's how we can kind of say, you know, Satan starts right out of the gate disputing. And that's what he'll do with you. "Hath God really said this? Did God really do that?"

That's just Satan wanting to dispute what the Bible says. "Ah, the Bible's full of slavery. The Bible's misogynistic. The Bible..." That's just Satan doing the old dispute of God's word. It's the oldest trick in the book. But after he disputes God's word, number 2, then he starts to distort God's word. We see that in the story, and Eve is helping out with that. That's the bummer.

How is he distorting God's word? Well, it's chapter 3, verse 2 and 3. It says, "And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Neither shall you touch it? God didn't say that part.

What did Eve do? She did what we all tend to do: adding to the word of God. It just makes more sense to her to say it that way. Do we think Eve had any ill intent by adding to the word of God? No. But I think Satan is going to allow this idea of distorting the word by just adding a little bit. And God didn't say that to Eve. He just said don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden.

Neither shall you touch it. And by the way, this is putting more on God, saying, you know, God's rules—He puts all these rules—like that's human nature right there. Did you know that Satan distorted God's word specifically, profoundly? He tried this old trick of distorting God's word against Jesus Himself. It was there at the temptation of Christ, Matthew chapter 4, where it says:

"Then the devil taketh him up, Jesus up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, 'If thou be the Son of God...'" By the way, there's the questioning of God's word. "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written...'" Uh oh. Satan's quoting the Bible. Did you know Satan can quote the Bible?

Here he goes: "For it is written, 'He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.'" He's quoting from Psalm chapter 91, verses 11 and 12. Satan can quote Scripture. Then verse 7, Jesus said unto him, "It is written again, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'"

How was Satan tempting Jesus? Well, he was using Scripture saying, "Man, if you believe your own Bible, Jesus, the Lord God said..." and he quotes, "He will give His angels charge concerning thee, and if you cast yourself down at any time, the angel will come and scoop you up. Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12." Does anybody know he left out a little part?

See, Eve added to the word of God, but Satan left out a little part of this verse. Does anybody remember what part he left out? Well, let's go to Psalm 91 and see if you notice. "For he shall give his angels charge over thee—this is the real quote—to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." What part did he leave out?

"To keep thee in all thy ways." Now, this is important to understand. If Jesus bailed off the temple, would that have been in the ways of God? Is that what God would want? See, the Lord will protect you and keep you from dashing your foot against a stone if you're in the ways of God. Satan was trying to lure Jesus out of the ways of God, so he conveniently left that part out.

It's amazing how people can quote Scripture out of context, or leave in, or leave out, or add to. That's Satan's M.O. I hope you know this. Don't be duped. Don't be bamboozled by Beelzebub. Satan in the Garden of Eden: number one, disputing God's word; number two, distorting God's word; and then ultimately, number three, flat-out denying God's word.

In fact, it goes on in the story of Genesis 3, in verse 4. It says, "And the serpent said unto the woman, 'Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.'" The story is amazing. It goes from disputing God's word, to distorting God's word, to just flat-out denying.

And God said, "In the day you eat of this, you will surely die," but Satan says, "You will not die." That's just flat denying. And if Satan can get you there by deception, then he's got you. If you're like, "Oh man, then God's wrong about that. I must be the exception to the rule. I guess I'm going to get away with sin." Boy, how many times has Satan used that play?

And people think that all the time. Now, this is interesting, before you're too hard on Eve. I see Eve, she allows this to happen. Satan disputes and distorts and denies, and so she buys into it and eats. This always cracks me up, and it's a little bit of a bummer for us men because I always wonder what would have happened if this was Adam.

What if Satan lured Adam to the tree and said, "Okay Adam, the day you eat of this tree, your eyes will be opened, you'll be enlightened. Your eyes—you'll be like God." You know what Adam probably would have said? If I know most dudes in this room, they would have said, "Hm," and walked away. Men aren't intrigued by enlightenment. We don't get lured by having our eyes and our third eye of understanding opened up.

Have you ever noticed how New Age is very much largely women that like New Age? Just honestly, it's mostly women. And if it's men, they're very soft men, if you know what I'm saying. That's New Age. Now you say, "Well Brett, that's mean to talk about." Well, at least women are intrigued by something that's, you know, you've got to admit they want to be like God, they want to have enlightenment.

But Satan didn't use that. What did he use for the man? A naked woman. "Hey big boy, want an apple?" "I'll take the apple!" It's just kind of embarrassing. So I'm not knocking Eve. Satan has just a few plays in his playbook, and one of them is this enlightenment thing, whatever. And then there's lust, and it's sad that we all fall to different things.

But Satan's going to twist and contort and try to tweak, and that's what's happening today on things like the truth of the Gospel and the spreading of the Gospel in this world. Satan's trying to do his thing. It's the same old thing: disputing, distorting, and denying. And so sadly, people are getting away with stuff. One of the big lies: "Well, if you're a Christian, you've checked your science brain at the door and I believe in science."

"I'm not only believe in God, I believe in science." That's kind of a thing. That's been a narrative. But really, if you're, one of the areas Satan's a father of lies in is science. Truly, I love science. As a Christian, we love science. Some of the greatest scientists were believers in God. It was Isaac, Sir Isaac Newton was a believer in God and used the Bible as sort of a premise for some of his scientific studies and led to some of his conclusions and discoveries.

*Discover* magazine, not a Christian magazine, they said he was the greatest scientist that ever lived. The scientific method came from Christian people who were scientists. By the way, the Bible doesn't claim to be a book of science, but when it touches or deals with science, it's amazingly accurate. It's shocking.

Did you know since 1400 B.C., Jeremiah the prophet, Jeremiah 33:22, Genesis 15:5, it talks about the stars of the sky? They're too numerous to count, the Bible says that over and over again. Did you know until the invention of the telescope, they believed there were 6,000 stars in the sky? And they sat there—one, two, three—they counted 6,000. And then they got the telescope and they're like, "Whoops, there's more than that."

Then they said that there's tens of thousands, after Galileo and that reason, they said tens of thousands of stars in the universe. Then they got better telescopes, like "No, no, no, there's millions of stars." And they're not even sure now that we know all the number stars. Oh, guess who said that 1,500 years before Christ? That you cannot number the stars. It's impossible. Good luck with that. The Bible said that three times.

For a long time they argued about the shape of the earth. You say, "Well Brett, it was Christians during Christopher Columbus that believed the earth was flat." Maybe. But they were not Bible-literate Christians. They were wacko Christians who didn't know what the Bible said. Had they read their Bible, they would have realized the earth is shaped like a sphere. Isaiah 40:22, Luke 17:34 through 36 acknowledges that the earth is round and it's spinning on an axis.

How does it acknowledge that? Did it say that? Not exactly. But it talked about the second coming of Christ. It'll be during the nighttime for some people and it'll be during the daytime for other people. Who would have known that except for the Bible knew that? It's amazing when the Bible deals with stuff like this. The Bible refers to the sun moving through space in a huge orbit, Psalm 19:4 through 6, which is true if you know our solar system and our galaxy and the way everything spins and goes.

Light travels in a path, darkness does not. That's Job 38:19. The earth floats freely in space, Job 26:7 talks about how it's suspended upon nothing. For centuries, the Polynesians thought the earth was sitting on a tortoise back. The Greeks thought that the earth was on Atlas's back. The people from India thought that the earth was riding on a giant elephant. But the Bible said, "Nope, the earth just floats in midair." The Bible says that.

Here's great stuff biologically. Leviticus chapter 17 declares that the life is in the blood. And what's interesting is biology actually confirms that. That was 1450 B.C. when Moses penned that in Leviticus 17. Everything—it goes on and on. Jet streams at 30,000 feet, Ecclesiastes 1:6. We didn't know anything about that until we started going up into the jet stream and studying that.

But the Bible in Ecclesiastes 1:6 talks about jet streams. Air has weight. Job said that in Job 28:25. The laws of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics that goes from order to disorder. The Bible, Psalm 102, verses 25 through 26, just confirms things that are scientific—laws of physics and science. The Bible is accurate every time it talks about science.

"Well Brett, I happen to know the Bible's full of contradictions and errors." Well, just name one. "On the science—the Bible says at sunrise and at sunset. The Bible refers to the sunrise and we know..." I've actually heard atheists use this argument. "We know the sun doesn't rise. See, the Bible got it wrong." Hello, it's called an idiom. We say, "Oh, that was a beautiful sunrise," but we all know the sun is not rising.

From our perspective, it looks like the sun is rising over the horizon and it's setting on the horizon, but we actually know it's actually not that, even though that's kind of the way we see it. It's amazing how people try to make up dumb arguments that hold no water.

So for Stephen here, man people are lying, making up lies, and this is the oldest thing. Satan does that. And so how do we endure a very deceptive, lie-centric world where you can't believe anything you hear anymore? And the devil seems to be working overtime to deceive. And the Bible says it's going to get worse; deception is going to be on the rise. What do we do?

I think that Stephen is a great model for us. He was a man full of faith—which is the word of God—and full of power—that is the Holy Spirit. Be like a Stephen. Stephen's a good model for you and for me. As the world might be screaming at us, "You guys love Jesus and you hate people! You're full of hate!" Well, that's just a lie. Why do they call us haters? Because we disagree with someone.

If you're a Bible-believing Christian, you disagree that things like LGBTQ and all that stuff—we just believe the Bible teaches that's just unchecked, undealt-with sin. "See, you hate! You're a hater! Hate! Hate!" And everybody's freaking out. But actually, if you know me, I think we love people that are struggling with sin. Welcome to our world—we're all struggling with sin. We're all messed up sinners.

And we actually care about the LGBTQ community. Who really cares about the transgender community, especially the so-called kids being transformed at young ages? It's really sad. Who really cares? I think we do. We care about children, and we care more than the public school system that says we're not going to tell the parents when a kid is transforming into a different gender. That's not love at all.

That's a person who has a real political agenda who wants to drive it home and use kids as sort of their proof positive. I think we should be people who love kids that are feeling gender dysphoria or whatever you want to call it—it changes every 10 minutes. But the loving thing to do is actually care. Don't let the lies of the world—I hope you're not sucked into that. I hope you're not thinking, "Well, I'm pro-LGBTQ because I love people."

That's a lie from Satan. If you really do love people, you'll actually care about their soul and about what helps them and hurts them, and the Bible is clear: that's going to hurt them. Any sin hurts us. That's why it's called sin, because it hurts us. So what do we do? Be like Stephen. He was a man of faith because he was a man of the word. We're going to see that he's going to be a scholarly man of the word.

And it reminds me Second Timothy 2:15: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." That's what we need to be about.

Curt: Pastor Brett Meador drawing good encouragement in today's word from Stephen's courageous stand for the word of truth even in distorted, hostile opposition when empowered by the spirit of God. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. If you missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com.

You can also watch full video messages from Pastor Brett by going to todayswordradio.com. Well, I have Pastor Brett with me now, and I'm sure we're talking to at least one person who has been a Christian for a while, but maybe right now they're feeling a little stagnant in their faith. Brett, what advice could you give to that person to get back to the excitement they once felt?

Brett Meador: Yeah, Curt, I think there's a lot of people that go through those different times, and I think one of the keys is remembering that the Christian life was never really meant to be stagnant. And I think we feel that, but it's meant to be growing. Second Peter 3:18 says, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

So if someone's feeling stuck, I'd encourage them to go back to the basics, you know, but with sort of a kind of an intentional attitude. Get back to the word, not just casually, but consistently, and spend time in prayer. Not just talking to the Lord, but actually listening. Maybe even journaling as you're praying, just what the Lord's putting on your heart.

And then reconnect with fellowship, because isolation often leads to stagnation. I think that when you're off to your side and you don't have good brothers and sisters around you, you're primed for stagnation. And then sometimes it's just as simple as obedience—doing the next thing the Lord's already shown you to do.

I think sometimes we allow our walk to become stagnant because we're not being challenged or obedient to what God has called. It's like spiritual momentum often follows simple obedience. So you take a step forward to the Lord, you'll find that He's already there drawing closer to you.

Curt: That is really great advice—to get back to reading God's word and making sure we don't isolate ourselves from fellow Christians who can also encourage us. Thank you, Pastor Brett, for that encouragement. Well, if you'd like more information about this Today's Word Radio program or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to todayswordradio.com.

Well, next time, Pastor Brett will share how the early church's leadership solutions continue to have an influence on the church today. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.