you will pull up Acts chapter
4 and I'm going to be reading verses 31 through verse 37 and
then chapter 5 verses 1 through 10 to give us a context and we
will try to make our way through our outline for tonight we probably
will only get to our fourth point if if that much and then we'll
be ready to at least contextually move into the fifth chapter of
the book of Acts which is a very Profound set of lessons about
what God requires out of his people who are called by his
name The Apostle Peter is speaking representatively for the Church
of the Living God that nucleus of believers who have just been
accosted by the Sanhedrin rulers of the church they have come
back and reported to them and that God had been gracious to
give them the ability to stand, but they realize that some things
are at hand, crucial to the gospel for which they must pray. Peter,
having prayed passionately about these things, it says over in
verse 31, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. Verse 31
is a commentary. It's true that they prayed, but
what verse 31 says is there is a logical following of passionate
and effectual prayer that occurs. They prayed, the place was shaken,
they were filled, and they preached the word with boldness. So that's
what's being stated. They prayed, the place was shaken. It's an affirmation of God's
accepting their prayer. We'll get a chance to unpack
that. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the
word of God with boldness. The author and the primary author
of scripture is the Holy Spirit is not saying to you and me that
we are to compact the whole of verse 31 into one immediate event,
but to understand it in the full scope of its implications. Prayer
works, doesn't it? Prayer works when it's done effectually.
And when it's done effectually, God affirms the people of God
in such a profound and concrete way. It's as if the earth shakes
when he shakes the earth. He is saying, I have heard your
prayers. The aim of our prayers is that
we would be faithful to God. And in order for us to be faithful
to God, he must fill us with his spirit. The goal of God in
prayer is that we would be bold in our proclamation of the gospel.
everywhere we go. Now mark what he does after this. And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any
of them that art of the things which he possessed was his own,
but they all had everything in 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
among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands
or houses sold them and brought the peace, the prices of those
things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles' feet.
And distribution was made unto every man according as he had
need. And Hosea, who by the apostles
were surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son
of consolation, Levite and of the country of Cyprus having
land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles
feet But see what I mean that chapter 4 and chapter 5 should
not be a break but a Certain man named Ananias with Sapphira
his wife sold a possession and kept that part of the price His
wife his wife also being private or aware of it and brought a
certain part and laid it at the Apostles feet But Peter said,
Ananias, why hath Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy
Ghost and keep back part of the price of the land? While it yet
remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why have you conceived this thing
in your heart and has lied unto, you have not lied unto men, but
unto God? And Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down and gave up the ghost. And great fear came on all of
them that heard these words. And the young men arose, wound
him up, and carried him out and buried him. It was about the
space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was
done, came in. And Peter answered unto her,
tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said,
yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, I was
it that you have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord.
Behold the feet of them which have buried your husband are
at the door and shall carry thee out. Then she fell down straightway
at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came
in and found her dead and carrying her forth, buried her by her
husband. And great fear came upon all
the church. And upon as many as heard these
things, thus is the reading of God's word. If you have your
outline, this is the way I want to construct this as a point
of larger theological framework, the covenant blessing of Abraham
being fulfilled, the covenant blessing of Abraham being fulfilled. Well, you might ask the question,
how does the covenant blessing of Abraham relate to these events
that are taking place in the book of Acts? No, you wouldn't
ask that question if you had been in our biblical theology
class. If you are part of biblical theology,
you do not ask the question, how does the New Testament relate
to the Old Testament? Or how does the events that are
happening in the book of Acts relate to the Abrahamic promise?
If you are in biblical theology, you understand that the Abrahamic
promise is the center and core of the unfolding of the whole
of the New Testament church. If you're in biblical theology,
you understand that what God promised Abraham was a seed. And the unfolding of the promises
of God in the seed have everything to do with what's taking place
here in the book of Acts. So the first point I wanna call
your attention to is the positive impact of Christ in Jewish conversion. The positive impact of Christ
in Jewish conversion. And I guess what I would be doing
is I'm going through the book of Acts. I'd be framing the book
of Acts in a way in which you could develop a biblical theology
out of it as well in those portions of scripture that are uniquely
and markedly showing the impact of the gospel and the response
of the gospel from Acts 1 to Acts 28. The positive impact
of Christ in the Jewish conversion. Why am I calling your attention
to that? First and foremost is because we are centered where
in terms of the locus of the events that are transpiring.
Jerusalem. We are presently at Jerusalem
and we must not allow this to evade us. Jerusalem at this point
is a strategic place of God's witness to the resurrection of
Christ and the Lordship of Christ over all things to the church.
You must keep that in mind that where we are is that Jerusalem.
And so I will remind you once again, that we are dealing with
the older being combined with the new in terms of a location
and the tension between the old and the new in terms of God's
objective. He is intentionally bearing record
to his son that his son is Lord of all. And it's starting in
Jerusalem. And the thing that you and I
must see as remarkable is that God has chosen to save a handful
of Jewish people upon two messages being preached. The first message
in Acts chapter two, where we read in verse 41, and there were
about 3,000 souls that was added to the church in that one impacting
message that Peter preached. You guys are following me. Here
we are in chapter four and five, and we are told in chapter four,
verse four, these words, how be it many of them which heard
the word, what? And the number of the men was
about what? 5,000. So we take the 3,000 and
the 5,000, that should be 8,000 there, plus women and children,
you and I can easily surmise that we are about 15,000 brand
new Christians who are of the Jewish stock, embracing the gospel
of the sovereign Lord Jesus. This is a remarkable reality
that actually corresponds to the promise given to Abraham
by God, of which I want you to be able to see the connection.
So my first point is the positive impact of Christ in Jewish conversion,
somewhere around a thousand and two messages. The second proposition
is the harvest is what? Plentiful. The third proposition
which I want you to see today also is we are dealing with a
residue and a remnant. But I want to go back to Genesis
chapter 15 verses 4 through 6 to show you what I mean by the fulfillment
of the Abrahamic promise taking place here in Acts chapter 4
and 5. Go back there. This has to do
with the sacrifice that you and I are so familiar with by now
between God and Abraham, where Abraham asked God, if you recall,
for an evidence or a sign that all that God said he would do,
he indeed would do. You remember that? You remember
God, Abraham saying to God, it's been a number of years, somewhere
around 11 years, And the promise that I would be the father of
a multitude of nations has absolutely no concrete, no empirical, no
tangible evidence. How do you mean to bring that
about, oh God? And so Abraham was told by God
that he would indeed be the one. And we are told over in verse
five, these words. And he brought Abraham forth
abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars. if you be able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall
thy seed be. See, what I'm getting at is,
Abraham could have never understood the actual fulfillment of the
promise that God had given to him that he would be the father
of a multitude of nations. He would have never been able
to comprehend that, not being able to see the end from the
beginning. Only God can do that. Abraham could not determine the
nature and character and extent of God's promises by his immediate
circumstances. This is why the believer must
always walk by what? And not by what? Because Said
can actually militate against what God is doing in your life
if you try to draw conclusions as to what God is up to based
on what you see. Also, because if we are operating
by sight, what we will fail to understand is God has a timing
and a chronology that does not correspond to your immediate
circumstances. If I am bound to think that God
has to fulfill his promises in my life, in the time span, in
the sphere of where I am living, then I am going to often miss
the manner in which God works. Moreover, because we have the
New Testament writings, Here's what you and I can quickly sum
as true, is that God had always meant when he spoke to Abraham
about having a seed, that is, he would have a seed of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, which means that this was not
about God fulfilling the promise to Abraham in a purely genealogical,
physical way through Abraham's seed. that Abraham would have
one seed, which would be the nucleus and source of all the
children of God, of all nations, everywhere the elect drawn out
of them, just that God had planned it. But I do wanna say this,
that as you and I are laying a foundation for the New Testament
writings, particularly the book of Acts, what we do not wanna
fail to miss is that there is a nucleus, a nucleus of Jewish
believers in the early chapters of Acts, that are positively
responding to the preaching of the gospel. And that ought to
be marked because that won't happen long. That's going to
curtail here shortly. And what we're going to see is
a warfare of hostility on the part of the Jewish people against
the gospel, but only after a certain number of elect Jews are brought
in. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? We want to mark that because It is a fulfillment of
scripture in that regard. Now, in your outline, I have
7,002 messages, should be about 8,000 if we admit women and children,
15,000. That's remarkable. I don't know
a man who has preached the gospel and 4,000 actually tangibly were
saved. Do you? I'm talking about saved. I ain't
talking about coming to the front of the altar just as I am. I'm
talking saved. I'm not talking planned church.
I'm talking becoming the church. These apostles were remarkable
mediators of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the establishing of the early
church upon that Jewish nucleus will mean something as we continue
to work through interpretation of scripture. Secondly, I make
the point in point number one, the harvest is what? The harvest
is plentiful because our master said that. Go with me in your
Bible. Now we're gonna come back to Genesis 15 in a minute. But
go with me in your Bible to the gospel of Luke. Let's look at
Luke chapter 10 verse 2. I want to show you once again
a principle that we have enunciated Long ago and that's this That
when our Lord Jesus Christ went about doing ministry He was indeed
operating out of New Testament principles in an Old Testament
Context you guys remember that these are axioms. You've got
to remember this the Lord Jesus was operating out of New Testament
principles in an Old Testament context He was operating out
of new wine principles in old wineskin settings. He intentionally
was teaching his disciples by giving them foreshadows of what
they would be engaged in before the time. Because as he is God,
he bridges both old and new, being the beginning and the end,
the alpha and the omega, the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. And so he can transport us into
new realities, future realities, though we are operating contextually
in a certain chronological setting that is adverse to those realities.
You and I read a Bible that allows us to see the future. You and
I read a Bible that allows us actually to live out of future
principles right now. If we continue to unpack our
text, we'll see that because we will be of necessity called
upon to go to the book of Revelation once again. We will be dealing
with that all throughout the next three or four months as
we go through the seven churches of Revelation. I want to press
this home. that you and I, by virtue of
this book we call The Revelation of the True and the Living God,
have the capacity by the Spirit of God to be transported mentally
into realities of the future. And they are concrete for us
because we believe God. Just as Abraham was told by God
to look and number the stars, God meant for creation to bear
record to the faithfulness of his covenant to Abraham. And
you know what the text said? Abraham believed God. In other words, what he saw was
the future based upon that representation in the stars and it settled his
soul. That was God speaking. It settled
his soul. It settled his soul down. He said, okay, okay, okay. I'm
getting old. Sarah's getting old. Things drying
up, but I still believe you because now his faith is not being confined
by or trapped by or hindered by his physical circumstances. God allowed him to transcend
his own human inclination to believe that it was something
in him that had to make this promise come to pass and to see
the glory of creation that allowed him to go outside the boundaries
of his own limitations. Am I making some sense? That's
what God does with us all the time. When you are ready to actually
do things for God, that exceed your capacity to do them. He
will show them to you before he allows you to experience them,
because in order for you to experience them, it requires you believing
God. Even before it happens, you have
to believe God. You have to believe God for things
that God promises before they happen, because without faith,
what? You know, one of the, And I don't
want to start talking about it because I had a good time. Not
only because me and my wife enjoyed the water and the food, but because
God blessed the ministry more than I could even begin to talk
about. It's no accident when he takes a man thousands and
thousands of miles around the world to share the gospel and
the kind of impact that it made and what it's going to do in
the next several years most of you at Grace being around will
see what it does. But I already saw it before it
happened, what it does and how important it is for a man or
a woman to believe God. And to believe God in context
where things are small, knowing that they have an infinite potential
for the man or the woman that knows that the God that they
serve is able to do all things. And so it is with Abraham here.
Luke's gospel chapter 10. Here's what our master says in
Luke chapter 10 verse 1 and 2 after these things after what things
after He had sent out his disciples to do ministry Remember he sent
out the 72 by 2 and they went everywhere preaching the gospel
to the Jewish people and they were Excited about the things
that were going on listen to what it says after these things
the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them to and to before
his face into every city of in place where he himself would
come. Therefore he said unto them, now watch this, the harvest
is truly what? Now stay there saints, this is
what I meant. Jesus saw a harvest among the
Jewish people. The disciples did not see this
harvest. There was no empirical evidence
that there would be a harvest. There were no hordes and hordes
and hordes of people coming to Christ. But Christ saw things
that no one else saw. And the disciples were made to
be privileged to be part of a pre-prophetic, a pre-evangelical process of
which later on, as Peter is doing now in our text, is experiencing
the harvest of it. The reality is this, Christ took
12 men with the exception of one, we know who that is, and
they went about with Jesus doing ministry for three and a half
years, correct? Jesus did not save thousands and thousands
of people in his ministry. You did not see a bunch of people
saved. He didn't come to finally bring
them into a salvific state. He came to prepare the soil so
that when the word is sown, it would immediately bring forth
a harvest. So the disciples were not enamored
by real authentic conversions. The vast majority of the people
were coming because of the miracles. Coming because he was capable
of creating a welfare state and feeding everyone. Coming because
they had needs. Coming because they were being
drawn by God to witness the Messiah. but they were not themselves
by and large the product of the conversion of their souls. Messiah
did not come to do that. He would leave that which he
called the greater work to the disciples and to the church. but they were able to see in
the arduous labor of our master, him breaking up the fallow ground.
Is that what he was doing? Breaking up that fallow ground,
breaking up that fallow ground and teaching his disciples the
nature of the mystery of the kingdom. He would tell them the
kingdom of God is like a man sowing seed, some on hard ground,
some on rocky ground, some on the wayside, some on good soil,
which means by implication, you have to be patient in the process
of evangelism and witnessing. Whether that's in your family,
with your children, with your children's children, with your
children's children's children, with your husband, with your
wife, whomever, you have to be patient. You have to be patient
and believe God. Did you hear what I just said?
You have to be patient and believe God. And then not only are you
to be patient and believe God, you have to be committed to the
process. See, you can't tell God you believe
God when you're not committed to the process which is indicative
of believing God, and that is breaking up the follow ground,
being committed to pre-evangelical efforts, prayer, and witnessing
and testifying to the grace of God in Christ, and asking the
Spirit of God to come along and do what only He can do. Truly,
the harvest is great, but the laborers are what? Pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest, that he would send laborers into his
harvest. Now, what does he do? He tells
them to go and do what he said do. And then we read over in
verse 17, and the 70 returned again with what? I'm gonna talk
about that on Sunday. The 70 returned again with what?
The 70 returned again with what? I need you to get that. You know
what they returned with? Their day's wages. They return
with their day's wages. This is what I left you with
when I preached to you two Sundays ago. We must contemplate the
nature of God and the reciprocal relationship between himself
and his people. God always rewards our labors. He always, you don't ever work
for God and he not pay you. You don't ever work for God and
he not pay you. The text did not say they went
out with joy. It says they came back with joy. Did you get that? See, they went
out kind of fearful. I am sure. Kind of doubtful. I have no doubt. A little anxious
as we do when we go out witnessing. We wonder what's gonna occur.
Will people receive us? Will they not receive us? Will
they spit on us with a wax hostel? Will there be debates and contentions? Will there be misunderstandings
and all that which comes with witnessing? They went out with
all that, but what did they come back with? Joy! Joy is a precious
commodity to a man or a woman that believes God. Is it a precious
commodity? Do you understand how great that
intangible commodity is? Sometimes the only thing that's
going to rest my soul in the midst of my troubles is the joy
of the Lord. You know, when I'm going through
this or that or the third, it doesn't matter what a person
can give me on a material or a physical level. If the joy
of the Lord is absent, I know I have a deficit to be dealt
with. Something is wrong when I don't
have at least a measurable portion of the joy of the Lord in my
life. I'd much rather the joy, don't you? I'd much rather than
joy. Can I tell you something? You
don't know it, but I'm full of joy right now. You have no idea. You have no idea what me and
my wife went through. You don't know. The apostle Paul
knew something about it. And to come home with joy, because
I didn't have to come home with it. I could have came home with
a bad report. I could have came home with a
sort of ambivalent report. I am full. of joy, full of joy. And I don't have anything tangibly
or physically to affirm you on that. It's just the exchange,
the rate of exchange. Remember what we learned long
ago? God always pays a rate of exchange. If you work for him,
he gonna pay you. If you believe God and therefore
glorify God in your bodies, which are his, he's gonna make sure
that you have compensation for that because our God always rewards
the man or the woman that diligently pursues him every time. You don't
work, God never rips off his servants. It never happens. So I press this point home because
they came back with great, great joy. And you know what it was,
the mastery that they had over the opposition. The devils were
subject to us. We saw healings, oh God. We saw
men and women earnestly listening to the message. Aren't you happy
when you can just get by with telling somebody about Christ
and they actually listen to you? Man, my day is made. I mean,
listen, I don't need them to necessarily say, sir, what must
I do to be saved? But if they give me an ear and
say, you know what? I appreciate that. I'm happy because I know
that unless God himself grants the unregenerate heart to even
listen to me, the things of God are foolishness to the unsaved.
You go, wow, maybe God used me to sow a seed. And so the joy,
the heart is, ah, thank you, oh God. Maybe he used me to sow
a seed. That's what I'm talking about.
And then again in John chapter 4, 35, let's go there. John 4,
35, critical to the foundation that I am laying. The Lord Jesus
Christ has just done something wonderful, as you and I know,
I already stated. He was operating out of New Testament principles
in a Old Testament setting, right? Here he is doing it again. You
don't do this as a Jewish man. You don't go off the road of
Judaism into the ghetto, into the hood, into the red light
district, into skid row and catch up with prostitutes
and adulterous women. Not in the middle of the day,
which is what our master did because he never did anything
in the dark. Are you hearing me? This was
the middle of the day. See, the rest of the Jewish brethren
would have said, listen, I might talk to her if it's 12 o'clock
at night or five o'clock in the morning where no one is watching. But our Lord did this in the
middle of the day. He walked in the daytime, but
he did that also because she would only show up in the middle
of the day because her background was so notorious and infamous. that she wouldn't go and pursue
water while other women were around. But does our master know
where his sheep are at all times, even when they're lost? And I'll
tell you something else. He loves to show up at wells
of water because wells of water always represent the place where
the gospel is vitally preached and where the spirit of the living
God operates. And I'll tell you what else,
whether it's saved sheep, Weak sheep, strong sheep, our lost
sheep, they're all sheep. And they end up at that well
at some point. And when they end up there, Jesus
will show up. So our master shows up here at
this well, having sent his disciples to go down to 7-Eleven and over
to the hamburger joint and pick up some food. And he knew how
they were. They were deviant fellas. He
knew that this 20 minute excursion would end up being a couple hours
for them. Cause they just get sidetracked by anything. They
got way out of the way running up to to the hamburger joint
and they came back a several hours later And here our master
is talking to a samaritan woman And here's how he puts it This
is my point As he is speaking in john chapter 4 verse 31 In
the meantime, the disciples prayed him. I asked him say master eat
And he said unto them, I have meat that you have no idea. Do
you know what he was just stating? Are you ready? I'm full. I'm
full. I've already eaten. I've already
had my meal. My meal was the will of my father. I just had my meal. I don't know
what you guys are eating, but I just had a T-bone steak. with
a nice hot potato, some vegetables, and a large slice of sweet potato
pie. What did y'all eat? I am not
hungry, I'm full. That's what he was saying. My
meat is to do the will of him that sent me. Therefore said
the disciples to one another. Where did he get a sandwich from?
Right? What means hath any man brought
him ought to eat? Jesus said my meat is to do the
will of him that sent me and to finish his work Do not say
see this is the interesting point. What is he doing? He's now casting
into their thinking New Testament and future factors relevant to
his father's glory in this present circumstance Which for them means
nothing means everything for Christ Do not say he says there
are yet four months and then comes the harvest Why not say
that? Because if you believe that we've
got four months to go, you will not labor. If you believe that
we've got three years to go before we actually can gain a harvest,
you will not labor. See, the laborer is the person
that believes that the harvest is ready. And here's what our
Lord is doing. He's basically telling the disciples,
I have operated out of and have experienced presently The benefit
of laboring, believing that there is a harvest and God just blessed
that with me and this Samaritan woman. I want you to get this.
He sowed seed into one woman. And in a few minutes, a whole
city is about to come and hear him. Does he know that? The disciples don't know this,
but Christ knows this, doesn't he? He knows that the father
is about to draw a whole city to believe on him through one
woman. Now, this is what I call personally, I'll share this with
you if you don't know it. This is what I call believing
in the principle of the seed, believing in the concept of the
seed, that a seed has potential, that a seed has promise, and
that a seed has power. You've heard me talk about that
before, right? How many of you heard me talk about that? Good,
about 10%. I've said it to most of y'all, but y'all weren't listening.
So, I said this, and I want you to get this. Please get this,
because God has shown me this, and I started operating out of
this about six years ago. And I shared this with my brother
in the Bahamas. Yeah, I'm making you jealous,
in the Bahamas. but y'all gonna meet some of those brothers and
sisters in a few months. Cause I told them how wonderful
it is in California. They're coming. See, cause they
were getting the report that you and I lived in Sodom and
Gomorrah and they had no interest in Sodom and Gomorrah. But by
the time I had painted the picture, they can't wait to get the Hayward all because of the, they're coming
for the saints. They're coming for the saints
of God. Cause can I tell you something? This is just an aside,
but I'm gonna get back to the point of my seed. Now I'm on
the summit. So if I forget my point, raise your hand and say,
pastor, this was your point. All believers everywhere in the world
want to know every other believer in the world. All believers everywhere
in the world long to meet other believers. Can I tell you why? Because we all know the feeling
of being lonely in the world. And when a believer comes from
the other side of the world who actually has the truth of the
gospel and the spirit of God operating in his or her life,
it's like good news from a far country. They drink and their
souls are refreshed and they want to go to that well where
you got that water so that they can taste it for themselves.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So it's so important for you
to know that so that you keep a large picture view of the work
of God all around the world. By the way, this, uh, in the
next several months, as we are working to put together our missionary
conference, you are going to meet several of the men who are
critical to the establishment of the gospel in the Bahamas
with whom we have fellowship. I was with one of our missionaries
on this excursion. and you will meet some of them.
Some of them, some of our brethren know, but you will meet some
of them and you will see the blessing of being part of missionary
work. Those people who are the product
of missionaries who come from the Americas are very thankful
that God sent a man to preach the gospel to them. And they
are therefore thankful to the churches that are part of supporting
that. And that's one of the bigger
pictures that I want our people to understand. You and I have
to overcome the kind of narcissism and sort of self-centeredness
that American autonomy drapes upon us where we think that it's
all about me, myself, and I. Am I making some sense? Because
Jesus didn't think that way, the apostle didn't think that
way, and your pastor don't think that way. I want you to get that
your pastor don't think that way, which gets me back to the
seed. Here's what I was saying. About seven years ago, we had
a conference at Grace. We generally have one every year.
Slowed it down a little bit over the last couple of years because
I just wasn't compelled to do them so frequently, needing personal
work in our life. But in a conference about seven
years ago, the title of that conference was, I Am Not Ashamed
of the Gospel. Every conference we have themes,
right? And in that conference, I was dealing with my elder.
I had one elder at that time and one deacon who is now an
elder at this church. and we at that time had a couple
hundred people at Grace. We were filling the place with
a couple people. If you guys remember the old
place, we were filling it up. We were doing pretty good. But I
remember having told the Lord, I said, Lord, you know, I'm fine
with a couple hundred brothers and sisters. I mean, you know,
that'll help me you know, take care of my family and, and, and,
you know, a couple hundred, that's, that's, that's manageable, Lord.
You know, a brother don't need too many people. People are problems,
Lord. They are problems. So, you know,
and then we have a thriving radio ministry, Lord, and people support
that. Those are my best members, the ones that live way around
the world, that send the money and say, Pastor, we love everything
you say. And I go, well, that's because you're not living with
me. If you were living with me, it'd be another problem. But
I remember the Lord telling me after that conference, because
that was one of the turning points in our ministry. This was about
19, maybe about 2006 or seven, something like that. And it was
a turning point because what I had discovered was, one of
the messages I actually preached was about Gideon and the Lord
saying, reduce the number from 30,000 down to 300. And it was because he did not
want the Gideonites to glory in the numbers game when it came
to overcoming the Midianites. And that the vast majority of
the people that were there were not ready for war. They just
wanted a paycheck. And that's very often how it
is in the church. People who are enamored by big
numbers utterly missed the point. They utterly missed the point.
And when he windowed it down to Gideon's army, I said to the
Lord, that's what I want, Lord. I want a Gideon's army. Give
me two or give me 300 so that we can do what we need to do.
Understanding all of the infrastructure of ministry, because people that
don't know ministry don't know, they have no idea what it takes.
I said, I'll take two or three hundred, but I need them to be
Gideon's army. Y'all know what I mean by that?
I need them not to be loafers and people that are just hanging
out for a paycheck because that won't get the job done that we
need to get done. And he rebuked me. Does the Lord rebuke you sometimes?
And he says, OK, so you're going to tell me what you need. And I go, oh, That's not right. Well, let me put it like this.
This is what I need, Lord. And he gave me an insight. And he said, you see those people
who actually come to grace and serve at grace and labor at grace
and love grace. Those people are not your fruit. Those people are seeds. So I want you to get this. just
like your family is a seed. Because if they're your fruit,
it stops right there. But if they're seed, they can
grow 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold over the span of that whole life
of ministry. And so I began looking at the
saints at grace as seeds into which I pour myself in prayer
and in teaching, in relationship, so that you become a potential,
a promise, a power for manifold growth to the glory of God. So
that 20 years from now, we can look and see the harvest of God's
labor in the calls of the gospel in each of our families, in each
of us individually, till the day we die. And even when we
die, Others can look at the seed back in 1999 2006 and 7 and in
the year 2030 in 2040 see the fruit of that seed. Am I making
some sense? So I'm talking about seeing multiple
harvests because I'm viewing people as seeds not just the
fruit And God blessed that resolve Far more than I could ever imagine
on so many different levels and right now I'm actually experiencing
some of the multiple harvests that are coming from that particular
vision and that particular paradigm of ministry. Viewing people as
seeds. Viewing people not as finished
products but men and women who have potential, who have power,
who have promise in themselves as children of the living God
who have the capacity to reach others for Christ. Am I making
some sense? Don't you want to be the seed?
Well, we're going to get there in a minute if I don't stop deterring
and digressing. Well, our Lord took this one
woman, the Samaritan woman, and made her a seed and threw her
into the ground. Are the children of God the seed
of the kingdom? Is that the parable? Yes, it
is. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. And our Lord threw this one seed
into the ground. And what did it do? It brought
forth a whole city, a whole city came forth by her words, a whole
city. See, if you have an understanding
of the depths and the magnitude and the scope of the potential
of the gospel, one person with whom God will put you in contact
may be a means for a major unfolding of His glory and the salvation
of sinners. One person. One person, this
is why you have to be about your father's business, because it's
just one person that God needs to use to change the whole trajectory
of what you're doing for him. One person can open the door.
I met on my excursion, here I go doing it again. But see, I had
so many Pauline experiences over this last week, and I know where
they're going for me. See, I ended up having to meet
dignitaries. I'm talking about people that ran the state in
the town. I had no thought of what I was
doing. I actually had gotten in some
trouble. Okay. I didn't intend to get in any
trouble whatsoever, but I got in trouble. Your pastor was in
trouble. Yes, I was and I think it was
either in our prayer service or somewhere where I said, you
know what I said, uh I said most of the lord's servants end up
in prison. Anyway I said just what in the
world are you talking about boy? You just about to go to jail
Right, but he always has a purpose whether you're in jail or anywhere
else And I met some of the highest ranking men in one of the virgin
isles that I was at who actually had common experience with me
here in the States. One of the highest men in immigration
on one of the islands we were on actually spent several years
here in Oakland. How do you do that? How do you
end up with a man from the Bahamas who has everything to do with
whether you actually gonna go home or go to jail? End up living in the Oakland
Bay area liking the Raiders and all kinds of other stuff. When
he pulled us into the office, I'm telling on myself, but you
know, we got into some trouble. I'm just telling you now. And
when he pulled us into the office, I was like, okay, Lord, you know,
I'm getting ready to learn something about apostolic ministry here.
The man looked at me and my wife very seriously, very soberly
for about a minute. And I'm like, here we go. Here
we go. And he said, do you know what,
speaking in this kind of Jamaican broken English, do you know what?
I spent three years in Oakland, California. I loved the place,
man. I went, whoo, whoo. Let me show you a map of it.
Let me show you a map of how there are areas in the Oakland
Bay area that look just like our home here." And he started
getting excited and happy. By the way, I was there and I
loved the rain. And then I'm like, okay, man,
I can hook my wagon to this. But we got to talking and I got
to talking about people he knew and people I knew. And the next
thing I know, we have a red carpet through the whole city. to go
back and forth and back and forth because of some of the highest
powers there. It's just an amazing, amazing, amazing thing that God
does when you are, I guess, in his wheel. Because I'm going
to tell you now, I thought I was way out of the will of God. I mean, way, way out. Y'all would have had some brothers
preaching every week for the unforeknown future because of
the trouble we got into. which turned out to be a key
into one of the islands, I can drop a name and everything changes. Isn't that crazy? Just go ask
brother such and such. Let me just call him brother
Hill. Go tell brother Hill, brother get stand his back. And the door
has to open. You know, great things he had
done. The Lord Jesus Christ had told
his disciples I must be about my father's business. And he
says, don't say yet for months, then come at the harvest. Behold,
I say unto you, lift up your eyes, look on the fields. They
were not physical fields that they were looking upon. They
were over by the Samaritan city, the mountains over which Jacob's
well was. There wasn't a whole bunch of
fields. He was talking about them conceptually recognizing
and viewing the world as a place where the gospel is ready. If
you can believe that. Ready. This is a ready gospel. For they are all white and ready
to harvest. And he says over in verse 8,
38, I sent you to reap whereupon you bestowed no labor. Other
men have labored and you have entered into their labors. And
that's when you get the whole history of the Samaritans of
the city who believed on him for the saying of the woman and
came out. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying, Saints? So now,
let me move to my last point under point number one that I
think is essential to comprehending the beauty and the significance
of Acts chapter 4 and 5. A residue or a remnant. You see
that statement? A residue or a remnant. What
am I saying? I'm saying that what you are
seeing in terms of that Jewish constituency, that group of Jews
that are believing the gospel in the early book of the Acts,
that group is the harvest. They are the remnant. You know what a remnant is? The
remnant is the last, the end, the residue. That's the last. Because the major change and
shift in focus is getting ready to go to the Gentiles. And God
is bringing in before the shift goes to the Gentiles, the last
remnants of the believing Jewish people who are part of the old
system, who will be a bridge from the old system to the new
system. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So they are not only a magnificent reality and impact
of the Abrahamic promise. They're not only the plentiful
harvest that Jesus is indeed talking about, Christ is talking
about this harvest. Remember, the Holy Ghost is sent
to us on the day of what? Pentecost. Pentecost is the promise
of the harvest, right? It's the first fruits of the
harvest. If you got a Pentecost, you've got a harvest coming What
you do with the sheaves are the first fruits as you offer them
to God, thankful that in a little while you're going to have a
what? A harvest. So what you're seeing in the
book of Acts is the potential and the reality of a harvest.
So I want to just talk to you about the concept of residue
and remnant. Go with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 15, where
the apostles are talking about the transition point. I'm just
going to briefly touch on it. and then move on to some other
passages. This is going to give you a bit
of an eschatological framework, but that's okay. What I am saying
is this, that the early chapters of the Acts, chapters one through
primarily chapter eight and nine, focus and center on the ministry
of the Jewish apostles, primarily Peter, John, and James, right?
With Peter at the head of it. It was unto Peter that the keys
of the kingdom were given. And upon this rock will I build
my church. Therefore, your name is called
Peter because you become a pebble on the big rock and you will
be given the keys to the kingdom. And the key is the authoritative
proclamation of the gospel, which, as you and I have learned, opens
the doors for sinners to come out of bondage into the liberty
which is in Christ, right? And it shuts the doors, as we're
going to see in chapter five, some folks getting shut out.
But Peter will be the central figure up until chapters eight
through 11, when the shift, chapters nine through 11, when the shift
will go to Paul. Peter will begin to wane, Paul
will begin to take off, and the ministry in a geographical sense
will move now towards the Gentiles. That's because the remnant will
have been brought in. Are you guys following me? And
I just want you to see that concept, the remnant of the Jews. So in
Acts chapter 15, the disciples, the apostles are struggling over
Paul's ministry. And then James rises up in chapter
15, verse 13, and says this. And after they had held their
peace, James answered, said, men and brethren, listen to me.
This is James the pious. Simeon hath declared, that is Samuel, hath declared how that
God at the first did visit, this is, Gentiles to take out of them
a people for his name and to this agree the words of the prophet
as it is written Simon I mean the word Simon simian assignment
for Peter as it is written listen to what it says This agrees with
the prophet as it is written after this Will I return and
build again the tabernacle of David you see that line? After
this will I return and build the tabernacle of David. This
is an Old Testament prophecy Now the tabernacle of David is
actually a synonym for the church of God being established by Christ.
This is not the physical tabernacle or physical house of David with
the exception of the fact that Jesus came through the tribe
of what? Now watch this, which has fallen
down and I will build again the ruins thereof and I will set
it up. Is Jesus the son of David? Is Jesus sitting on the throne
of David right now? Is Jesus building up the Jewish
people through the gospel in this context? Now watch what
it says. And I will build again the ruins
thereof and I will set it up in order that the what? Residue
of men might seek after the Lord. Point number one, who is the
residue that I've been talking about? The Jewish people and
all the Gentiles. Upon whom my name is called,
saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God
are all his works from the beginning of the world. Here's what I'm
saying. The Jewish people, the Jewish leaders, the apostles
now, taking Simon's testimony, understands the prophetic fulfillment
of bringing in that nucleus of the Jewish people First and then
the gospel starting to go to the home Gentiles because who's
at this meeting? It's the apostle Paul and Barnabas
and the rest Claiming the fact that God was with them in the
preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. So what is James doing? James is going all the prophecy
is this An elect number of the Jews will be brought in and then
the gospel will then go to the Gentiles Thus we will have the
twain becoming one new man. So making peace Are y'all hearing
what I'm saying? So may see James was able to
put it together ladies and gentlemen This is important because the
Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were struggling with the fact that
they didn't have complete control over the gospel They were struggling
with the fact that one of their greatest leaders, the apostle
Paul, who was prior to that, the Pharisee Saul, had spent
most of his time ministering to the Gentiles. They were struggling
with the fact that the Gentiles were walking in absolute gospel
liberty, meaning they were not being circumcised, they were
not strapped under a law system, they were not made to do anything
but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I bet you there was a
little jealousy going on because everywhere Paul went Gentiles
was getting saved and jumping in the boat let alone waiting
for the net fish were jumping in the boat jumping in the boat
and the next thing you know he got churches here and churches
there and churches everywhere because the Jewish church was
slowing down because we were already receiving our remnant
are you hearing me see because That slowing down of the remnant,
which was the work of God, was in order for the gospel to spread
out to the Gentiles. And because the Gentiles would
so profusely embrace the gospel, God's going to use that to provoke
the Jews in order for the elect among the Jews to be brought
in through the love of the Gentiles for Christ. The Jewish leaders,
the apostolic leaders who are Jewish, have to struggle with
that kind of providence on God's part. And what James is saying
is we can't stop this. This is God's business. God started
with the Jews. This is why Jesus said to the
disciples, do not go in the way of the Gentiles only to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Stay at Jerusalem. Are you guys
hearing me now? Preach it at Jerusalem until
all of the elect in Jerusalem hear the gospel. Then go to Judea. This is where we are. Then go
to Samaria. Then go to the other most parts
of the world. Well, by the time we get to chapter 15, we're out
there. And the ministers who are primarily
being used are not the disciples who are in Jerusalem. It's Paul
and a bunch of Gentile and Jewish men like Titus and others whom
God is gonna use to bring in the Gentile churches. So I'm
getting back to the point of the remnant. That's the word
residue in our text. Verse 17, that the residue of
men might seek after the Lord. and all the Gentiles. Those are
two different categories. You guys got that? This is not
a Hebrew idiom or what we call parallelism. The residue of men,
he's talking about Jewish people and all the Gentiles. Now I want
to stay on that word residue, which is the same term remnant.
And I want you to go with me in your Bible to Matthew's chapter,
not Matthew's, but Romans chapter nine, verse 27. Let me show you
the principle as Paul knows it in Romans chapter nine, 27, he's
going to, make this point of which the Old Testament makes
several times about Israel. Of course, Romans chapter nine
is a non-negotiable territory for people who believe in salvation
by works. In Romans chapter nine is a problematic
portion of scripture for people who deny the glorious doctrine
of God's electing love. You might as well accept that.
People hate election because they don't understand that God
has a right to save whom he wants to save and leave others to perish
in their sin if they want to perish. And that when people
are saved, it's not merely that they're saved because of what
they want, they're saved because of what God wants. Please understand
this, you and I are no different than any other human being that
will die and go to hell. It wasn't that I was smarter
than the next man, or that my heart was more pure than the
next man, or that I was wiser to choose God than the next man.
The fact that the man on the side of me said, I don't want
God and went to hell, and I did say I wanted God and went to
heaven, it was not because there was anything different between
me and him, but the grace of God, which turned my heart and
made me see Christ for all that he was. Had God left me like
him, we'd have both went to hell. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? See, the faulty premise and assumption that men have
a freedom of will and therefore one wisely chooses God and the
other just stupidly doesn't is a non-biblical concept and a
non-sequitur. It's only by grace that you see
the glory of God. It's only by grace that your
heart says yes to Jesus. And where grace is absent, the
natural thing that we do is rebel against God and we go to hell
with our fist in God's face. Are you hearing me? So hell is
filled with people who want to go there. There's no one going
to heaven or going to hell that doesn't want to go. Please understand
my point. See, because what we have, and
this is another sort of aside are faulty arguments against
the glorious doctrine of election on the part of people who don't
want to tell the truth about the nature of man. See, the Bible is clear in Romans
chapter 3 verse 9, Psalm 14, Psalm 53, Jeremiah chapter 17
verse 5, John chapter 4 and 5. The heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked above anything. And there's none righteous, no,
not one, none that seeks after God on his own. There's none
that seeketh God. Is that true? We call that an
absolute. You know what an absolute is?
That means that there are no exceptions to that rule. All
of us by nature run from God as fast as we can. Our mama Adam
and daddy Eve did it, and we would do it too. If God didn't
come hunt them down, they'd have still been running. Fig leaves
drived up, butt out and everything. Still running from God. But did
God come and get Adam and Eve? He came and got him, didn't he?
And didn't he clothe their butts with coats of skin? And didn't
he tell them this will work better than fig leaves? He clothed them
in the righteousness of Christ because of the shed blood of
Christ. And he said, now we can walk together since you are clothed
in the righteousness of my son. But God had to come get us. We
didn't come to God. God came to us. I simply say
that so when you read Romans 9, you don't have to get the
heebie-jeebies and shakes and go through withdrawals and help
somebody, you know, discombobulate the text. The text is clear. The Lord will have mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and he will harden whom he will harden. Now,
if you have a problem with God, when you meet him, take it up
with him. But I would suggest you work your problem out before
you meet God. So now here's what the text says
in Romans chapter nine, and I'm gonna start at verse 22 so I
can get a context for verse 27 to show you that the remnant
of God's elect in Israel being saved is nothing but the pure
mercy of God. That's why I'm excited about
the way the book of Acts is opening up with such a magnitude of Jewish
people coming to God under the ministry of men who were formerly
hated by them. Verse 22, what if God willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with
much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels
of mercy which he had afford prepared to his glory. Watch
this, even us, who is the us? Vessels of mercy, right? Whom
he has called not of the Jews only, but also of the whom. So
you see the context is Jewish Gentile vessels of mercy whom
God has called, right? Look at the next verse. And also
he said in the book of Hosea, that's what Ozi means. I will
call them my people, which were not my people. Of whom is he
talking? The Gentiles. The antecedent
to this verse is the Gentiles, right? And her beloved, which
was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, you are not my people.
There they shall be called, what? The children of the living God.
Now watch this, Isaiah also cried concerning whom? See, so you
see what he's doing? He's building this argument based
upon two prophetic texts, which gives the intentionality of God
to save the Gentiles. Now, let me say something while
we are looking at this. This is something that must be
taught in the principles of biblical hermeneutics. If you don't follow
this rule, you will actually militate against the way in which
God use the apostle Paul to interpret scripture. If you use a literal
grammatical historical rule of biblical interpretation, failing
to understand a redemptive and crystal centric aim, You take
a literal historical grammatical rule of interpretation and you
go back to the book of Hosea where this text is referred to
and try to read that text without New Testament eyes. The text
contextually is referring to Judah and Israel. There is nowhere in those opening
verses of chapters one and two where it is talking about the
Gentiles. It's talking about God's chastening of Judah and
Israel because they are acting like a whore. It's not talking
about the bringing in of the Gentiles in the context. Now, follow this. It's gonna
be a good rule. Now, I want you to watch this. So, if you separate the
New Testament and try to interpret the Old Testament by merely the
Old Testament, you cannot see either a Christocentric or a
church prophetic interpretation in that passage. Why? Because
you are not ready to interpret that passage in its final prophetic
aim until you read the New Testament. Which means the Holy Ghost has
the right to take an Old Testament passage that contextually, chronologically
speaks to the issues concerning Israel exclusively and make their
application to the Gentiles in the New Testament, since in God's
eyes Israel is an ideal, not merely an ethnic group. Are you
guys hearing me? So the apostle Paul saw many
times in the Old Testament passages a call to the Gentiles of which
when you go back to the text, you will not see it in the context.
And this is what I call in the rule of hermeneutics, a fallacy
that is called hyper contextual interpretation, hyper contextual
interpretation. You know what that means? When
you get wrapped up so much in the context, that you miss the
larger context of the whole scheme of scripture, confining your
interpretation merely to the context. Hyper-contextualizing
will cause you to miss the gospel. Now that's free. Generally, you
pay for that in theology class. But it's important for you to
know this, you don't have the final interpretation of any passage
of scripture until you've read all scripture. Am I making some
sense, Saints? Give me a few more minutes of
your time and understand what we are dealing with here in Romans
9. In Romans 9, Paul is giving the intentionality of God for
both the Jews and the Gentiles. because they are both now objects
of mercy through the grace of God being chosen in Christ before
the world began. Verse 25, again, in Hosea, I
will call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved,
which was not my beloved. And it shall come to pass in
the place where it was said unto them, you are not my people.
There they should be called the children of the living God. Verse
27, Isaiah also cried concerning who? Israel. Now the topic changes
from the Gentiles to the Jews. Though the number of the children
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. See my point? Watch this, I want
you to see this. He's saying don't get caught
up in all the numbers. This is what I was saying at
the beginning of the study. Don't be impressed by 40,000, 50,000
in attendance. Only a remnant is gonna be saved. Did you hear that? And so what
the apostle Paul is saying to the Jewish Christians in Rome
is this. You do not see a whole lot of
Jewish people coming to Christ. By the time the epistle to the
Romans is written, we have already forged a dichotomy between Jews
and Gentiles. And the Jews are pitting against
the Gentiles and the Gentiles are somewhat now pitting against
the Jews, pushing back. You know, you keep pushing people,
they gonna push you back, right? This is why we do not believe
in an ethnocentric interpretation here. We do not give way to ethnocentricity. That is, we do not exalt one
ethnic race over another ethnic race. Get over it. God's people
are made up of many different colors. That's that cool jacket
that Joseph was wearing. That brother was cool with his
jacket, right? cool with his mama made a cool. What in the world is Joseph wearing
a jacket like that? Cause it represents God's elect.
It looks a little funny, but God's elect are funny people
too. Everybody was wearing these bland
colors looking like deer and bullock. All you had was a little
black, a little beige. Joseph was flying all over the
place. Pink, red, green, blue, orange,
burgundy, magenta. And the point was that the jacket
was uniquely made for him to specify his calling. He became
the head. by which the people of God were
brought into the blessings of the gospel. He was a great type
of whom? Jesus Christ. If I be lifted up, I will draw
all nations of men unto me. Isn't that what he said? See,
our Lord is into colors. I'm just here to tell you now
he's into colors. He'll start with white, but he's
going to be finishing with a multitude of colors. He'll start with black,
but he's going to finish with a multitude of colors because
he's into color schemes. You might as well get used to
it. Listen to what it goes on to say. A remnant shall be saved. He believed in a remnant. Go
to Romans chapter 11, and I want to quote it again in verse 5,
and I want to share with you one more verse in Revelation
chapter 12, and then we'll probably close for tonight, and I will
have did what I told you I wouldn't do. I wouldn't get to point number
two. We'll pick that up next week.
He says the same thing in Romans chapter 11, by the way, with
regards to helping the Gentiles understand that God will always
have an election out of the people of Israel, okay? Remember, election
is not the election of a whole, it's the election of a part out
of the whole. Don't ever buy into the notion that God is saving
whole nations. He saves out of nations. You got that? Very important
for you to know. Verse one, I say then, hath God
cast away his people? God forbid. I also am an Israelite. Now who's speaking here? Paul.
Was he an Israelite? Had God cast him away? Had God
called him by his grace? Had God saved him? Had God used
him? So Paul is using himself as an
argument for the present efficacy of the gospel in the life of
the Jewish people. Now watch what he says. For I
am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin.
He loved to boast in that to his Jewish brethren. to let them
know God is actually saving Jews as well as Gentiles. But he's
saving Gentiles in a larger preponderance than he is Jews. Because remember
the Jews were first. Is that true? Were the Jews first? And the Gentiles were what? Last. And remember what Christ said?
The first shall be last and the last shall be first. That's the
way God thinks. And that's the way he acts. We're
dealing with two dispensations. Old and what? This new dispensation
is the last dispensation. So the Jews were part of the
first dispensation wherein the preponderance of people that
were saved were Jewish. And then there were remnants
of Gentiles saved in that, right? Ruth the Moabitess, Moses' wife,
and Joseph's wife, and Rahab the harlot, and sister Tamar,
bunch of other sisters snuck in there. They snuck in there,
did they sneak in there? Jesus was quite dark, I'm telling
you now. He had some stuff going on in
there. Just in case y'all wanna think
that we had a pure lily Jewish line. Sorry, read the gospel
of Matthew. That coat of many colors was
flying from one generation to the next. Listen, when a brother
falls in love with a woman, he can't help what she look like.
Am I telling the truth? Ruth slid up under the garment
of Boaz, down at his feet. That brother heard a ruffling
of the covers in the middle of the night. He said, who goes
there? Who are thou? You know what she
said? Ruth, your handmaid, about to
be your wife. At the instructions of the Jewish
woman, who was a type of the Old Testament, telling the New
Testament church how to get her man Boaz, who was a type of Jesus
Christ. You got that? See, that's why
you got to have the old and the new. They see the old got all
of the skillsets to give to the new so that the new can get ahold
of Christ. She got him, didn't she? It was
kind of precarious, wasn't it? That ain't the way you teach
your girls how to get a man, no, no, no. Naomi knew how to work it, did
you? She said stay on the far end because you're a virtuous
woman. But that's right, isn't it? You're
a virtuous woman. But you're going to do this thing
at a time in which it's just you and Boaz. So this is just
you and Boaz. This is not about you, Boaz,
the other women, the other laborers. Closing with Christ is between
you and Christ. and it carries all the intimacy
of two people in love. And when there's an actual conversion,
it corresponds to the conjugal relationship between the spirit
of God and the soul who is brought into union with the father by
the spirit. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is why we love the romantic connotations of scripture because
it speaks to the profundity of the intimacy between the men
and women. There's nothing here that is
salacious or wrong or vile at all. I'm simply speaking to you
about the manner in which God was working in the Old Testament.
So here's what Paul says, God has not cast away his people,
which he foreknew. That means his elect. What? Do
you not know the scripture saying in Elias how that he makes intercession
to God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets,
dig down your altars and I am left alone and they seek my life.
But what was the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to
myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of
Baal. Do you see election here? 7,000 elect men out of the rest
of the apostates. God always protects his elect
in the midst of the apostate church. He was telling Elijah, Elijah,
I got this. You can calm down, brother. It
looks bad. But God can see through the goats
Because he has a mark on his sheep Do you understand that? Even so then at this present
time Also, there is a what? I want you to hear that for those
who believe in premillennial dispensational eschatology and
try to use these passages Paul said at this present time there
is an election He didn't say in the future there would be
an election. He said at this present time. What he was teaching
is what we teach in terms of eschatology. All throughout the
New Testament period, God has always had an election in Israel.
You go to Israel right now, there are believing Christians in Israel.
They have always been there. They aren't going anywhere. He
will always have a remnant. He's just not saving the whole
nation. Get that out of your head. There's nowhere in the
scriptures where he's gonna save the whole nation. It's just not
gonna happen. But he will have an elect out
of them. And they are called a what? Remnant. Remember remnant is taken out
of. You can't call a whole fabric
a remnant. You can't call a whole bushel
a remnant. You can't call a whole product
a remnant. You can only call a part of the
product a remnant. Go with me now in your Bible
to Revelation chapter 12. I think I got your attention now. Revelation
12, I'm gonna close here. And then we'll take up our study
next week. In Revelation chapter 12, you guys remember where we
were dealing with the two witnesses of Revelation 11 being killed
by the beast. And they were killed in Jerusalem,
right? where our Lord was crucified.
Isn't that what verse eight says? And their dead bodies lie in
the street of the great city, which is called spiritually Sodom
and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified. Where was our Lord
crucified? Where were these witnesses crucified?
This is a Jerusalem context. Remember the temple is the framework
of chapter 11. So the spirit of God is still
showing us how that the major enemy is gonna always be false
religion. and false religion in that system
that appears to be true. The same place where they killed
Christ, they killed the apostles, where they killed the prophets.
Remember what Jesus says? A prophet is never honored in
Jerusalem. They always killed the prophets
in Jerusalem. And I want you to see that, it's
very important. They rose again, didn't they? And the remnant,
the remnant gave glory to God. Do you remember that? Verse 13. And the same hour was there a
great what? Are we reading about an earthquake in Acts chapter
four and five? He prayed there was an earthquake
and they were given boldness by the spirit of God to preach
the gospel everywhere. Watch this. And they heard the
voice from heaven saying, come up hither. And they ascended
up into a cloud and their enemies beheld them. The enemies beheld
the triumph of God's people even though they were persecuted.
In the same hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth part of
the city fell and in the earthquake were slain. How many men? And
see these are symbolic numbers ladies and gentlemen. Remember
the book of Revelation is a coded symbolic book speaking of principal
things. 7,000 did not bow the knee in
Romans chapter 11, 7,000 here are killed. If I were to go through
the book of Revelation, I would show you these clean patterns
of symbolic numbers where God is teaching how that when the
enemy works to harm the church, he repays his people by restoring
them equal to and more so than what the enemy did to them. But
you have to learn those principles. Again, listen to what it says.
And the remnant were afraid. And they did what? Gave glory
to the God of heaven. Who are the remnant here? The
Jewish people that were being used to kill those who were preaching
the gospel. Oh, your eyes are open now. So now follow this. So first
you are an enemy of God and you hate the two witnesses because
they tormented you with the truth of the gospel. making Jesus Christ
exclusive and salvation by faith alone through grace alone in
Christ alone apart from works instead of a work salvation for
which you would kill them if you could, because they have
stripped you of any boasting and you tried to kill them, but
they rose again. This is what you're going to
see all the way through the book of Acts. They throw him in prison the
next day. They out preaching in the temple
again. How did that happen? No resurrection. Did you hear
that? The guards come to the leaders
and say, Hey, we thought we had locked them up. Where they at? They back out in the court preaching
again, the resurrection. What you're reading in the book
of revelation is a glorified heavenly perspective of an earthly
work that's being done by the spirit of God. Are you hearing
me now? It's important for you to hear
this. Remember the prayer, our father who art in heaven, hallowed
be your name. What? Stay there. No, stay there for
a second. But we love to just quote these,
you know, like, you know, stop for a minute. Think about this. If God's kingdom come, heaven
will be operating right here. Are you hearing me? And the reality
of those things that are taking place in the heavenlies that
we do not see will materialize in the earth. That's why I'm
tying them together. And I'm not even using the passage
that I want to. I'm just backing up to give you a context, help
you understand that chapter 11 is inexorably tied to chapter
12. It's two different visions giving us the same thematic principles. Preach Christ, you suffer for
him. But if you suffer with Christ, you shall also what? Reign with
him. See the principle? Revelation
chapter 12. This is concerning the woman. Verse 14. And to the woman were
given two wings of a great eagle. Who is this woman, you guys?
Who is this woman? The church. The church. You believe that? That's who
the woman is. Let me just spend a little time
making sure you get this just in case you don't. Chapter 12,
verse 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven. A what? Clothed
with the what? Who is the sun? And the moon
under her feet? What does the moon typify? The
law of God. Am I boring you? Can I keep going
for a minute? Who here is sleepy ready to go
home? Pray for yourself. So I'm going to say this for
those of you who have never heard this kind of crystal centric biblical
exegesis. I'm going to say it because I
have to in this present generation. I never teach anything that has
not already been taught by faithful men hundreds and hundreds, even
thousands of years ago. I don't just grab interpretations
ad hoc out of the air. I never have done that. Years
ago, God taught me what I shared with you in John chapter four.
Other men have labored and we have entered into their labors.
The Spirit of God works from generation to generation giving
us scholars to soundly exegete the scriptures. They write it
down and it's preserved by the Holy Ghost and those of us who
become present generation scholars read what they read, read the
scriptures, see harmony and unity and thus the truth is preserved.
You can go back upon anything I teach you and labor hard enough
and you will find a continuity of witnesses affirming what I
teach. The reason why it's rare is because we are in such an
apostate time today that men are not teaching sound doctrine
comprehensively enough for you to have a clear, cogent, crystal-centric
interpretation of scripture. Are you guys hearing me? I'm
just letting you know, this pastor is not some guru. I've been teaching
a long time. Some of my brothers and sisters
have been with me for almost 30 years now. They know that
we have taught these things. Brother Keith, he goes to another
Baptist church down the road. We've been preaching this for
a long time, haven't we, Keith? Long time. Long. Keith is one
of the elders there. He's a preacher too. Long time.
We've been, we're not saying anything new. Some of you have
been with us for 15 years. You know, we've been staying
on point. Deeper revelation, broader application, same truth. So stay with me for a minute.
I'm going to send you home. In Revelation chapter 12 verse 1,
the sun she's clothed in because she possesses a heavenly authority
over this sphere and rim in which you and I live. We live in a
solar system which encompasses our earth, the moon, and the
sun. The sun is that central light
that gives life to everything in this solar system. that the
woman is clothed with the son means she possesses the divine
nature of Jesus Christ to whom she is married. It is initially
the true elect in Israel who is the mother of our Lord by
whom he was brought into the world. Right? Watch this now. But the moon always represents
in the scriptures the law of God. Pastor, what are you saying? New moons and feast days and
Sabbaths was the cycle that God set up under the old Jewish system
to lead us to Christ. New moons and feast days were
time cycles. The Old Testament chronological
system was a 30 day month system of moons. Are you hearing me? Sabbath days are cycled by the
moon. As soon as you see the crescent
of the moon in the evening, that's when your Sabbath started. Soon
as you see the crescent of the sun in the morning, that's when
your Sabbath ended. They were inexorably locked into
a chronological pattern for one reason only. A seed was coming. Who was that seed? And when Christ
came, he put an end to new moons and feast days and Sabbath days
and law keeping, didn't he? Colossians chapter two. We no
longer observe those things because they were a shadow of good things
to come. The substance of them was whom? Christ. Colossians
chapter two. That's why religious folk better
get off of this new, these feast days and cycles and things like
that as if they carried some efficacy. So she's her, the moon is under
her feet, meaning she has authority over the law of God because of
its fulfillment in Christ. It no longer binds her and controls
her and leads her. She walks in authority over it
because the time has come for Messiah to come into the world.
of which the next verse speaks. And she being, I'm sorry, back
up. And upon her head, a crown of
what? Which means she's royalty. You are looking at a queen, a
queen mother. Who are these 12 stars? The 12
tribes. Do you see it? Now watch this,
and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, pain to
be delivered. What are we talking about here?
The incarnation of Jesus Christ. Is that right? And there appeared
another wonder in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon having
seven horns, ten heads, seven crowns upon his head. And who
is this? The devil. And his tail drew
the third part of the stars of heaven, cast him to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman, Which was ready to be
delivered for the devour her child as soon as it be born What
do we have here opposition of the devil against christ at his
birth? Did he have problems at his birth?
Didn't herod who is one of these tales? Want to kill the man child And she brought forth a man child
who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron And her child was
called up to god and to his throne. What are we talking about here
the resurrection? So what does Revelation do? It bypasses the
trouble Christ went through in his life and his crucifixion
and only shows the triumph. From his birth to the triumph.
From his incarnation to his exaltation. We know what happened in between.
We have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, don't we? Am I boring
you? Stay with me. I'm almost to my
point, but I want to drive this home. What I am saying is your
Bible is saying nothing more than Jesus Christ and him crucified,
dead, buried, risen, and ruling over everything. How serious
was the devil against that man child? He wanted to kill him.
Now look at verse six, and the woman fled into the wilderness.
What was that? That was the scattering of the
New Testament church from Jerusalem. So the church is getting ready
to be scattered, is it not? By the time you get to chapter
8 and they were scattered everywhere. Scattered everywhere. What are
they doing when they get scattered? Preaching the gospel. Preaching
the gospel. Can't wait till I get to chapter
8. Scattered. But it's called a wilderness.
Why? Because we are no longer in Jerusalem. We are in the world. What's in the world? The church
is. Well, but see now, Jerusalem
really is being called Egypt. So we are on another Neo excursion
through the wilderness to head to the ultimate celestial Canaan. Am I making some sense, ladies
and gentlemen? Are we in the wilderness? Is the church in
the wilderness? And what does God give us that he gave Israel
back in 1500 BC? Two wings of a great eagle. Isn't
that what he did in chapter 9 of Genesis, Exodus, where he gave
her two wings of a great eagle and brought her to himself? I
brought you out on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. He's
using the same language here, is he not? Because isn't the
Old Testament Church and the New Testament Church the Israel
of God? Are they not to use the same terminology and paradigms
to affirm our being gods as he did with them? Now notice what
he says. And the woman fled where she
had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there. How
long? 1,203 score days. This is the
same length of time in which the two witnesses were prophesying.
They were prophesying for 42 months. They were prophesying
for 1,203 score days. Theirs was a time, a time and
a half a time. The text says it was 42 months
in verse two. Those are all the same time span. Look at what
it says. And there was war in heaven and
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon
fought and his angels and prevailed. Not neither was their place found
anymore in heaven. Where's the battle at now? Down
here. And the great dragon was cast
out that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceived
the whole world. He was cast into the earth and his angels
were cast out with him. Isn't that what Jesus said in
Luke chapter 10? I see Satan falling down from heaven as lightning.
When was that happening? When the gospel was being preached.
What Jesus was saying to his disciples, you don't know this,
but the only reason those people are listening to you is because
I've already defeated the devil even before I went to the cross.
Are you guys hearing me? Y'all gonna sleep good tonight.
Y'all don't have to go to work tomorrow. I'm almost to my point. Forgive me for being too long.
We should have been gone. And I heard a loud voice saying
in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom
of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our
brethren is what? Which accused him before our
God. How long? Does the devil go into the presence of God to
accuse you before God now? No. He's cast out. My goodness. See, y'all got, I'm gonna have
to stop now. How many of you have heard me
teach on this text? Okay, good, 35% of you. When you say that the devil has
access into the courtroom of God to accuse God's elect of
anything, you have failed to understand the judicial nature
of the cross. What on earth did Christ die
for if not to satisfy divine justice, to propitiate for your
sins, to put away all your sins and justify you completely in
the presence of God. So that the courtroom is closed
on God's elect. God's hearing no more cases against
his elect. The devil's license to prosecute
God's elect has been debunked and the only people he can manipulate
are ignorant Christians and carnal men down here. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. It's God that justifies. Are
you hearing me? Why on earth would God now, after
the death of Christ, after his resurrection, hear any accusations
of the devil against his elect. Are you hearing me? Are you here? Who didn't hear this before in
their life? Tell it true. Just be telling truth. You're
going to be saying who never heard it like this before. Get
it right. Get it right. Get it right. The
devil doesn't talk to God. He doesn't argue with God. He
doesn't. He did it with Joe because that was old Testament. Christ
hadn't come yet. He got kicked out of heaven.
That's the third heaven. That's the throne room of God.
That's his citadel. That's where God executes and
adjudicate all authority. Listen to me. When Christ died,
when he rose again, your case was closed. The slate was wiped
out. Plus God instituted his righteousness. So before God, you are perfectly
righteous forever. See, see when the devil come
knocking on the courtroom, a sign pops up. Case closed. Case closed. Case closed. Watch this. It is
God that justifies. It is God that justifies. Well, who does the devil then
accuse you to? Other Christians. People down
here. Unbelievers. and even your own
conscious when you don't understand the totality of the work of Christ
and putting away all your sins by the sacrifice of himself.
But when once you understand your full and free and permanent
and eternal justification, you may struggle with the devil down
here, but you never have to struggle with him up there. He has no
case against you in heaven. None. None. But I'm almost done. He's gonna give you a run for
your money down here. Verse 11 affirms my point. And they overcame
him by the what? Isn't that the reason we preach
the gospel? And how do we overcome him? By the blood that paid the
debt. Remember what we learned about
the blood? The blood sanctifies. The blood justifies. The blood
purges, the blood cleanses, the blood washes, the blood perfects. Are you hearing me? They overcame
him by the blood. Like some of you, you got him
now. You got him now by this doctrine. You got him now. You
are never concerned about God hearing from the devil again.
Now you and I got to work on girding up the loins of our mind.
We got to learn how to put up, put on the whole armor of God.
We got to put on that helmet of salvation, take up the sword
of the spirit and go to war with the adversary ourselves and tell
him he's a liar. Is that true? He's a liar. You didn't talk
to my God. The courtroom been closed for
2000 years. Now, there's no way you can bring
up one legitimate, successful case against, against me before
God. If you can get one case in Christ
was a failure. If you seek me, let these go. If you seek me, let these go. Who do you see? Jesus of Nazareth.
Okay. Let these go. Whomsoever the
Son shall set free shall be free indeed. He that heareth my words
and believes on him that sent me hath everlasting life and
shall never come into judgment, but has passed from death to
life. See, this is a reason to jump
up and shout right here. If you don't already know. See
you, child of God, you have to know you're good to go. Are you
hearing me? You're good to go. God has your
back. But you have to put on your helmet
and fight the accusations that come to you from your enemies
and from your own conscience. But they're not coming from a
devil with papers from God. Therefore rejoice ye heavens
and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the
earth and the sea for the devil has come down unto you having
great wrath because he knows he has a short time. He's a condemned
being. So he has wrath against the church.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he
persecuted the woman. See what I'm saying, saints?
Which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two
wings of a great eagle that she might fly into her place where
she is nourished for a time a time from the presence of the serpent.
For a time, a times and a half a time from the face of the serpent.
Verse 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth waters as of
a what? What did Isaiah say? Well, the
enemy does what? When the enemy spreads a flood,
brings a flood, then the Spirit of God lifts up an ensign, a
standard. Well, the floods are coming,
aren't they? The floods are coming and the flood is here. Waters
out of his mouth as a flood after the woman that he might cause
her to be what? of the flood. What does that mean? To apostatize,
to leave her course, to be knocked off the course. That's how the
enemy gets you and me. You know, you're going along
just fine. Then all hell breaks loose. I'm so glad I got an anchor
to my soul. Jesus Christ, the righteous,
so that I get knocked over, but I don't get knocked off the boat.
I get knocked down on the boat, but I don't get knocked off the
boat. I might even get knocked over into the water for a little
while, but then the Holy Ghost tolls me back in because I have
an anchor to the soul. Don't you? Here it is. And the earth opened and the
earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed
up the what was the dragon cast out of his mouth. See how God
helps. You know how he helps. He allows
earthly men and earthly systems to actually absorb the assailments
of the devil against you. The earth is what Jesus said,
all unsaved and false religious folks are. He that is of the
earth is earthy. You and I dwell in heavenly places
in Christ. That's why he said, rejoice ye
heavens and ye that dwell in them. I want you to see this,
I'm done. Verse 17, and the dragon was
wrought with the woman and went to make war with the remnant
of her what? Do you see it? And the dragon
was raw and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.
So I'm done here. That text is describing where
we are right now in the book of Acts. Are you hearing me? Remember what I said, the Jewish
people that will be saved are the what? The remnant. The devil
is going to come after that because God is using his witnesses to
preach the gospel by which they come in. Are you seeing it? But
the earth is going to open up his mouth and swallow the floods.
And what that means is false religion will absorb all of the
attacks of the enemy against God's elect. But he always goes
after true believers because all that live godly in Christ
Jesus will suffer persecution. Now the seed is Christ. The remnant
are God's elect, both of the Jewish people and all who are
part of these end times. You guys got that? You and I
are part of the remnant of the whole of God's church as part
of these end time activities. Man, I'm gonna have to pray to
God, wake you up, because I'm looking at people sleep on me
right now. Father, we thank you for this time and I give my brothers
and sisters grace who hung out one hour longer than they wanted
to. Give them the ability to drive home safely, watch over
them, preserve them, keep them and give them a supernatural
sleep tonight so that they wake up tomorrow utterly revitalized
and ready to serve you. We thank you for giving us ears
to hear. We thank you for the grace that's
in Christ. We pray all these things in Jesus
name, amen. God bless you, God bless you,
God bless you, God bless you.