May they forget the channel,
seeing only Him. May we declare the word. May they see Christ. Go back with me to Acts chapter
5. I have a message for us tonight. All of us. I have a very simple
message. Simple, simple message. This
message is for the unbeliever. The unbeliever who has never
known who the high and holy and true God of Scripture is. The unbeliever who has no interest. Zero interest. No concern. This message is for the religionist who has followed the word of
man instead of the word of Christ. Heard a man, bless his heart,
bless the hearer's heart, heard a man say something that wasn't
true and believed him and did not search the scriptures, and
try the spirits, the deceived religionist. This message is
for the babe in Christ, the babe in Christ who's scared and full
of doubt, full of anxiousness, weak, and this message is for
every believer, every single believer who walks this life
with trials, and we all do. Man, we all do. Trials and stresses,
and we all have them. Sorrows, we all have them. Burdens, we all have them. Who walks this life in the flesh,
every believer who's walking this life in the flesh, that's
all of us in this world. Verse 29 says, Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Unbeliever, we ought to obey
God rather than men. The end of this life is coming
quick. It's coming fast. It's approaching fast. And we're
going to go stand before a holy God. And He has given us His
commandment right now. And we ought to obey God. You
know that? Religionists, we ought to obey
God rather than men. Men are so set. They're just so set on their
doctrine, set on their belief. They have no scriptural support,
foundation. We ought to obey God rather than
men. Babe in Christ, we ought to obey
God. And we're about to see what he's
said. Fellow believer, let's be reminded one more time, we
ought to obey God rather than men. We ought to obey God. My
prayer is that this will be truthful and very helpful. Very helpful. Verse 29 says, Then Peter and
the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather
than man. That was a bold statement to
me. You know, you read that and it's
like, stop right there. That sunk in. That just sunk in. It just stood
out. We ought to obey God rather than
men. That needs no explaining. Literally,
we ought to obey God rather than men. You don't have to explain
that. But if we're going to do that,
we need to ask two questions. The first one is, who is God?
And the second one is, what did he say? If we're gonna obey God,
who is God and what did He say? Verse 30 says, the God of our
fathers raised up Jesus. Raised Him up from the womb of
a virgin. Raised Him up in a carpenter's
shop. That's amazing to me. I've thought
so many times, you know, we have what the Lord, when he was born,
him in the temple at 12 years old, and he began his ministry
at 30. And I thought so many times,
what did he do? I know if the books were written,
the world couldn't contain him. But he was a carpenter for 20-something
years. That's amazing. He was a good
one too. He was a good one. He worked
12 hours a day, six days a week. I have no room to complain until
I at least pass 72 hours a week. You know that? He was a good
one. Faithful. Raised him up to bring
the gospel. Raised him up to bring the gospel.
The law was given by Moses. All that time went by. All those
men. God raised up Moses and he raised
up all those men. And the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ was never
raised up, we would not have grace. You know that? We wouldn't
have any grace. grace and truth. Raised him up
to bring deliverance to the captives. Sight to the blind. Raised him
up to set the prisoners of sin free. Raised him up on a cross. The God of our fathers raised
him up. An offering to God. Raised him
up instead of his people. Verse 30 says, The God of our
fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince, the prince of peace, the prince of
life, and a savior. He said, I'm a just God, but
I'm a savior. a prince and a Savior, for to
give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are
His witnesses of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost,
whom God hath given to them that obey Him." Obey Him. Who's He talking about? Jesus
Christ. God. God. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. God. God said, A body hast thou prepared
me. God. The God. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself. Who died on that cross? God. The God-man. He and His Father are one God. God. We ought to obey God. You know that? We ought to obey
God. Who is God? Go with me over to
1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5. Verse 20 says, And we know that
the Son of God is come, and I want to say this, I've said this before,
but this is such a help, this is such a, it was a help to me
to understand the God-man. The Son of God, our God, is three
persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit. One God. three persons. And every natural man thinks
of this God in three persons in a vertical line. God the Father,
God the Son, and so sad to say God the Spirit. Right? But that's not how it is. He
thought it not robbery to be equal with the Father. It's God
the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. These three are one.
He is the Father of God. He is the Son of God. And He is the Spirit of God.
But it's not God's Son. It's the Son of God. Alright? So verse 20 says, And
we know that the Son of God is come. and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know Him that is true." Who is true? Christ said,
I'm the truth. And we are in Him that is true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and life eternal. Verse 12 says, He that hath the
Son hath life. Why? Because He's God. That's why He's God. We ought
to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to obey the Lord Jesus
Christ because He's God. Every soul on this earth ought
to obey the Lord Jesus Christ because He is God. Every single soul. Alright, what
did he say? What did he say? Turn with me
over to Romans 10. Romans 10 and look at verse 16. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath
believed our report? How do we obey God? How do we
obey His gospel? We believe His report. We believe His report. We ought
to believe God. We ought to believe God. We ought
to believe what God has said concerning His gospel. This is
what He said. Salvation is of the Lord. We ought to believe that. And
then there ought to be a period at the end of that. Period. We ought to believe what God
has said concerning Christ and Him crucified. His blood is all
that God requires to pay the debt of my sin. You know that?
That's it. He shed his blood, it is finished,
and God is satisfied. Dear religionist, dear religionist,
let's not add anything to that. And let's not take anything from
that. We ought to believe God. No buts
about it. We ought to believe God. Well,
yeah, but I know that, but no buts about it. We ought to believe
God. Go with me over to Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians 2 verse 10 says, At the name of Jesus every knee
should bow. We ought to obey God. Every knee should bow. And the
reason is because every knee is going to bow. Every knee is
going to bow. If God does not cause us to bend
the knee now, He is going to break the knee in judgment. But
every knee will bow. Every single knee will bow. We ought to obey God. We ought
to bow to the King. Bow to the High King. Verse 10
says, At the name of Jesus Every knee should bow of things in
heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. And every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Dear unbeliever, we ought to
obey God. Unbeliever. It breaks my heart to see people who have no interest.
It breaks my heart. It just breaks my heart to see
people who have no interest. We ought to obey God. We ought
to obey God. Turn with me over to Psalm chapter
2. Psalm chapter 2 verse 11 says, Serve the Lord with fear, with
fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but
a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. People go through this life with
no fear of God. No fear of God. No trembling. We do rejoice. We do have great joy, don't we?
But it's with trembling, isn't it? It's in Christ. We have great joy begging to
be in Christ, pleading to be in Christ, because outside of
Christ, we understand there's no joy, none whatsoever. We fear God. We fear God. And who is God? Jesus Christ. We fear God and we run to God
for mercy. Jesus Christ is the one who's
going to judge this world. He is the one who's going to
say, depart from me, I never knew you. Never knew you. Be cast into outer darkness.
Every soul on this earth must bow. Every soul on this earth
must confess Jesus Christ is Lord. And every soul on this
earth must kiss the feet of the Son of God, begging for mercy.
Begging for mercy. His beautiful feet. What a privilege
it is to kiss the feet of the Son of God. What an honor that
thought is to be able to come to the Son of God, to be able
to approach the throne of God and bow and kiss the feet of
the Holy King. We ought to obey God. Now this
next one is for me. This one is for me. I told you
that this message is for all of us. Every one of us here. And this next part is for me.
A babe in Christ. Just a babe in Christ. I have
so much growing in grace to do. I have so much growing in grace
to do. This is for all of us, babes. Go with me over to Matthew
six. Matthew 6. I heard a man tell a true preacher
one time, I want you to preach on practical Christian living. He said, that's what I want to
hear. Practical Christian living. All right, here you go. Matthew
6 verse 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you. You know, and I say this, I know
I'm continuing with the message, the theme of the message, the
verse of Scripture, but I am being very serious. We ought
to obey God. Babes in Christ, we ought to
obey God. We really should. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be
added to you. There's a lot of things that
go through this mind. You know that? A lot of doubts, a lot of fears,
really. Whatever it is that we think
we lack, and we do think we lack, whatever it is that we think
we lack, necessities for this life, necessities for the life
to come, salvation, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Who is the righteousness of God?
It's Christ. Seek Christ. Seek Christ. Whatever it is, seek Christ. Whatever it is, seek Christ.
Something. Everybody has something. Seek
Christ. Seek His Word. Seek Him and His
Word. Seek Him in prayer. Seek Him in hearing the gospel. Seek Christ and His kingdom,
His people, the good of His kingdom and the fellowship of His kingdom.
So much good comes from the fellowship of His kingdom, so much good.
Seek Christ and His kingdom and all these things will be added
to you. All these things will be added to you. I couldn't help
but think about all of us who have moved lately. I mean, you want to see things
added to you? Move! Really! And they are just things. They are just things. I mean,
even if it is things, or if it's events, or whatever it is, seek
ye first the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and His
righteousness. And all of that stuff will be
taken care of. Every single bit of it will be
taken care of. The point being, we ought to obey God. We really
should. We just ought to obey God. That's
what he said. Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness. Verse 25, right here in Matthew
6, he said, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your
life. How seriously can we take our Lord on that? Take no thought
for your life. What you shall eat or what you
shall drink, nor yet for your body which you shall put on,
is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment." So,
don't worry about showing up to work and don't work hard and
don't... No, he didn't say that. He just
said, take no thought for your life. Seek Christ. Just seek Christ instead. Verse
26, he said, Behold, the fowls of the air, for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly
Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than
they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto
his stature? And let me tell you how that
applies the most, spiritually. Spiritually. Seek Christ. Seek Christ. I am a babe in Christ. Here I stand and I do want to
grow in grace. But I cannot add one cubit to
my stature. I've got to seek Christ. Verse
28, he said, Why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they
spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so
clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is
cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye
of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Take therefore no thought for
the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." That's
our Lord speaking. We ought to obey God. You know
that? We really should. Do you have
any idea how worried about tomorrow we are? I'm worried about whether
or not we're going to get carpet before the conference. We ought to obey God. Jehovah-Jireh, right? The Lord
will provide. The Lord will provide. He's provided
everything we need for eternal life. He's going to provide everything
we need for physical life. Every single thing. Go to Psalm
37. Psalm 37 verse 25 says, I have
been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous
forsaken. If the blood of Christ is on
you, it's never coming off. It has stained you and you will
not be forsaken. And never seen a seed begging
bread. Never. The Lord will provide. Let's believe His word. Let's bow the knee. Let's kiss
the sun. Let's obey God. All right? Now,
for every believer, Every believer who walks this life, it is a
life of trials. Our Lord said that they would
keep coming, and they will. Stresses, burdens, sorrows, they're
going to keep coming. You're going to have an up day,
and then ten down days. And then God in mercy will give
you an up day, and you'll just be lost for a while. They're
going to keep coming, they're going to keep coming. As long
as this flesh is around, they're going to keep coming. So as a
reminder, for our comfort, turn with me to Psalm 55. Psalm 55
verse 22 says, Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. We carry these burdens around
with us. We carry these sorrows around
with us. And what we ought to do is obey
God. and cast every one of them on
our Lord Jesus Christ. Every single one of them. In
the story Pilgrim's Progress, Pilgrim was carrying a burden.
He was hunched over, carrying a burden, trying to get out of
a city that was going to be destroyed. He was pointed to the way and
he went through the straight and narrow gate And he's going
down the way, and he comes, the first thing he came to was the
cross. And it says he got to the cross, and as soon as he
looked up to the cross, the burden just fell off. Put it there. Put it there. Whatever's going to come for
me tomorrow, you know what? Christ died for me. And whatever
this burden is, He's my God. and he's in control. He will
not leave me. He will protect me and everything
he does is for the purpose of my good. Cast it there and leave
it there. Peter said, casting all your
care upon him for he careth for you. Our Lord, the God of heaven
said, this will forever be One of my favorite verses, it just
speaks to my soul. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. We ought to obey
God. You know that? We ought to obey God. We carry the burden for so many
things that we don't have the answer to. We cannot fix. He
has the answer. We ought to obey God. We ought
to enter into that rest. Just enter into that rest. We
ought to believe His Word, which I gladly want to do. We ought
to bow the knee. which we gladly want to do. Is
there anything that makes you happier than thinking about bowing
the knee to the king of kings? We ought to kiss the sun, which
we gladly want to do. We ought to seek his righteousness,
and we ought to leave every single thing in his hands. Every single thing. That's what
he said to do, and we ought to obey God. By God's grace, we
will. The Lord calls us to. Calls us to obey our God. All right, let's stand together.