Turn your Bibles to Acts chapter
4 and also put your hand across to Psalm 118. The scene that
lies before us in Acts chapter 4 is so wonderfully instructive. The Lord Jesus has risen and
as a glorious reigning Saviour, He has triumphed over Satan's
kingdom. He has triumphed over the religious
men of this world. And here, here in Acts chapter
4, we see the glorious proclamation of the Gospel in this New Testament
age. And the Lord Jesus, the Lord
Jesus sending the Holy Spirit from heaven and the Lord Jesus
guiding and directing the footsteps of His people. Our God reigns. Our God reigns. In Acts chapter
4 we have the first persecution of the church, and it's incredibly
instructive in so many ways. But the scene before us, of course,
we've looked at over these last few weeks, that man who sat at
the temple gate, begging, been there for 40 years almost. He was 40 years of age. And there
he was, witnessing all of what had happened in and out of that
temple all that time, and yet in sovereign grace and mercy
the Lord chose this time to save him. And there begins the first
persecution of the church when 8,000 are added to the church's
number. that they that must be saved
by our God. And the opposition comes. and they put Peter and John in
jail for the night and then they bring them before them. And there
they are, these two fishermen from Galilee, in the midst of
this mighty Sanhedrin. And you can imagine all the pomp
and show. They would have been dressed
as powerfully as possible. There are 70 of them there in
that Sanhedrin, gathered around. Gathered around and sitting there
in the midst of them, under examination, are the apostles, the mightiest,
most intelligent and most morally upright religious men the world
has ever seen. And lost as a goose in a snowstorm. Lost. lost they were. All of their religion, all of
their religion had blinded their minds. And Peter, we start in
verse 8, and Peter filled with the Holy Ghost. These are the
words of the Holy Spirit to these people. These are the words of
the Holy Spirit to the religious world of every day. Then Peter,
filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people
and elders of Israel, if this day we be examined of a good
deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole,
be it known unto you all. And to all the people of Israel,
Peter and John are not just speaking to the 70 in front of them, they're
speaking to all of nation Israel. This was to be broadcast abroad
to all who will hear. that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him does this man stand here before you whole, before
you complete. He had the previous day been
in the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God,
and all the people were marvelled at him. filled with the Holy Spirit leads
them to one of their most famous Psalms of all. Just as the Lord
Jesus Christ led those people at the crucifixion to recite
Psalm 22 with Him while they lived out Psalm 22 before their
very eyes. It is as if they had the script
of Psalm 22 and said, now what must we do? Oh yes, now you guys
divide his clothes, yes you do this. It's as if they had a script,
and that's exactly what they did have, because everything
is done according to the determinate counsel and full knowledge of
God. This psalm is a remarkable psalm. Let's just read the last few
verses here. This is the stone. It doesn't say this might be
the stone. This is the stone which was set at nought of you
builders. See, the religious people are
building, aren't they? Everyone is building something.
which has become the head of the corner. He was set at nought,
but now he is the head of the corner. He is the one that joins
the two together. He joins God and man together.
He joins Jew and Gentile together in the church. He joins heaven
and earth together. is set at naught of you builders
which has become the head of the corner, neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved." There is no other
name and it's more than just a reference. It's a description
of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ as set forth in
the Scriptures. Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marveled and took knowledge of them that they
had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was
healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it."
They had nothing to say. Then they sent them outside and
had their secret meeting. Isn't it remarkable that they
had a secret meeting and we have the transcript of it. There are
no secret things from God ever, brothers and sisters. Lord willing
we might look at all of that next week. But just to put this
into context, when the Lord Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem and
that great triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus came
and they cried out, they cried out the words of this Psalm 118. We'll look at it in a minute.
And then on the day of Pentecost, that week, Festival of Weeks
it was called, they had for seven days, they went to the temple
and they went to the altar with their branches and they sang
and recited Psalm 118. They'd just done it that previous
week. And then on the great and last
day of the Feast of Tabernacles, they actually bring their branches
in and they march around the altar of God seven times, crying
out the words out of Psalm 118, Hosanna. Save now, I beseech Thee, O Lord,
O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity." There they were
in the temple, these men, these men in the temple, singing those
songs and completely blind to who the
Lord Jesus Christ is and was. It is a remarkable thing, brothers
and sisters, isn't it, that the Lord Jesus speaks of thanking God. He says, I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because, this is Matthew
11.25, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent. hidden all the things of the
Lord Jesus Christ, hidden them, even though the evidence is so
plainly laid out before them. He's hidden those things from
the wise and the prudent. Here are the most wise and prudent
men in all of Israel, brilliant, extraordinary scholarly men,
men there who could recite the Old Testament. Men there, when
Peter mentioned all of them, when Peter mentioned the words
of this Psalm 118, they would have known the rest of it off
by heart. They would have started at verse 1 and recited it off
by heart. They have hidden these things.
When God hides things from people, they are hidden. And no amount
of evidence is going to convince people from whom God has hidden
things and has revealed them unto babes. What do babes do? Babes are dependent. Babes are
trusting. Babes hear a word from their
parents and they believe it. Babes. May the Lord make us babes before
him, absolutely and totally dependent upon him. May the Lord protect
us, protect us from the religious world from whom God has hidden
these things. Let us not be wise in our own
eyes, brothers and sisters. Let us not be prudent in our
own eyes. The Lord just make us light babes. Let's pray that the Lord might
give us understanding of this sign before us. Our Heavenly
Father, we do thank you that in your light we see light. And
if you bring light, Heavenly Father, that light comes in the
form of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in the
light of that Gospel that we understand what the scriptures
are saying about who He is and how He saves people, and you
are gloriously revealed, our Father, in the works that your
dear and precious Son has done. And we thank you that you send
the Holy Spirit and He illuminates our hearts and gives us the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is hidden from this world. Lord, help us to cry in the words
of this psalm. Lord, save us. Lord, reveal yourself
to us. Lord, send light that we may
walk in the light of your countenance, that we might find ourselves
simply relying on and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ in all
things. We are dependent, Heavenly Father. Please forgive us of
our independence. We are dependent because the
Lord Jesus said that without Him we can do nothing. Father,
we come because we want to worship You this morning. We want to
be worshippers in spirit and truth. You alone can make that
to be the case, Heavenly Father, for we commit ourselves into
your hands in the name of your dear and precious Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's go back and look at the
Lord Jesus' triumphal entry. These men had witnessed these
things in Matthew 21. There's one account of it. The account is given in all four
Gospels. And again, as he came into Jerusalem,
those people This great multitude, Matthew
21 verse 9, and a very great multitude spread their garments
in the way. Others cut down branches from
trees and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that
went before and that followed cried, Hosanna to the son of
David. Blessed is he that comes in the
name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem,
all of the city was moved saying, who is this? And the multitude
said, this is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth, of Galilee. If you turn over to chapter 23,
Jesus in Matthew 23 has given the most solemn woes solemn woes of the scribes and
Pharisees about the religion of men. He had told them as plainly
as words could ever be delivered that their religion was empty.
It had nothing of honouring God in it. All it was doing was an
outward show. And he says in verse 37, Matthew
23, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not. They are culpable, brothers
and sisters, they are culpable for their rejection of the Gospel,
and so is everyone else in this world. Behold, your house is
left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall
not see me henceforth till ye say, Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord. And seven weeks later, seven
weeks later, at that time of Pentecost, there they had all
been, declaring those words. And yet, blind as bats, in Luke
chapter 19, In verse 36 and following we
have the other account. They spread their clothes, they
brought the colt to Jesus, and they put their garments on the
colt, and they set Jesus there on, and as He went, they spread
their clothes in the way, and when He was come nigh, even now
at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of
the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice
for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed
be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees, some
of those ones that are standing here judging Peter and John now,
some of those Pharisees from among the multitude said unto
him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. I love the Lord Jesus' reply
to them. You rebuke these people who are praising you. And he
answered and said unto them, I tell you that if they should
hold their peace, If men won't praise me, if you want them to
stop, the stones would immediately cry out. God will be praised,
brothers and sisters. It doesn't matter what the wiles
of men do. He will be praised. is in response,
isn't it, and the fulfilment of that wonderful prophecy in
Zechariah 9. And throughout the Gospels we
have again and again this division among people, don't we? When
the Lord Jesus comes and He reveals His deity, reveals His glory,
reveals His love for His own, there is always a division, isn't
there? There are people who are just rejoicing. Isn't this remarkable? Isn't our God amazing? Look what he's done. And then
there are others who are contentious about it, always. But the people
of God, the people of God are a rejoicing people. They are
a praising people. That's why Zechariah 9.9 speaks
of this coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, Rejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just. He is righteous
and just in everything He does, always. He's a just God and a
Saviour and having salvation. Salvation is His. He has salvation. His name means salvation. His name in Hebrew was Joshua. Joshua means to save, Lord save. In the Lord is salvation. That
was his name every time. Every time they spoke of him
they were declaring God's salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. When
Pilate wrote it on that cross, what was he writing up there?
He was saying Jesus of Nazareth in Latin and in Greek, but in
Hebrew it was, God saves. God saves. I love what Pilate's
response was, and the Jews were offended by it. He says, what
I have written, I have written. God wrote that for him. No one
was going to tear that sign down. He has salvation, lowly riding
upon an ass, back to Zechariah 9.9, and upon the cult, the fall
of an ass. And he speaks of his dealings
with them, but go down to verse 11. As for thee also, by the
blood of thy covenant have I sent forth thy prisoners out of the
pit wherein there is no water. If you're in a pit where there
is no water, death is imminent, isn't it? God's judgment on the
on the idolatry of Jewish religion, the idolatry of works religion,
wherever it is. God's judgement on Jerusalem
before he destroyed it in 586 BC and sent the people out. He says, Jeremiah 2.30, My people
have committed two evils, They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters. I love when it talks about waters
in the scriptures. It's always, really always plural,
isn't it? Waters in every direction. Waters
to sustain. If you think it's lacking in
one place, it's somewhere else. It's there, living waters. And
hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They dig and they dig and they
dig, and they work and they work and they work, and they dig their
systems and they hold no water. They have no spiritual benefit
whatsoever. The Lord of Hosts. Go down to
Zechariah, if you are still in Zechariah 9, go down to verse
16. He speaks of them them rejoicing
and in verse 16 it says, And the Lord their God shall save
them in that day as the flock of His people, for they shall
be as the stones of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon His land. For how great is His goodness,
and how great is His beauty, corn shall make the young men
cheerful, the new wine the maids." So they were singing these songs,
they were singing this on the way into Jerusalem. So let's
turn now and follow. These people had had a week These
people who were judging now the apostles had had a week of reciting
this psalm. They recited from Psalm 113 to
118 and they recited it in such a way that the Levites would
sing it out and the people would be responsive. All of that vast
crowd had been singing this song, singing this hymn. We don't have
time before us to look at it all in great detail, brothers
and sisters. So I'll just go through it and
we'll follow the paths of these people. We will also follow the
Holy Spirit. This is the words of God, the
Holy Spirit. These were words that David had
penned 1,000 years before these events, 3,000 years from our
time, and they are as beautifully fresh and relevant today as when
David lifted his pen. I can think of those fellows
like David writing, writing psalms. It must have been the most remarkable
experience to sit down and to in a sense pour out your heart
before God And I often think, as they finally finished, put
a full stop at the end of it, they must have just been in absolute
awe that they had been carried along by God, that these words
are far more precious than the words that any man could pen. Let's follow David. Let's follow
this psalm. This is the psalm that Peter,
in a sense, was leading the Sanhedrin to recite as they stood in judgment
of the Lord Jesus Christ and stood in judgment of His Church. Psalm 118, O give thanks unto
the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endureth for ever. In many other parts of the Scriptures
that word mercy is actually His faithful love. His faithful love
endures forever. Love, the mercy that endureth
forever, is the beginning of all of the blessings of God's
people and it is the culmination of all the blessings of God's
people. It is as it were a bookend. God has loved his people with
an everlasting love. He never changes his love. Never. He has no reason to change His
love, because the cause of His love is in Himself, and not in
us. We are the objects of it. Give
thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, because His mercy endureth
forever. Let Israel now say, that his
mercy endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron now say,
that his mercy endureth forever. Let them now that fear the Lord
say, his mercy endureth forever. Let's repeat it again and again. Let there be a congregation of
people who declare it again. Let there be a description and
a glorious description of the children of God. They fear God. I have said it again and again
and again but it must be repeated. There is a healthy fear of God. And when we find people who will
not bow and will not listen, and will not hear, the thing
that troubles me most is the absence of any fear of God. It is a blessing of the eternal
covenant that God would cause His people to fear Him. You can read about it in Deuteronomy,
in Jeremiah 32 and in many, many other places in the scriptures.
It is a good thing, brothers and sisters, Let them now that
fear the Lord say His mercy endureth forever. Those that fear Him
will be declaring that His faithful love is everlasting, endures
forever. I call upon the Lord in distress. Always, always the best of prayers. In fact, often the only prayers
are prayers that we call upon the Lord in distress. When He takes us to a place,
when you're in distress, you have no sufficiency in yourselves
any longer, brothers and sisters, and you call upon Him. And what does He do? Those who
call upon Him, the Lord answered me. The Lord hears the prayers
of His people. He puts prayers into the hearts
of His people that He might answer them in such a way that we respond
in faith because we see His hand at work and He's set them in
a large place. It is remarkable how God responds
to the prayers of His people and He always does it such that
we will see Him and we will He set me in a large place. He answered
me with freedom is another way of describing it. He set me in
a large place. He's answered me with freedom.
He's given me that place of rest in Him and in what He has done. And see what it goes on to say
in the next verse, in verse 6. The Lord is on my side. The Lord
is for me. The Lord is on my side. This
is Peter speaking, brothers and sisters, to that crowd who are
in the judgment there. Who is actually the judge? Who
is really the judge in this situation? Seventy of them there think that
they are the judges, don't they? Who is really the judge? There
is one that judges all things, doesn't he? The Lord is on my
side. The Lord is for me. I will not
fear. What can man do to me? What can
man do to me? When the grace comes upon the
children of God, they will stand. They will be made to stand for
God and they will say, even through trembling lips, what can man
do to me? I remember one of the martyrs
being threatened to recant or be killed. And he turned to his
accuser and said, and you threatened me with heaven, you threatened
me with going to heaven. God's people will stand, as Martin
Luther did before the Diet of Worms, isn't it? Here I stand,
I can do no other. It's exactly the situation of
Peter and John, isn't it? I'll stand here. I'll stand here
because of Him. What can man do to me? What can
man do to me? The Lord taketh my part with
them that help me. The Lord is my helper. Therefore,
I shall see my desire upon them that hate me. I will look in
triumph on them that hate me." This is what it says in another
translation. Lord Jesus Christ sits on the
throne of heaven, brothers and sisters. This charade of religion
now exposed for what it is, is Him looking on in triumph, isn't
it? And then these wonderful verses,
isn't it? It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. Do you know that this psalm
is the middle chapter of all the scriptures? This is the very
middle chapter of all the scriptures. It's only a bit of biblical trivia
probably, but it's really interesting. This is the middle chapter of
all of the scriptures, and the middle verse of all of the scriptures
is verse 8. It is better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in man. It is better to take refuge in
the Lord than put confidence in man. How many people do we
know whose confidence is in the things of themselves and the
things they do? What an awful, shaky, rotten
foundation that is to build anything upon, brothers and sisters. It
is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in
princes, no matter how powerful man is, no matter how exalted
he is in the eyes of man. And then he speaks. He speaks
of what is actually happening to these apostles as they stood
before this accusing council. This accusing mob who were going
to kill Stephen in the not too distant future. This accusing
mob that did this to the Lord Jesus Christ. So all the nations
compassed me about that word, compassed me, surrounded me.
All the nations surrounded me about, but in the name of the
Lord I will destroy them. They can pass me about, yea,
they can pass me about, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy
them. They can pass me about like bees. They are quenched as a fire of
thorns. For in the name of the Lord,
I will destroy them." What a solemn, solemn judgment of God. When
He promises to destroy, brothers and sisters, there is destruction. They surround Him. You remember
Simon preached a lovely, wonderful sermon from Psalm 22. That's
exactly what Psalm 72 was, isn't it? It's exactly what it said,
isn't it? Like dogs, like dogs, like a pack of wild dogs, they
surrounded the Lord Jesus Christ and tore at Him in every way
possible. Like strong bulls of Bashan,
they surrounded Him and passed Him about. And the Lord Jesus
said, He will destroy them. In the name of the Lord, I will
destroy them. Not in His own strength, not
in the strength of these apostles. In the name of the Lord. Verse
13, Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall. Dear brothers
and sisters, what an enemy Satan is. What an enemy we have. What a friend he has in the flesh
of our humanity. What an enemy. They thrust sore
at me. The Lord Jesus Christ, they thrust
sore at him through all of his life. From the time of his birth
they ridiculed his parents and thought him, as Herod did, worthy
to be killed. For all through his ministry
they saw at him, they tested him and tried him, and were looking
for a way always that he might fall, and they were looking for
a way always that his apostles might fall, and the testimony
they bear to the Lord Jesus might be thrown to the ground. But,
the buts of Scripture are glorious, aren't they, brothers and sisters?
But the Lord helped me. They thrust saw at me, but the
Lord helped me. Peter and John are being thrust
saw by this mob in front of them, but the Lord helped me. The Lord
gave Peter the words to declare, simple words of a fisherman,
simple words of God. And then this great verse, isn't
it? Verse 14. The Lord is my strength
and song. So in the midst of all that,
being compassed about, being thrust, having them swarm around
them like bees, like a swarm of bees attacking you. The Lord
in the midst of all that. is the strength of His people.
The Lord in the midst of that causes His people to sing. The
Lord is my song, brothers and sisters. God's children have
songs in their hearts about the Lord Jesus and His great victory. And His great victory and His
great help is revealed in glorious ways in the midst of distress,
in the midst of being compassed about. Feeling like these two
did, They must have felt in lots of ways extraordinarily vulnerable
before that Sanhedrin, which had already revealed that it
had the power to coerce the Romans to kill. Their lives were on
the line, brothers and sisters. And yet they recite a psalm that
says, the Lord is my strength and my song and has become my
salvation. They're not boasting in their
personal strength. Here they stand as the Lord's
witnesses, as His servants, they stand in His strength, they stand
singing His songs and they stand declaring that He has become
my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacles of the righteous. the voice of rejoicing and salvation. What had been going on in the
temple that previous day, brothers and sisters? There had been the
voice of rejoicing and salvation. There were amongst that 8,000,
wasn't there? There were those people who gladly
received the Word. There was rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacles, in the dwelling places of the righteous. Made righteous, as Norm spoke
to us about Abel, he was declared to be righteous. The Lord Jesus
Christ declared him to be righteous, which means that he was perfectly
right with God in the eyes of God's holy law. He was a righteous
man. so righteous that it was right
and just for that righteous man to be taken straight to heaven.
As his body fell to the earth, he really, Abel really went straight
to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus, the first, the first of
them, brothers and sisters, the first of them. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. That's the hand of power. What we are seeing in the day
of Pentecost and what we see today in the churches of God
is we see the right hand of the power of God upon His people,
don't we? the right hand of the power of
God. We are prone so often to think that He is not as powerful
as He is. That great storm that's bearing
down, as I said earlier, is the hiding of His power. He says
He has His way in the world when there is not a particle in all
of those swirling storms which are enormous. And those winds
travelling at hundreds of kilometres an hour, there's not a particle
moving there without the absolute sovereign decree and purpose
of our God. And if that's not the case, then
he's not God. It's as simple as that. He has
his way in the world then. He has his way in all of that.
And he'll have his way in the lives of his people in the midst
of that. It cannot, it cannot but be spiritually
good for his people to be put through trials. This was good
for Peter and John. It is good, brothers and sisters,
spiritually good for us when we go through trials. Because
we do, we do in the midst of the trials, we do see the hand
of God with greater clarity than ever else we do. It's in those
trials, isn't it? The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. I shall not die but live and
declare the works of the Lord. I remember Don Fortner when he
was at death's door and they were thinking that his life didn't
have long to last and he had a week I think of languishing
and then this verse came to him. So often the Lord's people feel
as if they are at death's door, don't we? David, who wrote this
psalm, again and again he was pursued by Saul and his companions
like a stray dog around Israel for probably 20 years. But he had a promise from God.
He had a promise from God. He was God's anointed. He was
going to sit on the throne of God, wasn't he? He was going
to be the one who was the forerunner to his great son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord has chastened me sore,
but he has not given me over unto death. And then we have
this plea. It's a glorious plea, isn't it?
Don't forget, Peter is reciting this psalm to these people. They're
reciting it with him, brothers and sisters. He says, this plea
is wonderful, isn't it? Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them and I will
praise the Lord. That crippled man who was there
after all of those 40 years of crippledness, he'd actually been
at the gate, hadn't he? And it was at the gate he was
healed. And then what did he do? He went
into the temple through that gate, leaping, and praising God,
walking and leaping and praising God. I wonder, the Psalmist, David
wrote another Psalm, Psalm 24, lift up your heads O ye gates,
Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory
shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your
heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, O ye everlasting doors,
and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, the Lord of
the armies of heaven. He is the King of Glory. And then you have that punctuation.
You ought to stop. You ought to stop and to ponder that. The gates are the gates of righteousness,
aren't they? They're gates of righteousness
that He, who is the door, leads His people through, doesn't He?
I will go into them and I will praise the Lord. All of God's
elect children go in through the gates of righteousness. There
is just one gate. The world and the religious world
want to make the gate as wide as possible, but our Lord Jesus
Christ said it's a narrow gate. It's as narrow as Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It is just that narrow. It's
not Jesus Christ and Him crucified, plus something else that we do.
That thief on the cross, that thief on the cross entered in
through that gate, didn't he? The gates of righteousness were
open to him. This day, this day, said the
Lord Jesus to that man, who could do nothing and had nothing in
all of his record, was wickedness. And He preached the most remarkable
sermon on the cross. He preached the most remarkable
sermon. He acknowledged the fundamental
things of salvation, didn't He? He acknowledged that man, that
naked man bleeding and dying beside Him was God. And He acknowledged
that He and his fellow criminal deserved to get exactly what
they had coming to them. They deserved death. That's what
they had earned. And he makes a cry, doesn't he?
Just a simple cry of a babe, remember me, remember me. This day shall you be with me
in paradise. This is the gate of the Lord,
verse 20, into which the righteous shall enter. You see, when we read the shalls
in scriptures, brothers and sisters, make a little mark beside them.
They're all promises of God. They will enter, won't they?
I will praise Thee, Thou hast heard me, and become my salvation. So what are Peter and John being
accused of? They're being accused of praising
God in the temple. Remarkable, isn't it? These men
had spent a week reciting this psalm and the ones preceding
it down to 113. And here they are bringing these
men there because people are praising God that it must be
stopped. And then there's this declaration
which is in our text in Acts chapter 4. This, the stone which
the builders refused, The builders set at nought is become the head
stone of the corner. The stone that the builders refused. It's a wonderful picture, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus was rejected, humiliated, and yet He was raised
and exalted on high. And His people like Him will
be rejected and humiliated. He is that stone, isn't he? Daniel
speaks of that stone that was cut without the hands and that
stone smoked that mighty image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
The stone cut without hands. We read about it in Isaiah 28
last week. It's a God-sent. a living stone,
a precious stone, a cornerstone to this earth. But the church,
the Jewish church, were building and building and building. And
you can build a mighty monument to religion and you can build
a mighty monument to the power of man without anything to do
with the Lord Jesus Christ. You can use his name and you
can use his words and you can build and build and build. But
unless the Lord builds a house, they labour in vain." What did
they say? We have no king but Caesar. They
called him a seducer, a deceiver. They called him as one who was
performing miracles on the basis of the power of Satan in him.
This man who observes not the Sabbath is not a God. This seducer
said, I will rise after three days. This stone, this stone
that they had rejected, they were the ones who had done the
rejecting. They saw him as unfit, unfit to fit into their temple,
unfit to build any spiritual edifice upon. But he's been made
of God. He's been made of God. made of
God to be the stone, the headstone of the corner, to connect the
two walls together and to keep them, to connect God and man,
to connect you and Gentile, to build them together as Peter
describes in 1 Peter, as living stones built together, raised
up by God into a temple. He's made the head of the whole
church composed of Jew and Gentiles, people from every nation. Isn't
it fascinating that he gathered the nations that day in Pentecost? Fifteen nations were gathered
there, just a symbol of the fact that the Lord Jesus has his people
throughout this world and they will be brought. They will be
brought by a sovereign hand of God to a place to hear the Gospel. They will be brought out of their
religion They'll be brought out of Jewish religion, they'll be
brought out of the works religion of man, and they'll be fitted
together by the Lord into a temple. He's been made the head of the
whole church, and if you're not under Him and you're not in that
building, then there is absolutely no salvation. Peter and John
were bold, weren't they, declaring all these things. They were telling
these men exactly what they had done. And God's people are built
as living stones. And what is it? What happens
when the living stones are built together? What do people say? What do God's people say? See,
man can attribute something of his salvation to his own activities,
and if you can, you will worship it. If you can, you will cling
to it. You will cling to it until you
meet the Lord in judgment, and there, according to Matthew 7,
you will still be clinging to it. But for God's people, God's
people see salvation. God's people see the whole work
of this building. Verse 23, this is the Lord's
doing. So the only things that are really
marvellous are the things that the Lord does. It is marvellous
in our eyes. It's marvellous in our eyes.
They had seen the Lord's doing. These people had seen the Lord's
doing in all of the activities of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nicodemus
admitted it and he was here in this council. Nicodemus admitted
it. that no one can do the works
you do unless you are sent of God. This is God's hand on these
things. God performed these miracles
through the Lord Jesus Christ and God has caused this Lord
Jesus Christ to be the head of the corner and that whole church
is built. It's built as a glorious church
in Him and the cry unto it according to Zechariah is grace. Grace, the plum bulb is in the
hand of God, it is perfectly, righteously correct. The line
is in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is perfectly, fitly
framed together. It is a glorious church. It is, this is the Lord's doing. That's the thing that we wait
for, isn't it? That's the thing that we long
for, the thing that we pray for, is that the Lord might do something
in someone's life. that we might bear witness to
what the Lord does. If you are saved, the Lord is
going to do 100% of it from beginning to end. He's going to do it despite the
activities of men. He's going to do it despite all
the opposition of men. This is the Lord's doing. It's
marvellous in our eyes. This is the day, this is the
day, this day of Pentecost, this day of the pouring out of His
Spirit, this day which is today's day, brothers and sisters. Today
is the day of salvation. Today is the day where the Spirit
that is poured out, the Spirit that energised these people,
the Spirit that led them to say these things and to perform these
things, it's still today, brothers and sisters. We're not looking
for miracles. The miracles finished with the apostles. Once the testimony
of the Lord Jesus had been signed and sealed by the blood of His
apostles, There is no need for any other things. We don't look
for miracles. Those who look for miracles are
guaranteed to be deceived. But we look for the Lord's hand.
We look for the Lord's hand in the Lord's way, in the preaching
of the Gospel. He gathers His people together
and they will rejoice. They will declare that it's the
Lord's doing and they'll say, this is the day that the Lord
has made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. We'll be glad in what He has
done. We'll be glad in His hand upon things. And then this cry, this cry as
the Lord Jesus came into Jerusalem, this great multitude, this great
multitude who days later were crying out to crucify Him, were
made by God to make sure that their King came into Jerusalem
in exactly the way that the Scriptures had foretold. Save now, I beseech
Thee, O Lord, O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity. It was interesting, I looked
it up in the original Hebrew and it's just remarkable because
they sang these things and they had a poetic resonance to them
so they could sing them to help memorise them and it says in
the original, I'm just Please, Lord, save. Please. Please, Lord, prosper, succeed,
it might be. Please now. There are four pleases
in there, aren't there? Four pleases. Please, Lord. What a great cry that is. That's
what these men had cried. Please, Lord, save. Please, Lord. Prosper, succeed, please now. That's the cry of the children
of God, isn't it? Lord, you do your work. You do
your mighty work in such a way that you cause your people to
be faithful. You'll cause your people to look
upon your activities and see that this is God's hand. This
is God's doing. This is not the work of man.
Save now. I beseech thee, O Lord, O Lord,
I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. That was the cry, wasn't it?
That's the cry of those people on that day when the Lord Jesus
came in triumphantly. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ comes in
the name of the Lord and his servants come in his name to
declare his glory. That's all that Peter had done.
This is now his third time to speak to these people, isn't
it? And all he does is declare the wonders of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He declares the wonders of Him out of the Scriptures.
He declares the wonders of Him in what they have witnessed themselves. He just declares His wonders.
He has fulfilled all of what is promised in all of the Scriptures. We have blessed you out of the
house of the Lord. God is the Lord which has showed
us light. He has showed us light. Only he can send light, can't
he? Only he can bring the light of
the glory of God. For we preach not ourselves,
2 Corinthians 4, I know it's familiar to you. For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded light
to shine out of darkness, God commanded it. He says, light
be and light was. God commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. It has shined in our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have this
treasure in earthen vessels. We will be seen to be earthen
vessels, brothers and sisters. Peter and John were very evidently
seen to be earthen vessels, but in those earthen vessels is a
treasure, God's treasure. Those who treat God's treasure
with contempt will suffer, suffer enormously. That's the light,
isn't it? This light. It's in His light
that we actually see light. The entrance of your word, says
Psalm 119.30, the entrance of your word gives light. There is only light when His
words enter and there is only an entrance of His word when
the Gospel is proclaimed. which is why there is so much
confusion in religion. The confusion goes when the light
shines. When the light shines in the
darkness the confusion dissipates because the light shines on the
Lord Jesus Christ and it's all about Him. It's all about Him. The entrance of your word gives
light. It gives understanding to the simple. It gives understanding
to the simple. We don't have to be wise in our
own estimation. Think babes, babes with light,
beggars with light, save now. God is the Lord which has showed
us light, binds the sacrifice with cords even under the thorns
of the altar. Our time is short, but there
is a sense in which the Lord's people, according to Romans 12,
present themselves as living sacrifices, as living sacrifices
unto the Lord. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable under God, which is your reasonable
service. It's the most reasonable thing
in all the world for us to say to the Lord, here I am, use me
for your purposes. There's no doubt about that,
but I think there is another sacrifice that's bound with cords
to the horns of the altar. The Lord Jesus Christ was that
sacrifice. The horns of the altar, the altar
was a big brass thing for burning animals on, but around it it
had like a border, a fence, and on the corners were horns which
were like the horns of bulls. So when it says, but find the
sacrifice with cords even under the horns of the altar. The Lord
Jesus Christ was a sacrifice who was bound. Men came to that
garden and they bound him and led him away. But he was bound,
brothers and sisters, wasn't he? This sacrifice was bound. He was bound in that eternal
covenant of grace, wasn't he? He was bound in promises to his
father that he would come, he would be the surety for his people.
He would come and he would bear their sins in his own body on
the tree. He would be made sin. He was
bound by the promises of God. He was bound by the word of God. He was bound by love for his
people. He was bound with cords to the
horns of the altar. That's what he said in the garden,
didn't he? He said to that band, after displaying the fact that
he was God, he says, you can have me, John 18, 12, you can
have me, but you let these others go free. He was bound with love
for his people. He was bound with his desire
that his father be honoured and glorified. Thou art my God. The personal pronouns in scripture
are profoundly significant. Can you say He is my God? Is this God that we have been
describing from this psalm? See, Peter and John are saying
this is my God. This stone that you have rejected,
you were building and you've rejected Him. God has made Him
the head of the corner. God has placed Him as head over
His church. God. has shown that He is glorious
and victorious that our Lord Jesus Christ reigns. He reigns
over all of these things with effortless ease. He reigns over
those who stand opposed to Him. He just treads them down at a
time of His choosing. But can you say He's my God?
My God. This is my God. All praise Thee. Thou art my God, my God. I will exalt Thee. I will have
You honoured and raised up in my thinking and in my activities
as much as You allow. Thou art my God, my God. Martin Luther said that there
are many, many people who perish in hell because they cannot use
personal pronouns with regard to God. They can describe Him
in all sorts of ways, but they can't say He's mine. There's
an intimacy of personal union and relationship between the
Lord Jesus and His people. My God. My God. I give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good. All that is done is good. He works all things for the good
of those who are called according to his purpose. He works all
things for good. He is good. He is good in all
he does. He is good in all he does to
his people. Why? For his mercy endures forever,
for his faithful love endures forever. What a glorious destiny the Lord
led the apostles to bear of the Lord Jesus Christ before their
accusing enemies. Let's pray.