to the Acts of the Apostles,
Chapter 1. And Davey seen Jim today and
said he was much, much better, much better. The former treatise have I made,
O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until
the day in which he was taken up. After that he, through the
Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had
chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion
by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and
speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being
assembled together with them, commanded them that they should
not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. When therefore they were come
together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is
not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father
hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And when he had
spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up And a
cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked
steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood
by them in white apparel, which also said, You men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you've
seen him go. and then return day unto Jerusalem
from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath
day's journey. Our Father and our blessed, blessed
Father, gracious God, Lord, our God in heaven, our Father which
art in heaven, your name is holy, You're righteous and glorious
in power, might. Oh, Lord, you measure the waters
in the hollow of your hand. You stretched out to heaven as
a span. You count the nations as a drop
in a bucket and the dust on the balance. And yet you told us
when you came to save us, you would not fail nor be discouraged.
And so, Lord, we thank you, bless you for this great, great, glorious
salvation, so full, so free, so endearing, everlasting to
everlasting. And Father, we've gathered here
to worship, to call on you, to look to you, to hopefully bring
praise and glory to your name and honor to your name in the
preaching, in the hearing, in the worship today. And our Lord,
we thank you for the good news concerning Jim and ask you to
continue to strengthen him, continue to heal his body, give him strength
in his body, and Lord, enable him to heal up quickly so he
can come home. And our blessed Savior, we pray
for James and Rhonda and that little girl. Lord Jesus, she's
just a child and having these problems. Lord, you know her
and you know the numbers of the hairs of her head, and James
is your child. James belongs to you. He's calling
on you. He's looking to you. He's trusting
you. And Lord, we'll trust with him, and we'll believe with him,
and we'll pray and trust you, Lord, to do for that child, Lord,
and give the doctors wisdom, and may she be made whole, as
whole as she can be in this body. And Lord, meet with us tonight.
and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Acts chapter 1. I want to talk about many infallible
proofs. It says there in verse 3, to
whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible
proofs. Luke is the author of the book
of Acts. And he got a book named after
him. And he talked to Theophilus and
addressed Theophilus in the book of Acts, verse 1. And there he
said, having perfect understanding of these things from the beginning,
I've written these things unto you that you might know the certainty
of these things. But here the former treatise
have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to
do and teach." Luke calls himself an eyewitness of what Christ
did. He said, of all that Jesus began both to do. I'm an eyewitness
of what he did. I saw what Christ did, followed
our Lord Jesus around, and what he began to teach and both what
he taught. So he said he not only seen what
he did, but I understood what he taught. I believed what he
taught. And he is a minister of the word.
And he says, and Luke, that's what he said, I write these things
unto you that you might know the certainty of these things.
And Lord, he is a minister of the word. And what's this? In
verse two, until the day, Jesus says, I wrote this treatise telling
you all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day
in which he was taken up." And after which he was taken up.
And look what it says there. It said, after that he through
the Holy Ghost had given commandments. He was taken up. Look down in
verse 9. And when he had spoken these things while they beheld,
he was taken up. And then it says there, it says
there in verse 11, it says, You gazing up into heaven,
this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven. He is
taken up. One of these days, we're going
to be taken up. Taken up. But he gave commandments. And it said, He gave commandments
through the Holy Ghost until the day into which is after taken
up. After that, He, through the Holy
Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had
chosen. He gave them two commandments. He gave the apostles two commandments
through the Holy Ghost. And you keep this and I'll show
you what they were, but I'll read them to you. But look in
Luke chapter 24. You know, He gave two commandments
to the Holy Ghost through the Spirit of God speaking through
Him. In Luke 24 and verse 46, And one of the commandments was
to preach the gospel. He said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. Go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. He said, if you drink any deadly poison, it won't hurt
you. False doctrine's not gonna hurt you. You can take up serpents,
you can take up men. Then he called them vipers and
snakes and serpents. Not literal snakes. Know what
he's talking about. talking about handling people,
dealing with people. He called them over a generation
of vipers and serpents, how are you going to escape the damnation
of hell? So we're dealing with us the kind of, when you're dealing
with human beings before they regenerated, you're dealing with
people that's got venom in them. And I tell you, they got poison
in their hearts, poison of aspers under their tongues, what the
scripture says. But here in verse 46, this is what our Lord told
us. And 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. And ye are witnesses of these
things. And behold, I send the promise
of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem,
until you be endued with power from on high. And he led them
out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed
them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted
from them and carried up into heaven." And that's what's taking
place here that Luke is writing about. So he gave these apostles
commandments, and he gave it to through the Holy Ghost. One
was to preach the gospel, to be His witnesses, and to preach
to all men alike. The other was, when you get back
to Jerusalem, you stay right there, don't go anywhere. You
stay right there, you wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Ghost
comes upon you, which I promise to send to you, to send down
to you. And our Lord Jesus Christ, and
John, again, let's look in John 15. Let me show you a couple
things about this. You know, wait in Jerusalem. And the Holy Ghost will come
down on you as promised. He'll come down on you as promised.
Look what our Lord Jesus said here in John 15, 26 and 27. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I said unto you. And on the day of Pentecost,
Peter started saying things, this is what this meant, this
is what another thing meant. But now back over here again,
let's look at this for a minute. He was taken up after he gave
a commandment that you could preach the gospel, wait in Jerusalem,
and look what it says there in the last part of verse 2. He
said he gave him commandments under the apostles whom he had
chosen. This commandment wasn't for everybody, it was to the
apostles. the apostles that He had chosen. He was dealing with
particular people, particular men. And the waiting of the promise
of the Spirit was for them, for them, the apostles. not for people
to do like they do today, wait around an altar and pray for
a second blessing, pray to speak in tongues, pray to have some
great miraculous power to heal or something like that, just
waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon them so they can actually
be a witness and be a powerful witness of the things that they've
seen and heard. and we as believers we receive
the Holy Spirit at our regeneration we receive it in the new birth
the Holy Spirit's the one that produces this new birth in us
and we have the promise of the Spirit just like God made to
Abraham that's after you we're going to have the blessings of
Abraham even the Spirit but now look what it says here then in
verse three so until the day he was taken up three times it
says till the day he was taken up There it said he was went
up into heaven, taken up into heaven before them and they went
back to Jerusalem. To whom also he showed himself
alive after his passion. These apostles to whom he showed
himself alive. And it says after his passion,
our Lord Jesus Christ He had a passion that this world don't
know anything about. You and I know very little about
it, only what we can read in the scriptures. His passion,
you know what his passion was? When he was meeting that woman
at the well, they went and got him some food and brought it
back and offered him something to eat. He said, I have meat
to eat that you know not of. It's my meat is to do the will
of my father which hath sent me. That's what my meat is. And
to glorify him. His passion was, is to call and
save his apostles, his elect. And then teach them the things
that God taught him to teach him. The things that he was,
where he came down from heaven and all the things concerning
himself. And oh, many, many times he'd
teach them something and later afterward they'd say, do you
remember he said that? But oh, he had a great passion
to teach his disciples. And to teach them the things
of God, the things of the scriptures, the things of himself, the things
of his death, the things of his life, the things of his birth.
And all that it would take to be a believer in this world.
He taught them, oh how he taught them what it takes to become
a Christian in this world. to become a believer in this
world, God's got to do something for us. God, yeah, Lord Jesus
Christ himself said, I'm going to tell you something about my
father. He said, no man can come to my father and no man can come
to me. Now, if you want to be a savior
and you want to win people to the Lord and you want people
to be saved, first thing you don't do is don't tell them you
can't come. But that's exactly what he did. He stood every obstacle
in the way. And he says, none of you can
come to me. None of you can except my Father
which sent me draw him. And I'm telling you, our Lord
Jesus said, well, I'm going to follow you. He said, one fellow
said, I'm going to follow you, but I need to go bury my father.
He said, listen, you let the dead bury the dead. You got brothers
and sisters. You got the mother. You let them
bury them. If you're going to follow me,
you let the dead, you let those worldly people, you let them
bury them and you follow me. Another fellow said, oh, listen,
I'm going to follow you wherever you go. And he said, see that
fox? He's got a hole. That bird's got a net. But I
don't even have a place to lay down my head. You sure you want
to follow me around? And oh, he had a passion to teach
his disciples. And then, oh, listen, he had
a passion when he took his last meal with his disciples. He said,
I've ate this with desire. And oh, and when he got in the
Garden of Gethsemane, What passion our Lord Jesus Christ had when
he prayed and says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. But nevertheless, not my will,
but thine be done. And he took that cup that the
father had given him and he drank it dry. And I tell you, his passion
was so great that he was willing to be led as a lamb to the slaughter. And he opened not his mouth.
And his passionate cry from the cross when he says, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And then his passion was finally
realized when he cried out, it is finished. It is finished. So he showed himself alive after
he was dead. And then it says, by many infallible
proofs, many infallible proofs, look what it says. Being seen
of them forty days, forty days, many infallible proofs. There's
three things, three things these apostles, these saints needed
if they're going to preach the gospel. Three things they're
going to have to have if they're going to need if they're going
to preach the gospel and going to preach the gospel to the whole
world. And the first thing they need to have evidence of and
need assurance of is that he really was alive. Why in the
world are you going to go preach somebody that's dead? Well, you're
going to go witness to somebody that's dead. So they had to have
proof that our Lord Jesus Christ was really alive. If they're
going to go preach the gospel to men and women all over the
world, they got to have assurance that he's alive, that he's living. And the second thing is, is that
if they're going to a priest, not only have assurance that
he's alive and he showed himself alive 40 days, but they have
to have instruction. They must be told what to do. What do we do? He's not with
us now. What do we do? He's left us. What do we do?
He's in the tomb. What do we do? And then after
he shows himself alive, what in the world are we going to
do? And so they have to have instruction,
what are we going to do? And he said, go preach the gospel
to every creature. Well, they found out he's alive.
So then what are we going to do? And then not only they need
instruction what to do, but then they got to have the power to
do what he tells them to do. They can't do it without the
power. And that's why he said, you tarry in Jerusalem until
you be endued with power from on high. He showed him himself
alive. Oh, ain't that what it says?
He showed himself alive. Oh, he also showed himself alive. They had assurance he had presented
himself alive. Look over in Acts 9 just a minute.
Look what happened. Here's a person that was presented
alive, showed himself alive. The first time he remembered
our Lord Jesus Christ, the first time he appeared to Mary, she
thought he was the gardener. The first time he appeared among
the apostles, the disciples, when they was in that upper room,
they thought he was a ghost, thought he was a spirit. These poor fellows, I mean, they
had a rough time of it. They had a real rough time of
it. And kind of like us. But look what it says in Dorcas. Now, she's a woman and she had
died. And verse 40, But Peter put them
all forth, kneeled down, and prayed, turning him to the body,
said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes. And
when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and
lifted her up. And when he had called the saints
and witnesses, look what it says, he presented her alive. So our Lord Jesus Christ presented
himself alive. He presented himself and showed
himself alive. Our Lord had, there was 11 appearances
of our Lord to His people that's recorded in His Word. 11 different
appearances. First there's Mary Magdalene.
That's the very first one that He appeared to. Mary Magdalene.
Then He walked with the two on the Emmaus Road. Walked with
those two on the Emmaus Road. And then that evening when they
turned around and went back into town, There's 11 of them gathered
in the upper room and he appeared in the upper room with them that
evening. And then you find him appearing to them again when
they're out fishing. And then you have them eight
days later, our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him when Thomas said,
I'm not gonna believe until I can stick my finger in the prints
of the nails and put my hand in that side because I saw with
them stick that spear in his side and I know that there's
a hole in his side and I'm not fixing to believe until I see
that. And he no sooner cut out of his mouth than eight days
later, our Lord stood in front of him and held out his hands
and Thomas fell down before him says, my Lord and my God. And
oh, listen, our Lord Jesus showed himself alive 40 days and 40
nights. And look over in 1 Corinthians
15. This is what Paul says about it. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse
3. This is what Paul said about
our Lord Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. And Christ didn't rise, if Christ
our Lord did not rise from the dead, if Christ our Lord is not
sitting now at the right hand of God, The greatest hoax in the world
has taken place. You and I believe in a lie. We're
without faith and we're still in our sins. You know, they know
that Christ died. They saw Him die. And Mary, His
mother, and Mary Magdalene, and another woman, they all took
our Lord Jesus and took Him down from the cross and they prepared
His body for burying. They wrapped it in spices and
they put Him in a tomb. They know He was dead. Note he was dead, but then he
showed himself alive. Look what it says here in verse
3, 1 Corinthians 15, 3. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, dead
and buried, and that he rose again the third day Listen to
this, according to the scriptures. Now this is what Paul wants to
say. And that he was seen of Cephas, that's Simon Peter. Then he was seen of the twelve.
And after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at
once. Five hundred men at one time
saw him. of whom the greater part remain
under this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that,
he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of
all, he was seen of me also as one born out of due time. He even appeared to me and showed
himself alive to me." And, oh, beloved, the resurrection is
a fact. It's a fact. There's no if, ands,
or speculation about it. They saw him and they knew it.
And the resurrection proves the power and the deity of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He claimed to be God. And as
God, he said, I would rise again from the dead after he was dead,
after his crucifixion. So the resurrection proves that
he's God, proves his deity. And him being deity, being raised
from the dead, he speaks the truth and he must be believed.
Now you know, have y'all ever done this experiment before?
I believe everybody's done it in school at one time or another
or else with their own selves. Do you suppose all these people
lied? Do you think Simon Peter lied?
Do you think James lied? Do you think Paul lied? Do you
think the apostles lied? Do you think Mary Magdalene lied? Do you think all these men, those
two disciples he walked with on the mass road must have been
Cephas and James because he said it appeared to them first? Do
you suppose that all those people alive, have you ever known two
or three people tell the same thing exactly the same way? Did you all ever do that in school
where somebody would whisper something in your ear? And you're
supposed to repeat it just exactly to the next person in their ear.
And by the time it gets to that last person, they say, what did
they tell you? And what they hear here and what
was told over there don't even seem like the same two things.
But now, with these fellas here, I'm telling you something. I'll
tell you something about them. They all told exactly the same
thing. John, James, Peter, Our Lord
Jesus Christ, those 500 brethren, Paul the Apostle. And I know
this, all these people did, and most of them suffered greatly
because they preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
And not one of them recanted and said, I didn't see it, I
don't believe it, and I know it didn't happen. None said it
wasn't true. Paul stood up and says, you know
that this same Jesus is now raised from the dead? They start throwing
dust in there and said, oh, listen, that guy's, he's crazy. Nobody
rises from the dead. He stood on Mars Hill and they
started talking about the resurrection of the dead. And they said, this
babbler's talking about people rising from the dead. That don't
happen. And they took Simon Peter and
John and James and they got them all together and sent them over
here in this council and said, do you mean to tell me you're
going to bring this man's blood upon us? And he said, I'll tell
you this, this same Jesus whom you crucified, God hath raised
him up and made him both Lord and Christ. And those fellas
got so mad and it says right then and there they took counsel
to kill him. took counsel to kill him. You
know why? Because they preached that Jesus
Christ was risen from the dead. And if he is risen from the dead,
then that means, beloved, people's dealing with the sovereign Lord
with all power and all authority in heaven and earth, that really
he was who he said he was, and you're going to have to deal
with him, face him, either in your sins or else in His righteousness. If He really rose from the dead
and was crucified, that means He actually put away the sin
of all the people that was given to Him. And this world, and every
time we preach the resurrection, men are going to have to face
this man. They're going to have to face
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's who they're going
to have to deal with. That's who I have to deal with. That's who
you have to deal with. I do it gladly. I do it willingly.
I do it rejoicingly. But men's going to have to face
him and they're going to have to face their relationship with
him because he, right now, right now, if he's raised from the
dead, he's exactly where he said he's going to be at the right
hand of the majesty on high. And you've got 500 people. Every
one of them make the same witness, say the same thing about the
same man, the same power, seen him, heard him, touched him,
ate with him, talked with him, walked with him, broke bread
with him. And not one of them, recanted,
not one of them, every one of them told the same thing. And
me and you can't, Bruce, me and you couldn't tell the same thing.
That's why you say, boy, I don't remember. The best defense is
I don't remember. Only time I remember anything
is if somebody sits down in front of me and they want to talk about
a husband or a wife. And I get out my pencil and paper
and say, now, whatever you say, I'm going to write it down. And
I'm going to tell them. But that's the only thing you
can do. But, oh, listen, I'll tell you. And look what it says
here. that by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty
days, and what did our Lord Jesus Christ do for those forty days?
He spoke, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God. Whenever He is with them, He
taught them the things concerning the kingdom of God. Huh? Taught
them things pertaining, and we've seen that so many times in Luke
24 where he says, you know, don't you remember what it was said
about him, how that he must suffer, how he must die, and how he must
rise again from the dead? And then in Luke 24 says that
he walked with them and talked with them and opened their understandings
that they might understand the scriptures of all things written
concerning himself. both from Moses and the law and
the Psalms and the prophets. And oh, look what he said here
in John 18, 36. Look what he told Pilate here.
He taught them things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He taught
them the necessity of his death. It was necessary that I die.
He told them right from the beginning, my hour has not yet come. I must
go up to Jerusalem. I must suffer. I must die, I
must be delivered into the hands of sinful men. And then he talked
about the necessity of his resurrection. I'm not going to stay dead. My
father gave me the commandment that I should be raised up again.
And he taught him the fulfillment of the scriptures and the things
concerning himself. And look what he said here in
John 18, 36. Pilate says, ìYour own nation
and chief priests have delivered you unto me. What have you done?î
Our Lord answers, ìMy kingdom is not of this world.î Thatís
the first thing he told them. He told them, ìPertaining to
the things of the kingdom of God and Christís kingdom is not
of this world.î He says, ìFirst thing I want you to know, Iím
a king, but my kingdomís not of this world.î It has nothing
to do with this world here. ìIf my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight.î that I should not be delivered
to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from thence. And Pilate
therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answers,
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I unto the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth, and every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. And oh, when he talks about he
taught the things of the kingdom of God, you know what the kingdom
of God is? It means it's the rule of God.
We're in a kingdom, and when you're in a kingdom, you've got
a king, and a king is the one who rules. Oh, Ralph Barnard
used to say all the time that this is one thing this generation
don't know nothing about. They think they can be in a kingdom
without having a king. You can't be in the kingdom of
God and not have a king. And Christ is our king and we're
in a kingdom and that means that he's the rule of God. He's the
one that rules over us. And he's the one that rules in
the heart of his people and in his church on this earth. Look
what he said in Luke 17 about the kingdom of God. Look what
he said in Luke 17 about the kingdom of God. 17 and 20. And that's why we pray, Lord,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And what we mean by that,
come and set up your kingdom in men and women's hearts. Set
up your kingdom in my heart, in my mind, in my will, in my
picture. Set up your kingdom in men's
hearts. Subdue their will and put your rule over them. Put
your power over them. That may the Lord Jesus Christ
sit on the throne of men's and women's hearts. So when that
kingdom comes, we say, your will be done because you're the king,
you're the power. But look what it said here in
Luke 17, 20. And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when
the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, the
kingdom of God don't come with observation. It don't come without
which show. What does he say? Neither shall
they say over there is the kingdom, over here is the kingdom. But
listen to this, for the kingdom of God is within you. It's a kingdom inside you. It's
a kingdom that our Lord gives. And then look what else it says
here. This is what takes place. And he says, to whom also, after
he showed himself alive, oh, he showed himself alive, many
infallible proofs, all the proofs that there was that our Lord
Jesus Christ alive, 11 appearances to over 500 men at one time. And he was seen of them 40 days. And that's what our Lord Jesus
Christ meant. He says, I'll go away and you can't go where I'm
coming, but I'll come again. And you'll see me and you know
me. He said, how are you going to
manifest yourself to us and not to the world? He manifests himself
to us. The world don't see him. The
world don't know him. But we see him and we know him. And
he spoke of the things concerning the kingdom of God. This is what
takes place in the gospel when the gospel is preached. Whenever
we preach the gospel, the kingdom of God comes. It comes in power,
and sinners become subject to God in Christ. And if a man don't
come subject to God in Christ, and willingly so, he'll be like
our Lord Jesus Christ. Our heart's cry becomes this,
not my will, but thine be done. That's our heart's cry. Lord,
your will be done. My will is this. I will to be
gracious, Lord, work your will in my heart. My will is to be
loving and forgiving, work your will in my heart. I've got a
lot of flesh left in me, Lord, work your will in me. Got a lot
of pride left in me, Lord, work
your will in me. A lot of self-righteousness left
in me, oh God, work your will in me. Subdue me. Subdue me. Make me a willing
subject to you. Our Father, we thank you for
this evening. Thank you for the truth of the gospel. That our
Lord Jesus Christ was taken up after he gave a
commandment. Taken up. Taken up. But before he was taken up, he
gave so many infallible proofs of his resurrection. And oh,
he taught so many things concerning himself to his disciples, made
the scriptures come alive to him and the things concerning
himself. And Lord Jesus, I pray that you
would take the things of yourself and Holy Spirit, take the things
of Christ and show them to us, teach them to us. So we might
learn of our Lord Jesus and more of his power, more of his grace,
more of his love, more of his authority, and be willing, willing
subjects to our dear master. In his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Precious Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. See you Sunday, God willing.