My. Open your Bibles, if you
would, to the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts, Chapter 1. Today we're starting a new study
in the Book of Acts, this wonderful book. And we will see what occurs
to the church after Pentecost, when over 3,000 souls were added
to the church. Men from all different countries
hearing the gospel in their own tongue. In their own language,
that's what the tongues mean in the Greek. It's a known language,
so they heard the gospel in their known language. And by the power
of God the Holy Spirit, by power from on high, oh my, they were
regenerated and given faith to believe that which they heard,
which was the gospel of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ in Him alone. Now, the Book of Acts is an inspired
history of the apostolic ministry of the early church, covering
a period of time of 30 to 35 years. And the central theme
all through this book is the ascension of the Lordship of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will see that which the early
church preached, which was Christ and Him crucified. That's who
they preach. They preach Christ. Remember,
as we're going through this book, they did not have the New Testament.
It hadn't even been written. So they're preaching Christ,
beloved, from the Old Testament scriptures. That's all they had. That's all they had. And they
are preaching and proclaiming that salvation only comes in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And this wonderful book is authored,
of course, by the Holy Spirit of God. Luke is the man who penned
the book, but the true author is the Holy Spirit of God. And Luke is the one, of course,
there's a gospel narrative that bears his name, the gospel according
to Luke, but we know that gospel is what? All about Christ, right?
All about Christ. Brother Jack Shanks brought this
forth, He said, the book of Acts begins where the gospel of Luke
ends. With the ascension of Christ, it is a history of the church
in its infancy, showing God's constant care and special providence
for it. Never forget, never forget that
we as a church are under God's constant care. And I'm not talking
the building. The church is the people. The
ecclesia, the called out ones. we are under God's constant care.
Isn't that wonderful? No matter what we're going through,
no matter what we see going on in this world, we are under the
constant care of God. Isn't that amazing? Brother Tom,
when you were going on all them trips, you were under the constant
care of God. He has his eye upon you the whole
time. and safely brought you back home,
took you there, brought you back home, all them trips. And that's
the same for any, whether we're just driving down the road too,
going home this afternoon. Right? If it be God's will that
we arrive safely home, praise His mighty name. Praise His mighty
name. So we'll look at the first few
verses here, verses one to eight, if we can get through them. But
there's five important lessons, five points I'm gonna set before
us. in this portion of scripture for our learning. And I pray,
I pray that God the Holy Spirit illuminates the scriptures for
us, because otherwise we won't learn anything. But if he illuminates
the scriptures for us, and he teaches us the things of Christ,
then, oh my, we'll leave here rejoicing, won't we, at the wonderful
things God's done. So let's read verses one to eight.
The former trustee have I made, O Theopolis, of all that Jesus
began both to do and teach. Until the day in which he was
taken up, after that he had, through the Holy Ghost, had given
commandments unto the apostles, whom, look at this, whom he had
what? Chosen. Right there, isn't it? Chosen the God. Isn't that wonderful? Praise God, he included me! See
how fitting that sounds? Jill didn't even know what I
was going to preach on. See how fitting that was? Isn't that
amazing how God is? Oh my. To whom also he showed
himself alive after his passion, that's after his death, by many
infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking
of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled
together with them, commanded them that they should not depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which,
saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water, but she shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. Remember, the Lord said, I'm going to send you a
comforter. So that's what he's talking about here. When they,
therefore, were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times
or the seasons. See, we don't have to worry about
when Christ is coming back. Look at that. You ever hear people
say, well, well, you know, I know it's the times. We have no clue.
Or you can tell it's, we're in a season. You know what? The
saints of old said the same thing, didn't they? Look at this verse
should shut our mouths to anything like that. Only God knows. Only
God knows. when Christ is coming back. We
shouldn't even speculate. We know He said He's coming.
I'll praise God He's coming. We know He is coming. And that's
good enough for me. Is it good enough for you? He's
coming back. He's coming back. Look at that. It's not for you to know the
times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power.
But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come
upon you. Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and
in Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. So he's selling them there. They're gonna be witnesses in
Judah, in Samaria, in all the uttermost parts of the earth. You remember the known world. What they called the world, the
Romans called the world, was only their empire. Everybody
else was just a bunch of dogs. And the same with the Jews, right?
Anyone outside of them were just Gentile dogs. Isn't that what? So when he's
talking about the outermost parts of the earth, that's going to
the Gentiles. And now we see the gospel, right?
It's going all over the place, isn't it? Through Sermon Audio
now? And through other means, it's
going all over the place. My oh my. So this has come to
pass. Turn, if you would, to the book
of Luke. This book of Acts was written
by Paul's traveling companion, Luke, the physician. And we see
in verse 1 that it's addressed, in Acts chapter 1, we see here
that this book is addressed to Theopolis. The former trustee
have I made, O Theopolis, of all that Jesus began both to
do and to teach. So he's writing Theopolis to
tell him what the Lord's done and what he taught. And we get
the blessings of reading about this. And the Holy Spirit, now
the Holy Spirit didn't have the four gospel, the writers of the
four gospels pen everything that the Lord said, because you know
why? The world couldn't contain all that would be written about
him. That's the last verse in the book of John. My oh my. So look at this though,
in Luke chapter 1, verses 1 to 4. Luke chapter 1, verses 1 to
4. And remember, the gospel of Luke,
all the scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. The
true author of all the Bible is God the Holy Spirit. Always
got to keep that in mind. Always got to keep that in mind.
Look at this, for as much as many have taken in hand to set
forth in order a declaration of those things which most surely
believed among us. See, the writers of the Gospels,
they wrote about things that are most surely believed among
us. They're believed among us. Isn't it wonderful? God's given
us eyes to see and to believe, faith to believe these words.
It's wonderful. even as they delivered them unto
us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers
of the word. So he's talking about the apostles
there. It seemed good to me also, having
had perfect understanding of all things, from the very first
to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theopolis, same
fellow that the book of Acts is written to. that thou mightest
know the certainty of these things wherein thou hast been instructed.
So he's heard the gospel. He's been instructed in the gospel.
And Luke wrote this, isn't that amazing? The book of Luke is
a letter written to Theopolis that he might most certainly
believe, be most certain in what he believes, grounding him. And we get the blessings of reading
all these wonderful gospel narratives, don't we? Even now. My. So, again, Brother Jack Shanks
brings this forth. He said, God the Holy Spirit
picked up where he left off at the close of Luke's gospel narrative
to Theopolis. So the Book of Acts is another
letter written to Theopolis, right, about the early church,
about what happened. And the book of Acts begins with
some instruction from our Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples
just before they witness his ascension up into glory, and
ends with a record of Paul's imprisonment at Rome. And some of the copies of this
book title the book, The Acts of the Apostles. John Gale said
it contains a history of the ministry and miracles of the
apostles of Christ. So we're going to see a history
of what occurred. It's being preserved by the Holy
Spirit of God for us to see the history. But it's not just, we're
not going to benefit from it just because it's history. We
desire to benefit from it because it speaks all about Christ. We
want to see Christ. We want to see the mighty hand
of God at work and we will. We will see His sovereign protection
over the church and over His people and how He gives His people
power to proclaim Christ and Him crucified. Let's read verses
1 to 3 to start our study. Look at this. The former trustee
have I made O Theopolis of all that Jesus began to both to do
and to teach until the day in which he was taken up after that
he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles
whom he had chosen. My oh my. Luke again makes a
connection between the book of Luke and
the Acts of the Apostles, by showing us it's written to the
same man, his name is Theopolis. He appears to be a man of rank
and honor. Luke was a physician, and several
commentators, Jack Shank brought this forth too, that he appears
to be a man of rank and honor, like a nobleman. And we know the scripture declares
that not many noble are called, but we see here that some of
God's chosen are of that rank. Not many, but some. God's chosen common folks like
you and I. That's what the word foolish,
people look at that and say, oh, you guys are a bunch of fools.
No, that means in the Greek just common. God chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, the common things of
the world. I'm a son of a trailer mechanic and the son of a housewife. Just a common fellow. I know most of your histories,
we're just common folks, aren't we? Who the Lord has saved. Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. I'll tell you why. I'll tell
you why. So not many prominent men are
called out of darkness by God's sovereign power and inward, irresistible,
efficacious call from God, but we see here there's some. And
we know that Luke was one of God's elect, and I believe Theopolis
was, too, simply because of the instruction in Luke 1, verse
4. It says that thou mightest know
the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. So he had heard the gospel. He'd been instructed in the gospel.
And the name Theopolis, I found this interesting, means either
lover of God or loved of God. Isn't that wonderful? I love
how the old names had such a meaning. Our names do too, but we never
look up what our names mean. But it's always interesting to
look up what your name means. And especially through scripture,
I find it just incredible to see this. Here's a man, his name
was Lover of God or Loved of God, that's what it meant. And
he was loved of God, wasn't he? He probably said, praise God
he included me to say those exact words, but he could have, couldn't
he? In eternity. And we see in verse 1 that Luke
describes the gospel he penned as a trustee of all that Jesus
began in his own gospel to teach until the day which he was taken
up. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, they didn't record
every single word. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
21. They didn't record every single word and every single
deed that Christ did. And we're going to see why. And
think of who Christ is. He's God. There's many things
He did that we don't even know. Now, will we learn those in heaven?
I hope so. That'd be kind of neat, wouldn't
it? We're going to learn more about
God, I believe, in heaven and who He is. That's just my own opinion, though,
so that's... I stopped preaching for a second
there. But that's just my own opinion. But still, you know,
look at this. Look at this in John, John chapter
21, verses 24 and 25. Look at this. This is the disciple which testified
of these things and wrote these things, and we know that his
testimony is true. Look at this. And there are also
many other things which Jesus did. The witch, if they should be
written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that should be written. Amen. You know, all
that we know about Christ and all that we know about God, He's
revealed to us exactly what He wanted us to know. Isn't that
wonderful? And we can't know it in our natural
state. It has to be revealed to us.
We have to be given faith to believe these words, otherwise
we'd never believe them. But look at that. All the things
that our Savior did, if they were written, this whole world
couldn't contain all the books. Remember, he's God. He created
everything. They'd have to write about how
he just spoke everything into existence, all the eternity that
he was God in heaven. And then he became a man, God
on earth, the God-man. Couldn't even, the whole world
couldn't even contain the books just written about him. Oh, and where he is now, he's
in heaven, where we will be soon as God's people. It's wonderful,
all because of his grace and mercy. So the first point today
is, I'd like us to look at through this portion of scripture, is
Christ is the lawgiver of the church, the only one. There's
no other lawgiver except for Christ. Look at verse two. It says, until that day in which
he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given
commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. Now man in
religion likes to usurp authority over other man. But beloved God
is the one who's given us commandments. Christ is the one who's given
us commandments. We obey him. Again, as we saw in the Sunday
School, and the reason we do is because we're motivated by
love. We're motivated by love. One thing that we can be certain
of, that our dear brother Luke, again, and the other writers
of the Gospels, they did not record everything Christ did,
but they did record everything that the Holy Spirit wanted them
to record. Everything in this book is what
the Holy Spirit wanted to be recorded. There's so much about
God we don't even know. He has no beginning, no end. We have a beginning and an end.
He doesn't have none. He dwells in eternity, outside
time and space. We're locked in time and space
until the Lord takes us home. Just a few things to ponder. As one of our dear sisters said,
we're just created beings and he is the infinite one. My, oh my. We know that all scriptures
given by inspiration of God, right? 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17
says, all scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. That's why we have the scriptures. They show us the one needful
thing for us, don't they? Christ, Christ, Christ and Him
alone. He's the one needful thing for
us. Oh my. And let us ponder God's
amazing sovereign grace. He gives these commandments to
the disciples and then He gives them the grace and strength to
do them. Isn't that incredible? Oh, our infinitely wise majestic
God made sure that this holy inspired book was included in
the canon of scripture too. Remember, it's just a letter
to Theopolis, and here we see it preserved before us. God will
preserve his word, won't he? Isn't that wonderful? It was
just a letter. How many letters do we have sitting
in boxes that people wrote us? I have a whole box of letters
my little girl wrote me. She wrote me all these little
letters when she was little. I got them in a box. Kept them. And they're for nobody else to
read but me. Right? Here's a letter to the church.
Here's a letter to God's people, written to them. Written thousands
of years ago for you and I. And the only way we can understand
it is if we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God and given
faith to believe. And we rejoice. We rejoice in
these wonderful words, don't we? And think of this. This book is addressed to Theopolis,
but it's for all God's children. It's for all his born-again,
blood-washed children. And we get the benefit of studying
it now, 2,000 years later. My. And this is a study, again, on
the Acts of the Apostles. From the time it was written
until the blessed return of the Lord Jesus Christ, our exalted
King and our Savior, this wonderful book is all about Him, and it's
for all the saints of all the generations. If the Lord tarries, if He tarries and we're gone
and there's another generation of believers, it's for them.
Isn't that wonderful? It's for God's people. And I
think, I knew nothing about the scripture. I still don't know
hardly anything. And yet here, the Lord reveals
the scriptures to us now and teaches us. And we get together
and we read them. And we're so full of joy at what
Christ did for us. And we're so full of joy at his
sovereign, gracious hand at work. And we can say, wow, he took
care of the church then. He's surely going to take care
of the church now. He surely had his eye upon every one of
his people then. He still surely has his eye upon
everyone now, because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He doesn't change. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my,
it just fills your heart with joy, doesn't it? Oh, it's wonderful.
It's wonderful. And if we have the Holy Spirit
dwelling on us, we'll receive and believe these truths, won't
we? Just like Theopilus did. We'll go, praise be to God. Christ was sent to die for my
sins. Ain't it wonderful? My second
point I'd like us to consider in this text is found in verse
3 that Christ Jesus our Lord gave many infallible truths and
proofs of his resurrection. He really did die and he really
did rise again. Now that's our hope, isn't it? Because he was raised for our
justification. That we may be able to stand
in front of God justified by God. through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So then God becomes both the
just one, right, upholding his justice, which was poured out
on Christ, and he also becomes the justifier of his people.
My! And we are just receivers of
this mercy and grace. Salvation's all of the Lord,
from beginning to the middle, To the end, he's the author,
and praise God, he's the finisher of our salvation. And ye are
complete in him. Oh my, amen, brother, amen. Look
at verse three. To whom also he showed himself
alive after his passion, that's after his death, by many infallible
proofs, undeniable proofs, beloved. undeniable proofs being set seen
of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of god so our wonderful merciful savior revealed himself
to his disciples publicly and privately giving irrefutable
proof of his resurrection turn if you would the first corinthians
first corinthians our lord our lord first corinthians chapter
fifteen We'll read verses 3 to 6. Our Lord spent 40 days on
this earth after his resurrection, eating and drinking and walking
and talking with the disciples, showing them his hands and his
side where the nails and the spear had pierced him. And he
taught them many things concerning the kingdom of God. Look what
it says here in 1 Corinthians 15 verses three to six. For I
delivered unto you, this is Paul writing to the Corinthians, for
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.
See, we're receivers of the grace and mercy of God, aren't we?
Isn't that wonderful? And that he was buried, he died.
He went to that cross and he died, and he was buried. He was
in the tomb. And that he rose again the third
day according to the scriptures, according to exactly what God
had planned and purposed, exactly what he planned and purposed.
After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom
the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen
asleep. Now these men and women who saw
him, they testified that they saw Christ. They testified that
they saw him. They saw the risen Christ. Now
they were scorned and rejected by those around them because
of it. But we see in verse three that after his passion, after
his death, he appeared to his people. After his sacrificial
death, after his substitutionary death on the cross to redeem
his people from their sins by the shedding of his precious
blood, He saved his elect. He saved his chosen. Our conquering
king, our conquering captain, rose from the grave. Conquering
king. Death couldn't hold him. He's
sinless. Couldn't hold him, beloved. Couldn't
hold him. And he rose from the dead on
the third day. And for 40 days after his resurrection,
by many infallible proofs we see, In verse 3, our risen Savior
showed himself alive. Alive. Not only to his chosen apostles,
but also to many of his other chosen disciples who believed
on him. And what we just read in 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle
Paul told us that he was seen of above 500 brethren. 500 brethren. at once. It says here, after
that he was seen of about 500 brethren at once. So it wasn't
just the apostles that saw him. But it was 500 more brethren. And while Paul was writing his
epistle to the church at Corinth, many of those 500 disciples were
still alive. Some had fallen asleep. but many
of them were still alive. Here's something for us to ponder.
Although many ungodly reprobates had seen Jesus Christ here in
his public ministry, not one of them saw him after he rose
from the dead. He only appeared to his people. Isn't that something? He only
appeared to his people. My oh my. No one saw the resurrected God-man,
but those who He was pleased to reveal Himself to." Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Oh, our God is so good, isn't He? Oh, He's so good! He's so
good, He reveals Himself to us. Only those who are born again
by the blood washed, and washed in the blood by the blood of
Christ, born again by the Holy Spirit of God, shall see the
glory of God in Christ Jesus in glory. That's all. Now, we don't see him with our
physical eyes, do we? But we sure see him by God-given faith,
don't we? We see him now by God-given faith. You can't tell me my Savior
don't exist. I had a guy last week say, well,
God don't exist. I said, he laughs at you. He
laughs at you. You know, people tell folks,
God loves you. God loves you so much. He loves
everybody. Really? Well, then how come everybody's
not saved? And then you get these fellows,
they just say, I don't believe God exists. And you know why
they brashly say that? Because somebody told them that
God loves everybody. And I looked at this man and I said, God just
laughs at you. He just laughs. He keeps you
in derision. That's what scripture says, right?
In the book of Psalms. My, oh my. Praise God. He included me. Praise God. Let we say, praise God, he included
me. Because I could be just like
that man I talked to. If God hadn't saved me, I'd be
just like him. I know I would have been. My,
oh my. My oh my, what a savior, what
a redeemer. Do you know that's only God who's
commanded the light to shine in our hearts? Listen to this. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 6 and
7. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Salvations of the Lord. No man
or woman can save themselves. No man, woman, or child can save
themselves. salvations of the Lord. We rejoice
in that now, don't we? And we're going to see that all
through this book. We're going to see salvations of the Lord.
It's all by his power and his doing. Consider these words of
our Lord Jesus Christ when he said, I thank the old Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, but has revealed them unto babes.
That's what we are. See, not many noble are called.
God's hid them, hid these things from the wise and the prudent. And Lord Jesus Christ went on
to say this, too. All things are delivered unto me of my father.
No man knoweth the son, but the father neither knoweth any man.
The father saved the son. And he to whomsoever the son
will reveal him. The only reason we know that
Jehovah is God is because God has revealed it to us, beloved.
Why? Because he included us in eternity. Praise God. I can't believe how
fitting that song is with this message. Praise God. He included me. My And during these 40 days, our
Lord proved himself to be risen. He appeared. He appeared to his
people. My, oh my. And let us ponder this as well,
that the Lord would not have contradicted himself from what
he taught during his public ministry. He said this, the kingdom of
God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, lo here
or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17, 20 and 21. The Holy Spirit, except verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
or perceive or understand the kingdom of God. Did we, before the Lord saved
us? We had no clue, did we? And then our Lord, when he smoked
the pot, he said, my kingdom is not of this world. It's not
of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews? But now is my kingdom not from
hence, John 18, 36. My. And these truths concerning the
kingdom of God will be very important as we go through this book. As
we go through this book, they'll be very important. Look at the, this is the third
point, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a promise of the Father. Do
you know that? You know Christ in us, the hope
of glory, the Holy Spirit in us is a fulfillment of the promise
of God. Look at Acts chapter 1 verses
4 and 5. And being assembled together
with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, look at that, which saith
he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many
days hence. Now there's thousands of promises,
aren't there, in the Scriptures. There's so many promises in the
Scriptures. But only the promise of the Spirit
is called the promise of the Father. My, oh my. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
14. I'll read a scripture in Joel
chapter 228 in the Old Testament says this, and it shall come
to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesize, your old men
shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Now people
taking that scripture and just warped it. Speaking of the Holy Ghost in
us. Look at this John 14, John 14 Our Lord Jesus Christ promised
his disciples the gift of the Spirit from the Father. Look
at this, verses 16 and 17. And I will pray the Father, and
he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
Remember our Lord said, the promise of the Father which ye have heard
of me, this is it, right here. Even the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, look at that. The world can't receive
it, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know
him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Now turn
over one more chapter to John chapter 15, and we'll read verse 26. So this
is a promise of the Father. Verse 26, John 15, but when the
Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you. See, remember,
the Holy Spirit sent. We looked at that in Sunday school
a few weeks ago, remember? He sent. Is He sent to everyone? No, but He's sent for all who
Christ redeemed, right? Remember, because you are sons,
God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, whereby
we now cry, Abba, Father. He sent specifically to God's
people those who, as Sister Jill sang, were included in God's
plan and purpose for eternity in Christ. My, it's just incredible. I'll tell you why. I'll tell
you why. But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify
of me." Look at that. Now turn one more chapter over,
John 16. See, this is emphasized in the book
of John. And our Lord just told them,
you assemble in Jerusalem, right? He commanded them that they should
not depart from Jerusalem. But wait for the promise of the
Father, which, saith he, ye have heard from me." And we're reading
that right now. Look at this, John 16, verse 7. Nevertheless,
I tell you, it is expedient for you that I go away. He's saying,
I have to go, I have to go to the cross. I have to, I have
to be, I have to be risen from the grave. Why? Well, he had
to go to the cross to redeem us, didn't he? And he had to,
he had to be raised from the dead to justify us. My, oh, my. And then he had to
go so the Comforter could come. This is beautiful. This is just
so, this is just grace piled upon grace, piled upon grace,
beloved. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,
I will send him unto you. We're living proof of that, aren't
we? We who are the born-again, blood-washed saints of God, we're
living proof of that. And this is just before our Lord
ascended to heaven with his apostles. He commanded them, you don't
depart from Jerusalem. Now, why would they be thinking
of departing? Well, because their fear of the
Jews. The master had just been crucified,
but now he's appeared to them. And they knew what they'd done
to the master. My, oh, my. Some of them might not want to
go back to Jerusalem. Some of them might have thought,
I'm not going back there. Well, yeah, you are. And you're going
to stay there. You're going to stay there. And
they did, didn't they? They did. Think of this, too. Where the
king is, there's power. Ecclesiastes 8.4 says, where
the word of the king is, there's power. This is the king of kings
and the Lord of lords. He's saying, you stay in Jerusalem.
You think any of them are going to leave? Nope. Nope. He won't let them either, will
he? And he says, and I'm going to send you the comforter. He's
coming. And the comforter was sent that
they might be filled with the Holy
Spirit of God and preach the gospel. Power from on high is
the name of the messages. We can't do, I can't stand in
front of you and preach the gospel unless power from on high. Unless
I'm allowed to. Unless God gives me the message.
Right? And unless God gives me the strength
and the grace to preach and proclaim. I've told you what I pray all
the time before I come in the pulpit. I always ask the Father,
don't let me get in the pulpit by myself. Go before me, Father. Go before me, Lord Jesus. Right? Oh my. So we see in Acts, the
fourth verse of Acts chapter one, that our Lord told the apostles,
he said, don't you leave. Because the promise of the Father,
the Holy Ghost, is coming. Now, look at the fourth point
in our text. Even the most gifted men in the
world are only fallible men, and sometimes confused. Look at verses 6 and 7. When
they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times
and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. So
the question that the apostles here are asking the Lord Jesus
Christ plainly shows that their minds, even after the death and
resurrection of our Savior, were still warped with the same
Jewish idea of an earthly kingdom. And we see that they're curious
about the fulfillment of prophecy. They did not yet understand the
spiritual nature of the kingdom of God. Remember our Lord taught
our Father that my kingdom is not of this world. Now, these men were faithful,
they were believing men, they were loyal to Christ, but we
see that they're only men. They're only men. We're all susceptible
to the worst sin, beloved. that we could ever think, but
for the grace of God. Two things we can learn here.
There's no infallible men in this world. None. We see the apostles themselves
were not infallible. Now there's a fella in Rome who
claims to be infallible. He wears a funny hat, and he
claims to be infallible. And they say what he speaks is,
man, you got to bow before it. That's just a lie from the pit
of hell, beloved. Right here. This book. is a hymn book. It's about the only infallible
man, the only perfect man, the only sinless man who ever lived.
And his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. So something we can learn
from this text here is that even the apostles were not infallible.
They wrote the Holy Scriptures, right, by the infallible direction
of God the Holy Spirit. But what they wrote What they
wrote is the infallible, inerrant word of God, but the apostles
themselves were just men. They were just safe sinners like
us. That's all they were. So, and number two, the second
thing we should learn from this is we ought to be patient and
forbearing with one another's faults, weaknesses, failures. Note something here. There's
not a bit of anger from the Lord. with them asking this question.
It really is a foolish question. Right? There's no anger. Remember
Peter? Remember if Peter denied the
Lord three times? Peter, do you love me? He didn't even mention
what he did! Do you love me, Peter? Yea, Lord,
you know! Three times! Peter, do you love
me? See? God says, I won't remember
your sins no more. They're the risen Savior. He
already paid the debt for their sins, didn't he? They don't know it, but their
sins are blotted out. Well, they do know it, because
they're going to preach it. Their sins are blotted out. My, oh
my, let us live in that, beloved. Let us live in that wonderful
truth. And what's the lesson in verse
7 as well? What's the lesson in verse 7 as well which says,
and he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times
or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. What's
the lesson there? Well, there are some things that
God does not intend us to know. Right? Some things he doesn't, and this
is obviously something that he intends no man or woman or child
on this earth to know. None. So you hear someone speculating,
they don't have a clue what they're talking about. It's true though, isn't it? That's
what the scripture says right here before us. No one on this
earth knows when Christ will return. No one. They say, well,
I might know the seasons. It is not known for you to know
the times or the seasons. You don't have a clue. Which
the Father hath put in his own power. He knows the exact second
that Christ is returning. He knows. We don't have any idea.
And neither does anyone else. See, that's why we're to live
our lives daily just looking to Christ. Is that not hard enough? Right? Just keeping our eyes
focused upon Him. We are so easily distracted,
aren't we? My oh my. And there are some things known
only to God. Like who is Elector? We don't
have any idea. Now, when we confess Christ and
we're born again of the Holy Spirit of God, then we can look
at others, right, and say, well, what do we do? We take people
at their words, right? But who can truly know if you're saved?
God and God alone and you. And do not look at, do not do
this. Do not make the mistake of looking
at yourself and going, oh my, I'm such a wretch. God saves
wretches, one right here in front of you. Our salvation is not dependent
upon us. Who are you trusting right now?
Christ, and Christ alone is the answer, right? So our security,
our assurance, right, is all because God is faithful to save
us and to keep us, beloved. And we say hallelujah. We say
praise God for his mercy and for his goodness. Because salvation's
all of the Lord. Our fifth and last point I'd
like us to look at is found in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. Our Lord
plainly tells us what the lifelong work and responsibility of every
believer is. Look at this. which he shall
receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, so power
from above, right? And you shall be witnesses unto
me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and to the
uttermost parts of the earth. Our sovereign God, beloved, always
accomplishes that which he has purposed. And after they received
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, The Lord's Apostles were given
special insight into the spiritual meaning of the Old Testament
Scriptures. They'd been taught by God, the Holy Spirit, that
all the writers of the Old Testament wrote of Christ. That's the same
thing we're taught, right? Isn't it amazing? And all they
had was the Old Testament. There was no New Testament. None. And these anointed apostles were
given power to perform miracles, to confirm that they were sent
from God, to confirm that they were preaching the truth. And
there is no apostles today. Anybody who's claiming to be
an apostle is a liar. There's no apostles today. None. And these men were willing to
lay down their lives, weren't they? They were willing to lay
down their lives for Christ's sake, just as God's people are. And why are we here? Why did
they go forth into the world? Why are we here gathered together? And why do we send the messages
out to the world? For the furtherance of the gospel.
Same thing they were doing. For the furtherance of the gospel,
beloved. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. And again, the apostles, they
preached Christ from the Old Testament. They didn't have the
New Testament. And our Lord Jesus Christ uses
his chosen people, taken from spiritual darkness, to preach
and proclaim the perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ
that salvations all of him and only in him. And rejoice, rejoice,
beloved. He's purged us from our sins. He's purged us from our sins.
They're gone, covered in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, what are some of the things
that the apostles now knew after the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
Well, they know the truth. They knew the truth, didn't they?
They knew that Jesus Christ is God. And that God doesn't dwell
in temples made with hands. They penned those words, didn't
they? One of them. They knew that the Lord Jesus
Christ has already sat down on the sovereign throne. The work's
finished. He sat down right now. King of kings and Lord of lords. And they knew that when our Lord
Jesus comes again, he'd come in flame and fire. Let me tell
you. He came as a lamb the first time. He's coming as a lion the second
time. Lion's king. King of the jungle
isn't he? My oh my. He's coming king. Came for as a lamb. Gave himself
for his people. But next time he comes back,
when he comes back he's coming as a lion. And they knew also that they
had received power from on high, that they couldn't do these things
on their own. Paul wrote, who's sufficient for these things?
We gospel preachers always talk, we're not sufficient. But we
preach the gospel by the power of God and the grace of God and
the mercy of God. He gives us strength to do it.
But who's sufficient to preach Christ? Who's sufficient? My. And they were now given power
to declare the deity of Christ, who he really was. They were
eyewitnesses. John wrote that we were eyewitnesses, and they
were earwitnesses, too. Don't forget, they saw Christ
like we see one another. They heard Christ speak words. My! They were there when blind
Bartimaeus said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me! And the Lord called him and healed
him. They were there when the woman
reached out just to touch the hem of his garment. And he said,
I perceive virtues gone from me. Who touched me? And she said,
it was I, Lord. And he said, go in peace. She's now whole. They were there when the leper
came and said, Lord, if thou will, thou can cleanse me. And
they heard the words, the sweet words from the Master saying,
I will be thou clean. My, they saw these things happen. We read about them, but they
saw them and they heard it. And now they're given power and
height to proclaim these wondrous works of Christ. And they proclaimed the ascension,
the birth, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ. Their message was all about Christ. And they were faithful witnesses
we see here, right there in Jerusalem. And not only on the day of Pentecost
when our Lord added 3,000 souls to the church, But they also witnessed in the
days that followed, 5,000 more of the Lord's saints being added
to the church. And not many days after that,
the Lord just kept His church growing and growing and growing.
Isn't that amazing? My. And they knew it's not about
numbers. They know it's by the power of
God. Right? Message goes forth from
here by the power of God, beloved. And God does whatever he's pleased
to do with it. And we say, praise his mighty
name. Thank you, Lord, for letting
me be included in the furtherance of the gospel. And all of us have a part in
that. Every one of us have a part in the further. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible? My. And our Lord's apostles were
faithful. They took the gospel to wherever
they could. Paul went to Thessalonica. He wanted to go into Asia, but
the Lord said no. Now the gospels went into Asia.
It's going all around the world now, right? My, oh my. And the Apostle Paul, who would
have thought that the Apostle Paul, we're gonna see in this
wonderful book, that the Apostle Paul is a chosen vessel of God.
He's destroying the church and laying waste to it. But all the
time, he's a chosen vessel of God and he don't have no clue
at all. We're gonna see that, aren't we? We're gonna see the mighty work
of God, the power of God at work in this study. And the Lord Jesus
Christ, by his own blood, redeemed a particular people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, beloved." And he did that, didn't
he? He's still doing it, isn't he? Praise his mighty name. In Christ,
there's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision. There's neither bond nor free.
We're all one in Christ. And if ye be Christ, then ye
are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Heirs
according to the promise of God. My. They proclaim the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness. That's Christ
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14, 7. And they proclaimed that the
kingdom of God would be taken from national Israel. See, the
reason those apostles asked, oh, is there going to be a kingdom
set up? They thought that the Lord was going to set up an earthly
kingdom and remove them out from under the Roman rule. But that's
not what he... He came to save his people from
their sins, didn't he? And that's the people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Praise God, he included
me. My. Brother Dave, can you close
us in prayer?