Well, if you turn in your scriptures
to Acts chapter 15, we're coming towards the end of our time in
Acts 15, and it's been a chapter of the scriptures that I've delighted
in very much and found very instructive. So why don't we begin and read
these words again. James, verse 13. James answered,
saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simeon hath declared
how God at first did visit the Gentiles, and take out of them
a people for his name. And to this agree the words of
the prophets, as it is written. After this I will return, and
will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down,
and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up. that the residue of men might
seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name
is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things." Simon
just reminded me of that great verse in Galatians 6, and this
letter that we will be reading in a minute was sent to those
churches in Cilicia and those places where Paul preached the
gospel, and he questions and asks the Galatians, you know,
why? Why are you turning from the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and turning back to weak and miserable, beggarly elements
again? But he speaks of these people,
doesn't he? He says in verse six, it says,
and because you are sons, where were your sons? It doesn't say
because you become sons, because you are sons. You are sons of
God, daughters of God from the very foundation of the world.
Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His
Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father. All of God's children cry the
same thing. He's our Father, therefore we
are family, brothers and sisters. And this is the glorious gospel
that was sent out, and this is the glorious work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's read on in Acts. Acts 18, 15, 18. No one under God are all his
works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence
is that we trouble them not. which from among the Gentiles
are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they abstain
from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things
strangled, and from bloods. And the reason is, in that word
for, is because, isn't it, because Moses of old time hath in every
city them that preach him. These necessary things, as they
say, are there because of Moses, because of the Jews in all of
these cities that preach him, being read in the synagogues
every Sabbath day. Then it pleased the apostles
and elders and with the whole church to send chosen men of
their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely
Judas, named Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren.
And they wrote letters by them after this manner. And here's
a letter, this is the letter, this is the most glorious letter
in the Greek original. It's only a bit over a hundred
words. God's servants speak with boldness
and simplicity and clarity and finality. This is the letter. The apostles
and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren, which
are of the Gentiles. To be a brethren is to be one
born of the same word. They are the children of God,
the brethren. It's not a little word, it's a big word in the
scriptures. The brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch
and Syria and Cilicia, you will see that by those terms this
pollution had spread. Forasmuch as we have heard that
certain which went out from us have troubled you with words,
subverting your souls, That word subverting means to unravel. In the preaching of the Gospel
there had been a gathering brought together, a gathering of God's
people. As he is lifted up he draws people
to himself. We are brought nigh by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is this tabernacle of David
being built up, this meeting place between God and men. And
if we meet in him, we meet together. And we meet in such a way that
there are bonds of Christian love between brothers and sisters
in Christ, which the world knows nothing about. So these men came
with words. subverting, unravelling. So in
the midst of these assemblies where simply the Gospel had been
preached, now it was the Gospel plus works, which is no Gospel
at all. Now it's the activities of men.
Let's read on. They were subverting them, the
souls, saying, you must be circumcised and keep the law. Then he declares,
these people, these apostles and elders and others, they declare
that these men are liars, to whom we gave no such commandment. They weren't sent from them at
all. It seemed good unto us, being
assembled with one accord, you might recall earlier in the book
of Acts, the church was gathered, they met with one accord, they
met as one mind, they were gathered as one. We've seen good unto
us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men unto you with
our beloved Barnabas and Paul." So just for you to note, that
word beloved is the only time in the entire book of Acts that
the word love is mentioned. Make careful note of it, brothers
and sisters. Because this gospel that's paraded
around the world today, this idea that God loves everyone,
is not found in the book of Acts at all. Ever. Verse 26. Men that have
hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell
you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost." These were men that were writing. These are the words
of God, the Holy Spirit. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost
and to us. Whatever is good to Him is good
for us, brothers and sisters in Christ. To lay upon you no
greater burden than these necessary things, that you abstain from
meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled,
and from fornication, from which, if you keep yourselves, you shall
do well, fare thee well." Now obviously those things there,
as we saw in that previous verse, are to do with the sensitivities
of the Jewish people in particular. So here we have this first New
Testament letter recorded for us. In Acts we have the beginning
of many things, and it's a word from the church in Jerusalem,
but it's a word from the Jerusalem above. It's a word from men led
by the Holy Spirit. It's a word to the churches,
to the brethren, those that were purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ.
in the shedding of his precious blood. So this church, as we
saw, was assembled as one, and they spoke with one voice. The
issue has been raised, light has been shone on it, the false
teachers have had an opportunity to say their peace, and the apostles
weren't there to debate them. Paul didn't go down to have a
debate with these people. Paul didn't go down there expecting
that it was going to be a debate. They were given the opportunity
to say their words, these false teachers, and they are universally
and uniformly condemned by the very Word of God. They were subverting
the souls of God's children. This church spoke with one voice,
and when the church speaks It's the Jerusalem above that is really
speaking, isn't it? And in this speaking, in this
word from God, there are two wonderful things that happen
in the declaration of the gospel all the time and in the work
of continuing to declare the gospel. One is that the false
teachers are exposed, the wolves are exposed for what they are.
They are declared to be liars. In verse 10 of this chapter they
are declared to be those who tempt God, who test Him, who
try Him as Satan did the Lord Jesus Christ. and they were preaching
the law, they were yoking the disciples, verse 10, they were
troubling them, as we read in verse 24, and subverting souls. Paul describes this activity
in Galatians 3 as bewitching. It's casting a spell over people. And simply the spell is cast
because people's eyes are taken from the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. The question that lies before
all of us all the time is who speaks for God? Who speaks for
God? That was the question and that's
the question that professing believers are asked again and
again and should be asking all the time, isn't it? Who speaks
for God? Who is on the Lord's side? Who speaks the words of truth? Who declares the character of
the Lord Jesus Christ faithfully is the issue. Because the real
issue here is an attack upon the very character of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's saying that his work is
not finished and it's saying that there is something that
you must do to enhance the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And on Calvary's tree when he cried out in his dying words,
it is finished. It is finished. You can take
that word and make it as broad as you can possibly imagine. The promises of God are yea and
amen. The character of God has been
displayed absolutely and completely and perfectly. The children of
God are declared to be perfectly free of sin. The children of
God are declared to be justified. The children of God are declared
to be loved and protected. The children of God are declared
to be those who are in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's that refrain that's throughout the scriptures, isn't it? In
the promises of God. I will be unto them a God, and
they shall be unto me a people. He calls them my people. We are bought with precious blood. We belong to him. We are in his
care. He is more than able to bring
we crippled Mephibosheths who are starving in a wilderness,
he is more than able by a sovereign act of his will to bring us and
sit us at the king's table and feed us on the king's fare and
protect us and guide us and direct us forever. Well, Lord Jesus Christ, when
he declared it is finished, he's saying that every child of God
is perfectly fit right now. to be a dwelling place of God
by the Spirit. And when they are gathered together,
it is a place where God meets with them. A holy God lives in
them. A holy God ministers to all their
needs. If Mephibosheth had needed anything,
would it have been lacking in the palace of King David? So
that's the tabernacle, brothers and sisters. That's the tabernacle
that James is talking about, that our great King David is
building again, and he's gathering these people out of the Gentile
nations, and he's gathering the Jews together, and he's making
them one. They are, as he declares them
to be, complete in him. As the Lord Jesus said when the
disciples had been with him, did you lack anything? Did you
lack anything when you've been with me? Mephibosheth would be
saying, no. No. No. God's servants simply speak his
word. We declare The Watchman, in Isaiah
52, you might know the verse very well. Thy watchman shall
lift up the voice. We lift up he who is the voice.
God speaks by his son. That's what Hebrews begins, isn't
it? In these last days, he has spoken by son, it says. That's his last word to humanity,
the Lord Jesus Christ. They lift up the voice, and with
the voice together, You see, the Lord Jesus Christ is a gospel
preacher, brothers and sisters. He's the one that sent to gather
these people. He is in the business of gathering
them right now. That's what he says he's doing. That's what the apostles declared.
Read Acts chapter three. He will send Jesus who's preached
unto you. They lift up the voice together.
He's lifting up his voice. We're lifting up his voice. We're
singing the same tune, brothers and sisters. They shall see eye
to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. He'll bring them again, won't
he? And what do they do? What do
these people do when that gospel comes with power? That's what
Paul says to the Galatians. Where's your joy gone? Where's
your joy gone? If the gospel doesn't appear
to you to be good news, where's your joy gone? Read on in Isaiah
52. Break forth into joy. Sing together
ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his
people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. He's
redeemed that city, that broken, fallen, ruined tabernacle. He's
brought them all together. The Lord has made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. We have a glorious gospel. Simply, we're saying again and
again, Thy God reigneth. all the time, over absolutely
everything, and all flesh is grass." That's what we're saying
again and again, your God reigns. These Gentile believers had simply
heard the Gospel, we've read the Gospel messages from Paul,
and thus far in Acts I take you to note, thus far in Acts, has
there been one law given to them ever? Why not? because the Lord Jesus Christ
said it is finished. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness for all those who believe. You cannot go any
further in righteousness than the Lord Jesus Christ. To go
back to the law is to tell him to his face that he didn't do
enough and that somehow By the works of these hands I can enhance
or make that work better or more appealing. So the remarkable thing is that
these churches have been gathered together and they were rejoicing,
weren't they? They were rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
were rejoicing. They had heard the gospel and
it had come as good news to them, just like Mephibosheth heard
that good news. It was good news. It was good
news about a covenant made. It's good news about a promise
made. It's good news. That's why, to
these troubled saints, in verse 19 of our passage in Acts 15,
he says, Therefore, wherefore, my sentence is that we trouble
them not, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God. That we trouble them not. There is going to be in this
world, out of this Gentile world, out of these heathen idolatries,
there's going to be a people who are the sons of God. And
the gospel will come to them. The gospel will come to them. And the gospel will come to them
powerfully. And they will be turned to God. I love how Paul describes that
turning in 1 Thessalonians. He says of the Thessalonians,
they turned, and I love the order of it. how ye turned to God. So that's the first turning,
brothers and sisters. That's the turning that God brings
when the gospel comes. You turn to God from idols to
serve the living and true God and to wait. And you wait for
his son. You wait for his son who's delivered
us from the wrath to come. We trouble him not. They've been
vexed, as it were. They've been unraveled. Their comfort has been taken
from them. These people that have turned
to God. in verse 20, but we write to
them. It's wonderful, isn't it? That
when God writes, we have this letter and you can go back and
you can read it again. And when you're troubled, you
can go back and read it again. And when you think, did I understand
that correctly? You can go back and you can read
it again. And the word of God is living and active. And each
time you read it and the more you read it, the more you understand
that you didn't understand it at the first point. And there
is more in there. It is just this word of God is
like this extraordinary jewel, isn't it? Our view and understanding
of the Word of God matches our view and understanding of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because the more you gaze at
Him, the more amazing He becomes. The more you study this Word,
the more amazing it becomes. It reveals the depth of our ignorance
of it. So it has a humbling effect on
us all the time. But it's wonderful that God has
chosen to write it down. And it's wonderful that this
is the first letter that's written to the New Testament churches,
isn't it? And we have it here recorded.
The circumstances we have gone through, they speak for themselves,
but the circumstances and the purpose of the letter, like all
of the letters of the New Testament, the letters are there written
to comfort God's people. They're to remind them of the
comfort that is the comforter. They are to remind them that
the comforter, the blessed Holy Spirit, is there to be a comforter. He's there to come alongside.
He is our advocate. He's making it a session for
us. He's continually in the business of revealing the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's continually being the spirit of truth. He's leading us in
and guiding us into all the truth. And it's lovely the humility
of these apostles. You would have thought that given
Peter's stance and given his abilities and James and John's
and all the remarkable, they would have stood up and said,
no, hold on a second, we are the lads here. There is a humility
amongst the people of God when they stand together. And James
is given that special role because these people, as we find in Galatians,
would say later on that we have warrant from James. James is
there given the warrant before all so much of that nonsense
had gone on to grow and to breed. He'd been given the responsibility
to be the spokesman and to dictate this letter, and they all were
there with one accord. He speaks on behalf of them all. And any of these people in the
future that will say, we've come from James, all the believers
will say, I have a letter here that says you're a liar. It's
as simple as that. You're putting me under the law.
I have a letter here that says you're lying to me. I have a
letter that all of the apostles, all of the people from the church
in Jerusalem, the people who were gathered from the church
in Antioch to come down and witness these things, and all of them
there, and they are going back in train back to Antioch with
these letters in their hands. And there they are, they'll be
saying exactly the same thing. I love what it says. It says,
that they abstain. To abstain is to hold oneself
back. The reason for the abstinence,
the reason for the abstinence is why do anything to harm your
brothers and sisters in Christ? Why do anything to take their
eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ and Him finished? These things
we might spend more time looking at next week. But they are pictures
of heathen, idolatrous worship. Idols were a common thing in
those days. Idols were everywhere. They are
polluting. They are those who worship idols. They are worshipping demons,
says 1 Corinthians. Fornication, of course, is a
picture of marriage, a picture of Christ and His Church. And
in these polluted days it's a tragedy, a tragedy for which we will pay
a price that we have trashed that marriage that God had ordained
before the fall to be a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His Church. The fornication was common amongst
those people, and particularly involved in pagan worship. And
the thing strangled is a reference to the sensitivities of the Jews
regarding blood. And it says, because Moses is
not only preached in every city, but he's been read in the synagogues
every day, so the Jews are continually having this brought before them.
And so it's the issue, isn't it, the abstinence of the Gentiles
from these things, is an issue of caring for your Jewish brethren.
And the Jewish brethren are not to impose and to look down their
nose at those who aren't circumcised. in exactly the same way it was. The unravelling of this church,
the subverting of the souls, was going to be undone by mutual
love, one for another. It was going to be undone by
people looking to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So
the Jews were sensitive to those things, and the Gentiles lived
in a world where there was no sensitivity to Jewish sensitivities. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 6, he says, all things are lawful to me. All things
are lawful. I have the freedom, he's saying,
to do these things because I am complete in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am a righteous man. The law is not made for a righteous
man. I'm free. But he says, not all things are
expedient to me. Not all things are profitable
for me. They're not profitable for my ministry. They're not
profitable for the people that I love and care for. He says,
all things are lawful unto me, but I would not be brought under
power of any. He has a freedom to do all sorts
of things, and it doesn't affect his standing with God whatsoever.
And he's not going to use his freedom to hurt his brothers
and sisters, his blood-brought brothers and sisters. And he
says, all things edify not. Not all things that you have
a freedom to do are going to build up to embolden, to encourage
your brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we
have, in this passage before us, these wonderful things. We
have three things, don't we? We have these faithful witnesses
that came from Jerusalem. It's Judas. Judas. Judas's name means, he shall
be praised. Basavas, Basavas, means son of
his oath, or son of the Sabbath. They are names that reflect There
are, but also there are names that reflect the Lord Jesus Christ.
They were. Judas was a prophet and they
were chief among the brethren and they were going to be sent
to carry these letters. They were going to be sent with
Paul and Barnabas. They were going to be sent with
Titus, who wasn't circumcised, back to Antioch with this letter. So this letter was given. It
was to be publicly read. It's the word of God sent down. I love what he says in that letter. It seemed good, verse 28, for
it seemed good to the Holy Ghost. If it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost, it's in accord with all of the Word of God and all the
promises of God. If it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost, it's going to be in accord with all that the Holy Ghost
has promised to do. He's promised to be the revealer
of the Lord Jesus Christ to people. He's promised to come. into their
hearts. He's promised to come and dwell
in them. He's promised to reveal the truth
of the scriptures. He's promised to come and be
the illuminator. But most of all, He's promised
to come and be a comforter, to comfort the children of God. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost
and to us. As I said earlier, it does two
things, doesn't it? It comforts the children of God
and it exposes all the false prophets. Paul had told them again and
again, these people, that there was no going to the law, no going
to your works of any sort to have any relationship with God,
to enhance your relationship with God. Be it known unto you
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin, and
by him all that believe are justified from all things which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. It's exactly what Peter
says in Acts 15, isn't it? God purified their hearts by
faith. God saves these people by grace. The false teachers are not sent
from God. The false teachers do not have
the Holy Spirit. There are so many warnings, so
many salutary and solemn warnings in the scripture about both speaking
the word of God faithfully and being a participant with those
who do speak the word of God. Jeremiah says, cursed is the
man, cursed by God is the man who does the work of the Lord
deceitfully. Isaiah chapter eight verse 22
says, if they speak not according to this word, There is no light
in them. To the law and the testimony,
verse 20. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. The apostles are saying, as they
write this letter, the Holy Ghost is here with us. These men were
led by the Holy Spirit. Paul and Barnabas were set apart
by the Holy Spirit to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles.
They spoke the word of God. We simply have this word of God.
God's people just believe it. God's servants don't want to
fiddle with it. They don't want to add to it.
They don't want to take from it. Diminish not a word, says
Jeremiah. Don't you diminish a word then?
In fact, you magnify the words in this book. You want people
to find The God that they will meet on the Day of Judgment to
be the God that they meet in the scriptures and the God that
they meet as he's preached to them all the time. The Lord Jesus
Christ is so extraordinarily magnificent. Why would you want
to do anything but magnify him? You see, as I've said so often,
this is an attack upon the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
any attack on his finished work is an attack on his very character.
The people that are spreading the lies of the false gospel
around this world, it is good for us to remember, brothers
and sisters, that the heart of their attack is an attack upon
the very character of God. And God's children are called
upon to stand and be counted when their husband is spoken
so ill of, when he who has done so much for their souls is dragged
around this world like mud in the street by preachers standing
in pulpits telling people lies about God. I love the way these
people gather together in one accord. We know from history
that the false teachers heard not a word of the warnings, read
not a word of this letter in a way that impacted them in any
way at all. So that was one thing about Mephibosheth.
When Mephibosheth was brought into the presence of the king,
he had a reverential awe for him. The false teachers have
no reverential awe for God whatsoever, which is why I'm so sure that
James was led of the Holy Spirit when he quoted those verses that
we read, but the previous verse is a description of people in
religion. All the sinners of my people,
they claim to be his people, Amos 9.10, all the sinners of
my people shall die by the sword, which say, the evil shall not
overtake nor prevent us. The evil shall not come around
us. They're preaching peace to people.
Peace to people. You see, you can preach peace
to people in two ways. You can preach peace to people
by telling them, as multitudes do around this world, God loves
you, and the proof of God loving you is that Jesus died for you,
and God is now begging you to be kind to him, and not let the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ be a miserable failure, by coming
to him. by your own strength and by your
own activities. The other way of preaching peace
to people is telling them to do something. Telling them that
there's a law or there's a rule that they can obey. If you think
that you can do something that earns God's favour, that puts
you in a higher standing with other people, If you think you
can do something and you teach others to do so, you are preaching
peace to them, even though you're putting them under a bondage
at work. Because at the end of the day, they're going to look
to themselves and think, well, I can do it sometime. I mightn't be
doing it well enough, but I'm doing my best. They might be
thinking, as we've heard several say, I don't have sins, I only
have the occasional slip up. Or another fellow in this town
who says, I've only got one sin left. The problem is one sin's
too many, brothers and sisters. One sin's far too many. And if
you think you've got them down to one, if you think you've sanctified
yourself by your Laura Booth, and you've got them down to one,
you are dreadfully, dreadfully deceived. The false prophets
are exposed. They're not sent from God. They
don't speak from God's Word. When God says that all flesh
is grass, when he says in Psalm 39 that it's just a vanity, it's
just vanity of flesh, it's just empty. These people are saying,
no, no, no. No, I'm not as evil as God says
I am. I'll show you by my obedience
and I'll show you by my morality and I'll show you by my religious
activities that I'm not as bad as God says I am. You're far
worse than you can possibly imagine yourself to be, brothers and
sisters. that those who are cripples from a wilderness will find a
saviour and the food at a king's table, and they'll find being
brought there by covenant promises the most delightful and comforting
thing in the world. As Paul says, we are the circumcision,
we are the circumcision, we are the true Jews. that worship God
in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh's
wisdom, no confidence in the flesh's works, no confidence
in the flesh's worth, no confidence in the flesh's opinion, no confidence
in the flesh's righteousness of any sort. See, Peter was saved
by grace. Peter says, doesn't he, that
we are kept by the power of God through faith. We're kept by
the power of God through faith. Objectively, we're kept by the
power of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. These men were
sent from God. They'd hazarded their lives for
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the one thing that's worth
hazarding your life for. That's the one thing that's worth
being put in peril for, brothers and sisters, is the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They sent a letter written. They sent faithful witnesses. They sent a message from God,
the Holy Spirit. And we've sent, verse 27, we
have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall tell you also
the same things by mouth. You'll have our letter and you'll
have the witnesses of these men. Out of the two or three mouths
is something established. And it seemed good to us, it
seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and it seemed good to us to lay
no greater a burden upon you than these necessary things,
that you abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and
from things strangled, and from fornication, which if you keep
yourselves." So it's something that you do out of love. It's
love that constrains the children of God, not laws. The law works
wrath. The power of sin is the law. You shall do well. I love how
they conclude, it says, fairly well. Be ye strong. Be made strong is what it says. So verse 30, so when they were
dismissed, they came to Antioch. And when they had gathered the
multitude together, they delivered the epistle, which when they
had read, they rejoiced for the consolation. They rejoiced for
the consolation. They rejoiced. They rejoiced. That consolation
is a very, very similar Greek word to the word that we have
in Greek for the Holy Spirit. They rejoiced for the comfort. They rejoiced for Him coming
alongside and saying yet again, it is done, it is finished, brothers
and sisters. But the yoke of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that yoke which is light and that yoke which is easy,
that yoke that constrains His people by love. They'll find
that His rest is easy. They find His rest that is easy. These ambassadors come there
and the people rejoice for the consolation. They'd been unraveled
and now they're being brought back together again. They have
their eyes now taken back to the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and not the law work and not the lies that these
other men had brought to them. And Judas, verse 32, and Judas
and Silas being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren
with many words and confirmed them. Isn't it wonderful? They came with words of consolation. The gospel comes as a consoling
thing to troubled hearts. It comes as a binding to the
unraveled. It comes as a word that confirms. It means to establish or strengthen
together. They confirmed them. They consoled them. They confirmed
them. They comforted them. And they
asked them just to continue in verse 33. They exhorted the brethren
of many words, just continue where you are. Jesus has done
it all. He's done it long, long ago. God's children find Him to be
their peace and to be their comfort. They find Him to be a witness
to Himself in their lives. That's what Paul says to the
Romans, doesn't he, in Romans 8.16. He says, The spirit itself, the spirit
himself, beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. And if you're children, then
you're heirs. You're heirs of God. Mephibosheth
was made, taken from an enemy to be as a son of God. Heirs,
joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be glorified together with him. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Who shall separate us
from not my love for him, but his love for me? Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all day long, we
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. As we began our
series in Acts, these are the works of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's not going to have his little ones go without his consolation
and his comfort. He's going to send his people,
he's going to send a word from heavenly Jerusalem into the hearts
of his people. And he'll comfort them, he'll
gather them, and when they've been unraveled, as we are unraveled
by the trials and tribulations of this world all the time, we'll
come and like a good Samaritan, we'll find our wounds have been
bound up. And someone else has promised
to take care of everything that's needed. And we brought into an
inn the fellowship of his people. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we do thank you. We thank you for the history
that's laid out before us, but we thank you, Heavenly Father,
especially for the remembrance and the reminder that our dear
Lord Jesus Christ has completed his work, and he now sits in
heaven's glory and receives the praises of his people. And all
of the things that will happen in all the lives of all of his
children upon this earth are under his sovereign hand. And
he, like King David, says, go fetch them. Go fetch them, bring
them to my place. They are my children. She is
my bride. She's been washed in my blood.
She is robed in my righteousness. All of the power of heaven will
guide her and protect her till she reaches heaven's glories.
Our Heavenly Father, we do pray that you cause us to think sweetly
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might be made by your Spirit
to remember Him in His glory, remember Him in His death, remember
Him in His exaltation, and remember Him in the gathering of His people
to Himself. Heavenly Father, you take the
ruins and you take the fallen tabernacle of David, and it's
been gloriously built in our day that your people might find
themselves sitting at his table, sitting at his table, declared
to be king's son and fed from the bounty of his finished work. Make us thankful, our Father,
Make us look to Him with joy and delight. Make us to cast
all of our cares upon Him, knowing that He cares for us. Make us,
Heavenly Father, to be aware of the fact that He loves us.
He really does love us. You alone can do these things,
and we pray that it might be our portion. Guide us and direct
us, Heavenly Father, in this life ahead, this week ahead,
that Your Son might be magnified again and again in our midst.
For we pray in His precious name. Amen.