All right brethren, Acts chapter
4. The title of my message is Standing
with Christ. Not standing with men, not standing
with denominations, not standing with the systematic theology
or theological points, but standing with Christ, standing with the
Lord. This text was applied to me this
week. I'll say I read ahead where we're
going to be and I said, well, I dread that. We're going through
the Psalms or something. I have to learn this. I have
to experience these things. I have to have it seated in me
before I can give it to you. Preaching is getting a message
from God's heart or my heart to your heart. And I have to experience these
things. And some of you have experienced it this week. I was
thinking throughout time, I wasn't surprised. My blood pressure
didn't change. My ears didn't turn red. I ain't mad. I ain't
sad. I was just content. I preached on a rainbow. You
remember that? Within two days, what just about everybody see,
they saw a rainbow. And I told y'all, I said, I'm
going to preach on the voice of many waters. And the Lord made it rain heavily.
And that little valley there on the bedrock by my house, that
creek, it was raging 10 feet tall. And Karen was talking really
loud in that video I sent everybody. You can't hear a word she said.
When the Lord speaks, when his voice of many waters go out,
no one can withstand it. You have to hear what he says.
You can talk as loud as you want. You came out talking. He showed
us that. And then the other day, Sunday,
I preached on the serpent. Aaron's rod turned into a serpent
and it went and swallowed up the other serpents. And as I
got home, there's a four and a half foot rattlesnake in my
front yard. There are those that confer among
themselves and some with you, not around me, but privately
against God's messengers and against God's message. And they
do everything they can to make God's men stop speaking what
they're speaking. And just like all those other
things the Lord came to pass, I don't like snakes. I don't
want to touch them. I ain't bothered by none of it.
Lord's on His throne. They want to make them stop speaking,
just as they did our Lord. They were mad at the Lord Jesus
Christ because of what He said. It says, because of His words. They said, don't you call us
sinners. Don't you say we're not learned. Don't you say that
we don't come up to par to meet your law or your person or your
requirements. We're good people. They couldn't
stand one. Don't you say you're God, because
that means we ain't. They couldn't stand the words of the Lord,
so they tried to shut him down, and nothing's changed since,
or before that for his people and his preachers. Another preacher
told me, I was telling him about that, and he said, next time
I'm around you, don't you preach on leprosy. Henry said, if they won't laugh
with you, they won't cry with you. Scriptures say that too.
We've popped and you've not danced. We've mourned and you ain't cried
to dust your feet off. Go on. Acts 4 verse 13. Now, when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived, they did their own perceiving,
didn't they? They come up with their own ideas.
They saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they
were unlearned and ignorant. They hadn't been to the schools
we went to and they're idiots. They don't know what we know.
They're not up to our level. I know more than they know. I've been
at this for decades longer than they've been at it. They've only
been at it for three years. Spent my whole life around this Bible,
and this preaching, and this synagogue, and these outfits,
and these funny hats. They were unlearned, ignorant
men. They marveled. They were astonished. How could they say
such things? And they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. They said, you know what? He's
saying the exact same thing. Both them boys are, as that fellow
named Jesus that we just crucified 50 days ago. We've heard this
before. I know some people that I was
talking to a man one time and he called and asked me some advice.
And I said, well, from what you've told me, here's what I'd do.
Here's what the scriptures say. And they said, you know what?
You probably never heard of these people. They said, but there's a fellow named
Clay Curtis and a fellow named Gabe Stalker told me the exact same
thing. And I said, I know both of them well. I said, maybe y'all
ought to heed it. Huh? She talked to four different
gospel preachers and all four of them tell you the same thing?
Maybe, here's something to try on, do that. Took naming for it, didn't it?
Sometimes it takes a lot. They said, they've been with
Jesus, we've seen this, verse 14. And beholding the man which
was healed, standing with them, they could not say anything against
it. Here we are, they preach, this man's been made whole, and
I can't say nothing, I can't say in front of these people,
they can't talk about this openly. Because there's obvious evidence.
That lame man ain't gonna stand for you talking bad about Peter
and John. Remember he was hugging them when he went to that temple?
He never would go in a temple. Now he's going to the temple and
he's hugging them. They know that this gospel is effectual.
They know it. They just like their way better.
Peter and John, they aren't educated like these Pharisees. They haven't
been through their schools. But they were ordained. I know that's
a big ticket item for some people. Being ordained, isn't it, Tim?
Did you know that these men right here, Peter and John, that they
had letters, ordination papers? Do you know what all the apostles
did? So Paul and some other ones. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 3.
Look here at 2 Corinthians 3. Verse 1. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles
of commendations to you or letters of commendations from you? Do
I have to pull out a pedigree and show you what seminary I
went to and show you who it was that ordained me and what preacher
it was and all those things? Do you require that? Do I require
that of you? Paul's asking them. Nothing's changed from that day
to this day. Nothing's changed. Look here
what Paul says, verse two, ye are our epistles written in our
hearts, known and read of all men. You're my epistle, written
in my heart, written in your heart, known of all men. Verse three, for as much as you
are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, Christ
is in you. Ministered by us. I just happen
to carry the seed in water to seed his water his land You say
that I say that we're agreement. I just happen to be the one that
told you written not with ink This ain't on a scroll this ain't
on on something that man carries around and frames and put on
his wall But with the spirit of the Living God not in tables
of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart Paul said you're
my epistle You're my ordination papers You want my seminary diploma? That's you. You. And I can't stop you from declaring
it. I can't. I've thought of several of you.
I've preached to you. You believe this. I could die
tomorrow and that ain't gonna change nothing inside of you.
Because you're looking to him. That's it. Other people see that,
and they say, well, I can't talk to those that agree with him. Their hearts knit together. That's
in the preacher's heart, and that's in the people's heart.
Those 5,000 and 3,000 that Peter just preached to and John had,
they ain't going to hear nothing them Pharisees have to say. They
say, well, now let me tell you something. They're not as educated
as we are. I don't care. I don't like what you preach.
I like what they preach. I'm listening in. I like who
they preach. That's the difference. that one
preaches of what, this one preaches of who, I'm going with them.
And they said, we can't talk to those folks, we can't talk
to that lame man, cause he's jumping and leaping and hugging
them. Let's get together, we'll have a confederacy by ourselves
and we'll come up with a game plan. And then we'll get the
fangs out and attack. I saw, I knew a preacher, I'd
known him my whole life. They got mad at him and they
ran him off. And that week that they told him to leave, cause
they said he wasn't preaching the gospel and he was unloving,
that week he baptized somebody. Well, an effectual family member
either. They're not saved because he's a false prophet or he's
preaching the truth and that one believes Christ. I wouldn't
ask a seminary. I'd ask that one that was being
baptized, wouldn't you? I've seen it happen, which it
can't be both. And it can't be denied. Man can talk in circles
all they want, but it can't be denied. Peter and John, they
were sin of God to give the word of God. And they had the courage,
the plainness, the boldness, the confidence. of God's word
to give it, not just the knowledge. Natural answer, yeah, I get it.
No, you don't. God has to teach us. It's not the knowledge of
the scriptures. It's understanding it. I know
people that's got scriptures memorized and they don't have
a clue what it means. Man told me one time he's not
qualified to preach because he used to be married and he ain't
married no more. I said, no, the fact that you just said that's
the reason that you think that's what that means is what means
he ain't qualified. You don't understand it. Not that you don't
really understand the text. You don't understand the God
that wrote it. You don't understand the gospel. You don't have a
good handle on it. And I'm instructed plainly to
rebuke him. I'd say, stop that. Don't say
that stuff out loud. These people, these little people
may hear you and have some questions. You're confusing them, leave
them alone. That's my job to look out for stuff like that.
I take it serious. Some people don't. I do. I wasn't ordained by a man, I
was ordained by God. These Pharisees, they could not
stand it. Peter and John, they were unapproachable. You know
why that's unapproachable? Because anything that they went
to him and said, they said, God says this. What do I want to
hear? Don't care if that's what you
want to hear. That's what God says. When that word changes,
Peter and John will quit saying it. That word ain't going to
change. It's God's word. And they said, well, them men
are hard. They're unbending. They tell me the same thing no
matter what. Thank them. Don't be mad at them. Go up and hug them. God sent
them. I've heard that my whole life.
You've heard it too. People said, I've been listening
to Don for 30 years. Well, what'd he say? The same thing Henry
did and everybody else. The greatest blessing God can
give to a city is a man to preach his gospel. And the greatest
curse that God can inflict on that city is to take him away.
Jerusalem had two of God's choice servants right there preaching
the gospel to them. Thousands heard them. And these
people couldn't stand it. So they got together by themselves.
They're going to get a game plan with everyone behind the scenes
that they can recruit. Look back at our text there in Acts 4.
And then they're going to gang up on them. Verse 14, and beholding
the man which was healed, standing with them, they could not say
nothing against it. But when they had commanded them
to go aside out of the council, they said, this is our building,
y'all get out. Give us the room, as they say nowadays. We're gonna
have a meeting. Y'all get out of here. This is for the educated
folks. This is for the high-minded ones. The important people's
gonna be in this room. Common people that's so happy,
that gladly receive, get out of here. That's important people's
gonna talk. and they conferred among themselves."
They didn't pray to God, did they? Did they say, Lord, give
us wisdom? Nope. They went on their experience,
didn't they? Their lifetime of experience.
Saying, what shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable
miracle hath been done by them as manifest to all that dwell
in the Jerusalem. Everybody in the city knows what's going on
here. And we can't deny it. but that it spread no further
among the people." This guy gets stopped. They're gonna mess up
the good thing we got going. "'Let us straightly threaten
them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.'" They
couldn't even say it. They couldn't. They don't know him, but they
couldn't even say it. Why would it take threatening? I'm laboring
all this because we're going to get to their response and
their message. This is real important. I got to set the table for this.
Why would it take threatening? Why would they have to be so
harsh about this? Strictly, strictly, straightly threaten them. Why
would it have to get so aggressive with all this number of people? There's Anais and Caiaphas' father-in-law
and the whole household, all their cousins, and everybody
that was in the high priesthood, and this whole kit and caboodle of the Sadducees
was there against two fishermen. Why would they have to be so
organized to have such a well-drafted plan? I'll tell you, and this
is God's wife teaches too, they were men. Lord, teach us what
that means. They were men. They weren't boys
that could shave. They were men. God gave them
the hide of an alligator. He gave them the spine of steel.
He gave them a consistent and unbending spirit to declare the
capital T truth, to declare Christ. and they could not be balked,
and they could not be swayed, and they could not be coerced,
and they could not be influenced, and they couldn't be persuaded
to kind of, well, maybe you could soften a little bit and not say
it so much. Maybe this would be just a little
bit, they don't have to go in their baseball bats, maybe it's
just a little bit better if you don't say that. Leaven, leaven
is what that is. These were men. If anything,
you tell them, stop this, they're gonna double down on it. Now I'm gonna go even harder.
I didn't know that that was a thing that people, somebody was calling
out one time, stood to aid me, and they're saying, come on. And
I thought to me, like, are you serious? Come on. That's how
I'd say it, right? But they meant like, keep it coming. They said,
come on. I was, well, I'm gonna turn it
up to nine. And they said, come on. I turned it up to 11. They
said, come on. I was hoarse by the end of it.
I was screaming, didn't even have my notes with me. Tell me
to quit it. I'm gonna give it all I got till
I pass out. It's kind of awkward at the end,
that wasn't what they meant by it. What I had to say was true. Gave
it nonetheless. If someone thinks they want to
start preaching, or on YouTube, you think you want to start preaching
in your living room, I want to give you a word of caution. I
want to give you a word of caution. If you want to preach on the
internet, if you want to preach in a book you want to write,
or stand up on your hind legs and talk, or whatever, meet in
the laundry room, let me give you some words of advice. There's
no room in the ministry for weak, hen-pecked men with domineering
wives, or for men who have no control over their children,
or men who neglect and despise their God-given responsibilities. If a man does not have the respect
of his wife and his children, if they don't give him the respect
required to rule his house, then he's not man enough to gain the
respect and reverence required to rule a congregation. That's
harsh, isn't it? That's Donald S. Fortner. That
book I gave y'all, chapter four, the last paragraph of point three
in the church of God, what it means to belong. And I thought,
man, that's strong. And you know what Don said? Exactly
what Paul wrote to Timothy. It's as plain as, it's as strong. If the children don't respect
them, how are they going to rule the house of God? It's exactly
what Paul said. They're henpecked, and their
wife turns their head every time that neck feels like twitching,
and they do anything their wife says. They ain't got no business
preaching. It's as plain as that. God says
so, and his servants say so. And these were men. They weren't
swayed by some Pharisee. They weren't swayed by some educated
fool. Oh, foolish Galatians, who's bewitched you? That took
some guts. Took some guts for these boys,
and it takes some guts in this day, too. They're some fools
and they've been bewitched and are trying to bewitch others.
Shame. I like that book of Don's at
the end, the chapter three wraps it up. He said, if you read this
far, I can reasonably assume that your genuine interest in
the cause of Christ has led you to do so. He said, if you made
it to the end of chapter three, you must really be interested
in Christ to get this far. Anyway, verse 18. And they called
them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the
name of Jesus. You stop that preaching. Notice
God recorded two different words here, didn't he? Don't speak,
don't teach. They said, you stop the preaching
and you stop the teaching. Hmm. How about that? In the name of Jesus. If you
want to have Sunday schools, you want to have pageants, you
want to have chili cook-offs, go ahead. But you stop with this
name of business, this business in the name of Jesus. In this persecution, boy, the
Lord's being tender and easing Peter and John into this work
of the ministry. This is their first real pushback all by themselves. And it's going to get a lot worse.
This is terrible, what's happening? Oh, it's going to get a bunch
worse. Peter, they're going to kill you. John, they're going
to exile you. It's going to get worse. But the Lord's so tender,
and he's just kind of leaving the training wheels on. It looks
pretty bad, and it's bad to them. They had never experienced nothing
like this. They left it. Well, what had they been saying?
There in verse 10, it says, Be it known unto you all, and all
the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
don't forget this, whom you crucified. Whom God raised from the dead,
even by him does this man stand here before you whole. You know, they could have said,
who did this? Who made this man? How'd you
do this miracle? They could have said, well, the God of Abraham.
And you know, those sad, they'd have been like, oh, that's. They
might got slapped on the wrist or something. You need to reword
some things, but they told him the truth. That God of Abraham,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that
Nazarene you can't stand. The one you crucified, you was
at war with and you killed him. That very one was a substitute
of sinners. And if you don't call on his
name, you don't bow to him. You might as well be bound to
a mailbox. It ain't gonna do you no good.
There's only salvation in his name. The name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They said, you stop that name
of Jesus. You know, I thought a name evokes something, doesn't
it? A name's a sound. The name of a person's a noun,
right? But it draws the idea. It paints all the aspects and
the character of that person. A few of you know or may have
heard of Shelby Fortner. Now, when I say Shelby Fortner,
I say that name. You don't just think of name.
We're not cavemen, right? You don't just think of Dawn's
wife. You don't just think of what she looks like and how her
hair is and how she's always put together. But you start thinking,
if you've ever heard of or heard anything about her, you start
thinking of her character, of her personality, her demeanor,
her wisdom, her actions, her commitment, the whole person. You get the name, but that evokes
the thought and the understanding, not just the knowledge, but the
understanding of the whole person. We understand that, right? What
I just said. Don't you say Christ. Don't you
say the Lord Jesus Christ. That's been the rub the whole
time. That's the problem. That's the problem with the head.
The Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reason for division.
You call it anything you want. So we don't like lame people
healed on the Sabbath. We don't like people that pass the plate
or don't pass the plate. We don't like communion done
this way. We don't like it called communion. We like it called
Lord's table. We don't call it the Lord's table. It's actually the
Lord's supper and supper's in the evening and ain't the Lord's
breakfast. You can hashtag and cut that up and divide it any
way you want to. It boils down to this, the problem's Christ. It said in John 7, 43, so there
was a division among the people because of him. That's it. Why would somebody, and what's
that boil down to? Unbelief. What's caused all that? Pride. We think we're right. We think we know everything,
and God don't, and God's preachers and God's people don't. And this
book don't. We think we know. I wouldn't
know different. I think something special, I'd
live through that too. Solomon said, there's contention. You ever felt some contention?
You ever had contention in your life? You ever had a voicemail
laying on your phone that was contention? You want me to tell you the reason
for it? Proverbs 13.10 says, only by pride cometh contention. God says so. That's it. Now it may manifest in other
ways. What's the reason of contention? Pride. I wrote an article today about
that. I don't know if it's a saying here. It was when I was a real
young kid growing up. They said, boy, they was arguing down there.
And old Bill, man, he gave him chapter and verse. I don't know
if you ever heard that. You know what that means? That
means you open this book up to the right chapter and the right
verse, and you say, right there's what God says. And then everybody
shuts up. There ain't no but, and well,
and I think, and so and so said. It stops all, used to, stopped
all conversation. God said so. You give them chapter
and verse, but there's what's in next. What a thing. This is what these men did not
want Peter and John preaching and teaching. This name of Jesus,
what's what's in a name? What's this name mean? We pray,
some people pray, in the name of Christ, in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we ask these things. Why do we say that? Is
that just words we say? For most people, it's just words
they say. That's what we say when we end.
That's how you end it, right? What's it mean? We're talking
to God, we all know what our words mean. What's it mean? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We'll take it one by one. The Lord. What's the Lord mean?
Well, that evokes the whole character, that evokes the whole person,
that makes you think everything about him. What's everything
about him? What's his name? I was, a few
of them, we went on a bunch. And when I went, I got my certificate
through the government for a master teacher, a master instructor.
We learned a technique, I love it. It's called ask, pause, call.
And if, you know, somebody teaching is kind of, you lose them, they're
falling asleep, I ask a question. Well, what's Jehovah Jireh? Paws,
1-1000, 2-1000, Mike, or pick a name, right? Carol? Ah, and
you remember as a kid in school, oh, don't call, don't make eye
contact, right? Keeps people awake, keeps them,
good way to teach them. But this ain't Sunday school, I'm preaching,
so you just listen to me. What's the Lord's name? Jehovah
Jireh. The Lord will provide. Not I worked hard, I built that,
I founded this church. No, God provided. They said,
no, don't say that. We did some stuff. That's what
they're mad at. Jehovah M. Kadesh, the Lord who sanctifies. Christ has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He's our sanctification.
He's the Lord that sanctifies. Well, sanctification is a co-effort
between man and God. No, it's not. That's a blasphemous
lie that'll send men to hell in their own confidence. That's
his name. He's the one that sets apart.
He's the one that makes holy, not you, him. And they said,
well, don't say that. Now, we've been cleaning up outside
this cup a long time. I quit chewing tobacco. Whatever, I
don't know. Quit cussing and quit driving
fast. I've cleaned up my lie. No, that's
the Lord's name. That's what that name invokes.
Jehovah Nissi, Lord our banner. He's the one that we lift up
high and want everybody to see. But now, you know what? We ought
to have a day of recognition. All those that worked hard and
we'll have them come up and give them some flowers and put your
name. Radio shows. If you give somebody an open
platform, an open forum, you let their word be told, they'll
send you $10 so you'll read their letter on the air. People want
to be recognized, don't they? No, the only one we're recognizing
here is the Lord, our banner, Jehovah Nasi. And they said,
you stop that, Peter and John. Jehovah raised for the Lord that
heals. People say, well, I got myself to a doctor. I low crawled
out there to the ambulance. Or I found the right doctor and
I made the right appointment. No, we were unrecognizably dead
in a ditch when God found us. He's the one that heals. Jehovah
Raya, Lord my shepherd. Well, people say, I can discern
some things. I can judge. I know my heart. I have some
wisdom. No, we don't. The Lord has to be our shepherd.
We're sheep. He has to, every step we take, every time our
foot moves, he has to do. He has to be right there with
us, overwatching us and protecting us because we ain't got enough
good sense to know the difference between a wolf and a sheep. We're
dumb sheep, we need him. And those Pharisees said, Peter,
John, I don't want that said. You don't say that, don't say
that name. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. That's what the
false prophets call. Peace, peace. And they're as
sweet as sugar, ain't they? Hello friend, sound like some
squeaky little 14 year old. God's our peace. He's the peacemaker. We were the ones at war. Oh,
now. Oh, what are you saying, Peter,
John? You stop that. Don't you say that name no more. We don't
want to hear about this. If there's a peacemaker, that
means there was a time they wasn't peace. And I've known Jesus since
I was in the womb. No, you ain't. John the Baptist
would say that. We can't. Jehovah Sikkenu, the Lord our
righteousness. That's our surname that's given.
That's our last name. He chose us, we're his bride,
he married us, and he effectually changed our name. We ain't known
by the name before. We're different. We got a new
name. They said, you can talk about a Lord, but don't you talk
about that Lord. Don't you speak in that name, Jesus, because
it means those things. We call him the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, that's the Lord. Well, what about his name, Jesus?
The Lord Jesus, that's what they're offended about, because that's
all they knew. What's that name Jesus mean?
Savior, Savior, Joshua. Matthew 1.21 says, they shall
bring forth the Son, thou shalt call His name Jesus, colon. They're
going to list some reasons why. Four, because He shall save His
people, and it don't stop there, from their sins. You preach and
teach. Sit down, teach them good. Tell
them what words mean. Tell them what the Greek and
Hebrew and all that stuff means. Tell them why. Tell them about
the history of it and how it got to you and how you got it. And train
them up so that way they got some understanding of these things. This man's a savior. If you teach
that and you preach that, that he's a savior, you're saying
we needed saved. Right? Not just peace, peace. There's a reason you need peace.
There's trouble. Warn them of sin. That's what we are, not
sinners that, just plural, we got called a couple times. That's
our nature. That's all we can do. We drink
iniquity like water and we need to be saved. That's a savior. And then Pharisees, them religious
hoity-toity people that knew everything said, don't you go
talk about that. You just say savior, that means we need to
save. And we's doing okay. Well, we need to help. We need
to co-pilot. Say savior. Sinner's just too soft, isn't
it? Too soft a term. You and I, apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ, are sin. The noun. God teach us that. We have a problem. We have a
sickness. It's to death. We have a lameness.
We're dead. And Jesus shall save. What's
that attached to? One, we've needed saving. Two,
he's the one that's gonna save, and he shall save his people.
It's gonna happen. Some theologians write that down
as particular redemption. We just looked at it Sunday morning.
Unconditional election. That's always married to limited
atonement. I can divide them up if I just want to stretch
two messages out. Unconditional election and limited
atonement. Well, if they're unconditionally
elected, that atonement was made for those that were unconditionally
elected. They're hand in hand. I said, don't you talk about
that. Don't preach about those things. Don't teach those things. In
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord, all the names that
he has, Jesus, he shall save his people from their sins. Christ, that's Messiah. Oh, that's
a promise one, isn't it? God himself in human flesh. Great is the mystery of Godliness,
Paul told Timothy. God came down in the flesh, preached
to the Gentiles. We've seen him, we've held him.
He was vindicated, angels witnessed of him. God was made flesh. Not that flesh, it was God, and
then there was a bank account, and then we deposited God into
a bank account, and then there was a God there in a bank. No,
it's not as if. He came in the flesh. That's
what John was writing 1 John about. It's so. Now words mean things, because
if we get it, not just the knowledge, if we get the understanding,
this is important. God said so, and that's so. That's
how it is. Verse 18. And they called them
and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name
of Jesus. But Peter and John answered.
Which one was talking? The first thing I wrote down,
jinx, we say it when two people say the exact same thing at the
exact same time. They were of one accord, the
same message. They were the same creation inside
of them as the stance is of everyone that's made and ordained just
like them. It's the same thing. It's the same thing. And they
said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than unto God, Judge ye. It's easy for us to get bold,
not bold as we mean it, courageous. If you want to get a little courageous,
well, should we do it on the side of God or the side of you? That's of the wrong spirit. Remember
a few years ago, I'm warned specifically in Timothy and Titus to tell
people to obey magistrates. I'm commanded to do that. I don't
want to get off topic, but a few years ago, we'd say, well, is
it right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than
God? And then we'd get, we'll take our stand, won't we? We'll
get those people at Costco. Comma, judge ye. That's what
the man of God said. Judge ye. We've long since had
this settled in our hearts. You set and debate in your private
circles all the way to hell if you want to. We're here to preach.
There's 3,000 of them sitting out there wanting to hear about
Christ. You go judge it. You go have your little powwows.
We're going to go see God's people. We'll see it next week. They
went to their company. That's company I won't be in. Not up
there with these hoity-toity ones. We have wolves to warn
about. We gotta get after it. We have
commandments of Christ to teach to those that we've baptized,
not to be taught of you. Lord didn't say you go out in
all the world, preach the gospel, and baptize them, and then get
you out a pencil and piece of paper and sit down and take notes
of those you just baptized, because they know more than you they're
gonna teach you something. No, he said, you go teach them. You're
the one that knows it. You go teach them. They think
they know everything. Well, God will have to humble
them, won't he? Maybe God will humble some of these Pharisees
sitting there picking on John and Peter, wouldn't it? Old brother Don said this
too, and it's just so relevant to me and it's heart-wrenching. Pastorial work is not done visiting
door to door. Pastorial work is not done socializing. It's not done in personal counseling.
Pastorial work is accomplished in the study on your knees before
God. And a man responded to him one
time and he said, well, that's not what people expect. Well, that's
not what God demands. Right? That's what Peter and
John's telling them. So should we listen to you or
should we listen to God? Now you go figure that out. We
got work to do. That's already been said. If
a man has to take more than a nanosecond to think, well, no, I'll not
say this, because so-and-so, you know, they left a lot of
money in their will to us, and as soon as they die, I don't
think old Deacon so-and-so is going to like this too much.
They have no business in the ministry, and they need to vacate
that pulpit with haste immediately. They need to sit down, shut up,
and learn something is what they need to do. Not these men. They said, you judge it. Lord
told that. Didn't they know what the Lord
said? Go learn what that means. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice.
You go figure that out. Go learn what that means. Well,
how are we gonna learn unless some man teach us? I'll send
somebody to you. Verse 20, for we cannot but speak
the things which we have seen and heard. They said, you stop
talking about that name. and who that evokes. We don't
really know what all that means, but we've seen the outcome of
it and we don't like it. It puts us out of business. But the Lord,
Jesus, Christ, we don't hear none of that. Whatever you're
going to say, we don't want to hear it. You stop talking. And
they said, you go figure that out. We have to say, we have
no option but to say what we've seen and what we've heard. We
have to. What would they see? Same thing
every one of God's children see. Those apostles of John the Baptist,
they came to the Lord and they said, you hear him? John the
Baptist is down there in prison about to get his head cut off.
He wants us to make sure we know where you are. Is that you? And
he said, go your way and tell John the things you have seen
and heard. Peter and John says, we got to say what we've seen
and heard. What's that? How that the blind see. The lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised.
Those are all miracles, right? God says this is a miracle too.
And the poor have the gospel preached to them. And, blessed
is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. Because he's
the gospel. That's him. This ain't a set
of doctrines or an ideal that these Peter and John's clinging
to. It's a person they're clinging to. Lord, teach us that. What have they heard? That's
the thing they've seen, isn't it? And that's not just physical,
obviously, physically just, he'll just lame, fella. It's those
that blind, they never saw anything. And the Lord gave my eyes, and
now they get it. Now they see. Those that couldn't do anything,
they were lame. Well, now the law's been fulfilled in Christ,
and now we adore his law. I love his commandments, they're
precious to us. Those leopards, from the inside out, were diseased.
We've been cleansed. Death, here. I never did hear that, but I
got ears. Now I hear, I talk plainly, right? The dead are
raised, I was dead, and now I'm alive. What was the means the
Lord used to do all that? Somebody come preach gospel to
me. And I ain't offended in Him. It's power of God unto salvation.
What was it they heard? At Mount of Transfiguration,
Peter saw the Lord glistening. Blistering is how it's worded
or spelled, and I like that better, because it takes more time to
say instead of glistening. We're used to saying that, glistering. He just oozed light. It just bounced all over the
place. And he wanted to make three tabernacles, didn't he?
He said, let's make a tabernacle for you, and one for Moses, and
one for Elijah. We'll have one for the law, one
for the prophets, and one for you. And the Father spoke from
heaven. A loud voice came and overshadowed
them. And fear entered into that cloud. There came a voice from
the cloud saying, this is my beloved son. Hear him. That's
the one that fulfilled the law. Mankind always talks about the
law. What about the prophets? Oh, we're under that too, ain't
we? He fulfilled the prophets. It's all done. Finished. That's
what he said. You look to him. The father said
that. Others heard that, too, there
in John 12. The Lord said, Now is my soul troubled, and what
shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this
cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. And
there came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified
it, and I will glorify it again. And the people, therefore, that
stood by, they heard. They were there in person. God spoke. They heard. I know it sounds
just as elementary as it can get. The Lord will make his people
rejoice in that. They'll get it. And they said,
oh, it thundered. It thundered. They weren't confused.
That'll roar in you. And others said an angel spake
to him. Oh, that's a voice of an angel.
That's an angelic to be desired, to be heard a voice. The voice
of God spoke. You can read Job 37 when you
go home. God thundereth marvelously with his voice. Great things
doeth he which we cannot comprehend. The Lord ain't out of business. He's working and ruling. There's
such things I see and it took my stomach from me. my fellow
yoke men. And those folks stopped meeting
down there, and that's a faithful man of God that looked out for
them people until the very last second. The last words he had
them was encouraging, and he was laying down his life for
them. And it just took me right in the stomach. Oh, it took my
breath away. And I thought, well, though that's happened, God's
on his throne. And he thunders marvelously.
And whatever he says is done and whatever is done must be
majestic because he said it. So we ought to worship him, shouldn't
we? Read Job 37 when you get home.
I can't read it without hearing Maurice Montgomery read it. And
that name evokes a person and a character to me. I could hear
his voice. I could see him. back in our text or in Acts 4,
verse 20, where we cannot but speak the things which we have
seen and heard. You know, you can't describe something you've
never seen. You can't come back from a place you've never been.
But they've seen, and they've heard, and they ain't gonna say
nothing but that. They ain't gonna say nothing
about that. Other people can't say what they've seen and heard
of Christ, because they've never seen Him and they've never heard Him.
And they can talk about some fella named Jesus, and they can
talk about Bible verses, and they can quote some scripture,
and they can sound so close that if it was even possible, if it
were possible, even the very elect would be deceived. But
these men, they've been with Jesus, the Savior, who shall
save His people from their sin. And they've seen Him, and they
heard Him, and they ain't gonna say nothing about what He says.
Not my opinions, not my thoughts, not like, well, you know, I just
really feel who cares what I feel. I'm gonna tell you what he says.
That's the short thing. And I want to be faithful to the end, just
like these boys were. They started out faithful. God
made them faithful. He kept them faithful and he kept them faithful
to the end. That's real important. There's a lot of people that
used to preach the gospel. God keep me and I'm not somebody
that used to preach the gospel. I want to be faithful to the
end. That's what's required. It's not required to be good
at it. It's not required to keep everybody
in the pews. It's not required to be eloquent and have good
points. It's not required of what mankind calls successful
and grow the church, not shrink the church. It says in 1 Corinthians
4, 2, moreover, it's required in stewards that a man be found
faithful. That's what's required. Faith,
just tell what you see, tell what you heard. That's called
witnessing. A witness in a court, you just, you don't tell what
you think happened or what the motive was, you just say what
you seen and heard. Now you'll get some motives out
of that, won't you? A motive of love. I want to be faithful
to the end. The Lord said, Matthew 24, he
said, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall
be saved. Mm-hmm. I want to be made faithful
to the end. He's the faithful one. I want
him to be with me to the end. I beg that often. I beg that
for you. Those that are made to be faithful to the end, they
stand in the same name, they preach the same Lord Jesus Christ
to the end, and they magnify his name, lift him up forever.
Those that are made to stand and made faithful to the end.
I knew a man, know a man, Some of y'all may know him, 20 some
years. I don't know him, I think my
whole life. He was so faithful in preaching the gospel. And
then some leaven slipped in. And those that were faithful
to the end, like Brother Don, Brother Henry, Brother Joe Terrell,
those were faithful to the end, preached Christ right to the
very end. Those people that just a little bit of leaven, they
were faithful for a long time. A little bit of leaven slipped in and
he calls them men heretics. Because of some wording and some
ideology and a little bit of head knowledge. That's a frightening
thing. I want to be kept to the end. And if I'm kept to the end
and those are kept to the end, we're going to be standing together
and preaching the same name. You know that? One's right and
one's wrong. I don't want to be on the right
side. I want to be on Christ's side. That's the right side. I don't
want to just be right. I want to be in Him. My pastor. I talked to him about this, and
he amened me before I got through with the sentence. I know he
would. I know him. Clay's my pastor. My heart is knit to him. We're
bound together. He's my brother in the Lord.
We have the same father, and he's my friend. Our old men get
along just about as good as the new men do. We're buddies. He's
my best friend. I stand with that man, so long
as he stands with Christ. If he's faithful for 50 years
and he starts preaching another gospel, the Lord be with me and
I stand with Christ, not with a man, not with man worship,
with Christ worship, big difference. And we need to learn the difference. God has to teach us, don't He? What's the end of this, this
real short 24 hour strife, contention, this brief
persecution that Peter and John went through. This gentle first
little bump in the head with some opponents. What's the result? The same as result as any of
it, if the Lord's using it. Verse 21. So when they had further
threatened them, they let them go. They tried again, they threw
out the whole arsenal and they let them go. Finding nothing
how they might punish them, because they need to be punished. We're
the punishers. You get the attitude still? And they couldn't do anything
because of the people, colon. What people? All that glorified
God for that which was done. All these people, all these believers
out here with them, they're all glorifying God for what was done,
for this lame man that was healed. We can't get a word in edgewise
with them. Just let them go, I guess. We can't stop them.
Well, they gave up on them, gave them boys some relief. They got
a long road ahead of them. I look forward to going through
this. I'm gonna put this in the bulletin. I'll read this and
I'll let you go. I'm gonna put this in the bulletin
this weekend. Henry wrote this. He said, if
I truly believe the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ Jesus, I will not hesitate to be fully identified with those
who believe and preach that gospel in my day, in my area. Paul wrote
from prison to Timothy and cautioned him. He said, be not ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. Don't
you be ashamed of me, those preachers in your day. It is of no use
to brag on dead preachers like Spurgeon, Pink, and Barnard. That's the man that taught him
the gospel. He's giving us a principle here. He's teaching us something.
Like Spurgeon, Pink, and Barnard in order to drive miles to meetings
in other towns and refuse to encourage, support, and identify
with those who preach and believe the Lord's people, the gospel
now in my area. He said, those who never suffer
with him will never reign with them. And those who never wear
no scars of battle will wear no crown of victory. And I say,
Lord, let us see and hear Christ so we can testify of him and
make us faithful as he's faithful. I pray that for me and I pray
that for you. I do. Amen. Father, we're thankful. In the
time you've had this gathering here, you've been so tender with
us. and so gentle in the persecution and the contention and the strife. Thank you, Lord. And as we enter
times of the future that may be strife and contentions, Lord,
be with us still. Give us the same message. Keep
us faithfully looking to our kinsman redeemer, our husband,
our king, our Lord, our savior. Lord, and allow us only to tell
what we have seen and heard of him and make it evident to those
around us that we've been with him. We'll make him abide in
us like that bottle that goes in the ocean. It's in the ocean
and the ocean's in it. Lord, keep us in Christ and Christ
in us. We ask these things in the name. Our God, Our savior that shall
save his people from our own selves. The promised one who's
fulfilled it all the law and the prophets because of him,
his person, his work, his character on his merit alone. Lord, we
ask these things and beg them. Amen. All right, brother, Mike.