Let's go to Acts, the first chapter
again this evening. The book of Acts, the first chapter. And I'd like to continue the
message on our Lord's final instructions to His disciples. Acts, the first chapter. We discovered
this morning that the book is written by Luke. Luke is the beloved physician,
and I say Luke wrote it. We know the Spirit of God inspired
it. And Luke wrote, as did all the
writers of Scripture, as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. He's
a beloved physician. That's how the Apostle Paul referred
to him. He was a great companion for
Paul. He was his personal physician
and assistant and associate. And Luke wrote to Theophilus. We see that in the first verse,
O Theophilus. In Luke, the first chapter in
verse 3, Theophilus is referred to as excellent Theophilus. The word excellent means he's
a nobleman. You know the scripture says,
and I'll read this to you from 1 Corinthians 1, that you see
your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God did call
this nobleman named Theophilus. And I got to thinking about Theophilus
being a nobleman and relating this now to what I said this
morning, that his name means one befriended by the Lord and
one beloved of the Lord. By grace, all of God's Theophiluses
are made noblemen. Did you know that? By grace. By nature, we're sinful. By nature,
we're wretched. By nature, there's everything
wrong with us from the top of our heads to the bottom of our
feet. We're alienated from God. We're separated from the Lord
due to our sins and our iniquities. We're estranged from the Lord
from our youth. We came forth from the womb speaking
lies. We're very enemies against God. That's what Romans chapter 5
says. We're ungodly, we're sinners,
and we're enemies. And yet, by grace, through the obedience of our
Lord Jesus, we're raised up, we're established in Him, We're
washed from our sins. We're robed in the very righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're made the children of God. We're sons of God. Even right
now, we're noblemen. We're noblemen. We're nothing
by nature. But we're God's people by grace. And all has been forgiven. And
yes, we look within ourselves and we say, like the apostle,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But then we look away
from ourselves and we see our glorious Savior. We see Him seated
at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And we know that He
has washed us from every blemish. And before God, we are without
spot. or wrinkle, or any such thing,
standing in the beauties and in the perfections of Jesus Christ
our Lord. I tell you, we're noblemen. We're
noblemen by grace. We're the beloved of the Lord.
We're those who are befriended by the Lord. Our Savior said
to His apostles, greater love hath no man than this. And a man lay down his life for
his friends, for his friends. Back in the study, Brother Chuck
read from 1 John chapter 4, herein is love. Not that we love God,
but that He loved us. And He gave His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. If you want to talk about love,
I'll tell you this, your love is not worth talking about, it's
not worth singing about. I have great difficulty singing,
and I pick out the songs so I won't be picking this one out. Oh,
how I love Jesus, though I do love Him. I do love Him. I love Him as He set forth in
the Word of God. I do love the Lord Jesus Christ,
but I have great difficulty singing of my love. I'd rather sing of
His love, wouldn't you? I'd rather sing of His grace.
I'd rather sing of His faithfulness. I have no faithfulness. And my
love for Him is so weak and so fickle, I run hot and cold and
most of the time cold. But His love never changes. It
never varies. His is an everlasting love. And He loved us. Theophilus is
one beloved of the Lord. as are we. Theophilus is one
who was the Lord's friend. He was befriended by the Lord.
I think of that scripture in John chapter 11, when our Lord
said to His disciples, Our friend, Lazarus sleepeth. Our friend. Don't you like that? That's so
sweet. Our friend. You mean He calls
me His friend? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Because I'm His friend
by grace. He's always been my friend. And
the reason I am His friend is because He befriended me in that
covenant long, long ago. They said the Son of Man has
come eating and drinking, or Christ said, the Son of Man has
come eating and drinking. The people said, behold, a gluttonous
man and a wine-bibber, he's the friend of sinners. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. That which they intended to mar
His name and bring Him shame is His greatest glory. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save who? Sinners. Of whom I'm chief, the
Apostle said. He's our friend. Our friend. Look over at Proverbs chapter
6. Look at Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs 6. Look at verse 1, Solomon says
this, Proverbs 6 verse 1, My son, if thou be surety for thy
friend, if thou hast stricken thine hand with a stranger, or
literally, for a stranger, then thou art spared with the words
of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
And before the world began in that everlasting counsel of peace,
our Lord Jesus Christ, He has stricken His hand for the strangers,
for us. And He was then, as it were,
snared with His words. He had entered into an everlasting
covenant with His Father to be surety for His people. He's our friend. Our friend. Look at Proverbs 17 and verse
17. Proverbs 17 and verse 17. Here is our friend, he loveth
at all times. And a brother is born for adversity. He was born to take our adversity. All the wrath of God, all the
adversity from God's justice, it all fell on our Savior. It
fell on Him who is our friend, who loveth at all times. He gave His life for all of His
theophiluses. For all of those that He loved
with an everlasting love. One other reference, Proverbs
18.24. Proverbs 18.24, a man that hath
friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. He's our friend. He's a friend
of sinners. And you know what? In order for
us to be his friends, he had to show himself friendly to us.
Didn't he? He had to show himself friendly
to us. He had to reveal his friendship
to us. He had to reveal Himself to us,
His love and His grace and how He could satisfy and did satisfy
justice for all of His friends. And for all of His friends, He
put away their sins. For all of His friends, He brought
in everlasting righteousness. Jesus Christ is our friend. He's a friend of sinners. So
Theophilus, Theophilus, back over here in Acts chapter 1,
he's the one that the book is addressed to. And as our Lord speaks to these
men, and these are His last words to them before His ascension,
He gives them these instructions. And really, there are four in
number, and I gave you one this morning, and lest I don't get
to all of these points, I'm just going to give them all to you
right now at one time. Number one, I talked about the
message that He gave them. The message that He gave them
was the message of Himself. So it says in verse 8, you shall
be witnesses unto Me. We are witnesses of the Lord
Jesus. The message that God the Son
gave to His apostles is still the message for this hour. And
it will always be the message as long as time exists. We preach Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. We have nobody else to set forth,
nobody else can help us, nobody else can save us, nobody else
deserves to be preached. His is the name that is greater
than all names. God gave him a work to do. And
he finished that work, therefore God is highly exalted, the Lord
Jesus Christ. giving Him a name above every
name, that every knee shall bow to Him. And we bow to Him in
our messages. We preach Christ crucified. Secondly, I want you to notice
the might that He promised to them, or the power And we'll
get to that in just a couple of minutes. Thirdly, the method
he established whereby this message would be communicated to people.
How are we going to get this across to people? Well, let's
have a drama. Let's act it out. What is the
method of delivering this message? And then fourthly, the mandate
assigned to these men. Go everywhere. Go everywhere. He says, ye shall be witnesses
unto Me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and the
outermost parts of the earth. That's a mandate. Take the Gospel
everywhere. Take it everywhere. We talked
about the message this morning. Let's go to the second one. The
might that He promised His disciples. The might or the power. Here's
the power. He says in verse 4, the Scripture
says, being assembled together with them, He commanded them
that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait, wait, He
says, wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He, ye
have heard of Me. I've already said, I said this
this morning, that without the Lord Jesus we can do nothing.
And yet the Lord has already, and He is giving them a great
commission. He says in Matthew, He says,
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore
into all the world and preach the gospel. He says that also
at the end of Mark. And that's what we're to be doing.
And we'll deal with this matter of preaching the gospel in just
a few minutes. But without the Spirit of Christ
Jesus, we have no ability to do that. So here are these disciples
to whom our Lord has given a command, a message to go and preach. But
they must not just head out on their own. Here's the question, how can
they do what they've been commissioned to do since they have no ability
in and of themselves to do the job assigned to them? They didn't
have the energy. They didn't have the power. That's
why the Lord said, wait! Wait for the promise of the Father. They're not sent forth in their
own might. but in the might and in the power
of the Spirit of God." Now, what was the promise of the Father
which they had heard from the Lord Jesus? In the Bible, there
are lots and lots of promises, but only one promise is ever
said to be the promise of the Father. That's noteworthy. You need to remember that. Of
all the promises in the Scripture, only one promise is ever said
to be the promise of the Father. Look back at Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. Our Lord, just before His ascension,
obviously after His resurrection, speaking to his disciples who
he has opened their understanding, verse 45, then opened he their
understanding that they might understand the scriptures. He
said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behoove Christ to
suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name among
all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these
things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father unto you. But you tarry in the city of
Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high." And
then go back to the book of Acts and look at the second chapter
in verse 33. The book of Acts, the second
chapter in verse 33. This is Peter's great message
on the day of Pentecost. Speaking of our Savior, therefore
being by the right hand of God exalted, and we know He was exalted
because He did the work that the Father gave Him to do, the
work of redeeming us, the work of reconciling us, the work of
propitiation, the work of saving us from our sins, Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed
forth this which ye now see and hear." Therefore, the promise
of the Father is the giving of the Spirit of God in the fullness
of His might and His power. Go back to John chapter 14. Let
me read you two or three passages back here in John. John chapter
14, first of all, verse 16. John 14, 16. He says to His apostles, and
I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
one like unto Me, that He may abide with you forever. Chapter 15, verse 26. Chapter 15, verse 26, he says,
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from
the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from
the Father, he shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear
witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. And then chapter 16, And verse
7, He says, Nevertheless, I tell
you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
Him unto you. It is expedient for you that
I go. Now, our Lord's The necessity
of His death, we can state several things about. Why was it expedient
for Him to go? That is, to go to the cross.
To go and offer Himself as the offering for our sins. Well,
it was necessary, number one, to fulfill God's covenant of
promise. That is, the covenant of grace.
Salvation was ordained from old eternity. In fact, this God that
you read about, who from the beginning ordained all things
all the way to the end, everything about our salvation was ordained
and decreed by God from the very beginning, even before He made
the world. In fact, He made the world as
that location upon which He would bring to pass the great drama
of redemption. But God purposed the death of
His Son. He is said to be the Lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. It was expedient for
Him that He go because God purposed it. Secondly, it was expedient
for Him that He go to fulfill His own covenant promise. He
stood in that covenant as the surety of His elect. God gave
to Him a people out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. An elect people. There was an
unconditional election of people unto salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God the Father gave these
people to His Son as a gift. And the Son of God received us
as a gift and became surety for us. He stood for us and He promised
to the Father, I will bring them all safely home to glory, someday
washed in My blood, robed in My imputed righteousness. It's
expedient for you, He said, that I go away. And then it was expedient
for Him to go away for us. Because unless He goes to die
for us, Our sins will still be upon us. Unless He goes and dies
for us, we must face the wrath of God. Somebody's got to settle
up with justice. And this is what redemption,
this is what substitution is all about. Whosever place He
took, justice has been satisfied in full for those people. He
said, it's expedient for you. that I go. Christ's death, as
in many other places in the scriptures, is signified as a going away,
a departure, a sort of taking a journey. And it's a journey
he took by himself. Nobody else could go with him.
He said, I've trodden the winepress alone. He said, there's nobody
with me. Nobody could go with Him. When
He dealt with the Father's strict justice, our Savior was all alone. But nobody could do the work
but Him. Nobody could save us but Him. He said, I go. I go. It's expedient for you that I
go. When I read the words the Savior
said I go, that reminds me of the voluntariness of His death. He said, therefore doth my Father
love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have
power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my Father. He was not forced
to die. No man could bring the Son of
God to lay down His life for His people. It was an act of
love. And then the death of the Lord
Jesus was expedient, because unless He dies, the Spirit of
God won't be sent. You see, what we need to understand
about the giving of this great Comforter, And we enjoy tonight
the presence of the Spirit of God. Individually, and as a local
people, as a local assembly, we enjoy the presence of the
Spirit of God. And we're dependent upon Him,
upon His might, upon His power, upon the life that He gives.
But the Spirit of God was only given as a result of the substitutionary
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if I don't go away,
the Spirit's not going to come. But if I depart, if I depart
to die, if I depart to be your Savior, to be your Redeemer,
then I'll send him to you. And thus the promise of the Father
would be fulfilled. You see, the Spirit of God would
never come in His might to bring to us the blessings of the covenant
unless Jesus Christ seals the covenant with His own blood.
And remember that. The Spirit of God doesn't act
independent of the Lord Jesus Christ. He always leads us to
Christ Jesus. And He has been sent to dispense
to us the blessings of the covenant of grace, because the blood of
the Son of God has sealed that covenant. And God Himself is
satisfied. And so God the Father said, here's
the Spirit of God. And in Acts chapter 2 you read
about how the Spirit of God came in His great power and in His
might. God the Father would only send
His Spirit upon the basis of justice having been satisfied
by the agonies and the sufferings and the law honoring death of
the Son of God. Look back at John chapter 7.
Look at John chapter 7. And I'll begin at verse 37. John 7, 37. The last day of the
Feast of Tabernacles. In the last day, that great day
of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto Me and drink. And I say tonight, if any man
thirst, are you thirsty for salvation? Thirsty for forgiveness? Thirsty
for life? Thirsty for righteousness? Thirsty
for acceptance? Thirsty for God? You come to Jesus Christ. The
Lord said, let Him come. Let Him come. If He says, let
Him come, then it's alright for you to come. It's alright for
you to do. Come in your filth. Come in your
sins. Come in your weariness. Come
in your weakness. Come in your nothingness. Just
come to Him. Are you thirsty? You see, this
is qualified. If any man thirsts, and he gives
the thirst. And like David said, as the deer
panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee,
O God. I thirst for Him, don't you?
I thirst for Him. And I drink of Him again tonight. I put the cup of life, the cup
of water of salvation to my lips again at the night, and I drink
and drink and drink again. And it's so good. And it's so
refreshing to my parched soul. If any man thirsts, let him come. Let him come. Let him come unto
me. Not to the church, not to the
preacher, not to some altar. Let him come to me. To me. And drink. Look at verse 38,
"...he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Watch this
parenthesis, "...but this he spake of the Spirit, which they
that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet
given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." See that? The Spirit of God was not yet
given in the fullness of His power for this reason. Jesus
was not yet glorified. Until Jesus was glorified, the
Spirit of God wouldn't come. He wouldn't come. Well, when
was the Son of Man glorified? Look over at John chapter 12. John chapter 12 and verse 16. John 12 and 16, these things
understood not His disciples at the first. But when Jesus
was glorified, they had remembered that these things were written
of Him and that they had done these things unto Him. Look at
verse 23. Jesus answered them saying, the
hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Look at chapter 13 in verse 31. Therefore, when he was gone out,
when Judas was gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in Him. How was the Son of Man glorified? Well, it was by accomplishing
the work of salvation that the Father gave Him to do. by dying
for his people. by finishing our transgressions,
by making an end of our sins, by making reconciliation for
iniquity, by bringing in everlasting righteousness, and by sealing
up the prophecies regarding His sacrifice. This is how our Lord
was glorified. The Father has glorified His
exalted Jesus Christ to be both Lord and Christ because He was
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Remember what the Savior said,
look in John 17. In verse 1, John 17. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given
Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given Him, and this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. The Spirit of God was given in
Acts chapter 2 because Jesus had been glorified. And I'll
tell you this, the giving of the Spirit of God on the day
of Pentecost as recorded in Acts the second chapter, is the divine
guarantee, is another divine guarantee, I guess would be the
best way to say it, is another divine assurance that Jesus Christ
has redeemed his people, that he has reconciled his people,
and he's entered into the glory that God promised him upon finishing
that great work assigned to him. Our Lord says to His apostles
here in Acts, the first chapter, I'm your message. I'm your message. And the might that you need to
preach me is in the power of the Spirit of God. Wait for Him. Wait for Him. What was the method
of delivering the message? Preaching. Preaching. Just what we're doing right now.
And preaching, I know a lot of people think it's outdated. We
got better ways today. We got dramas. We got entertainment. Let's have a singing. Let's have
a testimony meeting. Let's have a sharing time. Let's
everybody share. The Lord said, Go into all the
world and preach the gospel. That's what we're supposed to
do. I'm not here to entertain you. I tell you, you can find
a whole lot better entertainment than this poor preacher. But
if you're looking for a preacher, if you're looking for somebody
to be honest with your soul, I say come and listen. Come and
listen. We're not trying to entertain
sinners on their way to hell. I'm not trying to make you happy.
I'm not trying to make you feel good about yourself. I'm trying
to exalt Jesus Christ and point sinners to Him. If you're interested,
come to Him. If you're not, you won't come.
You won't come. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
ye will not come to me that you might have life. And if you won't
come, then you just won't come. But somebody's going to come. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. So we keep on preaching the gospel.
We're not tricking anybody. We're not trying to use some
slight of words. We're not holding anything back.
We're preaching, thus saith the Lord, very confident of the fact
that the Spirit of God will make application of the Word of God
to God's elect. And they don't believe. Somebody
is going to believe this message. And you know what? It might even
be you. I am on the trail of God's lost
sheep. And they are out there somewhere.
And this is the method. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants for Jesus' sake.
We are like Ezekiel. Took him out in the wilderness.
Took him out to a valley where there had been a great battle.
There were a lot of bones out there and there were very many
and very dry. And you know what the Lord said
to do to them? Prophesy to them. Just preach
to them. Well, that's the craziest thing
I've ever heard in my life. Go out to a field of bleached,
dry bones and just go out there and take your sermon notes out
and just start preaching. Well, isn't that what we're doing
right now? Preaching to people who are by nature just dead,
dry bones? That's what we're doing. You can't make your bones come
together, but I know who can. That spirit of might. Ezekiel preached, and he said,
Come from the four winds, O Spirit. O Spirit of God, make effectual
the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you what the Spirit
of God's specialty is. I'll tell you what He does. He
shows people Jesus Christ. He points people to the Savior. Well, what we need, preachers,
is a good old Holy Ghost revival. If we have a Holy Ghost revival,
Jesus Christ will be glorified. It won't be the Holy Ghost. He
doesn't speak of Himself. He always directs people to the
Savior. That's His ministry. He won't
speak of Himself. He'll show you things of mine,
Christ says. He'll show you me in my glory. Show you me in the work that
I finished. He reveals Jesus Christ. He raises the dead. He takes
the scales off our eyes. He opens our ears. The Spirit
of might does that. And our Lord says, now you wait
for Him. Don't you get in a hurry. Think that you can save somebody,
that you can regenerate somebody, that you can cause something
to be done. You wait for My Spirit. At the close of the message,
we're not going to sing an invitation song, get you down here to the
front before you get out of here, kind of strike while the iron's
hot. Oh, no. I'm waiting for the Spirit
of God to work. And if you're His, And this is
the hour ordained from old eternity for God the Spirit to deal with
you in saving might. It's going to happen. And all
the devils of hell can't keep it from happening. Our Lord said, I will work and
who will let it? Who's going to stop me when I
roll up my mighty right arm of grace and go to work? Who's going
to stop God? I tell you, listen. Let's just
preach. Let's just preach Christ. That's
all we need to do. That's all we need to do. And
then the last thing is the mandate that He gives. He says, just
go everywhere. Just go everywhere. To the outermost
parts of the earth. Well, why go to the outermost
parts of the earth? Because He's got a people everywhere.
Might just be one. Might be a eunuch out there in
the desert somewhere. But if he's Christ's sheep, the
shepherd's going to find him. And he's going to send him a
preacher. How are they going to hear without a preacher? How
are they going to preach unless they be sent? Oh God, use your word to quicken
sinners. O Spirit of grace, do for us
what we can't do for ourselves. And O God, point every heart
to King Jesus, to worship Him, to believe Him, to love Him,
to rest in Him. Amen. Let's sing the closing
song.