Acts chapter 4 and verse 13, Now when they, that is the Sadducees,
it just got done coming upon John and Peter, and brought them
before the council. They were getting ready to bring
them before the council. So when they, the learned, the Greek
Hebrew scholars of the day, when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men,
they marveled, these unbelievers marveled. Why? They took knowledge of them that
they had been with Christ. Unlearned, that is unschooled,
unlettered in their schools, in their personal schools. But
that word ignorant is a little harsher. Idiots. They thought
they were idiots. But look at the latter part of
verse 14. And they could say nothing against
what they were doing, or what they were saying, what they had
done. They just got them healing. Healing a man. And they could
speak Nothing against it. So they were ignorant. They said
they were ignorant, idiots, and unlearned in our letters, but
they couldn't refute what they were saying. Now, to diverge
just a little bit, this morning, this time in this country, 2020,
we're seeing a scare unlike any other in my lifetime, the coronavirus. Let me give you some true statistics.
Now these are two days old, so I know there's 41 deaths now. It was 40. The flu, in comparison, the flu
season kills 290,000 to 640,000. This is just past statistics
per year, worldwide. There's 20,000 Cases already this season, or
I'm sorry, 20,000 this season have already died in the U.S.
from the flu, 20,000. 48,000 die of cardiac arrest
in this country every year. The mortality rate for this coronavirus
is less than 1%. They say it has a nine-day lifespan,
which is a little bit unlike the flu and the cold, But after
48 hours, it is the viral load is reduced by 10,000 units. These
are just statistics. There was a premier, a cruise
liner. 4,000 people were together for
two weeks. This is the one that they didn't
let docking work, Japan. And only 20% were tested for
positive. If you've been alive in the year
2009 to 2010, there was a thing called the swine flu. 60 million
people were infected, 300,000 were hospitalized, and this was
just in a 10-month period. 18,000 died. Nothing was shut down. It was
called the H1N1. Nothing was shut down. Basketball
went on. Sports went on. Does this help? Does this alleviate
your fears this morning? These are man-centered facts.
They're medical facts. They're real-life statistics.
Does this help the believer overcome fear, unbelief, trial, perhaps
loss? It's just a statistic. The believer
walks by faith. We don't live by the code of
this world. We are not really, truly heart
comforted by worldly statistics. Yes, this is true, but my uncle's
sick. Or yes, this is true, but my aunt passed away. Faith, to
us word, is real, it's practical, and it's necessary for peace
of mind. And this is what I'm getting at. Everybody's just,
they're just going crazy. And I believe that we should
be practical. And I've quoted Maurice Montgomery
numerous times, and I'll quote him again. He said, God is most
certainly sovereign, but I will not sleep under elephants. God
has given you a brain to be wise and yet harmless. But what does
the saved sinner do when all this worldly knowledge and this
scientific proof, it does not and cannot give one peace or
comfort? Well, I'm going to read to you
Psalms 91, which was recommended for me to read, and peace came. I'm worried about
the news, worried about the global situation. Psalms 91. I'm not going to say anything
about it. I'm just going to read it. And there's promises in here, and
you can do with them as faith would have you do them. He that
dwelleth, Psalm 91, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of
the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom will
I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His
feathers and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall
be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day,
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh
thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked. Behold, thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall
give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot
against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion
and adder, and the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample
under feet. Because he hath set his love
upon me, therefore will I deliver him, and I will set him on high,
because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I
will answer him. I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him. Yea, with long life will
I satisfy him. and show him my salvation." There's a lot there, but let's
link this verse and Acts. We have been given wisdom and
prudence in this life and we are to use them. But what does
the saved sinner do when all the worldly knowledge and scientific
proof does not give him comfort? Luther, and if you want to check
with me, I've printed out some copies. There's no difference. There's nothing new under the
sun. In 1527, there was a re-outbreak
of the bubonic plague in the very village or city in Wittenberg
that Martin Luther was there. How did he handle it? If you
want to know, we can talk later. I've got some articles printed
out. It's wonderful reading. That's Luther. Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Note with me
what's going on in this passage. Acts chapter 4, unbelievers took
knowledge, and that means some reasonable or some recognizable
mark, is what that word in the Greek is, knowledge, of them
that they, that is believers, John and Peter, had been. Now
that word been means had been taught with. They had been taught
with or taught by Christ. As God's dear children, we have
been taught by Christ. We have been taught by His Word. The Holy Spirit has taken these
things and revealed Christ to them. So we can say the same
thing. If you've heard the truth, if you've heard the Gospel, if
you've believed it, you have some knowledge. It may be a couple
of days, it may be a couple of years, it may be many years,
or it may not yet be. But if you hear the Gospel, if
the Lord quickens you and you believe the Gospel, you have
been taught by God, the Holy Spirit, and there are certain
things that believers will do. They were drawn unto Him by the
sovereign cords of eternal love, mercy and grace, and we cannot
help but be near Him. They had taken knowledge of them
that they had been with Christ. And every believer throughout
time can say they've been with Christ. And once a person has
been with Christ, they think different, they act different,
they are different. Scripture says we're new creatures
in Christ. We have new desires, new life, new allegiances. All
things have become new. So how does the first statement,
back talking about the corona and all this wild thinking and
all the craziness that's going on, how does that link with Acts
chapter 4? How does that link up? Well, unbelievers noted that these
people had been with Christ, the Christ of the Scriptures,
not the Christ of their own imagination. And we'll go a little bit deeper
in this. We are not of this world, and as such, cooler heads and
hearts and actions prevail. Or said another way, we focus
on things above, not on things of the earth. We're of this earth
and we have to do things, we have to shop, we have to pay
taxes, we have to do the things that everybody else does. We
get sick, we get well, we get happy, we get sad, but we do
not sorrow like the people of the world. As I said with Maurice
too, we believe God's sovereign but we don't tempt Him, we don't
sleep under elephants. So my first point, I've just
got two points, To be with Christ, what does
that mean? It means to be taught by Christ. It means to be taught and familiar
with this Word before us. We go home, almost every person
in America, I suppose, has a Bible, look at it, read it, ask the
Lord for direction, you gather together here, that's what I'm
to just read back what's being said, and we have a time of fellowship,
we center around the Gospel, in reading the Word, in prayer,
and in the preaching, in everything we do. This is an oasis, this
is where we're at. And hopefully people will take
knowledge, some recognizable mark, that we have been with
Christ. We've been with Christ. So first
thing it means, what does it mean to be with Christ? It means
to be taught by Christ. But in order to do this study
correctly, we really need to go back to Acts chapter 2 where
the whole thing starts. Keep it in context. Acts chapter
2. Acts chapter 2, verse 1. This is the build up of what
we're looking at. And when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, They were all with one accord in one place.
This is the believers. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the house
where they were sitting. And there appeared on them cloven
tongues, like as in a fire, and it sat upon each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And they
were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation
under heaven. When this was noised abroad,
the multitude came together and were confounded, or troubled,
because every man heard them speak in his own language." Speak
what? The gospel of God's grace. Because that's the power of God.
Unto salvation or unto damnation. Life unto life or death unto
death. And they were amazed and marveled, saying one of another,
behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how we hear
every man our own tongue were when we were born. And he lists
the tongues. The Medes, Mesopotamia, Judah,
Asia, and on and on, Rome, Jews, proselytes, Creeks, Arabians,
We do hear them speak in our own tongue the wonderful works
of God." They were preaching the Gospel. So you take this
all in context, and I go back to my first point. If we have been truly taught
with Christ, by Christ, we shall learn what He and His Apostles
taught. And I'm going to go through a
bunch of things, and I've got Scripture references in just
these two verses, and you don't have to look them up, but suffice
me, there's more here. What were they taught? What did
they teach? In these two wonderful chapters,
you have the Gospel expounded. They spoke about the sovereignty
of God. Chapter 2, verse 16. They talked about the pravity
of man. Chapter 2, verse 23, and 2, verse
36. And there's more in here. I'm
just stating some obvious texts. They spoke of substitution. Chapter
2, verse 21. They talked about grace and love
and grace constraining us. Acts 4, verse 20. They spoke
with the authority of the truth. Chapter 2, verse 7. They spoke
with boldness, chapter 2, verse 14, chapter 4, verses 19 and
20. They said the flesh was confounded,
2, verse 6, and chapter 4, verses 14. They spoke about obedience
to the Word, 4, verses 6 and 7. They talked about
love, unity, tenderness, and non-conformity with the world,
Verse 19. They talked about predestination
or sovereign purpose. 2, verse 23. They spoke about Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified." There you got predestination,
God's sovereign purpose, and man's total depravity. Peter said, you know, repent
and be baptized, as he's preaching to all these people when the
day of Pentecost came. Repent and be baptized, every
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the
promise, we're talking about promises, they spoke about promises. For the promise is unto you and
to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as
our Lord God shall call. And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourself from this untoward
generation." They talked about knowing the Word. They were preaching
in the Old Testament. This is what Joel prophesied. So they had a knowledge. They
were taught by Christ. They didn't understand a lot
of things he said, and then after he rose, they started understanding
more things. He spoke about repentance, faith
and baptism where I just read here. Forgiveness of sins and
salvation. in His name, through faith in
His name, hath made this man whole." Now we're in chapter
3, they got them preaching, and then they're walking into the
court, and Peter and John seeing about the temple, asking alms. This man, he's sitting there,
a certain man from his mother's womb was carried, he was lame.
And Peter fastened his eyes on him with John and said, look
on us. And he thought that he was going to get some money.
And he said, I don't have any silver and gold, but what I have
I give thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and
walk. And he gets up and walked. So
whether it was preaching in Pentecost or healing this man, they were taught to preach the
gospel. And this is exactly what they're saying. And all these
things are components, or I don't even know how to explain it,
are in this preaching of the gospel. Faith is spoken of in chapter
3, verse 16, and on and on I could go. You say, well, prayer wasn't
spoken of. Well, if you look back before
Acts chapter 2, where were they at? They were huddled, scared
to death, praying. Did prayer start it? No, God
started it, but He used prayer. Needless to say, the man healed
in chapters 3 and 4 was different in many ways as well as all those
who were converted in chapter 2. And later it says they sold
everything and they had in common. And this thing says social isolation. No, that's exactly opposite of
what the believer does. We're sheep, and what do sheep
do? They huddle, they congregate. All things work out for good,
we know this is God's design. Which leads me to my second point.
This is what, to be with Christ, is to be taught by Christ, or
the Holy Spirit, or an elder, or a deacon, or a mom, or a dad
who knows God. It's to be taught of Christ.
And to look in the Word, You go through these two chapters
and you look at it and you see they're speaking of what was
prophesied. So they knew the Word. All they
had was the Old Testament. The final canonization to them
was not. So how do they know God's sovereignty? You can see God's sovereignty
in Genesis. You can see the gospel of salvation
in the creation. He said, let there be light.
He separated light from darkness. That's what salvation is. I mean,
on and on and on, forgiveness of sins, repentance, faith, baptism,
all these different things. It's what they told them. It's
what they preached. So they were teaching the people
what they were responsible to be doing. So this leads me to
my second point. To be taught of Christ, secondly,
is to act like, imitate Christ in character, conduct, and attitude. And I'll never forget Henry saying
this over and over and over again. There's a lot of times that a
believer doesn't look like a believer. Two people walking down the street,
and I've said this before, just by the way they dress, the way
they're haircut, you can't tell. But if you cross that street,
and you get in a conversation with them, you should be able
to say, this guy's religious, this guy's not. You should be
able to start picking some things out. If we differ, it's by God's grace
and only by God's grace, but there's a difference. Because
He's put His laws in our heart, and our heart paints after righteousness. So the second thing is not only
are we taught by Him, but we act like Him. You are familiar
with many texts in the New Testament church, how they walked after
the ways of Christ, and yet notwithstanding, the flesh is still ever-present.
But, The Old Testament saints and we still get sick, but we
don't lose hope. We, as well as they, sin, but
we have an advocate. They and we are troubled on every
side, but Paul says we're not distressed. And I love this one,
we and they sorrowed, yet not as the world. As a matter of
fact, Hebrews says the world is not even worthy. Not even
worthy of us. For we and they know and knew
Christ and have been taught by the Holy Spirit. We trust Him,
that He is always right and constantly tender to us for Christ's sake. And we know that anything and
everything that gets to us must come through Christ. Anything
that gets to us, it's got to come through Christ. Satan, I don't want to, we're
no match for Satan, but Satan is God's, God's got him on a
tether. He has to ask permission to tempt
and to try Job. By whom the world is dead to
me and to us and we are dead to it. May we be wise as serpents and
harmless as doves. And may we not think of ourselves
above that which is written." They took knowledge of me. I'm
going to go to work tomorrow and I'm going to show them. They're
going to see me and they're going to see... No, we need to be careful
while we stand lest we fall. And we need to realize that the
only reason why we stand is because God upholds us. It's not ourselves. It's not ourselves. But I just
thought this was interesting that they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. And despite what the world thinks
about what's going on, and there's some things, you know, going
on. Worldly statistics will not really
comfort the believer. What will comfort him is this
word. this book. And then, perhaps, they will recognize, even though we're unlearned in the ways of theology,
contemporary theology, systematic theology, And idiots. And idiots. That's what the world thinks
of us and thinks of our God. And Luther, here where I stand, I
can do no other. Or even better yet, Joshua. As for me and my house, we'll
serve the Lord. So this is not so much a thought
or a message looking at us. Look at what we've done. The
whole center, the key of the verse is Jesus. Been with Jesus. Been with Christ. Been with the
Anointed One. The Sovereign One. The Holy One. The Just One. The Immaculate One. The Perfect
One. So, let this world get crazy. A lot of times in the Old Testament,
when plagues and stuff like that happened, or bad weather, or
they didn't send rain, it was on the just and the unjust. How
did the believers react? Finish reading that. They said
in Acts... It's just funny. It's so funny. Beholding the men which was healed,
standing with them, the Sanhedrin could say nothing. The religious
folks could say nothing. But when they had commanded them
to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
saying, what shall we do with these men? For that indeed is
a notable miracle that has been done among them. It is manifest
that all that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it, but that
it spread no further among the people. Let us straightly threaten
them that they speak henceforth to no man in his name. Don't
gather together. Don't you do it. From what I
understand, a governor in another state said, you know, don't assemble. Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to threaten them. And they called them back, they
called Peter and John back, and they commanded them The power
invested in me in the state of New Jersey, as a governor, as
mayor, I command you not to speak at all or teach in the name of
Christ, or teach, being taught. We don't want to hear anything.
That's the real issue. They don't want to hear about
God's sovereignty, about man's depravity, about all these things
that we saw that are in those two chapters. In the name of Jesus don't teach
you can teach about abortion. You can teach about women's rights
You can teach about submission about this that don't speak about
a sovereign risen Christ Hmm But Peter and John announced
answered and said unto them whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto you more of that unto God judge ye." Now does
this sound like the three in a fiery furnace? Doesn't it sound
like Daniel? Doesn't it sound like every person
that's been taught of God? For we cannot but speak the things
which we have seen and heard. And so when the Sanhedrin further
threatened him, you didn't hear us the first time, it's comical
almost, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish
them because of the people, for all men glorified God for that
which was done. For the man was above 40 years
old on whom this miracle of healing was showed. That's my desire
for Jackson. Let them shut down every church
in this county. But by the grace of God, we'll
keep meeting. We'll keep meeting. And we'll
be smart about it. But I just, that is on my heart.
That they had been with Christ. And that's got to mean something.
It's got to mean something. In this Bible, and in the Bibles,
it's a capital G. Now most people, they got a little
baby G. keep them in the manger, and they put them up on the mantel
shelf every Easter and every Christmas and take them down
and talk about how wonderful He is. No, we know that our God
is sovereign and has determined all things. And He is determined
to do us good. And He is determined to teach
us. And we, if we're His, will be
taught by Him. And that's going to show in our
life, in our conduct and our attitude. To God be the glory. Bruce, would you close us?