Once again, good morning. It
is so good to be with you. We could have been in the Mediterranean,
but the Lord had other plans. Remember these requests that
were made mentioned today, and also Brother Lauren will be bringing
Nick Sunday and the following Sunday's message. He's studied
in preparation for my absence, and I want to hear what he as
found in the book of Galatians. This Wednesday, Brother Mike
will be bringing the lesson because he studied for that because I
was going to be absent and I want to hear that. So remember these
brothers as they do that. Turn with me if you would this
morning to, I want to read a couple verses in the Psalms before we
go to the book of Acts. In the book of the Psalms, Psalm
27. Psalm 27 and verse 14. And then we're gonna go to Psalm
31 and verse 24, two verses here in the Psalms that play such
an important part in our lesson today from the book of Acts chapter
14. In the book of Psalms there in
chapter 27, Psalm 27 and verse 14, it says, wait on the Lord
and be of good courage. And he shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say on the Lord. Be of good courage. All right. And if you would then
travel with me over to the next Psalm, Psalm 31 and Psalm 31,
we have these words recorded for us that we can appreciate
and enjoy because it too is an encouragement to us. particularly
when we start to look again at Peter and John facing a 71 person
court that is trying to find every bit of fault about them
and eventually will do them bodily harm. All right, here in the
book of the Psalms, Psalm 31 verse 24, be of good courage
and he shall strengthen thine heart. All ye that hope in the
Lord. Now, we have no courage of our
own and we have no strength of our own, but that's one of the
blessings or two of the blessings that the Lord shares with us
in the new birth. He gives us courage that we never
had before. He gives us the ability to speak
to people. Now, we may only say this, Someone
asks us, well, what does the Lord mean so much to you? And
we may have only this word to say, he that hath the son hath
life. We may not be able to go into
a lot of scripture about him, but we can know this, he that
hath the son hath life. Now turn with me over to the
book of Acts, if you would, as we look here at the continuing
story, the account, the historical account of our friends, our brothers
in Christ, Peter and John, that have, on their way to the temple,
met with a man that had been broken in his feet for over 40
years. And they healed him, and now
they're called into judgment by the council, religious council,
about where did you get the authority to do this? We have to say with
our Psalms, they understood what it was to be of good courage. They stood in the face of these
men and answered this way. Now, in the book of Acts chapter
four, I want to start reading with verse 13. Chapter four,
verse 13. It says here, now when they saw
the boldness of Peter and John, they were not bold by nature.
Have you ever been an introvert? I grew up with one. I became
one. My mother was the greatest introvert
I've ever met. I don't know if she had two friends
in her life. She stayed home all the time. It was a trial
to go shop for groceries. And she left that legacy to me.
I'm thankful to my bride and I'm thankful to the Lord that
he gives me some ability to get over that. All right, they saw
the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were
unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. and they took knowledge
of them and that they had been with Jesus. Now, here's some
evidence that the Bible left us that is going to be looked
at by this council. The next verse, some evidence.
And beholding the man which was healed standing with them. It's
no mistake that the word standing is right there. He's not sitting
on a chair. He's not got two legs in the
air. He's not being carried about.
He's standing in the presence of the 71 member council. He is the greatest testimony
and he doesn't say a word. It tells us there, beholding
the man which was healed, standing with them, they could say nothing
against it. And then if we travel down to
verse 16 of this, here's some more evidence saying, what shall
we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle
hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem. And we cannot deny it. What a
testimony. It was brought to their attention.
We can't deny what happened. Here's the man that probably
many of them had seen that was broken in his legs from his birth
and could not walk as they walked up to the temple as they went
about their performance. Now make no mistake, not one
of those guys ever reached over and said, can I help you? Do
you remember the Good Samaritan? Those religious people, they
shied to the other side of the road as they went around. It's
just a symbol to us, a testimony to us that the law cannot help
us in our broken condition. We have the Lord come along as
typified by the Good Samaritan, and he took care of all the business. In fact, when he took that man
to a motel, he said, I'm going to come back this way, and if
he ever owes anything else, I'll pay it. So the good Samaritan
took care of it. He touched that man. That's the
wonderful thing about the Lord Jesus Christ. We find that he
is a friend of sinners. He is a friend of broken people.
And this friendship began in the Council Halls of Eternity
way back in yonder Eternity passed. He had a friendship, he had a
love affair for them, and he is going to be gracious to them
just as we find this. So he was gracious to Peter and
John, he healed that man, and then they're brought into probably
the biggest pulpit that they'll ever be in, and that's in the
front of these 71 men. They were all unbelievers. Some
of them, it tells us in the scriptures, that they believed, but they
didn't leave the temple because of the fear of the Jews. All
right, as we go down here, we find in verses 21. Look at verse
21. So when they had further threatened
them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish
them, because the people, for all men, glorified God for that
which was done. Another testimony. Here we have
the evidence brought out. It is continuously being brought
out, and that evidence is, we don't know what to do. Here's
a man that was from his mother's womb, crippled, he's healed,
he's standing here in front of us, and we don't know the solution
here. And then in verse 22 of that
same chapter, so when they had further threatened them, they
let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because
the people for all men glorified God for that which was done. And verse 23, 22 and for the man was about 40
years old with whom the miracle of healing was showed So we have
a great deal of evidence of what went on and these 70 men that
don't know anything about the gospel They don't know anything
about God. They don't know anything about
how people are saved and They're very important people, and they're
much like the Pharisee. When he came down to the temple
to pray, he said, God, I thank thee that I'm not like other
men, and particularly like Peter and John. Peter and John knew something.
They knew Christ. Brother Mike brought out this
morning about Peter was asked, who am I? Jesus asking, who do
you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. Flesh and blood hath not revealed
this unto you, but my father which is in heaven. He's revealed
this truth unto you. You will not know it on your
own, but it's by revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, we have the
deliberation. What are we going to do? Verse 15, it tells us, but when
they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they
conferred among themselves. Now just pretend for a moment
that there are a semicircle of 71 people that are not your peers. They believe that they are in
a higher position than anybody else. They're in a class by themselves. They know the law. They say they know Moses, but
you know what Jesus said, if you'd known Moses, you'd know
me. So they didn't even know Moses, they claimed to. They
said, we be children of Abraham. And Jesus said unto them, Abraham
saw my day and rejoiced. And then he used the term, I
am, and they're ready to kill him over it. So they didn't know
Abraham. They didn't know Moses. They
only are examples of what it is to fall in Adam and be depraved
in body, mind, and spirit. They are so depraved that they
have this idea that they have a rule over people who are preaching
the gospel. So here we have in verse 15,
so when they commanded them to go aside, all right, you two
go into the ante room over here. We're gonna talk about this among
ourselves. And so they come together and
71 of them put their heads together and they say this, They conferred
among themselves, saying, what shall we do with these men? You know, I can almost, as we're
gonna find out what Peter and John said, we find out that they
stood up in the face of that council and said, you know, you
tell us whether it's more honorable to do what you say or whether
it's more honorable to do what God said. And I could just see
the veins in there. Have you ever had people so upset
with you that their veins in their neck stuck out? And they
were so angry that if it was not against the law, they would
have taken you out and killed you. Well, we're gonna find that
that's what's gonna happen here in the book of Acts and throughout
the scriptures, that those that preach the gospel, and they did
the same thing with the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who preach
the gospel, and I'm not talking about the gospel that's usually
mentioned today. You know, the gospel, I found
this quote and I want to read it. The idea that Jesus never taught
anything that people didn't like is just a flat lie. Jesus taught a lot of things
that people didn't like. In fact, his whole message was
against people and what they don't like. He preached that
because of the fall, there's an absolute necessity of being
born again. You cannot ever see God by your
good works. You cannot see him by your religious
organization. You must be born again. And you
know what? That cut right through them and
anger was brought up when he said in his own words, We'll
read a little bit about this later, but he said, with regard
to a widow lady and a leper man, when he's talking to his own
family members and his own friends there in Nazareth one day in
the synagogue, he said, there were many widows in Israel and
only one was delivered, was fed, and she was a Gentile. That slapped them right in the
face. And then he brought up the second
charge and said there were many lepers in Israel and there was
only one leper saved and that was a man from Syria. And you
know that man had just conquered Israel. So God had declared through
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he does according to his
will in the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand, or say, what doest thou? He made people upset when he
said the idea that Jesus never taught the people anything that
the people didn't like is a flat lie. He taught a lot of things.
that I didn't like, and if you've ever been saved,
you didn't like it either. He said, there is only hope in
Jesus. Well, what does that do with
my works? Well, as we follow this out, we find that they came
together, they had a deliberation, there in verse 15, saying, what
shall we do with these men? Verse 16 of chapter four, for
that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest
to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. but that
it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten
them, that they may speak henceforth
of no man in this name. Now you can say some things,
but you cannot bring up the Lord Jesus Christ again. Well, in Christ's life, there's absolutely no hope outside
of Christ. And then we find there, and they
called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach
in the name of Jesus. This really comes down. Now, the decision that Peter
and John make. Notice with me in verse 19. Peter, John addressed, answered
and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge. In other words,
you may pass any judgment you please. You are the earthly court,
but so far as we are concerned, being under the higher authority,
we must ignore both you, your threat, and your charge, and
speak boldly, openly, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must do that. We can do nothing else. And here
we can just see them as they are so used to bullying people
around that at this moment, they just get into a dither. But they
can do nothing but let them go. It goes on to tell us there,
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
So when they heard or were further threatened them, they let them
go, finding nothing how they might punish them because of
the people. For all men glorified God for
that which was done. For the man was above 40 years
of age of old on whom the miracle of healing had showed. And being
let go, they went to their own company and reported all that
the chief priests and elders had said unto them, and that's
another message. The decision that Peter makes
is we have to preach in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
cannot do anything else. You know, we read in the Bible
about a man by the name of, three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They're put in exactly the same
condition. They are threatened by the king
that if they don't bow, they will be thrown into the burning
fiery furnace. And you know what they said?
If the Lord doesn't stop this, we'll still not bow. Turn with
me, if you would, to the book of Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter
3. How the gospel is so upsetting
to people because it is a higher power. It is a higher word. It is more than just some simple
idea that if I talk to you nice enough and if I talk to you long
enough and if I get you in a position where you feel sorry for yourself
and sorry about the gospel or sorry about your sin that I can
convince you into being a believer. That is not the truth. I cannot, a person cannot go
beyond this realm, and that is simply sowing the seed. Beyond that, we're out of our
limits. So God grant us the grace to sow the seed, be faithful
in sowing the seed, and that's what we find over here in the
book of Daniel, chapter three, verse 16. Shadrach and Meshach
and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar,
We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. We could
also say, be of good courage. We can not careful to answer
thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we
serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King. But if not,
Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve the gods,
nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then
was Nebuchadnezzar, and this is a representative of those
71 men that were on that council, said there, was full of fury.
He went ahead, though, and did what he said he would do. These
71 men, restrained by the hand of Almighty God, says, go away
and don't ever preach in this man's name again. Peter and John
bring up the subject and say, we have to. That's what was blessed
by us when we heard the gospel, and that's what's blessed when
other people hear the gospel when we preach it. So, verse
17, if it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us
from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of
thy hand, O king. Isn't it a wonderful blessing,
wonderful knowledge that God gives to the church that he is
sovereign over all things? That nothing happens without
His involvement. That He is the first cause of
all things. And that's what these men are
expressing. He is almighty. He is the almighty God. And if
He pleases for us to not go into the burning fiery furnace, hallelujah. If He's pleased that we go into
the burning fiery furnace, hallelujah. You know, up to this point, I've
never been asked to do that. Someone many years ago asked
me if, they said, I don't think I'm ready to die. And I says,
are you dying? No. I says, then you don't need
dying grace then. But at that time, God's people
will receive it. Right now, I don't need it. I've
never been put into a position like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
had been. But I pray to God that if I ever
am, that I can say what they said. Whatever happens is divinely
ordained by a sovereign king, my savior. Be it known, verse 18, unto thee,
O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden
image which thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full
of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Sadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore he spake and commanded
that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it
has wont to be heated. You know, Shadrach and Meshach
and Abednego had had quite a position under the King Nebuchadnezzar.
They were good servants of the king. They were Jews that had
been captured and brought over. And because they had some intelligence
and because they had ability, they were put into positions
that other people were restrained from. So when they would answer
this way, the king could say, you don't appreciate what I've
done for you. Well, I'm sure they could say, we appreciate
what you've done for us, but we're going to bow to your God.
I'm thankful for the blessings that we have. I'm thankful for
the blessings I have, but that never gives me the right to say,
I'll worship these things because someone else has given them to
me. We worship the King. We worship Christ. We are bound
by his gospel. We don't have that right to leave
that position. All right? And he commanded the
most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. Can you think for a moment that
they resisted this? Why did he have to call in the
mighty men? He wanted to show his authority, but I can just
see them put their hands behind him. All right, time me up. And these men were bound in their
coats, their hoses, their hats, and their other garments, and
were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Therefore,
because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace was
exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and we know the rest." King came
up there and looked in. He says, didn't we throw three
in there? Yeah. Well, there's four walking around
in there. and one is like the Son of God." You know, they walked
right out of that furnace. They didn't even smell of the
smoke of that furnace. They were delivered by Almighty
God. Many people have not been delivered.
Why? God's sovereign will. Well, we
find Daniel was put into the same position in chapter 6 of
the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 6, It shares with
us here that Daniel was put there in the same position, Daniel
chapter 6 verse 8. Only it isn't a burning fiery
furnace in this place, it's a den of lions. Now we know that those
lions were pretty hungry because the men that had brought the
charge against them, they were thrown into that pit and before
they hit the ground they're dismembered. Their families are dismembered.
before they hit the ground. So Daniel is cast into this den
of lions by the king because he will not bow to that image. Whatever you have to do, do what
you have to do, but I'm not bowing to your image. He's cast in there
and the mouths of those lions are staples shut. They got thumb
and fingerprints on their lips because God restrained them.
He put them in a quiet mode. And Daniel was not consumed by
those lions. Surprised everybody. I thought
we had the worst of the worst down in that pit. I thought we
had the worst lions in the realm in that pit. They've never done
this before. Well, they'd never been restrained
by God before and they were restrained and Daniel came out of that without
a mark. Well, we can find out very quickly
that those lions had only been restrained by God to protect
this man. And when the others were thrown
in there, they destroyed him quite quickly. You know, Moses
stood firm against unbelievers. All we have to do is go to the
book of Exodus and Deuteronomy, and we find out Moses stood up
in front of the entire group of Israel and said, no, that's
not right. Did you know that as we find
it, Joshua and Caleb stood up. They took courage to stand up
in front of all these people that disagreed with them. They
were only 20%, 2 out of 10 or 2 out of 12, 2 out of 12 that
came back. They're less than 20%. They came
back with a good report. God can do it. God can do it.
And the rest of them says, no, God can't do it. God can't do
it. And they stood up to them. And they're the only ones of
that generation that got to go back and wander around for 38
more years and go into the promised land. The rest of them all died
off in unbelief. The judges stood firm. I'm thankful
as I go through the book of Judges, these men stood firm in the face
of the angry ones. And the prophets of the Lord
stood firm during the period of the kings. And the prophets
of the, we call them the minor prophets, they stood firm. They stood up. And you know what? I was interested to find out
that during the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, there are
at least eight. There may be more. You'll have
to do some research, but I found eight times in the ministry of
the Lord, and that is from 30 to 33 and a half years, not mentioning
what Herod attempted to do with him. But during his public ministry,
he is threatened with death eight different times. And it's over
his preaching and over his command of, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. He created the Sabbath for us
so he could have lordship over the Sabbath. So would you turn
with me for just a couple of readings over in the book of
Luke chapter four. Eight different times. We can
say again, the idea that Jesus never taught anything that people
didn't like is just flat wrong. He taught a lot that people didn't
like, and He's still teaching a lot that people don't like.
Oh my goodness, when you mention When you bring up verses of scripture,
we don't have to bring up thoughts, we don't have to bring up phrases,
we bring up verses of scripture and we find out there's a whole
lot of people that say they believe the God of the Word and the Word
of God that don't. I don't have to elaborate. Just
read Romans chapter 9. Read Ephesians chapter 1. Read
Romans chapter 8. Read through the Old Testament
that God made a choice among people. And it's not popular. God wouldn't do that. Yes, He
did. He did make a choice. And I'll
put it this way. If He hadn't made a choice, There
would be no one in all of the generations of humanity that
would ever be saved. We have a problem. We all fell
in Adam. And it was such a complete fall
that we cannot get out of the mess we're in. And you know,
as I get older, I find out how much more of the fall is. We
just see in our own life. I don't have to look at anybody
else's. I just see in my own life the totality of the fall
in Adam and the absolute necessity of grace in Jesus Christ, the
grace of Christ. So if he had not taken us into
consideration before the foundation of the world, not one person
would be on the right-hand side and everybody would be on the
left-hand side, and everybody, without exception, will hear
these words, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I
never knew you. Now we're thankful that the Lord
Jesus did much before the foundation of the world. He chose a people. They were given by God the Father
to the Son. And these people are going to
be saved. Some way God is going to come
in front of them with the gospel. Not that milk toast stuff, but
the truth of the gospel. He's going to bring the truth
of the gospel to them. That it is he alone that can
save, and it is not up to our nilly-willy will, because our
will fell on Adam just like the rest of us. Well, here in the
book of Luke, chapter 4, we find that he is in his hometown. What
would it be like? What would it be like if you
went, well, some of us, this is our hometown. I remember going
back to my hometown after the Lord saved me and asked the pastor
if I could have five minutes to talk to the church about what
had happened to me. And I began to talk about the
grace of God and that he saves his people through the elective
choosing of God. And I had only one person in
that church that would speak to me after that service. One person. Now, I don't know
whether he understood or not, but at least he gave me the benefit
of the doubt. The rest of the people, oh no,
no, that's not that way. It's always free will. Well,
that's not true. Well, look with me here. I'll
get there in just a moment. The book of Luke, chapter four.
The book of Luke, chapter four. He's in his hometown. The Lord
is in Nazareth. He was not born there. But that's
where his family was from. That's where Joseph was from.
That's where his mother Mary was from. And after the sojourn,
we find that he went back there. That's where he was educated.
That's where he become a carpenter's son. And here he is. He is in Nazareth, verse 16,
where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
Now, in some way, If a person from that town stood up in the
synagogue, it was a sign I would like to read today. And so they
brought to him the prophet Isaiah. Isn't that interesting? That's
the same prophet that was in the hands of the Ethiopian eunuch.
And in this, it tells us that he opened the book. Now that
book was not like our book. That book was a scroll. And you
can just see people rolling from one end to the other to get to
the place. Now he went to the right place. He knew exactly
the passage of scripture that he was gonna preach from this
day in Nazareth. And he went to the place in the
book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 61. He went to Isaiah chapter
61 and he said, He found the place where it was written, the
spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal up the
broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised.
You know, every one of those things that are mentioned in
that passage of scripture cannot be done by yourself. Preach the gospel to the poor.
How do we get out of the poor house? By Christ, the spiritually
poor house. Heal the brokenhearted. Preach
deliverance to the captives. Recovering of sight to the blind.
How does that happen? By the grace of God. He closed
the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down and
the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened
on him. You know why? He spoke with authority
and not as one of the scribes. He had more gusto about him in
preaching the gospel. He believed what he had just
read. He's going to preach what he
just read. The rest of those folks, it was just a ho-hum Saturday
opportunity to go to a religious organization. Well, he said he
closed the book, and they all looked on him, and he began to
say, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all
bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. What does that mean, gracious
words? Words of grace. Grace is something only God can
give. Grace is only in the hands of
God. Grace is unmerited favor. And then he goes on to tell us
here, they begun to say, oh, proceeded out of his mouth and
they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, you
will surely say unto me this proverb, physician heal thyself
whatsoever we have done, heard done in Capernaum, do also here
in thy country. I wanna see a circus show. I wanna see a circus show. But
I tell you the truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of
Elisha, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
and great famine was throughout all the land. Now, if we go back
to the Book of Kings, we find out who brought that famine on.
It wasn't because of climate change. It was because of God. He brought that famine on. And
he brought it on in such an extent that for three and a half years
they did not have rain. Now I don't know what would happen
around here with three and a half years of dearth, drought. But
we'd have to pump an awful lot of water out of that river. But none of them was Elias sent
to, save unto Sarepta the city of Sidon, unto the woman that
was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them were cleansed,
save in Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, can you imagine? that he brings
up a historical event out of the Old Testament to people who
say they believe the Old Testament. He brings up these two historical
events and they tell us in this, they were filled with wrath. Why? Because he said, deliverance
is in my hands. It's not keeping the law. It's
not good works. It's not where you join. They
rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him into the
brow of the hill whereon, can you just see all those folks
with their hands in his back? Herding him out to the brow of
the hill, going to push him over. And it tells us here, brow of
the hill upon the city was built that they might cast him down
headlong. Now this is not just an exercise,
they want to kill him. They are wrath with God. They are angry with God when
he preached the gospel and said, I will save whom I will save.
Now, Jesus taught many things that people didn't like. But
you know what? He continued to preach it. And
eight different times in his teaching, they were ready to
take him out and kill him. Now that last time, it says,
no man is going to take my life from me, but I lay it down of
myself. When he went to the cross, he
did it on his own. No man took him. Now, there are
people used to take him out and do what they did, but this was
his purpose, to go to the cross, and lay down his life, a ransom
for many. So all of his preaching brought
out the subject, I am God, and beside me there is none else.
The preaching of the two, John and Peter. God is God and there
is no one else. We will serve him. And though
it's today, we can say, God is God. He'll do according to his
eternal purpose. And he will save his people.
He said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And the church says, thank you
for having mercy. Thank you for having mercy. All
right, we'll stop there. And we'll pick this up at the
next appointed time. Brother Mike, if you'll come.