Again, open your Bibles to Acts
chapter 4. I had Brother Tom read that section
in Matthew 10, and we're going to see in our text why it's very
pertinent to what we are going to look at today. And I'd like
us to look from verses Verse 17 will be where we'll
be mostly, and a little further down. But before we get there,
I'd like us again to look at the context of our text. And the name of the message is,
God's Enemies Muzzled. God's Enemies Muzzled. My, oh my, how our King does
that. Oh my, he's so great. Let me
tell you about my king. Let me tell you about our king.
He's so great. He's so glorious. He's God Almighty
who became a man and bled and died on Calvary's cross after
living a perfect life for us. Then he died and rose again by
the almighty power of God. Right now he's seated at the
right hand of Father interceding for all who are his people. And he muzzles the enemies of
his people. My oh my. They can say whatever
they want. When they pop off, just give
them scripture. Take them to the word of God.
My oh my. Acts chapter 4. We see here Peter
and John, they're brought before the council. We saw that last
week. They're brought before the council
here, and the lame man's being healed. This man was lame from
his mother's womb, and he's healed, and it's a perfect healing, right? No therapy, nothing. Oh my, he's up. He's leaping
and jumping and praising God. He's hanging on to Peter and
John. Hanging on to them. We'd be doing the same thing,
wouldn't we, Brother Tom? We'd be hanging on to them. Oh, we'd
be so thankful, so happy. What he's done. My, he couldn't
shut us up. Right? No wonder he's praising
God. He's never walked in his life.
never even entered his mind that he'd be able to. And by the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord, remember? Peter and John exalted Christ
and said, by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, this man stands
before you whole. My, my, my, my. Look at verse
10. Be it known unto you and to all
the people of Israel. So they're standing before the
Sanhedrin, they're standing before the rulers of Israel, the who's
who of Israel's religion. And they say, be it known unto
you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand before you whole. Oh my, my oh
my. And then he continues to testify
about Christ. He says, this, Christ is the
stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become
the head of the corner. Oh, he's the chief cornerstone,
isn't he? Of the temple of God, which is made up of God's people.
The true spiritual temple is made up of God's people. We're
living stones, beloved. My, he says, neither. Now here,
what a verse here. Oh, I tell you, this silences
every other voice. Right? There's no salvation in
no other, is there? And remember who the true author
of these words is, God the Holy Spirit. And he puts down here,
he has Luke penned down, neither is there salvation in any other.
That means not you, not me, not any of these other supposed gods
out there, not Muhammad, not Mary, not anything, not by a
church affiliation, not by baptism, right? There's salvation in no
other. Oh, look at this. No other. That's
Christ. For there's none of the name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Salvation
only comes through Christ, plus absolutely nothing, right? There's
no plus either, is there? Just salvation's in Christ. Remember
last week I dropped the plus, because there's no plus. It's
just Christ. Salvation's in Christ. He is
the one whereby we must be saved. Now, when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men. Oh, praise God. Right? See, they hadn't went to their
seminaries. Right? They hadn't been educated
in the traditions of the fathers. Praise God. They were fishermen. They were common people who God
called to preach and proclaim. He equipped them, right? They
were filled with the Holy Ghost. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Look at that. Ignorant and unlearned men. Unlearned
and ignorant men. They marveled. They were stunned
that they knew the Scriptures. How did they know the Scriptures?
Because God, the Holy Spirit, gave them an understanding of
the Scriptures, right? That's the only way we know the scriptures.
I read the Bible before the Lord saved me. It was just paper and
ink. I didn't read the Bible. I read parts of it, and I was
like, I don't understand nothing. And then after the Lord saved
me, I was like, oh my gosh, what's going on? Well, that's because
now I knew the author. I was born again by his power,
right? Oh my. Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter, and that only comes by the power of God, the Holy
Spirit, of Peter and John, they perceived that they were unlearned
and ignorant men. They marveled, and they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. Oh my. They'd been with Jesus. They'd been with Jesus. Could
someone take notice of us and say they've been with Jesus?
Not literally, but that we're his people? We're not who we
were, are we? No. My brothers look at me and
they still see the old Wayne. My two brothers, they don't know
who I am now. They know the old Wayne. But
there's something that happened to that wing. Oh yeah, and something happened
to you too, right? You were born again, right? Oh
my. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. We're new creatures in Christ now. My, and then behold,
look at this too, as we looked at last week. Sometimes we can
fly by these scriptures and not see. Here's that man who was
healed, right there with him. Right there with him. You know,
when I first read this passage years ago, I never even saw that.
Never even saw that. And it's right there in the text.
And I'm studying for Acts last week, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
the man's right there with him. It says it right in the text.
But the Holy Spirit just lights it up, right? Oh my. And beholding
the man which was healed with him, they could say nothing against
it. They could say, their mouths were muzzled. They couldn't say
anything. They couldn't say this wasn't
a true healing. They're muzzled. They're muzzled,
beloved. Oh my. And we see here in the text,
the Sanhedrin, who they'd been bought before, these wicked ungodly
men, they're Christ denying, they denied Christ, they're Christ
deniers. They thought that they could
intimidate Peter and John, so they thought, we're gonna throw
them in prison for the night, because remember we saw that,
they threw them in prison for the night, and then the next day
they bought them before the council, and there's the who's who, there's
the who's who of the Jewish religion. And they thought, these unlearned
and ignorant men. Well, little did they know they're
filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And as we saw in that text
you read, Brother Tom, they're going to be given words to speak. They're going to be given words
to speak, beloved. See, We only speak what we know as
preachers. We speak what God the Holy Spirit's
taught us. And we only speak of Christ.
Right? Only speak of Christ. Oh my. So they saw that they were ignorant
men and unlearned. Again, they hadn't went to their
seminary, so they took knowledge of that, that they had been with
Jesus, and then they beheld the man that was with them, and they
said, we can't deny that something happened. Something happened. We can't deny it. They, think
of this too, they had passed by, they had passed by for days. Brother Neil, think if you and
I were going in that temple each week, we'd have went right by
that guy. So they went in the temple and as they were going,
if they entered in through the gate called Beautiful, for years
they would have went by that guy. It not even hardly ticked,
no, except for he dropped a few pennies into his, or maybe a
little coin into his cup and then walked through. So that
guy was ever before him. They could not deny that something
happened. Here's this fella who was sitting,
who's lame from his mother's womb. How long he been there
at that gate? We have no idea. Scripture doesn't
tell, but I bet you it was a long time. See, it's a good place. At West, I remember at West,
when we lived out there, there's guys, they find a corner that's
lucrative, and they're gonna stay there, right? And they may even send other
family members there to take over when they leave their shift.
There was a family, I think, in Ashland that was doing that,
that, man, these folks, they were making money hand over fist.
My, oh, my. So they couldn't deny the proof
is right there before them. That a miracle's been done in
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And they could not deny it. Oh,
but you know what? The proof was already in the
Law and the Prophets. And they supposedly studied the
Law and the Prophets. They were the who's who, right?
But they didn't know anything. They didn't know Christ. They didn't know him at all.
They knew doctrine. They knew their traditions. They
could probably quote your scriptures, but they did not know the true
and living God. My oh my. And he said himself, the law
and the prophets, they testify of me. That's the Law, Moses
books, and the Prophets. And they all testify of Christ.
Christ is in every one of those books. They all testify of Him. Remember the New Testament is
not written yet. They're preaching Christ through the Old Testament
Scriptures. And they're giving all the glory
to God. So it's obvious a miracle is being performed. It's totally
obvious to the Sanhedrin. They're like, we cannot deny
this. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Look
at verse 14 again. And beholding the man which was
healed, standing with him, they could say nothing against it.
I believe this man was born again. I believe he knew Christ as the
Messiah. And here he is, standing beside
his brothers. You know, I wonder when they
got thrown in jail, did he wait outside the jail? We don't know. He was just so thankful to be
healed, wasn't he? And we know he was leaping and
praising God. Only God's people praise God,
right? Did you praise God before the Lord saved you? I didn't.
I sure do now, right? By the grace and mercy of God.
Oh my. He's rejoicing that his suffering
Savior is resurrected. He had heard Peter, remember?
They were preaching the resurrection through Christ and that's what
got the Sanhedrin all worked up. We see that earlier in the chapter.
They're all worked up that they're preaching Christ as the resurrected
Savior. My Look at Acts chapter four. Oh my, look at this. Look at
verse one, and as they spake, now this is Peter and John. We
always think it was just Peter, but both of them are preaching.
Both of them are preaching. As they spake unto the people. Now remember, 5,000 people the
Lord's gonna save. So how many were listening? We
don't even know. As they spake unto the people,
the priests and the captains of the temples and the Sadducees
came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and
preached what? Through Jesus, the resurrection
from the dead. That's what got the Sanhedrin
so worked up. Right there. They preached resurrection
through Christ. And they hated it. They hated it. So much so, and
it says in verse 3, and they laid hands on them and put them
in and hold them to the next day, for it was now evening time. It was evening. Halabey, look
at verse 4. Many of them which heard the
word believed, and the number of them was about 5,000. All
the Holy Spirit, He just went through there and regenerated.
5,000 men. My, isn't that wonderful? And it shows you the power of
God. See, God's preachers are bound in prison, right? But that
word of God is not bound, is it? The Holy Spirit goes where He
wills. That's why one can, you can have
two sitting and one will hear and the other one goes right
by them. Salvation's of the Lord, isn't
it? It's up to the Lord. Oh my. So here we see them. This man, he's now standing with
them. Listen to the Greek literal Bible in verse 14. And beholding the man, having
been healed, standing with them, they had nothing to contradict.
That's the Greek literal Bible. They could not contradict the
fact that something had happened. They could not. They were muzzled. They can't say it. And as Brother
Jim mentioned, they just lost 3,000 people, and now they've
lost 5,000 more. They've lost 8,000 people that
are given to the temple, just like that. And as you said, Brother
Jim, a couple weeks back, you said they were all about power
and money, and all of a sudden they're gone, just like that.
We were talking about that last night. They're just gone. My oh my. And they were all about
power. They were all about recognition.
So they could not contradict the fact that a miracle had been
done in the name and by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
could not contradict that. And let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord always remember that it's nothing new for the gospel
to be opposed. as you were reading there brother
in that text that's why I had you read that text because it's
absolutely you know even the Lord in his own words said fear
not him who can who can destroy the body but fear him who can
destroy both body and soul in hell that's that's our King that's
look but you know there's no fear of God in man's eyes but there will be and I pray
that it won't be too late I pray the Lord will get a hold of them
before because I'll tell you what, fear will be turned into
trembling and grief if anyone dies, for those who die in their
sins, for those who mock God. Oh my. And it's not strange for
great and official, powerful people and people with influence
to be at the foremost in opposition to the gospel either. Not many
wise, right? God's chosen the foolish things
of the world. Again, I've told you many times that means common.
Common people. I'm a common man who stands before
you, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ and sent to preach his
gospel. Just a common fellow. I got a dear sister from Canada
with me too. Two Canadians, right? No, seriously though. Just normal
people, aren't we? Aren't we, sister? We're just
normal folks who the Lord saved. And you all are normal folks
who the Lord saved. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh,
my. And the opposition of, Spurgeon
said this, I thought this was really neat, the opposition of
ungodly man is natural, seeing that their heart is deprived.
So even before we were saved, there was a natural enmity toward
the gospel and a natural enmity toward God, that even if we didn't
speak it, by our actions, it spoke it. So there's a natural,
The scripture says enmity, which in the Greek is hatred, of God
within us when we're born into this world. And only, this is
the amazing thing, this is the amazing thing about the rebirth,
is God takes enemies and turns us into ones who are praising
him now. It's absolutely amazing. And it's all by his power, isn't
it? It's all by his might. And the
mouth that cursed God at one time now praises his name for
the great things he's done for us and in us. And it's all by
his grace and mercy. It's nothing in us. Oh my. But see, the natural world and
the heart of natural man is enmity toward God. Oh my. And the opposition to the gospel
is endurable, beloved, by the power of God. It's endurable
by the power of God because the Lord and his apostles suffered
it, didn't they? By God's grace and mercy. And by God's grace
and mercy, we will survive any opposition to what we believe
by his mercy. And you know what else it is?
Opposition. Opposition to the gospel is harmless. You think God's up there going,
oh my, that person shouldn't have said that. Oh, I'm so offended. No. He laughs. Scripture says he has them in
derision, confusion. He mocks their calamity. God is a God to be feared with
reverent awe. See, we don't fear him with a
slavish fear. We fear him with a reverent fear. He's God. And that's why God's
people are so thankful that he had mercy upon us in Christ,
because he didn't have to. Oh, but he chose the people in
Christ, didn't he? In old eternity. And those are
the ones who Christ came to redeem. We don't know who they are. I
don't have a clue who they are. I preach the gospel to everyone.
And God does the saving. And you also know it's harmless
if we just commit our cause to God. Right? Someone's in opposition
to you, in opposition to the gospel, more so in opposition
to the gospel. People be in opposition to us all the time. But in opposition
to the gospel, there's no wiggle room in opposition to the gospel,
is there? But it's harmless if you just give it to the Lord.
They're going to say, don't be surprised if you get persecuted
for what you believe by your family members and your friends
and people you used to know, because the Lord said, I come
with a sword. I know my mom, my mother-in-law,
my mom, I call her my mom. She, like myself, has faced things
from her family members. Just give it to God. That's all
we can do. All we can do is take them and lift them up to God
and ask the Lord, please, please save them, if it be your will. That's all we can do. And in
opposition to the gospel is overruled for good. It's overruled for
good. Because by God's divine grace
and wise providence, he takes all things, right, for the believer,
for those in Christ, and works them out for our good and for
his glory, even when we can't understand what's happening.
Isn't that amazing? It's amazing. Oh my. Now let's read verses 15 to 17
of Acts chapter 4. That's our introduction there.
Let's look at this here. It says, but when they had commanded them
to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves.
So here's these Sanhedrin. They say, okay, y'all head over
there. So head over to the library room here. We're going to have
a conference on our own. And then look what they say.
They say, what shall we do to these men? For that indeed a
notable miracle hath been done. Remember they can't contradict
it in the Greek. They can't contradict what had occurred. A miracle
has been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem.
And we cannot deny it. They can't deny it. Too many
people have seen this. Remember the soldiers at the
tomb, they paid them off because not many people saw. Christ only
appeared to his people, didn't he? He didn't appear to everyone
else. He only appeared to his own. My, and here they say we
can't tonight. 5,000 people had heard the gospel
preached. And I'll tell you what, they
ain't silent when they go home. They're saying, you won't believe
this, but it happened. There was a lame man. And Peter,
he proclaimed that in the name of Jesus Christ, that man walked.
Then he proclaimed that Christ is the resurrection and the life,
just like Christ said, right? Remember at the tomb of Lazarus?
He said, I'm the resurrection and the life. Oh, my. So what? We can't deny it. But
that it spread no further. Look at that. Okay, now here
they go. They're back into the shutting the things down. Now,
I'll tell you what. Again, here Peter and John, they
were bound, but we saw the word of God can't be bound, can it?
So you can throw God's preachers in jail, but the Holy Spirit's
still gonna move with the preaching of the gospel. My oh my. Look at this, it says here, but
that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly
threaten them. Oh, oh, they're going to throw, now here we go.
This is what religious people always do. I find this all the
time. They start turning things against you. Start turning things against
you. Well, you believe this. No, I actually don't believe
that. I always ask this now. People say, well, you're a Calvinist. And I said, I want you to define
Calvinist before I answer your question. Because your view of
Calvinism is definitely not going to be my view of Calvinism, I'll
tell you that. Right? And someone said, well, you believe
God sends people to hell. I said, no, sin sends people
to hell. That's what sends people to hell. Now God's chosen to
save some, yeah. Like a governor can pardon people
if he will, right? There can be a hundred men on
death row and he can say, I'm pardoning this fella, I'm pardoning
this fella, pardoning this guy. It's up to the governor, right?
God can choose to do whatever he wills, right? He's a ruler. We're just clay. He's the potter. See, so I always ask people to
define, define what they mean by those things. So here they
are, they're threatening them now. They're like, well, we're
going to threaten them that they speak henceforth no man to this
name. See, now they're proud and arrogant.
Oh, we're the rulers. We're just going to threaten
these guys and they're going to shut up. Well, that passage you read,
brother, they ain't going to shut up. They're not going to shut up.
You can throw one of God's preachers in jail. Here, preach to the
people in jail. You can throw them in a little
town somewhere. You can preach in a little town. Oh, my. It's awesome. And see, the rulers, we see here,
they didn't know how to handle the situation. They're perplexed.
They've been muzzled where they can't say anything, right? They
can't say anything publicly because the people will rise up and say,
there's a miracle that happened here. So they say, we're going
to pull them in privately. We're going to threaten. We're
going to say, you can't speak this name anymore. Have fun. Way to what we see. God's preachers, I'll tell you
what, and God's people, we will serve God rather than man, right? When man's law goes against God's
word, who are we going to listen to? God's word. God's Word. Now we're to obey
the laws of the land, we are, until they go against what our
God says. Oh my. My, oh my. So they couldn't contradict
what happened. And we see immediately these
ungodly Jews, they gather together to intimidate Peter and John.
And you know what? It's gonna fail. Peter and John,
they've been taught by the Holy Spirit of God. They'd been taught
even themselves by Jesus Christ that the doctrine, traditions
of the worldly elders, what was called the tradition of the elders,
was not even biblical. That the Pharisees had all these
traditions of man on that were not even in the Bible. Christ
taught them that. And that's what riled up the
Pharisees. They were like, wow, they won't
even listen to the traditions. No, because they're not in the
Bible. What's our final authority, beloved?
Amen. Amen, brother and sister. The
scriptures. The scriptures is our final authority. That's right. If it's not in this book, I don't
care when the numbers and names behind somebody's name, if it's
not in this book, I'm not gonna believe it. And how does God speak to his
people? Right here, through his word. Everything God has to say
to man is right here. From Genesis to Revelation. That's
it. My oh my. Now as I said in Sunday
School, there's a lot more about God we don't know. And we probably
won't know until we get the glory. But everything we need to know
is right there. And as God, the Holy Spirit, reveals it to us,
what happens to us? When we're born again, and then He starts
revealing these wonderful truths to us, and we just rejoice, don't
we? We just get so excited. Oh my. So 5,000, there's no way they
can deny it, because 5,000 people had been saved. Oh, and these Jewish leaders,
they're still dead in their sins. They're dead in trespasses and
sins. They're not born again. And they say about Peter and
John, two of God's preachers, they say, well, what shall we
do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle
hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem. And we cannot deny it. There's
no way they can deny it. And we see that it's obvious
that these leaders of Israel didn't fear the truth. They didn't
fear the true and living God. They didn't fear Him at all.
Because God's manifest in the flesh. And they crucified Him. And they certainly didn't fear
Peter and John. And they didn't fear the man
that was healed. And they've got a problem now,
because there's 5,000 new believers walking around the city of Jerusalem,
telling people about Christ. Along with maybe the 3,000 others,
well, they were from all different places. And these 5,000 men had
become true followers of Christ. They were born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. They were given faith to believe on Christ. And
they knew that Peter and John were two true representatives
of the master of the Lord Jesus Christ. This lame man knew that,
too. He was standing right beside
them. And here we have in opposition
the self-righteous, false-religious leaders of Israel. That's what
they were. And they did not fear that a
large group of men who were now Christians were ready to stand
with Peter and John. So in verse 16, they asked the
question, what shall we do to these men? What are we gonna
do? They knew if they lay the hand
on Peter and John, that they'd have more trouble than they could
ever handle. Because there's 5,000 new converts. And they're not going to be silent,
are they? They know that already. And note the confession. Note the confession of verse
16. From their own lips, indeed a notable miracle hath been done
by them, is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and
we cannot deny it. They've been muzzled from denying
that a miracle has occurred. In their own words, they say
a notable miracle hath been done. In their own words. My oh my. And one would think
that a miracle that these unbelieving Jews could not deny would have
caused them to be followers of Christ, but we know that it's
only by the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit that we
believe. People can study the Bible, read
the Bible, and not know Christ. You must be born again. Let's read verse, listen to this,
verses 16 and 17. You can compare with the King
James. This is in the literal Bible.
It says this, the literal Greek Bible. It says, what shall we
do to these men? For truly that a noteworthy sign
has come to pass through them is evident to all those inhabiting
Jerusalem. And we are not able to deny it.
but in verse 17 in the Greek literal, but that it might not
spread further on among the people. See, that's their fear. Oh, we
can't let this get into the other people. We're going to lose power. We're going to lose prestige.
We're going to lose money, right? That's exactly what they're thinking. And that it might not spread
further among the people. Let us warn them to speak no longer
to any man in this name. That's in the Greek literal.
To no longer speak at all about Christ. My, oh my. The preaching of the gospel will
face opposition from the enemies of God. It will, it will. But
let us always remember that the only instrument God has ordained,
faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, right? Preaching
the gospel is God's ordained means by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit, right? That he uses, he uses means. And it's the preaching of the
gospel that he uses that gives a hell deserving sinner the desire
to become a true follower of Christ. My oh my, it's a preaching of
his glorious gospel, the gospel of salvation in Christ alone
by absolutely nothing we do. And this is what Peter and John
are preaching. And the Sanhedrin are madder than wet hornets.
They do not want him going telling anyone else because it might
spread. Oh, it sure did, didn't it? by God's providence and by
God's grace, it sure did. You can't bind the Holy Spirit
of God, you can't bind the word of God. Oh my. So with this joy in our hearts
for the majestic triune God, Peter and John preach the gospel
and this is what every one of God's preachers do. We preach
the God honoring truth of salvation in Christ every week. Look at
verse 17 and 18 together. But that it spread no further
among the people, that a straightway threatened them that they speak
henceforth to no man in his name. Now, and they called them and
commanded them. I thought that was interesting,
they commanded them. Do you know Peter and John and
disciples already being commanded by someone to do something? Yeah, go tell the world, go preach
the gospel. They are. So here these men are
going, they're commanding them in opposition to what Christ
had said. Christ said, go and preach the
gospel. Go preach it in all the world. And who's the center of
the gospel? Who's the object of the gospel?
The Lord Jesus Christ. He commands them to go. And now
these men are saying, you don't say a word. Who are they going
to listen to, beloved? Oh my! Look at this. And they called them and commanded
them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. Turn
if you would to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. Now, I
can just hear them saying this with hatefulness. Don't! We're commanding you not to preach
Christ. They just uttered it. They hated
Christ. They hated Christ, beloved. Oh
my! These wicked men, they could
not, you know what? These wicked men could not stop
the ambassadors of Christ from preaching the gospel. You've heard me say many times,
I don't get caught up in all this other stuff. My whole duty here
is to preach Christ, and to be with you, to be a servant of
this church, and to preach the gospel, right? And to be faithful
in that calling, and only by God's grace can I be faithful
in that calling. But that's what I'm commanded to do. And to fellowship
with you and to walk through this life with you. Oh my. But they'd already been
commissioned. Christ had already commissioned
his apostles. Oh my. My oh my. So let us consider
this. They call Peter and John before
them. They command them not to preach or teach in the name of
Christ. And this is a sinful command, beloved, which contradicts
the Word of God. Look at this, Mark, actually,
I'm sorry, I got you over, Matthew, go to Mark, Mark chapter 16,
Mark chapter 16. Now remember too, this is a conflict
between the will of God and the laws of man. Because the Pharisees
and the Sanhedrin, they follow the traditions of man. Who's
gonna win between God's will and the traditions of man? They're
not even a competition, is it? It doesn't even come close. God's
will and purpose will always be accomplished, right? Now look
at this, Mark chapter 16, verses 15 to 16. And he said unto them, go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Who's again, who's the center and the focus of the gospel?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't preach the gospel without
mentioning Christ. You can't. There's a church in
town, they preach a bloodless gospel. That's not the gospel. Without the shed in the blood,
there's no remission of sins. you have to preach Christ and
you have to preach him crucified. They shed blood to redeem our
eternal souls. Go ye into the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." Look at
that. Look at that. So they'd already been commanded.
And here these wicked men are saying to them, in verse 18 they
said, and they called them and commanded them not to speak nor
teach in the name of Jesus. Oh my. So here's a conflict between
the will of God and the laws of man. And we all know who's
going to win. It's not even a competition,
is it? God's will will always, always, always be accomplished. And the believer must obey God
at any cost. So much so, as Brother Tom read
there, fear not he who can destroy the body. Don't fear he who can
kill you, but fear he who can destroy both body and soul in
hell. And that's God. That's God. In all things regarding
civil life and government, believers are to be subject to the power
and authority of the civil rulers. However, if we are required by
law to do that, which is a direct violation of God's word, we are
bound to obey God every single time. And let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord lay to heart Peter and John's answer. Here comes
Peter and John's answer to the sinful command from those ungodly
men. And let us use their example
as an example for us to follow. Look at this in verses 19 and
20, look at this. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than God, judge ye. They put it right back in their
lap. Should we obey you or God? My, oh, my. I remember a young
fellow one time, he was on the phone with someone who he loved,
and the person said to them, it's God or me. It's God or me. And the young fellow said, well,
both. And they said, it's God or me. And he said, well, then
it's always God. Always God, no matter what. No
matter what. My oh my. My oh my. Look at this. He says, for we
cannot speak. We cannot but speak the things
which we have heard and seen, or seen and heard. Now remember,
Peter and John were eyewitnesses to the things of Christ, and
they were also earwitnesses, weren't they? See, we put a lot
of stock in eyewitnesses, but they were double witnesses. They
were eyewitnesses and they were earwitnesses. They had seen and
they had heard the things that Christ did and the things that
he said. My, oh my. So they can't but
speak these things. They can't say anything else. And look, let's read that again. It's a plain and simple answer,
it really is. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye, for we cannot
but speak the things which we've seen and heard. Brother Tom, say you and I are
out witnessing and someone says, well, you need to stop. You need
to stop doing it. Who do we obey? God or we obey
God, don't we brother? Yeah. Oh my. We obey God. This is what they
were faced with. And we see that in verse 20,
they gave the obvious, honest answer to the question. We cannot
but speak the things which we've seen and heard. The reason I
can tell you about Christ is because he saved my soul. If
he hadn't saved my soul, I couldn't tell you nothing about Christ.
Because I didn't know nothing. But praise God, he saved my soul.
And now I'll tell you about the only savior who can save sinners,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what the spirit and bride
say, come, right? Come. I don't care how black
your sin is. I don't care how dark your sin
is. I don't care where you were and what you've done. Come. Come, drink of the water of life
freely, without money and without price. It don't cost nothing.
It's already bought and paid for, this salvation. It's complete
already. I preach about a finished work,
it's done. And all who trust Christ, the scripture says, there's
therefore now no condemnation. There's therefore now no judgment
in the Greek. No judgment for those in Christ
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
Is that good news, Brian? Good news, Brother Travis, isn't
it? That's wonderful. That's wonderful news. No judgment? Never again. You know why? Because
all the believers' sins were judged at Calvary's cross, and
God Almighty in the flesh said, it is finished. The work is done. My, what a Savior, what a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. My, oh my. So they give the only
answer, the only answer that they can. And Peter and John,
they had no way to know what they had been discussing. They didn't know what we're going
to threaten them. Well, they bring them forth and they say
that, and they're like, okay, well, what do we do? Are we going to listen
to you or God? They didn't even know what they
talked about. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. These false religionists,
they set Peter and John aside from their private counsel, and
there was no doubt on John and Peter's minds. They probably
thought, well, they could kill us if they wanted to. Right? We know every man and
woman has an appointment, and that's the appointment that God
has set. And we also know that no one will die until that appointment
comes. And then no one can save us from that appointment. Y'all
know about me, I make doctor's appointments and then I call
and say, oh, I can't make it. After they filled my prescriptions. But see, that's not good. But
the appointment, there's an appointment that every single one of us will
never miss. Now for the believer, that appointment
is glorious because that is the vehicle with which we go through
the door of this life into the presence of the Lord. My, it's
wonderful. It's not something we should
fear, even though by our natural who we are, we can get shook
up, but you know what? God give us grace and strength.
He gives dying grace. You know, people say, well, I
don't know how I'm gonna be when I die. Well, God will give you dying
grace. You don't need it right now, like Jim used to say, right?
Wasn't it Jim used to say? You don't need dying grace till
you're dying. Right? It's true. But God gives his
people dying grace. Oh my. So because the Holy Spirit
of God was in them, the Spirit of Christ, Our Lord Jesus, in
his divine sovereignty, knew that they would be brought before
these ungodly rulers. He already knows. He knows the
end from the beginning, doesn't he? He already knew it all. He's made provision. And he knew
that these ungodly rulers would hate them just as much as they
hated him. He said, if they hate you, they
hated me first. Right? Listen to what our Lord
said in Luke chapter 21 in verses 14 and 15. Listen to this. Settle
it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall
answer. So when they're bought before
the enemies, they're not supposed to even think about what they're
gonna answer. Listen to this. For I will give you a mouth and
wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay
nor resist." Luke 21, verses 14 to 15. He gives the words
to his people to speak. Isn't that amazing? So the question
put before Peter and John by these ungodly men, and the responsibility
before the Lord Jesus Christ to obey him in speaking those
things, which had been seen and heard could not be argued against.
The wisdom they displayed before the Sanhedrin all came from the
Lord Jesus Christ. See, he gets all the glory, doesn't
he? He gets all the honor and praise. And it's all in fulfillment
of what he promised there in Luke 21, verses 14 and 15. We
see that right before us here. And let us remember that all
of God's born-again children have the same blessed Holy Spirit
of God dwelling in us. We have Christ in us, the hope
of glory. The same one who dwelt in the hearts of Peter and John.
And again, as I said in Sunday school, and I've said probably
a thousand times, any wisdom we have comes from God. Right? So we can't think we're ourselves
wise, we can't boast. We can only boast in Christ.
He's the only one we can boast in. Mike, all the stuff you learned
about all that metal work and all that stuff, the Lord gave
you all that knowledge. He's amazing. Just incredible. And anything you know about Christ,
He gave it all to you. It's just, it's absolutely incredible.
Absolutely amazing. And all of God's people being
delivered from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the
kingdom of light, right? We've been transformed by God.
I was in the, were you in the kingdom of darkness? I sure was.
And now we're in the kingdom of God's dear son. All by God's
power. Turn if you would to 1 Peter
3. 1 Peter 3. Oh my. Now we're called to be faithful
witnesses of Christ. We are now to proclaim what we've
heard and what we've seen. Have you seen God at work in
your life? Have you seen the things, the great mighty work
he's done in you and for you? Proclaim it. Isn't that wonderful? You know, remember what I always
say, people muddle up witnessing and say, oh, witnessing, that's
so hard. Witness isn't just telling people the great things God done
for you, that's all it is. That's all, Christ saved my soul.
Hallelujah. He washed me in his precious
blood. Look at this in 1 Peter chapter
3. We'll read verses 12 to 18. For the eyes of the Lord are
over the righteous. You know his eyes are ever on
us? And they're eyes of love. Remember last week we saw that
look that the Lord gave Peter, the look of love? He just denied
the Lord three times, and the Lord looks at him. And that's
a look of love. That's not a look of condemnation.
That's a look of love. For the eyes of the Lord are
over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. But
the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is
he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is
good? But, and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are
ye. Now these saints that Peter's written to, they are being persecuted
for their faith. They're scattered all abroad,
in Asia, in Cappadocia, in Bithynia, they're scattered all over the
place. And they're being persecuted for what they believe. He says, but if ye suffer for
righteousness' sake, happy are ye. And be not afraid of their
terror, neither be trouble. exactly what Brother Tom read
too, and what we're seeing with Peter and John. But sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always, here's something
important for every believer, be always ready to give an answer
to every man that seeketh you a reason of the hope that is
in you with meekness and fear. What a hope we have in Christ
Jesus our Lord. And it says, having a good conscience
that whereas they speak evil of you, and they will, they speak
evil of God's servants, and as of evil doers, that they may
be ashamedly, that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer
for well doing than for evil doing. Look at this, for Christ,
Christ has also suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. The just, the sinless one. For
who? The sinners. Ungodly. Unjust sinners. That he what? Might bring us to God. Reconciled
to God through the precious blood of Christ. Being put to death
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, born again. Oh my,
look at that. Christ also has once suffered.
Just once. It's done. It's finished, right?
It's finished. The payment for every one of
my sins is already done. Let us live in the victory in
Christ. Oh my, He's delivered us from
the guilt of our sin. He's delivered us from the condemnation
of our sin. He's delivered us from the power
of sin. And one day soon, He's gonna deliver us from the presence
of our sin. We can't wait. Oh, it's going to be glorious.
It's going to be glorious. But he suffered, the just one,
the sinless one, for sinners, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
So brethren, we're to sanctify the Lord God in our heart. Which
simply means that we're to be aware that Christ Jesus is right
here with us. He's with us always. He said,
I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Never. Never. He's taken up residence in our
heart, hasn't he? Remember what Henry said, we're
under new management? So true, isn't it? You know what
scriptures declare this? Listen to this. I put that in
the bulletin, but I'm going to read, it's Psalm 46.1. God, who
is our refuge? Jesus Christ. Who's Christ? God. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. very present help. See, the gods
of people's imaginations are, they're just that. They're not
gods at all. They're not there to help. But our god Psalm 46,
1. Our God is our refuge and strength,
the very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, through the mountains shake with the swelling thereof,
sea loss. Psalm 46, verses 1 to 3. Trust
in Christ. Rest in Christ. You remember,
you know who the true believer rests in? The one who came up
from underneath that ship and the bottom of that ship, and
there was a tempest going, and in the Greek, that tempest is
like a hurricane. And the wind is blowing and the
rain is beating, and he just says, peace, be still. What happened? It was still, wasn't it? Did that storm rage on for another
five seconds? Just like that. That's our God.
That's our Savior. That's our Redeemer. And you
know, the hardest thing for us to do is just rest in that. Rest
in Him, isn't it? Joe Terrell said that one time.
He said, the hardest thing for we as believers is just to rest
in Christ. But that's what we need to do.
Just rest in Him. Just cast ourselves upon Him.
Look on Him. Oh my, that's why I'm gonna,
as long as God gives me breath, and as long as he has me here,
I'm just gonna keep pointing you to Christ. He's the only
hope, isn't he? We're gonna look at it from different
scriptures, but he's the only hope. Who's Peter's only hope? Who's John's only hope? They
tell him, shut up, shut up, you can't speak that name. That's
the name above all names. How can I be quiet about the
one who saved my soul? I can't, can you? No. My, He's
our Redeemer. He's our Savior. So let us always,
always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within
us. Oh, Scripture says this, that
which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye
also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things
write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 1 John 1, verses
3 and 4, that your joy may be full. Look to Christ, and I'll
tell you, your joy will be full when you look into Christ. Right? We all know that. Oh my. Oh my. And it's every believer's
responsibility to declare Christ. To declare Christ. Declare what
we've seen and heard. Declare what He's done for us.
Oh my. We can't declare heresy or hearsay. I can't tell you about somewhere
I've never been. Right? Brother Tom, you're from
Tennessee. It's a small town you grew up.
You can tell me about that place. You're from there. But I can't
tell you about it. I've not been there yet. But
you've not been to my hometown. But I can tell you all about
my hometown in Canada. Right? Just the same, I can't declare
Christ to you unless Christ has manifested himself to me. Unless
I'm born again. Right? Can't speak of somewhere
we've never been. So all Peter and John had seen
and heard Christ, all they could do is declare Christ. That's
all they could do. My, my oh my. Have we, by the gift of true
saving faith, seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
If so, let us tell others. Have we, by faith only God can
give, heard the life-giving voice of the Lord Jesus Christ preaching
through his word? Let us tell others. Oh my, if we've heard the voice
of our Lord Jesus Christ through the preaching of his word, then
we can give an answer for the hope that lies within us. And
the hope is not anything in me. The hope is Christ, isn't it? That's the hope of every believer.
So even when we're telling people about Christ, we're telling them
about Christ. We're not telling them about
us. Look what Christ has done. He
saved my soul. Oh, my. And we've heard that
Jesus Christ is our Creator, who spoke everything into existence.
Well, if we've heard that and we believe it, we're going to
declare it to be true then, aren't we? Yeah, we are. Oh, we've heard that Jesus Christ
is God's only begotten Son, the second person of the Blessed
Trinity. If we've really heard that, we're going to declare
that. He's the Son of God. Oh my. He's my Savior. Is He
yours? He's the only Savior of sinners.
There's no other Savior but Christ. Oh my. And then we've heard that
Jesus Christ, our Sovereign Creator, humbled Himself. He humbled Himself. He became a man. Why? Why did Christ become a man?
So that he could honor the law of God for his people, and most
importantly, to save his people from their sins and to establish
the perfect righteousness that could allow us to be in the presence
of God. See, righteousness is not spoken
of very much anymore in preaching, but it's vital. Righteousness only comes from
Christ, true righteousness, that makes us acceptable to God. We
must be clothed in Christ's righteousness. Remember the prodigal son's dad
said, bring forth the best robe? That pictures the righteousness
of Christ. And put it on him. Who clothes us in the righteousness
of Christ? God the Father. He's the one who does it. We've
ceased trying to establish our own righteousness because we
found out that our righteousness is like filthy rags in the eyes
of the Lord. But praise God, clothed in the righteousness
of Christ, He don't see my sin no more. Is that good news for
sinners? That's good news, isn't it? That's
really good news. My, let us walk in that truth.
Let us rejoice. We can leave here, beloved, rejoicing. in the Son of God, in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we've heard that Jesus Christ,
by the supreme sacrifice of Himself at Calvary's Cross, obtained
eternal redemption for His people. He did it all. He obtained, Scripture
says, He obtained eternal redemption for us. He did it all. Oh my, and we've also heard that
He's purged our sin, all our sins from God's sight. So much
so that God says, I don't remember him anymore. No. How could we not but speak about
him, Brother Tom, right? How could we not but give him praise?
How could we not but do it after we found out that all our sins,
every one, past, present, and all the future, because all our
sins were future at Calvary School, they're all forgiven. What a
Savior. What a mighty God. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh my. Now we've heard that the
risen, exalted God-man reigns. Right now. Reigns at the right
hand of the Father. In power and majesty. Ruling
over all. You know why men get mad at God's
sovereignty? Because it offends their pride
and they think, Surely I can do it myself. Nope. My oh my. God reigns, beloved. He reigns. And we declare what
we've learned, we declare it to be truth, don't we? We declare
it. This is truth. And we've heard
that salvation is from the Lord from start to finish. He's the
Alpha of our salvation, the scripture says, and He's the Omega. You
know what that means? Those are the first and the last
letter of the Greek alphabet. That means he's the first, he's
the A, and he's the Z in ours. But he's the alpha and the omega.
And you know what? Is he everything in between,
too? Is there anything of ours doing in between? There's nothing. Salvation's of the Lord, period. And those he saves, I love this,
he keeps. He keeps us. He said, I'll never,
in the Greek, it's never, not ever, never. In English, it's I'll never leave
thee nor forsake thee. It's in the triple negative in
the Greek. Never, not ever, no. My, that make your heart sing?
Oh, my. Absolutely wonderful, isn't it?
Absolutely wonderful brother Dan. Can you close us in prayer
today brother?