Good evening. If you will, let's
turn to Acts chapter 1. We had finished up the message
Sunday, reading out of Ruth 3, didn't we? When Naomi told Ruth
to anoint herself and put on her raiment and clean up and
get down to that threshing floor. That's where we are today. And
get down there early. That's where Boaz is going to
be. And don't make yourself known. Be there ready and waiting when
he's there. That's God's word, I read that
last week. And I kept reading that today and I thought, there
ain't nothing else I need to say about that. Who needs to
say more than that? If the Lord don't apply it to
people's hearts, am I gonna do it? And then I thought, with
that message tonight, I was reading that chapter again and it ends
because Boaz says, I'm gonna be your kinsman. I'm gonna be
your kinsman. I'm the one qualified to redeem
you. I have all the ability to redeem
you, and I'm willing to. I'm going to buy you. You're
mine." And what Ruth do? She paced the
floors. She was not sitting down. She
was pacing the floors. She has tore all to pieces, as
we say where I'm from. If you need an urban dictionary
or something, or a southern dictionary, go look it up on the internet.
Tore all to pieces. Just, oh, just in fits. Have
you ever been that way? Well, I want to ask you a question.
I'm going to ask a couple of real hard questions tonight.
They're good questions. I ask myself these questions.
Let's say you had somebody you loved. I mean, like that precious
little grandson you've got, one of them grandbabies you all have,
or your wife, or your mother, your brother's sister, whoever
it is. Somebody you love dearly, and you had to find out if they
was gonna have life or not. Car wreck happened, I don't know,
something. And they're laying in that hospital room, or they're
in the surgery room, and they say they're gonna go in and work
on them, and that surgery may be done in two minutes, it may
be done in 12 hours, we don't know. But as soon as they're
done, whether they live or die, they're gonna come out and they're
gonna tell you. We'd go to sleep. You know what?
I could squeeze in a game of pool real quick. I'd go down
to the pool hall. Y'all hungry? I'd love to have a Subway sandwich
right now. I'd hit the spot. No, we'd be tore all to pieces,
wouldn't we? Why? Love is why. That's the distinguisher. Love is why. Ruth paced those
floors. She was there early. She was
there dressed appropriately. She was there waiting for a word
from Boaz, and she got a word from Boaz. And then he said,
I'm gonna buy you. And she couldn't, she could not
rest. She couldn't sit down. And you
know what, Naomi, who gave her that good advice in the first
place, who gave her that word, what did Naomi tell her? Set
still, my daughter. Don't just sit and twidget and
fidget your thumbs and legs and wiggle so hard you might as well
go run a marathon. Sit down and be still until you know the matter
will fall. Wait, for, because the man will
not be in rest until he's finished the thing this day. He ain't
gonna fail. He ain't gonna come up short.
Wait. Wait, hurry up and wait. That's
what they told us in the army. Get to it right now. Get to waiting. That's a good thing. We're going
to see some folks. Peter's got a wonderful message
here. I've struggled with titles all the time, but this one's
too long. A good message and a bad business
meeting. That's what takes place as we're
going to finish chapter one of Acts tonight. We're going to
make it to the end. But he has a really good message.
I've heard a lot of messages. I've studied it for weeks. I've
put it off because it's really hard for me. There's a lot of
introspection, as they say. I'm looking at myself in the
mirror as I read these things. And this is heavy. Is this heavy
for you? Ought to be. It's heavy. For me to be able to preach these
things, I could go fool them. And I've studied this, and I've heard
a lot of good messages out of here. I've heard some that were
inaccurate, but good. Matthias was not one of the apostles.
He was not. That's facts, right? That ain't
a gospel message. That's just facts. I want to
see the gospel. Peter has a wonderful, just a
good gospel message of comfort for these people. It's real simple. And then he makes a terrible
decision. He leads them erroneously. And you know what? All of God's
men are men. These are infallible men, though
they wrote an infallible book. Because the Holy Ghost was in
them and moved their hands. But they were just men, and it's
recorded throughout. How many times did Peter mess up? A bunch. How many times did Jonah mess
up and have a bad attitude? That is completely irrelevant.
The man is irrelevant. The message is what matters.
Peter has one of the best messages. It's just such comfort for me
as a preacher and for you as God's priests and kings and queens. So good. And then they just did
something dumb. And we've done that. We're made
it through a really good message. It's so comforting. And then
when we get done, all we can talk about is dumb things. I
said before, this is a hospital. This is for sick folks. That
don't mean we need to sell snake oil in the parking lot and talk
about our aches and pains all day. Being gay and on that back
table. We're here for the gospel message. I may stop shy on this and we'll
hit it again next week. Lord, be with us tonight. You
pray for me during this, and I hope you prayed on the way
over here and took a couple hours today and said, Lord, give me
ears to hear and give that man a message from my heart. It'll
be good for him too. Stay with me, this'll be a blessing
for you. Acts chapter one, look at verse 14. We'll go back just
a little bit. These all continued. with one
accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the
mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days,"
it doesn't say in that day, it says in those days, around that
time, they kept doing this, didn't they? Peter stood up in the midst
of the disciples and said, and the number of the names together
were about 120. About 120 people there. That's a big congregation.
That's a big remnant. We have a big remnant here for
San Diego County. Most people said, well, the churches
are bigger. No, not really. This was about normal. This was
a big gathering, 120 people were there. And Peter stood up to
preach. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been
fulfilled. Right there's a message in and
of itself. All these scriptures we look through, all this Old
Testament types and pictures we look at, they must needs be
fulfilled. They had to come to pass, that's
the will of God. And everything that's in these
gospels, that's what took place while the Lord was here, fulfilling
those Old Testament prophecies and those Old Testament types
and those Psalms. And brethren, these acts of the apostles is
the act of our great apostle. We ought to hate it. And this is what the early church
did, what we do in our day, the mistakes and the good things,
all of it. And then what is to come? What we are to expect out
of this world and not be surprised. Children are horrendously disobedient
in the public school systems and in the private school systems
and the people that keep them home ain't qualified to teach
them and do anything with them. They're doing a bang up job,
it's terrible. Used to the ones that kept them home and taught
them, they were best well behaved kids in public, not now. These
things are terrible and all the government's corrupt and everything
around us is bad. Didn't the Lord tell you? Are
we shocked? The end is near. Good. People scared to death. Writing
books on this junk. Stop. Bow to God. Wouldn't it
be wonderful if we come today? These things must be fulfilled.
It must be. And the Lord's going to save
his elect in doing all that. He said, I've raised up the evil
to glorify me in the day of evil. I can't believe they'd do such
a thing. God could believe it because he ordained it. I want to walk through this world
as a person that acts like he halfway believes God. Maybe I
ought to read his word. If she wrote me a letter, And
I never did read it, and I go, I love her so much. No, I don't. I'd have read it. If you get
a letter from somebody you love, you read it. We love him, we
read his letter to us, don't we? Can't remember it all, there's
a lot there, and I got a little bitty brain. Do us a lot of good
to read it. This scripture must needs have
been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, now we're getting somewhere.
by the mouth of David spake." He didn't say David, we say it
sometimes, as David said in the Psalms and James wrote. And then
other times I'll say, the Lord says, well, no, the Lord didn't
say that, Kevin, Paul wrote that. That was breathed of God. God,
the Holy Ghost, went to somebody and moved their hand to do it.
David may have been the one that penned it. We got a letter from
Aunt Logan, we say, look at the ballpoint pen, or this is a bick.
You don't care about the pen, it's a feather quill. Who cares?
I need the letter from the one I love. Peter's given that to say in
these scriptures are God-breathed, primarily. They had to be fulfilled,
which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning
Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. He's saying these scriptures
have been fulfilled. I pulled just a couple of them that David said.
Psalm 41 verse nine, it says, hey, my own familiar friend in
whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his
heel against me. That physically happened to David.
The Lord sent that trial to David for David to write it down so
it could be fulfilled by Christ whenever Judas came to get him.
You mean I have to go through all this? Yeah. It's good. The Lord must fulfill his scriptures.
Turn over Psalm 55. We'll look at it. Because Peter
said, which was the guide to them? Psalm 55. In another place, David wrote,
let their habitations be desolate and let none dwell in their tents.
It's exactly what happened to Judas. Where he lived, where
he was laid, there was nobody living there. It was desolate. Nobody camped out there. It was
a graveyard. Psalm 55 verse 11. Wickedness is in the midst thereof.
Deceit and guile depart not from her streets. For it was not an
enemy that reproached me. Then I could have borne it. Neither
was it that he that hated me that did magnify himself against
me. Then I would have hidden myself from him. But it was thou. a man mine equal, my guide."
What did Peter say? This was his guide. David said
here, my guide and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked unto the house of God in company. It didn't say
they walked into, they didn't go into glory together. They
walked through this life together. Some people call that a sojourn.
Walk ain't gonna do nothing for you, we have to arrive. We have
to get there, don't we? They walked unto the house of
God and company. Let death seize upon them and
let them go down quick into hell for the wickedness is in their
dwellings and among them. What a thing, what a thing to
bring up, wasn't it? Here for days, remember we looked at,
they went up there to Jerusalem and enjoy. They're in this upper
room. The people that were there were the ones that wanted to
be there. They wanted to pray for those that were about to
preach. They wanted to get a word from God, and they wanted to
hear this gospel preached. And then a preacher stood up,
and he starts talking about Judas. Why? I don't think that's a good
topic to cover today, Peter. Hush! Lord laid this on him. Why did he lay that on Peter?
Why do you think everybody's doing so well? They were rejoicing,
they were filled with joy. Why would Peter stand up and
start preaching about Judas? So often, believers, though we
gather together and we have such great joy because of this nature
that we're housed in this old man, that there's a new creation
in that's tiny, we get negative, don't we? And we get worried.
And so quickly, we start to fret. And so quickly, we start to worry.
Am I his or am I no? Is it I, Lord? Judas, they thought
highly of that fellow. He was to be thought highly of.
He was an apostle. God picked him. He picked him
that he knew he was gonna fall, but he was one right there with
the Lord, walked with him for three years. He was the only
one with an additional duty. That's what we call it in the
military. If you had a job and you got another job added to
it, it's additional duty, more duty. He was the treasurer. No
one suspected him this whole time. That could be me. If that one
could fall away, well, hey, I'm less than him. What a thing. That's probably the conversation.
I'd imagine it was in that upper room where it turned to. It went
from a good prayer meeting to everybody's crying and whining
and worried death about themselves. No doubt and unbelief. It didn't
sustain that way. If it was sustained of total
belief and total happiness and total joy, that's called glory.
We ain't there yet. So Peter preached to him. He got, so let
me tell you something about Judas. Everything that happened to him,
when he was fulfilling the scriptures, the Lord wasn't lying to us,
this had to happen. It had to happen. The Lord purposed
it, wrote it down, and brought it to pass. We ought to be thankful
for these things, and let's rely on what he says. Not on what
we think, let's rely on what he says, what his promises are,
not what we feel. On his promises, not on what
I think. What's the difference between
Peter and Judas? We've looked at this several times. Turn to
Matthew 26. I've talked about this before. On the outside,
Peter looked like the one that was going to go away, and the
Lord said, you're going to deny me thrice tonight. After he told them all
that one of them was a devil, and then he sent Judas out. He
said, go do what you got to do and do it quickly. And everybody
said, oh, he's got the purse with him. He's going to go buy
some meat for this Passover. He's doing some important work
for the Lord. He's the most responsible one out of all of us. That's
the good one. Beat it, Peter. I mean, look at me. The Lord
just said you was going to nine three times. But Judas betrayed
him, didn't he? There was a difference. The Lord,
it doesn't matter how we see things and how man sees things,
the ones that mankind honors, it matters what God sees and
what he says. Here, Matthew 26, look at verse
20. Now when the evening was come, he had sat down with the
12. And as they did eat, he said, verily I say unto you that one
of you shall betray me. Well, he's gonna betray me, not
just deny me, you're gonna betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful
and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? I don't know of you who struggles
with that. I know a lot of people that just
seem to be clicking their heels and going through this life just
sweet as sugar. Well, bless your little souls. I know some of
the Lord's people like these, and I guarantee like those ones
in that upper room would say, I'm next. I know my thoughts. I know his
heart's deceiving, but I know a little bit of this heart. I
think it's just a show. Maybe this is just emotionalism.
Maybe I was just doctrinally accurate. And if the Lord takes his hand
off of me, I'm gonna do more than deny him, I'll betray him.
I'll actively go against everything I can to destroy this and promote
myself. People that feel that way need
a gospel message preached to them. People that just want their ears
tickled and hear accurate truths, you can get that from Webster's
Dictionary. Go read a thesaurus, it'll be safer for you. But people
that truly have a heart trouble, a conviction by the Holy Ghost
that's got you shook up and you can, I don't know if I can get
out of bed today. They need the gospel preached to them. Man
said that one time here, didn't he? Sinners need to be told they're
sinners and they need the gospel preached to them. Verse 23, and he answered and
said, here's God speaking. He that dippeth his hand with
me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The son of man goeth
as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the
son of man is betrayed. It had been good for him if that
man had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, Master, is it I? All the other ones said,
Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? He said, master? Sounds good, don't it? It's different.
It's different. I know we've looked at that before,
but we need to look at it again. Master is it I? And he said unto
him, thou hast said, you just said it. In another place it
said, whoever dips a sop with me. And then Judas reached over
and went, and sopped up that grave. And everyone sat around,
all the other 11 said, well, they didn't think nothing of
it. Couldn't be Judas. Lord, is it I? That's the heart
that was in those believers. That's exactly flip-flop what
the world thinks, isn't it? The Lord gives his supper. His
table of which he gives to Judas, too, here in Matthew and throughout. That ought to teach us something.
This ain't this church's Lord's Supper. This ain't my supper. This is the Lord's Supper. He
gave it to Jews. It ain't our business to fence
the table. That ought to be clear. He gives
his supper over in Luke. We read that he tells Peter,
he says, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you that
he may sift you as wheat. They all are listening to this,
right? He said, but I prayed for thee
that thy faith fail not. When thou art converted, we go
through a lot of conversions in this life as believers. We ain't born 52 years old and
strong and wise. We go through a lot. We have
to learn a lot of growing pains, just like when I was young, remember?
Forearms just hurt, just ache. I grew more than some of you
all. Maybe I hurt more. We go through a lot of conversions.
He said, when you're converted, strengthen thy brethren. You
go tell them it wasn't your diligence. It wasn't your good doing and
your good reading. It was me that did it. I prayed for you.
And he said, Lord, I'm ready to go with thee both to prison
and to death. And he said, Peter, before the cock crows three times,
you're going to deny me. He told Judas he was going to
betray him. He told Peter he was going to deny him. Sounds like the same,
don't it? That's different. Peter then
denies the Lord three times. Remember one of those little
teenage girl, here's this big strong fisherman, buckled under
the weight of a 13 year old girl. Accusations of her. Weak, weak
man, wasn't he? No different than me. No different
than me. And he locks eyes with the Lord.
Somebody walked past and they moved on. Remember he's there
by that fire. He'd lit by himself because it's
cold to warm himself. Lit by man. Lord meets him on
a shore that the Lord built a fire and fed him. But at this fire
where it's cold, after the Lord sweat great drops of blood, Peter
denied him three times. He heard the cock crow and he
looked over and locked eyes with the Lord. All the beating going
on, all the things going on. Those two, the Lord got him one
on one. Looked him dead in the eye. What a look. What happened? Look at verse 75, Matthew 26,
75. And Peter remembered the word
of Jesus, which said unto him, before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice. And he went out and he wept bitterly. Bitterly. His heart was tore
out of him. There's other people that cried. I mean, there's some
tears. Sometimes we cry because we got caught. Esau cried, didn't
he? Hard. He didn't get his birthright,
and he was sad. This is tears over denying the
Lord. Of sin, because they believed
not on me. That's what sin is. Not believing
Christ, not believing on him, not believing in him, not believing
him. That's sin. Well, I did something bad. Well,
you didn't believe God. That's what the unbelief is worth
saying. What causes that? Pride. I know better. Moses was
doing that. He said, Moses go preach to the
people. He said, that ain't gonna work. That's a shame. That's what we
are. What about Judas? Turn over chapter
27, Matthew 27. Look here in verse three. Same
page for some of you. Matthew 27, three. After the
Lord had been taken to Golgotha, Matthew 27, 3, then Judas, which
had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented
himself. Oh, he repented. He repented
himself. I felt real bad about this. He's talking to himself.
He wouldn't cry out to the Lord. And brought again the 30 pieces
of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned
in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. You hated God. That's how we
sin. We hated God. Not in Judas's eyes. Peter knew
it. Peter said, I put that little teenage girl over you, Lord.
And Judas said, well, I did one thing wrong. I know how I've
sinned. I betrayed innocent blood. And
they said, what's that to us? See thou to it. He went straight
to religion and confessed to priests. And they said, so what? It ain't our problem, it's your
problem. You deal with it. And he cast down the silver,
pieces of silver of the temple and departed and went and hanged
himself. And the chief priest took the silver pieces and said,
it's not lawful for them to put them in treasury because it's
the price of blood. We can't use this in the treasury of the
church, it's blood money. So they took counsel and bought
within the potter's field to bury strangers in. So they went
and bought a little graveyard. So if somebody died, they didn't
know who they was, traveling person, or they didn't have no
money, they put them over there. wherefore the field was called
the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfilled that
which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, by Jeremiah. This fulfilled the word of God.
That's what Peter's getting at. All these bad things that were
going on, and argh, I'm so upset. Whether I broke that thing, the
shower rod in the bathroom today, or governments fall, or governments
go up, or whatever it is. Something wrong with my home,
something wrong with my car, something wrong with this body. The Lord's
fulfilling his word. His will's coming to pass. And it was fulfilled, which was
spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, they took 30 pieces of
silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the
children of Israel did value, and gave them for the potter's
field, as the Lord appointed me. All these things come to
pass. People there in that upper room,
they were, and they said, my next. Is it me? Is it I, Lord? And Peter said, whatever happens
in this world, it's the Lord's doing. I know that I ain't able
to keep it. Yeah, none of us. It's his keeping. He's pointing them to Christ.
You see, the way he's talking about Judas. Yeah, and he's pointing
them to Christ. All the things that happen to
Jews, the Lord willed that to happen. And he's willed to keep his people
from perishing, from dying. Back in our text, Acts 1. Verse 16. Men and brethren, this
scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost
by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was God
to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us and
had obtained part of this ministry. He had entered into the ministration
of grace. Ministration of grace. Hadn't
he? He preached. He probably baptized some folks.
He could do some miracles. What about those people that
heard him preaching? They heard Christ preach through this man's lips.
Maybe he was regurgitating some messages, huh? He didn't believe
them. It wasn't heart work. The man doesn't matter, it's
the message that they preach. Men come and go. The Lord had
a donkey one time talk to a king, and the king's the one that said
nay. That always struck me, nay. Make you talk like a donkey.
He can make rocks cry. Birds can come down and talk.
I don't, the means don't matter. He's chosen to use sinful men,
but he had a part of it. Now this man purchased a field
with reward of iniquity. Verse 18, and falling headlong,
he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
There's a lot of things that people say are discrepancies,
like Jeremiah's actually quoted from Zechariah, and here he said,
well, he hung himself, and this said he would've jumped off a
cliff. Well, maybe he hung himself over a cliff. and the rope broke. That happens in movies, don't
it? People get hung up on tiny things,
don't they? And it was known unto all the dwellers of Jerusalem,
insomuch as the field is called in their proper tongue, aklodama,
that is to say the field of blood, for it is written in the book
of Psalms, Psalms, let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell
therein. That land they bought turned
into be a cemetery. Ain't nobody living there, ain't
picture tents. And his bishopric let another take, his office
that he had. Let another take. Difference in Peter and Judas. One could not leave the Lord
no matter what. No matter the shame, no matter
the guilt, no matter the embarrassment. Those things, no matter the location,
no matter who owned property, no matter the family, no matter
the spouses, no matter the children, no matter the nothing. One could
not leave the Lord. And the other willingly killed
himself to not be around the Lord's brethren. Judas never
cried out for mercy. He never begged the Lord for
mercy, did he? Did he go and worship with the brethren? Give
me a scripture to read. Help! Pull me to the Lord. He said, I don't need to be around
these people. He was selfish and he killed himself. Who made the
difference between those two? The same one that makes anybody
else different. Remember the Lord said, Simon,
Satan's desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat and
he's gonna have you for a little bit. But I prayed for you that your
faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
When you woke up, go strengthen your brethren, go comfort them.
What made the difference? The Lord's prayer, the Lord's
intercession is what made the difference, right? That's who
it was that did it. Why? Ephesians 1, 6 says, to
the praise of the glory of His grace. He wanted to. It pleased Him. It pleased him. That's something, it's becoming
more evident on the internet and everything else, that my
house, my rules. Can't a man do with his own as
he sees fit? And this generation, no. Everybody
and their brother's gonna correct you. That's a very froward generation,
is what the Lord calls it. Hard to deal with, real instructive.
Nobody wants to hear that junk. That's exactly where we're living
now, isn't it? But the Lord was pleased to save
a people. He was gracious to Peter. And
he's made us accepted in the beloved. And that's according
to his word. That's what his word says. And
we believe it. Peter's comforting these brethren
that's asking, Lord, is it I? Am I the next one to betray you?
Peter denied him. We all have. I don't want to
betray him. I don't want to forsake his people.
I don't want to forsake him. Judas was the only one who had
all those extra responsibilities. No one questioned him, was it?
Peter looked like the outcast. Now Peter's the one preaching
peace to him, preaching grace to him, preaching the sovereignty
of God in all things. That's what we need to hear,
too. He controls all, and he does what he says he's going
to do. He ain't like us. There are many that have attended
Gospel churches. There are many that attend gospel
churches. Saturday gospel for a long time. There are many that's
been baptized. Faithful gospel preachers. There
are many that's preached in the past. You all know that very,
we know that very extensively here in California, don't we?
I can list more people that used to preach the gospel than do
preach the gospel right now in California. That I'm aware of.
I pray there's more. They didn't endure to the end,
did they? Peter did not defend Judas. Did
you notice that? They didn't make excuses. Well, now
hold on now. Now, when he was here, he preached
the gospel. No, he didn't. He simply told them what the
Lord said would happen, and then he told them it did happen. While Judas was alive, there
was a door of fellowship to keep open. He wasn't made faithful
to the end, and the Lord closed that door. And what doors he
opens, no man can shut, and what doors he shuts, no man can open.
That was done. That's how we know it come to
pass, because it was over. And Peter's telling them. The
Lord said in Matthew 24, he said, but he shall endure to the end,
the same shall be saved. How can we do that, Lord? I want
to endure to the end. It don't matter if I'm good at
preaching. It don't matter how many people I preach to. It don't
matter if anybody's ever saved underneath my preaching. As a
servant of God, it's a matter if I'm faithful. Don't matter
how good, if we deny or if we forget or no matter what the
Lord put in our hand to do, if we're just doing a terrible job
at it, It matters if we were made faithful. He prays that
our faith fail not. You can substitute that for Christ.
I prayed you Christ fail not. Well, he ain't going to. He ain't
going to. John said they went out from
us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they
would have no doubt continued with us all the way to the end.
These apostles did. All the way to stonings, all
the way to upside down crucifixions, all the way to exile. God made
them committed to this work, didn't he? But they went out
that they might be made manifest that they're not all of us. That's
for our good and His glory. Well, that's heavy, isn't it? He said, but ye have an unction
from the Holy One, you that's here, and you know all things. He said, I've not written unto
you because you know not the truth, but because you know it,
and that no lies of truth. You mean we know these things
and we need to be told these things again? Yeah. That's exactly
what he said. He said, I'm not telling you
this because you don't know it, I'm telling you because you do
know it. The people that don't know it won't listen to me and
they'll run away. That's for our benefit. Oh, what a thought,
isn't it? Turn over to John 6. We're here in verse 35, John 6, 35. Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He
that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that
ye also have seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. I heard people give their doctrines
and their confessions of their church. Well, we believe once
saved, always saved. We believe scripture's written word of God,
do ya? Sounds like you're reciting tax code. You're mocking God. If I just
said, that's my wife, we've been married for 17 years, I love
her a whole bunch. The Lord chose a people and he
ain't gonna lose none. We need to be told that over
and over and over again, because we forget it. We've been drawn
to Him. He said, verse 38, For I came
down for heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent
me. I want to know what God's will is in all this. Here you
go. that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is
the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the
sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I'll
raise him up again at the last day." What was the response to
that? The Jews murmured at him. Those
ones that believed they were God's elect, that never missed
a church service, had all their doctrines straightened out, they
murmured at him because he said, I'm the bread which came down
from heaven. They didn't cry out, I need life. Your life. I need to believe on you, make
me believe. I don't so often. Most of my time, I'm just la
la laying. Looking out for number one, Lord
break me. Show me mercy, show me I need mercy, then give me
mercy. They murmured at him. murmured at him. And they said,
is this not Jesus, verse 42, the son of Joseph, whose father,
we mother, we know? How is it that he saith, I came
now from him? This is just some old general contractor. That's
a carpenter. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to
me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I'll raise
him up to the last day, as it is written in the prophets. is
through all scriptures, and they shall be all taught of God. Every
man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father
cometh unto me. Not that any man seen the Father
save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. I'm
that bread lie. However, 1 Peter 2, I scribbled
this down real quick. I think I got the right place
right before I walked up here. 1 Peter 2. This is that rejecting of Christ
and the difference. He makes the difference. This
is it. Yeah, 1 Peter 2 verse 6. Peter writes here, later in life,
wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore,
which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed. They were the builders.
They were the founders. We're the one that built this
place. We don't like that stone. We like this other stone. Well,
he's the builder. He's the builder. They thought
they were themselves builders. and a stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed." They were appointed. That's what it says. Pharaoh's
heart was hardened by God. Who could resist his will? That's
what Paul dealt with, wasn't it? He said, who are you to question
God? That's our nature. It's like
concrete. You gotta keep them concrete trucks turning. Why?
If you stop working in it, it gets hard. That's our heart.
If the Lord ain't working in us, this old nature and keeping
this world going, he takes his hand off of it. It's rock. Right
there. He's the one that does it. Even
the evil ones. Even all the bad things. Many wonder. Here's a hard question
I asked myself this week. You can ask yourself if you like
to. Many people wonder, am I one of the Lord's sheep? The Lord's sheep are often plagued
with this question. Am I one of his? Am I? Well, let me ask you this question.
I asked myself this. What if I was certain that I
was not one of God's elect? And I still had 40 years left
on this earth. What would I do? What would you do? Would I stop
spreading the gospel? Would I stop attending where
Christ was preached? Would I stop telling others to
look to him and that they need him? He's worthy to be praised, isn't
he? No matter what happens to this man. That ain't quid pro quo, is it?
Well, if he ain't gonna do something for me, I'm gonna go set the
world on fire and move to a subtropical location and rob a casino. That's what you want to do the
whole time anyway. Love has to be together. What about my children? I thought about that a lot too.
What if they said, I ain't gonna talk to you, I ain't gonna love you,
you ain't gonna see your grandchildren. Would I stop taking care of them,
doing good for them, praying for them? Well, no, I love them. Don't matter if I get something
out of this. Now, it ain't a question of the
doctrine of election, it's do we love God? If we do, he's first
loved us. And that makes us love him more.
Look at verse 9, 1 Peter 2 verse 9. Why? What's this? What's the
servant with the least of my responsibilities? The smallest job given, you're
going to show that Christ called you out of darkness. He saved
me. He wasn't lost and I found him. He found this center. Salvation's
of the Lord. It ain't that big of a job. Ain't
nobody else can do it unless they's called to God. If you
ain't his, you can't do that. You can't call him Lord without
the Holy Ghost. People don't need to believe
in irresistible grace. They need to find God's grace
irresistible. That's what needs to happen.
You have to have it. It's life. He's everything. I have to be where he is. The
Lord uses a variety of things to teach us lessons. He uses
a lot of things. Would he have ordained all this
and just let Judas go do whatever Judas wanted to do, which is
exactly what the Lord purposed? his counsel beforehand purposed.
Would he do that just to fulfill the scriptures and just to prove
to his children something? Just because I wouldn't do it
doesn't mean he wouldn't do it. You know, we teach our children things.
I told you you ain't gotta bring a calculator to services, but
bear with me just for a second. We teach our children things.
Johnny has two apples. If Johnny only has two apples,
he can't give Susie three apples. Can't he? We could take apples
and teach our children basic math. What ought to be basic?
What ought to be basic math? We'd waste an apple on that,
wouldn't we? What'd the Lord say he'd use
us for his people? He said, I've given men for you. I've given
nations for you. What we're going through all
the things that happen in Egypt and axis Lord did all that He raised
up Pharaoh all those things to teach those children that were
his inside of that physical nation Israel and to teach us now Mankind don't think Lord do something
like that His ways ain't our ways he needs
to teach us that The Lord said in Isaiah 43, For
I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I
gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee, since thou
wast precious in my sight. Thou hast been honorable, and
I have loved thee. Therefore I have given men for
thee and people for thy life. Fear not, fear not, don't be
afraid, I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back, bring my sons from
afar. and my daughters from the ends
of the earth. Bring them home. Give them up. Everyone that is
called by my name. What name? She shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. Everyone whose righteousness
is Christ. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him, yea, I made
him. I've done all that. We're his possession. He ain't
gonna lose us. He's gonna lose. And he's worthy to be praised
regardless. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue's gonna confess. He's Lord. Lord. The Lordship
of Christ. What a humbling message, isn't
it? Can you imagine being sad, and you think, am I next? Peter
stands up and says, what's wrong with you? Don't you know these
things must happen? Lord's holy. He deserves to be
worshipped, doesn't he? He declares the Lord's word coming
to pass, and what shall come to pass? What a thought. He said, fear not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Cross
my right hand, the righteous one is the one that's gonna do
it. Well, we'll save the rest for another day. They go on and
they give the Lord two choices. They didn't cast lots, they brought
forth their lots, they voted. They didn't roll the dice. And
we believers are not to do that. You better be careful laying
off the fleece and don't, we are not instructed in the word
of God to cast lots. We're told what the outcome of
that is. We're told to wait on the Lord.
Just like Ruth was. Set still and wait. He ain't
gonna go to sleep. He ain't gonna fail. Anyway, we'll touch on
that next time. Let's pray together. I hope that
was a blessing for you. Father, if you have your children
that hear this, they're struggling, give them comfort. Make them
know that Christ is on his throne. Nobody's sneaking anything around
him. He's all wise, all powerful, omnipresent, and everything that
comes to pass is glorifying him. In our feeble prayers, Lord,
the things we're too confused, we don't even know what to pray
for, that he makes intercession for us. Thank you. Thank you for our
Lord, our King, our Redeemer. Lord, keep us. You promised you
will keep your people, and we ask you keep us. Thank you for your word. Make
us look to it often and be reminded of your promises and your fulfillment
of those promises. make us patient till our day
comes. It's because of Christ we ask
it. Amen.