Acts chapter 5 today, and much
of it I'm going to ask you to read at your leisure. But there
are some things that we need to say. Number one, I want to
say Happy Father's Day. And it's interesting that in
this passage of Scripture we find the Apostle Peter using
the God of our fathers. So that's the title of our subject,
and how loving a father is by representing the God of the Bible
to his children. That's an honor, and that is
a loving father giving his children what the Bible has to say. I
wish my father had known that. But I'm thankful for spiritual
fathers that have known that, and they've been willing to share
that with me. So in the book of Acts chapter
5, we're going to read a few verses here. And we want to spend
most of our time on the answer that the disciples gave to the
council. Now, they've been arrested. They
were freed by the Holy Spirit. They went to the temple and preached
the gospel. They came back. by order and
they were very careful how those commanders brought those two
disciples or the apostles back because they didn't want to get
stoned themselves. Now they're set before the council and they've
been instructed, didn't we tell you to shut up? And then the
Apostle Peter makes a response there. Well, one of the things
I want to mention here is found down, there's a man by the name
of Gamaliel that is mentioned here in this passage of scripture
in Acts chapter 5 that stands up. He's in verse 34. He's a
Pharisee. He's on the council and he has
a comment. He raises up some issues, a couple
of instances of history that had happened prior to this, that
he said, you want to be careful what you do with these disciples,
because just remember, in the past, not that long ago, there
have been those guys that have rose up, they got gathered around
them, and eventually it dissipated, and there was nothing, and probably,
no doubt, many of those were taken out and crucified. But,
he says, just remember that. Well, you know, as I think about
Gamaliel, it reminds me of what we read in the book of Jeremiah
chapter 18. Would you turn there with me
to the book of Jeremiah chapter 18? Please remember that Gamaliel
is under God's direct control. Just like every prince and just
like every member of the church, they are under God's control. Nothing happens in this world
that is a surprise to God. God overrules all things. And
we find that so declared in the word of God and it is essential
that we share that information. There is no comfort in a God
that cannot keep track of what s going on. There is no comfort
in a God that was surprised by the fall of Adam. There is no
comfort in a God that was surprised by the arrest of His Son, the
Lord Jesus. There is only comfort in a God
that is in absolute control of things. You know, that was my
goal when I was teaching school, and when it happened one day,
it was a miracle. that I had control of the class.
But you know what? God has absolute control of His
class in every part of this world over eternal history. All right,
here in the book of Jeremiah, we read this, and Gamaliel falls
under this. He's the one that stood up. He's
the one that delivered their lives from death. They're wanting
to kill him. They want to murder him. This
council wants to murder these 12 apostles. And it's the same
word that the Apostle Paul used about he was consenting to the
death of God's people. And he cast that black stone
for them. They would vote on whether they're
going to live or die. And he voted against them every
time because they were interfering with his nice little religion. Well, let me get over here to
the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 18, if you would,
and we'll read a couple of verses here that share with us so much. Jeremiah chapter 18 verse one
shares so much about God's business in this world. Why are things
going on as they are according to God's direction? And you know,
someone say, well, why would God do that? God is God. I can't figure it out. and probably
it wouldn?t be our plan, but our plan is always so imperfect,
and His plan is always perfect. Okay, Gamaliel stood up by divine
appointment. Gamaliel saved their lives for
a season by divine appointment. Here it says, The word of which
came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying arise and go down to the
potter's house and there I will cause thee to hear my words then
I went down to the potter's house and behold he wrought a work
on the wheels and The vessel that he made of clay was marred
in the hand of the potter So he made it again Another vessel
has seemed good to the potter to make then the word of the
Lord came to me saying O house of Israel Cannot I do with you
as this potter? Saith the Lord, behold, as the
clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house
of Israel. What a statement God gives to
Jeremiah about this. And here's a picture for us to
look at. Go down to the potter's house, see what they're doing
down there. And you know, the apostle Paul brings this up in
the book of Romans. Cannot the potter do with the
clay as he sees fit? In the book of in the book of
Proverbs chapter 21. If you would go there quickly,
I just have one verse of scripture I want to read in the book of
Proverbs, but it settles so many issues for us when we see things
like this happen in the Bible. Why did Judas do what he did? Because God divinely appointed
it. Why did Jesus Christ go to the
cross? Because God divinely appointed
it. And why are you here? I can say
with all authority, God divinely appointed it. He divinely appointed
me to hear the gospel. He brought me in contact with
someone who knew the gospel. That was by divine appointment.
It wasn't my choice. I was quite pleased with my own
religion. Well, here in the book of Proverbs, This wonderful passage
of scripture, Proverbs chapter 21. What a statement is made
here, and we have Gamaliel all wrapped up in this. Proverbs
chapter 21. Now, in his mind, he's a king. He has a great deal of authority
on that Sanhedrin court. And here he says, the king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. An irrigation stream can be controlled
quite easily with a shovel. And God uses the same principle
in controlling people as with a shovel. He moves them. And
you know, when we get to Daniel, it says, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven. That's what he's doing with Gamaliel.
He has him under complete control. He says, this is what you're
going to say. Now, Gamaliel doesn't believe that. But we can look
at it and say Gamaliel was given the instructions by Almighty
God to say what he said, and those apostles were delivered
at that time. In Ezra, we have a king by the
name of Cyrus in the first year. Now, he is the paganist of the
pagan kings. He is nobody you want to be messing
around with. Your life, if you were in his
control, was life or death was in his hands. And yet one day
God came as a result of the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Jeremiah
about the children of Israel being released from Babylonian
captivity. And God came and stirred that
king and said, you know, it's time they go home. And I've said
this a number of times, I wonder how many of his counselors said,
he's gone, Looney. Here's our workforce. going to
be sending them home, and he's going to give them money when
they leave? Well, that's exactly what God did. The king's heart. Now, that's why Gamaliel said
what he said, and we're going to find out that later, the apostles,
all of them, but one, from a historical standpoint, tells us that they
all died in terrible deaths except for one, and that was John. Alright,
going back to the book of Acts chapter 2, or excuse me, chapter
5 if you would, we'd like to pick up the point we'd like to
spend the most of our time on, and that is in the message that
the apostles shared with that council. Now, they've been brought
in, arrested, and their life is on the line, really. This
council wanted to get rid of them, wanted them murdered, taken
out, and death was to be pronounced upon them. And Gamaliel stood
up and stopped that. But we have a message that they
gave to this council. And in that message, we find
that the apostle Peter was doing us a great favor, as the Holy
Spirit gave him the words to say, and reminds us of a great
thing and that is the covenant of grace. In the book of Acts
chapter 5 verse 30, Acts chapter 5 verse 30, we have this message
that was brought up to that council. One man put it this way, truth
must be spoken however received. People may not be happy with
it, but the truth must be spoken. Don't ever doctor the truth. Leave the truth as it is, and
let the chips fall where they may. That's just the way it has
to be. Don't ever lie about the truth.
Now, there's some hard sayings in the Bible in relationship
to many of our minds in our natural state. But when the truth comes
to us, we certainly agree with what God has the right to do.
He is sovereign. He sits on a throne high and
lifted up, and He is doing what is His pleasing to Him, and He
has always done that. And for us to understand it,
we'd say, well, His thoughts are above our thoughts as far
as heaven is above the earth. Let's just leave the Word alone
and not try to doctor it up and make it more palatable. The Gospel
is offensive. It offends our very nature that
God would save us without us being involved. I've asked this
many, many times to people in discussing the gospel, and I've
said simply, how much did you have to do with your physical
birth? And you know, the answer is always the same, nothing. And I says, exactly. You answered
it correctly. You had nothing to do with it.
Well, I mentioned the other day, when we were born, we quit kicking
mama. So that's the only thing. We
didn't have anything to do with it, but we're there. All right. The same thing is about the new
birth. If you added your faith. Now, I have a young man I've
been dealing with quite a while about this very subject. Now,
if you have perfect faith, That will do something. But who among
man has perfect faith? None of us. We don't have perfect
faith. We have human faith. So only
God except perfect faith. I repented. Do you have perfect
repentance? Are you kidding me? None of us
have perfect repentance. Only God can grant perfect repentance
and all of the other things. We don't have it. It's not in
our character. God never intended in the fall for us to have those
things. Our will, is our will still good? No. No, there's nothing
good about our will. So we must have a will given
to us by God. All right, over here in the book
of Acts chapter five, verse 30, the apostle Peter, verse 29,
then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to
obey God rather than men. Fair statement? I pray that every day, Lord,
help me follow you. We ought to. And in this position,
Peter and the other apostles see that we must, when it comes
to the gospel, never bend. Never say, you know, we could
get along on most of our points. You know what? There's only one
gospel. It has only one end, and that's
the glory of God, and any gospel that does not glorify God is
another gospel. Verse 30, the God of our fathers. Now he strikes a chord with this
whole council because their whole belief is based upon their fathers. Now Peter's going to bring up
a father that they don't know about. They are depending upon
a Father that's in a physical sense, that gave them the Law,
that gave them the Word, and all that stuff that they're all
hatched up in. And Peter's talking about a Father
that is a covenant God, a Father that had an interest in a people
before the foundation of the world. He's talking about the
father of Abraham, or God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And
I'll show you that in just a moment. It tells us here, the God of
our fathers. He's the one that raised up Jesus,
whom ye slew and hung on a tree. You crucified the Messiah. That's what you did. And we would
have been doing exactly the same thing if it would have been left
to us there in Jerusalem at that time. I don't care whether you're
Jew or Gentile, Barbarian or Scythian. We'd have been voting
against Jesus. We did that in our life after
the crucifixion when we were born. We voted against Jesus.
He brought to us the word of truth and we said, that's not
for me. I'm thankful that he is all powerful and can deal
with that will that we brought to him. And say, I'll work out
my will. All right. Him hath God exalted
with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. In those two short verses,
the apostles bring to the attention of that council volumes about
God and about God's work of grace. All right, I'd like to go back
into the Old Testament and read a few verses of Scripture that
use this term about the God of our fathers. He's opening up
the words. Here he asserts the covenant
of grace, the covenant of love, the God of our fathers, and this
thought is throughout the Old Testament. This is where we find
the basis that the preaching of the gospel is going to be
effectual, that there's the God of our fathers. We have this
great God of our fathers. We have a God that can call a
man out of pagan Ur of the Chaldees and have him move at his word. He went down to Ur of the Chaldees.
Stephen is going to tell us in the seventh chapter of the book
of Acts, the God of glory appeared unto Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees."
Not one of the gods that was down in Ur, but the God of glory
appeared unto him. This is the great God, and this
God spoke to Abraham and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees.
Turn with me, if you would, over to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter
23. Before we get to that part about
the God, let's look at this covenant. And I pray that we all can say,
as David said, as David said here in the book of 2 Samuel,
chapter 23. 2 Samuel, chapter 23. We have these words that David
spoke. Now, the scriptures tell us,
if we read about this earlier, these are towards his last days.
You know, I pray that in my last days, I can say exactly what
he did. I hope I have the mind to say
this. I have in my family the mind
that is, what do they call it now, Alzheimer's? Sometimes I
think I'm Quartersheimer's already. David, in his last days, said
this about his God. In the book of 2 Samuel, chapter
23, verse 5, it says, Although my house be not so with God.
And what he's saying, not everybody in my household is saved. You
know, it wasn't until I met a bunch of grace preachers that I found
out that It's not your responsibility to win your children to Jesus
at four years of age. It's a travesty. They don't know
anything. And most of them have never heard
anything. And you cannot be saved without
hearing the gospel. That's just absolutely the truth.
And it goes on to tell us here, yet he hath made with me. Now
David just goes right back to where salvation is based. He
hath made with me an everlasting covenant. Now, we heard Brother
Mike talking about that. That's a word we just can't quite
get to. We're so limited in time. We just can't step back into
eternity. It's beyond us. And then to realize
that God did all of his business, I think we sometimes just have
to do as Jesus did when he's speaking to people, I am. Never
a time I wasn't, I am. Well, here he says, an everlasting
covenant. Now, another thing I like about
this, it's ordered in all things and sure. Our covenants, have
you ever made a covenant with someone and it got broken either
by you or by the other part? Well, of course, I've made promises
to my mother and dad, broke them. And you know what? They made
some covenants or agreements with me and they broke them.
But this covenant is sure. It says here, sure, ordered in
all things and sure. God has put his word on it. What God has promised, he will
fulfill. He will not renege on it. He
will not back out. And here he goes on to say, for
this is all my salvation. Oh, just think of what we build
our salvation on. Oh, in works, doings, activities,
Bible studies, reading the Bible through year by year, being able
to have a list of 25 years. Got to change those buttons down
to here because you've attended Sunday school for 25 years. And yet David never depended
upon any of that stuff for his salvation. He said here, this
is all my salvation. What is it? the everlasting covenant,
God's business on my behalf. And it says, and all my desire,
this is all my desire. I can only go to this for my
hope, my strength, my grace. Although we make it not to grow,
it doesn't look like he's dealing with my son over here. And you
know what? With Absalom, he never did. While you are there in the Old
Testament, would you turn to be with me to the book of 1 Chronicles,
Chapter 29, as we think about the God of our fathers, this
covenant God, and what He has done. In the book of 1 Chronicles,
Chapter 29, 1 Chronicles, Chapter 29, and there I'm going to have to ask you
to read the bulk of this. I put in my notes verses 1 through
19. You know, for time's sake, I'm going to read verse 18. David is going over the blessings
that God has given him and he's preparing for the next generation
to take over and he's amassed all the materials for the temple
and that sort of thing. And now he says here in the book
of First Chronicles, 1 Chronicles 29, verse 18, O LORD
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever
in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and
prepare their heart unto thee. Keep this in their heart. You're
going to have to remind us day by day, why do we have services
three times a week or two times a week, three times a week? to
remind us. Left to ourselves, we'll forget.
It's a joy to be reminded of the grace of God. Oh, to be reminded
more than just three times a week. May we be reminded every day
of the grace of God and how important it is to us. As we think about
this, the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, you know, Abraham is called one of the
fathers of the faith. He is a one mentioned here the
God of Abraham Did you know Abraham had two sons? Well later after
Sarah died and he remarried he had six more sons Very little
said in the Bible about them He gave them some gifts and sent
them away because he didn't want him messing with Isaac but Abraham
had two sons and Ishmael and Isaac. And you know, both of
those guys became fathers. One was not the father of the
covenant. The other one was. Isaac was
under the covenant, and he's the one that is mentioned, the
God of our father Isaac, Abraham Isaac. Well, it doesn't take
us very long to travel up and find out that Isaac had a son
or two sons born at the same time, twins, Jacob and Esau. Well, Esau had children, but
you know he's not called, God has not spoken of him as the
God of his fathers. He is out We have Jacob is mentioned,
the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is a covenant
God. He's on serious terms with those
that he belongs to and that they belong to him. He's on serious
terms with them. And we find out that there are
some that are not in the covenant. And that's on God's dealings,
not mine. Want to always have the gospel
preached every time the doors are open here Because we cannot
make a judgment call on who are Isaac's and Ishmael's We cannot
make a judgment call on Jacob's and Esau's I Don't know the heart
of anybody my wife told me after I was saved. She says I thought
you were saved all along Got her fooled But when God saved
me, it was so different. All right. As we think about
this, we find these thoughts about the God of our fathers. In the
book of 2 Chronicles, would you join me there? 2 Chronicles chapter
20. 2 Chronicles chapter 20. And we find in this passage of
scripture, this is a prayer of Jehoshaphat. Now, Jehoshaphat
has the enemy at the gate. Word has come to him there, right
there. We have the enemy at the gate,
and what are we going to do? Well, this is what in 2 Chronicles
20, we have Jehoshaphat bringing up in chapter 20, verse 1, it
says, And it came to pass, after this also, that the children
of Moab and the children of Ammon, and with them also besides the
Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Here s the problem.
We ve got the enemy at the gate. And you know, in those days,
if 10,000 people on this side and 10,000 people on this side
went into a battle, you know how many came out? 10,000. 10,000
were gonna be killed right away. Someone was gonna kill somebody
on each side. It was a tragedy that took place. And Jehoshaphat was concerned
about his people. And so it drops down here and
says in verse six, and said, O LORD God of our fathers, O
the covenant God of grace, the covenant God of peace, the covenant
God of salvation, the covenant God of the Messiah, the covenant
God that promised the Messiah, the covenant God that promised
salvation and redemption to spiritual Israel. The covenant God, oh,
the God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? And rulest
not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? What a statement
for a king to say as he's led by the Holy Spirit to bring this
up. You're the covenant God and you rule in heaven over all the
kingdoms of the heathen. And in thine hand is there not
power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? What
a great statement to make to anybody about the God of heaven.
Is there anybody that can stand against you? Absolutely not.
And you know, once God saves us, we're thankful. Brother Mike reminded me yesterday,
this young Mike, of something that was said in a message, and
I got it from Scott Richardson. He saved us against our will
with our full consent. We're so thankful. that that
gracious God, the God of our fathers, came to us and brought
salvation, that we say, thank you for overcoming my own natural
will, and now I'm thankful for it. All right. In the book of
Deuteronomy, would you travel over there? The God of our fathers
that rule us over all, the God of our fathers who has given
this great covenant, this great covenant of grace, so extensive
is this covenant of grace that in it he promised eternal life. Now, it didn't start when the
Lord revealed Christ to us. That's not when eternal life
began. We find out in growing in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that he had an interest
in us and for us in eternity past when he said, I am. in His being and in His person
and in His purpose and in His predestination. He had a purpose
to save a people from their sins. So, here we are. You have this
purpose. Well, look with me in Deuteronomy
chapter 26 if you would. Deuteronomy chapter 26 verse
4. Deuteronomy chapter 26 verse
4 it says, And the priest shall take the
basket out of thy hand and set it down before the altar of the
Lord our God. I wanted to read that because
we're at a temple service or a tabernacle service in the Old
Testament. And thou shalt speak and say
before the Lord thy God, a Syrian ready to perish was my father. You know, this is, I was just
so shocked when I read this passage of scripture because the writer
here is calling Jacob Israel, a Syrian. He lived in what is
now Syria and he went down to Egypt because he's, well, what's
it say there? It says a Syrian ready to perish
was my father. And he went down to Egypt. And
we find out that this Syrian is one of those that God has
a covenant of grace with. That's why we call him the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We have Jacob here. He was nothing
more than a Syrian. He was nothing more than a Hittite.
He was nothing more than a Gentile. He was nothing more in himself
than anybody else. He was born into a home. I believe
both his parents knew Christ. But he didn't know anything until
God revealed himself to him. And that is usually looked at
over there when he wrestled with the angel. He came away knowing
something. I've seen God and lived. But
he's a Syrian up to that point now. He is going to be called
Israel. Jacob is Israel. Jacob means
supplanter. Man, he's a rascally rat. He
was a liar and a cheat and a thief and everything else we can think.
He's just a regular Syrian. just a regular Gentile. And God
comes along and saves him by his grace. Now let's go on down
here and read. Verse 5, And thou shalt speak,
and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was
my father. And he went down to Egypt, and
sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great,
mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians evilly entreated
us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. And when
we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, The Lord heard our
voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.
Who did they call on? The Lord God, the covenant God,
the promise God, the God that has promised salvation. And verse eight, and the Lord
brought us forth out of Egypt. Have you ever had a time of great
trouble like these folks? What are we
to do? Call unto the covenant God. You know, I've had people say,
well, if I believe what you believe, I would understand that there's
some people that just can't be saved. And I'm going to respond
to them. Everyone that ever wants to be
saved will be saved because God's going to give us the want to.
By nature, we don't have any want to, but He'll give us that
want to. All right? And the rest, just that terrible
excuse people use about the grace of God. Oh, you know, you just
made it so that I can't be saved. No way. God made it so He can
save, and I'm not going to detain anybody by the truth of keeping
anybody from being saved. All right, it goes on here, it
says, ?The Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand,
with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and
with signs, and with wonders, and hath brought us into this
place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth
with milk and honey.? Isn't that where we come from and where
we get by the grace of God? We're taken from barrenness,
slavery, and all the other things that are affected as the children
of Israel were down there in Egypt, and brought to a place
that floweth with milk and honey, that we have the gospel, free
grace in Christ Jesus the Lord, even though we may be in prison,
even though we may be on our deathbed, even though we may
be dying, we may have great pain, We have the ability of flourishing
on God's milk and honey. We've been brought to Christ.
How greater place can we be? What greater place can we have
than to be brought to Christ? And so the Syrian was brought
down to Egypt. There a great nation grew 400
years later. How come 400 years? That's exactly
what God, the covenant God, told Abraham. They're going to serve
the Egyptians 400 years. You know what that means? In
the fullness of time, when it's God's time, Paul said, when it
please God, when it please God. Now, I don't know what those
people felt all those 400 years. And I don't know exactly all
that Saul of Tarsus felt all those years. But I know this
after the Lord saved him, he said, I was saved at the right
time. Not a day before, not a day after. It's almost like it says with
regard to us in our physical life, there is a day appointed
for us to die, and after that, the judgment. Well, there's a
day to be born, there's a day to die. There's a day to be born
again. And we thank God. They went down, milk and honey,
and now behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land."
How joyous, what a rejoicing period of time it was for the
children of Israel as they went in there, and what a rejoicing
period of time it is for us in our lifetime to bring the firstfruits. What are those? God has given
every one of His children the fruit of the Spirit. Now, as
we heard this morning, we can't create that. I don't have perfect
love. I don't have perfect forgiveness.
I don't have any of those things perfect. But He does, and He
accounts them to my account, and gives me them in my account,
fully and persuaded, and everything is over with because of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Why, as we go back to the book
of Acts chapter 5 and verse 30, it says the covenant God raised
up Jesus, the promised Messiah. which in God's purpose and plan
was the Messiah was crucified and died. Go over there if you
would to me the book of Hebrews chapter 9. In Hebrews chapter
9 we find that the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob and all the rest down through time that were in
the covenant of grace, Hebrews chapter 9 we read this, why did
the Messiah go to the cross? You know, some people think it
was a mistake. Some people think that God was
thwarted. Some people think that God didn't
have control. All the things that the human
mind comes up with that is not right with God. The right mind
will say, God did it on purpose and thank God for it. In the
book of Hebrews chapter nine, we read this, and I hope if you
don't have this underlined in your Bible, you soon will, or
you'll have it memorized, because it says, for then must he often
have suffered. If he had been an Old Testament
priest, if he had been in the Levitical priesthood, if he'd
have been a Levite, he would have been like the Levites. always
offering for themselves and then for Israel. But this priest did
not have to offer a sacrifice for himself. He is the righteous
branch. He is righteousness personified. He kept every word of God so
perfectly. Can you say that? only in Christ. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26, For
then must he have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now, once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Why did the Messiah
need to go to the cross? to put away sin, to put away
sin. It was put on him as a blanket,
if you please. In the book of Isaiah 53, the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity. It was put on as a blanket, it
covered him. And then God the Father, in his
righteous indignation against sin, If you want to learn a little
bit more about this righteous indignation of sin, just read
what you can in the Bible about hell. Death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire and they will suffer forever and ever.
Now that's righteous indignation against sin. I've had people
say, people go to hell because they didn't believe in Jesus.
People go to hell because they're sinners. Their sin has not been
paid for. That's why they go. Here we find
in Isaiah 53, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Even the Samaritan woman at the
well knew a historical value or historical person called Messiah. Jesus is talking to her and she
has no idea who he is. I've had preachers say, the only
Jesus people may see is in you. You know what? They saw Jesus
and didn't know Jesus. They're not gonna see Jesus in
you. They can't see Jesus in Jesus. He must be revealed. Now,
I'm not saying don't live a life that honors and glorifies God.
I'm just simply saying it must be through the word. It's not
through vision. It must be through the word.
It must be through the gospel that we hear about this Christ.
But the Samaritan woman at the well over there in the book of
John chapter four, she said, we know. that when Messiah has
come, which is called the Christ, He will tell us all things. Do
you know what Jesus said to her next? The one who standeth before
you is I AM. Let's just go over there and
read it. I think I misquoted it just a little bit. John chapter
4 verse 26. The woman at the well brings
up that subject. She has all kinds of arguments
for the Lord. She brings up religious things. She brings up historical
things. She brings up genealogical things. And the Lord just kept
hymning her up, hymning her up. What's the book of Hosea say? Hedged her about. brought her
right to the right point. That's why I was there. You know,
it's so important that Jesus said and shares with us, I must
needs go to Samaria. I have a purpose. Before the
world began, I have a purpose to meet a woman, one of my lost
sheep, right here at this place. All right, in the book of John
chapter 4, there in verse 26, we have Jesus' response to her
comment. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee, am. If you'll notice in your translation,
the word he is in italics, it was supplied. by the translators. Now, it lends itself, but the
am is an eternal I am. In the book of Exodus, God spoke
out of the burning bush and says, you tell the folks that I am
that I am. That's all that's required and
all that's necessary. The eternal God, the everlasting
God, the God of the covenant. So when she heard that, She left
her water pot, and she went into town and says, I want to tell
you I met somebody that has told me all things ever I've done.
What did she say about the Messiah? When he is coming, he'll tell
me all things. What did he tell her? You're a sinner. What did
he do? Saved her by his grace. What
did she do? I want to tell you about a man
who told me that I was a sinner, but saved me by his grace. and
brought out a crowd to hear this preacher that knew something
about the gospel. Well, Jesus saith unto her, I
speak unto thee, the God of the fathers hath exalted him to his
right hand. You know, that's exactly what
Jesus, what took place there in the book of Acts chapter five,
when Peter and the rest of the apostles message to this. Two
verses of scripture cover the Old Testament, all the gospel,
and God before the foundation of the world and his purpose
to save a people from their sins. The God of our fathers has exalted
him to his right hand to be a prince and a savior. You know that word
prince is used over in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verse
2, where it is the author. He is the author and finisher
of our salvation. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. There we go. I'll get it straight. He's the
author and finisher of our faith. He's the beginner. And when we
get to looking here, we find that God was, Christ was made
and declared both Lord in Christ, Lord of Lords, Prince of the
Kings of the Earth, the Prince of Life and Peace. And this word
Prince also can be translated author. He's the author of life,
the author of peace. He's the author of the church.
He's author of all the elect. He is their beginner. He's everything
about them. They didn't have anything until
He gave them something. He's the author of spiritual
eternal salvation. He's become the author of their
obedience, and He's the author of His obedience and sufferings
for the church. In his death, he's able and willing
and a suitable and only savior of his people, giving rich spiritual
blessings and eternal life. This is the God of our fathers. Well, the next words out of the
mouth of the crew there said, kill him. Kill him. Gamaliel stands up, says, well,
let's not get too hasty here by the direction of God. They
beat them, release them. And you know what
those apostles do? They say, we're so thankful that
we were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus Christ. End of chapter
five. Brother Mike.