The NXR Podcast - THEOLOGY APPLIED - Recovering A Faithful Christian Witness

00:00:00.000 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold it. Big announcement, a scary announcement, a threat,

00:00:06.140 but also a promise. The price of our conference, the post-millennial and theonomy conference,

00:00:11.160 it's going up. It's going up right after Reformation Day. We are going to hold the

00:00:16.060 price at $100, which is super cheap for a three-day conference with Dr. James White,

00:00:20.740 Dr. Joseph Boot, Dr. Gary DeMar, and the guy who's not a doctor, so we'll say Pastor Joel

00:00:25.640 Webbin. We've got a great conference, May 5th, 6th, and 7th in Georgetown, Texas, just north of

00:00:31.660 Austin for a hundred bucks, super cheap, but we can't hold that price forever. So if you want to

00:00:37.900 get into that price, you got to get in now, right after Reformation Day, not Halloween, Reformation

00:00:43.220 Day, October 31st. That's the last day that you can get in this conference, register at the price

00:00:48.980 of a hundred bucks. After that, starting November 1st, it's going to be 130. So go to right response

00:00:55.120 rightresponseconference.com, rightresponseconference.com, and register today. Thanks.

00:01:01.200 Applying God's Word to every aspect of life. This is Theology Applied.

00:01:11.480 Hey guys, this is Pastor Joel Webin with Right Response Ministries. I'm so privileged to be

00:01:15.880 here right now at the Truth Matters Conference. The host is Mark Hamilton. This is his church,

00:01:22.540 his sanctuary that we're sitting in right here. It's Faithful Stones in Buffalo, New York. And

00:01:27.600 what we're doing is multiple sessions, multiple speakers. We've got Samuel Say, we've got Mike

00:01:32.840 Harding. Is that how you pronounce it? Yep. Mike Harding. So multiple speakers, multiple pastors

00:01:37.440 and writers and Christian leaders, but we don't just have conference lectures and meetings. We're

00:01:43.800 actually taking this conference to the streets. And so Marcus designed it and orchestrated the

00:01:48.580 conference that way. We just got done going to an abortion mill where 17 babies just this morning

00:01:55.760 in Buffalo, New York have been ripped apart in their mother's wombs. And we went to preach the

00:02:01.520 gospel, to preach God's law and gospel. And we experienced, guys, you tell me if I'm wrong,

00:02:07.600 but we experienced a lot of women that were just very broken victims, correct or no?

00:02:14.960 um no um you know um i think actually mark mentioned that there was a lady who as she

00:02:24.580 was driving by uh said that you know she's very proud of her abortion that she's celebrating she

00:02:29.760 was dancing as she's saying it um there are some women who of course after after after they've 0.99

00:02:35.520 repented um they are horrified about their abortion but um the a lot of unrepentant women

00:02:43.600 who are post-abortive celebrate their abortion because they celebrate the so-called freedom

00:02:49.380 they have over their abortion.

00:02:51.860 So the idea that a woman who murders her child as a victim is horrific. 1.00

00:02:58.020 It's a ridiculous idea. 0.99

00:03:01.040 Martin, you're right here. 0.98

00:03:02.500 You're doing this every week, right?

00:03:03.620 Don't you go to the abortion mill every week?

00:03:04.960 So we have some kind of gospel reach every single week, starting with Monday.

00:03:09.280 we're out in the corner in the middle of the mess, as I call it, in this city. And then we

00:03:14.740 branch out into the abortion mills around the city. Today was a great day because God's people

00:03:21.340 were on the front lines trying to rescue those that are being led to the slaughter.

00:03:27.740 And yeah, we have some kind of outreach every week. Mainly, again, an extension after the

00:03:35.220 Lord's Day, we go out of these four walls, stand on the corner, and preach the gospel to this city.

00:03:43.380 Real quick, in addition to that, I was shocked. I knew you were right here on ground zero,

00:03:48.180 but when I showed up to your church, and you could literally, I mean, I know this is an

00:03:52.000 expression, but literally I could throw a rock and hit the memorial for the Buffalo mass shooting

00:03:57.260 that took place. It's right in your backyard. The top store is right there. I can see it from

00:04:01.280 your church parking lot. I mean, you're right in the heat of it. Can you talk, what was that like

00:04:06.460 as a black pastor in Buffalo? All of a sudden you've got a white supremacist, all these things 0.93

00:04:11.680 go down. What has it been like to pastor in this city through the chaos? Well, it has been tough

00:04:19.780 physically as another image bearer watches image bearers suffer. It was tough, but the gospel is at

00:04:28.800 the bottom of it all, before it all. And what burdened my heart and what is the impetus of

00:04:35.180 this conference is the lack of a truthful gospel worldview to explain the evil that happened.

00:04:45.580 There were days without Christ, without his gospel, without hope, and that burdened me.

00:04:53.240 And I want it. I want it to be an example, not only to the flock that I serve and shepherd, but I wanted to be an example to the community to say there is hope in Jesus Christ, not vengeance, not this vitriol that these wrong emotions that are being stirred up.

00:05:12.440 the gospel is sufficient. His scriptures are sufficient if we would just use them. And so

00:05:18.540 that has been, that's how I got through it. Just like I get through a message, just like I get

00:05:24.640 through counseling the sheep, I present it and just did actionable. And we just basically

00:05:32.060 extended what we normally do to the wider community after this happened.

00:05:37.560 yeah um mark and i have been talking for over a year now about me coming here and doing some work

00:05:45.040 here and again like you i knew he was right at the center of this issue and you told me again

00:05:50.800 it happened in your neighborhood and i knew that but still it's when we went uh yesterday when we

00:05:56.100 were preaching the gospel outside and then we're just a short walk away you're seeing um just a

00:06:02.320 memorial. It is saddening. But what's even more saddening is people who are even closer than we

00:06:09.500 were to memorial were selling drugs right there while we were preaching. And then today, while

00:06:15.620 we are at the murder mill, the so-called abortion clinic, teaching truth and the gospel and trying

00:06:23.380 to save babies and people's souls, there are people who are, as we said, celebrating that

00:06:29.460 people are being murdered there and these same people would be people who are probably at the

00:06:35.060 memorial saying how could anyone do this right when you know the mass shooting was horrific it

00:06:41.300 killed it killed uh 10 people and injured three more well today we learned that before we showed

00:06:47.060 up 17 people had already been killed they'd be no memorials for them right and in fact it would even

00:06:52.980 celebrate this um so you know and what's fascinating too is um i know that the white

00:06:59.540 supremacist he researched the most populated black area um to find so that he would kill the most 0.93

00:07:06.260 the biggest number of i guess black people well the murder mill has the exact same thinking too 0.99

00:07:12.100 they know this is a primarily black area so they bring their um their murderous intentions here so 1.00

00:07:22.080 they can kill as many people as possible including as many black people as possible but yet again 0.99

00:07:26.460 while we were there we were being shamed for being there when you know they were supposedly 0.99

00:07:32.400 I mean we know they are grieving that 10 people were killed at the mass you know the mass shooting

00:07:37.700 but there are mass murderers at this clinic or at this mill and sadly we are one of the very few

00:07:44.100 people in the city what you are you know one of the very few people in the city that is you know 0.94

00:07:51.300 that hates all injustice, whether it's from the white supremacist who wants to kill people who 0.97

00:07:56.880 are born or the white supremacist, the evil people at abortion centers, murder mills who 0.99

00:08:04.420 are killing babies and people before they're born. And I think what was tragic to see, 0.99

00:08:13.000 I was standing and I've ministered outside abortion mills for a little while now. And

00:08:17.560 one of the things that you see as the women are going in, we have three after that 17 that went 1.00

00:08:22.580 in that we pleaded with that looked at us. Only one kind of hesitated and listened for a second 0.97

00:08:30.200 and the rest, they wouldn't even acknowledge it. They had already suppressed the truth in

00:08:35.960 their unrighteousness. And we even had people turning up the music in their cars to drown out

00:08:40.980 the truth they were suppressing literally it's a visible sign of suppressing the truth

00:08:47.660 turning up your music in your car and and and what is just heartbreaking is that at the same time so

00:08:56.460 we're we're out there we see the tragedy that's happening we know that the women aren't victims

00:09:00.820 going in they're they're just clearly making this decision that they premeditated on

00:09:08.180 to murder their child, to have their child murdered. Some of them even having to go to

00:09:13.980 a pharmacy to get the pill and then come back so that they can be watched while they murder their

00:09:19.100 child. So that's time that you're thinking about what you're doing. It's not just a happenstance

00:09:25.280 thing. It's premeditated. Absolutely. And when I think about the idea of equal justice and equal

00:09:33.240 protection. We were yelling that equal rights. You preached on it, Joel, as they were in their

00:09:39.340 car. And I remember one of the people just screaming out, like rejecting it, rejecting

00:09:44.260 the idea that that baby deserves equal protection and equal justice. But the reaction that you're

00:09:49.040 saying, it's so key. Our listeners need to hear this. The reaction was not that, um, as I'm

00:09:52.760 preaching about equal justice and equal protections, that the reaction is not that they're sitting in

00:09:57.260 their car with their heads sunk low crying. No, the reaction is, is, um, visible rage screaming

00:10:05.240 like lots of middle fingers, lots of, you know, that that's what people need to recognize. This

00:10:11.660 is not, um, people, Oh, they just don't know it's a baby, right? So it's not the, uh, the victimhood

00:10:15.820 of ignorance and a lack of education. It's not the victim victimhood of, of difficult circumstances.

00:10:21.380 And I have no other choice, but I really don't want to do this. This is not your, um, your,

00:10:26.920 grandmother's safe, legal, and rare. That was always a lie. Always a lie. This is shouted from

00:10:36.600 the rooftop. This is throw an abortion party afterwards and celebrate your abortion. And we

00:10:42.040 heard that. You hear these libs of TikTok, you know, you hear it on a Matt Wall show or something

00:10:47.740 and you're like, but that's the minority. No, no, no. We saw it this morning. We were there for an

00:10:51.820 hour, one day for one hour. And we literally shouting their abortion, celebrating their

00:10:57.760 abortion. I got an abortion and I'm proud that that is not the minority. That is the, the, 0.98

00:11:04.360 the orthodox, um, common position of those who stand for death. Mark, you were going to say

00:11:11.360 something. No, I was just wanting to piggyback on the guy that walked through the crowd with

00:11:16.080 his two dogs in his broken logic. You know, you have, because you're a male, because you're a

00:11:23.520 male, you can't say anything. What do you mean? You can't have an opinion was his exact words.

00:11:28.680 I said, you're right. I don't have an opinion. God has commanded and he has spoken, which is

00:11:34.460 the subtitle of this conference. What did God say? Nobody's listening to what God say. And the gospel

00:11:40.240 is sufficient for everything that, that, that ails us, that we think is a problem that really

00:11:46.500 isn't a problem for God is not a problem, but we won't apply the gospel consistently. So that same

00:11:52.820 man that would argue with me that I don't have opinion and I would agree with him. I don't have

00:11:57.020 an opinion, but God has spoken. And if God has spoken, we must obey. And I speak that to the

00:12:04.760 church leaders and those that are, I like what you say, often are the pietists or some of the 1.00

00:12:09.920 pietists or would fall into that category because I think they're capitulating and they're slowly 0.95

00:12:17.380 caving in. The foundation is crumbling without the gospel, without the rock of the word. You 0.96

00:12:24.300 either have a house on sand or you have a house built upon a rock. Amen. As soon as that guy in

00:12:31.720 the discourse and Mark chased him down. You guys, you guys should have been there. I wish we,

00:12:35.460 I don't know. We might have it on camera because you have one of your guys with your church

00:12:38.260 recording things. So, but Mark chased him down in a respectful and civil way. Not nice. Niceness

00:12:44.060 is not a virtue. Niceness often in our culture, it includes deception. It's, it's, it's or cowardice

00:12:50.680 or complicity or apathy. But there is such a thing as, as courtesy and civility. And so Mark

00:12:56.980 chase the guy down with courtesy and courage and, and confronted him. Cause the guy just wanted to

00:13:03.240 make his little remark, right? His little passive aggressive, smart Alec remark. And then, and then

00:13:08.220 walk on by. And Mark was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come talk to me. Right. You said

00:13:12.080 this, let me respond. I've got a response to you. And I thought, you know, so we talked about it

00:13:15.760 immediately afterwards. I couldn't help myself, but tell you my, my thought that, uh, you know,

00:13:19.680 the Proverbs say, you know, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

00:13:25.680 And then, you know, it also says, don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be 0.93

00:13:29.880 like him. 0.98

00:13:30.380 And the reality is there's a place for both positions.

00:13:33.500 Well, the Bible is contradicting itself.

00:13:34.920 No, the Bible understands that there are a variety of contexts. 0.98

00:13:38.740 So sometimes you don't get down to the fool's level, lest you be like him. 0.98

00:13:43.560 You rise above it. 0.99

00:13:44.720 But there are other times where you actually engage the fool with his own fallacy, with 0.95

00:13:50.100 his own, you draw him, you force him to ride that fallacy train all the way to the 1.00

00:13:55.600 final destination and see how stupid it is, how that's right. So he's like, he literally said, 0.99

00:14:00.980 the guy said, who are you? You can't have an opinion because you have a penis. And this is 1.00

00:14:05.200 a white effeminate beta male guy walking his two little dogs, a white dude. Right. And I thought 0.56

00:14:11.240 like, okay, well, it doesn't matter. Like what you said is the ultimate truth. It doesn't matter.

00:14:15.020 No, I don't have an opinion. It's the word of God, white, black, male, female, young, old,

00:14:19.400 doesn't matter. It's the word. It's not an opinion. It's the word. But there are moments

00:14:23.680 where you can enter into the fallacy answer the fool according to his folly lest he be wise in

00:14:28.680 his own eyes and that's one of those examples a moment where it's like oh you're saying i can't 0.88

00:14:33.040 have an opinion because i'm a male well let me just check real quick is a white man telling a

00:14:38.560 black man he can't have an opinion it because that's your worldview that says that can't happen

00:14:43.560 mine says you actually can do that if you're standing on the word of god but you're not i am 0.95

00:14:48.760 thank you sir have a nice day repent of your sin well and he didn't what he didn't do is when i was

00:14:55.500 speaking to him because i'm further down the sidewalk than you guys when i was speaking to

00:15:01.320 him he didn't say two words to me he was very specific to go to the group and he was going to

00:15:08.060 try to just throw it out there make himself feel good and then walk away and you didn't let him do

00:15:12.520 it so that's good all right i i think that's fantastic mark why don't you have the final

00:15:17.940 where just let people know people need to know you're here because you're doing a work that's

00:15:21.560 exceedingly rare around the world period i mean there's not a whole lot of all of christ for all

00:15:26.620 of life theology applied robust reformed confessional local churches there's not a lot

00:15:32.580 period i i am assuming there's probably definitely not a lot in buffalo new york so let people know

00:15:38.960 that they need to find you for the few christians left in buffalo new york they need to be at mark's

00:15:43.640 church. Not even just in Buffalo, but in this part of Buffalo, right, where there are a lot

00:15:52.500 of churches here, but they're dead. You know, I know you reached out to, I know you will say,

00:15:57.980 but you reached out to, I think, 30 pastors so that, you know, just so they would come or just

00:16:04.180 be involved and none reply to you. So what you're saying is true, but it's this part of Buffalo

00:16:09.580 is, you know, from what I'm, what I'm seeing, um, and it's more dark here, you know, again,

00:16:15.760 when it's, I will never forget that while we are preaching the gospel, just like a 15 second walk

00:16:24.420 away, you have people who are selling drugs there again, right. And then they're in between where

00:16:30.380 the gospel is being preached and where there's a memorial for people who were just murdered two

00:16:36.180 months ago and yet you're right here in this side of buffalo so yeah so um nothing special um we're

00:16:45.760 here i'm serving the people of god i'm a servant i'm a bivocational pastor um i actually work for

00:16:54.080 the city and uh as a police officer of almost 15 years um and i serve as pastor and my mission

00:17:02.480 is to, again, serve people, but not serve people what I want to serve them or what I'm comfortable

00:17:08.260 with serving them or what's popular to serve them or what even tastes good to serve them.

00:17:13.860 I'm here to serve people the word of God. I'm bound to that. That is our mission. We don't

00:17:21.380 have anything witty, clever. We don't have any new ideas, but just the unashamed, unafraid gospel. 0.65

00:17:27.980 So we're here at 299 East Utica in Buffalo, New York, right in the middle of the mess.

00:17:33.600 We are a confessional church.

00:17:35.780 We are a reformed and unashamed church where we are proud to uplift the sovereignty of God in all of life and the centrality of his scriptures over all of life, applied to all of life.

00:17:51.560 And that's what we're doing.

00:17:52.520 We're here teaching our people to love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, as Joel so wonderfully put the other the other night.

00:18:02.500 And we just want to act that out. We want to walk that out in every part of wherever it can be applied.

00:18:09.100 It must be applied. And so these issues that arise, they're not too big for us.

00:18:13.740 they hurt us. They cause us to suffer, of course. And that's what God promised in Christ

00:18:23.120 when he was here. But there is a remedy. There is an answer. And if we go outside the answer,

00:18:29.420 it only causes more suffering. And so we're here for this Truth Matters Conference to just

00:18:35.640 spread the love of God, invite the people of God, even the people that don't agree.

00:18:40.400 wherever you are in the city of Buffalo, around the, the, the, you know, the surrounding areas,

00:18:45.940 no matter, no matter where it is, we welcome everyone to come and sit under this, not only

00:18:51.260 this conference, but we would love to serve you, uh, in our church and serve you the King of all

00:18:58.180 Kings, the Lord of all Lords, because he is Lord of all. Amen. Mike, Sam, and myself, well, we're

00:19:05.880 here for three days, but Mark has been here and continues to be here for the long haul.

00:19:13.500 Churches are few and far between. Good churches. It's worth an hour drive. It's worth making a

00:19:20.460 commitment, inconveniencing yourself a little bit to be a part of a church that doesn't just

00:19:26.320 have robust, orthodox, reformed theology. There are guys in that camp, you know who I'm talking

00:19:32.720 about listener who will take a text, exegete the text, and then sit down. Mark, what he does is he

00:19:40.820 takes a text, he exegetes the text, and then he applies it to actual practical elements of our

00:19:48.780 lives. And he applies it without discrimination. He applies it to race. He applies it to abortion.

00:19:54.900 He applies it to LGBT. He's going to say, this is the word of God. It's not just something that we

00:19:59.840 need to do theological workouts and interpret we also need to take the word of god and apply it

00:20:07.100 it's not just the inerrancy of scripture right now this moment evangelicalism has dropped the

00:20:13.840 ball with the sufficiency of scripture we need the word applied and there aren't a lot there's

00:20:21.080 the reformed camp there are a lot of reformed churches there aren't a lot that are applying

00:20:25.840 theology applied and you're one of those guys so if you're in the area what one more time mark the

00:20:31.560 address of your church 299 east utica street in buffalo new york right in the heart of the city

00:20:37.920 cool come you'll be blessed all right thanks guys thanks so much for listening but real quick

00:20:42.920 before you go do us a small favor take a moment and leave us a five-star review if you enjoyed

00:20:48.640 the show this is undoubtedly the best way that you can help us get this biblically faithful content

00:20:54.700 to as many people as possible.

00:20:56.840 Thanks so much.

The NXR Podcast - October 04, 2022

THEOLOGY APPLIED - Recovering A Faithful Christian Witness

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