If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Acts chapter 5. Acts the 5th chapter. We'll be looking
at verses 19 through 28 this morning. Acts chapter 5, 19 through
28, and the title of the lesson is, All the Words of This Life. All the words of this life. Now, last week we saw that because
of the death of Ananias and Sapphira, we saw that the outside of the
church, the people who were outside of Christ, outside of the church,
became very superstitious in their respect to the church of
Christ. And we saw how that men may reverence
God, may reverence the people of God and the things of God
with their lips, but they dare not join themselves to us by
faith in Christ Jesus alone. But God still added to the church. God always adds to His church
such as should be saved. And we also saw that when they
brought the sick, when they learned that the gospel was being preached,
that these apostles had power of the Spirit to heal, they brought
these lame and sick folk and they laid them on the side of
the road. And they were waiting just so
much to get a glimpse of the shadow of Peter to pass by so
that they were healed. And we saw that every one of
them were healed. And we saw that this is the mission
of the church. The mission of the church is
to declare the healing of the gospel for sinners in Christ
alone. The purpose of the church is
not for good folks or good men, but for the dregs of society,
sinners, rebels, and not proper folks. For Christ came not to
call the righteous, He said, but sinners to repentance. And
we also saw that when these apostles preached the truth, they were
again persecuted by the Sadducees, by the religious folks of their
day who did not care to hear the message of Christ and Him
crucified, Christ and Him risen. And so in verse 18 it says they
were put in a common prison. The apostles were put into prison. And so this leads us to our text
of Scripture this morning. The apostles, there they are
in prison, waiting the next day to be judged again of the Sanhedrin. But a miracle happens. And let's
read these verses of Scripture together. It's beginning in verse
19. But the angel of the Lord by
night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said,
stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of
this life. And when they heard that, they
entered into the temple early, and the high priest came, and
they were with him, and called the council together and all
the senate of the people of Israel, children of Israel, and sent
to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they
found them not in the prison. They returned and told, saying,
the prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers
standing without before the doors. And when we opened, we found
no man within." They were in prison and the angel
of the Lord came by night and He didn't actually open the doors. He brought them out of the prison
so much so that guards that were standing right outside the door
did not even notice their escape. They passed right through the
doors, right past the guards in and out of the prison. And
the next morning, these people got their clan together and they
got their senate, and I'm sure they were all dressed and ready
to make their arguments and their case before them and to really
have at these apostles. But when they went and sent for
them, they came to their surprise. There's the guards. And they
told the guards, go in and open up. And sure enough, when they
went in to open up, there was no one there. They were all surprised
that they were gone. This was a miracle. But instead
of recognizing again, notice the attitude of religious men,
instead of recognizing the miracle that it happened again, instead
of recognizing the miracle of all the healing that they had
done, they in their hardness of heart still went and brought
them before the Sanhedrin to try them. An angel, he came forth
and when he commanded him, he took him out and he commanded
him to go back to the temple and they did that. They went
back to the temple and they preached again the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, I want us to notice two
things about this text. Two things about this miracle,
this word of the angel. First of all, we're going to
see a command given. And second of all, we're going
to see obedience rendered, a command given and obedience rendered. When the angel brought forth
the apostles, he gave them the word of the Lord, he said, go
stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of
this life. First, I want us to notice this,
where they were told to go. Where they were told to go? The
temple. They were told to go back to
the temple where the point of conflict was. The point of contention. The point in which they were
accused and taken to prison. The angel said, go back to the
temple. Go back to the temple. This is
opposite of human nature. Have you ever read of a prison
break where they went back to the police station? I've always seen movies where
they broke out of prison and they got away from the place
of contention. But this was not the command
of God. God sent them back into the fray,
back into the place of contention. Yet, we as believers are also
commanded the same thing. We're commanded to go into the
place of the greatest offense to religious man, and that is
the place where God is worshipped. Religious men have no love for
the place where God is exalted. Therefore, let us be faithful
to flock together and to hear the message of God's grace in
Christ. In this, my friends, in going
back to the place of contention, the place of worship, we identify
with the message of the gospel that is preached in this place. When we come this morning, when
you got up and you left your home, and you got into your car,
and you were driving out of your driveway, and if anybody saw
you, they were seeing a witness that you were going to worship
God. You are going to worship God. We come to be identified with
God's people, with God's message that this is the place where
God says He will manifest Himself. When believers miss worship because
of the cares of this life and do not attend to the worship
of God, they testify that there is something of greater value than this place. They testify
that there is something of greater worth, that something or someone
has taken precedence or importance over the gospel of Jesus Christ. If the President of the United
States, and I know most of you really don't mind him so much,
But we should respect him because he is a man that God has placed
in office. But if this morning the President
of the United States were to come into this building, there
would be no doubt that people would attend. Why? Because he's a man of great importance.
He's a man of great office. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself says, where two or three are gathered together in My name,
there I am in their midst. Do we believe that? Do we believe
that? If we do, we would be faithful
there. Because this is where Christ
has said He would be. In this day, when the apostles
were going to the temple, recognize this, that the local assembly
was not yet totally formed. When they had met together, they
met together in one place. And notice in the previous verses,
you'll notice that they met on Solomon's porch, which was in
the temple. They had determined to meet at
a place to worship God. And that's where they were. That's
where they assembled themselves. Why? Because this is the place
where God said He would manifest Himself. This is the only place
in all the world that God said, I would manifest. They stayed
there until they had formed their local assemblies, until they
had come together in their local body. That's where they had met. Let us manifest to all around
us and hear the command to go to the temple. Let us say, as for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord." This, my friend, is a place of
contention. This is a place despised of false
professors of faith. They say, I can go and worship
God in my own home. I don't know how many times I've
heard that. I can worship God in my own car as I'm driving
to work. I can worship God. I can do this
in my own home with my own family. I can worship God there. And
I don't discourage these things. My friend, every one of us should
meet with God in our prayer closet. We should spend time with Him
at home. We should spend time in worship
and reading His Word. But my friend, the most important
place of worship is where God says He would manifest Himself
to His people. Those who have no interest in
the worship of God, in God's way, this, my friend, is what
we call will-worship, mentioned in Colossians. Paul says that's
will-worship. In other words, people have determined
the way that they want to worship God, and they say, well, I'm
going to worship God my own way instead of the way that God has
prescribed. That is nothing more than will-worship. And those
who do this are enemies of the cross of Christ. Therefore, let
us believers know where we are to be. Let us worship God as
He has prescribed, which is the preaching of the gospel. There
is no other means. There is no other means of worship
prescribed. God says, Meet together, forsake
not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some
is. Number two, this command says to speak and not only told
them to go, but it said to speak. And he told him, speak all the
words of this life. Believers, I really don't know
if you understand this, but every believer. Every believer, from
the youngest believer to the oldest believer, from the one
who has obeyed in Christ, even to the elders of the church,
every one of us are commanded to go and to witness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is our command of our Lord. That's the command of the Lord
for us. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Friends,
let us at every opportunity witness of our Lord and Savior. Every
opportunity. Let us speak to the people that
we work with or that we're around. You know that the people that
you work with, I've never met them. I've never met them. I don't know them and I don't
even know if they'll ever come and hear the gospel from this
place. But my friends, they should hear
it from you. They should hear it from you at every opportunity. Don't be ashamed of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Don't be ashamed. I know that
many times we're afraid of what we don't know. And sometimes
we use that as an excuse to say, well, I don't know much. Nobody
is saying, speak what you don't know. Speak what you do know. Witness what you do know about
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that He is the only
hope for sinners. You know that if you are saved.
You know that. You know that there is salvation
in none other than Him. You know that. You know that
salvation is apart from all works and religion and things that
we can do. You know that salvation is by
the grace of God alone. You know that. Speak that. Speak what you do know. Let us
not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And don't look
for results. That's what we all have a tendency
to do is we speak and then we look around and say, well, did
it do anything? It's not up to us. That's not our business. That's not our command. Our command
is to go and speak. The results are left up to God.
God will give the increase. Leave it alone. The angel tells
him to speak all the words of this life. What does that mean? When I noticed that, it was a
very peculiar phrase. It's only used here. All the
words of this life. Well, we know that that's speaking
about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that the gospel of Jesus
Christ is the only thing of value in this life. My friends, our
jobs, our families, our children are not the greatest value in
this life. They are not. They are not the
only thing in this life that is of value. The one thing that
is of the most value to the souls of men is the gospel. The gospel. You see, a person may preach
and tickle someone's intellect. They may tell you how to be successful
in certain things, and these things people are interested
in. Being successful in your job or your marriage or your
relationships. But my friends, if the message
is absent of the person and work of Jesus Christ, it is not the
gospel. It is not the gospel. The message
of Jesus Christ is not preached, and therefore, life is not given
by those messages. There will be no life given by
a message that's devoid of the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. You see, this is why we are not
to fret so much at the false religion of our day. Because when they preach, there
is no life given by that message. If it is not the message of the
grace of God. You remember Mary and Martha
when the Lord Jesus Christ went to eat with them. He's sitting
there and he's eating and there's Martha in the background and
she's working. Hard. She's working hard. And
she's doing an honorable thing, is she not? She's cooking a meal
for the Lord of Glory. She's doing a good work for Him. And she's really busy and she's
trying her best to make the best casserole she possibly can make.
And I'm sure it was delicious. I'm sure it was really good,
all the work she put into it. But she saw Mary sitting there
at the feet of the Lord Jesus and she said, Lord, won't you
tell her to get up and help me? I'm busy and I need some help. Won't you tell her to get up?
And the Lord said, Martha, Martha, you are troubled about many things. But one thing is needful. Friends, life is not so complicated. We make it complicated. There's
only one thing that is necessary to men, and that is to sit at
the feet of Christ. Everything else is nothing. There's only one thing that's
good. And you may be very busy about things, and they may even
be good and honorable things, but my friends, there's one thing
needful. All the words of this life are found in the gospel
of Jesus Christ. This is one thing needful. Why? Why is this the only thing needful?
Because this is what God has prescribed to save our souls. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them which believe. How shall they call on Him in
whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Let us understand the necessity
of the gospel. My friends, compel men to come. Every one of us should compel
men to come and to hear, for these are the words of this life. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him risen from
the dead. This is God's means and there
is no other means of salvation. Is there anybody here that have
people that they long to know Christ? I do. Is there anybody
that you can think of that you would love to see come to know
Christ? Or do you think they're going
to come to know Christ by some epiphany at home? Sitting on
their couch? No. The only means that God has
prescribed is the means that we are doing right here, right
now. Compel them to come. Compel them to come. Number two, this is the only
message of this life is called this because salvation only comes
in this life. Salvation only comes in this
life. Once a man leaves this life,
there is no message for him. Once you die, there is no more
message of hope. There is no more message of grace. Either if a man believes in Jesus
Christ in this life, when he dies, he will be ushered into
eternal glory, and if he does not believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, he will be sent into hell for all eternity. I remember preaching a man's funeral,
and this man, by all pretenses, had no interest in the things
of God. And his wife and his ex-wife
were there and they were arguing about this and they were wanting
to know what I was going to preach. They didn't want me to stand
up and start talking about all this man's bad things that he
had done. And I looked at the ladies and I said, one thing
I cannot do and will not do is preach this man into heaven or
hell. He is where he is. I preach funerals for the people
that are sitting there. Because this is the message of
this life. There is no message after this
life. Revelation 22, 11 says, He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous
still. There is no hope. Solomon said, He that is joined
to the living, there is hope. Friends, if you don't know Christ
and you're alive, there's hope. There's hope for our families
who don't know Christ. There's hope if they're alive.
Compel them to come while they're alive. Don't wait for their death
to speak to them about the glories of heaven and about Christ. They
won't come then. It's too late. Solomon said, for a living dog
is better than a dead lion. This should impress us of the
sincere urgency of the gospel. My friends, we're not to look
at this as a hyper-Calvinist and say, well, the Lord is going
to save somebody, I guess He don't need me, I'll just sit
on my hands in my house. You've denied the Scriptures.
You've denied the Scriptures. Scriptures teach no such thing.
My friend, the message of the Gospel is an urgent message. It's an urgent message. And it
should be preached with urgency and with haste. For today is
the day of salvation, not tomorrow. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. My friend, today
is the day of salvation. Believe on Christ now and cast
away all merit of yourself. Compel men to come to the place which is at the feet of Christ.
Have you taken your place as a dog before Christ? Remember
that woman that the Lord said, it's not for me to give the children's
bread to dogs, and she said what? Truth, Lord, even the dogs received
the crumbs from the master's table. You see, she took her
place. And what did she receive? She
received his blessings. And that's what everyone who
comes before Him receives if they come in their place. And
number two, notice their obedience rendered. Look at this in verse
21. And when they heard that, they
entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. They
did exactly what they were commanded to do. Even so, now, believer,
hear the words of this life and take them to heart, And as you
go out of this place, take them to a lost and dying world and
declare the message of Christ. That's what you're here for.
Nothing else. Friends, if we're not here for
this, we might as well just leave and go home. There's no other
reason for you to be here. Believer, there's no other reason
for us to live on the face of this earth but for the glory
of God. That's it. If you have another purpose,
we need to rethink this. If we have another reason for
being here in this world, we need to rethink our situation
and see if we know Christ at all. It's very important that
we understand and obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Know that this
is our life. This is what we do. To honor
and live for Him. Remember, before you came to
Christ, you yielded these members to serve yourself. But now that
we have come to Christ, yield these members as service to God. Honor Him with our mouth, where
once our mouth yielded cursing, now let our mouth yield blessings. The blessings of God, the gospel
of Christ. Be faithful to Him to worship
Him. Be faithful to serve Him. Be
quick to serve Him at every opportunity. Declare His Word to men wherever
you are. Believer, you are to be a walking,
breathing, living Bible. That's what you're here for.
If you're here for anything else, we need to really check our hearts
to see if we are in the faith. This is what God has called us
to do. To preach the words of this life,
which is the gospel. Declare the words in obedience,
no matter the consequences. When these apostles went back
to that temple, do you not think that they knew that they were
going to go back before this group of people? Don't you realize
that they didn't sit around and say, well, you know, if we go
to the temple, we're going to get in trouble again. We're going
to get caught again." They said no such thing. They got up early
and they went to the temple in obedience regardless of the consequences. And my friends, we should go
out of this place regardless of the consequences and preach
the gospel. Yes, you will be persecuted.
Yes, you will be hated. Yes, if they could kill you,
they would. But regardless, is it better
to obey men or God? Apostle says, we already told
you it's better to obey God. We already told you that. Christian, obey your master.
Honor him. Honor him. Pray this will bless
our hearts.