So I'm going to read in Acts
chapter 4 verses 1 through 12, and then we're going to follow
our outline that you have, your new one. We will be taking up
verses 25 and 6 of our previous chapter. As I will remind you
that in many of your books, they are letters, and therefore, chapter
and verses were additions that were uninspired, and therefore,
do not necessarily follow the logical flow of the sentence
structure, of the syntax. And so in some cases, it's just
a continuous conversation, as we will see today. But the fourth
chapter of the Book of Acts opens this way. And as they spake unto
the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the
Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they had taught
the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the
dead. They laid hands on them and put
them in hold until the next day for it was now eventide. How
be it? Many of them which had heard
the word believed and the number of the men was about 5,000. And
it came to pass on tomorrow that their rulers and elders and scribes
and Ananias the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander,
and as many as were of the kindred of the high priests, were gathered
together in Jerusalem. And when they had set them in
the midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have you
done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto them, you rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done unto the impotent
man, by what means he is made whole, Be it known unto you all,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone which was set at nought of the builders, which has become
the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other for there is none other name given under heaven among
men whereby we must be saved. We will stop right there. That's
a critical turning point for the apostles. It's a critical
turning point for the church that's taking place in this text.
As we were working through our previous, our opening examination
of the book of Acts, we would be at that portion of the book
of Acts where I spoke about anticipating conflict for the preaching of
the gospel. This is the first point of conflict
that would be made manifest in the ministry of the gospel. The
Apostle Peter is here speaking, John is with him, and they are
both doing what they've been called to do, and in the midst
of their preaching, they are now confronted by the rulers.
This will be the first major time where they are confronted
by the rulers. And from this point on, ladies
and gentlemen, the apostles will suffer persecution for the gospel
sake. This will be the constant theme
running through the book of Acts. The preaching of the gospel met
with opposition, resulting in suffering, but also resulting
in salvation. The preaching of the gospel met
with opposition, resulting in suffering, but also resulting
in salvation. So if you pull up our first PowerPoint,
let's go to work on our last observation in chapter 3, verse
25 and 26. The promise of Abraham through
Christ to Israel is the way we close last week. And as I stated
in the opening monologue, the brief monologue I gave, We have
a running commentary here. There's no new thought taking
place in chapter 4 verse 1. That's why it opens up with the
word and and is a conjunction. You never start a sentence with
and at least not a new thought. So this is a continual thought
taking place and what's occurring for which the rulers have now
come upon Peter and John they are preaching and in their proclamation. They have now just uttered a
blessing. they have just declared a blessing. And you and I want to now answer
the question, or ask it first, and then answer the question,
what is the blessing? What is this blessing that they're
talking about? Because as I said to you last week, this is one
of those key verses in the Bible of which has been taken very literally and use that sort of
a political tool by our government and in Western countries that
Western nations that have an affinity with the nation of Israel
and we have often been told that Genesis chapter 12 verse 3 and
4 particularly Genesis chapter 12 verse 3 is a promise to any
nation that would bless Abraham that God would bless that nation
But I would ask you, what kind of blessing is God saying that
he would bless those that would bless Abraham? What kind of blessing? Would it be political power?
Would it be financial wealth? Would it be earthly resources? Would it be some type of unusual
influence over cultures and people groups? Would the fact that you
would have an affinity with Abraham be some cause for an automatic
blessing with those who might be Abraham's adversaries. In other words, is really Genesis
chapter 12 verse 3 some kind of national promise given to
people by which they can prosper in the flesh? And I would assert
to you that that answer is no. And here's what Peter said in
verse 25 and 26 of chapter 3, of which we're going to take
the time to unpack it. He's speaking to the children of Israel, his
own native people. You are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant. We're going to get back to that
in a moment, which got me with our fathers saying unto whom
Abraham in thy seed shall be, shall all the kindreds of the
earth be blessed. And have we not already identified that seed
as a singular person and that person being Jesus? Have we affirmed
that what we are talking about here is a relationship between
Abraham and Jesus, the ultimate seed of whom God the Father,
in making a covenant and league with Abraham, always anticipated
being the one who would be the heir of the covenant? And if
your theology is rich and deep enough, you will come to that
conclusion and understand that the blessings that come to us
from God must come to us from God through Christ. That there
are no blessings to be had or acquired on our part, apart from
Christ. That if we do believe that the
blessings are blessings that pour out of a covenant, covenant,
conditional covenant of promises, that those promises can only
be meted out to persons or people or even nations in the person
of Christ And not merely from God to a people group, just because
we have an affinity with the person of Abraham. So before
we go further with this, I want you to go back to the Genesis
12 account so that you can see the one verse where this statement
is made. It's very important for us to
know that that statement that's being made in Genesis 12, three
is not made again throughout the old Testament. In other words,
God does not repeat over and over and over again. I have not
seen it where he will say to Isaac or to Jacob. And we have
already learned that the promises that God is making to Abraham
have to be fulfilled in the life of Isaac as well as in Jacob,
because the 12 tribes are going to serve as the vehicle by which
the one seed of whom we are all considering must come into the
world. But here's what God says again
to Abram in Genesis chapter 12 verses one through three. The
Lord has said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from
thy kindred and from thy father's house and unto a land that I
will show thee. And you and I had already looked
at this, particularly in our women's theology class, which
was a really good class last night, but God had called Abraham
out of Babylon and he had called Abraham to a place where Abraham
did not know where he was going. And Abraham had to walk by faith. That's what the Hebrew writer
will teach us when we get to chapter 11 and he says And I
will make of thee you notice what God says I will make of
thee that is out of your loins out of your being I will make
of thee a great what? And I will bless thee and I will
make thy name great and you shall be a blessing Now is he saying
that Abraham personally is going to be a blessing or Abraham see
Right, and if he's saying Abraham's seed is going to be a blessing,
is he really talking about Abraham's seed in the sense of the physical
seed of Abraham that is national Israel? Or is he talking about
Abraham's ultimate seed of which the whole of the New Testament
pours into like a vortex the one person, Jesus Christ. Is
it Jesus? And I want to make sure we drive
this home because I want your theology to be right in the area
of the Old Testament covenant being consummated in the person
of Christ, because if you waver on these things, you're going
to have a real difficult time with the other passages that
also speak to the blessings of God as prophetic promises coming
out of the Old Testament. When we say that this seed of
whom God is speaking should come through Abraham is Jesus, what
we are saying is, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 120, All
the promises of God are yes and amen only in him. That's what
we are saying. We're saying when our theology
is right, that no promises are sure until they are sure in the
person of Christ and that God made that soul when he confirmed
the covenant with Abraham, not in Genesis 12, but in Genesis
15. And as we learned a couple of
weeks ago in Friday night Bible study, When God told Abraham,
upon Abraham's request, how shall I know that you're going to bring
to pass the promise of me having a seed? He told Abraham to divide
the parts. You guys remember that? To establish
a covenant. And it would have been a covenant
between two equal parties. a blood covenant by which those
two equal parties would commit themselves to the promises of
those covenants till death, even to the point of blood. And when
he made that covenant with Abraham, did Abraham go through those
parts or did God go through those parts alone? And what we are
told, and we'll see when we get to Galatians chapter three, verses
15 through 19, is that God confirmed the promises to Abraham only
in Jesus. So now here is what the verses
say, which again are extracted and used on a political level
and on a national level towards Western Christians to have almost
a non-discriminatory affiliation and allegiance with national
Israel. I'll make you a great nation. I'll bless you. I'll
make your name great. And you shall be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee. Do you see that? And I
will curse them that curse thee. And in you shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. See that? So now, can you see
why I will really challenge the supposition that if the physical
nation of Israel is struggling through political mayhem and
conflict and surrounded by all these nations that want to destroy
them, And that if we don't have a sort of just carte blanche,
just a blank check to give to them, then we are somehow cursing
them. That that is a stretch of interpretation
that is not legitimately clear or explicit in the text. And
so you have no grounds necessarily to be bound to that kind of interpretation. Because what that would do is
it would drag us into battles and conflicts. that two people
are engaged in without us determining the justifiable grounds of those
conflicts. And so what the proverb says
is, he that intermeddleth in another man's business is like
pulling a dog by its ear. Do you know what'll happen if
you pull any dog by its ear? You're gonna get bit. And the
proverb is warning that you and I don't enter into other people's
contentions unadvisedly. You don't just jump in. There's
no legitimate grounds for us siding with any nation in the
world if that nation is not on a just cause. In fact, if we
were pouring into the whole issue of validity of wars, we have
what is called a just war theory that underpins why we go to war
as nations. And a just war theory would say
that we go to war with nations because our own mortal life is
at stake. And we are obligated to maintain
our own mortal life because we are created in the image of God.
In other words, you do not have to lay down and die at the hands
of an adversary just because they don't like you. You have
a right to defend yourself that gets extrapolated beyond the
personal self-defense doctrine or ideology when it comes to
your family. You men are obligated to protect
your family. You are obligated to take care
of your women and children. You are not to lay down in a
misguided concept of passivity and allow weak and vulnerable
ones of whom you can defend to die at the hands of predators
or monsters or unjust adversaries. You are to lay down your life
for your family. Am I making some sense? And this
is true also for the nation. When we see a battle or a war
that we know can reach out and harm other nations that have
no ability to defend themselves, and we have the capability to
actually stand in the gap for them. We have a right to stand
in the gap. That is a kind of love expression
that God honors. So you step in the gap when that
is the case. But what you do not do is you
don't just go to the defense and stand on the side of someone
when they're engaged in a conflict in an argument with someone else
just because you have an allegiance and you agree with them when
they may very well be in the wrong. They may very well be
in the wrong. And I'm not going to draw this
out too much longer because I do want to get back to the crystal
centric point of the passage. But I have heard for years this
sort of pro-Jewish, anti-Palestinian ideology that is wicked to me. It's a pro-Jewish, anti-Palestinian
ideology, as if all Palestinians are horrible, wretched terrorists
wanting to destroy the Jews. And nothing could be further
from the truth. Are you hearing me? Nothing could be further
from the truth. Do we have adversaries in the
Palestinian you know, politic and makeup that want to destroy
the Jews? Of course. Do we have bad Jews? Of course we do. Do we have bad
Americans? Of course we do. Do we have bad
Europeans? Do we have wicked politicians
and wicked leaders and wicked military people who lie to us
in order to go into war and engage in battles and conflicts? for
unjust purposes and financial gains and territorial rights
and territorial advancement, we have a whole litany of history
that affirms that our government lies to us frequently when they
go into war. So the Christian church ought
not to be wagged by the tail and told to support or sponsor
the defense of any side of any war of which you are not clear
of what the premise for that war is. Am I making some sense? Christians ought never to be
war mongers. Christians ought never to be
war mongers. And this would go to the whole
political thing where, you know, we get very charged around election
time and we get very charged uh... uh... around times where
our country might be inclined to go to war because self-preservation
is kind of the first law of nature is that true and and of course
we wouldn't want our country to lose any battle that we go
into so uh... you know i i'm i'm not uh...
so apathetic or unkind as to want our men to go to war and
die i'd never want our men to go to war and die and particularly
for a wrong cause and particularly for a wrong cause. So whenever
you are contemplating the choosing of sides on political issues,
particularly those where lives are at stake, be sure that you
know all the issues before you choose sides. You will come to
discover also that what our government is wicked and ungodly as it can
be, particularly as it has now trended in an open adversarial
policy role against biblical truth and against Christ and
against the gospel and against the Word of God and promoting
all kinds of immoral things very blatantly today that becomes
a whole not another issue again of how how reprobate we are in
our conscious as a nation as to call ourselves a Christian
nation and yet advocate policies that are so anti-biblical it's
not even funny So now even presently our president has shown his colors
in terms of his moral standards and yet he'll call himself a
Christian because most Christians hold to a very contradictory
platform of profession of faith versus their personal lifestyle.
You guys have heard me warn about the idea of embracing a biblical
worldview and a secular worldview at the same time. Or the idea
of professing to be a believer in Christ and yet holding to
a secular worldview. This is the problem with our
present Christian church today. That people say they're Christian,
but they live very secular, very carnal, very worldly lives, and
that set of secular, carnal, worldly Ideas does not correspond
with the nature of a true Christian and Really? That's where the
battle must be for the Christian Church The battle must be where
the Christian Church Challenges the culture in its worldviews
challenge the culture in its ideology challenge the culture
of in its set of assumptions as to all of the major views
that it holds about the origin of the world, the purpose of
mankind, the destiny of humanity, and all of those kinds of things
that are critical to our understanding who we are and what we're called
to do. The church has to challenge those things. You can't leave
them there to be assumed because people will quickly embrace ideas
that will support their own natural propensities. and yet still call
themselves Christians. I am jazzed right now about a
little debate going on between two rappers. One just received
a reward for this song called Same Love. If you guys know young
Caucasian kid who made a very politically charged song in position
of pro-homosexuality and pro-same-sex marriage. And then a young African
American kid, I forget his name, but he made a very excellent
rebuttal Song against it. It was filled with Rationale
logic reason sound biblical premise and I said go to that young man
God bless you because the peers in our churches should have stood
up and said something about this thing But he looked around and
said if nobody's gonna say anything I'm gonna say something and so
this is again where I know that God uses young people where old
people are too tired to fight the battle and unequipped and
And this young brother actually gave a cogent, cohesive, biblically
sound, non pejorative argument for the folly of that song. I
said, great, great, great, great, great. And let the battle begin.
And this is not about warmongering on a spiritual level. So don't
misunderstand me. This is not about warmongering.
What this is about is the obedience to the gospel of bringing every
imagination and every doctrine and every teaching into subjection
to the obedience of Christ. Whenever anyone stands up and
opposes a biblical truth and dishonors the God of glory, it
is the job of the Christian to oppose every unbiblical view. And if a person thinks he can
stand up and assail our Bibles, and assail our God, and assail
the institution of marriage, and assail all of those traditional
views that have their origin in scripture, let that individual
come to the table and debate. Let's see how sound your argument
will be when your neighbor comes along and spies you out. Because
see, he that is first in his own cause always seems just. until his neighbor comes and
pulls back the curtain and demonstrates that his whole argument is based
on half-lies, half-truths, and ignorance. This is the battle
that the Christian has to wage. Otherwise, we keep losing ground.
And in these kinds of bold... You're going to see that here
with Peter in a moment. This is absolutely phenomenal.
These kind of bold stances against error do two things. They expose
the hypocrites in the church and the emboldened people who
love God. See, when someone stands up and
actually deals with matters that are critical to God's glory and
the honor of biblical truth, it exposes the hypocrites because
the hypocrite really doesn't hold a biblical conviction. He's
in the church, but he's not one of the members of the church.
He has a name that he's alive, but he has no fire for the glory
of God or the truth of God. And so these things are extremely,
extremely important. So when I say here that it's
critical that we understand that the spirit of God has given us
an interpretation on Genesis chapter 12, verse three, I will
bless them that bless thee and curse him that curse thee and
in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. That
this is not a promise to nations on a political level. This has
nothing to do with political success, or political prowess,
or political advantage, if you somehow make an allegiance with
the nation of Israel. This is a promise from God to
Abraham, through Christ, to people who trust Christ as Savior. So
now, go with me back to Acts chapter 2. I want to quote the
text again, and then I want us to unpack it according to the
Apostle Paul's explanation of it. So we need to get back to
our PowerPoint. Acts chapter 3, verse 25 and 26. You're the
children of the prophets and of the covenant. We are talking
covenant here. God made with our fathers Abraham saying, and
in thy sea shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed. Now,
immediately Peter moves into a very personal application of
this promise. Unto you what? First, God having
raised up his son, Jesus. So there's an ethic in Paul's
teaching. There's an ethic in the apostles
teaching. And that ethic is this, the gospel
was always designed to go to the Jew first. That's obvious. Christ was born of a woman made
under the law and came through the Jewish line. So the promise
is going to come to the Jewish people first. That was Paul's
ethic to the Jew first, and then also to the Gentile. That's Romans
chapter one, 16 and 17. And so And even our Lord, remember
when he was here and he did his ministry for three and a half
years? He says, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. So there was not even in his
mind an expansion out into the regions of the Gentiles in a
notable way until he came close to Calvary. So we get to John
chapter 12 and someone comes to Jesus saying, hey, the Greeks
are seeking you. And that's when he says, ah,
Now is the son of man glorified Now am I about to be glorified
because my father is now drawing his elect from among the Gentile
peoples to Christ openly and boldly So Christ was seen prophetically
the coming of the Gentiles to him We would see Jesus and Christ
understood what that meant He actually understood the implications
of it, both on the positive and negative side as well. So listen,
look at your outline and let's follow through this a little
bit and understand a few things before we move into chapter 4.
Point number 1, Abraham's seed. Who is Abraham's seed in this
context? It's Christ, right? Absolutely. Now go with me to your Bible
to Galatians chapter 3 and let's work through this briefly to
understand what the apostle is now Offering to his own Jewish
brethren by way of promise So Abraham seed in Galatians 3 16
and 17 will clearly allude to us I testify to us that we're
talking about Jesus The principle of to the Jew first is clearly
laid out Notice what it says in Galatians chapter 3 verse
16. Are you there? Now to Abraham
and to his seed where the promise is made Now, if I was a Jewish
person who didn't have a revelation of the glory of God in Christ,
who would I believe that this word seed would be referring
to? Me. That's right. As a Jew, I
would believe it would be referring to me, right? Notice what it
says. Now, to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as
of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is whom? Now,
here's what verse 17 says. which affirms that this issue
of establishing the promises in the person of Christ is a
covenant thing. And this, I say that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ. Now you and I
learned this and our church has taught this for years. This covenant
is what Genesis 15 was about, right? And Genesis 15 is 400
years before the law, right? Because by the time you go from
Genesis 15 to Exodus 20, we have 430 years precisely according
to Acts chapter 7. So what's going on between the
promise given to Abraham when he's sitting on the sideline
half asleep watching God the Father and God the Son pass through
the parts all by themselves. What's happening there? He's
viewing the confirmation of the covenant that God made with him
in his seed, even Jesus. Even before Isaac comes into
being, in order for us to know that the promise was not ultimately
ever about the physical seed, but that the physical seed had
what we call a subordinate purpose. So he did have a physical seed,
obviously, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so that physical seed
is going to serve to bring Messiah into the world, right? But the
promise is not with them. The promise is with whom? Christ. But in the process of that physical
seed being brought into existence, which they would have, Abraham
would have died off at 175 years old. Isaac would have perpetuated
the seed through Jacob and Esau. Esau would have been a non-elect
rebel. Jacob would have been the one whom God loved, right?
Jacob represents what we learned. Lady Jacob represented the church
because Jacob's name is changed to what? Israel. when he wrestles
with the angel. Israel is he that rules with
God. Israel represents the whole 12 tribes, right? So inside of
Jacob are the 12 tribes, the Old Testament church that would
lead us to Jesus. This is why God is called the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. He is the God of the
living and not of the dead. Why? Because in Abraham, in Isaac,
and in Jacob is the seed. His own darling son is in that
seed. And it's for that reason, the nation of Israel preserved
until Jesus came, because God was going to make sure his seed
came through a woman, a virgin who would be of the tribe of
Judah, because Jesus would be the lion of the tribe of Judah.
You guys are following me, right? So if you understand this, we
have two, a two pronged element in this covenant, a subordinate
covenant based upon law and a superior covenant based upon promise.
The superior covenant based upon promise is to those who would
be children of the promise through Jesus Christ. Meaning now follow
this. Now, Abraham was never under
the law. Abraham was never a Jew. Are
you hearing me? Isaac was never under the law.
Isaac was never a Jew in that sense. He was a Hebrew. Jacob was never under the law
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were all under grace The only covenant
sign they had was circumcision The children of Israel Became
a nation only when that covenant was established on Mount Sinai
480 years after before Jesus, which was 430 years after Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. And this is why Paul argued in
Romans chapter 4 that the Jews cannot boast in Abraham because
when Abraham was called by God, he was called as a Gentile. He
was not called as a Jew. He was not saved as a Jew. He
was not kept as a Jew. He was not preserved as a Jew.
The whole system of Judaism was a system of covenant that God
had placed upon Israel to preserve them as a particular people for
the necessary 1500 years to bring us to whom? Jesus. This is what
Paul is arguing is just because you are the blood descendants
of Abraham does not secure your salvation. And of course, you
guys know That's what Jesus was trying to tell those knuckleheads
when he showed up, right? Your blood lineage to Abraham
does not affirm anything. You guys are actually part of
a covenant of words, right? And this is what Paul is demolishing
in Galatians three. Now is anyone seeking to embrace
the promises based upon law and works will fail to achieve those
promises because those promises are never based upon works. Listen
to it. And this, I say that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years afterwards, could not disannul. In other words,
the law doesn't change the promises of God. You guys got that. But
in other words, what Paul is doing here is telling his Jewish
brethren who are telling the Gentiles that the only way you
can actually fully be in Christ is for you to be circumcised
and to receive the law. and to enter into a status of
being Jews in order to be Christians. And what Paul is saying is, no,
this law-keeping business that you're talking about does not
nullify the promise of the gospel. Why? Because these Jews were
jealous that the Gentiles had come to faith in Christ through
the mere preaching of the gospel on the part of the Apostle Paul.
And he never commanded them to keep holy days, or Sabbath days,
or new moons, or feast days, or dietary laws, or circumcision,
or any of those things that identify with his Jewish brother. He made
it very clear, salvation is by faith alone, apart from words. Then here comes the Jews want
to plop this system on them and Paul has to fight for their freedom
which Christ bought Are you guys hearing me? And so here's what
he's doing in a very Masterful way demolishing the false notion
that somehow there's a superiority For the Jewish person or person
or the proselyte who seeks to come to God through this legal
system. He says the law Cannot disavow
the promise that it should make the promise of no effect For
if the inheritance, that's a synonym for the promise. The promise
is a synonym for the gospel. They all mean the same thing.
Only they are covenant terms here. For if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more of what? And if we were to stop
here and go back to Romans chapter four, you know what he would
say? Then it could not be by faith because faith is antithetical
to words. And if it was by words, then
there's no longer a faith. And it could not be by grace
because grace is the basis upon which faith is given to receive
the promises of God. And Abraham did not receive the
blessing by works. He received it by faith. And
so all Gentiles embrace the gospel by faith. And the Jews, if they're
going to enjoy the gospel, they have to receive it by faith apart
from the works of the law. So he's really battling against
this legalism. this tendency to identify with
God's promises by something we do. Wherefore then serves the
law. Because this is what the Jewish mind would say, then what's
going on with the law? Here's what he says, it was added.
You see that? That's called a past tense statement. Because of what? Just what I
was saying to you, God plopped that legal system on the nation.
along with the Levitical code to teach that nation how holy
God is, how sinful they were, and how much they needed a mediator
in Jesus. So that law system kept Israel
in check until Jesus came. In other words, if God did not
give them that law code, and Paul already taught us in Romans
7, the purpose of the law is to give us a knowledge of sin,
Romans 3.20. And then in Romans chapter 7,
he says, Chapter 6, it was designed to make sin exceedingly sinful.
In other words, you and I will play sin down until we see it
like God sees it. And we cannot see it like God
sees it until the law is given. By the way, let me just make
a point of application with that, right along with where we are
in our present culture. If you share the gospel with
people and you do not help them have a proper and a biblical
view of their sin, you're going to be sharing with them a deficient
gospel. You will not be bringing them to a savior on the right
grounds. If you share the gospel with
people and simply say, God loves you and he wants a wonderful
plan for your life, why don't you receive Jesus into your life?
And they don't have an adequate understanding of their hell bound
condition. and their offense towards God.
You have neither exalted the holiness of God nor the radical
sinfulness of man, and thus their coming to Christ is not out of
necessity of avoiding a hell-bound condition, but rather to get
some blessings or to better their life or to enhance their life,
which is what most Christians do. You know, I'm having a bad
day or I got emotional problems or I lost my mother or I got
a divorce or I need a job. And so all of these superficial
reasons are that for which people come to church. And then we give
them this very defective and empty gospel presentation. And
afterwards they expect God to actually fix their problems.
Don't they? This is not the gospel. See what I'm getting at? Ladies
and gentlemen, The matters that are essential to God's glory
and men's salvation are matters of God's law and our violation
of God's law and our sinful condition. In this present postmodern culture,
you and I have already been working through the damnable mind that
would not even hold the plausibility that there is something called
sin. At the present time, we are struggling in terms of articulation
and development of persuading 21st century postmodern people
that they're actually sinners. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And what that means then is that they don't view themselves as
bad as they really are. And then when you say, well,
you've broken this law, that law, the other law, the other
law, as far as they're concerned, those laws mean nothing. The
only thing that matters is how I feel and what I do. This is
why you must know that in the presentation of the gospel, the
first work of the spirit is to always convince men of what?
This is why if you pay careful attention to the opening of the
fourth chapter, when the rulers came to Peter and said, in whose
name are you doing this? And what power are you doing
this? And why are you doing this? You notice how he immediately
presses home the sin that they had committed against God and
killing Jesus. You notice that? You notice how
he pressed it home? Because that's the first work
of the Spirit, John 16, 8. And the work of the Spirit is
to convince us of what? And then of righteousness, and
then of judgment to come. A man and woman is not coming
to God for the right reason until they realize that their problem
is sin. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? But now, you can't persuade them of what sin is truly until
you lay out the law of God, because sin is transgression against
God's law. That's first John chapter three,
four. See, so we have to help people understand what sin is
because you know, you and I might think sin is just, you know,
uh, doing something that we think culturally is wrong. No sin is
our violation against God's law, which means sin is our violation
against God. See, so if we can get people
to understand what sin is, then we can understand, we can get
them to understand that God has a law and then we can get them
to understand that God is holy. See the logic. See, people's
problem is that they are sinners. They're sinners because they
violate God's law. And in violating God's law, they actually violate
God. This is what's going on. And if a person is going to ever
be made whole, they got to get right with God on the matters
of sin. Very important. And so as we
continue, go back to our PowerPoint. Sorry, actually, go go with me
now to chapter three of Galatians, verse eight. And I'm going to
work through the proposition that the blessings of which Genesis
12 2 & 3 Genesis 12 3 and Acts chapter 3 verse 25 and
26 are speaking of are not political blessings given to nations that
give a carte blanche to the nation of Israel here it is we're in
Galatians chapter 3 the Apostle Paul speaks over in verse 8 and
the scriptures are foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through what preached before Now watch this the scriptures
preached before the gospel unto Abraham now You need to mark
this verse because you will have very unlearned Christians who
will tell you that the gospel is not in the Old Testament And at least you have one passage
in the New Testament that will tell you that every person that
ever was saved was only saved through the preaching of the
gospel. Am I making some sense? But there are folks who will,
who will act, who would actually say that the Old Testament saints
were saved differently than the New Testament saints, that the
Old Testament saints did not have the gospel. The gospel only
came when Jesus came. That's ignorance of the Bible
and ignorance of biblical interpretation. It's ignorance of the Bible in
that, in this case, we have a literal text that said Abraham heard
the gospel. Did he hear the gospel? Yes,
he did. This is why you have to have
a Christocentric hermeneutic. You cannot read the Old Testament
passages in a mere old covenant sense in a literal historical
context and not understand that God was all the time preaching
the gospel to those people for When God plainly told Abraham
in your seed, shall all the children of the earth be blessed. That
was the gospel. When Jesus said, Abraham saw
my day in rejoiced, Abraham saw the gospel. When did he see it
in Genesis chapter 15, when the father and the son passed between
the pieces, that was gospel to Abraham. Remember the gospel
has where it's sending them the promises of God, the inheritance.
When did Abraham see the gospel again? In Genesis 22, when he
was about to kill his boy and him and his boy walked down off
that hill, both alive. That was gospel to him. That
was the day of the Lord for Abraham. He saw the resurrected Christ
in that he understood what God was going to accomplish through
Isaac, his seed. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So the gospel is something that runs all the way through scripture.
And every believer always walk by faith, looking towards the
coming of Messiah. And it's very explicit. Here,
listen to what it says. He preached the gospel before
Abraham, saying, here it is, here it is, ladies and gentlemen,
in thee shall all the what? Nations be blessed. Now, is there
anywhere in Galatians chapter 3 or the whole of the book of
Galatians? promises to nations a political advantage for joining
affinity with national Israel anywhere? This is a purely redemptive,
soteriological, our salvation passage dealing with the work
of God in Christ in the saving of the Gentiles. Purely. Now watch this because we've
got to answer a few questions. So then, they that be of what? Now faith here is, in this context,
antithetical to what? works or law. So they then that
be of faith are what blessed with faithful Abraham. Watch
this. Now they are blessed with faithful Abraham because they
believe the same gospel that Abraham does. So then they, that
be of what of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. So then
they would be of faith. See what Paul, you see what Paul
is doing. He's, he's, he's augmenting. And he's enhancing the doctrine
of faith to his Jewish brethren to help them understand. So long
as you are trusting in the works of the law, Christ cannot avail
you anything. And to the degree that you are
holding on to this legalistic system of old covenant theology,
you are canceling out the finished work of Christ. You are basically
damning the Gentiles who have come to God merely by what? And
after all, the most famous verse in the Bible is a salvation passage
based upon faith alone, apart from works. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever,
what? That's faith. That's faith. That's
faith. Believeth in him, should not
perish, but have everlasting life. not works to get right
with God so that they should not perish, but believes on Jesus.
So this is what Paul has been fighting for the longest. And
he's trying to get his Jewish brethren to understand this has
never been about you. This has always been about Jesus.
You and I are simply beneficiaries of a work that God, the father
and God, the son has done. If we ever get that, our feet
will be settled on proper ground. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. This actually is another argument
over against the fact that the Jews are not automatically blessed
because they're Abraham's physical seed, because apart from faith,
they're just as cursed as the Gentiles. Is that true? Let me
say it again. For some of us who are still
stupefied by the false assumption that to be Abraham's physical
seed makes you automatically a child of God. That is a flawed
assumption, right? Just because you are Abraham
C does not automatically make you a child of God. You are not
automatically the people of God because you can trace your bloodline
back to Abraham. This is clearly what Jesus taught
in John chapter eight. This was the whole battle of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John between Jesus and the Jews. They
kept saying, we be Abraham C, we be Abraham C, we be Abraham
C. Jesus says, God can raise up
stones to worship me. Your blood descendancy to Abraham
doesn't make you automatically God's children. You are children
of the devil. While as yet, you're not born
again. And while as yet you're not born again, it's evident
because you don't believe that I am he. And as long as you do
not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Ladies
and gentlemen, the whole of these kind of passages was between
Jesus and the Jews. You have to understand the context.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is a battle between Jesus and
religion. is between Jesus and religion.
And somehow in the 21st century, we have actually shifted sides
and have made allegiance with the religious group in many ways,
missing the very point. For if we were in a proper footing
in terms of a proper understanding of our calling, we'd be in the
same place Jesus was, and we'd be in the same place the apostles
were. Where were the apostles? As we have it in Acts chapter
three, they are standing in direct opposition to the rulers. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? Why? Because the gospel always
demolishes salvation by works. It always opposes glorying in
God through something we do. It always demolishes that. And
when you get the gospel right too, you will notice that with
people with whom you will associate. If you start to associate with
people who are really trusting in God based upon something they
do, your gospel is going to offend them. When you start dealing
with people whose confidence is that they're all right with
God because of their baptism, because of their giving, because
of their church membership, because of this, because of that, some
other sign that religion has told you you have to put on in
order to affirm your salvation, a true gospel message is going
to always militate against it and it's going to threaten them.
Because what it's going to do is strip them of any grounds
of confidence between them and God based on something they do.
And until they are landing square on faith in Christ alone, they
are going to be a religious person fighting for their survival. Are you hearing me? Fighting
for their survival, fighting for their survival is very critical.
So then here's what we learn in verse 10 of our text. Cause
I want you to see, and I actually, I'll go down through verse 13
verses eight through 13 gives, gives us a full composite of
the promise To Abraham of the blessings that
would be poured out upon those who are of faith Verse 10 for
as many as are of the works of the law who is he describing
the Jews are under the what curse For is written curse It is everyone
that continueth not in all things wherein are written in the book
of the law to do them see verse 10 You know what Paul just said
if you are trusting in your works you are cursed Because all works
covenants have condemnation premises or condemnation passages when
you fail to achieve keeping the law. The man or the woman that's
trying to get right with God by law keeping endangers themselves
because they are under a curse. And obviously Israel was in a
number of ways. If we were to land right there
and deal with the curses, the contemporary curse at that moment
in the passive sense of God's judgment upon Israel, The first
curse was that they were blinded to Jesus. That's the first curse. Do you understand it's a curse?
When God comes in the form of a human being, walks among you,
preaches among you, lives among you, works among you, does everything
he does in an impeccable way among you and you don't see him
for who he is. Do you understand that's a curse? Do you understand
that the second curse that lie in them was the enmity that rose
up in them individually and collectively to reject Jesus even enough to
call him accursed? I'm going to show you the parody
of that tonight. And it shows you again the hostility
of religion over against the true gospel when the hostility
of religion rises to a high enough level and enough power to oppose
the claims of the gospel because the gospel inherently demolishes
works religion. The Jews are calling Jesus a
curse when in fact they are the ones that are cursed, right?
Of course, now Jesus was a curse, but only as a substitute for
sinners. Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things in
which are written in the book of the law to do them, but that
no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is what?
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident for the just shall live by what? Do you see that? You see how Paul is nailing put
nails in the coffin of the legalist, killing him nail by nail. He
says, it is evident that by the works of the law, no man shall
be justified in the sight of God. You can bring your works
all you want to. You will never be justified because
the law of faith was declared from the beginning of time that
the just shall live by what this goes all the way back to Adam.
It goes to Enoch. It goes to Methuselah. It goes
to Noah. It goes to Lamech. Are you hearing
me? It goes to the sons of Noah.
It goes to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all who believe, including
the Gentiles who were in the Jewish line. And there were many
of them, weren't there? They all were justified by faith
because they were Abraham's children. Remember, if you be of faith,
you are Abraham's seed. The same chapter, verses 26 through
28. Paul saw that when he read the
Old Testament and God had illuminated his mind to this grand covenant
of redemption and this message of grace running through the
scriptures. He saw, ah, just because we are blood descendants
of Abraham does not automatically mean we are saved. If we don't
have faith in Messiah, we are not saved. And whether we are
a Jew or a Gentile, whosoever has faith in Messiah is indeed
Abraham's seed. You guys see that, right? I just
want to press it home for the record. because that's the battle
we will be waging until the world ends. Verse 12. And the law is not of what? They
become mutually exclusive. Now they have purposes, but they're
mutually exclusive. But the man that doeth them shall
what? But this is what we call a hypothetical, isn't it? Can
anyone keep the law apart from Christ? So this is what we call
a hypothetical. You tell somebody to try to keep
the law, and within a second they have failed to keep the
law. Because the law requires perfection, does it not? Do you
say now you keep the law and just keep it now? Stay right
there. Keep keep it. Keep it. Don't move. Keep it.
I'll be right back. Come right back. So now did you
keep the law? Yeah. So I'll show you how you have violated the
law all throughout this little short period of time where you
said you thought you kept the law because the law requires
you loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength
impeccably, flawlessly. to the nth degree. Do you hear
what I'm saying? And then loving your neighbor
as yourself. Now, while I was gone, who did you have a nasty
thought about? See what I'm getting at? The
fallacy of human beings being able to keep God's law would
do two things. It would make God a liar. For when the scripture
says there's none good, no, not one, there's none that doeth
good. There's none righteous. If we say there are some who
are righteous and do good, we made God a liar. And then we
made Christ's death completely useless. That would make God
the father a fool. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
The moment we, we accept the proposition that one person could
do one righteous thing, we demolished biblical truth, which explicitly
says there's none that do it good. No, not one. And then we
made Christ's death completely useless because there is someone
else in the universe for a split second, who could actually make
another way for us by the performance of the works of the law. See,
the gospel shuts us all up to Christ, doesn't it? Very important
to hear. Let me go on because this moves
us into the next verse then. The law is not a faith, but the
man that doeth them shall live in them. May I ask, may I make
the proposition there was one man who did them? Was there one
man who did them? Did he do them perfectly? Yes,
he did. And he did them vicariously.
He did them as a substitute. for multitudes of men and women
all over the world from the beginning of time to the end of time, a
number that no man can number, an innumerable host of men and
women who will benefit from the work of this one man who perfectly
obeyed God's law. That's why heaven is filled with
happy sinners redeemed by God's grace. Are you hearing me? Because of
that one man. For by one man did justification
come upon many unto life. So you can sense that how critical
it is for you to have a sound handle on the biblical gospel.
Are you going to be in trouble? Here's our verse for which I
make the argument that the blessings of Abraham coming upon a nation
could never be mere political power, our financial wealth,
our prosperity because of our allegiance with the nation of
Israel. Here's our verse, verse 13. Are you there? And then verse
14, Christ hath redeemed us from the what? Being made a what? For us. Doctrine of substitution. Those two words are critical.
I tell people all the time, without the doctrine of substitution,
the Bible means nothing to you and me. Without the doctrine
of substitution, we can read about all of the superlative
labors and works of Jesus Christ that he could have ever done.
But it would merit me no good if he didn't do it for me. I
could hear the story about His glory and His love and His obedience
and His affections for His Father, how He created the universe,
sustained the universe, came into this world, did all that
He did. I could hear about His sacrifice and how He suffered
under the wrath of God. But if we don't have those two
words, for us, it was all in vain. Am I making some sense? For us is what gets us on the
other side of God's goodness. It's the doctrine of substitution
critical to the truth of the gospel. It's the doctrine of
substitution. That's what opens the door for
sinners to come into the blessings of Christ. Now mark what he says.
I want you to get this. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangs upon the tree. Did he hang upon the tree?
We'll be preaching that here come the resurrection Sunday
morning. This is a glorious truth to contemplate every Friday and
every Sunday of every year about this God man who hung there. that God might have a people
to the praise of the glory of his grace for all eternity. Here's
the verse, are you ready? Christ was cursed that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles. Do you see it? Through Jesus Christ. How do
the blessings of Abraham come on the Gentiles? Through Jesus. In order that we might receive
what? The promise? Is that the promise of political
power? Financial wealth? What is the
promise? It's the Spirit of God. So the blessing is Christ. The grounds is faith. The means is the cross. The purpose
is the Spirit. See, what we're dealing with
here is Hebrews chapter 10. verses 10 through 12, and it's
talking about the new covenant. It's talking about the new covenant.
What we need to be talking about when we preach and teach covenant
theology is how that men and women are promised in new covenant
theology, the third person who is God himself. That's the blessing
that God gives. He gives himself to men and women
in the person of the Holy Spirit, who then is the one, as we've
said before, is the executioner of that covenant. There is a
grand covenant in the new covenant wherein God promises to give
us a new heart and write his laws on our heart and then take
his own seat of occupation in our heart. We call that regeneration. And there's a promise that he
would cause us to know him and to understand him. For they shall
all know Me, from the least to the greatest. That's called illumination.
That's the work of the Holy Ghost, revealing Christ to you. So regeneration
is what causes us to be brought into life, taking out the stony
heart, putting in the heart of flesh. Knowing Christ is a matter
of revelation. The Spirit of God must reveal
Christ to you in His glory. And this is eternal life, that
they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom
He has sent. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that all that seeth Seeth the son all that seeth
the son Might have life and I will raise him up at the last day.
This is the will of my father that men see my glory This is
the work of the Spirit of God to call cause the light to shine
out of darkness To penetrate the heart and reveal the glories
of Christ to us. That's the illuminating work
of the Spirit of God Am I making some sense? This is critical
And might I say, this is far more of a worthy commodity than
some worldly prosperity or earthly blessings or some kind of political
power. I want God. And the beauty of this covenant
theology is that it is experienced by men and women all over the
world, irregardless of their political position or their economic
status or their social situation. There are men and women who have
experienced the blessings of the new covenant in the most
dire circumstances, lived and died that way, full of the spirit
of God, rejoicing in Christ, just as secure for eternity as
you and me. Because the goal of the new covenant
is not about material things. It's about relationship. It's about God having sons and
daughters made in the image of his son. to be brought into fellowship
with God for all eternity. Are you guys hearing me? That's
the goal of the spirit of God. That's the goal of the spirit
of God. And when God had said to Abraham, and in you shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed. He was talking about
the giving of the spirit by which the Gentiles would be brought
into the kingdom of God through faith in God's darling son, Jesus
Christ, by means of his death on Calvary. Are you hearing me?
Christ is the blessing. The spirit is the active, uh,
the executive or, uh, executioner of the covenant blessings by
which you and I experienced salvation and get to know Christ and get
to be conformed to his image. So again, he says that the blessings
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through faith, through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the spirit through
faith. Now that's all we need to read
in terms of this issue of the blessings. Go back to Acts chapter
3 so I can move forward to my next point. Because what he's
getting ready to do with verses 15 and following is go back to
his argument with his Jewish brethren. And we don't need to
engage in that. My proposition was very clearly
that the whole issue of the blessing could never merely be political
power or financial wealth or any such thing coming out of
Abraham. I would never peddle the gospel
of material blessing to men and women as the byproduct and the
fruit of this new covenant. What a inferior blessing to bestow
upon people when the alternative is God himself. What an inferior
blessing. What a fraud I would be perpetrating
on people to tell you that if you trust in Abraham's faith
like Abraham trusted, then you will have material blessings
and physical prosperity. That would be atrocious. And
again, also on a national level, it's very presumptuous of our
Western culture to use that text in Genesis chapter 12, verse
three, to assert that we will have God's favor so long as we
give a carte blanche to national Israel. It's very presumptuous.
Going back to our PowerPoint, because we already moved to chapter
four now. I'll be able to deal with one
point in chapter four, next PowerPoint. Let's see here. There we go.
Acts chapter 4 verses 1 through 4. Now, as I said in the opening
of our study, this is not a new thing. The disciples, the apostles
have just rendered promises unto the children of Israel in verse
26, unto you first, right? God having raised up his son
Jesus, sent him to do what? Bless you. In doing what? Turning
away every one of you from your sins. That's the blessing. Isn't that the blessing? It's
very interesting, too. And the original language is
not quite the way the King James puts it. Unto you first, God,
having raised up his son, Jesus, sent him blessing you is the
original language. Unto you first, God, having raised
up his son, Jesus, sent him blessing you. That's in your text. In
other words, he didn't send him to bless you. He sent him blessing
you. The blessing is Christ. Did you
get that? And the outcome of that blessing
is turning you away from your sins. These are what we call present
indicative verb forms. This is what God did. He sent
the blessing and in the blessing, the impact of the blessing is
to turn you away from your sins. And I like the way the language
is very technical. When it says in the latter part,
we're getting ready to go to chapter four. He sent Jesus blessing
you in turning away, watch this, Every one of you is in what we
call the singular form. The you there's in the singular.
It's not in the plural form. That means it is the responsibility
of every individual who heard that message on that day to identify
with the blessings of that gospel so that that blessing can enter
into their life. So now the Holy ghost is, is as actually working
on the conscious of those Jewish people that were in that audience
in the temple at that time. Cause see, they're in the temple.
Getting ready to unpack that. They're in the temple because
remember, they're going to the hour of prayer. And remember,
they healed a layman and everybody is coming around, right? So all
of these common lay people are around Peter and John as they're
preaching. And Peter now says, God sent
Jesus blessing you, turning every one of you. He didn't say all
of you, every one of you. And the message was you individually. You individually, because that's
the way the spirit of God works. He works individually. He deals
with people individually. He sent him blessing you. And
do you know that Peter was right? By the time Peter's message was
over with, over 5,000 people will be saved that day. 5,000! Tremendous, isn't it? That's
the work of the Holy Ghost. Speaking to people individually.
Which brings us to the opening verses of chapter 4. Now I want
to talk to you briefly about binding and loosening, because
this is what you're about to see here. In Acts chapter 4 verse
1, And as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captains
of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved
that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection
from the dead. Look at verse 3, And they did
what? Laid hands on them and put them in whole until the next
day, for it was now even time. What did they do to the disciples?
They bound them. They bound them. Now, what I
want you to see in our three points up there is very simply
this. First, the message of blessing
to liberate the soul was met with opposition. The message
of blessing to liberate the soul was met with opposition. By the
time the rulers walk up to Peter and John, what they heard them
saying was, God sent Jesus blessing you, turning every one of you
away from your sins. That was a message of liberation.
Does not the gospel call us to liberty? Does not the gospel
liberate men and women? Doesn't it free us? Doesn't it
set us free? And so the message of the apostles
was a message of liberation. But when the rulers come, what
do they do to the apostles? They bind them. They bind them. Point number two, the servants
are bound, but the message is not. The servants are bound,
but the message is not. That's verse two and three of
our text. We see that they were held in whole. So Peter and them
are preaching a message of liberation, of salvation, of redemption,
uh, of repentance and faith in Christ. They have spoken the
word of God and now they're bound for it. They are in the ward
overnight because the rulers now want to deliberate as to
what they're going to do to these men for preaching the gospel
in the temple. Are you hearing me? This is the
first opposition. Point number C, the devil's parody
spoiled. What do I mean by parody? What
do we learn? Parody was in our theology class on one Thursday.
Parody is the mimicking of a person trying to be like someone else.
And the role of the devil is always to act like God. You hear
me? The goal of the devil is to always
act like God. Now follow this. Here, Peter and James are doing
only what God called them to do, preach the gospel. The rulers
do not like this message because the rulers are not of God. And
because they're not of God, they must do what Jesus said in John
chapter eight, the works of your father, you must do. And as we're
going to see in the next PowerPoint, they exercise a false authority
over the disciples and put them in jail. Told you most Christians
are criminals. Most Christians are convicts. And here's the parody. He binds
them physically, but God is loosening spiritually. Peter and John are
bound in prison, but 5,000 people plus women and children are liberated
from the prison of sin. What you are actually seeing
is the conflation of the kingdom of God in battle with the kingdom
of Satan in the territory of the physical church Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Remember Jesus said go ye into
all the world preach the gospel starting where? So here his disciples
are in the midst of Jerusalem preaching the gospel and their
message is going to liberate people, but they're going to
be bound for it and Is what Jesus told him, didn't he? In Matthew
24. He says, they're going to deliver you up to the synagogue. They're going to put you in prison.
They're going to bind you. They're going to beat you. Isn't
that what Christ told them? And so what I'm getting at is
there is a parody on the part of the devil to exercise a false
authority. See, these rulers actually have
no authority over the disciples. But they're exercising a physical
earthly authority over them and God is going to allow that to
demonstrate the superior nature of the gospel Because again as
I said in the book of Acts you will see very clearly That multitudes
are liberated even though that the disciples are not and remember
now they're being bound for the cause of the gospel And this
is something that we also have to take up that if you're gonna
actually share the gospel with people You have to be ready to
suffer for the gospel Second Thessalonians chapter three,
verse two, look at that with me. Just want to show you what
the apostle Paul says about this. And it's very important for us
to know then that if you and I are part of the ministry of
the word and we are faithful ministers of the word, and it
doesn't matter what context we are in, the word of God is going
to always do what the word of God is designed to do. No matter
what you and I are going through. Our physical condition or our
earthly circumstance does not determine the success or blessing
of the gospel. Listen to what the apostle Paul
says in first Thessalonians chapter three started verse one. Finally, brethren, pray for us
that the word of the Lord may have what and be glorified even
as it is with you. Verse two, Here's what he says
in that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for
all men do not have what? Do you see that now does this
describe the rulers at this moment? You better know it because Paul
speaking to the Thessalonians has already given a major treaties
on the diabolical nature of the Jews hating all men resisting
God's will and forbidding the Gentiles to hear the gospel.
And so what he said in verse one is pray that the word of
the Lord may have free course. Now I want you to see this again
in the book of Timothy, second Timothy chapter two, verse nine,
by the way, for verse two, you, you, you might as well mark.
Not all men have faith. You got that faith is a gift
from God, but now go with me to second Timothy chapter two,
verse nine, and see how the apostle speaks to this. Are we there? Listen to what he says. I'll
start at verse eight. Remember, that Jesus Christ of
the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my
gospel. Wherein I suffer trouble as a what? Is that what the apostles
are suffering right now? Now watch this. And even unto
what? Are the apostles bound right
now? Watch this. But the word of God is not bound. Do you see it? Do you see it?
Go with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 12. I want to show you
what Jesus said. And I want you to, I want you
to see how in God's economy, he allows the devil to use parodies,
false acts of authority that do not actually correspond to
the truth and will be used to deceive the masses who fall prey
to pseudo and superficial and unbiblical authority. And this
has been going on ever since the gospel has been preached
that religious systems who have been threatened by the claims
of the gospel and the power of the gospel have always sought
to take God's people and bind them and imprison them to hinder
the cause of the gospel. But it's in that very context,
watch this now, it's in the very context of them being bound for
the cause of Christ that God is most glorified and Christ
is most exalted. This is what gets us back to
the necessity of understanding a crystal-centered and a cross-centered
theology. If we take the cross out of our
theology, we will bastardize the gospel. If we take the cross
out of our theology, we will peddle a gospel again of liberty
and freedom and blessing without consequences. If we take the
cross out of the gospel, we will be telling men and women all
they can look for is for God to bless them without any kind
of ramification or reciprocation for the proclamation of the gospel.
It would assert that there is no dark kingdom, no demons, no
devils, no hostility, no rage, no enemy against God's glory
or the people of God. It would assert that when you
become a Christian, wherever you go, people have to bow down
to you, obey you, submit themselves to you. And that would be a false
biblical worldview. Am I making some sense? It would
be a false biblical worldview and it would set you up for a
major crisis. Because the nature of the gospel
is when you and I are privileged to speak for Christ, you and
I must then enter into the sufferings of Christ. so that the cross
work of Christ might mean something to both us and the people who
hear our gospel. Am I making some sense? If I'm
avoiding suffering, I have no cross theology. If I'm avoiding suffering, I
have no cross theology. And if I have no cross theology,
I do not believe in the power of God. I can't... See, this is why I'm saying there's
so much false religion today. The power of God is only comprehended
in suffering. In the Christocentric sense,
the power is seen as suffering. See, even Peter and John would
tell you if they were here. The fact that God gave them the
grace to lay hands on that lame man and him be recovered, that
actually was not the power that God wanted to exhibit. The power
that God wanted to exhibit is going to take place because of
the preaching of the gospel. When 5,000 believe, are you hearing
what I'm saying? That's where the power is exhibited,
where men and women bow the knee to Christ because the gospel
is preached. And they believed it even in
the face of the threat of the enemy that they visibly saw taking,
binding the apostles. So the faith that was planted
in their heart through the preaching of the gospel overcame the fear
that might have been there as they watched those false and
pseudo authorities take the apostles and put them in prison.