Let's open our Bibles to Acts
chapter 1 again. I appreciate Norm reading those
words and Simon praying for us. I try as much as I possibly can
before and as I am preparing to go before the Lord and to
remind Him that these are His sheep, and might He be pleased
to feed them. Might He be pleased to reveal
Himself to them. Might He do as He's promised
to do, as we read in John 14, promised to come, promised to
dwell in his people, to dwell with his people, to gather his
people together. And I remind you again, as we
read through Acts and we read through the Scriptures, we will
see, I trust again and again, that the Lord Jesus' activities
in that extraordinary time between his resurrection and his ascension
to glory did the things that he's doing right now. You read it as promises in John
14. We see it as promises in the
scriptures of the New Testament Acts. It's the history of the
fulfilment of those promises and we see it today. in the miracle, the miracle of
church, the miracle of God bearing witness to himself amongst his
believers and in his believers. and bringing it to bear through
the preaching of his gospel. The things that the Lord Jesus
is doing, aren't they? In Acts 1 verse 3, to whom he
showed himself alive. He shows himself alive. At the end of Acts 3, he speaks
of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. We love to declare,
don't we, that our God reigns. Our God reigns. The kingdom is
the King's dominion. Our King, our Great Lord reigns
and rules over absolutely everything. for His glory and His good. He
speaks of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, pertaining
to Himself, pertaining to His Father, pertaining to that Kingdom. And I love how Acts 1.4 shows
us what the Lord Jesus is doing. What He did then. He who changes
not. He who is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Assembled together. Read it there. Being assembled together with
them. He assembles together with them.
He commands them. He leads them. He commands them
in verse 4 that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait
for the promise of the Father, which says he, you have heard
of me. For John truly baptised with
water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many
days, hence you will be immersed. you will be immersed in the Holy
Spirit, such that you are immersed in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. You are children of God, one
with Him, one with Him. And the glory of the Gospel is
that our lives are now hidden with Christ in God. the wonder
of the Church is that it is a spiritual kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom,
a spiritual kingdom in which the Lord Jesus reigns. He reigns
as the Spirit bears witness to Him. He speaks of the things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God. He is assembled together
with them and He shows them that He is alive. We have a living
God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is alive. A living God as opposed to the
idols of this world. The living God who feels. The living God who loves with
a passion. The living God who acts with
power. All the idols are dead. All of the idols of this world
are dead. But our God is a living God and
he moves with power. and wonderfully and powerfully
he moves with power and the evidence of his activities in this world
is seen in the blessed work of the Holy Spirit, taking the things
of the Lord Jesus, gathering God's people together, bringing
them into the fellowship of believers. It is the Church, the Church,
Bodies of believers like us scattered throughout this world and scattered
throughout time. are the place where God gets
glory for His Son. I love what Paul said to the
Thessalonians. He says, We give thanks to God always for you,
making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without
ceasing your work of faith and labour of love and patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father,
knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. 4. Because our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake." Isn't it wonderful? that as Paul witnessed
that in the Thessalonian Church, God's people witness that today. The Gospel came not to you in
word only, but also in power, in the Holy Ghost, and in much
assurance. Paul Lerch had reminded people
that there were many infallible proofs of the living Lord Jesus,
the resurrected Lord Jesus, and all of what it means for that
resurrection to be the vindication of all of who the Lord Jesus
is and all of what happened with Him. He now lives. He lives gloriously. He who hung
on that cross and was forsaken of God, judicially and justly
forsaken of God, as He became and was made sin for us. God
made Him sin for us. His resurrection is proof now
that that God who forsook Him on the cross, with perfect love, with holy
love. There are things that this blessed
Holy Spirit takes of the Lord Jesus. He is the Spirit of truth. He leads into truth. He guides
into truth. And so that's that assurance
that Paul understood to have been the case of the Thessalonians.
They were assured that the things that were said were not said
of men. They were things that were said
by God to the hearts of His people. The things, the things that are
most certainly believed among the people of God. Our great
Saviour, our great Saviour went away that the Holy Spirit should
come. And we see, as we've seen earlier,
that these apostles, saved and loved of God, were in need of
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. You read it there in Acts 1,
don't you? He says, John for John, in verse
5, John truly baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with
the Holy Spirit not many days hence. When therefore they were
come together, they asked of him, verse 6, saying, Lord, wilt
thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Will you now restore the kingdom?
You see, without God teaching people, we are left with carnal
understanding, aren't we? They were like the Jews of their
day, passionately looking forward to a Messiah who would reign
as a conquering general over an army like David, and he would
restore the kingdom to Israel, and he would restore Israel to
a place of supremacy in the world, and he would restore, as they
thought, the Israelites to positions of power and authority in a worldly
kingdom. And there are people that believe
exactly the same thing today. They can't wait for the Lord
Jesus to come back to a temple that's built in Jerusalem and
prove Himself that He is God. Brothers and sisters, He doesn't
need to do it and He will not do it. His kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. Everybody says to them, He says to them, it's not for
you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has
put in His own power. You see, there is, there are
things that are not right for us. There are things that will
be hidden from us in the grand plans of God. He says it's not
for you. It's not proper for you. It is
not your work. It is not for you to do. You're
not sent into this world to be prophets. You're sent into this
world, as he'll go on to say, to be witnesses. These things are in the hands
of God. There is, as it were, a veil
over the things of the future. And God's children walk by faith
and not by sight. We say, thy kingdom come, your
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Telling people the
future does nothing about the saving of their souls or bring
them understanding. Noah preached possibly for 120
years. to multitudes of people who were
drawn to this person who seemed like a fool, fancy building a
boat when it doesn't rain and hasn't ever rained. All of the
evidence before them showed them that Noah was the silliest man
on planet Earth, and he preached, and he preached, and he preached
righteousness. And yet it made absolutely no
difference. He told them what was going to
happen with clarity and it made no difference. We have a need. for the Spirit of God to be our
teacher. It's not good for you to know
the times and the seasons. It's not for you to know. It
will distract your attention away from the main thing. And look what he goes on to say.
But you shall receive power. after that the Holy Ghost has
come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem
and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth."
It is far more important to be a witness. It's far more important
to bear witness and to have our minds fixed on the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. There is enough, there is enough
in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, in all of its wonders,
there is enough in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory,
in His return, for us to fix our eyes on Him. And even though
it seems to wait, even though it seems to have been delayed, It hasn't changed the promise,
nor the timetable one little tiny bit. Though the vision tarry,
wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 2 Peter talks in chapter 2 about
those who scoff at the Lord's coming and scoff at His creation. One day soon they will see. There are things that are for
our good. There are better things. It's
remarkable how the Lord Jesus Christ sometimes doesn't answer
a question as clearly as you might. Norm read one in John
14. He says, why don't you show yourself
to us and not to the world? And the Lord Jesus goes on to
talk about love. It's far more important for Him
and for you for you to be dwelling in Him and Him to be dwelling
in you than it is to ponder why the Lord does those things. There
are things that are hidden from God's people. The secret things
belong to the Lord, Deuteronomy 29. The secret things belong
to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to us. There are things, those things
which are revealed belong to us and our children forever,
that we may do the words of this law. They belong to us, they
are revealed to us and for us. So there are some lessons aren't
there, there are some simple lessons. were, as they picked up the pen
to write the scriptures, writing the infallible words of God. And yet, as men, they were no
different to you and I, brothers and sisters. They were fallible,
weren't they? There are no infallible men in
this world. There is an infallible Saviour. And one of the lessons, of course,
is that we need as much as the Lord would grant us. We need
to be gracious and to exercise patience with our brothers and
sisters who are erring, and we turn their eyes as much as the
Lord would allow us to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There are things revealed to
us, and there is something much, much better than knowing a timetable. Let's read it again in verse
8. But you shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me. You shall
receive power. You never hear the disciples
ever pondering those questions in the same way again. It's just
laid out very clearly before them. They're not concerned about
an earthly kingdom now. There is a spiritual kingdom.
There is a King. There is a King who sits in heaven.
There is a King who is witnessed to by the power of the Holy Spirit. You shall receive power after
the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to
the uttermost parts of the earth. You shall receive power. You
shall receive power, not to talk about an earthly kingdom, but
to talk about a heavenly king. You'll see as we go through Acts,
you'll see again and again that these apostles had remarkable
power. They had remarkable power to
preach the Gospel in the very place where they acted with the
greatest cowardice. They there stood in those places
before the people who just six weeks beforehand had crucified
the Lord. of glory, had murdered their
Christ, had manipulated and deceived and broken all the laws of their
land to get Him killed. And there they were in those
very same temple courts proclaiming Him with power from on high,
power to preach the Gospel, power to work miracles, and all of
the miracles that the apostles performed for that time while
they were there and for that time when miracles were to be
performed, all are performed to confirm the testimony they
have of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had a clarity about the
Scriptures. And it didn't matter to them,
it didn't matter what was laid before them, they were just there
to be witnesses. It didn't matter what Herod said,
it didn't matter what Pilate said, it didn't matter what the
Jews said, it didn't matter what anyone in the world said to them. They were unmoved in their testimony
and they would profess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
would be given power and it takes power from on high to believe
the Gospel. It takes power from on high to
remain believing the Gospel. Faith is a supernatural activity
of God. He grants faith to people. He sustains faith. He maintains
it. He grows it. It doesn't matter. They will spread the Gospel all
over the world because God has his sheep all over the world
and they will go to the ends of the earth. And they will,
they will suffer all of what man can do to man in enmity against
God. They cannot get to our Saviour
any longer, but they will as best they possibly can get to
His people. Don't forget, these 11, of these
11, 10 died. 10 died agonising deaths, crucified. beheaded, speared to death, in
all sorts of ways. John is the only one who lived
to an old age and seemed to die naturally. There is a seriousness
about the Gospel. And it requires power from on
high to see that the Gospel must, must be preached. It takes a
power from on high to believe the truth. It takes a supernatural
power to love the truth. It's an easy thing to give assent
to the truth. All the truths that we proclaim
here about the glory of God, about the nature of the triune
God, you can study them and you can learn them and you can know
them and you can do exams on them. But it takes a supernatural
power of God to love the truth. Multitudes give assent to the
doctrines of grace. And then multitudes will join
with those who despise and oppose those things. It is remarkable,
isn't it, the days that we live in, these days. Yesterday Sydney, last night
Sydney saw the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras, and that whole business
horrifies the people who know God. Because we know who He is. And we know that sinning in all
its forms must be dealt with. But probably as I speak today,
brothers and sisters, the Archbishop of Sydney is joining hands in
a service at the great big Pentecostal church called Hillsong. And they're
joining hands together to celebrate the Bible Society being in Australia
for 200 years. For those of you with eyes to
see, which is the more dangerous? Which is the more dishonouring
to God? You see, to love the truth, to
love the truth is to be a witness to the truth. It's to be a witness
to who He is, to be a witness to the person of Christ, to be
a witness to His deity, the fact that He is God. He really is
God. When they saw Him, they saw God. Norm read it to us in John 14. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. You've seen God. His eternal
sonship, the glory of His incarnation, the wonder of those three and
a half years of ministry, His miracles, the extraordinary transaction
that happened on the cross. See, as much as people want to
focus on what men did, the Jews were wicked and evil and deceitful
and hypocritical. The Romans were cowardly and
denied the very justice that they would have said was something
of the foundation of their empire. But the great transaction of
the cross, brothers and sisters, the great transaction of the
cross, the most important transaction of the cross, is not the wounds
that those Roman soldiers put on the back of the Lord Jesus,
not the plucking out of His beard, not the scorn and mockery and
spittle of the Jews on Him. The great transaction of the
cross is the transaction between the members of the Triune God. That is the big issue of the
cross, that the Lord Jesus Christ, from all eternity, was the surety
of a people that God the Father had given Him. And He bore and
took full responsibility for all of their sins and for all
of their righteousness from before the foundation of the world.
And on the cross, a holy, just God. made his son sin. How on earth
can we understand those things? What it is for the very thing
that repulsed our Lord Jesus Christ the most was sin. The agonies of the garden as
he anticipated it, the agonies of the cry from the cross are
much worse than all the physical agonies. And he died according to the
scriptures, and he died bearing the sins of his people. and He
died bearing them such that the justice of God, the wrath of
God is satisfied. And that's the glory of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? God now is perfectly satisfied
with His Son. Isaiah 53 says that He will see
the travail of His soul. The Father saw the travail of
His Son's soul. He saw it and knew it better
than any of us ever will. He saw the travail of his soul
and is satisfied. Justice is satisfied. Justice
demands that all that are in the Lord Jesus Christ are risen
together with Him. It's a glorious thing to contemplate,
brothers and sisters, isn't it? That our great God has put away
our sins so far from His own sight that He can't remember
them anymore, as far as the East is from the West. They're gone. They're covered. They're covered
in that remarkable event on Calvary's tree. And this resurrection is
a vindication of that. And the blessed Holy Spirit will
be as successful in calling and gathering those sheep of the
Lord Jesus to himself as our Lord was on Calvary's tree. The march of the church that
we read of in Acts, in the promise of the Old Testament fulfilled,
The glory of the existence of the Church, in despite of all
of the opposition and all of the enmity that surrounds her
at every side, is a standing testimony to the validity of
His work. Our God reigns. He now sits in heaven. You see,
you need the power of the Holy Spirit to believe His words. to simply believe what God says
in his scriptures, to bear witness to him of who he is, to bear
witness to him of what he says that we are. Not a remarkable
promise the apostles had. You often read the scriptures
and think how on earth could they remember pages and pages
from John 14 through to John 17. The Lord Jesus speaks almost
all the time and yet how did they manage to get it all so
right? No one read it to us, isn't it?
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things. Everything that you
need for life and godliness, he will teach you. Everything
that you need to know about me, he will teach you. And bring
all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. As they wrote, they were hearing,
as it were, the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Weeks
and months and years later, they were dictating what He had promised
them. They'll be witnesses, witnesses
to the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ and the glory that
will follow. Witnesses, as we'll see as we
go through Acts, witnesses of His prophetic promises in the
Old Testament, again and again. The only Bible they had was the
Old Testament. They read the Old Testament and
they quote it. The book of Acts is a book of
history, as so much of the Scripture is, and it's a history with a
spiritual meaning. It's a history that speaks of
Him. The Blessed Holy Spirit is that
promise. The promise of the Father, it's
the only time in the Scriptures that we read of the promise of
the Father. the promise of the Father. When
Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost is come upon you, when he comes
upon you, you shall be witnesses unto me. You'll be witnesses
as power comes from above. You'll be witnesses in Jerusalem,
you'll begin at that city where he was put to death, and it will
spread out to the ends of the earth. See, the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit has now come. He's come because the Lord Jesus
has gone to the Father. He has been sent from heaven. Power from above. from above to see who he is.
You see, it is his job, it is his task in this world to be
the founder and the architect of the church. It is his church,
it's a spiritual kingdom. We speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Holy Spirit comes upon
people, what do they do? They don't proclaim the Holy
Spirit, they proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. They proclaim the
eternal covenant. They proclaim the wonders of
Him crucified. And He puts it all together.
He makes the Church. He creates the Church and He
sustains the Church, which is why the true Church of God has
never needed human power to make it function, ever. Nor will it ever. The job of
the preachers, the job of the church, is to proclaim the Lord
Jesus Christ and get out of the road, to have as little of men,
as little of men, as little that appeals to the flesh of men as
we can possibly have. The simpler it is, the more scripture
that there is, the more talk of the Lord Jesus Christ there
is, the better off it is. In one of our bulletins a couple
of weeks ago, one of our friends in America, I'm not sure who it
was, it might have been Paul Mahan, said, if it looks like
a rock concert, do you know what it is? It's a rock concert. If it looks like man manipulating
men to get them to do something and call it spiritual, that's
exactly what it is. Power from on high. I love what
Ephesians 2.22, turn in your Bibles, I just want you to read
it with me. I want you to read what the church
is. I might go back to verse 13 and
it says, Ephesians 2.13, But now in Christ Jesus you who were
sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. How much
that must have meant to those apostles in those dark days when
they were far off. We were far off, we were made
near by the blood of Christ. Now therefore, you are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly, fitly framed
together. perfectly fitly framed together,
as the rubble says, the plumb bulb is in the hand of our great
sovereign Lord Jesus. In whom the whole building, fitly
framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. In whom, just read those words
with me brothers and sisters, in whom you also are builded
together. All of God's children are built
together in the church, in the individual local churches as
well as in that universal church. But what are we, brothers and
sisters? We're the true church of God is you build it together
for a habitation of God through the Spirit. We're the church
built by God. It's the habitation of God. It is God's house. God's dwelling
place. A place that he habits. A place that he inhabits with
perfect peace and perfect ease and perfect love and perfect
satisfaction. A house. Our blessed Holy Spirit reveals
himself again and again as being a person. It's just so important,
isn't it, as Christians, that we consider the reality and the
nature of the Triune God. Our Lord Jesus is alive. He's in His people. And when
He's in His people and He's gathered together secure in him as those men on
the Sea of Galilee were when the Lord Jesus was in the stern
of the boat. It seems so often that the storms
are tossing us around and that we're about to drown and where
is he and why isn't he acting? and yet we are perfectly safe.
I love what the Lord Jesus said before they got in that boat.
He said, let us, let us go over the other side. And go over the
other side they must. The storms of this world might
battle, but with the Lord Jesus, with his people, we are secure. The angels of God camp around
the Church of God. Nothing, nothing in this world
can harm the Church of God. It is perfectly secure. It is
built as a habitation of God. There will be witnesses, unto
me, the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon me. You'll be witnesses
unto me. You'll be witnesses to who I
am." I love what the Lord Jesus said to Peter at Caesarea Philippi. He said, who do they all say
I am? What's the talk out there? And he asked that question, who
do you say I am? Who do you say I am? It doesn't
matter what they're saying I am, who do you say I am? And Peter
answered him and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. Thou art the Christ. Every Old
Testament promise, every Old Testament picture of the Lord
Jesus is perfectly fulfilled in this man from Nazareth. And
what did he say? He said, blessed. Blessed are
you, son of Barjona. Why? For flesh and blood has
not revealed this unto thee. You cannot learn that from flesh
and blood, but by my Father which is in heaven. The Spirit comes
with power. We've read in Luke 24 of how
the Spirit comes in power and opens the minds of those disciples. There they were having three
and a half years of his testimony, having the scriptures explained
and laid out before them, having him tell them again and again
exactly what was going to happen in great detail. And yet, when
it happened, they didn't know. And the Spirit came upon them,
didn't it? He spoke. He spoke of the things concerning
themselves. And then their eyes were opened
and they knew Him. And He vanished out of their
sight. He opened their eyes as He broke bread, signifying His
broken body. And then they said, did not our
heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way, while
He opened to us the scriptures? It is the Spirit's work to open
the scriptures. There is a book in heaven that's
sealed. He has the right to open it.
He opens it now to His people. He opened it to these disciples
and they had to wait. They waited for the Spirit to
come upon them, but they were remarkably transformed men, remarkably
transformed witnesses. A witness out of the mouths of
two or three witnesses are things established. They were established. All of the truth of the Lord
Jesus was established. His resurrection and His glory
is established. And again and again you read
the apostles in their writing, and they're going back and saying,
this is what we saw, this is what we heard. John said, that
which was from the beginning, from the foundation of the world,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, our hands have handled the Word of life,
for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father
and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with
us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. To fellowship with them
is to fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. To bear witness now is to bear
witness to what the apostles bore witness to. Our witness
is the same as theirs. And no doubt No doubt there is
much witnessing that is to be done in this world and we pray
for the Lord to open doors. But there is a place where there
is a lot of witnessing going on on a weekly basis. And in
the gathering of God's people together there is a witnessing
to each other. It is that body that's knitted
together That blood-bought community that's assembled together, and
as the Lord Jesus said in Acts 1-4, He's assembled together
with them, and we bear witness. That fellowship we have is a
fellowship that's witnessed in the Church, and out of the witness
in the Church, there is a witness to this world. All of God's saints
long for opportunities to share the Gospel. You've all borne
testimony to the fact that there are times when in almost a miraculous
way there is a door, as Paul called it, a door of utterance
that's opened. And out of seemingly nothing
there will flow a conversation where God will allow graciously
for you to bear witness to Him. We wish and we long to bear witness
to Him. And these things we write to
you. We write that you'll have fellowship with us. We write
that you will bear witness and have that witness confirmed by
the Holy Spirit. We write to you that your joy
may be full, the fullest joy. God's children have here is fellowship
with Him, fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus
Christ. The Apostles were eyewitnesses.
They were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. When they wrote, they
just simply wrote the truth. The stories of the Incarnation
of the Lord Jesus are simple. They are not complicated. The
evidence that's laid out before the people of this world is,
according to Acts 1-3, they're infallible proofs. Infallible. They cannot be refuted. You cannot
deny the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot deny
all the promises of the Old Testament. You cannot deny them without
committing spiritual suicide. to your souls. It is, God says,
infallibly proved." They were eyewitnesses. They were eyewitnesses,
says Peter of His Majesty. Three of them were gathered there
on that mountain and they saw the Lord Jesus as it was, shine
in His glory through His humanity on that mountain. They heard
the Father speak. And they saw Moses and Elijah
speaking with him about his death in Jerusalem. They are eyewitnesses
of his majesty. And he says in 1 Peter 1.7, We
received from God the Father honour and glory. When there
came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is
my beloved son, in him I am well pleased. And this voice which
came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy
mountain. And then he says these remarkable words. We have also
a more sure word of prophecy. where unto you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until
the day dawn and the day star rise in your heart. You have
it in your hands, brothers and sisters, the more sure word of
prophecy. You have something that is better
than being on the Mount of Transfiguration. No wonder the Apostle John, and
it's worth going to 1 John and reading again and again, he says
the phrase over and over, he says, we know. This is eternal
life that you know Him. You know Him. Know Him who the
Father sent. We know, again and again, I didn't
count them all but there might be 15 of them in 1 John, again
and again he says, we know, we know, we know him, we know that
this is the last hour, we know that when he shall appear we
shall be like him for we shall see him as he appears. We are,
we now are and we know we are the sons of God. We know that
we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Hereby we know that we are of
the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. We know, we
know that he abides in us by the spirit which he has given
us. We know. We know for sure. We know that we love the children
of God and we love God and keep His commandments. We know that
He hears us and whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desire of Him. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not. That new creature, that new creation,
Christ in you, the hope of glory, sinneth not. And all of those
sins of the flesh which grieve us are put away forever. The wonder of the Gospel is that
God now looks to His Son for obedience and performance and
not to me, and sees in His Son all that's required of us. We
know that we are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness.
So that's what we know, don't we? We know. We know that the
Son of God has come. He's come in His incarnation. He's come into His people in
promise. He's come to dwell in His people
and He can dwell in His people. The Holy Spirit can dwell in
us. Why? because we are as holy as
he is. We are individually, and we are
as a church collected, a habitation of God. God inhabits us. We know, and we know that this
world lies in wickedness. John 5, 9 then, we know that
this whole world lies in wickedness. We know that all of this world's
religion lies in wickedness. We know that all of the flesh
of men in all of their enmity against God lies, it's held in
captive in wickedness. And we know, we know that the
Son of God has come and has given us an understanding. So He must
come, brothers and sisters. He comes in the preaching of
the Gospel. He comes in the declaration of
who He is. He comes in the witness of who
He is. He's given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true. And we are in Him that
is true. even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. So much better, isn't it? So
much better to be a witness than to be a prophet. So much better
to be a witness that the Lord Jesus Christ has built His church,
the Holy Spirit comes and He takes the things of the Lord
Jesus Christ and He reveals them to His people and He knits them
together and He gifts them with all the gifts that are required.
Every gift that is needed for every body of Christ is there
perfectly. He gives, He ordains, He teaches
and He comes with His word and power. and he shines a light,
he shines a light onto the scriptures that we might see the Lord Jesus
in his glory. The church is built, the church
is now governed by the blessed Holy Spirit. He is God. The church of Jesus Christ is
always doing just fine in this world. Don't be troubled about
it, brothers and sisters. Our God reigns. The Church is
built on the promise, on the fulfilment of eternal promises.
It's built by God as a habitation of God by the Spirit. And it
is the glory of the Spirit, the Blessed Spirit, to build the
Church and to make the Lord Jesus known and to cause the people
of God to stay upon Him, to be His witnesses. to declare Him
who is our Kingdom and Redeemer, to declare Him who is the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, to lead the Church
into the truth, to sanctify the Church by the truth, the truth
of who He is, the truth of what He's done. As the Lord Jesus
says, the Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father. and he shall testify of me."
He'll testify of me. It's the blessing of Abraham
that might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. See, we are here to bear witness. We bear witness each time we
are gathered together. We don't have to go out into
this world to debate and to explain. Our job is to declare. Our job
is to declare the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not
trying to make people look like Christians. God knows His people
from the foundation of the world. He is perfectly adequate in His
supervision of them. Our job is to proclaim Him. Our job is to continue, as He
might give us power from on high, to be His witnesses both in Jerusalem
and Judea and Samaria, and here we are in the uttermost It is an extraordinary thing
that we bear witness to. We see it in our brothers and
sisters throughout time and throughout this world. The blessed truths
fulfilled before our eyes, the glory of our great Redeemer,
the blessing the blessing of Abraham. What was the great blessing
of Abraham? I will be your shield and your
very great reward. In all of the trials of this
life he will be our shield and he will be our very great reward. Let's pray.