Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter five. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful book. Last week, we looked at Acts
chapter five, verses 21 to 32. And the apostles were cast in
the prison for preaching the gospel. And an angel of the Lord
was sent to set them free. And then the angel had a message
from God. And the angel said to them, go and speak the words
of life. which is the words of Christ,
the gospel. So they were commanded to go
and preach the word of life at the temple. And so the next day,
they went right to the temple and they were preaching the gospel.
And then the Sanhedrin sent in some officers and guards to go
and fetch them from prison. And when they got there, the
prison was all secure. The guards were still standing
where they were supposed to be, but the prisoners were gone.
Well, they didn't know that an angel had come and let them out
and actually close the doors behind them. Let them right out
and there they were. And some fellows said, well the
ones you're looking for, they're at the temple right now teaching,
teaching this doctrine. Oh my. So, we're going to see
today that they were brought back to the Sanhedrin. And last
week we looked at what Peter said to them. And now this week
we're going to, Lord willing, finish the chapter looking at
what one of them stands up, one of the Sanhedrin stands up and
says what he thinks should be done. And we're going to take
a little note that the apostles actually aren't there. They're
moved into another room. So they didn't hear what was
said, which is another interesting
point, which we'll look at when we're looking at this here. So
they're brought before the Sanhedrin where Peter proclaims the words
that we looked at last week's message. We ought to obey God
rather than man. So let's look at Acts chapter
5. We're going to read verses 29 to 42. But we will actually
be starting up in verse 34 for this study. So let's start in
verse 29. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, to obey God rather than man. The God of our
fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God highly exalted with
his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Praise God. That's what
Christ does. He gives forgiveness of sins
to his people. And we are his witnesses of these things, and
so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey
him." Ties right in with our message in Sunday school. You
have to be a new creature, right? You must be born again. We're
given the Holy Spirit of God. He regenerates us. When they heard that, they were
cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. My oh my. Then stood up Then there stood
up one of the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the
law. He had a reputation among all
the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space.
And said unto them, ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves.
What ye intend to do is touching these men. For before these days
rose up Tiberius boasting himself to be somebody to whom
a number of men, about 400 joined themselves, who were slain, and
all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and bought to naught.
After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of taxing,
and drew away much people after him, he also perished, and all,
even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say unto
you, refrain from these men, and let them alone. For if this
counsel or this work be of men, It will come to naught. That's
so true. Anything that man does will come
to naught eventually. Look at this next statement.
See, even the enemies of God will speak the truth sometimes. But if it be of God, you cannot
overthrow it. Look at that. If it's the work
of God, no man's going to overthrow it. No man, no woman, no child,
right? No one. Lest happily you be found to
fight against God. Now think of that. Think of how
many people are currently fighting against God. There was a fellow that was,
I guess, a famous atheist or something, and he was speaking
against God. And he died, perished in his sins. And his house was
turned into a printing press where they published Bibles. Oh, my. Who overthrew who? Oh,
my. Isn't that amazing? It'll come
to naught if men fight against God. Think of how many people
perishing their sins fighting against God, right? Depart from me, you cursed, you
workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. My, oh, my. And when he said that, he's talking
religious people. My, oh, my. And to him they agreed. And when
they had called the apostles and beaten them, and that beating
there in the Greek is skinned. Oh my. They commanded them that
they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed from the presence
of the council. So their backs are bleeding. There's blood pouring
down their backs. And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name. That's God's grace in action
right there. Could we walk out of somewhere rejoicing after
being whipped and our back is like it's skinned and we're bleeding
like crazy? Could we walk out the door rejoicing? Neither could they except for
the grace of God. Isn't that amazing? That's the grace of
God at work, beloved. That's the grace of God at work.
And daily in the temple. So they just got whipped with
a cow and nine tails. Like I said, they're going out,
they're bleeding, they're rejoicing. And they were told, don't you
preach in his name again! Right? Look what? Look at the
next verse. And daily in the temple and in
every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Well, hallelujah. They just kept going. And so
we see they're true to their words, aren't they? Because they
said, we ought to obey God rather than man. They're not playing
games, are they? People play religion. These folks
ain't playing games. They've been born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. They're new creatures in Christ.
Oh my. My oh my. Look at verse 34. One of the Sanhedrin who's amongst
this council, who the high priest brought together, he stands up.
His name is Gamaliel. That should be a familiar name. You know why? You know who taught
Paul? Gamaliel. Saul of Tarsus, who was going
around killing Christians, his teacher was Gamaliel. They lost one of their best when
Paul was converted. They lost one of their champions
when Paul was converted. because Gamaliel was an outstanding
teacher in their eyes. And we see here he's a doctor
of the law, and look at this. Then stood there up one in the
council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had a reputation
among all the people. The people thought this guy was
amazing. He was in high esteem. He was a doctor and a teacher
of the law. And he commanded to put the apostles
forth a little space. Now this was in the eyes of Judaism,
a great council that had been formed here. It's the who's who
of religiosity in the Jewish religion. I'll tell you why. And he was one of their members.
Gamaliel was one of their members. And it seems to be the custom
that when they had something to say, they stood up just like
what they did in the Roman Senate as well. When anyone had anything to say
or make a speech, they rolled up. They sat up. But turn, if
you would, to Acts chapter 22, verse 3. This man, again, was
the very one who Saul of Tarsus, who the apostle
Paul, before the Lord saved him, sat under. So he sat under a very highly
esteemed teacher among not just the Sanhedrin, not just among
the high priests, but among the people too. So is it any wonder then that
Paul had a reputation of his own too? He probably just had
to mention his teacher, and people go, oh, you sat under Gamaliel? Oh, my. See, people do that, right? It ought not to be, but people
do it. Look at this in Acts chapter 22, verse 3. I am verily a man which am a
Jew, born in Taurus, a city in Caecilia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. There he is. And taught according
to the perfect manner of the law. Now I was doing, I just
read up a little bit on Gamaliel, and he was supposed to be, again,
one of their top-notch guys. He tried to follow that law,
supposedly. Well, we know from what scripture
said he really didn't follow the law, because people who try
to make you follow the law, they don't really follow the law themselves.
We saw that in Galatians this morning, didn't we? Yeah? Yeah?
And so, but he was one of them strict, real strict guys. See
him with a collar out in the public and all dressed up, right? You ever see them fellows with
collars on their necks? They just think they're a little
bit better than all of us. No, they're not. They're just dead
dog sinners like the rest of us, aren't they? Oh yeah, they
are. They are. So he says, Gamaliel,
and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers.
So historically this, and Gamaliel's name was very big in Israel. It was a well-known, it was an
old name, a well-known name from what I looked up. and was zealous toward God as
ye all are this day. Now, the Catholic Inquisitions are
a picture of people who are supposedly zealous for God, but not really. Paul was zealous for God and
yet slaughtering Christians. He thought he was zealous for
God, And you can go through the annals
of history and see various people being persecuted by other people
who profess religion. I was talking to Vicki and Josh
this week, and I said, you know, it's funny. You ever have people
say, well, you're religious? Just tell them, no, I'm not. You know, there's only one truth
in the world, right? When it comes to salvation. There's one
truth in the world, and that's salvation through Christ, right?
Through his righteousness, through his blood, and everything else
is religion. You ever think of that? There's
only one truth, and everything else is religion. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh on the, I believe the truth. I'm not
religious, I believe the truth. Do you? Amen. By God's grace,
we do, don't we? Isn't that wonderful? My. And
really, we know that there's only really two religions in
the world, grace and works, right? Because we know that from Cain
and Abel. Cain and Abel is a perfect way to look at that because you
see Cain bringing the proper sacrifice. Both were taught by
their dad the proper sacrifice. I guarantee you, Adam taught
them both the proper way to come to God. And so here comes Cain, or here
comes Abel, he brings the lamb, which pictures Christ. And then
here comes Abel, he brings the vegetables and the fruit and
works of his hands. And God says, I won't accept
that. Number one, there's no blood, is there? There's no blood. Remember the old saying, you
can't get blood out of a term? It's true, right? There's no blood. Without the shed and the blood,
there's no remission of sins, the scripture says. So there's
really only two religions in the world, there's grace and
there's works. And I would say there's not even two religions,
there's truth and there's religion. You know, it's funny, I've never
understood why people call us religious, because we follow
Christ. Right? Religious was what I used
to be. Whether I was in a church or
not. Because I was either worshiping something the church put forth
or I was worshiping myself. Were you? Or both. And I found out that the God
I had made was a God of my imagination. And then his brother told him,
I'm gonna keep hitting that nail, man. He revealed himself to me
and to you too, didn't he? If you're a believer. And we've
never been the same since. Amen. We've never been the same
since. My oh my, I'll tell you what,
this salvation's amazing. So this Gamaliel here, He was
a well-known doctor of the law and a Pharisee. Again, we see
in the text that he had a reputation among the people. And also, he
must have had a good reputation among the Sanhedrin, too, because
he's part of this Who's Council here. And we see that before he, note this,
too. Little thing I didn't see until
I was putting messages together. Note this, too, in verse 34.
Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel,
a doctor of the law, head and reputation among all the people,
and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space." You notice
that? Put the apostles forth. Put them
in another place. I was reading Gil on this. Gil
had a great point. He said the reason he had them
removed from the room is so that what he was going to say wouldn't
wouldn't encourage them even more when he said, if it's of
God, then there's nothing we can do about it. So I ask you this, Luke is the
writer, Luke is the writer of the book of Acts. And if none
of the apostles heard what was said, how did Luke know what
was said? Isn't that amazing, beloved?
Who's the true author of the scriptures? God, the Holy Spirit,
isn't he? The Lord knew every word that
was said in there. Isn't that amazing? See, we can read over
that so easy and go, oh, yeah, okay, well, they were put up.
But nobody knew what was spoken except for the people in that
group. But we know that our God hears
and sees everything, doesn't he? Oh my. Oh my. So let's read these words again
with that in mind. So he and him were moved to another
room where they could not hear what he was going to say. Let's
read it again, verse 35 to 39. And said unto the man, Ye men
of Israel, take heed to yourselves. What ye intend to do is touching
these men. For before these days rose up Tobias, boasting himself
to be somebody to whom a number of men, about 400, joined themselves. Now I was reading about this
guy, he's an insurrectionist, and he had the people raise up,
this was before, I believe before Christ was born,
and he was saying, don't forget too, what Israel was looking
for was a Messiah. And they thought it would be
a Messiah who would necessarily break them from the yoke of bondage. But our Lord is Messiah who breaks
us from the spiritual bondage of our sin, doesn't he? And we
are truly free. If the Son shall make you free,
you're free indeed. I'll tell you what. who was slain,
and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to
naught. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days
of taxing, a lot of commentators believe this was when the great
taxing went on and everybody had to go to their own city,
and drew away as much people after him. He also perished,
and even all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. They
scattered. And now I say unto you, refrain
from these men, and let them alone. For if this council or
this work be of men, it will come to naught. Now think of
this. What's come to naught and what's
still going? That council's come to naught,
hasn't it? They don't have big meetings
like this in the Jewish community anymore. The Orthodox and all
of them, they don't want to be around each other. But what's still going? The Word of God. The Word of God. The Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I love what he said here,
but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it. He's speaking truth
and you don't even know it. He's speaking truth about the
gospel, doesn't even know it. But if it be of God, you cannot
overthrow it. You cannot break it down. You
cannot destroy it. Man has been trying to destroy
Christianity for 2,000 years, and you know what it does? It's
like a man putting his foot in a fire, and the sparks just go. Right? Romans tried to stamp
it out. What happened? It just spread like wildfire.
My, oh, my. My, oh, my. Back in the 1700s,
the Catholics murdered the Huguenots who were preaching what we believe. Murdered the Huguenots. One day,
they slaughtered, I think, 25,000 of them in France. Said the blood
ran like a river down the streets. All because they wouldn't recant
and join the Catholic Church. The Waldensians, you might have
heard of them. They were strong Calvinists,
strong believers in the doctrines and sovereignty of God. They
were hunted like animals by the Catholics in the mountains. Hunted down with wolves or with
dogs and anything they could get. Hunted down like animals.
But they couldn't destroy him. Couldn't destroy the Huguenots
either. They fled into all different places. The Waldensians. They
fled into all different places, beloved. See what man meant for
evil, God used for good. And I'll tell you what, the annals
of history, if you start reading about the different groups and
stuff, the annals of church history are filled with things like that.
Filled with things like that. It's amazing. Man has tried to
stomp out Christianity and they will not do it. But if it be
of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest happily ye be found even
to fight against God. So anyone who persecutes the
true church or goes against the true gospel is fighting against
God. There are a lot of people in
this world fighting against God. Saved and unsaved. Or not saved,
I'm sorry. Professing and non-professing. Saved people don't fight against
God. Sometimes we go, I don't understand that. But we don't
fight against them, do we? But professing Christianity and
just the regular bunch that I came out of, just a bunch of heathens, fighting against God. You know
what, I was listening to Norm Wells this week and he brought
up something that's so true. Do you remember General Lee when
he surrendered at Apotemics? They said the Confederates bought
their arms and their weapons and laid them down. Laid them
down at the feet of the generals. Do we not take our arms, beloved,
when the Lord saves us, and lay them down at the feet of our
great God? And then we take sides with God
against ourselves. I'm the sinner. I'm the one who needs to be saved.
And I'm at God's mercy, not he. God have mercy on me, the sinner,
right? We become mercy beggars then,
don't we? Are we still mercy beggars? Yeah, we are. We're
still mercy beggars. You ever find yourself going
to the Lord, going, oh Lord, help me in this situation, please. Why can't I learn? Why do I keep banging my head
on the proverbial table? Or against the wall? But listen
to this. God doesn't count our sins and
iniquities against us anymore. I'll tell you something, this
doesn't give us a license to go out and do whatever we want,
not at all, not at all. But our sins are so forgiven,
absolutely forgiven, washed in the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that God the Father says, I don't remember them anymore. Now is that just the sins we've
just committed before we were saved? No, that's every one. That's all we will ever commit.
All our sins and iniquities are absolutely forgiven. And we say,
praise be to God, don't we? That's wonderful. Again, I'm going to mention this
too. The apostles were not in the presence of of these men when this was said,
but God was there, wasn't he? God heard every word. So the
one who had Luke write down these words is God the Holy Spirit,
isn't he? Isn't that amazing? And now I
often think of this. You ever think of this? I'm gonna
say something again too. Think of this. Think of things that
we've thought about before we were saved and even after we
were saved. That's just thinking about them. And then think about
the words that we've spoken before we were saved and after we saved.
God heard them all, right? Praise God, they're under the
blood. Right? Praise God, they're all under
the blood. They're all under the blood,
beloved. My, oh my, isn't God great? Isn't He glorious? What
a wonderful, merciful Savior is Jesus Christ, my Lord and
your Lord. Oh my, He's wonderful. So these words were spoken in
private. Luke wasn't there. The apostles weren't there. But
every word was penned down that He said. You know why? For our learning. For our learning. What does this
show us too? It shows us God's sovereign,
doesn't it? It shows us God's sovereign.
This also shows us, and we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. Now they're going to be beaten.
They've been cast in the prison and released. Now they're being
brought forth again before these men. They're going to be beaten.
They're going to leave bleeding from their backs. And all that happened for their
good and for God's glory. Now that's a mystery, isn't it?
But it's truth. It's true. God's born again children. We
know that this blessed God honor and truth that God the Holy Spirit
is the one who teaches us under the preaching of the gospel.
But I know speaking for myself, I need to be constantly reminded
what the Lord's done for me. Do you? I need to be constantly
reminded. That's why I listen to sermons
through the week. I need to be constantly reminded. Even when
I'm putting a message together, I'm preaching to myself. I'm
rejoicing myself. Oh my, I need a steady diet of the preaching that God's in absolute
sovereign control. And that he works all things.
for our good and for His glory, all according to His purpose.
And I'll tell you what, we'll be able to pillow our head at
night. When you put your head down tonight, just think, I'm
putting my head down in the sovereign pillow of God's grace. And I
don't have to worry about what's going on. My life is in His hands. It's in His hands. Oh my. Hmm. And what we're looking at
here in Acts chapter 5 is no exception to Romans chapter 8,
28, because it was the Lord's will that the apostles would
suffer for his sake. But note here, it wasn't his
will yet that any of them would be put to death. These Sanhedrin were so mad,
they wanted to kill him right away. They wanted to kill him right
away. And marvel, marvel at this. Marvel at this. When I was putting
this together, I was just marveling at this fact that the Lord had
used two men, one by the name of the Dias and the other by
the name of Judas, years before. Years before. so that this cause would be brought
before the high priest on this time. My! And that they would give pause
and not kill him on the spot, the apostles. Do you see how
God works? And it wasn't God's will yet
that they would die, because they didn't die, did they? Now
they're gonna die just like every one of us, but it wasn't God's
will. This was not the appointed time
for them to go home. It's just amazing. Oh, now who were these two men?
Well, they were Tobias and Judas. They were rebellious insurrectionists who represented no one but themselves
and God used them and what they did to stop the Sanhedrin and
the high priest from killing the apostles. Well, how do we know that? How
do we know that? Look at verse 33 of Acts chapter
5. When they had heard that, when
they heard what Peter and the apostles said, they were cut
to the heart and took counsel of the slave. They wanted to
kill him right away. Look at that. They just said,
okay, how are we going to kill him? But it wasn't their time yet,
was it? So God in His sovereignty had
Gamaliel stand up, remind them of these two in the past. You
see how sovereign God is, beloved? Do you see how wonderful this
is? Do you see Him protecting His sheep? Watching over them? Now they're going to get beaten,
and that's going to be horrible for them. But they're going to
leave rejoicing, because they know God's in control. But it's
so easy for us to read over this and skip this stuff. But look at God in sovereignty. Oh my. They had no way, and these
two men had no way that their evil actions were gonna be used
by God down the road to be spoken up about at this
council. They had no idea. They lived
years and years before. But these two men, at the mention
of these two men, they were used by the Lord Jesus Christ to stop
these ungodly Jews from killing the apostles. And this is recorded
for our learning. Now we can say, my, God will
not allow us to perish until it's our time. And when it's
our time, no one can stop it. But if it isn't our time, It won't happen. So when are
we going to die? At the exact time that God's
appointed. Right? And we can take comfort in that.
That's our homecoming. Yeah, he's at, and some people
might say, oh, wait, now that's taking a little too far that,
that he, that God would use those two fellas. They were, they were
evil and they were, well, what about Joseph and his brothers?
Right? And he uses, yeah, he uses me, right? Yeah. What about
Joseph and his brothers? Joseph said, you meant it for
evil. God used it for good. What about the cross? Those wicked
Jews and the Romans got together and they crucified Christ and
they meant it for evil. God used it for good. Our good,
beloved. And the good of all is elect.
Isn't that wonderful? So you start looking at the sovereignty
of God and it will absolutely blow your mind. And it gives us rest, brother,
amen. It gives us peace to know that he is in absolute control. My. So if someone says, well,
you're taking the sovereignty of God a little too far, say,
you can't take the sovereignty of God too far. You just can't,
you can't. And I'm not a fatalist, but I'm
not going to take the sovereignty of God too far, because he's
absolutely sovereign. I don't even understand his sovereignty
at all. I just know a little wee bit, and I'm going to brag
about it. Right? Oh my. And think, the truth of
God's sovereignty cannot be totally grasped by finite minds like
us. He's infinite. He's infinite. Josh and I were
talking about the stars and everything and the galaxies and how vast
they are. And they can't even measure the
skies. And the scripture says the heavens
can't contain him. My, how vast is our God, beloved?
And yet he's concerned for a little piece of animated dust like myself
and you. My, oh my. Oh, what's that song? Oh, how merciful. Oh, how merciful
is our God. He's so merciful. I'll tell you.
Oh, it's just, He's just wonderful, beloved. And, and, and thinking
who Christ was. He's the sovereign God of the
universe. He's the, He's, He's the Word of God incarnate, beloved.
He's the sovereign God who's in absolute control, and there's
nothing that moves or has its being or has its life outside
of Him, including us. He gives breath to the saved
and the unsaved. He gives life to the saved and
the unsaved. He has the rainfall on the just
and the unjust. He feeds those who curse His
name and those who praise His name. I was watching a YouTube thing
where you put them on your TV and you just watch it with music
and it was all undersea and all that. And Vicki and I were watching
it and said, I'm gonna put this on. Well, we ended up dropping
what we were looking at and just looking at the TV going, look
what God's made. Look at the diversity. Look at
the incredible life that he's created. Undersea, that's just
undersea. And there's still things we can't
even, they're discovering these clear box jellies. You ever see
those guys on TV? These translucent box jellyfish. They're a box, and they're totally
translucent. You can see right through them.
And they're found way, way down in the deep. Nobody knew that. But God did. He made them for
His pleasure and His glory. And we sit there as believers,
when we see that stuff, we go, Glory be to God. Right? We're just in awe of what he's
done. And the things we see here. My
brother Brian, you went down and saw those waterfalls and
all those different things down south and those caves and all
by God's wonder. All by his wonder and all by
his hand. And how long did they sit there
and no one even knew they were there. Somebody said, why is there a
beautiful flower in the Amazon that no man has ever seen, no
person has ever seen? Why is it there? Because of the
glory of God and for the glory of God. And if that flower dies
and no one ever sees it, it's for the glory of God. Isn't that
wonderful? Oh my. Just read they found a
new snake, a new anaconda in the Amazon. Five times bigger
than the normal anaconda. I wouldn't want to meet one of
them, would you? No. But who knew it was there all the time?
God did. And he made it for his glory.
We just discovered it like three weeks ago. Isn't God amazing? Isn't he glorious? Oh, he's so sovereign, beloved. And these very truths that the
apostles were declaring throughout Jerusalem was salvation in and
through Christ alone and by his precious blood and the resurrection
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we see that this is the very
truth that they declared to the high priest. Look at verses 29
to 33. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than man. The
God of our fathers raised up Jesus. Excuse me, whom you slew. and hanged on a tree, him hath
God highly exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior,
for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And
we are as witnesses of these things, and so it is also the
Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. When they
heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they were
so infuriated, they wanted to slay him. They wanted to kill
him. And all they were doing, was
preaching the gospel. That's all they were doing. They were preaching the gospel.
And these guys were so mad, they were infuriated. But again, remember
the sovereign grace of God. Gamaliel stands up, mentions
these two from the past. God restrains those men from
killing the apostles, didn't he? You ever think of something? I was thinking about this when
I was putting this together because about that restraining right there.
God, God restrained them with those, with the telling about
those two men. How many times has God, I was
thinking this, how many times have God restrained me from something
that would have, would have just wrecked me? How many times has
God restrained you? Before we were saved and even
after. Every day, Dave. Amen. That's the answer. Every
day. He restrains us every day. All
the time. All the time. If He didn't restrain us, we
would be headlong gone. We'd be gone, beloved. Yeah. That's exactly what I was thinking
about, the lost sheep. La, la, la. Off he goes. There he goes. That's the picture of us, beloved. You get away from the shepherd.
Oh, there's some green grass over here. Meanwhile, there's
a cliff. Oh, my. Or there's a wolf. Or there's both. But if you're one of the shepherd's
sheep, what's he do? He come get you. He come get you. Oh, it's wonderful. I'll tell
you what. Oh my. Turn if you would to Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter
10. We'll look at verses 9 and 10
here. Look at this here. and that thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
what? Shalt, there's that word again,
right? Shalt be saved, or shall. For with the heart, men believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on
him, that being Christ, shall not be ashamed. For there is
no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall, look at that word
again there, shall be saved. Not maybe, shall. Have we called
upon the name of the Lord? Oh my. Because if you call upon
the name of the Lord, you shall be saved. I'll tell you what,
this poor bankrupt sinner up here, my sins are so black and
he's forgiven me for all of them. My sins are so dark and I've
been made whiter than snow. Isn't that amazing? And he can
say it to the uttermost. Some preachers say, to the gutter
most. I mean, he pulled me out of the gutter. Did he pull you
out of the gutter, Brother Dave? Right out of the gutter, didn't he?
Pulled us right out of the gutter. Right out of the maggot heap of humanity. And saved our souls. And he can
do it for all who come to him. And the spirit and bride say,
come. Lord says, come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy
laden. And I'll give you rest. Rest for your souls. Rest from
your labors. Rest in Christ. Now see that
word Lord there in Romans chapter 10, verse 9, in the Greek it's
gyrios. It means supreme in authority,
controller. That's who Christ is. He's the
supreme controller of all things. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the anointed one, the Messiah, the Messiah. His very name is Jesus. He shall save his people,
what? From their sins. My oh my. And then it says, if
thou shalt believe with thy mouth that the Lord Jesus Christ, look
it, let's read it again. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Hallelujah. That's wonderful
news for sinners, isn't it? Doesn't say you might be. You
know why? Because that belief, right, is
a gift from God given to us. And all we can do is trust Christ
with that belief. Brother Tom, did we have it before
the Lord saved us? We didn't have it before the
Lord. Now we just trust him. We just rest in him. And all
through our lives, depending on when the Lord saved us, we've
just been trusting and resting in him. And we've been going
like this, of course, because we're humans, but he's been going
like this. Isn't that beautiful? Oh, my. And our going like this, through sin and tribulation,
never affects salvation in Christ alone. Now that's something to
rejoice about, isn't it? That'll give you rest. That'll
give you rest, man. I'll tell you what. Oh, my. And it says here, if you believe
in our heart, right, that God has raised Christ from the dead
and highly exalted Him, revealing Him to us. And His name is the
name above all names. He's the controller over all
things. My supreme in authority, the controller of all. We shall
be saved if we believe in Him. Salvation's a heart matter, beloved.
It's a heart matter. With a heart, man believeth unto
righteousness. And with a mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. We looked at it in Sunday school.
We must be given a new heart. You must be born again, the scripture
says. The master said that. You must be born again. And the
only way we believe on Christ is to be born again and given
faith to believe on him. It's a miracle, beloved. If you're
saved, it's a miracle. It's incredible. And true saving faith believes
that the Son of God was made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem us from under the law, and that he obtained eternal
redemption for us. And we're given the full assurance
of faith that nothing can be laid, nothing, absolutely nothing
can be laid to the charge of God's elect. Because why? Our sins are bought
and paid for, washed under the blood. So if the enemy brings
something to your mind or your flesh brings something to your
mind, just say, it's all under the blood. It's washed clean under the blood. You talk about have peace. Oh
my. And now God's people, now our
assurance can be like that, but we do have an assurance that
salvation, our salvation is bought and paid for. in Christ. The Scripture tells us that.
That's why we need to keep hearing the Gospel. Because it reminds
us continually. You're saved by grace through
faith and not by yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. It just keeps setting that truth
for us, doesn't it? Isn't it wonderful? And those
who experience the miracle of the new birth, which is what
it is, have been taught by God that we have no righteousness
of our own. That Christ is all our righteousness. He's all we
need for salvation. And it's He that makes us acceptable
in God's sight. And again, the redeemed are taught
by divine revelation that the righteousness of Christ is the
only righteousness we need. You ever think of that? Before
we were saved, we thought, well, I'm okay. I'm a good person.
You know, I killed no one yet. I've not done all this stuff.
I'm pretty good. And then after the Lord saves
us, we go, I'm so wicked. I just deserve to go to hell,
but God saved my soul. Praise his mighty name. I'm so
thankful. And in between there and here
is the new birth. Being made a new creature in
Christ. Isn't it wonderful? God's so good, isn't He? He's
so good, I'll tell you. And it's all according to the
Father's will and purpose. Just let that sink into you today.
Think about that, meditate on that this week. I'm saved and
regenerated. I'm a new creature in Christ
by the will and purpose of God. That's amazing. All my sins are
forgiven by the will and purpose of God. That's just absolutely
incredible. My. And that's what's meant with
these words, with the heart men believeth unto righteousness.
We can't produce it, so we believe on the one who is our righteousness.
Right? We trust Him. That's what it
means when the scripture declares, with the heart we believe on
the righteousness. Oh my. Now let's look at verse 40 here.
Let's look at verse 40 here. We see that after Gamaliel advised
the high priest in the Sanhedrin not to kill the Lord's apostles,
we read in verse 40 that they agreed. And to him they agreed,
and when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they
commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and
let them go. So again we see that the apostles weren't in
that room, they were called back in, and they called them back
in and then they just beat them. Probably with a cow and nine
tails. That was their favorite thing back then. Strip them back
and strip them down their shirts and whip them. And blood just
poured out of them. And how do we know that? Well, text tells us. And they agreed. When they called the apostles
and beaten them, they commanded them that they should not speak
in the name of Jesus and let them go. Now, again, let us marvel
for a second here at the restraining hand of God. They wanted to slay
the apostles. They wanted to kill them on the
spot. They'd been restrained by the hand of God and His sovereignty. And so they just beat them and
let them go. Now that beating probably would have killed a
lot of people, but it's not their time, is it? You ever think about,
when you're reading about Paul and how many times he was gotten
beaten, it wasn't his time. That's pretty incredible when
you start thinking about that. God just give him grace. And
when we need grace, God will give us grace, right? whether
we need dying grace or grace to help other folks or whatever,
we already have the grace of God in Christ. My, and we go
to the throne of grace to obtain help, to obtain grace in time
of need. But we see in verse 40, they
did beat him. And I'll tell you what, I was
reading Gene Harmon, he said, you know, if God hadn't have
preserved them, the apostles, they might have died. with a
beating like this. But God preserved them. It wasn't
their time. It wasn't their time to die. And the word beaten in
verse 40 in the Greek means to skin. It means to beat or scourge as
to take off the skin. So it's not just beating them
with their fists, pumping, you know, it's not just that, which
would leave bruises. It's to peel skin. These men were brutally scorched
with a whip. Again, a whip designed to tear
skin from the body. And back then, it wasn't uncommon
for people to die of this. It wasn't uncommon for them to
die of this beating. But again, the Lord preserved
them and gave them grace to help in their time of need. Now, after
the Lord's apostles were beaten, Those Christ-hating Jews commanded
that they should not speak in the name of Jesus. Look at this. In verse 41 and 42 now. Let's
read again in verse 40, the latter part. They commanded them that
they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
They said, you do not speak in his name. Oh, we're going to bring you
back here and whip you again. And I'll tell you why. You know
it was with them, and it's because they wanted to kill him just
a few sentences earlier, didn't they? You know it's hatred that's
in their heart towards God. Look at this. Now, this is God's
grace at action. Because in our natural state,
if somebody took us and whipped us and told us not to speak about
something again, we'd be out that door with blood pouring
down our backs running home, wouldn't we? Right? Look at this. God gave him grace. God gives grace to his people
in time of need. Gives courage, he gives fortitude in times of
need. And sometimes he just lets us
go on our way too and we do our natural thing as well. Look what
he did here. And he departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing. Praise God, we got whipped, Dave! And then someone might say, but
guys, they told us not to. No, this didn't happen, but imagine
someone saying, man, my back is so sore, they told us not
to go and preach his name anymore. Nope, that's not what happened,
is it? No. Again, this is God's grace
in action. I know they couldn't do this
on their own and we couldn't do it on our own. Look at this
though. And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name. And daily in the temple, now
all my neighbors, don't you go and preach that man's name ever
again. What do they do? Oh, beloved, God gave him fortitude,
didn't he? Oh, he gave him courage and fortitude,
look at this. And daily in the temple and in
every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. You tell us not to teach him,
we're gonna go on, we're gonna preach him even more. Oh my! Tell you what, you can't
muzzle God's people. Oh my, you may put them in prison
for a while, but you can't muzzle them. Think of this too, they're in
excruciating pain. Like, I mean, that would hurt. Back then, they
used to whip them, and then they'd throw salt on the wound, and
then they'd throw like a, like when the Lord had that purple
thing put on them, that cape, they would put salt on the wound,
Right? So you wouldn't bleed to death,
because otherwise you'd just bleed to death. So they throw salt,
and that instant pain of that salt, or they throw something
on you, and it would cauterize against your blood, and that's
when they ripped that off the Lord, too. The pain that he experienced
was excruciating. But I know from reading books
on the Roman legions that they would put salt right away on
after they did this, to stop the blood. But can you imagine
salt on the open bleeding wounds? You'd want to scream. So here they are, though. Their
wounds are still oozing blood. But these faithful servants of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they depart from the council, they rejoice
that they were worthy to suffer under his name, and they go and
preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. My, oh my! My. And they knew those sufferings
were ordained because they believe God's sovereign, just like we
do. So knowing this, knowing this
was true, and knowing that nothing could happen to them unless the
Lord allowed it to happen, and it was purposed by God, they
recognized that what they had just endured was providentially
arranged by God. And that's why they left. That's
the only reason they could leave rejoicing. Knowing that God's
in control. God put a song in their heart. My oh my! And they counted it
as a great honor, we see. They counted it a great honor
to suffer for the cause of Christ. And again, this is recorded for
our learning, beloved. And for the learning of all the
saints who've read about this up to even now and to who will
for whenever the Lord comes back. This is recorded for us, for
God's people. Even if we're persecuted, even
if we're hated, God's always gonna be there with us. and know
that no matter what we're going through in this life, He's right
with us. He'll never leave us nor forsake
us, never. And these, I can just hear these
unbelieving Jews. Oh, they won't be back. We whipped
them. They're bleeding like sieves.
They won't be back. They're stopped preaching that
name now. No. No. They're going to think twice
before they preach His name now. Nope. Nope. And daily in the temple, verse
42, by the grace of God, daily in the temple and in every house
they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. The name of this
message is teaching and preaching Christ. These faithful servants of the
Lord Jesus Christ, they could not be silenced. They could not be
silenced. As long as they had breath in
them, they were going to preach Christ. They ceased not to teach
and to preach the Lord Jesus Christ. We see not only in the temple,
right? And daily in the temple, but in homes too. And in every
house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. You
go to their home, they're talking about Christ. You go to the temple,
they're talking about Christ. You go to lunch with them, they're
talking about Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Daily, daily it says there. And
they had true reverential fear of the Lord Jesus Christ, their
exalted Lord, but we clearly see in this chapter they did
not fear man. They had a reverence fear for
God, but they did not fear man. They did not fear man. And we
know that because they'd already declared we ought to obey God
rather than man, in verse 42. And we see they meant what they
said. They meant what they said. So what a wonderful portion for
us as believers. And for anyone who will listen
to this message who's a believer, what a wonderful portion for us to
be encouraged. To just look at the faithfulness of God's apostles,
knowing that that's because of the grace of God in Christ. and
then to see the faithfulness of God and His sovereignty protecting
them and watching over them, which is the same thing He does
for you and I every day. Isn't that amazing? It's truly incredible. My. And know, too, if you're one
of the Lords, you're going to be persecuted. There's just no
way around it. It's going to happen. It's going
to happen. Tom, you told me how hard it
was to be in the Army as a believer. It's going to happen. You're
going to face persecution. No matter what your station is
in life. And sometimes it comes from the sources you least expect.
Sometimes from family. A lot of times from old friends
who no longer want to have anything to do with you. And sometimes
from your own brothers. Your own brothers in your family.
Your blood. Or your sisters. Brother Steve told me he was
with a bunch of friends of his and he mentioned Christ and it
was like absolute silence. He was out for lunch with them.
Nobody wanted to talk about that. They wanted to talk about everything
else. Nobody wanted to talk about Christ. My oh my. So may God help us,
through this week and the weeks to come in our lives, to remember
that God is in absolute sovereign control. And that no matter what
happens to us, He is ever with us. And He has said, I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. Isn't it wonderful what we saw
today? God using two men from the past to be bought up in the council
to restrain the Jews from killing the apostles. My, our God is glorious. He's glorious, I'll tell you.
He's absolutely glorious. Brother Dave, you want to close
this?