May it please Almighty God to
bless us together as we meditate in his word this evening. Let
us turn to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter five, and we'll read
verses 38 and 39. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter
five, and reading verses 38 and 39. And now I say unto you, refrain
from these men, and let them alone, for if this counsel or
this work be of men, it will come to naught. But if it be
of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest happily ye be found even
to fight against God. It may be thought that such a
text is rather negative and really doesn't have any spiritual application. But we should realize that this
statement by Gamaliel was brought about because of what the apostles
had been speaking. And of course, what they had
been speaking was the great and glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it had been expressed really
in very succinct terms. It wasn't a long sermon. It was just a few words. The
apostle Peter and other apostles had answered. And they said,
to the people in the Sanhedrin who were accusing them. And they
clearly said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And I'm sure that would be the
consensus of all of us to know that, of course, we must obey
God rather than men. And then he gives this very short
but precise statement of what they had been saying the God
of our fathers raised up Jesus who ye slew and hanged on a tree
him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and
a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins. Well just really in two verses
the apostle is able to tell these people what they were being accused
of and to think that it was such a wonderful statement and then
he just confirms this and says and we are his witnesses of these
things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to
them that obey him. Of course the effects of this
great statement was not dissimilar to Peter's preaching on the day
of Pentecost. And the effect was, as we read
in the next verse, and when they heard that they were cut to the
heart and took counsel to slay them. You see they hated the
truth, they hated the gospel, and that hasn't changed. all
these years which have intervened since then, up to the present
moment of time. And the devil is still producing
hatred in the hearts of so many for the truth of the gospel. And as we perhaps consider that,
we will realize that the gospel is a glorious gospel, because
it is a finished work. Whereas other religions in the
world today demand an input from poor human men and women who
have no ability to save their souls, but yet they rejoice in
the fact that they are able to comply and to do something for
their salvation. Well, the apostle sets this very
clearly before them. And this really was what they
were hated for. And that's why Gamaliel comes
and suggests that this be a solution. Now, we don't know very much
about Gamaliel. And we know he was a Pharisee,
and we have no evidence that in actual fact he ever was a
born again Christian. But we find that God uses whom
he will. And God sometimes uses people
like Gamaliel. Gamaliel was somebody who was
looked up to, he was a learned Pharisee, and as we know the
Apostle Paul sat at his feet and learned all about the Old
Testament. He was obviously a very able
teacher, but yet you see that did not produce the grace of
God. And it's a very solemn consideration
to think the Lord sometimes uses people for good ends, but they
are not actually part of the household of faith. They are
not actually called by God's grace. And such example should
be very searching to each one of us to realize that the Lord
may use people, may use us. and yet you see to not be found
with a life of God in our souls. And really I suppose the great
dividing factor is those who are not born again see no attraction
in the Lord Jesus Christ and really see no true need for a
saviour. They are content what we might
term a theoretical religion. Well what a blessing tonight
then if we are blessed with reality in our souls and if we understand
again by God's grace what the apostle has spoken to the people
that company of important people And it's good to realize that
the apostle and the priest and the other apostles were not ashamed
of the gospel. They'd been in prison for preaching
it. And now they were before this
council. And yet they were very happy
still to be able to declare the whole truth of God. And as we
just run through this account and as we come to the end of
this chapter, we see when they were freed. Before they were
freed, we should just notice that they were beaten. And when
we read of that in the Bible, it generally means they received
39 stripes, no small, terrible beating that was. And yet you
see, having received that, and having been told they must not
speak in the name of Jesus, what happened? They departed from
the presence of the council rejoicing. They were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name and daily in the temple and in every house
they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. where it's a glorious example
for us today in the world in which we live. Their great concern
was to preach Christ and him crucified, to spread the good
news of the gospel. And it is a wonderful testimony
and it is a wonderful example for us in our day and age. By
nature, these things do not come to us naturally. but it's a blessing
when the Holy Spirit so comes upon us and enables us to speak
of the great and glorious things of God to those that we come
in contact with because we don't know whether it may be a word
in season to their souls, a word which Almighty God may apply
with power. It seems in a day and age in
which we live generally not very much concern for the lost soul. There's plenty of concern for
living an easy life, without any ruffles, without any problems. But we see here the great and
glorious effect of the gospel upon Peter and the apostles,
so that notwithstanding whatever they might have to face, they
were prepared to face it, because They loved the gospel and they
wanted to declare the gospel and to declare what Christ had
done. Well, it's a good example for
us today. And so as we ponder these things,
to think what the apostle Peter and the apostles said, he told
the council very clearly, the God of our fathers, raised up
Jesus. Jesus was raised from the dead.
The apostles were witnesses of those things. Of course we know
the apostle Paul wasn't, well he may have been there at the
time, but not to actually see the Saviour as his Saviour until
later. But nonetheless they had witnessed
the crucifixion of the Saviour. They had witnessed the resurrection
of the Saga. They had witnessed the ascension
of the Saga. So they were able to give a personal
testimony of these great and important truths and then to
apply it to those people they were speaking to and speaking
in these very clear terms and be able to say the God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." You may think, well,
nothing very much in that, but under the influence of the Holy
Spirit, there was. Because as the apostles went
on and spoke, him, this one who was crucified, Him hath God exalted
with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. You see two vital things
really. What a blessing then, if we know
the wonder of true repentance. And that means to be really sorry
for our sins. And that means to be really sorry
because our sins have caused the Lord Jesus Christ to be crucified
upon that cross at Calvary. If there had been no sin, there
would have been no need for the Saviour to come into this world.
There would have been no need for the Saviour to be crucified,
to die upon that cross at Calvary, to take away the sins of his
people. and indeed to take away our sins. There would have been no requirement
for it, but there was. And bless God, the Lord Jesus
Christ did not fail. And so here we have this statement,
and God had exalted with his right hand to be a prince and
a savior. He is a prince and he is a savior. Well, the important aspect really
is for us tonight, not really to cry out like they did in that
judgment hall, away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify
him, but to be amongst those who come and bow down and are
found like that dying thief when he said, we indeed justly, for
we receive the due rewards of our deeds. But this man hath
done nothing amiss. Now it will be a blessing when
you and I are convinced of our sin before a holy God. And we realize therefore, as
the apostles spoke, it is our sin your sins and my sins caused
the Lord Jesus Christ to die upon that cross at Calvary and
to pass through that agonizing time, as the hymn writer says,
with strength enough and none to spare. It's hard for our little
minds to appreciate the agony that the Lord God passed through,
the Lord Jesus Christ endured on our behalf. But today, do
we rejoice in it? Do we praise God for it? Are
we very thankful for it? When we realize how sinful we
are, and that we deserve indeed the just desserts for our sins,
We deserve to be cast off forever, to spend eternity in that terrible
situation with the devil and all his angels. But what a mercy
if the Lord has come by his grace and touched our hearts and shown
to us the necessity of being one of those for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ came and died and gave repentance and has brought
forgiveness of sins. It's a good thing to examine
in our hearts as to whether, first of all, we know our sinfulness
before a holy God, and that means what it says, our sinfulness
before a holy God, God is holy and we are sinners. And then
to bow down before God and acknowledge him as the Lord and to seek for
that true repentance, that true sorrow for sin. It is the gift
of God. And may we be blessed with that,
which is then a repentance, which does not need to be repented
of because it won't then be a false repentance. It will be a true
repentance, because we've come, as it were, into the presence
of Almighty God, and we felt our guilt. We've had to come
and say guilty before our Holy God. We cannot justify ourselves,
but how wonderful it is to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died
in our place to justify us. Oh, what a mercy, what a blessing,
what a reality this is to the needy souls. So we can understand,
perhaps a little, why there was this animosity by that council
against the Saviour. Because they were living as Pharisees
by their works. They were doing this and doing
that and they felt they were justifying themselves They weren't
relying upon being justified by God. They were relying on
their own works. And how many Pharisees were satisfied
with their works? Well, bless God, if you and I
are not satisfied with ourselves at all, we have to come before
God and tell him that we're a failure, that we fail again and again. we are dependent upon his mercy
and his compassion to look upon us and grant us the great blessing
and favor of true repentance. Because if that is granted, then
what does follow? The forgiveness of sins. The two are linked together,
the two are joined together. God grants true repentance. He
also gives us the forgiveness of sin. So what a mercy and what
a blessing then it is for us today to think this is the gospel. And it is preached by the apostles
to that council so many years ago and how they hated it. Now they intended to kill him
and to slay him. But We then see this man, Gamaliel,
who stands up and speaks really for them. The Lord does sometimes
raise people up, raise people up to support people. I remember when I was a boy at
school once, I was being attacked by another boy, And someone who
I didn't really know very much at all, he came and defended
me. Didn't have any reason to do
that, but he did defend me. And the other person had to flee
away. Wonderful blessing for me in those days. Well, that's a very poor illustration
really. But to think of this in a spiritual
way, the Lord has provided this great and glorious Saviour, so
that the enemy, the enemy of souls, may be destroyed and flee
away. Well, in this case, Camelia was
the man who the Lord appointed to do this, and therefore he
brought a people. He came and spoke to the council. He was a man obviously thought
well of, a learned scholar, and therefore they listened to what
he said. And he said, of course, words
which really were sound words, and they were good words, and
they were listened to. And he said, I say unto you, refrain
from these men, and let them alone. Rest this counsel, all
this work be of men, it will come to naught. But if it be
of God, he cannot overthrow it. lest haply ye be found even to
fight against God." Well, I'm sure in our lives we don't want
to be found fighting against God. We won't win. Be sure of that. God will conquer. We may rebel against God's dealings
with us. We may not want to submit to
the will of God. But the truth is that God will
be the conqueror. God will gain the victory. And
as this and when this occurs, we shall bow down then and worship
God for his goodness and mercy toward us. See, there's really
two councils. There's the council of men and
there is The counsel of God. Well, the counsel of men may
fail. The counsel of God will not fail. So it'll be a blessing for us
if we then listen to the counsel of almighty God. We have examples
in the word of God where this good counsel was given and what
a blessing it was. when this good counsel was given. And we're able to think perhaps
of some of God's people. We think in the Old Testament,
we think of Jacob when he came to Laban. And although it would
appear Laban was not a true believer, and yet Laban and Bethuel answered
and said to him when he'd explained his mission, he come to seek
a wife for Rebecca, And the result was they said this, and it's
good to read. The thing proceeded from the
Lord. We cannot speak unto thee bad
or good. Clearly it did proceed from the
Lord. The Lord had appeared very wonderfully and very graciously
to them. And then we can read in Isaiah,
Isaiah 43 in chapter 15. Yea, before the day was, I am
he. And there is none that can deliver
out of my hand. I will work, and who shall let
it, or who shall hinder it? You see, it's God who delivers. It's God who brings things to
pass. And perhaps there may be those
who try to stop it happening, to hinder it, they will not succeed.
They may for a time, but God's work goes on. And so did you
see in this account, the disciples were let go and they went immediately
and preached the everlasting gospel. What a mercy it is. Whereas on the other hand, if
it's just the council of men, it will fail. Jeremiah tells
us in the Lamentations, this is what he says in the third
chapter, the 37th verse. Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not? Brazen men
can make brazen statements, but it will not come to pass if it's
not from God. They may speak brazen things
against us, But what a mercy it is when our hope and our confidence
is in our God. Therefore realize that unless
the law permits, it will not come to pass. And what a mercy
that is. You remember perhaps in Nehemiah's
day, Samballot and his friends determined to stop Israel building
the walls. They made every effort. to stop
them by saying so many things, but they didn't succeed. And
Nehemiah and the men of Judah continued in their work and the
war was complete. And what a mercy it was. You see, the counsel of those
evil men came to naught. And so it is really today the
same in our lives. We should recognize how true
it is and therefore not be afraid when we see perhaps difficulties
and when we see men perhaps rise up against us to realize that
God is in control. God is in control of everything
and man, puny man, cannot overthrow it as the apostles said to this
council. But or sorry, Gamaliel says,
but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow, lest happily ye be
found even to fight against God. Well, may that be a consolation
to us today, to realize that no, man cannot overthrow the
counsel of God. Man may try to, but you see in
this instance, in this account here in the Acts of the Apostles,
there was a wonderful plan that God had, and that plan was not
to be thwarted, was not to be stopped. There were all those efforts
by ungodly men to stop the gospel being declared, and so it is
still today. We only have to look around the
world and we see constantly efforts to stop the gospel being spread
and stop the gospel being preached. But thanks be to God the Lord
is on the throne and his purposes ripen fast. His will comes to
pass and that will is really to lay the sin alone and to raise
Christ as the great and glorious victor. In all the way of God,
in salvation, it is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not
to exalt man, it's to exalt the Saviour. And it's good when we
see the work of the Saviour and individually exalt his name. Indeed the psalmist says, Let
us exhort his name together. It's a good desire, and it's
good when it is the outcome of the Lord's work, and we observe
it, and we desire the name of the Savior should be lifted up
and honored and glorified. And then we don't pass it by. We have the examples, don't we then?
Especially in that to the apostles. of what the apostles did and
how they desired to exhort the Saviour. We see the life of the
apostle Paul, how every opportunity he grasped to declare the great
and glorious gospel of the Saviour, wherever he was, perhaps none
less than when he was in Athens alone. We might think sometimes
we're alone in a place, And we can easily stay where we are
and just sit down and think, well, I can't do anything really
well. That wasn't the apostle's attitude. The apostle's attitude
was to declare the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
find him there in Athens and not in some little back corner
in the marketplace. Isn't it good? Isn't it wonderful?
We should be very thankful that we've been able to share the
gospel in the marketplace in Red Hill and we pray indeed the
time will come again soon when we shall be able to resume that
work. It is a wonderful work and it
is very good and gracious of our God to give us this opportunity
because there is an opportunity to declare the counsel of God
through the distribution of his word and other literature, and
to speak to those that come to our school about the great and
glorious gospel. It is an opportunity to be grasped
with both hands in this day and age in which we live. We don't
know how much longer these opportunities will be granted to us. And we,
of course, really, we have a very easy life, don't we? We know
very few people really come and be abusive to us. Yet we see
here the apostles found all manner of abuse from those in authority
trying to stop them. And so we should continue to
pray to God that these blessings and freedom may continue to us
and they may be used through his favour and grace to the salvation
of many many souls. Let us never ever underestimate
the value of a soul and I believe we come to some small appreciation
of the value of us our soul when the Holy Spirit shows to us in
some way the extent of eternity and what it must be to wake up
in eternity in hell, never to escape, never to escape, never. Don't forget that. It's not something
which gradually gets better. It's not something that God changes
his view on. The Word of God tells us he is
in one mind. We tend to forget that, don't
we? God is in one mind. one mind, and all those who are
not found believing in the Lord Jesus Christ are eternally lost. That doesn't apply, of course,
to those who we meet with in a Red Hill market, but it applies
to every one of us. If we are an unbeliever, if we
are an unbeliever, we are eternally lost and we'll spend eternity
in that dire place of hell. It's a terrible thought. Oh,
my friends, think about it, ponder it. The devil says, oh, don't
think about that, it's too morbid. Don't worry about that. When
it's in the word of God, it's very clearly set forth in the
word of God. And the Lord tells us himself.
Yes, it's a place where there is gnashing of teeth and the
worm dies not. gnashing of teeth because there's
no escape, no escape. Now we have the the parable of
the Lord Jesus when he spoke on the earth about the rich man
and Lazarus. We have that picture there of
Lazarus dying and going as the bosom of the Lord and well that
rich man waking up in hell and the heat of the fire burning
his tongue. And he said, oh, Saint Lazarus,
give a drop of water on my tongue that my thirst may be assuaged. And then he said, well, send
someone to tell my brethren, my brothers and sisters, about
this situation. But the Lord said very solemnly,
they have Moses and the prophets. And we today have also Moses
and the prophets, and of course, the whole New Testament, the
whole glorious gospel. And therefore we are indeed,
without excuse, we will never be able to stand before that
judgment seat of Christ, before that great white throne with
the Savior seated on it as the judge of all mankind. and be able to make any excuse,
we shall be silent before that great judge. And how terrible
it is to hear those words, depart from me, ye that work iniquity,
I never knew you. Oh, my friends, may we be concerned
for ourselves, for our friends, for our relatives,
They may be amongst those who rejoice in this great gospel
that Peter and the apostles were able to faithfully preach and
for which they suffered. And you see, they counted it
a privilege. They counted a favor to suffer
for his sake. Now that's a wonderful sign,
isn't it? Of the grace of God. to realize,
as the apostle says, and they departed from the presence of
the council rejoicing, they were counted worthy to suffer shame
for his name, because they viewed the prospect of glory ahead.
That was the seat of the Lord, which was with them. What a mercy
that was, and what a mercy it would be with us. What was the
gospel? We'll read it again because it's
a wonderful statement. As we read, the God of our fathers
raised up Jesus, the same God, God the Father, whom ye slew
and hanged on a tree. Yes, you and I, it was our sins
that slew and hanged the Lord of life and glory on a tree.
Don't think and we didn't have a part in it. Many people ignored
it, but it's good when the Spirit of God comes and applies his
word to our songs that we come and indeed cry out, guilty, oh
guilty, have mercy upon me, oh God. And so we read him, the
blessed saviour, him hath God raised with his right hand to
be a prince and a saviour, for to give repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins." Well, are we in that verse? Are we
in that text? That's a relevant thing, isn't
it? To know that we are partakers of this great and glorious grace,
that it has a description of our case, Yes, this blessed, exalted God,
our Saviour, who gives repentance to us and forgiveness of sins. The Apostle goes on, and we are
his witnesses. Well, you and I today are not
physical witnesses, but we are witnesses. You may say, well,
how am I a witness? We are a witness because of the
effect the Word of God has upon our heart. It produces a softness,
it produces a submission, it reduces confession, it all emanates
from the grace of God. And if the Lord has blessed us
with these things, we have the evidence that we are amongst
those, that the Apostles speak of here, and we are his witnesses
of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost,
whom God has given to them that obey him. You see, there is a
working out of this. It's easy to pass over such a
little statement. This is what it says, whom God
has given to them that obey him? Well, you and I know in our hearts
whether you and I are obeying God. If you were asked, do you want
to go to heaven? I expect you say yes. Are you obeying him? You know if we do, there's a
blessed answer of a good conscience. What does that produce? Peace
with God. That's a blessed place. It's
a place given to us through the work of the Holy Spirit. And
may we therefore today have the evidence of it in our very souls. And indeed, remember this and
go on our way rejoicing and be like the apostles were, ceasing
not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Wherever we are, we are
all his servants. Some are called to preach, we're
all called to bear a testimony of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. And that testimony is this, my
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. Amen.