Amen. I'm in Acts chapter 13. We're going to be taking up from
verse 33 and following under around the 10th point in our
outline. We, last week we developed at
length the argument that the apostle Paul gave us in verse
33, where he says, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children,
in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is written in the
second Psalm, you are my son, This day have I begotten thee.
And we work through the whole idea of what it means to be begotten. And we've dealt with the four
aspects of it as it is rendered in the Old Testament. This is
Psalm 2, by the way, that Paul is quoting from. Peter quoted
from it in Acts chapter 4. And it was quoted again in Hebrews
chapter 1, and then again in Hebrews chapter 5. and it is
hinted again in the book of Revelation as we close out in Revelation
chapter 12 verse 5 where the child of the woman that was with
child was caught up to God and to his throne and unto him was
given a rod of iron with which he should rule the nations. That's
how we closed out. Fundamentally what the Apostle
Paul is doing is closing out his message to his Jewish brethren
in Pisidia that region up in Asia Minor, as we saw a few weeks
ago, where Paul was sent out, him and Barnabas, to share the
gospel with those churches there. They were synagogues wherein
Gentiles were also, and Gentiles at that time would have been
considered proselytes. So as he closes out his message,
he's closing his message out around the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, and the implications of that resurrection being the
exaltation of Christ and his lordship over everything. So
we read in verse 34, as we prepare to work through our following
and closing points in chapter 13, it has concerning that he
raised him from the dead, now no more to return to corruption. He said on this wise, I will
give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he said also
in another psalm You shall not suffer your holy one to see corruption. So what Paul does in verses 34
through 35 33 through 35 is quote several of the Psalms including
the book of Isaiah Isaiah chapter 55 to be precise, but it's hinted
at in Isaiah 22, which means Paul was always tethered to the
text of scripture when he taught and This is the rule that we
are laying down. And if you're going to be a biblical
teacher, your teaching has to be tethered to the text. The
text has to be the place from which you derive your argument
or your discourse or your exhortation. And you have to be able to rightly
harmonize those Old Testament passages in order to affirm your
point. Here, he quotes in Isaiah chapter
55, the sure mercies of David. What is he arguing now? He has
affirmed the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the ascension
of Christ to his father's throne Thus being a victor with his
father to rule over the universe as curious what he is now affirming
is the source and grounds From which mercy proceeds. I don't
know what what does our PowerPoint look like up there pull that
up? he's quoting from Isaiah chapter 55 and he says wherefore
I It is stated that Jesus now has what is called the sure mercies
of what David the sure mercies of David that means The Apostle
Paul is still sort of bent on this Abraham David Jesus paragon
He's still speaking to the Jews from the standpoint of the promises
given to Abraham then to David and then to Jesus. In other words,
Paul knows that his auditors would be highly sensitive to
this reality, that Christ was of the tribe of Judah, that the
promise was given to David, that of his seed would God raise up
one to be the ruler or king over the world. He affirms that through
several passages of scripture, and then he calls our attention
to, we are at verse 30, For by the way, and I actually pull
up PowerPoint 10 so I could look at it. So just pull that up while
I'm talking, please We are being brought into our attention in
verse 34 with an aspect of what we would call the implications
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ Paul is turning his turning
the corner. He's closing out his sermon He's
talking to his constituency. They are made up of Jews and
Gentiles. You guys remember that, right? Jews and Gentiles are
in the synagogue, but Paul is primarily targeting whom? His
Jewish brethren. This also is a device in teaching.
I think we talked about this a while back. If you were teaching
pagans or talking to pagans about God, And pagans know nothing
about the bible you can quote 50 bible verses and you still
won't necessarily impact them Because they have no reference
point with scripture So when we get to act 17 and we see that
paul is dealing with the mars he'll collaboration of false
gods under the uh, athenian influence he will actually quote from Pagan
authors to connect with his audience as he lays down an argument for
the unknown God I guess what I'm doing while we are laying
this foundation is helping you see how that the Spirit of God
is using Paul To show us how to be sensitive to your audience
The vast majority of the people in the synagogue are Jews so
they know their Bibles ostensibly Today we aren't quite that comfortable
in the Christian Church. I'm not always sure that when
people come in who profess to be Christians that they have
enough working knowledge of the Bible for me to just simply quote
Bible verses and expect them to be on the same page. That
ought to be the case. I ought to be able to just quote
Bible verses, not even give you chapter and verse, just quote
the verses. And for the most part, you should
be familiar with those texts. Is that true? So that's what
Paul is doing. He's quoting Psalms. He's quoting
Isaiah. And in verse 33, he's affirming
the implications, verse 34 rather, he's affirming the implications
of Christ resurrection. And that is the sure mercies
of David. What is he talking about here?
What he's talking about is that God has given Christ the sovereign
right to show mercy to whom he will show mercy and to harden
whom he will harden. What he's talking about is demonstrating
that Christ has the same prerogatives of authority and right that God
the Father demonstrated in the book of Exodus as we're gonna
learn on Sunday. God hardens whom he wills and
he shows mercy to whom he wills. What David, what Paul is about
to do with this Jewish brethren is shut them up to Jesus so that
they might know for sure that if they reject the gospel, they
reject the only mercy by which they can be saved. He says in
verse 34, and as concerning that he has raised him up from the
what? Dead. No more to return to corruption.
He's going to argue that David is in the ground. That's verse
36. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell on asleep and was
laid unto his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised
up again saw no corruption. He's emphasizing the importance
of the resurrection of Christ as the proof of him being who
he said he was and that is the son of the living God as we learned
last week in Romans chapter 1 verse 5 He was made after the flesh
according to the seed of David But he was raised again from
the dead by the power of the spirit to affirm his sonship
as the model Guinness. That is the only begotten of
the father. And thus he is God. So the apostles
continued to make this distinction between Jesus and David, because
a lot of the hope of the Jews on a national level was the promises
made to David and get here. The resurrection becomes a key
point for Paul and his discourse. How come? because it's been now
as we learned last week about 25 years since Well, maybe about
20 years since the Lord Jesus has risen from the dead, the
gospel has gone forth into all the regions of Jerusalem, Judea,
and Samaria, and now is going to Asia Minor. And people have
heard about Christ rising from the dead. They've heard about
people believing on Jesus. They've heard about Christ manifesting
himself after his resurrection to 500 brethren and so forth.
It's well established that the gospel now in the first century
is based upon the unassailable fact that Christ rose again from
the dead. But within the preaching of the
gospel that you see throughout the whole of the book of Acts,
and I would say through the epistles as well, the apostles continue
to affirm the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the basis of
all of the promises of God being yes and amen through Christ. by us. Going back to the resurrection
continually, if Christ did not rise from the dead, we are still
in our sins. If Christ did not rise from the
dead, our faith is in vain. If Christ did not rise from the
dead, God is a liar and many other implications fall out from
it. So because the apostles were both learned men, particularly
the apostle Paul, and filled with the spirit, they could derive
from the resurrection of Christ Many of the blessings and implications
of that resurrection as they are scripture fulfillment One
of them as I am stating now is the sure mercies of God Go with
me in your Bible to Revelation chapter 3. I want you to see
how this is underscored to the church at Philadelphia the sure
mercies of God here's how Christ himself puts it as he speaks
to a small believing band of who is being persecuted by the
Jews, and he will let them know who he is in a personal description
that fits their need. In chapter 3, verse 7, here's
what he says, And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia
write, These things saith he that is holy, He that is true
and he that has the what key of David now that term key of
David Corresponds to the sure mercies of David The sure mercies
of David. Why do I say that? Because the
key was a metaphor or a symbol of authority and access it was
the metaphor of the right and and control and powers that were
given to a governor or a dignitary. Many, many years ago, we used
to practice the symbolism of giving the governor of the state
a big old key. Many, many years ago, he would
get this symbolic key, which would imply that he has access
to all of the resources of the city and he has authority to
bestow upon people the privileges and benefits and wealth of the
city. Here we read that Jesus says
that he has the what? Key of David. And here's how
that key functions under the rubric, the sure mercies of David. Watch this now. He has the key
of David and he that openeth and no man what? And he that
shutteth and no man what? That's why I say the key of David
corresponds to him having sovereign right to show mercy to whom he
will. I want you to get that now. God
has sovereign right to show mercy to whom he wills and to shut
it out from whom he wills. God has sovereign authority to
bestow mercy and to withhold mercy. Does that follow? Follow
this logic because We're gonna have to go deep into Romans 9
over the next couple of weeks and understand the Apostles argument
around this same principle Which principle evades us as human
beings? because of our sinfulness But
what Paul is saying to his Jewish brethren is this if you reject
Christ There is no mercy for you That mercy is only found
with the one who possesses the key to He has the right to open
the door of mercy to whom he wills Now if you reject Christ
who is the governor of the kingdom the government was placed on
his shoulders You have no other place to go for mercy and all
of the mercies of David are given to his son Jesus. I You guys
follow that logic, that argument? It's very important to see. And
here, he's using the description of opening the door of mercy,
shutting the door of mercy. That's really what sinners need,
is mercy, don't they? Isaiah chapter 22 then, let me
see how this works. I'm just reminding myself of
it. I think it's Isaiah 22, 22 is the other key reference point
around this as Eliakim was used as a type of Jesus Christ Alluding
to Christ possessing the key and listen to the language here
Here it is Well, it's actually Isaiah 55, but I'll start here
where Christ quotes again the passage that Isaiah I'm starting
at verse 20 and it shall come to pass in that day that I will
call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and I will clothe
him with your robe and strengthen him with your girdle and I will
commit thy government into his hand this is all representation
symbolic of the ultimate authority that would be given to Christ
but it would be pictured in God raising up a governor whose name
would be Eliakim. Now watch this And I will commit
your government into his hand and he shall be a father to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem And to the house of what? Now look
at verse 21 again. This is going to help some of
you who struggle with The concept of the fatherhood of god the
sonship of christ and yet isaiah chapter 9 6 calls him everlasting
father I want to make sure we straighten out this crazy mess
around the son of and the father being one person. We want to
make sure that we don't fall prey to that. There are what
we call the rules of language, univocal speech, univocal speech,
where terms have one meaning. And they cannot be defined any
other way but that one way. And generally they're understood
in their context to be that meaning across the board. Then we have
what is called equivocal meanings. That is words are understood
differently depending upon the context in which they are used. Are you guys hearing me? So you
have a word like father. In the Hebrew it's Abba, Abba. In the Greek it's Pater. When
that word is used, the word father must be understood in his context
or else you may wrongly attribute to that term father something
that should not apply. So you guys know Isaiah 9, 6
says, and he shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty,
mighty God, bright prince of peace, everlasting father, and
so forth. You guys know that, right? And
some people have snatched that text and said, see, he's the
father. meaning that he's equal to embarrass the same personhood
as God, the father. And we would say, no, that's
a travesty of biblical interpretation. You're not being sensitive to
the text, but here's what I'm going to say to you. The term
father is an attribution or an appellation that would be given
to virtually all of the leaders in Israel. Kings would be called
fathers. Priests would be called fathers.
Governors would be called fathers Prophets would be called fathers
and this is why the adumbration the fathers is used in the Old
Testament Are you guys father following it does not necessarily
mean that they were actual fathers but it meant that they had a
position of authority and influence in the land and This is what's
taking place here mark this this here's a Lyca who's going to
be the governor of Israel at this time and And it said that
he will be clothed with your robe, strengthened with your
girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand, and
he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to Judah. What
does that mean? It can't mean any other thing
other than he will be seen to be the head over the people in
terms of his governmental duties. Does that make some sense? Very
much like Deborah was called the mother of Israel. And yet
she was not the physical mother of the children of Israel. She
was simply that unique governor for that one period of time by
which she now would occupy the office of judge. And thus she
was called a mother in Israel. You guys remember that ladies?
So what we're stating is when you hear the term father, don't
automatically think of the unique fatherhood of God as being the
title attributed to Jesus in Isaiah chapter nine. That was
an aside. Let's go on. Look at verse 22.
the key of the house of David will I lay upon his what shoulders
so he shall what and none shall shut and he shall shut and what
now you see how Jesus attributes this authority to himself in
Revelation 3 7 why because all the scriptures point to whom
even though they have a historical contextual fulfillment and sometimes
they may have a long term or an immediate contextual fulfillment
They ultimately have their fulfillment in the person of Christ. This
is what Jesus meant in Matthew chapter 28, uh, 18 and 19 when
he says all authority had been given unto me in heaven and in
earth. Therefore, go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel. I wanted you to see this text.
There's a lot here that is also a blessing, but I want you to
now go to Isaiah 55 just to see the language of the sure mercies
of David that we are dealing with in, um, Paul's message to
his brothers of whom he's about to close his sermon and The closing
of a sermon is about to open the door to some very interesting
events that we need to learn in the book of Acts I've already
told you we're at a pivotal change in the book of Acts and we need
to see how that change occurs Isaiah 55 opens up with the proclamation
of the gospel. Ho everyone that thirst come
to the waters and and he that hath no money come by and eat
yea come by wine and milk without money and without price and then
he belabors the question why do you spend money for that which
is not bread labor for that which does not satisfy hearken diligently
unto me this is god calling by his spirit through the gospel
hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is what good
here it is and let your soul delight itself in fatness this
is a this is a call to feed on god and nurture your soul so
that it's not famished, but it's strengthened and that you enjoy
and delight in knowing God at the feast of his table to which
he has now invited you. Listen to verse three and following.
Incline your ear and come unto me. Here in your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the what? So you see how in the proclamation
of the gospel here, that what he's calling men and women to
are the sure mercies of David. Do you guys see that? Do you
guys remember a couple of weeks back, I took you to Psalm 89
and in Psalm 89, and those of you in the Wednesday class, I
took you back to 1 Samuel 7. In 1 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89, what
God plainly said was, I'm gonna have a seed coming out of your
loins, David. He's gonna be the blessing to everyone. And all
of the children that are part of that covenant blessing, Will
have the benefit watch this now of the sure mercies of david
now I may chastise you for your sin, but I will never take my
mercy away from you Do you guys remember that those of you who
are in the class what you and I are dealing with right now
is really critical Uh, and again, it is to be more fully developed
on sunday as we establish the character and nature of god in
terms of his sovereignty What we're dealing with now is the
term mercy in Acts chapter 13, because what Paul is pressed
to do as he closes out his sermon is to let the Jewish people know
to whom he's preaching that they are about to abandon the mercy
of God one more time. It's interesting. It's interesting.
Go back to Acts 13. Let's see if we can work this
through. I'll put it like this. Anytime the gospel is faithfully
preached and a soul is still without Christ Under the preaching
of that gospel and they fail to close with Christ When they
hear that gospel message They have one more time Rejected the
mercy of God whenever the gospel is preached and a soul hears
that gospel preached and They are outside of Christ and they
do not close with Christ that moment They have rejected the
mercy of God one more time the soul that perishes without Christ
perishes without mercy the soul that hears the gospel that calls
you to Christ and Rejects that gospel has rejected the mercy
of God. Are you guys here? What I am
saying is The mercy of God is synonymous to the gospel. That the gospel of Jesus Christ
is the mercy of God to sinners. And when we reject the gospel,
or delay to receive the gospel, or avoid the gospel, every day
we do it, we are abandoning the mercy of God. Are you hearing
me? Now watch this. It may not affect you right now,
but think it through. Here's a sovereign king, because
that's the depiction, right? He's on his throne. He's exercising
his sovereign right to expose you to the edicts of his kingdom,
to the mandates of his kingdom, to the covenant of his kingdom,
to the will and wishes and purposes of his kingdom. He's opened the
door for you to enter into the kingdom and you don't enter in.
Does he have a right, therefore, upon letting you know that this
is the only way in to shut the door on you? Yes, he does. Not only does he have a right
to shut the door, he shuts the door. Do you understand that? Not only does God have a right
to shut the door, he shuts the door. This is what we call sovereign
mercy. This will be pressed home. I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will show compassion
to whom I will show compassion and I will harden whom I will
harden. is what we call sovereign mercy.
And again, the important point here is you and I are in the
comfortable position of watching Paul deal with eternity bound
souls in the closing of his exhortation. And he's pressing home a warning
to them. If you reject this gospel, you
will be damned. That's what he's doing. This
is becoming very serious. What Paul is doing in Acts 13,
as you're going to see in a moment, is demanding a verdict on the
part of those who have heard his full biblical theology and
expose of the person and work of Christ from Abraham to that
present moment. They've heard him explain the
historicity and the prophecy and the fulfillment of prophecy.
They've heard him say that Jesus came, he died, he rose again,
he's ascended on high. They've heard that. And now he's
saying, what are you going to do with that? If you reject this
message, you will perish in your sins. Now, ladies and gentlemen,
that used to be the way preaching was done a hundred years ago. It used to be that when you came
to church, you were confronted with the authority of God. And
you knew when you left, whether you were right with God or not.
If that kind of preaching were done today, most of our churches
would be shut down. Are you hearing me? People would
not tolerate coming to church to come under a verdict that
would determine your eternal destiny. Most of the, most of
the purposes for which people come to church today is to feel
good, get a word from the Lord, assuming everything is all right.
What Paul laid upon his Jewish brethren and the Gentiles that
were there was this Christ Possessed a sovereign right to show mercy
But he does not have to show mercy So we didn't really go
to work on this now look at verses 36 and following going back to
our text so I can work this through. I want to make sure we turn the
corner. There's a very strategic reason for this. So in your outline,
let me see here. Where's your outline? In your
outline, we are at the point of rejecting God's authority,
rejecting God's authority. And that would begin to occur
for us starting at verse 30 and following. I want you to see
how Paul Something is taking place in Paul's understanding
Something's taking place in his awareness and I'll give you the
reasons why here in a moment, but under our Point number 10
rejecting God's authority Paul is anticipating their response.
So he closes after he says there we go So he closes after he says
in verse 37, but he whom God raised up saw no corruption verse
38 here it is be it known unto you therefore what men and brethren
That through this man, who is this man? Christ watchers now
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins Is that the mercy of
god you better know it is For For christ to be preached as
the grounds and source and means of forgiveness Is for christ
to be seen as the one who possesses the sure mercies of david For
Christ to be preached as the means through which the forgiveness
of sins are experienced It's to say the same thing that he
possesses the key that opens the door to God's mercy He possesses
the authority to shut it See he's done with this message now
to his Jewish brethren men and brethren being known unto you.
I Through this man by this man because of this man in this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that what
are Justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Do you see that? so what Paul
has done by the Spirit of God is exalted Christ and That's
what we're going to do here. He's exalted Christ. But also
by the Spirit of God, what he has also done is exposed their false assumption. We're going to deal with this
again on Sunday, because Israel is a paradigm for you and me.
False assumption that salvation, that's our S, is by works. He just exposed that right here.
Here's what he said Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins
and by him everyone that believes are Justified from everything
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Oh You know,
he just did he just shut them up to Christ and made them to
have to deal with the two ways, which they have been arguing.
They've been arguing that salvation is by works, that unless you
keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. Unless you worship
God, according to the statutes of that old Testament system,
you can never be justified. Paul has just basically told
them that what they believe is wrong. Are you hearing me? This is a major blow to the Jewish
people in Pisidia Because see they now can't walk away from
this message neutral They can't walk away neutral. I mean if
Paul were like Joel Osteen or T.D. Jakes are some of these
other slick preachers. He would have stopped that Jesus
is the one that justifies us. Hallelujah and he would have
never dealt with the false assumptions and the lies that actually kept
the people that he was talking to blinded. Now you really don't
care about people if you know the traps that they're in and
don't let them know that you know that the traps that they're
in. You're simply playing politics with religion when you only say
half the truth. So what you and I are marking
right here is how the spirit of God works to not only exalt
Christ, but exalt him contextually. What do I mean by that? Exalt
him in the context of that which is resisting the gospel, so that
men and women might know why it is they still have not come
to Christ, because you're holding to the law system, to the very
thing that's keeping you from seeing Jesus for whom he really
is. This is an amazing, amazing presentation
here. Now watch how this works. After
having said that he renders a warning I'm at verse 40. Are you there
in verse 40? He says beware therefore beware
of What is Paul doing? He's looking at his Jewish audience,
which the synagogues in that day might've been as small as
an assembly that can hold 20 to 25 people, maybe 40 or 50
people. But because this was a synagogue
of Jews and Gentiles, it might've held as much as a hundred people,
no more. So he was fairly intimate with
his audience, close enough to look at them. And what he would
say was, beware, beware looking dead in their eyes. Beware lest
that which the prophet has declared come upon you. So now it's not
scary. This is, this is, this here is
what Paul, this is what the Bible would call actually now being
filled with the spirit. And every believer would have
this on occasion. See, this is called caring for
the souls of men. Are you hearing me? It's called
caring for the souls of men. So here's what Paul is doing.
Paul is aware that he has the responsibility of making sure
that his auditors don't find loopholes out of his message.
He's closing the gate in on them so that they don't run away from
the implications of his message. Then he's warning them in true
prophetic style in true prophetic style That when you hear the
gospel preached You don't have the freedom to reject it without
consequences No one goes away from faithful preaching Unaccountable
Every one of us when we're under faithful preaching is heap to
ourselves more accountability every time we hear it. It increases
our culpability, our liability, our accountability, and our having
to answer for that message we heard on the last day. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? Every so, it doesn't matter if
you're drifting off into la la land, your conscious hears that
message and it will be brought back in the day of judgment.
Every man will have to give an answer to those things that they
have heard concerning the proclamation of the gospel. That's why preaching
on both ends, that which is being done by the person that is speaking
and those that are hearing is a very serious matter. This is
why Christ said in one place, it'd be better that a man was
not born than for them to be under the preaching of the word
of God and then die having rejected that message. That's how serious
preaching is. And this is a serious matter
here. And I'm giving you insight into the sensitivity of the speaker,
Paul, because he actually knows what's working in the heart of
his Jewish brethren right now. He knows what's working in their
heart. You know what's working in the heart of his Jewish brethren
right now? Hardness. As he's speaking to his Jewish
brethren, their hearts are being hardened. Their hearts are being
hardened. How do I know that Paul perceives
it that way? because he was just like them
when he heard the gospel preached he heard the gospel preached
over and over and over again and his heart while as yet god
didn't touch him became harder and harder and he became more
vociferously hostile toward those who preached it even to the point
of wanting to what kill them paul knows acutely the operations
of the heart when a man or a woman is unsaved or not in a right
relationship with God, and you have to hear authoritative preaching.
It does not feel good, does it? It does not feel good. When you
are not right with God, you don't like what you hear. And what
Paul is doing is warning his Jewish brethren, don't follow
the tenor of the practice that they have been used to over and
over and over and over again. So he renders, beware, therefore,
lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets. Now guess what he's about to
do. He's about to quote from the book of Habakkuk, verses
one through five. And I want us to go there to
hear what that says in that context, and then we'll come back and
listen to Paul. In Habakkuk chapter one, this is your minor prophet.
And the reason why I want you to go there, because you never
read that book before in your life anyway. And you need to peel
those pages back cause they sticking together. And you, you, you didn't
even know there was a book called Habakkuk until I just quoted
it. So we're going to help you peel those pages back. Those
are the brand new pages in your Bible. About seven, eight pages. They all stuck together because
you, you never been in that territory before that we getting ready
to go there. Okay. All right. So here's how Habakkuk
opens up the burden, which Habakkuk, the prophet did see. That's terrible
and necessary. So what Paul does is draws from
a prophecy that is heavy with judgment. That's why it's called
the burden of the Lord. Verse two, watch this. Oh Lord,
how long shall I cry? And you will not hear. Do you
see it? Now what Habakkuk is experiencing
is the faithfulness of God. to harden hearts who continually
reject his counsel. And when they cry, he does not
hear them. What Habakkuk is experiencing
is the judgment of God on his own people who have been rejecting
God and playing games with God and doing religion and doing
idolatries and committing all kinds of abominations until they
began to see God's judgment coming upon them. And when they began
to see the judgments coming, they cried, but God wouldn't
hear them. Do you believe that God allows
judgments to come? And in the process of the unfolding
of those judgments, though you cry, he will not hear you. Now,
every true believer that's a little bit mature in Christ should be
honest about this right now. God does not jump to your every
whimper. God does not answer your every
tear. God doesn't quickly run and almost
break his neck trying to get to you, saving you from yourself
when you cry, Lord help. Is that true? And in many cases,
God will allow the unfolding of purposes that bring pain,
that brings discipline, that brings sorrow, that brings woe. so deep in your soul of which
he knows, unless it goes that deep, nothing changes. Are you guys hearing me? And
so when we talk about the sovereignty of God, we're not talking about
being arbitrary. Arbitrary is, is, is for beast. That's for
creatures who don't have character. God has character as we shall
see. But what God will not do is play religious games with
people. You will reap what you sow. You understand the law of
reciprocity and and God will take his time before he comes
in and delivers if he delivers Remember, he is sovereign in
his mercy. I'll get back to that here in
a moment, but notice what Habakkuk is doing He's crying and he's
been crying for a long time and he said Lord. How long shall
I cry? Even cry out unto thee of violence
and you will not say I Now verse 2 is describing Habakkuk's vision. That's Habakkuk chapter 2. He
sits on his wall and he watches. He's describing Habakkuk's vision
because of the judgment of God coming upon Judah and Jerusalem
because of their disobedience to God for decades upon decades.
The enemy has now come in and the enemy is now plundering the
nation. It's destroying the nation. It's
raping the women, killing the children, and devastating the
men. And Habakkuk is watching it and
wondering when is God going to show up. Look at verse 3. Watch
this now. Watch verse 3. Here's the struggle. Why do you
show me what? And cause me to behold what?
For spoiling and violence are before me. and there are that
raise up strife and contention. Now this is Habakkuk asking God,
why is God allowing him to see all this? Now can I step in God's
shoes for a moment? This is called narrative preaching.
And I would say to Habakkuk, I'm showing you this because
I had to watch it for decades upon decades upon decades when
my own people rebelled against my faithful prophets who warned
them of the very atrocities they are experiencing themselves right
now. In other words, God was in the presence of his people
while his people were living like hell and God saw it and
God sent his prophets B time rising up early, going to them,
telling them to repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent.
The Lord God sees it. The Lord God sees it. The Lord
God sees it. Repent, repent. The Lord God
sees it. The Lord is not pleased with
the way you're behaving. Repent. And they wouldn't repent.
So now Habakkuk gets the unpleasurable opportunity to experience what
God experienced. Are you guys seeing that? And
when you're God's mouthpiece, he will do that. God will take
his mouthpiece and let his mouthpiece experience what God experiences
in order for the mouthpiece to make sure that it is tuned and
pitched just right when it opens its mouth. Otherwise, we will
fall prey to what we're going to develop over the next two
weeks, the deceitfulness of humanism. And the deceitfulness of humanism
is when we put ourselves before God. and then stand in judgment
over against God because God is acting like God and God's
acting like God doesn't fit our script. Did you guys hear what
I just stated? Humanism is when our first impulse
is about our own self-interest rather than the glory of God.
Humanism is when we see through the prism of our own welfare,
our own needs, our own desires, what's taking place rather than
looking through the prism of God's view and seeing it from
God's standpoint. And God raises people up to actually
see it the way God sees it. But you and I both know that
it's really difficult to stay consistent in seeing things the
way God sees it. Most of the time, you and I are
humanist. We see things through our own
prism We don't see it like God sees it and while we're not seeing
it like God sees it. We don't understand Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? We don't understand what's going
on. We can't see how this is working out for any good Why
because we're not on God's side We're on our own side. This is
what Habakkuk is working through in the narrative verse 4 watch
this now. I Therefore the law is slacked
and judgment doth never go forth, for the wicked doth compass about
the righteous. Therefore wrong judgment proceeds."
And what Habakkuk now is concluding is that all of this abuse, all
of this violence, all of this hostility results in kangaroo
courts. It results in empty suits. It results in leaders who are
avarice for greed and wealth and prominence. Leaders who will
take advantage of the poor. Leaders who will mock and persecute
the righteous. Leaders who take bribes. Leaders
who now basically are exercising unjust judgments in a society
because they're all wicked. Y'all know what I'm talking about.
Countries that have no moral ethical compass. who do not operate
out of a fear of the Lord and therefore are not really qualified
leaders, they succumb to this kind of violence. Think about
it for a moment. Think about it for a moment. This becomes
the law of the jungle. And this goes on in third world
countries all the time, where the leaders promise they're going
to deliver the people and give them food and bread. And the
next thing you know, they're taking bribes. and the wealthy
are getting wealthier, and the poor people are being devastated,
if not neglected, and atrocities abound. Am I making some sense?
Now, the one place that this should not have occurred was
in the church of God. And yet the church of God was
riddled with it. And what Habakkuk has to realize is God's been
watching this ever since Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem have abandoned
the gospel. And that's been for several hundred
years. God's put up with this for 250 years since the days
of Isaiah. Habakkuk is a contemporary with
Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Habakkuk see Babylon
coming. They can see the dust in the
air from the hoofs of the horses and they can hear the thunder
of the hordes of the Babylonians as they come into the cities
and devastate the land. Jeremiah had been preaching it
for decades Babylon's coming Babylon's coming Isaiah preached
it for decades Babylon is coming Babylon is coming. The judgment
is coming Watch this, but Israel wouldn't believe it They wouldn't
believe it Here's the verse watch the verse here. It is verse 5.
I Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder what? Marvelously for I will work a
work in your days, which you will not what though it be told
you See we're at the context now. So here is what God is saying
to Habakkuk The prophets have already warned them of the covenant
curse Deuteronomy chapter 28 Leviticus 26. I already told
them that Men with other tongues stammering
tongues and other lips. Well, I speak to this people
Remember we learned this in our Wednesday class God speaks by
his actions God just he doesn't run his mouth like you and I
do We know God is talking by the things that God does right
when God actually acts Providentially his people know that he is talking
and what Israel is experiencing now particularly Judah and Jerusalem
in our context is the consequence of not believing the word when
it was preached by the prophets they would not believe and what
Paul is doing is taking this historical context and saying
to those who had heard the gospel do not do this do not reject
the gospel you reject the gospel and the consequences are going
to fall out to you again now listen to the language of I will
work a work in your days, which you will not believe though it
be told you verse 6 For I for lo I raise up the what? That
bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth
of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs It's
amazing now watch this to this day Israel the political nation
of Israel does not actually see the reality of the implications
of the historic judgments that God has poured upon them over
and over and over and over again like this. To this day they don't
see these judgments. To this day as Paul said in chapter
28 and Isaiah said it in Isaiah chapter 6, the Lord has given
you deep sleep. He has closed your eyes. The
spirit of slumber has caused you not to see the reality of
God's hand of judgment against you. And so he's explaining to
them something they couldn't even conceive in their mind.
That God would allow the precious land of Palestine, which was
Israel proper at that time, to be invaded by other nations.
They just didn't believe it would happen. They didn't believe it
would happen. Like churches do not believe
that when you begin to alter the gospel and twist the gospel
and distort the gospel, that God won't give those churches
up to false doctrine and false teaching. He does it every time. Churches will pretend that they're
all right with God and the leadership will know that they're cutting
off the Word of God. They know that they're abandoning
essential doctrinal truths, modifying their teachings for the very
objective of being able to please the people or have it their way.
And true men and women of God will tell that church, you're
wrong, you're abandoning the Word of God, you're abandoning
sound doctrine. You do this, you'll be left to the judgments
of God. And what happens is, they begin to become hardened
in their heart to the warning of the doctrines of the gospel,
which warn that if you continue to reject the Word of God, God
will give you over to blindness. He'll give you over to spiritual
blindness to believe the lie. That's what we learn in 2 Thessalonians
2 verses 9-11. You guys remember that? He will
give them over to a strong delusion to believe a lie because they
had no love for the truth that they might be saved. This is
where Paul is. So you know Paul is in a struggle,
is he not? We're in a struggle with Paul in Romans 9, are we
not? Because Paul has lived both sides of the experience. He knows
what it means to be an unregenerate, blind Jew walking in self-righteousness,
not even ever contemplating that he was the object of God's wrath.
See, this is what happens when you are self-righteous and given
over to your own gospel. The last thing you believe is
that you are under the wrath of God. When in fact you can
be the very object of God's wrath of which other humble souls are
watching and they are seeing the consequences. Blindness is
the first thing that sets in. Pride is the second thing that
sets in. And then open opposition to the gospel is the third thing
that sets in. Blindness, pride, open opposition. Blindness, pride,
open opposition is what takes place. Verse 7 and then we'll
go back. They are terrible and dreadful their judgment and their
dignity shall proceed of themselves verse 8 because this is a song
Their horses also are swifter than the leopards and more fierce
than the evening wolves and their horsemen shall spread themselves
and their horsemen shall come from afar they shall fly as the
eagle that hastens to eat a major picturesque image of the momentum
with which the hordes of the Babylonian rush in upon Israel
So quick that they overtake them and they have no way of even
preparing a defense against them Go back to our text now. Let's
work this through Acts chapter 13 So you and I are now actually
occupying the feet of the Apostle Paul Comfortably for a moment
and and we need to do that because I think this is the best position
for us to be in Because the Apostle Paul is still a fresh a believer
in Christ Dealing with the conflict of knowing that he was just like
them But now he has to preach this gospel of which the spirit
of god is giving him boldness to do Over against the people
that he knows that he was just like a few years ago He was just
like them And so he knows them beware lest that come upon you
which was spoken of in the prophet. Uh prophets verse 41 watch this
now We can make our way through this text. Behold ye despisers
and wonder and what? Behold ye despisers. See that
word despisers? That's the word that means to
mock or to scorn or to belittle as to reject not giving what
you heard proper and due benevolence. Despisers are people, as the
Proverbs puts it, when you give wisdom to a fool, he will despise
it. He will not regard it as his
hope or his salvation. He will trot it underfoot as
something that's negotiable. And what Paul is saying to his
Jewish brothers are, you guys better be careful, you are despisers. This is so interesting to me,
because here he is, he's preaching the word, like I'm talking to
you, But he is so deeply involved in his audience that he's basically
reading their hearts right before them. Now, in the 21st century
where you and I live, were I to talk like that to some of you
and call you despisers, you despisers, you would call me judgmental
and self-righteous. And who is he to actually think
he can actually expose our hearts? Are you guys hearing me? Because
we build major defenses against truth. The only person we gonna
let in is who we want to let in But Paul is speaking to them. Not only I believe because he
Was one of them and therefore he knows how the heart operates
when you are hit smack in your forehead by truth But because
the Holy Spirit has clearly given him insight into the disposition
of their hearts Think about it. The Holy Spirit reveals to you
that their hearts are hardening right in front of you Wouldn't
you urge them with words that may be pejorative to shake them
out of their stupor and sleep? Wouldn't you do that? Wouldn't
you try to wake them up? Wouldn't you use an appropriate
term to define where they are right now? You rebels! Isn't that the way Christ did
it? You generation of vipers! You wicked and adulterous generation! That's how he talked to them.
Why? Because he saw their hearts. Three times in the gospel of
Matthew's Christ read the hearts of the leaders. He turned around
being grieved at all of them because he saw how their hearts
were hardening while he was preaching the word. That's what's going
on here with the apostle Paul. So we, we, we, we, uh, empathize
with Paul as a minister of the gospel to his own people. And
as Christ said, a prophet is not honored in his own household.
Right? So this is what Paul is experiencing. He's experiencing
the conflict of being a believer in Christ with a call to prophesy
and experiencing the very same outcome that his master did.
That's a conflict for him. He's not saying what he's saying
because he's mad. He's saying what he's saying
by the guidance of the spirit of God, hopefully to wake them
up out of what will shortly be an eternal doom. You guys are
gonna see it here in a moment The door of mercy is about to
shut on this very audience It's about to shut For I will work
a work in your days of which you shall in no wise believe
though a man declared to you What is paul talking about the
gospel? Is he not? He's talking about
the gospel. What is he saying? He's saying
to his jewish brother just like The sixth century Jews who didn't
believe God's warning about the coming of the Babylonians. You
guys are not believing God's warning about the resurrection
of Christ. That the resurrection of Christ
makes him Lord. And because he's Lord, he possesses the sure mercies
of David. And because he possesses the
sure mercies of David, Christ's mercies are sovereign, i.e., God does not have to show
mercy to any one of us. He's not obligated. Are you guys
hearing? To make God obligated to show
mercy makes it no more mercy. Do you guys have that? Do you
guys understand that? Mercy is only mercy when the person who
possesses it is not obligated to give it. For us to think that
God has to show us mercy, we're completely deceived. And that's
the generation I preach to today. The church age I live in today,
as you're going to learn on Sunday, actually thinks that it has the
right to the mercy of God. That's the generation I live.
I'm talking about church folk actually think it can demand
God to show them mercy. and they frame their whole teaching
around the assumption that God has to show mercy. This is called
the deception of humanism. Are you guys hearing me? The
false notion that somehow there's something intrinsic within us
that merits God showing us mercy. And what Paul is going to show
us in Romans chapter 9 is nothing can be further from the truth.
And if we would just let history talk, God has shown mercy to
some and others he's left to their own evil machinations and
suffer the judgment for it. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is very, very important with regards to, uh, to how this,
this chain of events is going to turn. Now, listen to what
he says, though, a man declared unto you, verse 42, And when
the Jews were going out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought
that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Crazy. I've got about 20 minutes. Let me go to work. Pull up the
PowerPoint. Starting with the warning, let's see here, the
rejecting God's authority, and then moving towards, where am I at? I'm using something
else. Okay, here we go. The Jews will reject the gospel.
But the gentiles will receive it the jews will reject the gospel
and that's where paul is in his concern verse 40 And 42 give
us the context look at verse 45 look at verse 45. Are you
there? but when the jews Saw the multitude they were filled
with what? And they spake against the things
which were spoken by paul see it Doing what contradicting and
what? Did paul know what was in their
hearts? Do you see it? This is amazing because there
is now going to be sort of a uh, a parting of the ways verses
42 and 43 Is about to show us now a major paradigm shift in
the ministry of the apostle paul and barnabas and the rest Upon
paul's final warning that's given to us in verse 41 Though a man
declare it to you And it's interesting because the jews and the gentiles
were together in this meeting the gentiles heard everything
that I just said. They heard it all. And you know
what's interesting? They want to hear more. This
is going to open your eyes to something that some of you already
know because you're solid in biblical doctrine and you understand
grace. For some of you, you don't understand
this and so your eyes are going to be open to this reality. It
may not be comfortable, but it's true. It may not be comfortable,
but it's true. The Jews will reject this gospel.
The scriptures are very clear. They prophesied that this would
occur. Paul intuitively knew that this would happen. He's
struggling with this everywhere he goes. He's being rejected
by his Jewish brethren, and he's being rejected by his Jewish
brethren on the claim that he's rejecting Moses, he's rejecting
the law, he's rejecting the temple. Stephen was killed for these
very same things. Remember that? Stephen was killed.
Paul consented to his death. Now Paul is having to say the
same thing. It's not about the temple. It's not about circumcision.
It's not about law keeping. It's not about moses. It's about
jesus He's got to preach this message and now he's going to
experience the same heat But something else is about to take
place in paul's mind That's going to be a revelation And it's going
to open the door to our last and final point and that's this
In the eclectic of the whole group to whom he's preaching
Only the jews are rejecting him The gentiles are hearing him And what he had preached through
the totality of his message While it hardened his jewish brethren's
heart It broke the gentiles down softened their hearts Broke the
follow ground up let light in And a seed was sown and the soul
now became hungry to know more Ladies and gentlemen, are you
hearing me watch this now? To one the word of god is a stench
a savor of death unto death. To another person, it's a sweet
smelling fragrance, a savor of life unto life. Both of them
are hearing the same gospel, but the heart is responding to
it in totally averse ways. Are you guys following me? This
is the tenor of scripture. But what Paul is about to enter
into is what I call the mystery of the revelation of the gospel
to the Gentiles. And his whole theology around
preaching now is going to shift. Because he has been having a
hard time breaking up the follow ground of his Jewish brethren's
heart. And he's way up in Asia Minor. He's not even in Jerusalem
now. He's up in Asia Minor. And the Jews are just as adamant
up there as they are down in Jerusalem. But there's this group
of Gentiles who are so interested in what this man has stated.
They are pleading with him to continue preaching to them. Can
you imagine the experience? One group, you can sense the
animosity. The other group are pulling on
you with a hunger for everything that's in you. You're torn now.
You know what's happening for Paul? Insight is given to him
now about the ways of God and his redemptive purposes in the
life of the Gentiles. He's getting ready to have a
major revelation as to why God is calling him into the direction
that he's going. Our next point, I guess that'll
help. I think it's there. I don't know. There we go. You
can leave it there. This is what we'll be working with for the
rest of our verses. And I'll be able to sum this up pretty
easily. Then we can enter into some Q&A before we close. The
apostle Paul Has been confronted by the gentiles in verse 42 and
when the jews were going out of the synagogue The gentiles
we saw that these words might be preached to them the next
sabbath day Hey, they may not have gotten it, but we want to
hear this again You know what? They wanted to hear they wanted
to hear the gospel They wanted to hear about christ They wanted
to understand more about this matter of the forgiveness of
sins, the sure mercies of David, the rule of Christ, justification
by faith apart from works. For them, it made all the sense
in the world because they were convinced that they were sinners.
And when they heard this idea that through this man is preached
the forgiveness of sins of which by the law of Moses, no one could
be justified from anything. That was a door of mercy open
to these people. It swung wide open. It swung
wide open. By the way, this is an interesting
point of interest on a practical level. What religion often does
is take eternal principles of scripture and turn them into
religious practices. And when they turn them into
religious practices, they, uh, they divest that principle of
any power. Let me, let me, let me, let me
explain what I'm talking about. And a lot of our churches, particularly
black churches, we use this term called opening the doors of the
church. How many of y'all have heard that open the doors to
the church? All right. It is such an unbiblical concept. Nowhere
is it taught in the scriptures and yet, The church has been
doing it for decades upon decades upon decades No scriptural text
at all. No mandate from christ that gives
you and me the authority To open the doors to the kingdom That's christ's work alone Now
watch this now and it happens in the sphere and realm of the
spirit where the Spirit of God opens the door to the kingdom
for those that are hearing and those that are hearing enter
in and they don't move from their seats to the altar either. Are
you hearing me? Right where they are, the preaching
of the gospel, when it's accompanied by the Spirit of God, opens their
heart to the truth of the gospel and right where they are, they
come into the kingdom. As it were, these Gentiles have
already entered in. The doors were swung wide open
when Christ was exalted When forgiveness was preached through
his name when they were told that they were justified freely
by the grace of God in Christ Jesus the Spirit of God opened
their hearts like he did Lydia's heart and at 16 and they attended
to the things that he was preaching and they didn't have to move
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? in other words What the
church has done is taken away the key that belongs to the gospel
and actually made it a practice for themselves. And what the
church has done is told people you're saved by coming up front
and letting us pray for you rather than sitting right in your seat
and believing the preaching of a finished work that Christ has
accomplished all by himself. so that the soul enters into
communion with God in the privacy and sanctum of his own heart,
right then and there, where the kingdom is open. This is what
Jesus meant in John chapter three, except you be born again. You can't see nor enter into
the kingdom of God. And that birth takes place by
the spirit of God while the gospel is preached right there in the
sea where people are. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And so over the years, I have watched what we do. See,
like what churches do, we don't do it, but churches do. And people
ask me all the time, Pastor, why don't you have an altar call?
Because we don't believe in altar call. Those altar calls are not
biblical. Show me anywhere in the New Testament
where the apostles did an altar call. See, you're back in the
Old Testament paradigm, are you not? And the altar call was not
a weekly thing that was done. That altar call was a call to
repentance on the part of the people who ostensibly were already
religious. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
Nowhere in the New Testament does it say, get up from your
seat while we plan just as I am, make your way up to the front
and start crying and whining and repeat after me. Cause as
soon as you do that, you have failed to realize that salvation
is totally the work of God. Now you think it's something
you did. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And when you get up after having all those warm, fuzzy feelings
and crying and snotting and clowning about two days later, when it
wears off, you're back in your hellish ways again, only to have
to come back to the alter the next week. And the week after
that, and the week after that, because you've been coming to
the wrong altar all the time. See, there's an altar in heaven,
according to Hebrews chapter 12 and 13. That altar in heaven
is Jesus Christ the Lord. And the way you get there is
by faith through grace apart from works. You can take your
flight there as soon as you hear the gospel call saying, believe
on me. And there's where the blood will meet you in the cleansing
of your sins and the justifying of you before the bar of justice.
And you will go away like that publican did, justified. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? Right where you are. And guess
what? No flesh will glory in God's sight. The preacher won't
glory. The church won't glory. We won't
have a clerk writing down how many conversions we had today.
Are you guys hearing me? To me, you know, people ask me
to preach in their churches frequently. And I'm just amazed at the customs
that go on in the church. And you know, I don't even think
about it. Cause I'm so glad to preach.
Cause I know what I'm going to talk about. Right? So at the
end of my preaching, I'll go, Oh, okay. They got a custom here
and they'll go through their custom and won't nobody come. Are you here? Ain't nobody coming.
This is amazing. I'm like, now why are y'all practicing
something week in and week out? And ain't nobody coming. Isn't
the Lord saying something here? Isn't the Lord saying something
like, I'm sitting there embarrassed. I want to check my cell phone,
see what's going on. I'm a little embarrassed, especially
when it ain't but 20 people in the audience and they're all
church members. Now, why are you going to ask
them to come up and they supposed to already be saved? See, so
here's what we got going on. Listen to me. It's the ignorance
of religion It's the ignorance of religion Where once we start
the practice, we just swear we got to keep it going. No, you
don't Stop everything that's both unbiblical and unnecessary
and believe that the Holy Ghost works through the word and to
come into the audience, take a seat right next to that sinner
that he's touching and let them have a conversation all by themselves.
And just pray for him after the service and let God do his work. That no flesh might glory in
this sight. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? That no flesh might glory in his sight. Just absolutely
amazing to me. All right, so under this last
point, three things that I'll touch on and we'll come back
and unpack it more fully next week because it's just absolutely
amazing. Listen to this language. I'm
going to start at verse 43 and I'll go through verse 48 and
then we'll close and then we'll take this up next week. Now,
when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious
proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who's speaking to them,
persuading them to continue in the grace of God. And on the
next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear
the word of God. The spirit of God is moving. Is he not? When you have a whole
city coming to hear the word of God, the spirit of God is
moving. Now let me say this, not everyone
that's coming is saved. Not everyone that's coming is
going to get saved. Many devils are coming too because
that's the nature of revival. If you ever see revival in our
land, you will see a lot of conflict because wherever God is working,
so is the devil. Do you understand that? The idea
that everybody that's coming is saved and everybody that's
coming is going to be saved. That's unbiblical too. Many are
called, few are chosen. Are you hearing me? This is very
important for you to know that way you don't get hoodwinked
by religion because they love to give you large numbers. We
had 200 conversions today. No, you didn't. No, you didn't.
You just had 200 people signing up for something. You have no
way to verify a change of the heart Now you're playing god Now you're playing god One of the things that has billy
graham shaking in his boots, I mean he's dead now But I meant
when he was living one of the things that had billy graham
shaking in his boots Over the last 20 years was because he
was a major perpetrator of this fraud And his soul started grieving
him after many years of knowing that he had set up machinations
and traps by which he would draw multitudes of people up to the
stage. This was all strategized by man-made system where you
plant people in the audience. This is all human sociological
manipulation. And if you get a few people come
to come up, then others will come up too. Isn't that horrible? Isn't that horrible? It ought
to be dreadful to us that we think that we got to do those
kind of things to get numbers But they had to tally up numbers
in order to demonstrate that his revival meetings were successful
so he could get into other cities Because if they didn't come then
he wouldn't get invited to other cities And as he slowed down
and as he got older according to Ecclesiastes 12 When the evil
days come upon you Ecclesiastes 12 When you start to get old
and the whole metaphor of the breakdown of the body take place
and grasshoppers start to bother you. And when you contemplate
that, which is how you get fearful because you know, you're going
to stand in the presence of God. One of the things Billy Graham
bemoaned was all of his manmade methods of which they went behind
much of what he did and prove that the vast majority of those
were not legitimate conversions at all. Just manmade techniques. You guys hearing what I'm saying
man-made techniques. I Hope the Lord had mercy on
him. I hope the Lord had mercy on Billy Graham But when you
leave people down these kinds of false paths you are a destroyer
of the souls of men's a Destroyer of the souls of men. Here's what
he says in verse 44 verse 45, but when the Jews saw the multitude
They were filled with envy spake against those things were spoken
by Paul, contradicting him. One of the things that has Billy
Graham shaking in his boots, I mean, he's dead now, but I
meant when he was living. One of the things that had Billy
Graham shaking in his boots over the last 20 years was because
he was a major perpetrator of this fraud. And his soul started
grieving him after many years of knowing that he had set up
machinations and traps by which he would draw multitudes of people
up to the stage. This was all strategized by a
man-made system where you plant people in the audience. This
is all human sociological manipulation. And if you get a few people come
to come up, then others will come up too. Isn't that horrible? Isn't that horrible? It ought
to be dreadful to us that we think that we got to do those
kind of things to get numbers But they had to tally up numbers
in order to demonstrate that his revival meetings were successful
so he could get into other cities Because if they didn't come then
he wouldn't get invited to other cities And as he slowed down
and as he got older according to Ecclesiastes 12 When the evil
days come upon you Ecclesiastes 12 when you start to get old
and the whole metaphor of the breakdown of the body take place
and grasshoppers start to bother you and when you contemplate
that which is high you get fearful because you know you're going
to stand in the presence of God. One of the things Billy Graham
bemoaned was all of his man-made methods of which they went behind
much of what he did and proved that the vast majority of those
were not legitimate conversions at all. Just man-made techniques
You guys hearing what I'm saying man-made techniques. I Hope the
Lord had mercy on him. I hope the Lord had mercy on
Billy Graham But when you leave people down these kinds of false
paths you are a destroyer of the souls of men's a Destroyer
of the souls of men. Here's what he says in verse
44 verse 45, but when the Jews saw the multitude They were filled
with envy spake against those things were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas, now I
want you to hear how they responded. Now watch this now. This is a
major insight given to them in this moment by the Holy Ghost
from the scriptures. They waxed bold and said, it
was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken
to you. We already learned the principle,
right? To the Jew first, then to the what? But seeing you put
it far from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life
lo We turn to the gentiles We turn to the gentiles amazing
This was a huge rift This day in the soul of a man who prided
himself as being a son of the law he was a He was a Hebrew
of the Hebrews of the tribe of Benjamin circumcised on the eighth
day of the upper echelon of the religious elite. Now he has to
turn from his Jewish brethren as the spirit of God reveals
that it's the Gentiles who will receive the message of free grace.
And then he gives him, gives Paul and Barnabas grace to say
it out loud in the midst of the conflict of their soul. That's
a struggle, isn't it? You got to now turn from your
Jewish brother, and from this point on, I want you to mark
this, ladies and gentlemen, from this point on, it's all out war. The Jews are gonna constantly
attack Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, Apollos, all these guys, constantly
attack them. Everywhere he goes, they're gonna
try to kill him. Are you guys hearing me? Everywhere
he goes. I don't know what's going on upstairs. Anyhow, that's
why you gotta bring your Bibles. I'm in my Bobby. I got your Bible
here. Good. Good. Good. Got a few more verses.
Look at we're done I'm just gonna read these and we'll come back
and unpack it next week verse 47 and 48 For so hath the Lord
commanded us Saying I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles
that you should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth Do
you guys see verse 47? Crazy, I love it. I study Paul
because I actually appreciate and am fascinated by his hermeneutics
By his method of biblical interpretation which which discombobulates our
Modern method of hermeneutics all the time and I look forward
to talking about this next week, but he took a passage out of
Isaiah which when you read it has as its immediate fulfillment
of the person of the Lord Jesus. Christ is the light that God
sends to the Gentiles. It's quoted in Isaiah 42, Isaiah
49 and Isaiah 60. And yet Paul says God has commanded
them to be the light. What is he preaching? He's preaching
source, which is Christ, and means, which is the apostle.
He's preaching the head, which is Christ, and the body being
the what? Church. In other words, the fulfillment
of those prophecies where Christ is the light to the Gentiles
cannot be accomplished without the church. The church is the
mouthpiece of Christ. Are you hearing me? As his body,
we fill up his afflictions while we preach Christ to the world. It's amazing what he has just
done. He's acquired by revelation of
the spirit, boldness now to move to the Gentiles as a fulfillment
of those passages. And he's right. Because remember
when Christ came physically, he came to his own Jewish brethren.
He didn't come to the Gentiles, but he did prophesy other sheep
have I that are not of this foal. They too must be brought in.
There'll be one shepherd and one foal. But he knew it would
get done. through his apostles. Questions. Anybody got questions? Any questions
tonight? Going once, going twice, going
three times. Let's close in prayer. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for the insights. Thank you for the warnings. May our soul
take hearty heed in a day where religion abounds everywhere and
where men are given over to their own methods their own meanings,
their own goals and purposes. As you have plainly said it in
the mouth of your prophet Jeremiah, the prophets prophesied falsely,
the priests bear rule by their own means and method, and the
people love to have it so. And we ask your mercy upon us
and those that hear us and those that fear your name near and
far, that you would give us grace to stand on the truth. that men
and women might be delivered, might be saved, might be kept
in these dark days of apostasy. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. By the way, we got a meeting
that's going to be taking place tomorrow. Revelation's ministry.
We're packing Bibles. There's a little list out in
the back I don't know if you guys seen it, but if you want to join
us we can use some hands tomorrow putting Bibles together for our
prisoners If you aren't doing anything you want to put some
work in we'll be here from 8 to 1 or 2 tomorrow Hopefully if
we get enough people out to help us work To get the job done. Anyhow, I just want to let you
guys know. All right. God bless you