Acts chapter 5. We're going to
start around verse 17 and commence with the confrontation of the
leadership of the Jews. Because of the preaching of Peter
and John and the others, because of their persistence to do what
God had called them to do, they are now confronted by the religious
leaders. And the title of this particular
consideration is called the beast of religion against the gospel. And we share that term advisedly
simply because what we have here is a model of the historic conflict
that takes place when religion is Christless and given over
to its own agenda and the gospel is a threat to it. Wherever religion
is Christless and given over to its own agenda, the devil
is in it who is seeking his own renown, his own glory, his own
honor, And he is a continual and perpetual and unending foe
of the gospel. And our master has told the disciples
this. So we're going to see how they
fare in their apostolic call in this area. By the way, I'll
just note it now while you're here. Next Friday will be our
Calvary night ministry. Just want to share that with
you. We take a break from our regular service as we always
do. And we have a special service where we focus in on the cross
work of Christ. And it's a full service. So come
on out. It's going to be good music,
good worship, and mostly a commitment to once again, reflecting upon
the atoning work of Christ in preparation for Sunday. You come
out, bring your family out, bring your friends out. They'll get
a chance to hear the gospel one more time. If they ever heard
it and we'll get an opportunity to prostrate ourselves before
the Lamb of God. The theme for next Friday night
is all praise to the Lamb. So it's gonna be a good time.
So make sure that you avail yourself. We'll talk more about it on Sunday.
Going back to our outline, or going back to our text, we read
in Acts 5, verse 17, through verse 21, these words. Then the high priest rose up
and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees,
and were filled with indignation. And they laid their hands on
the apostles and put them in the common prison. But the angel
of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them
forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the people
all the words of this life. And when they had heard that,
they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest came and
they that were with him and called the council together. and all
the Senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison
to have them brought. Let me continue the next few
verses. But when the officers came and
found them not in the prison, they returned and told, saying,
the prison truly we found shut with all safety and the keeper
standing without before the doors. But when we had opened, we found
no man within. Now, when the high priest and
the captain of the temple And the chief priest heard these
things. They doubted of them where unto this would grow. We'll stop right there. We'll
pick up if we can make our way through the subsequent points.
Last week, we were dealing with the fundamental premise that
there is a hating of the gospel going on here. Is that right?
There is a rejection of the gospel. There's a hostility against the
message of Jesus Christ, and it is coming from the top down.
And our Lord anticipated this. This is why the gospel starts
in Jerusalem. This is ground zero, so the master
and his disciples are at the very place where they crucified
Christ. That means the gospel is a manly
gospel, and it actually does deal with people who hold the
most virulent antipathy towards God. But there's more to it as
well. However, we will note that there
is on the part of the Jewish leadership, as we learned last
week, a real antagonism against the message of redemption. And
it's because the message of redemption actually saves and liberates
people that they have such opposition against it. The first point in
your outline hating the gospel is the liberating gospel hated
by legal religion. You guys got that? The liberating
gospel hated by legal religion. I would be going into the psychological
component of it, and I don't need to do it at length, but
if you have a system of religion, if you build a method of religion
by which you seek to influence people and bring people under
your auspices, If it's legalistic in nature, the one thing you
are afraid of is liberation. If your system is built upon
a set of assumptions that the only way you can control people
is to fence them in, then the thing that you fear is any kind
of emancipatory doctrine or effect in the life of those people.
Now, this can be true of a church. It can be true of a family. It
can be true of a couple. Am I making some sense? If you
and I are so insecure in ourselves that the only way we can control
people is to erect fences to bind them up and lock them in,
the one thing you and I are going to find ourselves spending all
of our energy doing is trying to keep those fences up. Because
by nature, there are several things that we all are inclined
to. They are inalienable rights. And one of them is freedom. Freedom. The soul naturally wants to be
free. It wants to be free. That does
not mean that that's the ultimate virtue, but it is critical to
virtue. And I've said it before, while
there is the desire to be free, freedom without virtue is a curse. So we want to be free, but we
don't want to be without virtue. You guys follow that? I don't
want to just be free. Freedom is no good for a finite
creature like us because we don't have infinite wisdom, nor do
we have infinite power. In other words, to simply be
free is to set ourselves up ultimately to be destroyed because we don't
have the capacity within ourselves to deal with a free universe.
What are you going to do with the devil that's roaming about
seeking whom he may devour in your freedom? If you don't have
virtue, he's going to bring you into captivity to himself eventually. So freedom is a penultimate gift,
but virtue must be above freedom. I need to have those gifts necessary
for me to make right choices and live in a right way before
my God in the context of freedom. So freedom is critical, but freedom
is always with another objective. So when the Bible says in John
chapter eight, whomsoever the son shall set free shall be free
indeed. Christ doesn't simply liberate
us to live like we want to. We become slaves of Christ. And
therefore he imposes upon us or actually imparts into us virtues
by which we become a partaker of the divine nature. And that's
a law within itself. This is why when God installs
the love of God in Christ in your heart, it actually rearranges
your attitude and changes your priorities and starts bringing
you in conformity to the will of God. Those are internal compulsions,
not external restraints. Internally, I want to do the
will of God. I want to do the will of God
from the heart. That's what Romans chapter six, verse 17. We thank
God that from the heart you have obeyed that form of doctrine
by which you were brought into captivity. And that doctrine
is the gospel. So the liberating gospel is a
threat to legal religion because legal religion only can control
people by virtue of threats and limitations and prohibitions
And don't do this, don't do that, don't do the other thing. Matthew
chapter 23 verses one through five. Here's what the master
said about that just to get our thoughts stimulated as we work
through the nature of the liberating gospel as we will see it depicted
in the life of the apostles. The apostles are going to experience
constant liberation, emancipation over against the entrapments
of the legal system. And that's gonna be a lesson
for you and me. But here's what our master says in Matthew 23.
verses 1 through 5 concerning the legal system. Then spake
Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples, saying, The scribes
and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. You know what that means,
right? They occupy rulership. That's what it means to sit.
And their thesis is the Mosaic Law. They occupy a seat of judgment,
and their thesis is the Mosaic Law. Now watch what our Master
says. All therefore, whatever they bid you, that is when they
teach their didoscon, when they teach, observe and do. Now, do what they teach now,
because they teach you Moses's law. Now, our master had to say
this because of all of the wicked persons who would look for any
word that Jesus would utter that would seem to deviate from the
Mosaic system so that they could catch him in a lie. But you and
I know that our master never taught anything that deferred
from or deviated from the Old Testament system. Is that true?
There was nothing that he ever taught that did not affirm, augment,
build upon, and establish the Old Testament teachings. In fact,
Matthew 5, he said, I didn't come to abolish the law, but
to what? Fulfill it. So, you know, you
hear people arguing about Jesus didn't talk about this, Jesus
didn't talk about that, Jesus didn't talk about... When he
says that he came to fulfill the law, he talked about everything
that was in the law. Right? Logic and inference would
tell us if he honored the whole of the Old Testament, the Tanakh,
from Genesis to Malachi, that means everything in it was of
force in the mind of our Savior. And thus we say he spoke about
those things. We also argue that he was the
one who actually narrated the Word. He is the Word. So how
can one argue that he did not speak to those things? This gives
you an insight into the liberal progressive mindset who actually
does not believe in the deity of Christ or in the veracity
of the process by which the Word of God was given. Holy men of
old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, right? That's
what the text says. We're moved along by the wind
of the Spirit of God and they utter as God gave them the capacity
and the unction to say what he wanted them to say. And so they
were doing that, which we call infallible inspiration. And so the argument stops there.
Our master said, listen to what they say, observe it, and you
do it, but do not do after their what. So now mark what our master
is doing. Logic would tell me that if they
are saying the right things, but I'm not to follow what they
do, that there's a disconnect between what they say and how
they act, right? which means he has just defined
them as what? Hypocrites. So he's saying, hear
what they're saying because their theology fundamentally is accurate,
but don't practice what they practice because they are hypocrites.
The doctrine of the Pharisees was called covetousness. This
is Luke chapter 16. You can read it in your own time.
He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is covetousness. When a man or a person or a group
is given over to covetousness, They will be hypocritical in
their practices. Covetousness will be their ultimate goal,
so they will say things to appear one way with an objective that
really is not consistent with it. We're looking at that. I
looked at that last week with Ananias and Sapphira. There was
a hypocrisy there, wasn't it? And it was rooted in what? Covetousness.
So our master says, don't do what they don't do after their
works, for they bind heavy burdens. Do you see that? Grievous to
be born now when our master says they're grievous to be born.
They're grievous to be born Because he bore grievous burdens didn't
he and when he says they bind heavy burdens on you Grievous
to be born they laid them on men's shoulders, but they themselves
will not move them with one of their fingers he was eloquent
and concise in his exposure of their hypocrisy look at verse
5, but all their works are They do, for to what? Be seen of men. Thus they go into the whole religious
facade of which I have warned us for years at grace, do not
fall prey, do not fall prey, do not fall prey to thinking
that you please God because you are pleasing men or you have
received the commendation of men or you're part of the good
old boys club. Go with me back to Acts chapter
five. That doesn't constitute you having pleased God. Do nothing to please men solely.
Do nothing to be seen of men. Do nothing to appear before men. And the whole structure and system
of Judaism was set up on a hierarchical structure of legalism and words
and all sorts of other unbiblical practices, nepotism and things
of that nature. And the apostles were part of
a whole new movement which was not approved by this group. And
so we have this conflict taking place. in the book of Acts where
the apostles have been placed in prison for the preaching of
the gospel. The second point under point
number one, we talked about it briefly, a false authority exposed,
a false authority exposed. And I won't go into this at length,
but in Matthew chapter 26, 53, Jesus clearly told Caiaphas and
Ananias who had come to him and they sought to trap him again,
try to make they try to make him assert that he was seeking
to establish a political kingdom so that they could make him guilty
of suborning men to go against the Roman Empire and then when
they pushed him on the issue of him being Messiah and therefore
the Son of God and he ultimately said I am as you have stated
I am they said what further use do we have for this man and they
commenced to crucify him, which we will look at more extensively
next week. But our master made it very clear
to them. He said, listen, you could do
nothing to me at all if it wasn't given to you by my father. And you will see the son of man
coming in the clouds of glory shortly after you do what you
do. And the strong implications were
that their authority was false. And what we are seeing in the
book of Acts is that truth, that as Christ has taken his place
on his throne, as you and I looked at this several weeks back in
Acts 2 and 3, God had made this Christ, this Jesus, both Lord
and Christ. He is exercising divine authority.
And here you are, you mandate the imprisonment of Christ's
servants, right? You put them in the prison. This
is the common prison is what they called it here in verse
18. And you look up and they're what? Loose. What that does is
exposes your authority for being a fraud. Do you guys see that? Your authority is a fraud. Because
if you had power, they'd still be in prison. If you had authority,
they'd still be there. If this were a God, these men
would not be able to get out of prison the way that they did.
So what we've got taking place, I just want you to look at that
nuance, are two authorities, the fraudulent authority of the
secular religious system under the control of the devil and
the genuine authentic authority of Jesus Christ from his throne
in heaven demanding the liberation of his servants. And they are
liberated. They are liberated because the nature of the gospel
is liberation. So point number two, our second
PowerPoint, Christ's authority to liberate his servants. Now
I wanna talk about this a little bit briefly because this is powerful.
Notice what it says in verse 19. But the angel of the Lord
by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth. I love
the construction that Luke is using because he is he is making
the agent of their complete liberation. The angel of the Lord the angel
of the Lord by night. He opened the prison doors and
he brought them forth all of this is in the active form. In
other words, the disciples, the apostles, are passive in this
liberation. They didn't seek to get out.
They didn't manipulate the situation. They didn't cooperate. They are
under divine mission to be liberated from this false authority. And
if they had to answer to this, guess what they would have to
say? God delivered us. But I want to show you a principle
that's in Hebrews chapter 1 as well, in the book of Hebrews
1.14. You see this principle, this is what the writer to the
Hebrew said. He says, are they not all ministering
spirits, right? You remember that. And I just
want you to mark it because it's a theological truth relevant
to that time, and I am certain it's relevant today. As he's
exalting the supremacy of Jesus Christ as God, he's also asserting
his authority over the angels, but in his asserting authority
over the angels, The writer to the hebrews is teaching us what
the mission of the angels are in this present time Notice what
he says in verse 13, but to which of the angels said he at any
time sit on my right hand Until I make thy enemies thy footstool
that would have been equality of authority with god For him
to tell an angel to sit at his right hand would be to exalt
them to deity Okay? Now they have power, but they're
not deified. Now watch what verse 14 says.
Are they not all ministering or serving or diaconate spirits
sent forth, that's an apostolic call, to minister for them who
shall be heirs of what? Salvation. That's right. So their
goal is to specifically help advance the cause of Christ for
the salvation of his people. Now, when you read the whole
of your Bible, Everywhere in your Bible, that's what the angels
appear for to advance the gospel from Genesis to Revelation Their
job was to advance the gospel in the life of every person that
was part of the kingdom Which means that this is a awful awful
warfare that we are in That God has to utilize angels to help
advance his cause in our life This is an awful warfare This
is a serious warfare This is not a battle of flesh and blood.
This is a major, major emphasis around the principalities and
powers in heavenly places, the dark forces that seek to stop
God's glory, particularly in the life of the kingdom of God,
which is expressed by the church, and more particularly in the
cause of the preaching of the gospel. Are they not all ministering
spirits, serving spirits, laboring on the behalf of those who are
heirs of salvation? So the book of Acts will affirm
that theology several times. Will you go with me to Acts chapter
12? I want you to see it briefly, although we will unpack it in
that context too. The apostles deal with this in
the book of Acts chapter 12. You remember where Peter is in
prison and notice what it says over in verse five of Acts chapter
12. Peter therefore kept was kept
in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church
of God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth,
the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with
two chains, and the keepers of the doors had kept the prison.
Here's your false authority again, using all of his human resources
to bind the servants, right? False authority exercising a
false rule of binding. Now remember we talked about
binding and loosening, which was part of the call of the gospel
given by Christ to the apostles. Whatsoever you bind on earth
will have been bound in heaven. Whatsoever you loose on earth
will have been loosed in heaven. But here the devil in his parody,
P-A-R-O-D-Y, seeks to mimic God in doing the same thing. And
he is at least smart enough to know to go after the strong man. Because if you bind the strong
man, you get the whole kingdom. Now they already tried to bind
the ultimate strong man and they missed him. And because of his
liberation, he's able to send a decree for the liberation of
his now representative strong men, the apostles. Are you guys
following that theological framework? Good, it's good, important to
see. So notice what it says, and behold, verse seven, the
angel of the Lord came upon him and a light shined in the prison
and he smote Peter on the side, raised him up. Peter was in one
of those deep REM sleeps. You know, Peter slept a lot.
Raised him up, kicked him in his side, his chains fell off
his hand and the angel of the Lord said, get up, put your clothes
on, let's roll. Right, that's my translation.
And now go to Acts chapter 26. I'm believing this is the last
account where the Apostle Paul is on a ship headed to Rome and
the same dynamic is taking place as Acts chapter 27. It's Acts
27. Listen to what the Apostle says
as they are dealing with a major, major, major picture of the tribulation
period and the darkness that takes place in the life of the
church the ship being a representation of the external kingdom, and
it's about to be all broken up because of all kinds of evil,
and things are happening on that ship. We'll get there probably
about 10 years, and then we'll get a chance to work it through.
Listen at verse 21. But after long abstinence, this
is Acts 27, 21, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said,
Serves, you should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed
from Crete, to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort
you to be of good cheer. They didn't have any food. They
were fasting now. All the food is gone. It's dark. They're in the midst of a horrific
storm. And Paul is telling them now, be of good cheer. Watch
this. For there shall be no loss of
any man's life among you, but of the ship. This is a prophetic
word of knowledge. Is this not so? But it was a
word of knowledge given to him directly by the agency. Once
again, here it is. Verse 23. For there stood by
me this night the angel of God, do you see? Whose I am and whom
I serve, saying, fear not, Paul, you must be brought before Caesar,
and lo, God hath given thee all them that sell with thee. That's
crazy. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer,
I believe God, do you? that it shall be even as he told
me. How be it? We must be cast upon
a certain eye. He gave them little details as
well. Go back to Acts 23, show you something in Acts 23 as well
concerning the angel of the Lord. Now make a statement, then we'll
go back. I'm simply affirming the fact that we are dealing
with the use of angels as the Hebrew writer stating it. Here's
what Paul experiences in Acts 23 as he recalls the Lord dealing
with him in this same fashion. I want you to mark a statement
there, and this will help us identify who the angel of the
Lord is. Verse 10 of chapter 23. And when
there arose a great dissension, the chief priests, fearing lest
Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded
the soldiers to go down and to take him by force from among
them and to bring him into the castle. Now watch this. And the
night following, the Lord did what? and said, be of good cheer,
Paul, for as you have testified of me in Jerusalem, you must
bear witness also in Rome. So the text here says the Lord
stood by him. In Acts chapter 27, it was the
angel of God that stood by him. Now, who then is the angel of
God? If we tie them together, the Lord Jesus Christ. Go with
me in your Bible to second Timothy chapter four, I'll establish
this one more time. just to help you note that. And
so in what we call a theophany of interpretation, many times
in the Old Testament, we find the angel of the Lord versus
an angel of the Lord. You have to be very sensitive,
but you can detect the difference between the angel of the Lord
and an angel of the Lord if you are careful. How do we know the
difference? It is generally understood this
way. And when you read the Old Testament and you see or read
an account where the angel of the Lord is speaking, he will
often start off speaking in the second person, meaning he will
speak as a representative of God. And then he will, without
any notice, start speaking in the first person as God himself. Now, no angel who is merely an
angel has the authority to speak in the first person. Only Jesus
Christ. You guys got that? So there will
be this transition from a second person to a first person in the
language without any break. He'll say to Abraham, the Lord
hath said this and that. And at this time, Sarah will
have a child. I will see to it. And now all
of a sudden, Christ is actually taking on his own identity and
authority as he's speaking for the father, because they are
one. You guys understand that? One, not in person, but one in
purpose. So he speaks for God, the father, in the first person
because he too himself is also God. But now notice what Paul
says in 2 Timothy chapter 4. This is around delivering his
apostles still because his apostles are the ones who are experiencing
the brunt of opposition and persecution. The apostle said over in verse
16 of chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, at my first answer no man stood
with me. See the word answer? That's our
word for apologetics. The word literally is translated
defense. He was brought before the authorities,
the Sanhedrin authorities, and then ultimately the Roman authorities
to have to answer for the cause of the gospel. He was on trial. The gospel has always been on
trial. Ladies and gentlemen, God has
always been on trial. Everything that God has done
and said has been on trial. Mankind has been trying God from
the beginning. From Adam and Eve, we have been
trying God. The angels tried God. This is how we fall. When we
try God, we fall. But humanity is now in a permanent
disposition of trying God. When God says something, that's
what we do. We question it. When God does something, guess
what we do? We question it. And intrinsically, we feel as
if that's the right thing to do. It is really blasphemy to
do so, but God puts up with us because we're so depraved. But
we try God. God is being tried right here
in the message of the apostles. When you take God's servants,
who are as endowed as the apostles are, to speak infallibly for
God, you are trying God. Am I stretching that? No! Jesus
says, He that believeth on me believeth not on me, but him
that sent me. And he that believeth on you
believeth on me. If they reject you, they reject
me. If they reject me, they reject
him. You see the unbroken link in unity between God the Father,
God the Son, and the church of the living God that walks in
obedience? because we are his authentic representatives down
here, particularly when God is operating infallibly like he
did through the apostles to reject the apostles is to reject God.
Didn't we learn that last week when we saw Peter speak into
the life of Ananias and Sapphira, you have not rejected men, you
have rejected God. You guys follow what I'm getting
at? So often what we tell people is when you reject the word of
God, this book, you're rejecting God. but men put God on trial. I've been studying all week cause
I'm dealing with the resurrection, right? And I'm also dealing with
the crucifixion. So I have to go back through
history, back through archives, back through literature, back
through your, uh, your archeological writings, back through astronomical
calendars, back through Jewish calendars, going through all
of the historical data, wherein we have empirical evidence of
Christ's humanity, as well as his crucifixion. in order to
reaffirm those things that are given to us in the scriptures,
right? So as I go back through them, I am amazed at how concrete
the evidence is of the coming of Christ and the ministry of
Christ and the service of Christ and the death of Christ. And
the resurrection of Christ is unassailable to minds that are
clear and are ready to reason them through. The only Person
are people who are questioning the validity and veracity of
the testimony of God in Christ Are people who are blinded? so
first John chapter 5 verse 10 says God hath given us the testimony
and that testimony is of his son Jesus Christ He that believeth
God hath the witness in himself He that does not believe God
hath made him a liar because he hath not believed the record
that God gave Concerning his son am I making some sense? See
so it's very important for us to understand that this business
of preaching is about God being on trial And what does God have
to do with his people he has to buoy us up he has to help
us the angels helped my master and When he went to the ultimate
trial, they were there to strengthen him. Is that right? And give
him what was necessary for him to make those last few steps
up to Calvary. He was the heir of salvation.
You and I are joint heirs. He's the ultimate heir of salvation.
So the angels had to help him too, because he was a man, was
he not? And if the angels had to help
him, they sure enough have to help us. You shown up need a
bunch of angels to help you Lord. I want every angel you can possibly
send down to help me So now listen to what he says And my first
answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me see it. I
Pray God that it not be laid to their charge Notwithstanding
The Lord stood with me see that little phrase stood with me means
to be on your side to be operating in your favor, to be there, to
be your strength. That's what that means. And when
Paul spoke about the angels in Acts chapter 23 and Acts 27,
he said that the Lord stood with me, the angel of the Lord stood
with me this night, which means that Paul was on trial. And when
you and I are on trial, the Lord is standing with us. Do you believe
that? Especially when you're on trial for the truth of the
gospel. Go back your tax then. Let's
continue to work through our outline. So the Apostles have
been delivered in a mighty way through the ministering service
and agency of the angels and that's where we are under point
number two Christ's authority to liberate. Loosening prisoners
by decree. Do you see that point in your
outline? Loosening prisoners by decree. There's two things
that simply I'll just affirm. The reason why the apostles are
being liberated is because it's a decree. God has decreed the
liberation of his people. Psalm 146 verse 7 says it like
this. I just want you to see these
verses because the liberation is not arbitrary, it's by decree. And as we are learning in theology
class, biblical theology for men and women, you guys know
that this warfare is something that God has fully anticipated
and purposed. Has he not? We are in a warfare. And what that means is God has
to decree things in order for us to advance in this warfare.
So sometimes we're gonna get locked up. This is the history
of the church. And being locked up, God will
decree our deliverance when it's our time to be liberated. Listen
to what he says in chapter Psalm 146. I'm gonna start at verse
six. Verse five, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for
his what? Yeah, that's our Ebenezer, whose hope is in the Lord. See,
that's our disposition, which made heaven and earth, the sea
and all that therein is, which keepeth truth forever, who also
executes judgment for the oppressed. We saw that last night, which
gives food to the hungry. The Lord loosen it, the prisoners. Now see, that's a expose or a
resume in not only the character of God, but his work. Now watch
this, verse eight. The Lord openeth the eyes of
the blind. Does he? The Lord raises them
that are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord preserves the stranger.
He relieves the fatherless and the widow. But the way of the
wicked, he turns upside down. The psalmist is exalting in the
liberating work of God. Liberation is not only taking
place out of prison, but out of hunger and out of blindness. and out of hopelessness. Do you
see it in the text? Because those are all kind of
binding factors. Go with me one more time in Zechariah
chapter 9. I think we saw this last week,
but I want to touch on it one more time to let you know that
when God established and purposed his gospel, He purposed his gospel
in the context of warfare and conflict with the very objective
of delivering his people and showing his delivering power
over and over and over again. So in Zechariah chapter 9, here's
what we read again, where the father is speaking to the son.
You need to know this. This is the first person, second
person of the Godhead conversation. Here's what God is saying to
his son. As for you also by the blood of your covenant, have
I sent forth your prisoners out of the pit where in is no water.
You guys remember that from last week? So, so mark this now. My liberation is I'm in Zechariah
chapter nine, verse 11 verse. Yeah. Verse 11. ask for thee
also by the blood of your covenant have I sent forth thy prisoners
out of the pit wherein there's no water. So it is a covenant
obligation on God's part to liberate sinners. He's not doing it arbitrarily. This is why when we teach theology,
we don't teach of a God who is kind of a sort of whimsical or
arbitrary. God is a God of covenant purpose.
And everything he does is in correspondence with a set of
decrees and purposes and wills. If God has decreed to save, he
must save. If God has decreed to liberate,
there must be liberation. If God has decreed to set free,
there must be a setting free. And when God liberates you from
any kind of bondage, understand it is a consequence of a covenant,
a covenant which has been ratified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? It was because this is the father
talking to the son by the blood of your covenant. Have I decreed
the liberation of prisoners out of a pit where in was no water
describing for us the horrible state. You and I were in a, under
a death sentence. Do you believe that if you and
I were cast into a pit where it was no water, whoever cast
us in that pit meant for us to die. Verse 12, turn you to the
stronghold. You know who God is talking to
now? You. Turn you to the stronghold. Who is the stronghold? Christ. You better believe that the Lord
is a strong tower, is he not? The righteous run, they're in
and are saved. The Hebrew word is salvation.
So you know what salvation is? Running scared as a cat right
into the hands of Christ. If you're smart, you will run
to Jesus. Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope, you prisoners
of hope. Even today, do I declare decree
that I will render double unto you. I told you it's a decree. It's a decree. It's a decree.
And then it's foreshadowed by our three Hebrew brother. And
I won't go there. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Y'all remember
that. We would go there. We can unpack that in every detail. Remember that false authority
called Nebuchadnezzar took our three brothers and bound them.
That's what the devil does. The Babylonian system seeks to
bind you. And it seeks to bind you because
you won't recognize their authority. You will not submit to their
idolatrous gods. You will not bow down to the
ecumenical system. Babylon had gathered all the
religious folks of the world and they all bowed down to that
one great icon, which we know represents and foreshadows the
whole one world government, this whole United Nations business.
And they all were bowing down except three brothers. Nebuchadnezzar
sitting on his throne and Everybody is prostrate. You know how they
do it in the Middle East all their knees Three brothers are
standing up looking around obvious You understand obvious? Three
only three brothers head standing up now you are witness You got
it. Now you are a public witness
and you don't have to say a thing All you have to do is stand in
your calling It does the work. While everybody else bows down,
you stand in your calling because you know who you are and whose
you are. And you are ready for the chips
to fall where they may, because you had long ago anticipated
this day. Because that decree had been
given months earlier as they were building that big monstrosity
they wanted to call a representation of God or representation of Nebuchadnezzar. And the brothers already knew,
man, we ain't bowing down to that thing. Ain't but one God.
Only one true and living God. And guess what? God is able to
deliver us. So it's called prisoners of hope.
Because we know we're going to prison, right? We know we're
going to prison, but God is able to deliver us. Do you believe
that? They're going to prison and they got cast in, didn't
they? Man, I am so glad that I'm not part of that Old Testament
typology. I don't want to be Shadrach,
Meshach, Abednego. I don't want to be David. I don't
want to be Job. I don't wanna be Moses. Those
brothers went through some stuff. Did they go through some stuff,
Jan? We wouldn't make it, would we? We wouldn't make it. Will
we make it, Jan? I need somebody on my side. That's
why I got Jan. We wouldn't make it, Jan. But the truth of the
matter is, is that by God's grace, we would make it too. Because
it's not about us. It's about him. The fortitude
with which God would bestow in the soul to simply stand for
God, is the consequence of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
He is able to make all grace abound. He is able to cause you
to stand. He's able to do it. And those
are the remarkable pictures of the Old Testament. And by the
way, saints, as we go back to our text now, so we can advance
our thoughts tonight, all throughout church history, you know what
God has done? He's made the saints to stand.
The reason we have our Bibles today is because saints stood.
They went to prison, they suffered, they died, They stood, they stood
because the Lord was with them. The angel of the Lord was with
them that night, telling them to be of good cheer. I will take
care of you. These things are remarkable to
you and me, but they are part of the legacy and history of
the church of the living God. They affirm what Jesus said in
Hebrews 13, eight, as well as Matthews 26, Mark 13. Lo, I am
with you always to the, even to the end of the world. Why
don't we see these kinds of overt and expressive manifestations
of God's grace in our life today? Well, because he's given us a
lot. And to whom much is given, much is required. He's given
us a Bible. He's given us all kinds of resources.
He's given us all sorts of instruments by which you and I can operate
out of faith. But we got brothers and sisters
around the world who don't even have Bibles. Guess what? God
shows up to buoy up their faith. Where they don't have the resources
that we do, God shows up. Am I making some sense? He shows
up the buoy of the he has a whole lot of resources in his arsenal
God can do a lot of stuff and he does do it where those resources
are not there where you and I have every lexicon in a linear Hebrew
commentaries, you know to the tune of hundreds of thousands
of books and resources He is expecting us to use what we have
get grounded and rooted in Christ and stand for the cause of Christ
and We have his spirit, don't we? So we, it's not like we're
defrauded of anything. It was just our own laziness,
but I'll tell you what, give it a few more years. We'll be
seeing the wonders of the Lord here in the, in the United States
and a few more years. Aren't y'all looking for that?
Aren't we looking for the Lord to show up in a few more years,
throw us all in prison. take our bank accounts away,
start hunting us down. Boy, that's going to be a glorious
time, isn't it? A wonderful time. Boy, the Lord goes short. Angels
going to be keeping us, carrying us across the freeway. We won't
even be touching the ground. Man, that's going to be awesome,
isn't it? I can't wait. All right, let's go back to history. Go back to history point number
three the two witnesses in the temple. This is remarkable the
two witnesses in the temple That's our third point ladies. Leave
it there. Look at verse 19 and 20 of our text So the angel of
the Lord by night opened the prison door and brought them
forth and said go stand and speak in the temple To the people all
the words of this life. Do you see that go stand and
speak? to the people all the words of
this life. And when they heard that, that
is Peter and John heard the instruction of the angel, they entered into
the temple. What? Early in the morning. You
know what we call that? That's called obedience. Remember
when God had told Abraham to offer his son up Isaac, he didn't
delay early in the morning. They got up and went about that
business. That's that's when faith is vital. That's when faith
is ready to engage itself for what it's called to do. that's
obey God so they early went to the temple and this is where
God now is going to bear record with two objectives that he has
and you see it in your outline points a B and C easy first begin
at Jerusalem right that was the mandate go you tell the world
preach the gospel starting where Jerusalem so Christ has a controversy
with the leadership in Israel and and that controversy is to
affirm the authenticity of everything he had said and done while he
was here. The apostles now are gonna be
his witnesses in Jerusalem and they aren't going anywhere until
their testimony is done. Didn't we learn that in Revelation
11? The two witnesses shall prophesy for so long and when their testimony
is done, then the beast that ascends out of the bottomless
pit shall go to war against them and kill them. And this is true
for every believer. So long as God has a purpose
for you, nothing in this world can stop you. Your job is to
do what God has called you to do. And so long as you are doing
that, there's no way the enemy could stop you. There's no possible
way that you can be hindered from doing what God wants you
to do. Sister came to me last night after the study and she
had asked, she had made this observation years ago. To me,
she said that she just feels so bad because she knew the Lord
had called her to the mission field, right? I know the Lord
called me to the mission field 20 years ago. However, 30 years
ago, whatever the case is, she's feeling bad because she didn't
go. And I said to her, the Lord didn't call you to the mission
field. Well, I know he called me to the mission field. I said,
no, he didn't. Well, how do you know he didn't
call you, me to the mission field? I just feel like he called me,
but I just, I resisted his call and didn't go. I said, woman,
have you ever read the book of Jonah? Have you ever read Jonah? Have you ever read Jonah? Jonah
will tell you when God calls you, you going. I'm talking about
our God. I'm talking about our God. See,
our God has never been frustrated either by the unbeliever or by
his own people. He knows how to persuade you. Man, by the time Jonah got off
of that tugboat, he was preaching Christ. His feet barely hit the
ground. Three days in Nineveh shall be
destroyed. 40 days in Nineveh shall be destroyed. His mind had gotten completely
rearranged. He was thinking God's thoughts
after him. And he was more than ready to do what God had told
him to do. And what we call this is sovereign grace, able to take
the most obstinate will and turn it around so that we end up doing
what God wants us to do. So we do not hold a theology
that human beings can frustrate the will of God. See, Paul will
tell you that too. It was smack dab in the middle
of his hostility against Christ. that God knocked him down and
said, hey, Paul, get up. I got something for you to do.
Just like that. So no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
If you're called to the mission field, I mean, if God called
you, you're going, and you're gonna have some folks supporting
you too. See, because the God that calls you will also provide
what's necessary for you to get there. You can be sure of that.
So people be asking me all this, how do I know that God has called
me? It's so clear. There are incremental steps.
There are pre-qualifications that are necessary. Some fundamentals
need to be added, but God is in control of providence. He's
in control of circumstances. He shuts doors and open doors,
and he moves things about so that it must happen when it's
God's will for you to do something for him. Be sure that if God
calls you, you're going. And God had called for the gospel
to be preached, point number B, in your outline, do you see
it? To the Jew first. to the Jew first. So understanding
that the father sent the son to the Jewish nation because
he was born of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were
under the curse of the law. They rejected him. And then he
goes back to heaven. This is not a plan B. You hear
this in Christendom today. Like Israel rejected the gospel. So God decided to go to the Gentile.
Don't ever frame your lips to talk like that. Don't do that. That's bad theology. Understand the Gentiles were
always part of the plan. Always part of the plan. Read
your Bible. There are plenty of places. In
fact, I've told the saints this. You can't go through the genealogy
of the Israelites without seeing Gentiles all the way through.
Particularly in the line of Jesus. And Abraham, the father of the
Jews, was a Gentile when God saved him. So we demolished the
false notion of a dichotomy between Jews and Gentiles as an A plan,
B plan. The church is not God's B plan.
The church has got a plan. In fact, he only has one plan.
When you are omniscient, you only got one plan. You don't
have optional plans. You know, I listen to my fellow
preachers when they're talking, I go, you know, either they did
not go to seminary or if they did go, they got taught bad in
seminary or if they went to a good seminary, they weren't paying
no attention. We haven't paid any attention
to any of the basic disciplines of systematic theology, particularly
around the nature and character of God, because they mess it
up so bad with that humanism. God has never been hindered by
you or me. Do you understand that? And the
church is not a plan B. Christ didn't marry two women.
There's only one bride. In the beginning, he made them
male and female, right? That's the image of God, right?
There's only one bride. It is made up of Jew and Gentile,
Ephesians 2. Read it for yourself. By him, he hath made both one
new man, so make him peace. Y'all got that? That's why I
keep teaching this because if we fall prey to the defaulted
notion that somehow God is operating in a plan B, you diminish, you
diminish the character of God, the work of Christ, and you make
the church kind of a sort of an ancillary thing to the main
thing. The church is the main thing.
Now here's what's going on. The main thing was being established
when the Jews rejected him, but he didn't reject them, to the
Jew first. and then also to the Gentile.
You guys got that? He didn't reject them. The elect
among the Jews were gonna be saved. This is how tenacious
God is. You and I always reject him naturally. There's none of us who naturally
came to Jesus because we were better than anyone else. We were
just like the Jews, rejecting him, doing our own thing. But
God's persistent when he's gonna have you. Is that right? You
know, he'd been around for a long time. And you can act like you
can ignore him all you want to, but he'll show up when you are
wore out and your defenses are just kind of falling and he's
still there. He knows how to bring you to
the place of saying yes to him. Do you understand that? You will
say yes. At the appointed time, God can't
lie, change or fail. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness, have I put my hooks
in you way before the world began. I told you from eternity into
time, I drug you through your darkness and your muck and mire.
I'm the one brought you up out of that darkness into my marvelous
light. And then I spoke my grace into
your life and change your life. You still on the toll line that
I placed on you from eternity. And we're still headed in the
same direction, headed to glory. You believe that? That's what
we call sovereign grace. We, we don't countenance this
idea. You can't break the chain. You
can't unloose the chain. You can't saw the chain. You
can't use a welding torch. That chain is unbreakable. It's
unbreakable. And I'm so thankful for it. to
the Jew first. And it's to the Jew first so
that when he finally moves to the Gentile, they'll have no
excuse. Go with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 19 verse 30.
Matthew 19 verse 30. So we must acknowledge that their
rejection of Christ was not his automatic rejection of them,
nor did it stop his persistent axiom of making sure in his post-resurrected
authority that they did not first hear the gospel. They did hear
the gospel and the gospel started in Jerusalem and stayed in Jerusalem
until the time of the testimony being up. Otherwise it would
have continued there. So we read in verse 28, these
through 30, these words, this is Peter speaking to Jesus about
the necessity of an absolute commitment to Christ. Then answered
Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken, verse 27, all
and followed thee. What shall we have therefore?
Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto you, that you which have
followed me in the regeneration, that's this New Testament era,
when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you
shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. I've
told you guys about this before. The 12 apostles, Their authority
is written down in this book that we have. They are the 12
foundations of the New Jerusalem in the last chapter, second to
the last chapter of your Bible. We sit upon the foundation of
Christ, the apostles, and the prophets. You guys know that,
right? They are judging us right now. They are judging the church
right now. Verse 29, and everyone that hath
forsaken houses, our brother and our sisters, our fathers,
our mothers, our wives, our children, our lands, for my sake, shall
receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. Do you believe that? Isn't that
wild? That ought to make broke folk
feel pretty good, shouldn't it? Hundredfold. But you know what
he's talking about taking care of his people until they reach
their final inheritance. Well, look at verse 30. Here
it is. He goes, but many that are first. Who's the first? The Jews. shall be what? That's right. And the last, who's
the last? Shall be what? That's right. Cause that's the
manner in which God is working. We are the last. And so now we
enter into that first, but there's an elect among the Jews who enter
in as well. In fact, it was Jewish people
preaching to Jewish people in that first century. Right? So
we understand the process by which God is doing this. Go back
to our texts. We've got a little ways to go. The next point I
want us to see in verses 22 through 26, the fear, of God's glory
spreading. It's much like I said earlier
with regards to legal religion. One of the things too that you
begin to discover as you grow in Christ and you begin to recognize
that all churches that call themselves Christian churches are not founded
upon a solid allegiance to the true and the living God. And
do not always operate out of clear out of a clear biblical
precedent. They may have a name that they're
alive, they may appear to be Christian, but over time you
come to discover that they are really not committed to biblical
truth. That becomes a conflict in your soul because you read
your Bible and it says one thing and you look up and they're doing
something else. You read your Bible and it says one thing,
you look up and the professing Christian church is doing something
else. At that point, it sets you on your inquiry. What is
the truth? And sometimes you will discover
that the place that you were in was really not an institution
that God had erected. It had a form of godliness, but
in all of its denying of the power of God, you are now set
out to go find out authentic and true Christianity. Is that
your experience? Of course it is. Of course it
is. It's the experience of all Christians. I say that to simply
say that Jerusalem, which is God's ideal, is the place now
where the enemy has a complete citadel and a complete authority
over the life of the rulership. And it's going to become so evident
the hostility of religious folk who hate the gospel that it causes
people to struggle with. Is there any such thing as a
true institution where people actually serve God? And one of
the other areas in which you will find yourself halting and
thinking, are these people committed to God? is in the area of the
spreading of the glory of God. Because if you'll notice, here's
what it says. Look at what the text says in
verse 21 and 22. In fact, we'll go to verse 24,
because when we get to verse 24, we will
have then this real concern that emerges that'll move us into
our next stop. And when they heard that, they entered into
the temple early in the morning, but the high priest came, And
they that were with him and called the council together. Now the
high priest coming was not coming because they had heard that the
apostles were in the temple. It was just simultaneous to that
event. Okay. So they're gathering together
because they are concerned about the preaching of the gospel in
general, but they don't know that Peter and John have been
delivered from prison. They're gathering together to
talk about how to stop the gospel from being preached while these
brothers are actually preaching the gospel right now in the temple.
Now watch this. And so the council gathered together
the Senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison
to have them brought. But when the officers came and
found them not in the prison, they returned and told saying
the prison truly we found shut with all safety and the keeper
standing without before the door. But when we had opened it, we
found what? Now we affirm another constant
theological truth that we are served here at grace should be
asserted everywhere. This Bible is about Jesus. You
need to understand that. And so we have here a framework
or an allusion to the cross of Christ. This is why we teach
the unity between Christ and his church. Christ said, if they
did these things to me, they will do them to you. And when
they do them to you, it will be reflecting what they did to
me. Those of you who are sensitive to a crystal centric interpretation
of the Bible, You know that this text is pointing us back to the
empty tomb. Is it not? It's teaching us how
that they bound our master. They put him in that tomb when
he was crucified and they sealed that tomb with a massive stone
of which as one of the evidences that God had actually raised
him from the dead, only an angel could remove that sealed stone. And the keepers were still there
with the exception of the earthquake, shaking them out of their boots.
They had secured the tomb. Secured the tomb. It was impossible
for us to conclude that a group of disciples could have actually
moved that stone and broken that seal. Impossible. Especially
when the centurions were there. Put guards there. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? This is part of the evidence
we will argue for, for the resurrection of Christ. To affirm the fact
that God actually was in the deliverance of our Savior. as
the angel of the Lord was in the deliverance of these here
apostles exposing the false authority of the leaders to think that
they could hold the Son of God. The way Peter put it in Acts
2 was it was impossible that death should hold him because
he was the only righteous man in the universe. And so he saw
no corruption and God liberated him from that time of judgment
and the angel of the Lord removed the stone and our Savior walked
out. in his post-resurrected glory,
both body and soul, as a testimony of him having conquered hell
and death and sin. And the same thing is happening
here. Listen to what he says in verse 24. Now, when the high
priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard
these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow. You know what they got? They
got the implication. See, this is what Jesus was saying
when he told Caiaphas, These are the same folks, Kaphos and
Adonai. Jesus says, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man
coming with great power and glory. See, in the coming of Christ
is not the mere second coming of what we call the parousia.
The coming of Christ is the more constant term, erkomai, which
means he comes in power. He comes in authority. He comes
by his spirit. He comes by his providence. He
demonstrates his rule from heaven by coming by his decree. He's fulfilling his will. And
in the conscious of these leaders, they are aware that Christ is
once again affirming his word. And they are worried about this
spreading, worried about it spreading the fear of God's glory, spreading
two points, the blessed potential of gospel preaching. That's an
implication I draw out of this. How scared is the devil of the
preaching of the gospel? He's scared because when the
gospel is preached in power, it plunders his kingdom and liberates
souls from bondage. And the fear then is the spreading
of the glory of God. This is why the gospel has to
be stopped. And the tactic to stop it is
clearly laid out before us. Listen to what it goes on to
say, verses 25 and following. Then came one of them and said
behold the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple
and teaching the people I love it. God has a sense of humor,
doesn't he? Yeah, I love him then what the captains with the
officers and brought them without violence They snuck they let
them finish their message first Closed with the doxology and
walked up to him say hey The the rulers want to talk to you.
Would you would you follow us and kind of just cordially walk
them away? Listen to the text for they feared
the people lest they should have been stoned. Now this is a fascinating
insight that gets back to the false power versus the true power.
Now I want you to mark this now. This is how this works. The enemy
works through corrupt leadership. He blinds corrupt leadership
to the glory of God. If a man, woman, teacher, Preacher
pastor elder minister servant of God does not see the glory
of God You will always be tempted to aim lower than what God is
calling you to aim for when it comes to ministry Let me say
that again so you can get this The thing that's going to secure
your obedience to the gospel Is your capacity and giftedness
to see God? Where we don't see God, we are
inclined to compromise the gospel for our own benefit and for our
own safety. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So the goal of the devil is to blind leadership. It's leadership
that gets blinded. It's leadership that gets blinded.
And their concern is always with maintaining control over the
masses. And you'll notice the masses
are always in this sort of middle ground ready for the true. The
goal of the enemy, however, is to stop the truth from being
communicated because the masses might believe it. You hear it. And so this is the triad we got
going on here. The apostles are called to preach
the gospel because Christ knows in the preaching of the gospel,
these people are going to be liberated from legalism. The
leaders of the church are concerned about that. They're concerned
that if they abuse these men, they will be what? Man, that's
amazing. So now just say, now, now isn't
that Middle Eastern right now? That's amazing. I mean, nothing
is asserting that the apostles have a high popularity among
the people, but there are tens of thousands who are true Christians
now. So if the rulers just come in as some kind of maniacal force
that shows insensitivity They might just stir the crowd up
against them to stone them This here is the baseless fear a weak
leadership as well You remember what the proverb says? The wicked
flee when no man pursues but the righteous are as bold as
a lion. This is a conscious thing So when you are, when a person
is in a leadership position and is functioning from a compromising
state, you are always negotiating in your mind, how do people go
act? That's called being a politician. Rather than determining whether
or not what you are to do is the will of God and letting the
chips fall where they may. You go, how do people go act?
That's a horrible place to be horrible place to be. I thank
God that I'm not in that place, but I know men that are in that
place. I know men that are in that place have not yet risen
up to the level of operating in what we call Coramdale in
the presence of God. When you are in the presence
of God, when you are in the presence of God, your priorities are clear. They are crystallized. Now it's
simply a matter of faith in doing what God has called you to do
and let the chips fall where they may. When you are in the
presence of God, Your priorities are crystallized. Now it's simply
a matter of you doing what God has called you to do and let
the chips fall where they may. It does not mean that we don't
care about people. What we do, what it does mean
is that we care about the will of God being done because if
the will of God is done, then that will take care of the issue
of the people. But men pleasing, as Paul says,
if we are pleasers of men, we cannot be pleasers of God. And
it goes on. We got about 10 or 15 more minutes.
Notice what the text tells us. As we consider the tactic to
stop it, here's what they say over in verse 27. And when they
had brought them, they set them before the council and the high
priest asked them saying, did not we straight Straightly command
you that you should not teach in his name and behold you have
filled Jerusalem with your doctrine And intend to bring this man's
blood upon us ladies and gentlemen, you see how their conscious is
so conflicted with the reality of the recent events of the crucifixion
of Christ and the news about 10 15 20,000 people in Jerusalem
now becoming Christians is weighing heavy on them and and the language
they use is Jerusalem is filled with that doctrine. Filled with
that doctrine. This is their biggest problem. This is their biggest problem. Now, let's excise that and bring
that down just as a point of application and then we'll look
at Peter's response. Again, sometimes you may be in
an atmosphere and it may be a religious atmosphere. where the truth is
not being proclaimed. And you have heard the truth
and the truth has set you free. And now you are going about in
that particular group, that Bible study, or that church, to tell
them the truth. And it's starting to spread.
And it's getting to the leadership. And the leadership is perturbed.
And they're perturbed because what you are saying does not
correspond with what they are saying and what they are doing.
You guys understand what I'm saying? And now you've got your
trouble. And I've said it before, if you are an authentic Christian
and have a proper comprehension of the gospel, you are going
to experience what Christ experienced in religion. Because Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John is nothing but Jesus versus religion. You
got that? Jesus versus religion. And where
a religious institution is really built upon the traditions of
men, Historical traditions of men. Well, this is the way we've
always done it and not upon biblical truth that Institution cannot
stand for the Word of God to be preached and taught boldly
and clearly and definitely not from a crystal centric Perspective
it can't stand it, but it actually must be exposed So God will raise
up true believers in these institutions that are not faithful to Christ
and they will become agitators in that group They're not doing
it intentionally, but that's what they're going to be called.
Because they are saying this is what the word of God says
about this, that, and the other thing. And we don't see that
taking place here. Best thing you can do for a compromised
religious institution is to tell them what the word of God says.
Best thing you can do. And that's why God raises up
a few people to do that. Not everybody does it, but God
gives some of us the boldness to do it. Some people just kind
of walk away quietly, that's fine. But I'm thankful that God
raises up a few people that don't mind having a conversation about
it. Because the lights need to be
cut on in every citadel, every temple, every synagogue, every
professing church that says it is a gospel church and the gospel
is not preached there. The lights need to be cut on.
Hey, hey, Christ is not here. We don't see him anywhere. He's
not in your doctrines. He's not in your creeds. He's
not in your confessions He's not in your conduct. He's not
in your crisis not here. And if he's not there they need
to know Chances are there are a handful of people in that church
that already know it Are you hearing what i'm saying? Chances
are there are a handful of people in that church that already know
Either that church has surpassed its time And the leadership has
abandoned the word of God, which is the authority and the spirit
of God is left. Therefore, there is no power.
There's no crystal centric vision. There is no love. There's no
unity. It's just a man-made system. It's Ichabod in its state. Are
you hearing me? And when it's past his time and
that occurs, somebody needs to cut the light. So, Hey, y'all,
y'all may not know it, but Jesus has been gone for a while. You,
I'm just here to tell you it's dead in here. We're dead. We're going through the motions.
We need to go get in the corner and pray until the fire comes
back. Burn up the child. Let's start
all over. You guys are going to learn that
when we go through the book of Revelation. This is what we're
going to learn. And this happens in churches
all the time. And the poor saint gets maligned and he or she has
to get on their camel and ride. Got to go find a church where
they can be accepted and grow and thrive. Cause every gospel
church should be alive. Do you hear me? Every gospel
church should be alive. Alive. Verse 25. Okay, I'm here now. Look at our
next point. This is our last point for tonight.
Preaching the gospel is a command. You got that? This is so simple. And I love Peter. I love Peter
for this. Listen to what? Listen how Peter talks. Now watch
this. They said, didn't we straightly command you that you should not
teach in this name? Behold, you have filled, you
filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. Peter and John should have said,
hallelujah. We didn't know that. We did. Man, that's great. We
got more accomplished than we ever thought. I guarantee you,
Peter and John did not know all of Jerusalem would fill with
the doctrine. I should have made him feel good. No kidding. Are you kidding? We didn't build
it up. Oh, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And we need to worship because
that's good news. Watch this. and intend to bring
this man's blood upon us. What a good thing if the blood
of Christ would have come upon those leaders. The only thing
that could have changed their life is the blood of Christ.
See how blinded people can be to the efficacious nature of
the blood, the doctrine of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
Even to this day, the Jews are blind to the blood as a whole,
you know, as a whole. Verse 29. Here it is. This is
simple. We'll be done here. Then Peter
and the other Apostles answered and said we must obey God See
a little word there art. How many of yours says art? How
many of yours say must? One you're saying must must is
the right answer. I Can't James brother and they
trip me out. Sometimes I don't want to go into a side. I like
them. I love them, but they Sometimes they were very ambivalent And
this is just the dynamics of one language group over against
another language group, and sometimes culture. This should have been
must. Because for us in the 21st century, ought is like an ambivalent
statement that says, maybe we should. No, we must preach the
gospel. We must obey God. And notice
how Peter framing it. Peter says, we have to obey God. See, and so what he's saying
is we appeal to the highest authority in the universe, which authority
you say you actually acknowledge. You say you believe in the one
true and living God. You say you believe in Jehovah.
We must obey Jehovah. Now Jehovah told us to preach
Christ. What can you do with that? That's
bold, though, isn't it? Peter is a different man, isn't
he? John is a different man, isn't he? These brothers are
different man. Cause you remember a few months earlier, they all
scattered. Remember that they're all scattered for the hills.
We must obey God rather than men. That becomes a title for
a message for us. And it really has to do with
my fifth point. Preaching the gospel is a command. It's not an option. It's not
just a privilege. It's a command. It's not an option. It's not just a privilege. It's
a command. We are commanded to preach the
gospel. So now, if that be true, then
every so-called Christian church should be preaching the gospel,
right? And it should be crystal clear
when you go in that the gospel is preached. Now, you and I know
that we have to enter into the debate as to whether or not people
even understand what the gospel is, right? Because people talk
about, I believe the gospel and don't even know where to start
with it. But I am saying this, if we accept the assumption that
we understand that the gospel is the person and work of Jesus
Christ, that's the basic sort of adumbration, the person Work
of Jesus Christ just in case you didn't know the gospel is
not smile. God has a wonderful plan for
your life That is not the gospel The gospel is not smile. God
loves you and wants to do wonderful things in your life. That is
not the gospel That's not the gospel. It's not even close to
the gospel That's just peddling flattering words to manipulate
the masses of men the gospel Christ and him crucified Are
you hearing me? Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna
stop right here But I just want you to understand you will meet
a thousand Christians who say they understand the gospel when
you go Can you just in one minute explain the gospel to me and
most cannot most cannot they will mix human works in with
God's work and fail to actually represent the gospel accurately
because they don't know the gospel and But Paul told us what the
gospel is very clearly, even as our master did. First Corinthians
2 verse 2, I am determined to know nothing among you except
Christ and him crucified. If you don't start with the crucified
Christ, you have no gospel knowledge at all. It all starts with Christ,
his person, crucified, his word. Everything flows from the crucified
Christ. All blessings flow from there.
Nothing is released except through there. And when we assert the
release of the blessings, apart from the preaching of Christ,
we have another gospel. We have a whole nother gospel.
Even when we talk about the blessing of the Holy ghost, the Holy ghost
only comes as a consequence of the preaching of Christ. Am I
making some sense? It's critical that Christ is
preached. that Christ crucified is preached
so that the whole human race can be put in the proper place.
All collectively as one, sinners. And Christ is the only mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And right now,
your situation before God is, you are under his wrath. But
God has made a remedy for sinners in the person of his son Jesus
Christ by the shedding of his own blood By which he has now
obtained a righteousness that he can give to you by which you
can stand acceptable before God You need a Savior Christ is the
only Savior of the world. No man comes unto the father,
but by me Without Christ you will perish in your sin. I For
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever is believing in him will never perish, but have everlasting
life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son, the
wrath of God abides upon him. See, that's old time gospel preaching.
It's simple. It shuts a sinner up to one or
two things, either believing God's testimony or facing God
in judgment on the last day. Am I making some sense? Ladies
and gentlemen, that's a simple, simple expression. And you know,
long ago, I mean long ago, long ago, you couldn't get out of
church without them tearing up the church with the message.
You can get out of church. Uh, God fearing preachers wouldn't
let an eternity bound soul get out the door without laying on
his conscience your need of a savior. It would never happen. Here we
are. We play footsies with folks.
We got films and 3d images and strobe lights and go go girls
and, and, and football games and, and latte coffee. And, uh, you know what we get
ready to have in our churches. Now watch this. It's already
happening. You get ready to happen. You got banners with all of your
different companies all in it because the church is nothing
but a great Harlan. You're going to have the Bank
of America, you're going to have Citibank, you're going to have
Chase. It's all coming. It's all coming because this
is a business. And the church is no more set
apart, no more sanctified, no more holy. It has fallen, fallen,
fallen. This is why our series in the
book of Revelation is going to be so critical to snatch. Watch
you ladies and gentlemen that are part of grace. Watch how
God blesses. this series. Watch how he blesses
this series. This is why you don't hear the
book of Revelation taught exhaustively at all. You don't hear it because
it actually cuts the lights on on what Christ expects out of
his church. Now watch how he uses this series. I haven't I haven't preached
in the book of Revelation for about 10 years. But every time
I do, God magnificently blesses it, even as he said he would.
Y'all pray for that, because this is going to be hot. This
is going to be hot for the next four or five months, OK? It's
very important for us to know that. Let's close in a word of
prayer. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for my brothers and
sisters. Thank you for your grace, oh God. Prepare us to worship
you on Sunday. We adore you. We magnify you.
We love you. In our heart, with everything
that's in us, we exalt you, oh God. We need your grace so we
can do it better and better and better and better. Help us to
increase more and more in our obedience to you, love for you,
and desire to influence others for Christ's sake. Save, oh God. Save your people from their sins. Give us troubling mercies as
we go. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen and amen and amen. Amen.