Scott, I forgot to put on the
demo music, but everybody quieted down at the right time anyway,
so that's when we miss our piano. Good morning, everyone. It's
good to be here. And we're going to open with our favorite hymn
in the spiral hymn book. We haven't sung it in a while.
Number 21, The Covenant, Ordered and Sure. So let's all stand
together, number 21. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast, God my Father chose His own in the person
of His Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
and retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly stood
as my great surety. For my price He offered blood
to appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heavily dove,
promised to come down in love. Bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and he brings us to the Lamb. By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by tithes of blood. Ties of grace and ties of love
hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Thank you, Tom. That may be one,
well, maybe my favorite hymn. I love that hymn. The whole gospel
right there. Good morning. We're going to
be in Acts chapter 5 this morning if you'd like to. Turn with me
there in your Bibles, Acts chapter 5. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
and ask his blessings. On his word. Our gracious and merciful Heavenly
Father, We come into thy holy presence, looking in faith to
thy dear son for all our acceptance, all our righteousness, all the
hope of our forgiveness of sin. We ask, Father, that you'd be
pleased this hour to send your spirit and power, that you would
open the eyes of our understanding, that you would cause your word
to be living and effectual, cause it, Lord, to be a two-edged sword,
dividing and discerning the thoughts and the intents of our hearts,
and revealing to us more of the glory and the accomplished work
of thy dear son. Lord, you've said that you inhabit
the praise of your people. It is our desire to offer to
you worship Worship that is done in the power of your spirit,
worship that is from the heart, and worship that is according
to the truth of your word. So, Lord, if you will enable
us to that end, we'll leave this place today knowing that we've
met with God. Open the windows of heaven and
come down. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. You have your Bibles open to
Acts chapter 5. We left off last Sunday at verse
21. The apostles now have been arrested
the second time and put into prison. And you remember we saw
that as a symbol or a type or a picture of the prison of sin
and how God sent an angel to deliver them from that prison. I want you to notice in our text
this morning. that the prison didn't change.
The doors are still locked. The guards are still in place.
The only difference is that the believers are gone. They're no
longer there. And the religious leaders, the
scripture says, are perplexed. They're confused. They don't
know what to think about this because they've set all their
things in place. and yet God overruled their rules
and delivered his people. That's the way salvation is.
It is the way. The prison of sin hasn't changed. The requirements of the law haven't
changed. Man-made, free will, works religion
hasn't changed. The guards are still in place
and yet the Lord has been pleased to enter into the very gates
of hell and bring out his children. And as Peter makes clear in his
declaration to these religious leaders, he did it for the repentance
of Israel and for the forgiveness of sins. And that's the title
of this message, the forgiveness of sins. Every person here this
morning has a variety of needs. We have problems, we have sicknesses,
we have relationship issues, we have whatever. And those needs vary depending
on our circumstances from person to person. And yet, there is
one overriding need. that every single person in this
room has, including the man speaking to you. And that is the forgiveness
of sin. If we don't have that, we have
nothing. You remember when the Lord declared
one's sins to be forgiven and the Pharisee says, who does he
think he is? No one can forgive sins but God. And they spoke the truth. No
one can forgive sins, but God. Sin by its very nature is an
offense against God, and only the one who is offended can forgive. Now the world says, free will works religion says,
I'm going to let God forgive me. That's not the way forgiveness
works. It's in the hand and heart of the one offended to determine
whether or not he's going to forgive. It's in the place of
the offender to plead for his forgiveness. Lord, if you'd be
pleased, put away my sin. And that's exactly what he did
by the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made on Calvary's
cross. He put away all the sins of all of his people once and
for all by the sacrifice of himself. He satisfied God's divine justice. God saw the travail of his soul
and God was satisfied. And faith is resting all the
hope of our forgiveness in the glorious person and accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't add anything to that
and I dare not take anything away from it. And so What Peter
declares here is that God sent Christ for the forgiveness of
sin. This is a faithful saying. We
quote this verse a lot. Paul made it. It is a faithful
saying. It's a true saying. It's one worthy of resting the
hope of your salvation on. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Every bit of it's acceptable
and everyone ought to accept it. Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. The angel told Joseph, you shall
call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And that's exactly what he did.
He actually saved them. He didn't make salvation available. He didn't make it an offer. He
actually accomplished the salvation of his people. The proof of that
is the resurrection. God raised his son from the dead.
God was saying, I'm satisfied. Everything required for the salvation
of God's people has been accomplished. And that's exactly the message
now that Peter declares. Look with me in verse 22. It's the same message. We just
keep preaching the same thing, don't we? We preach Christ and
Him crucified. Profess to know nothing among
you save Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the one thing needful. Whatever other needs we have.
It is the one thing needful. All the problems that we have
in this life. Well, they ebb and flow, don't
they? They come and they go, and one day they will cease.
But one thing we have a need for is to be able to stand in
the presence of a holy God without sin. Without sin. How can that be? Look at verse
22, and when the officers came and found them not in the prison,
they returned and told, saying, the prison truly found we shut
with all safety and the keeper standing without before the doors.
But when we opened, we found no man within. Nothing's changed
with the prison. You're not going to change the
law of God. If we're under the law, cursed is everyone who's
under the law of God. We're in the prison of condemnation
if we're under the law of God. God's law is not going to change.
He's not going to reduce its requirements or adjust its standards. He's not going to do it. And
the prison keepers, that's the religious men that would put
you under the law, they're still standing guard. But the prisoners
are gone. Now, when the high priest and
the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these
things, they doubted of them where unto this would grow. Now,
the word doubted is the word perplexed. They were perplexed. They thought, what's going to
happen now? What does this mean? Now, they weren't perplexed enough
to ask God what it meant. They were determined to settle
this thing on their own. And, but they were confused. And, you know, I think how confused
those who believe, those who, you know, man by nature has as
his presupposition, he has as a settled truth, that God loves
everybody, Christ died for everybody, God wants everybody to be saved,
and man has a free will. Now those are just widely accepted
foundational truths. And so they try to, so they interpret
everything that they read in the Bible through that grid. And they're perplexed when they
hear the gospel because the gospel says God doesn't love everybody. Jacob I've loved, Esau I've hated.
God loves those, he loves righteousness and he hates iniquity. He loves
those who he's placed in Christ. Christ didn't die for everybody.
He laid down his life for the sheep. He successfully accomplished
their salvation by putting away their sins. God's not looking
to try to get everybody saved. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. All my sheep will hear my voice.
They will follow me. Not one of them's gonna be lost.
Not one of them. And it is not by him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but it's of God who showeth mercy.
Man has the power of choice in terms of giving two or more options. He's always gonna choose something.
And there's the key of understanding free will. Because if you have
an option, between Christ or not Christ, you will always choose. Yes, you have a will. You have
a will. It's not free to choose Christ.
If you have an option, your will is in bondage to your desire,
and your desire is against Christ. You will always choose against
Christ if you have a choice between Christ or not. You see, coming
to Christ is not a choice. Coming to Christ is when God
removes all your options. He shuts you up to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You've got to have Christ. You
don't have anywhere else to go. You say with those disciples
when the Lord said to them, will you lead me also? What did they
say? What did they say? Lord, where should we go? You
alone have the words of eternal life. We know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You've shut
us up to yourself. That's what faith is. And as
long as you have a choice between Christ or anything else, you
will choose something else. A man has a choice. He has the
power of choice. Pray to God that he will shut
us up to Christ and he will show us that Christ is our only hope.
We've got no place else to go and he will give us faith to
believe on Christ. Yeah. The religious are perplexed about
that. They're confused because they're
trying to understand what we're saying through that false presupposition. And until the Lord takes that
away, let me say this. Here's a prayer I would encourage
you to pray. I find myself praying it often. Lord, if there's anything
I believe that's not true, take it away from me. Can you do that? If there's anything that I believe
that is not true, remove it from me. I want to know the truth. And knowing Christ and knowing
Him to be all in our salvation, we know the truth, don't we? The Lord said, if you know the
truth, the truth sets you free. What pilots say truth, truth. Is that what this is all about?
The Lord said for this cause was I born. And for this reason
came on into the world to bear witness unto the truth. Then the Lord said, my sheep, those that are of me,
they, they know the truth. They hear the truth. They follow
me. Men are perplexed about the gospel
until the Lord shows them that the gospel is a person. It's
a person. It's a glorious person and accomplished
work of the son of God. Look at verse 25. Then came one
and told them saying, behold, the men whom you put in prison
are standing in the temple and teaching the people. So it's glorious, isn't it? It's kind of funny, and yet it's
gloriously true. They put him in prison, and they
already threatened them to not preach in this name anymore,
threatened them with their lives. I mean, they were the ones who
had the Lord crucified. Did they have not the power to
do the same to these apostles? Sure. And when they came out of prison,
they went right back to the temple and started preaching the gospel. Then went the captains with the
officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the
people, lest they should have been stung. Let's go get them quietly and
let's threaten them again. You know, because the people
are hearing and believing and there's great fear among these
religious leaders that the people are going to turn on them. And
when they had brought them, they set them before the council and
the high priest asked them saying, did not we straightly command
you that you should not teach in this name? What name? They were, you know, you read
Peter's sermon in Acts chapter 2. Pretty much every word that he
spoke was scripture. He just stood up there and quoted
scripture and related it all back to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You listen to most preaching today. They don't quote scripture. They're not pointing everything
to Christ. Everything in the Word of God reveals the Lord
Jesus Christ. And yet you listen to most preaching
today and it's for the purpose of either amusing or entertaining
or giving some men some false hope or boosting men's ego. No, we preach Christ and Him
crucified and that's what, quit preaching in this name. And behold, You have filled Jerusalem
with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon
us? Yep. Oh, that the Lord would fill
Apopka. Central Florida with this doctrine. The Lord will be pleased to to
call to himself more and more of his people. We know they're
all going to be called, but that's that's our hope, isn't it? You're going to. You want to
make us guilty of this man's blood? Turn back with me just
a couple of pages to Acts chapter 2. Here's Peter's declaration
on the day of Pentecost. Verse 22. Ye men of Israel, hear
these words. Jesus, the Nazarite. Let's be
very specific about who this is. There have been many Jesuses
living in this day. This is Jesus from Nazareth,
the Son of God. A man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as you yourselves also know, you know, the who, that
you, you saw the signs. You weren't convinced by them,
but you saw them. Him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. Now there's. Their sovereignty
and responsibility all in one verse. Him being delivered by
the determinant for knowledge of God, God purpose this from
the foundation, from before the foundation of the world and the
covenant of grace, the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world, God purpose that his son would be crucified to satisfy
his holy justice and to save his people. It all happened right
on schedule. Right on schedule. How many times
we hear that the Lord would slip out of their hands because it
was not yet His time. He laid His life down. No one
took His life from Him. He laid His life down. And when
His time was fully come, He set His face like flint towards Jerusalem
and He gave Himself over, didn't He? He laid His life down. I
love thinking about you know, how horrible crucifixion would
be and how the Roman soldiers would have to force a man to
lie down on a cross and to have spikes driven through his hands
and how amazed those soldiers must have been when the Lord's
hands didn't have to be pried open. When he laid himself down
willingly and put his hand there and said, go ahead, go ahead. So it was determined by the foreknowledge
of God. It was the purpose of God. And
yet in that same verse, God says, and you by your wicked hands
have crucified and slain. You have responsibility, responsibility
for the death of Christ. And God's people know Christ
died for my sins. It was my sins that put him on
that cross. And here's the, here's the horror of sin, brother. If
you were the only person that God intended to save, the only
person, no one else, everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did
would have been required to save you. That's how horrible sin is. That's what God requires for
the remission, the putting away of our sin. So yes, it was determined
by God, but yes, I'm guilty. I'm guilty of my sins that put
Christ on that cross. Notice in verse, go back with
me to our text in Acts chapter five. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. We're going to obey God in terms
of how it is that we approach God. Men have created lots of
touch-not, taste-not, handle-not rules and regulations for approaching
God. And they've replaced the gospel
with the commandments of men. They've made void the commandments
of God with the commandments of men. And the child of God
says with Peter, we ought to obey God rather than men. We
can't come into his presence other than the shed blood and
righteousness of his dear son. There's no other hope, no other
way. To obey is better than sacrifice. To obey is better than sacrifice.
and to hearken rather than the fat of rams. You remember who
said that? That's what Samuel said to Saul
when Samuel the prophet and the priest told King Saul, the king,
to wait here until I get back and don't make a sacrifice until
I come. It wasn't in the place for the
king to be able to make a sacrifice to God. Only the priest could
do that. And Samuel was the priest, and
Saul waited, and he waited, and his men started to leave, and
Saul thought, I'm going to have to take this into my own hands.
I'm going to have to make a sacrifice on my own. And as soon as he
made the sacrifice, Samuel showed up. And Samuel said, to obey
is better than sacrifice, and to hearken to God is better than
the fat of rams. Saul, God has taken your, the
Lord, that's right there, the Lord took the kingdom away from
Saul. And Samuel left there and went
and anointed David as the king of Israel. Now, what a picture,
what a picture of the gospel. to obey, to believe. What does Peter say? We've got
to obey God, not man. And God says, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is your obedience. Rest
all of your hope on the only one that can make a sacrifice.
The Lord Jesus Christ, being our high priest, sacrificed himself
for our sins. And only by the sacrifice that
he made, but what do men do? They make their own sacrifices
and the Lord says to obey, to believe God, to wait on Christ
as your priest, to offer himself on your behalf, to wait upon
the Lord. That's what Isaiah said and Isaiah, Chapter six, I think verse 31,
they that wait upon the Lord, they that wait upon the Lord,
they shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary and walk and not
faint. We wait. That's what faith of waiting
on Christ as our only sacrifice, knowing that we can't, we can't
approach God based on a sacrifice that we make. So God says to
you and me, to you and me to obey. It's better than sacrifice. Peter says. We're going to obey
God. We're not gonna. We're going
to look to Christ. This is the will of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent, and this is his commandment
that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to obey
God rather than men. Now we saw this in chapter two,
you remember after they were, chapter four, I'm sorry, after
they were arrested the first time. There's a lot of civil
disobedience going on in our country today. And this scripture
says you obey God rather than man. The one and only time that
civil disobedience, because scriptures are clear in Romans chapter 13,
we're to obey our governing authorities. Unless, unless they command us
to do something that God says don't do, or they forbid us to
do something that God says do. And if you disobey the governing
authorities because you're obeying God, then be prepared to suffer
the consequences for that. Don't, don't, don't, don't plead
innocence. Just say what they said. We obey
God rather than man, period. I don't know of any examples.
If you know of one, you tell me. I don't know of a single
example in our generation, in our nation, in my life or in
your life, Where our governing authorities are commanding us
to do something that God says don't do. Or where they're restricting
us from doing something that God says do. What a blessing that we live
in such a free society. Many generations of believers
have never been so blessed. But if it happens, perhaps there
are pockets of places where it is happening, if it happens,
Then stand on God's side. Look at verse 30. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Turn with me to Galatians
chapter three. Look with me in Galatians chapter
3, if you will, at verse 11. But that no man is justified. Now that word justified means
to be without sin. The remission of sins or the
forgiveness of sins means that there's no charge to be made
against the person who's been justified. In other words, the
sins never been done. That's how, that's how glorious
the removal of our sin is. Uh, the Lord said, I remove your
sins from you as far as the East is from the West and remember
them no more. Remember them no more. That's
what happened at Calvary's cross. He buried them in the depths
of the seas. So he sewed them up in a bag.
The scripture said and threw him behind his back. He, he,
he put away our sins, forgiveness, justified. How are we justified? But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God. Now men justify themselves in
the sight of men by the law. That's religious hypocrisy. When
you see religious, proud religious hypocrites pretending to be more
righteous than someone else. That's justifying themselves
before men. by putting themselves and putting
others under the law. But that no man is justified
before God by the law is evident, for the just shall live by faith.
Those who are justified are going to have to look in faith to the
Lord Jesus Christ for all their justification. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. In other words,
you're going to be justified by the law, you're going to have to
keep the whole law. every jot and tittle, and not just in your
outward behavior. Paul, Saul of Tarsus was so proud
of himself, wasn't he? He said, and concerning the law,
I was blameless. Before who? Before men. What
he was saying was no man was able to charge me for having
overtly committed a violation of God's law. And he rested in
that, he was proud of that. And then he said, but when the
law came, when the commandment came, When I heard what the law
really said, then sin revived and I died. In other words, God's
looking at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance.
God's looking at the heart. Every thought and intent of the
heart, Lord, I've never been able to keep your law. So the Lord says, if you're going
to be justified by the law, you have to keep the whole law. Not
just in, not just in what men see, but in what God sees. You
want to try that? No, we don't. God sees everything. Doesn't he? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. Now, what did Peter
just say to those religious leaders? You hung him on a tree. Why did
you hang him on a tree? Because God ordained it to be
our curse. He ordained him to be our curse.
God had already said that in Deuteronomy, cursed is everyone
that hangeth upon a tree. To be cursed by God is to be
cut off by God. And that's exactly what happened
to the Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross. That's why he cried, my
God, my God, why's thou forsaken me? You've cut me off. And he was cut off so that we
don't have to be cut off. Verse 14. that the blessing of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Cursed
of God is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. You know all the Old Testament
characters in one way or the other point to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Even Absalom, David's rebellious son, You know that
Abba translated means father and Salome means peace. And Absalom's
name means the peace of my father. That's what his name means. And
there's so many things about the life of Absalom that represent
the Lord Jesus Christ. But let's think for just a moment
about his death. How did he die? What is hair
a picture of in the scriptures? It's a picture of glory. We see
the Lord Jesus Christ with hair black like raven, and that's
what the scripture says about Absalom. And he's riding upon
his horse, and he got hung in a tree by his hair, by his glory. And here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ being nailed to a tree by his glory. And then Joab comes along and
he pierces him through with three darts into his heart. Absalom was cursed. He was thrown
into a pit and covered up the rocks and never to be seen again. But in his death, he pictures
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us when he took our curse
and established the throne of David through his death. What a picture. Cursed is everyone
that hang at the bonnet tree. The Lord Jesus Christ was cursed
by God. That we'd be not cursed. Pass the message Peters declaring
look. Look at verse 31 him. Him the Lord Jesus Christ. We're back at our text now in
Acts 5, verse 31. Him hath God exalted. He's given
him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus,
every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. He said, sit
thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. I made you a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. And the Lord Jesus, when he ascended
back into glory, took his rightful place. God raised him from the
dead. God received him back into glory. God gave him that name. And he rules and reigns sovereign
over the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth.
And God's people say, amen. We're so thankful that he does.
It's thankful that to where he is, God's exalted him. By his right hand, with his right
hand, to be prince reigning sovereign. You can only see that by faith.
Only the eyes of faith, which are the gift of God, can look
into heaven and see the Lord Jesus Christ seated where He
is. To give. This is the whole message. Everything was to give. That's
what salvation is, a gift. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. You don't earn it. You don't
work for it. It's a free gift. To give, to
give what? To give repentance. Now, some
have said, well, repentance means that you've turned from your
sin and you're never committed again. Oh, God, give me grace
to turn from my sin. But if you're honest with yourself,
you know that if you're in your heart, in your heart, what is,
you see, sin is transgression of God's law. It's falling short
of his glory. It's, it's, it's, it's our inability
to, to keep the law of God in the heart. There's no sin we've
ever committed. We've ever quit committing. We,
we, see in our, in our, in our thoughts and in our flesh, the
old man, he hadn't gotten any better, has he? Lord, restrain
my flesh. Restrain me. No, repentance is, Do works meet for repentance?
Yeah. I say, you know, we show, you
know, that Lord, I don't want to let the man, the steel still
no more, you know, wait, Lord, I, I don't want to live in rebellion
and disobedience to God. But when I consider the thoughts
of my own heart, the heart is wicked and deceitful. No man
can know it. Repentance. I shared with you all this once
before, but I, back before the Lord taught me the gospel, she
revealed Christ to me. I preached a sermon on repentance
and I said, repentance is having, I thought it was really clever
because the outline was good. Repentance is having a sense
of sin, a sorrow for sin and a separation from sin. And none of those things are
possible. You've never seen your sin like it is. You've never
been sufficiently sorry for your sin, and you've never completely
separated yourself from your sin. No, repentance is having
a changed mind about who you are as a sinner. Only the Lord can do that. Only
the Lord can make us to see that, Lord, there's nothing about me
that's not sinful. Lord, I'm in need of a Savior. Repentance is having a changed
mind about my need for Christ, and about the sufficiency of
the Lord Jesus Christ, being the only hope of my salvation,
and his accomplished work of redemption, and what God requires
for me to have Remission of sins. That's the only, you see, that's
a, that's the mind of Christ. That's a, that's a new thinking
about everything. Isn't it? Who the Lord Jesus Christ is.
I thought about this a lot lately. Scripture says the eastern sky
is going to split, the trump of God is going to sound, the
dead in Christ are going to be raised, and the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with this fount of the trump of God,
and the archangel shall shout. Now what a glorious day that's
going to be. And in that day the unbeliever is going to cry,
let the rocks fall on us, and protect us from the wrath of
the Lamb? The Son of God, when He comes the next time, He's
not coming like He did the first time. First time He came as a
mild, meek, suffering servant. Next time He's coming riding
upon a horse as a reigning sovereign and the whole world is going
to bow their knee. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess. Just think with me a moment about
the The horrors and the glory of God coming to this world in
that fashion. It's going to happen. It's going
to happen. Repentance is seeing him that
way right now. Not having to wait for that day. but believing that that's who
he is. You see, the world doesn't believe
that. They're just going about their lives as if, you know,
everything's fine, I'm good with God, God's good with me, we're
all doing well. Repentance is believing that
that's who he is right now. And bowing, not, you see, in
that great and terrible day of the Lord, everybody's gonna bow.
God's people, when they're given repentance and forgiveness of
sins, bow now. They just bow right now. Willingly,
gladly, they bow. That repentance is a gift of
God. Two thieves on the cross. They
both railed on him. They both said, if thou be the
son of God, save thyself and us. And then one of them had
a change of heart. One of them had a change of mind.
One of them said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
What made the difference? Who made the difference? He was
given repentance, wasn't he? Let's take a break.