Good morning. Seems strange. We had piano there for three
weeks and so quiet, but it's nice that everybody's ready for
worship this morning. Joy will be back, I think, in
August, so we'll have her back eventually. Let's open this morning's
service with hymn number five in the spiral, gospel hymns hymn
book number five, Come Ye Sinners. Let's all stand together. Come ye sinners poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you. Full of pity, He joined with
power. He is able, He is able, He is
willing, doubt no more. He is able, He is able, He is
willing, doubt no more. Come, ye needy, come and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify, True belief and true repentance, Every
grace that brings us nigh. Without money, without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and buy. Without money, without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and buy. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to have a need of him. This He gives you, this He gives
you, tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. This He gives you, this
He gives you, tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. Come ye weary, heavy laden, Bruised
and broken by the fall, If you tarry till you're better, You
will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Please be seated. Good morning. Wow. What a blessing. We're going to be in Acts chapter
four this morning. Acts chapter four. It goes. Unneeded to be said
that we all want to get rid of these masks and maybe in the
next week or so we can. The men will begin meeting for
our prayer time next Sunday. And I think Adam's going to start
a Sunday school class for the kids next Sunday. So I'm thankful
that things are beginning to get back to normal. We are admonished in First Timothy
Chapter 2 to pray for kings and for all those in authority that
we might live quiet and peaceable lives. And so I would like to
encourage you to remember to pray for our governing authorities
during these difficult times and that God would give them
wisdom and that good decisions and policies would be made to
create for us a world where we have quiet and peaceable lives. That's our hope. So let's pray
together to that end. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we know that you use the wrath of man for your glory and What you are not able to use,
you restrain. We ask, Lord, that you would
restrain the wrath of man in these days, that you would cause
men to be reasonable, and that you would give our governing
authorities the wisdom and the discernment that they need to
make good decisions and policies for a quiet and peaceful world.
Lord, we know that you reign sovereign on your throne and
that nothing happens outside of your purpose or your will.
We take great comfort in knowing that none of these things are uncertain
or unpurposed by our sovereign God. Lord, might we be reminded
and enabled by your spirit to keep our hearts and minds fixed
on by dear son, resting all our hope in his accomplished work
and in his glorious person for the hope of our salvation. We
pray now that you'd be pleased to send your spirit in power
to open the eyes of our understanding to give us wisdom and discernment
and to enable us Lord to to be encouraged and to be settled
in our hope that the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord and that you have
made him to be Lord over the living and the dead. We ask it in his name. Amen. We finished last Sunday in Acts
chapter 4 verse 31. I'd like to read that verse again.
And when they had prayed, when they had prayed, the place was
shaken where they were assembled. Now, some very extraordinary
and unique things happened in the early days of the church.
Thousands of Jews were converted and brought into the church, all of which would have been
excommunicated from Judaism. They would have been kicked out
of their families and they would have lost their livelihoods. And in just a short period of
time, they were all banished from Israel on the threat of
death. So that's the circumstances that
we're reading of in these next few chapters. Ananias and Sapphira
in the next chapter are both slain by the Holy Spirit for
having lied to the Holy Spirit. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
that doesn't happen today? There were inexplicable miracles
being performed by the apostles every day. And there were public executions
of believers. We see that in Acts chapter 7. So these early days of the church
were unique. The Lord is establishing the
gospel in the world. And some of these things we pray
the Lord would send us today. That the place where we meet
would be shaken and that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit
and that we with great grace would give testimony of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord's pleased to visit
with us, those things will happen. We pray that we will acknowledge
all that we own as belonging to the Lord and that we would
be gracious and generous with the possessions that we have. That's what we're about to read
about. It's taking place in these early days of the church. And so the principles apply to
us, particularly the spiritual principles. We need to be reminded
that there was no social welfare for the poor. Poverty for many
of these Jews would have been life-threatening. You remember
that when the Apostle Paul traveled to the Gentile churches, he took
up collections for the poor Jews back in Israel. because they
had been, they had lost everything as a result of believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 34, the scripture says,
and with great power gave the apostles witness of
the resurrection and great grace was upon them all. That's our hope, that the power
of God, the power of the spirit of God, would enable us to give a clear testimony. That's what
the word boldness, they spoke the word of God with boldness.
In other words, there was no ambiguity about what they were
saying. It was clear and it was consistent
with the revelation of scripture. And so the principles apply to
us today. Let's go back again to verse
31. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
were assembled together. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with confidence. That's what the word boldness
means, with clarity and with confidence they didn't they didn't
wonder or question or or leave room for they didn't use political
speech politically correct speech where everybody could interpret
what they were saying the way they wanted to interpret it.
No it was it was clear this is this is this is a clear testimony
of the gospel. Now in the book of Hebrews it
says that God shakes those things which can be shaken in order
that those things which cannot be shaken might remain. Now,
what is the difference between those things that can be shaken
and those things that cannot be shaken? The things that can
be shaken are the temporal things. The things that cannot be shaken
are the eternal things. And if the spirit of God is pleased
to visit with us and enable us to preach the gospel with boldness,
all the temporal things of this world that you and I are tempted
to rely on will be shaken by the Spirit of God. In other words,
the Lord will show us how unstable these things really are, that
we might place all our hope and all our rest in that one thing
which cannot be shaken, the eternal decrees of God in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what can't be shaken.
How often you and I every day are tempted to rest our hopes
in things that are temporal. Might the Spirit of God remind
us of how unstable those things are and cause us to rest all
our hope in the only one that cannot be shaken. He is the rock. Another illustration that the
Lord uses in the scriptures is building our house on shifting
sand. And when the storms come, the
wind blows and the rain falls, the house falls, doesn't it?
But that house which is built upon a rock, that's what can't
be shaken. That house, through all the trials
and troubles, particularly that great trial, of the great day
of the judgment of God when the Lord Jesus Christ returns will
not be shaken. It will be found sure and steadfast. That's our hope. Now some of this, it's difficult
for us as free enterprise capitalists to identify with the with the
socialistic and communistic almost ways of these early believers,
but remember their circumstances were different. These thousands of Jews would
have lost their homes, they would have lost their families, they
would have been excommunicated from Judaism, they would have
lost their jobs, and they were cast into abject poverty. And
so the believers came together. The principle still applies.
We are generous as believers. We do acknowledge that everything
that we have belongs to the Lord and we seek to honor him with
with our possessions. And if we have a brother that's
in need, we certainly are willing and ready to support them and
to help them. So. Look at. Look at verse 32,
and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and
one soul. They all believed the same thing.
They believed that Jesus Christ was Lord to the glory of God
the Father. They believed that he was the
Christ, the promised Messiah, the one who had been promised
from the very time of creation when God told Adam that the seed
of the woman, he was referring to Christ, would crush the head
of the serpent And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did on Calvary's
cross. He defeated Satan. He defeated
death. He defeated hell. He defeated
the grave. He fulfilled the law. He crushed
the head of Satan at Calvary's cross. And they all believe that.
They all believe that Christ was all and that he was everything
in their salvation. He was the anointed Messiah. And outside of him, they believed
that they had no hope of salvation and they had no righteousness
whatsoever before God. Christ Jesus the Lord was all
their righteousness before God. They believed that he was their
high priest. He was their Aaron who had to
bear the iniquity of the holy things. But that's the clearest,
you know, I've said before that that passage in Romans that says,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What in
your life falls short of God's glory? That's what sin is. And
the answer to that question, if the Lord's given you any understanding
at all, is everything in my life falls short of the glory of God.
I am sin. That's what I am before God. But to think about it in terms
of the Lord Jesus Christ being our high priest who had to bear
in his body the iniquity of the holy things. Now I said this
Wednesday night, you've heard me say it before, it's so profound
and it's so, it's clear, it's simple. If God judges you and
me, outside of Christ, for nothing else other than what we're doing
right now, we'll go to hell for it. Do you believe that? You say, well, preacher, I'm
in church. We've just prayed, we've sung, we're reading the
scriptures, we're worshiping God. Yes. God seeks those who worship Him
in spirit and in truth. And the truth is that we have
no righteousness outside of Christ. The truth is that we are in need
of the Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest to intercede for
us and to bear before God the iniquity of the holy things.
You know, the world doesn't believe that. The religious people don't
believe that. Only sinners believe that. Only
sinners believe that. And this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? They all had one heart and one
soul. They all believed the same thing. Neither said any of them That
ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they
had all things in common. It was no my in their conversation. This is mine. No, this is this,
this, this, whatever the Lord has blessed me with, it's his. What do you have that you did
not receive? Um, everything that we have belongs
to the Lord and they acknowledge that. And we acknowledge that. and with great power gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection. That's the title of this message,
Witnesses of the Resurrection. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus in great grace was upon them all. That's what we hope
for, isn't it? That God would bless us with his spirit, enable
us to speak the word of God with boldness and the great grace,
great grace would be upon us. Neither was there any among them
that lacked for as many as were, as were possessors of lands and
houses sold them and brought the price of these things that
were sold and laid them down at the apostles feet and distribution
was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed
Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of consolation. What's
consolation? Encouragement. Barnabas was known
among the believers as a great encourager. He just told everybody
about Christ. That's how we encourage one another,
isn't it? Pointing each other to Christ. May God make us to
be encouragers. He was a Levite and of the country
of Cyrus, and having land, he sold it and brought the money
and laid it at the Apostle's feet. Now, as I said, these are
unique times and circumstances, but I want us to look at the
bearing witness to the resurrection. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. if there be no resurrection,
if Christ be not raised from the dead. And the preaching of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ with boldness or
with clarity and with confidence is not that he rose from the
dead, but why he rose from the dead. And that's what I want
us to look at. Why did God raise his son from the dead? Because
everyone who claims to be a Christian would give testimony to the fact
that they believe in the resurrection. They would meet together on Easter
Sunday and celebrate the resurrection. But most people don't have any
idea what the resurrection really means. Verse 12. of 1 Corinthians chapter
15. Now if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ is not risen. If there's no hope of
us being risen from the dead, And Christ did not raise from
the dead. He is the firstborn among many brethren. His resurrection
is the hope and testimony of God for our resurrection. And
if Christ be not risen, then our preaching vain, and your
faith also vain. If there's no resurrection, then
everything we're doing is empty. It's vanity. Yea, and we are
found false witnesses of God. Now Paul, as I already said,
he was an eyewitness of the resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared
to him on the road to Damascus. The apostles were eyewitnesses
of the resurrection. 500 believers were eyewitnesses. So what he's saying, if there
is no resurrection, then we're all liars. And our faith is in
vain because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ
whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not. And if
the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ
be not raised, your faith is vain and you are yet in your
sins. If there is no resurrection,
if the resurrection of Christ was not effectual, was not effectual
to make sure the resurrection of his people. Now that's the
purpose of his resurrection. The purpose of the resurrection,
you see, not only were we crucified with Christ, but we were buried
with Christ and Romans chapter six, we were raised again with
Christ. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
rose from the dead, all those for whom he died, all those for
whom he lived were raised with him. and we've all ascended together
with him into glory. Well, there's our hope. We're looking to the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ for our death, burial, and resurrection. That's what's being called into
question. And it's still being called into question. People
would say in religion that Christ raised from the dead, but that
doesn't mean that that all those that he died for
are going to be raised from the dead. They would say he died
for everybody, and he made an offer of salvation, and if we'll
do our part in believing, then we'll have hope in the resurrection.
You see, that's exactly what they were saying back then. No,
when Christ rose from the dead, everyone he died for were risen
with him. That's the power of the resurrection.
That's the hope that we have. It's not determined or contingent
on anything that we add to what he's already accomplished. It
is finished. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the hope of our resurrection. Verse 18. Then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. You know, I've heard people say,
you know, even if there was no life after death, I'd want to
live my life for Jesus. It's not what the Bible says.
There's no life after death. Eat, drink, and be merry, for
tomorrow you shall die. Indulge yourself in all the pleasures
of this world because there's no hope after death. Look what God says, and if in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most
miserable. If there's no resurrection and
there's no life after death, there's no hope of being in glory
with Christ for all eternity, and we're liars, we're deceivers,
Christ didn't accomplish anything, and we're miserable. We're stupid. Why would we engage
in something if his resurrection didn't count for anything? And
what are we wasting our time for? But now, look at verse 20, is
Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them
that sleep? For since by man came death,
by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the hope of our life. And it's the proof that God is
satisfied with what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. God
raised him from the dead in order to say to us that I'm satisfied. You see, without the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we would have no advocate with the
Father. Scripture says, John said, I
write these things unto you, little children, that you send
not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not
risen from the dead, and ascended back into glory as the successful
savior of his people. And we don't have an advocate
with the Father. Are we going to represent ourselves in coming
in the presence of God? Don't think so. We have no mediator between God
and man. There is one God and one mediator
between God and man, Christ Jesus. the God-man. He's the one who's
able with one hand to touch God and not be destroyed and with
the other hand touch sinners and not be defiled. He is the
one mediator between God and man. You're not coming to God
without Christ. And the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the
proof that he is successful as our advocate and as our mediator. There's no hope that Christ's
death actually accomplished anything if there is no resurrection.
There's no hope that our sin has been put away. The scripture says that he is
the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his
person. And he upholds all things by
the word of his power. When he had by himself purged
our sins and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on
high. We have a high priest, we have
an advocate, we've got a God-man who's seated. Sit thou here at
my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool, for I
have made thee a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
It's the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, brethren,
that gives us any hope. You see, everything else that
we get so bound up with in this world is unstable. It's unstable. My God, just shake
us and cause us to see that for the only the only thing that
cannot be shaken is the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is seated at thy right hand, raised from the dead and ascended
back into glory. You see, without the resurrection,
there's no proof. There's no proof that Jesus Christ
is the son of God. Turn with me over just a few
pages to the book of Romans, chapter one, Romans chapter one. People say, well, I want a sign.
I want some proof. That's what we're giving witness
to. We're witnessing the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is the sign. It is the proof. And it's the
only proof that God's gonna give. Don't look for anything else.
You know, I hear people who profess to be believers, and I think
some of them really are, say, well, I'm just waiting on the
Lord to lead me in that direction, or to teach me this, or show
me that. If the Lord's already declared it in his word, then
there's nothing to wait on. There's nothing to wait on. If
the Lord has declared the Lord Jesus Christ to be the successful
risen savior of sinners, then believe on him. Believe. Don't wait for a sign. Don't
wait for a sign. A wicked and perverse generation
seeketh after a sign. No sign will be given unto you
except for the sign of Jonah, who spent three days and three
nights in the belly of the whale. And then he was brought forth
alive. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Jonah. He was the one, the church is
likened to a ship in several places in the scriptures. And
Jonah was on the ship with a bunch of mariners and they were all
going to die because they were in a storm. And what did Jonah
say? Cast me into the deep. And as
soon as he hit the water, storm quit. Storm quit. And Jonah spent the next three
days and three nights in the belly of the whale. Do you really
believe that preacher? Yes, I do. You know what? If the Bible said that Jonah
swallowed the whale, I would believe it. I don't understand anything.
This is God's Word we're talking about here. There's no hope outside
of faith in the Word of God. Believe in what God has said.
So there's the sign. Jonah was brought forth miraculously. What's easier, for a man to live
in the belly of a whale for three days and be brought forth to
life, or for a man to die and be put into the grave and three
days later to be raised from the dead by the power of God? That's our sign, the resurrection.
Without the resurrection, look at Romans chapter 1. Look at
Romans chapter 1. Paul, verse 1, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God, which he had promised afore by his apostles in the holy scriptures,
by his prophets, concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh
and declared by God to be the son of God with power
according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead. So God is saying to his people,
this is my son. I'm satisfied with what he's
done. He has been successful in accomplishing the salvation
of his people. And the proof that I'm giving
to you is his resurrection. I've raised him from the dead
to prove to you that he is the son of God. There's no other
proof. This is what we have witnessed
to. That's what we're to, that's what we witnessed, isn't it?
And when Paul would go preaching the gospel, well, yeah, they
died on a cross. Well, that's pretty obvious.
And then when he got to the resurrection, some mocked, oh, that's not possible
for a man to be raised from the dead. The God-man was and the only
hope that you and I have that will be raised from the dead
is to be found in him. To be found in him. To believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Acts chapter
13. Acts chapter 13. We're giving witness to the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because without the resurrection,
we're still in our sins. Without the resurrection, we
have no hope. Without the resurrection, we
are of all men most miserable. Without the resurrection, God's
a liar and we're all liars. You see, it's all bound up in
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. His death would
not be declared successful without the resurrection. Acts chapter 13, look at verse
30. But God raised him from the dead
and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad
tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children. And in that
he hath raised up Jesus Christ, as it is also written in the
second Psalm, thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised
him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption.
He said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of
David. Wherefore he saith also in another
psalm, thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. And when you and I draw our last
breath and put into the grave, our bodies are going to see corruption.
His body didn't see corruption. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was
laid unto his fathers and saw corruption. But he, whom God
raised again, saw no corruption. Look at verse 48, look over with
me at verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this,
the Jews mocked, but when the Gentiles heard it, When the sinners
heard it, they were glad and glorify the word of the Lord.
And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Believed. And all they see the same thing's
true today. All that are ordained to eternal
life. They're going to believe. Believe what? Believe God. all that God has said, believe
the witness to the resurrection. That Christ Jesus, the Lord,
has been risen by God in order to show to his people that his
death was successful in accomplishing their salvation and putting away
their sin. And that God has raised him from the dead and ascended
him into glory. And all the blessings that you
and I have are in the heavenlies in Christ, our risen successful
Savior. Alright, let's take a break. Thank you.