All right, this morning we're
going to be in the book of Acts one more time. At least one more time. We'll
see how it goes. And chapter one, and as Lauren
brought that lesson this morning, I enjoyed it tremendously, that
message. I took several notes down that I might refer to some. In
Acts chapter 1, and we're going to look this morning at a few
more of the verses 4 through 14, and Greg read seven through 14,
but I'd like to read, starting with verse four, down just a
few verses through verse eight. It says, and being assembled
with them, speaking of the Lord, that he commanded that they should
not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. When they therefore were come
together, they asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time
restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them,
it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the
Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea, and in Samaria, and
unto the other most part of the earth. There's a couple things that I would
like to just make comment on to start with. And in verse four,
when the Lord says, wait for the promise of the Father, which
saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. And then up here where the Lord
says in verse seven, it's not for you to know the times or
the seasons, what the Father hath put in his own power. And
in verse eight, but ye shall receive power after that the
Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto
me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and in the other
most part of the earth. And that part is very, verse
eight's very important The rest of the book of Acts and to all
the books as Lauren was in Romans, in several other places, Ezekiel.
But the thrust or the import they're gonna see of all the
things that take place in the book of Acts, and it's a wonderful
book with many things taking place, outward things. And as
a young person, I knew a lot of the words of that at one time
in the stories and the things, but not much of the truth of
it, the true truth of it. But here in verse eight, It says,
ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea,
Samaria, and the outermost part of the earth. And that's, it
says after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, this is what is
gonna take place. They were to go out and they
were to be, as they were told before, they were gonna be witnesses,
they were gonna go out and preach the gospel everywhere. They were
sent to everywhere, the gospel would be preached. The Holy Ghost
was gonna, by their preaching, be witnesses, as he says, of
me, the witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Brother Lauren
pointed out this morning. That's the crux of the matter,
is how we stand and who we stand in, who we have hope in for our
salvation, and it's the Lord himself. And that is the working
that the Holy Spirit has done, and not just in the Book of Acts
with those things that we'll see, but in the Gospels, the
people that the Lord dealt with and that became believers by
the Spirit working in them. In the book of Hebrews, we have
quite a list of those that talks about by faith and those things
that they did or was accounted to them for righteousness, their
belief that the Spirit caused him to have in the Lord himself.
And that was always the thing. Those things that Lauren talked
about that were done, that the Lord has done for his people
in salvation, the Spirit witnesses to his people, those things.
And that's the purpose of any preaching or teaching of
God's word is to put the spotlight on our Lord
himself and what the scriptures say about him. Of all that we will yet see in
the book of Acts, all of the working of the Holy Ghost is
to point out and to our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, as all
scripture is God-breathed, the whole of it is witness to Christ.
All of the working in the preaching of the gospel is to point the
one and only one in whom we may have salvation, the only name
by whom we must be saved, our Lord himself. In Ezekiel, that talks about
his holy name, for his holy namesake, the Spirit would do those things
in his people and does those things and reveals himself and
calls his sheep in. And all the things the Holy Ghost
does, as referred to here in Acts, shows the great need because
of sin and shows the one who indeed has accomplished those
things. As he said himself, when he said
it's finished, it meant it was finished. All those things that
he was sent to do on behalf of his people for the redemption
of their souls, He accomplished, it was done. No more, no more
things needed to be done to do that. And that's what the Spirit
witnesses of. Now we have a lot of things the
witness of the Spirit is to us about, as in through the book
of Romans and others, what the nature of man is like, what we
are like. that is revealed to his people by his spirit. It's not just the reading of
the words that cause us to believe that, but
by his spirit. He commanded again for them to
wait, Jerusalem, for the promise of the Father ye have heard of
me. And turn to Luke chapter 24. two places. In Luke chapter 24,
starting with verse 44, Luke 24 verse 44, And the Lord said unto them,
these are the words which I spake to you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. And he said unto them, thus it is written and
thus it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the
third day. and that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the
promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem
until you be endued with power from on high. And indeed that,
that, um, um, power that they were given in preaching the gospel
and miracles that they did and things that the Spirit did that
we see God's power did in men that they were preached to and
gave them that boldness to do that and that promise it said of my father
that the power from on high to do those things and to be that. Indeed, without the Spirit, men
can read and men can teach words, but only by the Spirit does that
power work that in men's hearts and put that to that needful
purpose of salvation in His people. John, one spot in John chapter
14, John chapter 14, and I had to
kind of pare it down to a few verses because a lot of this
in the book of John is our Lord Himself speaking and it's hard to do that. But in
John chapter 14, starting with verse 15, 15 through 18, and
it says, If ye love me, keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and
shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless,
I will come to you. So in these words here, the spirit
of truth, the comforter is called the Holy Spirit, will dwell in
them and dwells in his people. And as it says, the world cannot
receive because it seeth him not. And unless the spirit reveals
him, we cannot see him. And that's going to be, Those
things that take place through the book of Acts and lead to
all of scripture, all those things that we see, the working of the
Holy Spirit had to have a hand in or there was no seeing, there
was no revealing to them. Verse back in Acts chapter one
again. Just two thoughts on, he says,
verse seven. They asked him about restoring
the kingdom. Ned had been asked him before,
of course. And verse seven, he says, it is not for you to know
the times or the seasons which the father hath put in his own
power. And it kind of seems like a two
verse aside, almost, because where we're headed here, this
kind of seems like they, He's speaking of the Spirit coming
to give them power and preaching and the different things that
take place. And then they say, when are we gonna restore the
kingdom? And verse, let's look at in Matthew chapter 24. Matthew 24. Starting with verse
34. I like particularly taking passages
that the Lord himself is telling them or teaching them or showing
them various things because we cannot have a better testimony
and testifying of those things than by our Lord himself's words. Verse 34, it says, Verily I say
unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things
be fulfilled. And they ask him about this,
how would they know when the end times come, when the last
time is. And he goes into quite a bit there about that. But it,
till all these things be fulfilled. Verse 35, heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my word shall not pass away. But of that day
and of hour, no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my
father only. But as the days of Noah were,
so shall the coming of the son of man be. For as in the days
that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into
the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them away.
And here, this part of it, it says, so shall So shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be. He was saying when the last
time to come, it's good. There's not going to be. The
headline news the night before is not going to tell it, and
somebody in California at a church or wherever that says the end
of the world is going to be on, you know, December thirty ninth
or whatever it might be. Don't listen to it. It's not.
That's not true. It's just not true. And then
in Mark 13 and it's another recounting of this account. In verse 32 of Mark 13 it says, Again, recounting the things
they'd asked him before about the end of the times, and he
says, but of that day and that hour knoweth no man. Know not
the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Take ye heed, therefore, watch and pray, for ye know not when
the time is. For the Son of Man is as a man
taking a far journey, who left his house and gave authority
to his servants. and to every man his work, and
commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore, for ye know
not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight,
or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly
he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say
unto all, watch." And so that does, that fits perfectly with
where they're going in the, in the preaching of the gospel of
wherever they go, and the Spirit will give them power to do those
things that, as he says, watch. and be faithful ministers of
that gospel that we hold in our hands. And as I said, I like
particularly reading of those texts of the Lord himself, but
all the texts we have is from the Lord himself, by the Spirit.
Just because they're black letters doesn't mean we can discount
them. They're all of God's Spirit working
in those men that Adam put them down. Verse 8 again, in chapter 1 it
says, you shall be witnesses unto me. There was not going
to be any banners up on the tents if
they got meetings and stuff going that proclaimed who the man was
that was going to be doing the speaking. They were not promoting
themselves. They had one thing to do, and
the Holy Spirit will see some things that people have taken
and said, well, that must be this. But we have to remember
what he said and what we know, what scripture's purpose is and
who it is of. And if it seems to be going aside
and the next few chapters, there's
some things that people have come to blows over about what
they say it says and doesn't say. And I say that starting
out as he talks here, the Holy Ghost is going to give these
and others power to witness Him, of Him. And that's what the Holy
Spirit does, is witnesses of our Lord Himself. It reveals
Him. In the book of Acts, over another
place, In chapter 10 of Acts, another... a place that's very plain in
what it says to us. In Acts 10, starting with verse... Let's start with verse 36. This is Peter preaching. It says, the word of God sent
unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ.
He is Lord of all. That word, I say ye know, which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things
which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the
third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto
witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink
with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to
preach unto the people and to testify that it's he which was
ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. To him give
all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. And so in this part
here, there are witnesses of those things he did that God
raised up and talks about God raising him up from the dead
and did those things that were needful
on the cross for his people. But here it says in here, to
him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. All the old
scripture that they had up to the time of Matthew, the writing
of Matthew and on, they did not have, they had the Old Testament.
The law and the prophets, and as we've seen in, Leviticus and
other places that we discounted as law and kind of old hat stuff,
speaks of our Lord Himself, a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
those things He has done. All those different sacrifices
we've looked at over time, speaking of Him, speaking of those things
that were done. not things that they had to do.
There were those that understood even in that day. Those sacrifices
were pointing to the one who had, who their hope and their
confidence and their belief and faith was in, the Lord himself,
the true sacrifice. Those prophets and witnesses,
they were the ones that, they had witness of him. They had
witness of him. We have in Acts chapter eight, Just touching on just a couple
of things in Acts as we go, but Acts chapter 8, and starting with verse 29. This is Philip, and the angel
told him what he's going to do, and he's on his way, transported to meet with a man. And he was reading Isaiah, the
man in the chariot, in verse 29. And it says, then the spirit
said unto Philip, go near and join yourself to this chariot. Philip ran thither to him and
heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, understandest thou
what thou readest? And he said, how can I except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which
he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shears, so opened
he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of
himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus."
And it goes on and he baptizes the man. But as it says, he opened
his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him
Jesus and Isaiah. And it could have been Leviticus
he was looking at or any other passage. And Philip could have
started, well, let me tell you about this. And he did indeed,
and by the Spirit, he brought him to that man, and by the Spirit,
that power of the gospel, as he opened his eyes to that, those
are, every time the gospel is preached and the Spirit uses
that and touches people and opens their eyes, regenerates him,
as he talked to Nicodemus about being born again, the spirit
must do that. It's not, we can't, I wish we
could teach it into ourselves. I wish we could just read these
things and have them so, but the spirit makes the scripture
alive and makes it real to his people and indeed regenerates
his people. And then in Romans chapter one, Again, this is one of the books
you could just kind of put in parentheses as a note to wherever
you are just about. Romans chapter one, the first
few verses. It says, Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scripture,
concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the
Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. To all that be in Rome, beloved
of God, called to be saints, Grace and peace from our God
and our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, the gospel
that was promised by the Holy Scriptures concerning his son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that is, as has been said
many times, whenever the word is opened, that's where we need
to get to. And hopefully sooner than later
in a message or a lesson that he is the one that that the light
is shined on. In 1 Corinthians, we're not gonna
go to that, I'm gonna refer to a couple of different places,
but in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it talks about the spirit
works in his people various gifts. And there was a time they thought,
you know, my gift's better than yours, or yours is better than
mine, or those things. There's some issues to deal with
that Paul dealt with in 1 Corinthians. These gifts are given for the profit gain of the church,
the good of the church. all to build up the church in
Christ. The gifts that are given to God's
people, whatever gifts there are, there's a list of them that
we know of, preaching and teaching and various, whatever the gift
may be that God gives to each of his people in whatever form
and whatever amount, it's for the building up of the church
and for the prophet and edifying, several places in the scripture
it talks about gathering together for the edification of the brethren
and for each other. And that edification only comes
by what is preached and taught and sung about and thought about
and that is our Lord himself. And that's the important and
the purpose of those gifts is to hold the churches made up
of all the body as it's talked about in different places. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
I am going to read a spot. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
starting with verse 1, it says, Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which ye also have
received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according
to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and he rose again
the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he was seen
of Cephas, and of the 12, and after that he was seen above
500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto
this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen
of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of
me also, as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the
apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because
I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am, and his grace, which was besowed upon me, was not
in vain. But I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with
me. Therefore, whether it were I
or they, so we preach, and so ye believed." It goes on about
that, but here, That was delivered of the Old
Testament, the gospel was there, and here it speaks about the
gospel that was preached was how Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures, and how he rose, buried, and
rose again the third day according to our scriptures, of the scriptures. Those things that were taught
are not just Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and a few others didn't
make up stuff and come along with something. They built upon
those truths of the gospel that they had of old. It brought a
lot of light. It came to be the book of Hebrews
makes an awful lot of light shine on those things that the Old
Testament taught. Nonetheless, the spirit used
those scriptures that he gave them for that purpose, to reveal
the Lord to them and to bring them into the fold and to bring
those sheep in. And indeed, that's what it has
done at all times. The brethren that we meet in
heaven, if we gather and discuss things, the same gospel that
they believe, we believe. And then two places in the book
of Revelation. You could read a lot of Revelation,
but turn to the first chapter of Revelation. The old Bible I had, I liked
it a lot, and there's a lot of notes in it and things. But the title of this and that
one says, The Revelation of St. John the Divine. In this one
here, it says, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which is correct,
in which it is indeed. That revelation, those things,
the words written were given to John, but it wasn't revealing
John. It was revealing our Lord himself. And in the first chapter,
I'd like to read the first nine verses. It says, the revelation
of Jesus Christ, verse one, which God gave unto him to show unto
his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he
sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John,
who bear record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus
Christ and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth
and may hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things
which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Unto John, John to the seven churches which
are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace from
him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from
the seven spirits which are before his throne. and from Jesus Christ,
who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead,
and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God, and his father, to him be glory
and dominion for ever and ever, amen. Behold, he cometh with
clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him,
even so, amen. Verse 8, I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and
which was and which is to come, the Almighty. In verse 9, it
says, I, John, who am your brother and companion in tribulation
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle
that is called Patmos for the word of God. and for the testimony
of Jesus Christ. So this opening part here not
only tells us what this book is about, that who this book
is about, it's revealing our Lord and Savior, but it's talking
about the scriptures that before that did the same, that revealed
our Lord and Savior. And from this here, as in the
book of Acts, whatever comes after this, we need to keep these
things in mind that are in the opening to this letter here that
is given by God to John, that this is a revelation of our Lord.
Things may look strange in there, and it may be like we see in
some of the other places when the prophet was asked, what do
these things mean? And he says, only you know, Lord.
If you don't tell us what they mean, we don't know. There's
a goodly bit in the book of Revelation that are spiritual things. that are hard to understand.
If Lord reveals them to us a little at a time, that's great, that's
wonderful. But they're not, they aren't,
it's not speaking about horses and wars and those type of things. It's revealing those things about
our Lord. And that, those are the same
things that, in the book of Acts, that they're told that this is
what's gonna happen. This is what you are gonna do.
This is what the purpose is. And it's not, The Holy Spirit
and the Holy Ghost is talked about a lot and mentioned a lot
in the Book of Acts. But the Holy Ghost is not just
testifying of himself and bringing forth himself. He's doing that
marvelous work that shows forth the Lord to his people to the
glory of God the Father. and to our good. And then one closing spot in
Revelation chapter 22, just two verses. Revelation chapter 22, just two
verses. And he said unto me, these sayings
are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the holy prophets
sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must
shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed
is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
And it goes on just a little bit here, but primarily here,
these sayings are faithful and true, and the Lord, God of the
holy prophets, sent his angel to show unto his servants the
things which must shortly be done. And the Lord himself said,
behold, I come quickly. And in all of scripture, The
same holds true. We need to pray, God, by His
Spirit, show us the Lord and what He is saying about Him to
us of importance and what we need to see and to know. And
only by His Spirit are these things revealed. But the book
of Acts, I think, is misunderstood a lot. There's a lot taken from
it that's not understood correctly. that people take it on their
own. And the book of Revelation surely has been made into a real
mockery almost of what God's scripture is. And in these things,
the book of Acts and the book of Romans, wherever we look,
the same spirit is showing the same one to us, our Lord Jesus
Christ in whom we stand and whom we must stand. And with that, Brother Nathan, would you lead
us in a closing hymn?