Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 5. The name of the message today
is Signs and Wonders. Now, in the religious world,
people even today are still caught up with so-called signs and wonders. People out there who falsely
are proclaiming themselves to be prophets, mouthpieces of God,
for God. There's so much out there that is just dishonoring to God. And signs and wonders occurred
during the apostolic time Tongues was a sign for unbelieving Jews. And when the canon was complete,
which is the scriptures, those signs and wonders ceased.
Tongues ceased. Now last week we looked at the
first 11 verses and we saw how God dealt with two hypocrites who were
in the church, Ananias and Sapphira. In God's judgment, it quickly
fell upon them, didn't it? We saw that. It quickly fell
upon them. Very visibly for the church,
too. Very visibly for the church.
They dropped dead on the spot. God took their lives. They had put together a wicked
scheme and lied to the Holy Spirit? Look at verses three to five
in Acts chapter five. But Peter said, Ananias, why
has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Satan
filled their hearts to do this, beloved. And to keep back part
of the price of the land. Well, as it remained, was it
not thine own? Yeah, it was theirs, wasn't it?
And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? They
could have done whatever they wanted with the money, right?
Why has thou conceived this thing in your heart and has not lied
unto men, but unto God? See, they wanted the church to
think that they were given everything, but God knew they weren't. And Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down and gave up the ghost, just dead just like that. God's
judgment fell. And great fear came upon all
them that heard these things. Now that fear there is reverent
fear. Because that fear there, that
fear is within the body. Then look at verses seven to
10. And it was come about the space
of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done,
came in. She didn't have a clue what happened
to Ananias. No one had told her. No one had told her. And Peter
answered unto her, Tell me, whither ye sold the land for so much?
And she said, Yea, for so much. And Peter said unto her, How
is it that you have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at
the door and shall carry thee out. Then fell she straight away,
just dropped dead like that, straight away at his feet and
yielded up the ghost. And the young man came in and
found her dead and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. My oh my. Then we see in verse
11 now, that as a result of this swift judgment, that great fear
fell upon all the church. And not just the church, but
we're letting no one hear that all who heard about it. Let's
look at verse 11. They heard about this swift judgment.
And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these
things. See, it's easy for us to miss
that, right? Fear fell upon people who heard about all people saved
and lost. But God was sovereignly at work. He was sovereignly at work, beloved.
And the members of the early New Testament church knew that
it was God that had killed these two hypocrites. And true reverential fear fell
upon them. True fear, not just fear of death
or fear of hell, but true fear, fear of God, who can send one
to hell. My, oh my. And as a result of
the death of Ananias and Sapphira, and the fact that our Lord took
them out of his church, because that's what he did, and out of
this life as well, it was used by God the Holy Spirit to cause
his born-again blood-washed saints to now examine their own hearts. To now examine their own hearts.
And like all other events in their lives, the exposure and
the removal of these two enemies of Christ and his church was
all ordained by God. Was all ordained by God. And
executed for the glory of God, for the good of his people. For the good of his chosen blood-bought
saints. Because look at this, great fear
came upon the church. My. And not just the church,
we see. Great fear came upon as many
as heard these things. Oh my. This refers to those who
were not members of the church, the unregenerate. The Sanhedrin
heard about this, no doubt. Oh my. The unenlightened Jews, those
who were not born again. were also observers of these
amazing things that our Lord Jesus Christ was doing for his
people. Their fear, of course, was not a reverential fear, as the church had. See, the church has a reverential
fear, not a slavish fear, but a reverential fear of God, of
who he is. We know he's holy. He's majestic. We know that he saved us by his
grace and mercy alone, period. Not based upon anything in us
or anything we've done or anything at all, but all because of the
grace and mercy of God. And these unregenerate folks,
they didn't fear God with a reverential fear. They did fear death. And that's what filled their
natural hearts when they heard what happened to Ananias and
Sapphira. It wasn't a reverential fear.
It was a fear of death. Does anyone want to die? No. Now let's read our text today. Verses 12 to 16 of Acts chapter
5. And by the hands of the apostles
were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And they were
all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Look at that, one accord,
unity, beloved. They were in unity. And that
unity come from the Holy Spirit of God. That's what we have here
too, beloved, unity. And it's wrought, let's give
all the glory to God, right? Because it's all in him. and
through him, and because of him. And of the rest, there's no man
joined himself to them, but the people magnified them. And believers,
look at this, even though there was great fear, there was more
believers added to the church. You know why? Because they just
kept preaching the gospel, beloved. How faith cometh by hearing and
what? Hearing by the word of God, right? Gospel's gotta be
preached. They're preaching Christ. And
how do we know that? Well, we know that because remember
they said, don't preach the resurrection, don't preach in this man's name.
The Sanhedrin told them that in chapter four, remember? We're
gonna see the Sanhedrin's gonna throw them in jail, some of them
in jail, right after this portion next week, we'll find that out. But oh, there's something that
happens there that'll just amaze us. Oh, God sends one of his angels
down. Oh, man. This time his sword's in his
seat, though. It's not on his seat. My, oh,
my. My, oh, my. In so much that they bought,
look at this, and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes
both of men and women. Look at that. Multitudes. Man, it's amazing. In so much
that they bought forth the sick into the streets and laid them
on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter
passing by might overshadow some of them. Look at this, look at
verse 16. There came also a multitude of
the cities round about unto them, unto Jerusalem, bringing forth
sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and
they healed every one. You know, you ask these folks
that are into the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement why
their supposed healing preachers don't go to the Children's Hospital,
which would be the first place you'd go if you had the gift
of healing, right? Or the cancer wards. What? Well, they have to do it in special
meetings. I don't see that here, do you? Peter's just walking down the
street, isn't he? Who's doing the healing here? Christ, amen,
God. God's doing the healing here.
Oh, my. There's a fellow I listen to.
He's a paraplegic, and he preaches the gospel from his wheelchair.
And he's went to numerous of these charismatic meetings, and
they keep kicking him out of them. He said, I'm here to get
healed. And they said, now, oh, we know
you. We don't want you in here. They're just a bunch of charlatans,
beloved. My, look what the Lord's done here. Look what he's done
here before us in this text. It's absolutely amazing. Multitudes
came out of the cities, rounded back unto Jerusalem, bringing
sick folks, and of them which were vexed, and unclean spirits,
and they were healed every one." Do you know God will heal every
one of his elect? Right? There will not be one
he's going to lose. By his stripes we're healed,
right? I'm talking spiritual stuff there, not physical. All
our sins are forgiven and washed clean by the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. My oh my. So we see here that
in our text, the Lord Jesus, who is the one doing the healing,
endowed his apostles with his special power. And during the
apostolic age, the New Testament had not yet been written. Remember,
they're going around, they're preaching from the Old Testament.
They don't have the New Testament. They don't have what we have.
The letters were being written, but they don't have it this time
in the New Testament. They're preaching Christ from
the law and the prophets. Anytime someone tells you Christ's
not in the Old Testament, just laugh at them and say, well,
what did the apostles use? They used the Old Testament.
That's all they had. When Paul says, bring me the
scrolls, he's talking about the Old Testament written on scrolls,
beloved. Bring me the scriptures, he's
talking, anytime you see the scriptures mentioned in the New
Testament, they're talking about the Old Testament. Christ is
all through it. And we have it right here. We have it, beloved, in one book,
isn't that amazing? You know, I remember saying one
time to Norm, I said, well, I wish we could have been a fly on the
wall on those two on the road to Arimaeus as Christ expounded
himself. And he said, we have it all. We have it right here. We just
don't understand it all. And that's why when Christ reveals
to us himself in the Old Testament, we're like, my goodness, I've
never saw that before. Isn't that wonderful? Or you hear somebody preaching,
I never saw that before. You know, it's wonderful. It's
God the Holy Spirit teaching us the things of Christ. My oh my. So during the Apostolic
Age, the New Testament hadn't been written, and our Lord Jesus
Christ performed many miracles. Remember, Christ performed many
miracles. And he also, during this time,
he performed miracles by the hands of his apostles and to
make it known to his people that he had sent these men. They were
sent by God to reveal to his chosen people
that what his apostles were preaching was the true gospel, was the
true gospel of God's amazing grace and salvation only in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And his amazing grace, he bestows
upon his chosen people. You know, we're receivers of
the amazing grace of God, we who believe. Did you deserve
it? I didn't, no, we didn't deserve
it, right? All of us are shaking our head, no. We didn't deserve
it at all, did we? Not at all, but he gave it to
us. Oh my. And we don't need signs and wonders
to manifest who God's preachers are. Our God's given us the New
Testament and the Old Testament, right? that plainly reveals the
spiritual meaning of the Old Testament scriptures. During his public ministry on
earth, our Lord said, search the scriptures. That's the Old
Testament he's talking about. The New Testament hadn't even
been written. He says, search the scriptures. For in them you
think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify
of me, John 5, 39. Search the scriptures. And you
all, And me, we're to be Bereans, aren't we? So if we're listening
to someone preach the gospel, we don't just believe it because
the person's saying it. We believe what the scriptures
say. And if a man's preaching what the scripture says, then
we believe it, right? By the grace of God. If he isn't,
we go, that's not right. Brother Zane bought me something
that somebody he knew had heard. And he said, what do you think
of this? And I said, I ain't never heard of that before. He
goes, I thought the same thing. I thought the same thing. I just
wanted to ask you what you thought. I ain't never heard of that.
Nope. My oh my. God, the Holy Spirit, manifests
who his preachers are, by whom we preach. We preach Christ.
We don't preach ourselves. We may use ourselves in illustrations
and things that we've experienced in our lives, but we preach Christ. I want you to hear about Christ.
I may tell you what he's done for me, too, because he's done
great things for me, and I know he's done great things for you,
right? And who do we want to brag on? We want to brag on Christ,
don't we? And it won't take you long, listen
to the preaching, to find out that the man's preaching Christ
or not. Note I didn't say woman. The man's preaching Christ. These places have women preachers.
I have nothing against women. But they are not ordained to
preach. Not at all. My, oh, my. And as a matter of fact, we men
are to exalt our wives and put them on pedestals. Love your wife as Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it? My, my oh my. God and the Holy Spirit
again manifest who His preachers are, by whom they preach. They
preach Christ and Him crucified. They preach salvation only in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And they preach the perfect,
finished, sinatonic work of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I've said
many times, I preach a salvation that's finished. It's already
done. There's nothing for us to do.
Now we receive it by God's grace. Because if it wasn't for God's
grace, no one would receive it. Because the scripture says, there's
none that seeketh after God, there's none that understandeth.
You ever think about this, that he's revealed himself? He's given
us an understanding of who he is. And it's just a little wee
bit, right? We can't, we can't, it's just
a little, there's so much more about God that we don't know. But the little we bit for us,
we just, are you amazed that God saved you? That God who controls
all things and keeps everything together saved your eternal soul?
Willingly came to this earth to redeem us? And that work was
done, finished, 2,000 years ago. Done. And we just look to Christ
by God-given faith and we live. That's amazing grace, isn't it?
That's incredible. No wonder we praise him. No wonder
we want to get together and talk about Christ, whether it be on
the phone or together. No wonder we do. It's wonderful.
It's wonderful. It's glorious. And God's preachers, God sent
preachers, preached the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he became a man, God became a man, and suffered and died and bled
for sinners as their substitute. And who was Christ offering himself
up to? God. He offered himself a sacrifice
to appease God. Because we'd sinned against God.
Right? That's who we've sinned against.
And so, by God's grace, and by his purpose, and by his sovereign
will, he chose to save us in Christ. And just to let us know we had
nothing to do with it, he says, I chose you in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Meaning nothing to do with the
choosing, right? Is salvation of the Lord? Is
it all of the Lord? Amen. All. The alpha and what? Amen sister. And the omega. That's the first letter of the
Greek alphabet and that's the last letter of the Greek alphabet.
And everything in between. He did it all, beloved. He did
it all. He did it all. Paul said this,
I like this. I'm determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Everything else
is just, doesn't matter. Really. I'm going to say something, and
if you watch the show, that's great. I've watched it before
in the past. It's interesting. But you ever
see that show where they do all the trivia thing? It's on Jeopardy? Jeopardy? Those guys' heads are
filled with useless information. Think about it. In light of eternity. It's interesting though, you
sit there, the only topics I ever know is the Bible topics. That's
the only ones I ever get right. Everything else just goes right
by me. But really, in light of eternity, they're full of useless
information. Because Paul says, I'm determined
not to know anything among you, save Christ and him crucified. Isn't that amazing? And as Brother Gene Harmon said,
we don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what Paul preached,
do we? He laid it out very clearly.
He said this in 1 Corinthians 1. He said, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. I'm sent here to Almonte, Michigan
to preach the gospel to people who I love very much. I am sent here to preach the
gospel to you. That's the whole reason that
God sent me here. Isn't it amazing? From Canada
to Oregon to here. That's amazing. But that's the
whole reason I'm here, is to preach the gospel. And Paul said
this, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should
be of none effect. I'm not supposed to stand up here and give you
theological words. I could give you theological words, but I'm
not going to do that. I'm going to speak to you the way I speak.
I love theology. I love it. It's wonderful. But
sometimes I just have to close those books and go, OK, I'm just
going to look at the scripture. And I'm not going to get up here.
I have to look up those words to understand them. And remember, I think Paul was
a genius. He says, I'm not going to speak
to you in words of wisdom. I'm not going to dazzle you with
all the language and the words that I know. He just said,
I'm here to preach Christ and Him crucified. Think of our Lord. Look through the words that the
Lord spoke. He mostly spoke in one and two
syllable words. And he's the creator of the universe.
He's the creator of all. And he speaks, he says, I, single,
am the way, the truth, the life. No man, that's two syllables,
cometh unto the Father but by me. You see all those one-syllable
words full of it? And there's so much profound
truth in that, isn't there? So Paul says, I'm not come here
to speak with words of wisdom. Listen to what he says, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. lest the gospel get muddled and
muddied in me using these big words, words of so-called wisdom. Paul knew that any sinful attempt
to try to mix the works of men with God's grace would make the
suffering of Christ meaningless. He also said this, in 1st Corinthians
9.16. And again, remember these words
that he's spoken of, as I said in Sunday School, he's the secretary,
right? He's just writing down what God the Holy Spirit's putting
on his heart. The true author of these words is God the Holy
Spirit. And Paul says this in 1st Corinthians 9.16, he says,
for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. I
don't have anything to glory of in myself. You talk to Norm
when he comes and Drew, we don't have anything to glory in. You
talk to Jim and Gary and Tim James and Donny Bell, we have
nothing to glory in. The only one we can glory in
is Christ. Is he the only one you want to
glory in? Amen, right? My. He says, I have nothing to
glory, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me
if I preach not the gospel. The word necessity there means
constraint. He's constrained to preach the
gospel. We can't do anything else. And he says, woe unto me if I
preach not the gospel. Woe unto me if I mix grace and
works. Woe! That's not right. Salvation's
in Christ and through Christ alone plus nothing. And every time Paul preached,
he knew the necessity, his constraint was laid upon him to preach the
gospel. Now one may ask, what is the gospel? Well, the gospel
is Christ, isn't it? He is the gospel. It's all about
him. Without Christ, there's no good
news, is there? That's what the gospel is, good
news. But there's no good news without Christ, so He is the
gospel, and He is Jehovah. He's the second person of the
Trinity, Jehovah the Son, who's become flesh. My! And if we're not preaching Christ,
we're not preaching His gospel. Here are some things. When God's
preachers preach Christ, if you want to write these down, number
one, we're telling our hearers who
the Lord Jesus Christ is, that he's Jehovah God. He's our sovereign
creator. He is the second person of the
blessed trinity. He's God incarnated in the flesh.
Number two, we're telling our hearers that he is virgin born.
He's the seed of the woman. He has no sin. No sin at all. No sin at all. And we're telling our hearers
what Christ has done for his chosen people. That he humbled
himself. That he was born of a virgin.
And remember, he did it for his chosen people. He didn't die
for everyone. I heard a fellow say, well, Christ
died for everyone this week. I said, well, then what about
the people in hell? If you're saying that, then he's
a failure. My God, the scripture says about my king, he shall
not fail. Christ didn't fail, did he? We
preach a finished, accomplished work. He says, I lay down my
life for the sheep. I don't know who the sheep are,
so I preach to everybody. But God knows them, doesn't he?
Oh my. Number three, we tell our hearers
that as a man, The Lord Jesus Christ honored God's holy law
perfectly. See, God requires perfection.
Christ is the perfect man. And he honored God's holy law
perfectly by the obedience, by his perfect obedience. He perfectly
obeyed the law of God all according to the will of God the Father.
See, that law had to be fully satisfied, didn't it, for us.
And he's our substitute. Isn't that wonderful? He fully,
fully honored God's law. And then in doing so, he established
a perfect righteousness. I mean, a righteousness without
spot. And that's what we're clothed in, isn't it? Remember? Remember what the prodigal,
the father said? Bring forth the best robe. We were talking about that, brother.
Bring forth the best robe. That's the righteousness of Christ.
Father says, bring forth the best robe. I have to clothe.
And who puts it on us? The Father. He has to clothe
his children in the blessed robe. We're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ right now, beloved. And if you're saved, isn't that
amazing? Oh, it's so wonderful. So wonderful. Number four, as a man, Christ
our Savior paid the redemption price in full for the sins of
his people. How? By the supreme sacrifice of himself.
Number five, also by his stripes we are healed. First Peter 2.24,
who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes ye were healed. Isn't that wonderful? Number
six, Lord Jesus Christ, endure the
wrath of God in our room and place. That's good news, isn't
it? That's good news. And you know
what he did when he did that? He delivered his people from
the wrath to come. Listen to this, 1 Thessalonians
versus, let's turn there. 1 Thessalonians, let's turn there.
This is wonderful. This is wonderful. Do you know
that before the Thessalonians were saved, they were Gentiles,
right? And you know what they served?
Idols. False idols. Right? I come from Gentile stock. My ancestors and myself when I was
in the Roman Catholic Church were a bunch of idol worshipers. God delivered me from that. Praise
His mighty name. And look what Paul writes about
the Thessalonians here. 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 8 to
10. This is wonderful. This is wonderful. For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also
in every place your faith to God word is spread abroad so
that we need not to speak anything. So the Thessalonians, when they
had went out into another city, they just started talking about
Christ. So much so that Paul didn't, he went there and they'd
already heard. They had already heard. Look at this. For they themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye
turned to God from idols. Who turned them? God turned them,
didn't he? By his almighty power. They turned
to God from idols to serve, look at this, the living and true
God, in contrast to the false idols they were serving, who
were just nothing but dead idols, pieces of wooden stone. And to
wait, now this is what every believer does, and to wait for
his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from what? What did he deliver us from?
The wrath to come. Look at that. Delivered. That
means rescued. Beloved, we've been rescued. And that's what, the preaching
of the gospel tells sinners who believe in sinners, you've been
rescued. You've been rescued. You know, when Christ, another
point we mentioned in the gospel, the preaching was, is Christ
laid down his life for the sheep, and when he did, his death reconciled
us to God. Listen to this, Romans 5, verses
8 to 10. But God commanded his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Well, we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. We weren't even born or regenerated
when Christ died. But the scripture there says
that God commanded his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood. Oh, the blood's so important.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.
We shall be saved. There's that little word shall
again. We shall be saved from wrath through him. For when we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.
Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Another
point we bring forth when we're preaching the gospel is Jesus
Christ was raised from the dead for our justification. If he
hadn't risen from the grave, that would have shown God wasn't
satisfied. But because he rose from the grave, God's absolutely
satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. And the scripture
says in the book of Romans, In the book of Romans chapter 4
verse 24, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we
believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
so God raised Christ who was, verse 25, who was delivered for
our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Brother
Brian, Christ was raised for our justification. Show that
God's satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ in our room and place.
Makes you want to shout hallelujah, doesn't it? It's wonderful, I'm
telling you. Oh, we can smile and rejoice
in this, can't we? Oh my, this is wonderful. And
number nine, After his resurrection, Jesus Christ, the God-man, entered
into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for us.
Do you know that Christ appears in the presence of God for we
who believe right now? Scripture says this, Hebrews
9.24, for Christ has not entered into the holy place made with
hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven
itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. He's our mediator. He's our mediator. The one true
mediator between God and man. The man Christ Jesus. My, my. And so he's in the presence of
God. He's our advocate, beloved. He's our great eternal high priest
also. He's pleading for those who he's
redeemed with his own precious blood. He shows the blood. And
God's satisfied with that blood, isn't he? Oh my. Satan come up and accuse us,
accuse the brethren. Christ just shows the blood. She's mine. He's mine. When I see the blood, I'll pass
it. Saved from the wrath to come.
Isn't that wonderful? Oh, may God help us to realize
this wonderful truth spoken by Pastor Henry Mahan. He said,
we're as sure as heaven as if we're already there. Isn't that
wonderful? That's not presumption either. That's because it's all about
Christ, not about us. My. And when we preach Christ,
when we preach the gospel of Christ, we're also telling here
is that God has highly exalted his son above all. He's exalted. He's the name above all names,
isn't he? He's highly exalted his son. He's glorified. Christ
is the glorified God-man, Lord over all. That's our Savior,
beloved. That's our Savior. My. And Christ is the only wise God,
our Savior, who by His power will present us. Now think of
this. He will present us faultless
and blameless before the Father, faultless and blameless. Oh, we are sin, aren't we, even
as saved believers? I was telling the folks on Wednesday
night, a friend of mine said this week, he said, well, we
sin at least once a day now that we're believers. I looked at him and said, man,
all I am is sin, and I'm a saved sinner. Oh my, he didn't know
what to say. Once a day, oh my gosh, man. Would Zane say four times a second
or something like that? Two times a second. Oh, isn't
it, but you see, they don't have the proper concept of sin, do
they? You know, God has saved us from our sin. He saved us
from our sin. Isn't that incredible? Let us
rejoice, beloved. It's absolutely amazing. And
here we are. We're sinners saved by the grace
of God. And he's going to present us faultless. God's going to
look at us. There's no spot in him. Because
we're in Christ, beloved. Isn't that amazing? Do you think
that all of us, all of us from all the ages presented to the
Father a spotless bride, and every one of us can go, whoa,
we're not worthy of this, but praise his mighty name. Isn't
that amazing? I don't think we fully understand
how many times we do sin, because we even sin when we're sleeping,
right? Just think about your dreams,
right? We sin when we're awake. We sin
and we don't even know it. My, oh, my. Spurgeon used to
say that. He had a saying. He said, I sin
more from my getting up in the morning, going to my breakfast
table to damn a thousand souls. That's a man who had a grasp
on sin, right? My. Not once a day, though, right? Oh, my. And think of this. He has obtained
eternal redemption for us. Now, look in our text, it says,
and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought
among the people, and they were all one accord in Solomon's porch. We see here that our Lord is
demonstrating his power by these signs and wonders. He's demonstrating
his power, just as he demonstrated his power by the miracles that
he performed upon this earth. Do you know God's power is demonstrated
every time a sinner is saved? Born again by the almighty power
of God. Isn't that amazing? My. So in here though he's demonstrating
his power in a special way by the hands of the apostles. And
we've been taught in our previous studies that they were all one
accord and here we see even in this text they were in unity
and we see here they're in unity still. You know, some of the folks,
when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead, they didn't say, well,
I'm out of here, man. No, they're in unity. They're in unity with
this. And we know the apostles were
all preaching the same gospel, weren't they? There wasn't multiple messages
of different messages. There was only one way they were
preaching. And Paul said, I preach Christ. That's what Peter was
preaching. That's what John was preaching. And using his gospel and his
preachers as instruments, our Lord, we see in the text, our
Lord added to the church. So as the gospel went forth,
our Lord added to the church. He does whatever he sees fit. And again, all of them were praising
and worshiping the one true living God. They had absolute unity. And none of them were attributing
what they'd experienced to their own works. No, they were saying
salvations of the Lord. It's all Him. It's all Him. And God, the Holy Spirit, is
the one who's inspired them to write these words for our learning
and to write the New Testament for our learning. And we see
all through the New Testament and the Old Testament that the
depravity of man is showing forth, right? Oh my. And so when God saves
a sinner in light of that depravity, it's absolutely amazing grace,
isn't it? It's amazing. You know, you go into a jewelry
store, you ever notice if you want to look at diamonds, and
they bring out a black felt, a black felt thing, and then
they put the diamonds on that, and those diamonds just pop,
right? They just, whoa. Think of the blackness of our
sin and the diamonds of the free and sovereign grace of salvation
in and through Christ alone. And how that is magnified in
the blackness of our sin. It's beautiful, isn't it? It's
wondrous, the salvation we have in Christ. My, oh, my. And let us remember and rejoice
in this wonderful truth that God has not changed. He's still
saving people today. He's still moving. The gospel's
still going forth. The gospel's still being preached.
Right? He's still working. He's still
moving. Oh my. It's wonderful. And he still
uses his glorious gospel. That's what he uses. That's what
he uses, preached by ordained preachers as instruments to deliver
to his chosen blood-bought children, for the Holy Spirit to take them
out of that darkness that they're in. He's still using the gospel,
beloved. God's not changed. He doesn't
use all these other things that people are saying out there. You ever hear somebody say, I
got a word for the Lord. Just turn away and walk away.
I'm telling you what, everything God has to say to us is right
here, right in this book, right in
this book. Oh my. And so God's preachers, we all
preach the same message. We preach the same message that
the apostles preached. Salvation in and through Christ
alone. That's it. And he's revealed the same gospel
truth to us that he revealed to them and that he's revealed
to you too. And you love to hear it and we love to preach it.
And I love to hear it too when I sit and listen to a sermon.
Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. Tell me more
about what Christ has done for me. My, and God's preachers have
a sincere concern for the salvation of those who will hear the messages. I pray all the time, Lord, please
use the message to save souls. Bring folks to hear the gospel,
but also use the message as it goes out on the internet and
use it for your glory and honor and praise. Draw your lost sheep
in, if it be your will. We have a sincere concern for
souls. My, and you do too, don't you? All of us do as God's people. And all of those who experienced
the miracle of the new birth being born again, we have the
same spirit in us. The same spirit that rejoices
over these wondrous truces. The same spirit that regenerated
Peter, Paul, and John. My. And he generates excitement
in us. The same spiritual joy that the
apostles said we have. Isn't that amazing? They were
just like us, beloved. They got down sometimes. Remember
Peter? I'm going fishing. You don't
think he was down? He denied the Lord three times.
And then our great God and King, he says, Peter, do you love me?
Doesn't even mention the sin. Peter, do you love me? Yes. Feed
my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yeah,
Lord. Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yeah,
Lord, you know all things. Feed my sheep. Didn't even mention
what he did. Isn't that wondrous? Why? Because
it's all forgiven, washed clean under the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let us remember that, eh? Oh
my, that's wonderful. Let's look at our text again
here. And by the hands of the apostles, verse 12, Acts 5, 12,
and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought
among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's
porch, and of the rest there's no man joined himself to them,
but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added
to the Lord, multitudes, look at that, both of men and women. And how? By the preaching of
the gospel, right? And by the hearing of the gospel,
by regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit. And so much
that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them
on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter
passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude
out of the cities round about into Jerusalem, bringing sick
folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they
were healed every one." Wow. This is amazing. This really
happened. Zane and I were talking, and
Zane said, we're like third-person people looking at this and going,
wow, look at this. Look what's happening. God, the Holy Spirit, gives us
a view, a window into what just occurred. And our Lord, he was performing
miracle after miracle through the apostles we see. And all
this was ordained for his glory and honor and praise, for the
glory of the exalted Christ and for the glory of his grace, to
prove that he had sent his apostles. that they were sent by him. And
to bring those people to hear the gospel that his apostles
had the honor of preaching to. If you and I are here today,
it's because God ordained it. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. And we see in the text
that multitudes were added to the church. So God had ordained
that preaching, and here it goes, whoosh. And the Holy Spirit moves
and saves a multitude of people, added to the church. It's amazing,
beloved. It's absolutely amazing. We see,
and we also see, think of this too. We see God's sovereign hand
of protection. Because it appears that our Lord
Jesus Christ used these miracles and wonders to restrain the wicked
hands of the Sanhedrin. Now, next week, they're going
to be back in action against the apostles. But at this point
here, we see the restraining hand of God. Because they knew,
with all these things happening, these miracles happening, that
if they went and took them and put them in bonds, there'd be
an uproar, wouldn't there? There'd be an uproar. Oh my. So at this point they're not
trying to put a stop to the preaching. Not at all. But look at verse
17, which we're going to look at next week. Then the high priest
rose up, and all they that were with him, which is the sect of
the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation. Miracles
are happening. Miracles, beloved, are happening
right before them. And they're filled with wrath.
You know why? Because their purses are getting
pinched. That's what it is. It's about nothing but power
and money. That's all it is. The whole reason they're upset
is just because of that. Because multitudes of people,
they're becoming believers by the power of God. And they're
looking at this going, oh my goodness. And so they're filled. It just
shows you natural man hates God, beloved. My, oh my. And as we look at
this, we're filled with awe, aren't we? And wonder. Multitudes
are added to the church. They're bringing sick people
and they're healed by the power of God. Why would you be upset
when God's healing people? My oh my. Just again, it shows
the depravity of man. See, we see the contrast between
the sovereignty of God and the depravity of man. Because our God is sovereignly
at work all through this, isn't he? Even today, he's sovereignly
at work, isn't he? Doing whatever he will. in such
a rapid growth of believers, whose faith was in the Lord Jesus
Christ, was a complete contradiction to what those false Jewish teachers
were teaching. They were losing control. They
were losing control. And they knew, though, any action
against the apostles, they knew might cause an uproar. Well,
we see in verse 17, they finally got fed up, and they were filled
with wrath. And then verse 18, and they laid
their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison,
just threw them in a common jail. For what? Preaching the gospel. My, oh, my. My, oh, my. And again, let us marvel at the
fact that the text here brings forth multitudes were added to
the Lord. Christ is glorified in the common
people. In the higher ups, the religious
higher ups, they're filled with wrath. Isn't that amazing? Multitudes of common people like
you and I being added to the church. And the religious leaders
are freaking out. Filled with wrath. Again, we
know why. But marvel, marvel at the blessed
state of the church at this time. Someone, Brother Gene Harmon
said this, he said, well, now some may foolishly say, well,
if I could witness such miracles and wonders, I'd believe. No,
you wouldn't. No, we wouldn't. Not in our natural
state. Nope. No, we wouldn't. Because there's no man that seeketh
after God. Now if you're born again, you're gonna seek Christ. You're gonna seek Christ. Now
listen, I'm gonna close with a few scriptures here. See, the preaching of the gospel
will fall on deaf ears if it's not made manifest by God the
Holy Spirit. He must, he must move. Listen
to this, Romans 1, 16 and 17. Paul says, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed, which is Christ, right? He's
the righteousness of God. In the gospel, in the gospel,
Christ is revealed. From faith to faith, as far as
it is written, a just shall live by faith. We live by the faith.
We live by faith in Christ, and that faith is given to us. It's
marvelous. Then, in 1 Thessalonians 1.5,
which we read earlier, for our gospel came not unto you in word
only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance,
much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you
for your sake. And in John 6, 44, no man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and
I will raise him up at the last day. And in this, John 6, 63,
the Lord, our master's words, it is the spirit that quickeneth,
which means makes alive, born again. The flesh process nothing. The words I speak unto you, they
are spirit and they are life. And then John 6, 65, therefore
I say unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. Then John 3, 3, except the man
be born again, he cannot see, which means perceive, understand,
or know. We cannot perceive, understand,
or know unless we're born again in the kingdom of God. Oh, my. Then Paul, in his epistles,
wrote these things. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned, 1 Corinthians 2, 14. And then he writes, but God,
but God, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead, and since hath
quickened us together, born again, with Christ, by grace ye are
saved. And then 1 Corinthians 1, 30
and 31, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
that according it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Glory in God. My, what a Savior. Brother Jim, would you mind