Acts chapter 4 and read a few
verses where the Apostles are dealing with the leadership of
the Old Testament old system old covenant Authorities as you
and I have already affirmed more than once we are presently dealing
with two authorities Clashing at the same point over the same
controversial person and that person is the Lord Jesus We are
told in verse 16 through verse 20, these words, these are the
rulers speaking, verse 15, but when they had commanded them
to go aside of the council, this is chapter 4 verse 15, they conferred
among themselves saying, what shall we do to these men for
that indeed a notable miracle had been done by them is manifest
to all them that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it. but that
it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten
them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they
called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach
in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than unto God, you judge, for we cannot
but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when
they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing
how they might punish them because of the people. For all men glorified
God for that which was done, for the man was above 40 years
old on whom the miracle of healing had taken place. Verses 23 through
verse 37 give us a magnificent response, magnificent response
of several categories of people. The apostles are responding in
prayer to God. Secondly, the people are responding
in verses 32 through 37 in a magnificent display of submission and unity
and harmony of purpose, even in the face of conflict. Notice
verse 32. And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart and of one soul, neither said any
of them that ought of the things which he had possessed was his
own, but they all had all things common. And with great power
gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any
lack among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or
of houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that
were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet, and distribution
was made unto every man according as he had need. And Josi, who
by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being by consolation,
by interpretation, the son of consolation or comfort, a Levite,
and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, brought
the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. We'll go into
chapter 5 as we revisit some concepts here in chapter 4 in
our outline. I think I did read chapter 5,
but that will be the place where we will get into a major lesson
and a major warning as God would have us to do it. Last week we
were dealing with the concept of the remnant. The remnant. That's in verse 1. The positive
impact of Christ in Jewish conversion. The positive impact of Christ
in Jewish conversion. And I called your attention to
verse 4 as I alluded to the fact that in the preaching of the
gospel that was precipitated by the miracle in the preaching
of the gospel that was precipitated by the miracle God records in
Acts chapter 7 that we have a massive response of believers about 5,000
persons believed and we talked about the real full number of
that it could have been anywhere up to 10,000 people who actually
believe this one thing for people to make a profession of faith
It's another thing for them to actually believe and so we know
that this was a marvelous work of grace on God's part. Is that
true a marvelous work of grace of which You don't see that every
day. And so not only our 5,000 believing
here, but then we had 3,000 earlier did we not and in Acts chapter
2 around verse 41. So we are somewhere at about
3,000 plus, somewhere maybe about 15,000 people on two sermons
are believing the gospel and moving into an open public recognition
and identification with the new paradigm, the new covenant, and
the new authority that's established by Christ under the apostles.
this is troubling for the leadership in Jerusalem this is troubling
for the leadership in Jerusalem two sermons by one man and over
15,000 people not only are believing the gospel but they are committed
to an open demonstrative allegiance to that gospel over against a
long-standing established system called Judaism, which had already
established a complete precedent and doctrinal stance over against
this new religion. This is remarkable. I want you
to grasp that. Christianity sometimes is viewed
as something that can be taken or left because it's kind of
given to us in the context of a vacuum. You and I live in a
quasi-religious nation. And so you don't have a gun to
your head when you are called upon to trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You aren't facing the loss of
limb and life and family and reputation and income resource
when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ in a context like Western
culture, or particularly America, or in really, truly free and
democratic nations. But in first century Rome, first
century Palestine even first century Jerusalem for you to
have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ is to set yourself up
to be a martyr to set yourself up to be a martyr so I want to
make sure you understand that believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
while it is a sort of a comfortable fad for people in the present
generation in which we live what you are seeing taking place in
the book of Acts is a great boiling controversy that's going to explode
here shortly. A boiling controversy that's
going to explode shortly and we need to appreciate what's
taking place. If you have your outline 7002
messages, I talked to us about the harvest being plentiful.
This has to do with you and I understanding the nature of the mystery of
the kingdom of God. It's important for you and I
to understand that the physical manifestations of kingdom work
and the external application of obedience to the gospel which
is to go into all the world and preach the gospel has an internal
and a spiritual component to it that can only be actually
comprehended by faith believing the testimony of scripture meaning
that you and I are If we are truly believers, understand that
there is a profoundly spiritual dimension to the kingdom of God
that actually under beds and establishes the substratum for
the material kingdom that we see in the local church. The
local church externally is the visible expression of the kingdom.
You guys believe that? And I've said it before, just
in case you want to argue with me on that point, because we do
have people, believe it or not, saints, who thinks that the church
can come or go and it doesn't make any difference with regards
to the nature of the gospel or people being saved or people
being used of God. There are folks who have no real
respect for what we call the church. You may have gone through
that phase within your life. And that's a very tempting position
for people in America. Again, think about this. Think
about you being able to look back and consider the fact that
you have always been able to eat. You have always had a roof
over your head. You've always been able to fundamentally
pay your bills. You've never really had any major
struggles that has driven you to a life of prayer and a life
of fervent, passionate prayer, where you have now discovered
that you have the gift of prayer. In other words, you have been
living fundamentally off of the providences of God in our culture,
basically like the secularist, like everybody else. What that
means is, In that context, you and I can take a lot of things
for granted. Is that true? So what I'm helping us understand
and appreciate is that when it really comes to this matter of
salvation, we have to be very suspect of and careful not to
fall prey to interpreting the word of God in a cultural context,
particularly our own culture, because we will miss the point
and therefore not appreciate what truly salvation is in the
ultimate sense. And when I have you looking at
your outline point number one, uh, outline point number one,
part B, the harvest is plentiful. The harvest is plentiful. I am
simply alluding to the fact that what Christ said would occur
upon his resurrection and ascension is the salvation of multitudes
of people in the context of open hostility and opposition to the
gospel. I think today in our present
generation, that if men and women had to suffer at the outset of
the proposition of the gospel, we would see smaller churches
and less open professions of faith and much more of a secret
Christian society because we will not want to have given up
the precious material things that so hallmark and affirm our
external identity. Am I making some sense? So I
think what I am talking about fundamentally are the externalities
of a material world of abundance and excess that we have that
often actually impedes the integrity and depth of our walk with God
and often impedes our capacity to witness more fully. We have
a very culturally tame Christianity today. Our Christianity is culturally
tame. So that very seldom are you finding
yourself at some kind of real substantial loss for telling
someone about Christ. See what I'm getting at? I'm
just driving home the point that what you're reading in the book
of Acts is not an equal parallelism in terms of its context to where
you and I are today. No, you and I, that's why I opened
in prayer, thanking God for our tenure as Americans with the
kind of superfluous excess that we have because obviously God
knows that you and I could not take the kind of heat that our
brothers and sisters around the world are taking. I might be
waking you up now. I trust them. We got a good class
out tonight, and I hope you didn't come out here to go to sleep
on me. What you and I want to do is really think through deeply
what Christianity is. And so the apostles are confronted
with the leadership and the leadership is telling them, you cannot preach
in this man's name. You know what they said? Don't
say anything in his name. That means that they were threatened
not only by what these people were doing, but the impact that
it was making. Threatened. Threatened by it. And we began to talk about the
concept of a residue. That's in your outline. Residue.
What does residue mean? Remnant. Right. The remnant.
The remnant are the last. The end, I use the analogy of
a garment. When you are finished with making
your garment, we have what are called the remnants of that garment
left, correct? Those are the dregs or the things
that are left on the floor. Well, it's the stuff that's left
on the floor that God really uses. It's the stuff that's left
on the floor that God really uses. Not many mighty, not many
noble, not many wise, not many prominent are saved, are called,
are chosen. God uses the base things of the
world, the weak. Remember what it was stating
in the book of Acts chapter 4 that when the rulers saw and heard
Peter and John preaching, they had marked that these men were
ignorant and unlearned and that they had been with Jesus. Remember
that? They had noted that these were unlearned men and that they
were ignorant men. This is verse 13. Now when they
saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they
were unlearned and ignorant men. Do you see those two words? Luke
is a doctor, he's a physician, so he's actually fairly sharp
in terms of theological concept. The word unlearned here means
unlettered, unlettered. What that means is that they
had not gone through the seminary training or the scholarship training
and were not approved of the leadership, the scholarship,
the teaching, the ministries of the Jewish system. There were
two prominent schools, the Hillel school and the Shammai school,
and the Shammai school was considered conservative theology and the
Hillel school was considered liberal theology, much like we
have today in our seminaries. And these rulers have their PhDs
and their MDs and their different theological degrees with them.
And they are approved of men and there are among their approved
associates. And yet they note that John and
James don't have letters. Well, that's the same thing they
said about Jesus in John chapter seven. Once Noah's this man doctrine
seeing that he does not have letters. In other words, they
are marking that these are men who are impacting people on a
theological level who are on the outside of the system. Are
you guys hearing me? That's what we mean by unlearned.
It does not mean that they are not knowledgeable. It does not
mean that they do not understand scripture. It does not mean that
they do not properly exegete the word of God. It does not
mean that they don't have a sound hermeneutical system. It does
not mean that they don't know God. What it simply means is
they didn't come through their schools. They marked that they were unlearned.
And then they are marked that they were ignorant men. See the
word ignorant. That's our word, idiot. Idiotease is in the Greek. Idiotease. These guys are idiots,
man. Idiots. Now, you and I use the
term in a very derogatory fashion, but the word idiot simply means
that an individual has not adopted someone else's idiosyncrasies. This is good. I'm gonna help
you right here. This is good. You need to get this. The word
idiotis is the idea of an individual operating out of a sense of one's
own authenticity and one's own finding their way to learn how
to communicate to people. The word idiotis simply means
one's own self. Now I want you to think about
that with me for a moment. Can we do that? Can we do that a little bit?
Because when people are not confident with who they are, They will
adopt somebody else's persona and actually vicariously live
off of them. They will be a host. There will
be a host, a person, a man or woman, prophet, prophetess, of
which people will latch themselves to like, like, like bugs and
suck out the life of that host. our hostess and then identify
with them, take on their characteristics, actually take on their persona,
actually start speaking like them and become vicariously for
all intents and purposes, a, a duplicate or replica of that
person. Now, ladies and gentlemen, grown
folk ought never to do that. It's okay for teenagers to do
it because teenagers are still trying to find their way. That's
what it means to be a teen. In the Hebrew, the word teen
means to be pliable and moldable and still able to fashion. When
you become an adult, you are now formidable. You are structured. You are solid. By the time you're
an adult, you're supposed to know who you are, your fundamental
essence, your gifts, your callings, your strengths and your weaknesses.
And whatever other attributions may be applied to your life by
way of discipline and learning any particular field of interest,
whether it's theology or some kind of work ethic, it ought
never to shroud, it ought never to obscure, it ought never to
take the place of your own essence. Are you guys hearing me? Hear
me well, you need to mark that down. God did not save you for
you to disappear. You guys got that and so so so
when they say that these men were unlearned It simply means
that they didn't go to their school. They went to a good school
I must tell you The school they went to is the school that all
of us who are serious about God goes to and it's the school of
Christ They went to a magnificent university they went to a magnificent
seminary and it was the school of Jesus Christ that who took
these men for three and a half years and immersed them into
the life of the kingdom of God as he served as their master,
teacher, and model. By the way, we call this discipleship.
This is what discipleship is. I don't want to veer from it.
I do want to help you understand, though, if you're going to ever
actually attain to the word discipleship, you're going to have to take
Jesus seriously. Do you know there are folks who live and
die calling themselves Christians who don't take Jesus seriously?
They will take Paul seriously, Peter seriously, they will take
church history seriously, they'll take their denomination seriously,
they'll take their pastor seriously, but they won't take Jesus seriously.
Now I've said this more than once, you can mark this down
too, I'm going to teaching right now. No man can truly disciple
you in the sense of making you their disciple and be obedient
to Christ. Say that again, just so you can
get it. No man can truly disciple you and make you their disciple
and Christ's disciple at the same time. This is why you don't read in
the Bible where the apostles were commanded to make disciples
of themselves. Go into all the world and make
disciples for Christ. Are you guys following me? And
what that means is that the complete model resume, portfolio, and
manifestation of the person of Christ given to us in the written
word is our model for discipleship. Now, if the apostles had done
their job correctly, they can transfer the principles, the
character, the nature, the purpose, the modus operandi of our master
to the people that were following them so that in following them,
they were actually following Christ. Am I making some sense? But the moment that you are actually
taking on the persona the idiosyncrasy of the man or the woman in front
of you, you have failed to actually really become disciples. So if
you're going to become a disciple of Christ, you're going to have
to be serious about God's word, serious about modeling. We're
going to talk about it on Sunday, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. You got to be serious about knowing
who Jesus is. And then to the degree that your
teachers line up with Jesus, you thank God for that. To the
degree that they don't, you thank God for that. What are you talking
about pastor? Because none of us can ultimately
line up to Jesus. That keeps him the teacher par
excellence, the master model, the chief architect to which
we all get to look. To the degree that your teachers
and your leaders and your influencers, where the parents or our spouses,
our friends, are, as it were, vaguely representing the characteristics
of Christ, you and I are blessed, are we not? But I am not surprised
when I do not see, and some of the men are women that I love
and I actually adore for their giftedness. I am not surprised
when I see them veer off the course in their own idiosyncrasy
from Christ. They're not Christ. Let me give
you an example. They came to John the Baptist.
Cause God had given him that first three and a half year ministry
of the two witnesses. Remember the two witnesses witnessed
for a time, a times and a half a time, 1260 days, right? As it were. And so that is three
and a half years, 42 months. And when John the Baptist ministry
was almost up, the rulers came to John saying, are you the Christ? And John confessed and denied
not. saying I am not the Christ. He confessed and denied not.
He confessed and denied not. He said, no, I am not. There's only one Christ. See,
we're trying to conflate and make John and Christ equals,
which was a major error. John said, I'm not even worthy
to lose his shoelaces. I'm a million miles away from
the Christ. I'm just a signpost. I don't
take much. An idiot can do this that way.
Not right here. Don't stop here. Keep going.
If you want to get the glory, you better get past me. You guys
got that? I'll send you to hell if you
stop here. So every true believers of John
the Baptist, we point men and women to cry, behold the Lamb
of God, which takes away the sins of the world. And so it's
critical for you and I to understand that what the rulers are doing
is intently examining these men to try to discredit them on what
we call an ad hominem level on a personal level. They say that
they are unlearned. They didn't go to our school
so we can commend them. And then they are ignorant. That
means they don't sound like us. They didn't even buy our books
and try to mimic us. Peter is Peter. John is John. James is James. Paul is Paul. And when you get to know those
brothers, you get to know that they are radically different
one from the other, aren't they? And you've had theologians down
the line of history, Luther and others, who would read the book
of James and then read Pauline theology and were, as it were,
try to juxtapose them and pit them against each other because
Pauline theology is much more grace-oriented and James's theology
is much more pious-oriented. In other words, James says, live
out the grace. Paul says, stand in the graves.
James says, you better live this thing out. Faith without works
is dead. Paul says, we stand in the grace
of God. Now, if you and I don't know
how to actually conflate those two, we will have them at odds.
And all we're doing is observing two men walking in their own
idiosyncrasy. Remember what I learned, I told
you last week, the false pious notion of you and I being so
hidden that the only thing people see is Jesus. Did I tell y'all
that last week? Don't buy into that lie. People
gonna see you. You understand that? They're
gonna see you. And they're gonna see stuff about you that they're
gonna laud and love. And they're gonna see stuff about
you that they're gonna hate and despise. It all goes with the
picture. But the objective of the believer
is to manifest Christ in you, the hope of glory. Not Christ
apart from you. You guys do understand that?
That means we have to be able to see the weaknesses and frailties
and uniquenesses of an individual who is attached to the superlative
one Jesus Christ by way of the Spirit of God. and marvel at
how God can take a sinful human being in all of his limited capacities
and still use them for the glory of God. And be thankful because
we call that the hope of glory. Isn't that what we said? It's
called the hope of glory. I have no hope for glory if I
have to arrive at a status where I am so impeccable that I'm disappeared
and Jesus is the only thing you see. Ain't no hope for me and
there's no hope for you either. So we learn to appreciate the
idiosyncrasy of these men. They marvel. Do you see the statement?
They marvel. And they took what? The word
is epigenosis. It's what we call a strengthened
knowledge verb that goes into the depths of noticing and regarding
and contemplating and seriously assessing what they are fixing
their thoughts on, that they have been with whom. So there
you go. The spirit of God did a good
job, didn't he? The Spirit of God did a great job because the
Spirit of God has taken Peter and John and put them at center
stage. You got Peter and John. These are vicars of Christ. These
are New Testament authorities standing over against the Old
Testament system and their authority to authorities. You got that?
I told you this is the struggle that we're having the new overcoming
the old and the old trying to crush the new and the new is
winning. I'm just working it through for
you. I just want you to get this now. And so we talked about the
remnant, and we talked about how James understood that in
Acts chapter 15, verses 16 and 18. And we saw the language in
Romans 9, 27, and we saw it in Revelation chapter 12 very clearly. Go to Revelation 12. I want to
deal with that one more time before we go back and pick up
on the other points. We're going to try to make our
way to at least the opening of the fifth chapter tonight, and
then begin to contemplate its lessons. This is for those of
you who were not with us or who may not have really grasped the
imagery and significance of Revelation 12, where we opened up talking
about that great wonder. There are two wonders in heaven,
the woman and then the dragon. And we saw that the woman who
was a type of the church of Jesus Christ, the body of believers,
particularly in that first century, is being persecuted by the dragon,
verse 13. And when the dragon saw that
he was cast into the earth, do you see that in verse 13? And
when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he did what
to the woman persecuted the woman is that's what's happening in
acts chapter four. Exactly. And as for, we have
the earthly counterpart to the heavenly vision. And as for,
we have the earthly counterpart to the heavenly vision. What
you see happening in the book of acts is the earthly manifestation
of the heavenly reality, heaven, Operates and earth operates Simultaneously
and what's taking place on earth is the will of God in heaven
We understand this the heavens do rule in the kingdoms of men
This is what Nebuchadnezzar said in Daniel chapter 4. He understood
that God was sovereign over the pagan nations Is he is God sovereign
over Putin as well as Obama? Of course he is is he sovereign
over the Pope. I Of course he is. God sets up
every ruler and takes them down. The heavens do rule in the kingdoms
of men. God turns the hearts of the kings, whithersoever he
wills, as the rivers of water. God sovereignly rules. There's
nothing that takes place in our world that God doesn't either
permit or he himself actively engages in. He's not sitting
by as some kind of autocratic being, allowing this world to
kind of operate on some kind of fiat system that is autonomous. God is controlling all the affairs
of the world. And when the people of God understand that, you and
I can know that behind the physical dimension is a spiritual reality
of which this is why Peter prayed, because he knew he had come up
against the devil. The imagery in the book of Revelation
is designed for you and I to actually raise our level of perception
to see the things that take place on earth the way God does. So
we've got this glorious woman who has the sun around her body,
her feet are on top of the moon, the moon under her feet, and
12 stars on her head, which means she's a royal woman, she is a
celestial queen, and she's pregnant with whom? The Lord Jesus. He
ascends to his heaven, to the heaven. He takes his place at
the right hand of God and the devil is cast out of heaven and
we talked about the implications of that last week. Don't ever
let someone tell you that the devil is prowling around into
the presence of God and accusing the brethren today. That ended
at Calvary. Are you hearing me? That ended
at Calvary. He is down here on the earth
in the earth realm accusing the brethren. And he does that through
church folk and even sometimes real believers who missed the
point of what it means to be justified in the sight of God,
sanctified by the grace of God, sealed by the Spirit of God,
and walking in the righteousness of Christ. And when you and I
are ignorant, we will go around accusing our brethren. I call
this friendly fire. It's been going on ever since
I've been born again. It's the most unusual thing,
isn't it? Friendly fire. See, one of the things that we
know about the military is this. We got a lot of dead folks in
the military who've been killed by their own compadres. Am I
making some sense? This is one of the dirty little
secrets about war. This is why God tells us that
the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to them that make
peace, that you've got to know how to go about seeking to advance
the kingdom of God and not just shooting shotgun blast, you know,
indiscriminately in the air. You've got to know what your
target is, lest happily, you end up taking out some of your
own brethren. And so that battle goes on. But
what we're being told here in our text is he is cast to the
ground and he persecutes the woman. Now, chronologically,
this is a first century narrative. And to the woman was given two
wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness,
into her place where she's nourished for a time, time and a half a
time from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his
mouth water as a flood after the woman. You guys see the imagery?
He's pursuing her, he opens his mouth, he's a dragon, and out
of his mouth comes what? Water. David said in the Psalms,
the floods of ungodly men have pursued me. The floods of the
ungodly have sought to wash over my soul. Now here's the tactic
of the devil, if you don't know it. He seeks to take God's people
out through floods of doctrine, floods of teachings, floods of
ideology. floods of worldviews, major consensus. He tries to sweep you off the
foundation of a biblical worldview by giving you so massive a number
of people who hold to a certain truth that you believe that it
has to be true because so many people believe it. When God told
his people in the wilderness, you shall not follow a multitude
to do evil. Numbers do not ever determine
truth. Can I lay that down right now?
Numbers do not ever, just because a whole bunch of people believe
it doesn't make it right. It's very important for us to
understand then that when the flood comes that we are to simply
make sure that our feet is planted squarely upon the rock, Jesus
Christ, and let the flood come and let the flood go. But look
at how God good is. Before the flood got to the woman,
the earth opened up its mouth, didn't it? Isn't that what the
text says? Listen to what it says, verse 16. And the earth
helped the woman. And the earth helped the woman
and the earth opened her mouth, didn't it? And swallowed up the
flood, which the dragon cast out of his mouth. Again, the
book of revelation is what we call a neo Exodus account. This
is the wilderness sojourn account. You're never going to understand
the book of Exodus unless you understand that we are recapitulating
the old Testament Exodus from Egypt, going to the promised
land, but we are in the wilderness. And so this particular account
here corresponds to the days of Dathan and Abiram when the
rulers came to Moses and Aaron and said, you take on too much
to yourself. Number 16 and number 17, we all
be rulers with God. This is when they wanted to bring
in democracy, throw out God's system of choosing who he wants
to be leaders. We're just as wise as you guys
are. And Moses fell on his face and Aaron fell on his face and
started praying to God because he knew the devil was behind
this. And God said, Hey, get up, stop praying for these knuckleheads.
Cause they, they aren't, they aren't coming after you. They're
coming after me. So y'all go home and get a, get a good night's
sleep. Cause tomorrow I'm going to actually show who my servants
are. And the next day he gathered
them all together. And Moses was commanded to say
to all the people, whoever's on the Lord's side, get on this
side. And when the princes of the rulers, 250 of them, with
Dathan and Abiram, and Korah, Dathan and Abiram, stayed on
the other side. See, this is when you get blinded
by your own self-righteous zeal and lust, and the Lord's not
with you, and the Lord's not with you, but you do have the
numbers. Listen ain't no numbers big enough for you to handle
the Lord not with you Do you hear me ain't no numbers big
enough. The Lord says now listen If I
do it if a normal thing happens and these folks die because of
accidents and in normal catastrophe I'm not in this but if I if I
do a new thing, then you know, I have made my decision Early
that morning. They all divided one on the left
the other on the right And the earth opened up and swallowed
up all of the rebels. Do you guys remember that? I'm
not going to take you to your Bobby. Y'all should know your
bibles. Read it for yourself. Number 16 and 17. That corresponds
to this text. Are you hearing me now? What's
taking place? Remember two sets of authorities.
Those were princes and rulers. Moses and Aaron were princes
and rulers. This is friendly fire coming
at each other. But that's because the devil
had taken and blinded the men who should have subordinated
themselves to God's chosen leaders. And so they found themselves
destroyed. Them, their families, their children, everything. God
allowed the earth to open up, swallow up, and absorb them.
They were a flood coming after a few men. Are you hearing me?
Now what that corresponds to are carnal leaders who are earthbound
who do not have the favor and blessing of God and therefore
are not part of the heavenly body. Remember I told you true
believers have their dwelling in heavenly places. That's why
the text tells us in Revelation chapter 12, rejoice ye heavens
and ye that dwell in them. Rejoice ye heavens. I am seated
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's where I have my
authority. That's where all true believers have their authority.
My citizenship is in heaven. If you be risen with Christ,
then seek those things which are above what Christ is at the
right hand of God. So you and I who think after
think God's thoughts after him, according to the proverb, the
way of the righteous is above that he might escape hell beneath. So when you and I are operating
out of biblical principles, walking in the gospel, recognizing our
position with Jesus, you and I live on that high plane. We
don't live on the earth plane. That's why Jesus said in John
chapter eight to the rulers, you are of the earth earthy. I'm from above. And because you're
from the earth, you cannot hear my words. My doctrine makes no
sense to you. I'm talking about coming from
the father and going back to the father. And you're saying,
where are you going to the Gentiles? So there was a complete disconnect
from Christ theology and what they were experiencing because
they were operating out of two different paradigms. Am I making
some sense to you? And this goes on in religion
today. When you meet rulers and you're part of body politics
that are given over to carnality and materialism and worldliness,
they do not speak the things of God from a spiritual standpoint. They are completely earth bound.
Am I making some sense? Very important for you to know
that they that are of the earth are earthy. And it goes on to
say, after that, the earth opened up his mouth and swallowed up
the flood, which the dragon gave out his mouth. Verse 17 was our
point with the remnant and the dragon was wrought with the woman
and went to make war with the what remnant of her wife, which
keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The seed is Christ. That was that baby that was in
her womb, right? When a woman conceives a child
is not that child called a seed. All right, that seed is Christ.
And the remnant are those who believed on Christ in that first
century era. And it also corresponds to all
of us who ultimately believe, because out of all of the billions
of people that exist in the world, there's really only a remnant
that actually believe the gospel at any time. You do know that,
right? There will never be a time in
human history where the preponderance of the world will actually believe
the gospel. Only always a remnant. Mark that
down. Mark that down point number two
in your outline then the exaltation of Christ. Do you see your outline
the exaltation of Christ? Go back to acts. Let's try it.
Let's make some headway. We got about a good 35 minutes
I just want to make these points very clear what's taking place
in the book of Acts is Actually the fulfillment of the Abrahamic
Covenant that God made to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15 of which
he said to Abraham of your seed of your seed out of your loins
between you and Sarah and Will there be a multitude whose number
is as the stars of the sky and as the sands of the sea? Do you
guys remember that? Genesis 15, because Abraham's
tripping. He's, he's, he's 87 years old. And the only person in his household
that has the capacity to have children is his servant Eleazar. And he's saying to God, now you
gave me this promise 11 years ago and nothing's happening.
He said, listen, God says, listen, I made good on my promises. You
simply trust me. And he took him outside and he
pointed to the stars. You guys remember that I'm not
going back there to start. You guys get this every week.
And what God was saying to Abraham is you cannot even begin to sum
up the number of the blessings that are going to actually be
a consequence of your obedience to me. See now if you think about
it when Abraham looks up at the stars And we take that very literally
that all Abraham could see is the stars in his particular hemisphere
He didn't see the stars in our solar system And he didn't see
the stars in our galaxy and he didn't see the stars in the billions
of galaxies since then but God did Do you understand that? Do you, but it was enough for
Abraham to see the stars in his own hemisphere to say, you know
what? I believe you God. And then you're talking about
the sands of the sea. Ladies and gentlemen, we're using what
is called symbolic hyperbole to tell Abraham that God is more
than capable to fulfill his promises to Abraham. Even though at the
present moment, he is walking purely by faith. There's nothing
in him or in Sarah that would assert that the promise is going
to occur. And yet here we are. 2,000 years after Abraham, Jesus
is born. Here we are, 15,000 plus believers
and two sermons being preached by Peter, right? It's been 2,000
years, hence from that time to ours, that's 3,500 years since
the promise given to Abraham. God is still saving his people.
He's making stars every day. He's making pebbles of sand every
day. And they will make up the new
heavens and the new earth when it's all done with. They will
be part of the new Jerusalem when it's all done with. According
to Revelation 7, a number which no man can number. Are you guys
hearing me? So what happens is people get stuck within the boundaries
of their own time frame and their own reference points and can't
believe God. Well, you got to step outside
of your little box and be able to see the world through God's
eyes. Are you hearing me? So it's very important for us
to see that. What is the apostle Peter doing in our text? He's
actually exalting Christ. He's preaching the word, right?
Is he preaching the word? Of course he is. He's exalting
Christ. And this is what I call by analogy, the seed sown. See,
we're still talking about the seed, right? The seed sown. Is the preaching of the gospel
sowing seed? Is it? Do we believe then in
a harvest? Do we see it in the book of Acts?
Absolutely. We talked about that last week.
Jesus had the disciples with him as he was doing ministry,
and he himself knew that the harvest was all ready. He told
them, do not say that there will be four months to the harvest.
Behold, the fields are white, ready to harvest. He wasn't speaking
about the literal fields in Palestine. He was talking about the souls
of men. He knew what his father was up to. He knew what his father
was going to do. He was always launching the believer
always launching the apostles into the future. He was always
preparing them. Peter and John are actually shocked
that this thing is happening the way that it's happening because
they are used to failure, not success. One message, 7,000 plus
are saved. And notice the response over
in verse 32, and the multitude of them that believed were of
one heart and of one soul, neither did any of them think of the
things which he possessed was his own, but they all had things
in common. Not only did they actually believe the gospel,
now they were committed to a radical unity of which you and I are
still looking for in the Christian church today. Are you hearing
me? We're still looking for that
kind of unity manifested in the first century book. So the seed
sown, Point number three, the fowls of the air. Do you guys
see that? Pastor, why do you use that term fowls of the air?
Because if you remember back in the account where God had
actually told Abraham, when Abraham said, how shall I know that all
these things that you said were going to take place? He had Abram
to divide the parts of the different animals so that they could do
what was called a blood covenant where the two would walk through
the covenant parts. You remember that Genesis 15? Do you remember
that particular event that occurred that while Abraham was dividing
the parts, the fowls of the air was seeking to come down and
contaminate those parts, and Abraham had to swathe them away?
He had to swathe them away. Well, while he was going, naturally,
quite naturally, the birds are going to come down when you're
dealing with carcasses and flesh and blood. But we're dealing
with spiritual things there, too. Because as Abraham is making
this covenant, He's actually representing the nature of the
kingdom of God in that covenant and the battle of the enemy against
that covenant. The fowls of the air represent
the dark kingdoms of this world, represent Satan. Remember, the
fowls of the air came down to eat up the seed in the parable
of the sower and the seed. And the scriptures very clearly
speak of the fowls of the air in reference to the kingdom of
Satan and his attempt to thwart the process of the sowing of
the seed and the blessing of the seed. Well, Abraham swaying
them off, fraying them off is because he wants that sacrifice
to be legitimate and not contaminated and not thwarted. But the enemy
is going to always come against God's covenant, isn't he? That's
what's going on in the book of Acts. These men are coming against
Peter as they came against Christ, didn't they? And christ is letting
them know as you sow the good word of the kingdom You're gonna
have the fowls of the air coming down to eat up the seed looking
for the seed that's on the wayside Now watch this. I want you to
mark this. This is just an application before we go on When you start
becoming interested in the word of god, the devil is going to
come Always to try to take the seed out of your heart so that
it does not get sown So that it does not germinate so that
it does not bear fruit The vast majority of people who come and
go from the place of the Holy, according to Ecclesiastes around
chapter eight, I've seen, said Solomon, I've seen, I've seen
the wicked come and go from the place of the Holy and their names
were forgotten who had done so. What do you mean? The vast majority
of people pass through the church on into hell because the word
never ever takes root. Let me say that again. I want
you to get it. The vast majority of people pass through the church,
into hell, because the word never takes root. This is the wide
road that leads to destruction. Many there be that are on it.
Out of the four soils, only one soil bore fruit 30 fold, 60 fold,
100 fold. Three soils, the first soil,
nothing happened. They had a knowledge of the kingdom
that going to church. These are the people that you
meet when they get older. And there's nothing about their life
that's even remotely pious or even remotely religious. And
they'll tell you, yeah, I went to church. I've been to church
all my life. I grew up in the church. The church is not for
me. If those people die in that state, they heard the word, but
it never took root in their soul. Are you hearing me? And then
you have the people who actually, you know, did the crime and emotionalism
and came up to the altar. Oh Lord Jesus, help me. I'm broke. I need some money.
And then they go through the religious, you know, stuff and
they received Jesus and they run for a couple of months. But
because the word didn't go down deep enough and because of the
cares of this life, it choked the word. that it became unfruitful. And you meet those people too.
They actually go a little further than the first group. They actually
learn doctrine and they play church for a minute and they
have a few Bible verses running around in their cranium. But
the world choke out the word and it causes them to go back
to their lifestyle because they didn't want to live with the
process of sanctification that's required to affirm the truth
of the gospel. Are you hearing me? So you have
what is called the wayside here. Then you have the shallow ground
hearer. The shallow ground hearer is that stony heart where the
word did not go in deep, so it couldn't take root. And over
time, trials came and they fell away. You meet those people all
the time, too. And then the stony ground hearer, that's the person
that I would say most marks our present generation in our world,
the stony ground hearer. The thorny ground hearer is the
person who is struggling with the cares of this life, jobs,
retirement, business, all of the accoutrements of a first
century, first world century life. You and I have all kinds
of things vying for our attention. Is that true? And these become
the cumbersome things that actually impede your growth in Christ.
So I'll say it like this. You only got 24 hours in a day,
only 24 hours a day. You have certain priorities with
which you have to actually negotiate what's important and what's not
important in order for you to get down the road of life. And
what the Bible plainly says is, what does it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? And Jesus
warned us in Luke chapter 21 that we need to be careful that
our hearts not be overloaded with riotous living and surfeiting
and drunkenness and the cares of this life. Isn't that what
he said? so that you would not find yourself standing before
the Son of Man unworthy of the kingdom of God. Christ was honest
about what happens when you are brought in the sphere and scope
of the preaching of the gospel, you don't live it in a vacuum.
Here's what you're gonna learn on Sunday about what the writer
to the Hebrews is gonna say, run this race with patience.
Here's what you're gonna learn. You're gonna have to learn how
to lay aside every weight and those strategically established
sin patterns that can haunt your race and keep you from finishing
the course. You have to learn how to do that. From point A to point B is not
a beeline without opposition for the Christian. Am I making some sense? It's
very important for you to know that just, you know, the whole
matter of the kingdom of God is not some small, fancy issue. And this is where the gospel
offends people right here. This is where the offense comes,
right? Where I'm talking right now. Because first of all, people
are wondering why on earth are we to contemplate eternity? Why
are we to contemplate heaven? Why are we to contemplate God?
Why are we to contemplate the judge? Like I said, you and I
live in a almost a Disneyland aura of an environment here in
America. I mean, we have so many things
at our availability to make us happy, as it were. But really
what they are, are distractions. They are actually distractions.
And over time, we come to know that because you know what we
do with things that really don't have eternal significance? We
abuse them. So let me make an application
here just to drive this home. Cause I know this is where God
wants me to go, especially with such a full class tonight and
an eclectic group too. We got young people, old people,
the Lord is good. So now watch this. This is very
important to know that old people need to tell the truth around
young people, old people, stop telling these young people that
you got the world by the tail on a downhill slide and you don't
never struggle. You old people, you need to stay
connected to the young people. and tell them the truth about
the struggle. You struggle just like they do. You need to tell
them that life is a struggle, and struggle is designed to cause
you and I to call on God to give us help. Are you hearing me?
So you old people, stop telling these young people that you don't
think the same thoughts they do, because you do. All you do
is think them, because you're too old to do them. So we have
the three categories of sinners, right? The three categories.
You can write this. This is old stuff, but it's good. It works.
You have what are called, uh, rockabye sinners, rockabye sinners,
all have sin and come short of the glory of God. We're born
and conceived in sin. You know that, right? We come
out of the womb speaking like we call our little babies angels,
but I told you if they could get up and snatch your face off,
they'd snatch your face off. And when they go to raging and
crying because you, they don't get what they want to, that's
their little wheel opposing your will. Do you understand that
when they rage like they do have bits and you, I'm gonna sit you
down, girl, I'm gonna let you cry for 10 minutes. They can
cry for two hours. Can't they? Their wheel is raging. You know why? Cause they're not
getting their way. You know what they are? Sinners.
We call them rockabye centers. Yeah. And then when they grow
up, when those gorillas grow up and become teenagers, when
we hit our teens, we become what are called rock and roll centers.
You know, the rock and roll centers, all of a sudden now we're partying
all the time. Rock and roll centers. I might be anywhere from 13,
14, even up to about 40, 50 years old. You know how some of you
don't, don't laugh. You got folks who still trying
to rock and roll at 50 years old. looking ridiculous, absurd,
but still trying to rock and roll at 50. So you got your rockabye
sinners, then you got your rock and roll sinners, then you got
your rock and chair sinners, right? These are the folks I'm
talking about. They're rocking in their chair
and they got the Bible in their lap and they're quoting Bible
verses to you like they're already in heaven, but they're going
through the same temptations you are. They just can't do it
no more because they're body too old. And all rocking chair
sinners ought to tell rock and roll sinners, been there, done
that, bought the t-shirt. Am I telling the truth? Been
there, done that, bought the t-shirt. Quit acting like you
got one foot in heaven. You don't. You still struggle
with sin too. Sneaking and doing that old rocking
chair stuff. The stuff you wouldn't want nobody
to see you doing. Cause you can't do the rock and
roll stuff anymore. It's a struggle, isn't it? Is
it a struggle? Of course it's a struggle. Tell
those young people, we know what your struggle is. Those of us
who are older, we have the remedy. We know what it is to look to
Christ and rest in Christ and rejoice in Christ and know that
one day we're going to share this old man, which keeps giving
us so much trouble, right? Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? A wretched man that I am. And so we can tell
them what the remedy is, but we can't pretend like we don't
have those same struggles. You know, you 999 years old,
you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, having
some of those nightmares. Whoa, man, I thought I was through
with that. Every now and then that old thing
pops back up. These are the fowls of the air that seek to corrupt
the sea. Abraham had to fray them away.
The apostles are dealing with these now. So under point number
three, there are two ideas, an attempt to make the covenant
of non effect. That's what verses 17 through 29 are. 29 in Acts
chapter four, we are commanding you not to speak or teach in
the name of Jesus at all. That's crazy. Do you know if
we do not preach the gospel, people cannot be saved. If people
are not saved, God is not glorified. If God is not glorified, the
devil wins. Do you understand that? Do you
guys understand what I'm saying? The idea that the leaders of
the Jerusalem church, that old system, would tell the leaders
of the new Jerusalem church, the new system, not to preach
Jesus, is a cardinal sin, which damns everybody in the world.
If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. If Christ is
not preached, we are of all men most miserable. The one thing
we must have in this world is the preaching of the gospel.
That's the remedy for it all. By the way, for the rock and
rockabye centers and the rock and roll centers, it's a good
thing that you get old. Tell them old saints, don't be
scared. Oh, say, tell them I'm in the
camp with you. I'm on the summit with you. I
like, I like, I am so glad that I am the age that I am now. You
know, because it tapers, doesn't it? It tapers. You go, boy, I
am so... You know, because you remember
back when you were in the 30s and the 40s and those tremors were
so massive. They were just shaking you up
like, man, when it... And then it starts tapering around
45, 50. You think God is not as ferocious. You go, Lord, I
am so glad I'm not a young person anymore. And tell those young
people don't, it don't have to last, but you do have to run
this race. You do have to endure. You do have to learn how to strategically
say no to the things that will destroy your life. You have to
say no to the things that will destroy your life. You do have
to learn how to negotiate life with a walk with God. You do
have to trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto
your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways
and let Him direct your paths. Young people, that's the real
battle the young person has. Letting Christ actually direct
his paths. That way you minimize stubbing
your toe. Because you're gonna stub your
toe. But minimize it. There's a difference between
being mature being immature point number four this is quite remarkable
we're gonna I got time I've got about 15 minutes the class seems
to be lasting long unless the clock is stuck 910 where be done
at 930 this is remarkable we learned something about Peter
it's a real blessing now you guys remember shortly before
Jesus was crucified Peter was boasting how that he'll go anywhere
with Jesus He would say, Jesus, now I'm not like the rest of
these cats you got. Now I know you had to pick them
because just you just, you like that. You like to pick, you know,
weak people and, and, and, and, and, you know, people that are
impotent, but I'm not like them. I will go with you. I will die
with you. I'll do everything that you asked
me to do. That was the mindset of Peter.
That's Luke chapter 22. You know what Jesus said before
the cock crows twice, you're going to deny me three times.
Isn't that what he said? Peter, you are no different than
the rest of these. The difference between you and them is that
you're deluded in thinking you're different. That's good. That's good. That's good. You better write that one down,
too. What makes me think I'm different than them? I'm deluded.
God has fashioned all the hearts of men alike. Psalm 33, 15. Our
hearts are all the same. Fundamentally, they are the same.
That means the mistake that Peter had made is the mistake I can
make. We learned this in our women's theology class last night,
didn't we? When we talked about Moses and the mistake that Moses
made and Joshua had a right to fear because God was now setting
Joshua up to take the children in. the children of Israel in
and Joshua was afraid and God had to encourage him over and
over and over. Joshua, do not be afraid. Be
of good courage. Be strong. Be strong, Joshua. Be strong, Joshua. Am I not with
you? I'll be with you as I was with
Moses. Joshua, do not be afraid. Joshua
was scared to death. Why? Two reasons. He had to lead a bunch of rebels
who showed themselves for 40 years. All they wanted to do
was play church. Then he saw his predecessor,
Moses, stumble at such a large degree that God told him he couldn't
go into the land. You know what Joshua said? I
am not better than my fathers. Remember Elijah, after having
destroyed 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the groves,
he had called them all out on Mount Carmel. And he had set
up the altars. He mocked them, mocked their
God. This is a picture of false religion over against the power
of the gospel. And God allowed Elijah to demonstrate that he
had the true gospel. God answered his prayer by consuming
the sacrifice after drying up the water. And then he killed
all those prophets. And shortly thereafter, Jezebel
sends a contract out against him. And he starts running from
that woman. He completely lost sight of God,
didn't he? Well, what happened? He's human. He's human. Is he not? He's human. Plus, he was old.
That means he was tired. That's right. After a while,
you don't want to fight anymore. That's why you have to have young
men in your holster ready to go, in your quiver. And he did. He had Elisha. God said, go get
Elisha. Attach Elisha to you for the
last six months. Prepare him to take over for
you. Remember that? God's gracious. He knows when
we're wearing down, doesn't he? He knows when we're getting tired,
doesn't he? And he knows how to prepare the succession in
order to perpetuate his plan. That's what he was doing with
Joshua. That's what he's doing with the apostles. The apostle
Peter was whole humbled by his mistake of denying the Lord and
cursing. Remember that? He denied the
Lord incurred little girl came up to him looked at him said
I know you was with him No, I wasn't. I don't even know the man start
cussing swearing and going on a little girl, right? You guys
remember that this is the proud both for Peter. I'll go anywhere
with you I'll die with you. You better watch what you say
You better watch what you say? It's not by power nor by might
If God doesn't give you grace, you can't do anything for God.
This is why we believe in sovereign grace here. We don't play games
with this religious age and talk about somehow we have intrinsic
power in ourselves. We have no power to do any good
at any time. There's none good. No, not one.
There's none that do with good. No, not one within me dwelleth. No good thing. Jesus said without
me, you can do what? I'll ever talk about what you
can do. Yeah, you can do something. Nothing. That's what you can
do. You can mess up. But through
him who strengthens us, we can do all things. But don't take
the glory from him because that's why God did not let Moses go
into the land. He stole God's glory. And see,
in this religious age is seeking to steal God's glory by attributing
to mankind powers that he does not have. You don't have the
power to come to Christ. without Christ drawing you. You
don't have the power to believe on him without him giving you
faith. You don't have the power to stand in the gospel without
him causing you to stand. You don't have the power to run
after Jesus without him enlarging your heart. Enlarge my heart
then I will run after you. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? To him be all the glory. And so we have to learn to do
that. What did Peter do on this occasion? He had learned something.
When the rulers came to him, guess what? He didn't stand up
pompously and say, we're going to do what we're going to do.
You're going to do what you're going to do. No. The Holy Ghost had
come upon him. Chapter four, Peter being filled
with the Holy Ghost, spake boldly the word of God, right? Remember
that? And then guess what he did after he had spoken the word
of God? He went back to the saints and
they started praying. He went back to the saints and
they started praying. Look at it. Verse 23, in being let go, they
went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests
and the elders had said unto them. And when they had heard
that, they did what? Lifted up their voice to God with one accord
and said, Lord, you are God. Acknowledging God's sovereignty.
You made the heavens and the earth and everything in them,
acknowledging the scope of his sovereignty. who by the mouth
of your servant David said, acknowledging special revelation. Why did the
heathen rage and the people imagine the vain thing? Now he's acknowledging
the enmity of unsaved man against the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
Psalm 2, you know that. Kings of the earth stood up,
the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against
his Christ. See, this is what I meant. Peter saw the heavenly
reality of what was taking place in that physical dimension He
saw the dragon hovering over the woman seeking to destroy
the manchild as soon as he be born Is that true? It's what he was doing in the
days of Herod when Jesus was first born That's why his mom
and daddy had to take him down to Egypt. Remember that? Because
the dragon was hanging over him to kill him as soon as he was
born And all through his ministry, he tried to, he tried to kill
him. God kept him. And now Peter is aware that the
same monarchical forces are working to destroy Peter, John, and James,
because they're doing what their master did, sowing the seed.
You know what Jesus was doing? The sower is the son of man.
The seed is the word of God. That seed is Christ. the incorruptible
seed that we sow with hope that that seed germinates and bring
forth life. The devil doesn't want that to
get done. You guys are with me so far, right? We got a little
bit longer to go. I'll let you go. So their prayer was for the
success of the gospel. Look at verse 29. And now, Lord,
behold their threatenings and grant unto your servants that
with all what? Boldness, they may speak your
word. Listen, he wasn't saying destroy the enemy. You know,
some folks get silly in church. I've been teaching this for a
long time. Don't waste your time talking about the devil that
much. He's a real entity, but learn how to talk about God,
his grace, his power, his will, his work, his word, his purposes
in our life, his triumph, his victories, his glory. Talk about
God. And what Peter is asking for
is not to destroy his foes, He's always asking for grace to keep
preaching. Do you see that? Listen to what
the text says. And now Lord behold their threatenings
and grant unto your servants. It's a gift, isn't it? That with
all boldness, they may speak your word by stretching forth
your hand to heal. And that signs and wonders may
be done by the name of your holy child, Jesus. And when they have
prayed, The place was shaken where they were assembled together
and they were all filled with what? God said yes to that prayer. He said, yes, I'm down with that.
Here you are ready to face the devil in part two of this battle. who rose up against Christ. Remember
Christ told them very plainly, you are of your father, the devil
and the works of your father, you will do. He was a liar and
a murderer from the beginning. I know what you're going to do
to me. And they're going to do the same thing to the apostles.
And what are the apostles saying? They're not saying kill them,
destroy them. The apostles are saying, give
us grace to preach the gospel. That's called a sacrifice. That's
called a sacrifice. Peter now is ready to jump in
with both feet. He's not going to make the mistake
the second time. He's not going to run. He's not going to defend
himself. He's not going to argue. He's
going to jump in with both feet, but he's going to do it by the
grace of God. He is not going to run. He is not going to run. He's going to preach. Ladies
and gentlemen, he understands in the other apostles understand
that this first confrontation with the rulers of the church,
This is a battle now that's about to take place. This is a major
battle. And they know the only way to
succeed is to keep preaching the word. This is remarkable. So the three points under here
is very clear. This is a different Peter. He's
no longer rash, weak or proud. The second thing is you shall
ask what you will and it shall be given to you. Is God going
to grant Peter's request? Of course. And I want you to
mark this. This can be an aside too, but I'm not going to make
it that because I want to just open up chapter five today and
kind of wet your whistle and then we'll come back to chapter
five next week. In John chapter 14, verse 13 and 14, Jesus said
to the disciples, you have up to this point been asking me,
but when I go back to my father, I want you to ask your heavenly
father what you will. Asking him what you will I will
do it for you whatsoever you ask in my name. I will do it
for you He started pressing on the disciples The fact that his
return to the father is going to open the door to their prayers
being heard Because their prayers will be prayers that are consistent
with the will of God John chapter 14 verse 14 if you shall ask
anything in my name I will what I Now again, religious folk love
to take these kind of Bible verses out of context. Lord, in the
name of Jesus, would you give me a nice, shiny Rolls Royce? No! How come? That's not God's will. That's
not what God wants you to pray for. Are you guys, are you hearing
me? See, don't ever take these statements
like anything and make them absolutes. They are always to be understood
in a context. Verse 13, back it up. And whatsoever you shall ask
in my name, that will I do, that the father may be what? Glorified
in the son. This is why John said in first
John chapter five, if we ask anything according to his will,
this we know we have the petition for which we have asked. Are
you guys hearing me? This is why when Jesus taught
us to pray in Matthew chapter six, This is how you pray. This
is the structure of your prayer. Our father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Here it is. Here it is. This
is the part we don't get. Thy will be done. Got it? Now think this one through. We're going to open up chapter
five. Think this one through. If every
time you go to pray to God, the first thing you say is, Lord,
not my will, but thine be done." How radical that kind of framework
is going to be with regards to the character and nature of your
prayer. How it's going to stop you from praying things that
are going to be amiss. You remember James chapter 4?
James says, you have not because you ask not. And you receive
not because when you ask, you are asking amiss. You are asking
for things to consume them upon your own lust. And God is never
going to actually answer those kinds of prayers unless he's
your enemy. You guys hear that? Now, if he
gives you over because you're his enemy and he's your enemy,
he may give you things that hurt you. But a father is never going
to give his children serpents or stones. God will not answer
my prayers according to my will. And I'm glad he doesn't. Are
you? So now, I just want you to mark
this now. I'm getting ready to get into my last point. I see
my time's almost up. I want you to mark this now.
Some of us know the multiple years wherein we have prayed
for this and prayed for that and prayed, prayed, prayed. And
we go, Lord, why haven't you given me what I want? That's what it amounts to. I'm gonna get you right here.
I know you ain't coming back next week, but just stay right
here on this I know you're not coming back because y'all want
to be part of those religious folks where God always answers
your prayer But if God loves you he will never answer a prayer
that he knows is gonna hurt you And so you you have these prayers
that have gone unanswered for decades You go Well, how come
the Lord hasn't answered that prayer? Can I give you a simple
answer? Cause he don't want to. I know that's profound. I know
that's, I know that's tremendously surprising to you, but how many
of you know, like I know that when God wants to answer your
prayer, they come so quick that it blows you away. It levels
you how quickly he opens the door gives you what you desire
because what you desire Corresponded with his will and would advance
his glory you go. Whoa Man, I ain't gonna be asking
God like that cuz man that kind of that kind of affirmative just
blows you away and you are walking around with a level of gratitude
and thankfulness and humility that he opened that door and
blessed you with that thing well that thing corresponded with
his will and Are you hearing what I'm saying? So then when
you are clamoring, oh God, how come you aren't answering? Are
you there? God's been there. Are you even
there, oh God? Oh, where the Lord at? Hey, you
angels, where the Lord at? He right there. God's ear not
too heavy. Is his ear too heavy? Is his
arm too short to say? No, God can answer your prayer
before you even say it. This is what he said in his word,
and I will hear them before they call on me. So you know what
the Holy Ghost does, because he's the intercessor before Christ,
the intercessor, the Holy Ghost catches a whole bunch of mail
we send up and throws it in the fire. He throws a whole bunch
of mail in the fire. Man, I ain't sending that up.
I know the will of God. I know that this don't correspond
with the will of God. Food food food. I remember father
for the fire food food So now Jessica in case some of you are
struggling with that. Let me help you understand something
Your life does not consist of merely praying to God to give
you something As a child of the living God, He's already bestowing
upon you unmerited favor, unconditional promises that corresponds with
the relationship that He has with you in Jesus Christ. So
He's providing providence for you, He's providing life for
you, He's providing health for you, He's allowing you to work,
keep your sane mind, all kinds of things are intact in your
life on an everyday level that are from God, of which he's maintaining
his covenant responsibility towards you. It's just that you aren't
getting that one thing that does not correspond to his will. You
and I will never be able to say that God is not good. We will
never be able to say that God is not good. Am I telling the
truth? God is good. Intrinsically good, impeccably
good, consistently good, irrevocably good. He is the only good thing
from which all good is derived. Please. So now let's make our
way through chapter 5 for a minute. We'll close it down because I
want you to think about this as we come back. So verses 32
through 37 are a remarkable, remarkable, remarkable manifestation
of love and response on the part of the people of God by the grace
of God, knowing that that when once we are brought into the
kingdom, we are our brother's keeper and that the grace of
God teaches us how to give. in a way that corresponds with
the will of God. That merit's really working through
on its own, and I may come back and touch on that a tad next
week. But it would amount to this, as I would share it with
some of you, the hard-earned money that you acquire through
honest gain is not to be given to every Tom, Dick, and Harry
that ask you for it. All right? So I'm gonna help
a few of y'all just right now. This is free. This ain't gonna cost
you much. But you know, there's all kinds of people that'll come
to you asking for money. And your job is not to just take
your money out your pocket and just give it to everybody that
asks. Every context wherein you are taught about giving, make
sure that when you read the passages in Luke 6 and Matthew 6 and other
places about give, and it shall be given unto you, read them
in their context. There's no such thing as irresponsible
giving on the part of the Christian. Are y'all hearing me? If I know
a brother is standing right outside of the crack house door, right
outside and I'm walking by a preacher. Can you give a brother $5? No,
no, no. I'll take you to a transition
home. I'll walk with you to the corner. We can go get us a McDonald
hamburger and a cup of coffee. Am I making some sense? No, I
am not going to aid and abet your perpetual self-destruction. God didn't give me to steward
my money that way. See, I liberated somebody right
there. But you got to be bold now. I told the saints years
ago, man, do you know how hard I worked to raise eight kids
and get almost all of them through college with the exception of
one? I'm still having to Get ready to send her to college.
And some cat come up to me, he ain't got maybe one or two kids.
If that, he come to this brother who's working hard to take care
of eight kids, right? I'm laboring, I'm doing bi-vocational
work. I'm working two jobs and pastoring.
And this cat gonna come and ask me for $10. I said, man, how
many kids you got? Do you hear me? How many kids
you got? Oh man, I got one boy. I said,
I got eight. I expect him to come out of this
box and say, man, here, let me give you some money. Here, let
me give you some money. I feel sorry for you. I feel
sorry for you. Like I said, my Asian brothers
have always said in our culture, the Asian culture and in the
Asian culture, two children at the most, if you have four children,
you're sunk. And they asked me, how many you
got? I said, I got eight. He said, you double sunk. Listen, my conscience
does not bother me a bit when they come asking me for money.
You got to be... Man, if you... Listen! A brother
working hard to feed these kids and you are not supposed to dissipate
your wealth out of a sort of emotionalism towards people.
Don't ever walk that blindly. Christians are knowledgeable
men and women who operate out of biblical principles to advance
the glory of God and the good of all mankind. And when you
know that you are aiding and abetting something that is not
good, you must not do it. Ask God to give you boldness.
Listen, those cats, don't they know we've been there? I grew
up in the hood. Listen, they expect a percentage of people
to say no. Just be part of that percentage.
Just be part of that percentage. Listen, most of the time they
don't waste any time with you, do you? Once you say, no, man, I
ain't got it. No, man, I ain't got it. They keep rolling, don't
they? Because they're into a numbers game too. The next person going
to give it up, they're going to find the guilty conscious
down the street who is not walking in biblical principles nor in
the light of which they'll extricate their money from them and make
them feel bad. That was good. That was free. Let me reverse
36 and 37. And then I'm going to read verses
1 and verse 2 of chapter 5. And Hosea, who by the apostles,
chapter 4, verse 36, was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted
the son of consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
having land, he owned land, he sold it and brought the money
and laid it at the apostles' feet. See, he put his money where
his mouth was. He invested in the kingdom. He put his treasure in heavenly
places. This is what Paul taught the
rich people in 1 Timothy chapter 6. Let those that be rich store
up for themselves treasures to come by making sure they distribute
according to the will of God. There is a reciprocation that
always takes place when we do the will of God. I told you God
is a great paymaster. He is a great paymaster. No one
of us will ever do anything for God that He will not repay us.
That's the nature of God. You don't ever give God something
that He doesn't give you in return. Are you guys hearing me? Let
me make sure you get this. God will never ever be a man's
debtor. You will never be able to say
God owes me, not one dime, one nickel, one dollar. You give
anything to God the right way, God will repay you. That's his
nature. That's his nature. That's God's
nature. I want you to get that. He always
does. And for his children, he loves
to do so. His reward is with him. He's
gonna get it, every man according to his words. God always pays
back. Don't ever think that you're
doing something for God in vain. Are you hearing me? Very important
for you to get it. Very important for you get it.
Jesus says if you give a cup of cold water in my name You'll
get your return great is your reward in heaven when you serve
God with that kind of mindset how liberating and how Powerful
it is for us to understand that my business Transaction is with
my heavenly father when I do things on earth that he is the
one that pays me back And I'll say something to you now just
in case you don't know I operate out of that principle The principle
I operate out of is God is the one that pays me for doing His
will. And He has never failed me yet.
Are you hearing me? And it's important for you to
grasp too. So here's this model that's laid down of a brother
just pouring it out. Say, hey man, here's the money.
You divide it up, you distribute it, you help the saints, right?
This is a true brother. Barnabas is a true brother. Verse
1, chapter 5. But a certain man named Ananias
with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and they kept that
part of the price. His wife also being privy to
it and brought a certain part. And here's what they did. They
laid it at the apostles feet too. So here comes Barnabas. He lays his at the apostles feet.
Here comes Ananias and Sapphira. They lay theirs at the apostles
feet. Are you ready? One is true, the other is hypocritical. One is sincere and authentic,
the other one is perpetrating a fraud. One is doing it to the
glory of God, we call it Coram Deo. The other is doing it to
be seen of men. This is the difference between
true religion and false religion. This is the difference between
folks who love to come up to the front of the church and drop
their money in front of the altar and let people see how much they
give. This is the difference between churches who have $500
offerings and $1,000 offerings and $200 offerings. All of it,
which is sham show religion. Are you guys hearing me? Versus
the widow with two mites who walked up and didn't say a thing,
but God saw it. Did he see it? Christ says her
name will be preached all over the world simply because she
did it for God. This is the big difference between
sham, empty, superficial, carnal, look at me religion versus heart
religion as committed to the glory of God, the advancement
of the kingdom and does things in secret knowing that God rewards
openly. My master told me in Matthew
chapter six, don't you ever be like the Pharisees. Don't you
pray aloud in order to get the applause of men. Don't you give
alms in order for people to say, look how much money Jesse is
giving. Don't you do anything for the applause of men. That's
why we don't go through all those shows here. No show here. No show. Christ alone. Grace alone. Faith alone. Scripture alone. The glory of
God alone, to Him be the glory. Am I making some sense? So we'll
come back and unpack this thing next week. Let's pray. Father,
thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the saints. Thank
You for a desire to study and know Your Word. Help us to rightly
divide it. Give us grace to walk humbly before it. You are a great
rewarder. And there's a day coming when
the whole world, angels and devils and everyone will see You reward
Your people who have labored for Your name down here. Give
us traveling mercies as we go our way. Prepare us to worship
you on Sunday, we pray in Jesus name, amen. God bless you guys.