So we left off last week with
the title of our study being the message behind the miracle. And of course, we worked through
the theology that miracles that were performed in the first century
were designed primarily to authenticate the ministry and the calling
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The miracles that the apostles
performed, the miracles that Jesus performed, Yea, even the
miracles that the Old Testament prophets performed were really
not ends in themselves. They were not opportunities by
which the human race would awe at the
power of God or be taken in by the fact that God can do miracles. It was always designed to point
us to something else, and that would be primarily to God's covenant
purpose in Jesus Christ. So when we go through the book
of Acts, which is the practice of the church, what you will
discover is that there will be patterns that will emerge. And
those patterns are to teach us how you and I are to look for
the opportunity to share the gospel. When God brings about
notable events like that, which occurred in Acts chapter three
with the lame man who was at the gate, beautiful, who was
ministered to by Peter and John and he was healed and he's in
the temple and everyone is gathering around Peter and John and the
lame man because God is going to now bear record to the risen
Lord for which Peter says in verse 13, the God of Abraham
and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God that glorified his son Jesus
whom ye delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when
he was determined to let him go. So Peter uses this occasion
under unction of the Spirit of God to now preach the gospel
which has its emergence, it has its platform on the basis of
this miracle that takes place and he's doing what he's called
to do. Now verses 13 through 17 as we learned last week, was
an indictment, a direct indictment against Israel for having denied
the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 14, having desired Barabbas,
verse 14, and thus, according to Peter's own words, killed
the prince of life whom God raised from the dead. Peter affirms
the bodily resurrection of Christ. And he says, we were witnesses
of his resurrection. We were witnesses of his death.
We were witnesses of your perpetual denial of the Messiah for the
whole three and a half years that we were with him. We are
his witnesses. Of course, now the Jews are strapped with this
testimony, which, as we have learned, is part of the lane
of the foundation stone of the New Testament church, upon which
Christ would build his church the death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. And then Peter affirms in verse
16, as you and I prepare to deal with other things, in verse 16
he says, and his name, that is Jesus, through faith in his name,
hath made this man strong. You see the word strong there?
That's our word steroid. In fact, there's a preposition
in front of it, ensteros. And it means that he was strengthened
within and made fully whole in all of his body. He was not just
healed of his lameness, but he was made totally whole in every
aspect of his body. He was strengthened all together.
And it's a great picture of true believers who prior to our salvation,
we are impotent. We are weak. We are powerless. We have no spiritual life. And
until God comes along and fuses us with the spirit to not only
give us life, but to strengthen us in every aspect of our bodies,
we have no ability to bear witness to his glory. The other strategic
truth you might think about too, is that the Lord Jesus Christ
from his throne and glory is picking a fight with the rulers
because this miracle took place at the gate. Beautiful. And when
this man was healed, he and John and Peter are now in the temple
creating havoc over a notable miracle that God does that opens
the door for the gospel to be preached. So I want you to think
in terms of the context, the topological emphasis or significance,
they are in the temple. The temple is the place where
much of Christ's controversy took place when he was there.
This miracle is taking place in the temple. So you guys know,
according to the framework of our class, that we are dealing
with old things and what? New. We're dealing with that
old covenant paradigm and the new covenant paradigm. We're
actually dealing with the dismantling of the old system while Christ
is building the new at the same time in the same place. We are
actually dealing with an old political theological system
that's falling apart while Christ is affirming and building his
New Testament church in the same place. This is the Lordship of
Christ being manifested to the Old Testament church of which
the rulers cannot avoid. This miracle will reverberate
all the way throughout the church and create a stir which will
bring us into the fifth chapter which I'm sorry, the fourth chapter,
which will be the first controversial battle between the apostles,
the leaders of the new Testament church and the leaders of the
old Testament church. But before we get there, there's
something for us to Mark after he says that through faith in
this man, which faith was given to him by Christ and has made
him perfectly whole watch this in the presence of you all see
the latter part. His miracle was a witness of
Christ's lordship in the midst of the Jewish people. They are
still confronted with Messiah through the church, through the
apostles, through those who are objects of grace. And that's
the way the gospel works. But then there's some interesting
turns of event that take place in the language of Peter, which
is worth our discussion. He said in verse 17, I think
we still have our PowerPoint. If you could pull our PowerPoint
up from last week, I think it's in our PowerPoint. Um, Peter
recognizes that they are now gripped with and convicted by
this testimony. If you can find it, let's see
here. Um, yeah, leave it right there. Point number four, he
now begins to address something that is extremely important for
your understanding as a child of God. Obviously, For him and
John and the others as they will, and Paul will do this all the
way through the book of Acts. It's all in the New Testament
as well. You are guilty of killing the Lord. You are guilty of killing
the Prince of Glory. You are guilty of killing the
Savior. Strong, strong, strong indictment
upon a people group of which it could be unbearable if they
have to hear it over and over and over again. The apostle now
says something that I think is critically important. Look at
verse 17. And he says, and now brethren,
you see that? And now brethren, I know, that's
what the little English word what in the King James means.
I know that through ignorance, you did it, as also did your
rulers. I know that through ignorance,
you did it, as also did your rulers. What is he doing here? He's actually giving insight
into something that God does and something that God did to
actually prepare them for doing what they did in crucifying Christ. There was a level of ignorance
that was part of the providence of God, which would allow the
Jewish people to remain antagonistic and hostile towards Christ and
his message and his miracles and his witness. And this was
imposed upon them by God. There was a level of ignorance. That's our Greek term, agnoios,
from which we get the term agnostic. It's just when you don't know.
Like a person who says, I am an agnostic. Now, most of the
time, they are not truly or technically an agnostic. They are simply
incredulous. An agnostic is a person who really,
after all the evidence is laid out, cannot make a clear and
honest decision But most folks who call themselves agnostics
are simply rebelling against the incontrovertible evidence
which makes them simply rebellious. Unbelievers. In this context,
however, when it says that they were ignorant, what's taking
place is a principle that God laid down in the Old Testament
that is critical for us to learn and understand. There are some
sins. This is going to take up the
bulk of our time, but hopefully not all of it. There are some
sins that men commit that can fall under the category of ignorance.
which means even though they are committing it, there is an
aspect or a category of their consciousness that they are not
aware of either the actual sin they are committing or the depths
and severity of the crime of the sin they are committing.
And this is a critical insight to grasp because this speaks
to the witness of the spirit of God in our conscience and
in our heart and in providence. Two people can commit the same
crime. And one person will be more guilty of that crime committed
than the other person. Two people can commit a very
innocuous infraction of crossing the street without looking and
maybe violate some kind of traffic law. And one of them will be
less guilty than the other because one will be more knowledgeable
of what he did than the other person. So even though both have
committed a trespass, one is more culpable than the other
of the trespass because of how much he or she knows. So when Jesus says in the book
of Luke, to whom much is given, much is required. And the one
that knew little will be beaten with few stripes. The one that
knew much will be beaten with more stripes. is speaking to
the degree of a person's comprehensibility of what they have done. And in
this context, when Peter says, I know that through ignorance
you did this, there's no way that Peter could know that without
the Holy Spirit. There would be no way that Peter
as a human being could know in the complexity of the whole of
that rebellious period in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ
where the rulers gathered together, they plotted, they planned, they
schemed. They sought to condemn him of
heresy and blasphemy over and over and over again. You guys
remember that? This wasn't, they didn't just rise up one night
and say, that's it, that's enough. Well, let's just go take him
and kill him. No, they strategically pursued him again and again and
again, seeking to hire false witnesses against him. So this
was an ongoing effort from the beginning of Christ's ministry,
where the rulers were trying to discredit him and then also
condemn him, of which they ultimately succeeded, which means there
was a lot of deliberate conscientious effort that went into opposing
the testimony of Christ. And yet here is Peter saying,
I know that you did it in ignorance, you and your rulers. So I want
to emphasize yourself your senses on a principle in the Old Testament
that we can draw over and make some application with us as well. Going back to our PowerPoint,
the PowerPoint enunciates, it is probably in your outline as
well. I'm not at my old outline, let me see here. There it is.
You were ignorant, not innocent, but ignorant. You guys got that?
To be ignorant of a transgression does not make you innocent of
that transgression. It just makes you ignorant of
it. OK, and in fact, that statement right there corresponds to virtually
every Old Testament infraction wherein there was a sacrifice
available for the recovery or restitution of that infraction. Here's the proposal. God nowhere
in the scriptures. especially in the Old Testament,
made provision for the recovery of sins that were committed that
were known. Like there was no sacrifice to
be offered for committing adultery. There was no sacrifice to be
offered for committing murder. There was no sacrifice to be
offered for committing idolatry. There were no sacrifices. The
sacrifices were always for sins of ignorance. The penalty for
known conscientious moral sins of the nature of which you and
I are speaking was death. That's the nature of the Old
Testament law and it's critical to understand. Now I'm actually
talking to you about the philosophical and the psychological side of
it. That what God was teaching the children of Israel in the
Old Testament was that he was so holy that he would not put
up with us sinning against God in a deliberate, open, and overt
fashion, and yet call ourselves the people of God. In other words,
the Old Testament system of offering sacrifices for sin was not like
we have in our Catholic Church, where a person can commit adultery,
go to the priest, pray prayers, do penance, and be forgiven.
This is what allowed, like I've said before, mobsters and and
psychopaths and sociopaths to think that they could be forgiven
when they knew that immediately after praying and going through
penance they were going to go out and do it again. Such a notion
of confession with the lie and ignorance of a real relationship
between the true and the living God who is spirit and a man or
a woman who is authentically born again and is made compatible
by regeneration to have fellowship with the true and the living
God. In other words, first John chapter one tells us that when
we are talking about having fellowship with God, it means that we are
walking in the light even as he is in the light. In other
words, you cannot be walking in the darkness of a moral bondage
that perpetually drives you into states of open rebellion. The
next word I'm going to get into is high-handed rebellion. And
to think that you actually have a genuine walk with Christ. Did
you guys get that? that there is no grounds in the
Old Testament, and this is true for the New too, wherein God
is accommodating the man or the woman who makes their relationship
with God to be something that is merely external and ceremonial
on its level. that if I just go to church,
if I pay my tithes, if I put on Christian lingual, but in
my own private life, in the darkness, in the secrecy of my own life,
I live in continual rebellion against God, such a notion would
belie that that person does not know God and has not been born
again. In the Old Testament, God did
not put up with it so that either persons came under the severe
judgment of God when they committed adultery or committed idolatry
or committed stealing or whatever the case was ended up being stoned
or as was really the case in the Old Testament. The penalties
for sin were so severe in the Old Testament that the Old Testament
people never actually obeyed the law. to execute those who
committed moral crimes. Are you guys hearing me? They
just did not do it. So what God did was just be patient
with their rebellion year after year after year after year. And
this is why you see so many frequent events where God breaks out in
judgment against the nation, because there is the national
sin, a national conscientious collective disobedience to the
laws of God, where God waits for a season before the congregation
is brought under judgment to see if the congregation will
repent openly and acknowledge that they have not raised their
kids right, that they have not brought the drunkard son before
the law courts, that they haven't dealt with this transgression,
whether it's in the high office of the priesthood or the monarchy
or the common folk who were peasants on the ground. And so God would
finally bring his judgment on Israel because they violated
his laws. And they would complain, who
can keep these severe laws? Well, the law was severe to drive
them to realize how desperately they needed a savior. But what
we're dealing with is an aspect of sin in relationship to God
that is critical for us to understand and know that with God, there
is no darkness. that God does not tolerate you
and I having a space in our mind, in our conscience, in our heart,
in the secret chambers of our soul where we live in open hostile
rebellion against Him and then claim to have fellowship with
God. God does not tolerate that. So when Peter said you were ignorant,
what Peter is saying is there's a caveat here over against the
severe crime that you as a nation committed in killing Jesus Christ,
which has to do with God blinding you. And that's what God had
done to the nation, blinded them. You know how when you and I do
something and it's wrong, and then it's revealed to you that
it was wrong and you are shocked and you realize, whoa, I really
did a wrong thing. But prior to that revelation,
you didn't have that sense of awe and reprehensibility and
apprehension of guilt. Now you do because the veil is
removed and you're aware of how heinous that act was. Well, you
were blinded at the time. That's called conscious ignorance.
Now I want you to go with me in your Bibles to Numbers chapter
15, and I'm gonna work with you through some verses in relationship
to this and bring it all the way back to God's merciful act. In fact, in my outline, this
is the way I put it, and you can either write this down or
just, you know, capture it in your thoughts. There is an ignorance
that God allows in the life of His elect to keep them from committing
the unpardonable sin. There is an ignorance that God
allows in the life of his elect to keep them from committing
the unpardonable sin. Do you guys grasp that thought? There's an ignorance that God
allows, that he permits, that he ordains, to drape the mind
and the conscience and the thoughts of his elect especially while
they are in an unsafe state. Because remember, to be elect
is not equivalent to being a believer. An elect is equivalent to being
chosen of God unto salvation, which means as his elect child,
you shall come to faith at some time and affirm your election. Did you get that? Because some
folks try to make election and believing synonymous. That's
a fallacy. Election is not itself salvation. It's the cause of our salvation. I am saved because God chose
me unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse 15. And so if you
say that someone is elect, it is not the same as saying they
are a believer. For all of us were unbelievers until we became
a believer. but we were always elect. You
guys got that? We were always elect. The apostle
Paul was always God's elect, although he lived a very heinous,
open, rebellious life against the true and the living God,
especially over against the gospel as we shall see. And so what
I said was in God's providence, while you and I by nature are
sinners and we have the capacity in ourselves to commit the grossest
sins against God, even such as what would amount to blasphemy
of the Holy Ghost, if God did not put restraint around our
actions and limit our capacity of comprehension so that what
we do, we do not do with a full scope of knowledge that would
make us culpable to an irretrievable damnation. Are you guys hearing
me? This is very important to know.
It's very important to know which means that's a mercy of God to
us If we were to deal with the subject
of the unpardonable sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit We already
have talked about that at length. That's not something anyone can
do anytime, anywhere, willy-nilly. That's not an easy sin to commit. There's a lot of pre-qualifications
requisite to committing that sin. People don't go around every
day committing the unpardonable sin. That's another mercy of
God. But with regards to God's people,
there are providential acts, and I'll affirm this in a moment,
but what God did was when Israel was in the wilderness, he disciplined
them and he taught them that you have a nature, you and I
have a nature where we can be taught true almost by God verbatim. He could speak from heaven to
you and me and tell us explicitly what we should do and what we
should not do. And we have a nature that we will rise up against
God and sin against God in his face. That's the kind of nature
we have. You don't believe that? So when
God brought Israel out of Egypt in 1500 BC, and he brought them
into the promised land and he established them there and they
wrought a legacy of continual rebellion against God. In 1000
BC, there was a man who prayed, who had learned something both
about his nation, Israel, and his own heart. And he was one
of the greatest kings in Israel. And you know what he said? Lord,
keep me back. from presumptuous sin and the
great transgression. Who said that? David. He had
500 years of history. He had the spirit of God bearing
record that not only was he saved, but that he was still also very
capable of heinous sin. Are you hearing me? And one of
the things that just marvels me is when people who profess
to be Christians act like they're not still sinners. You know,
you're not glorifying God when you pretend that you're better
than David, are better than Sarah. You understand what I'm getting
at? And so there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's
a catechism here, a teaching here that we are called upon
to think through in our relationship with God. First of all, God is
good, isn't he? But God doesn't play, does he? God's holy, right?
You gotta hold those intention all the time. Never distort the
nature of God. He does punish sin, doesn't he?
And in his inscrutable judgments, often we can never really know
on this side of eternity, Deuteronomy 29, 29 called this the secret
things of the Lord. Why he allows some people to cross the line
and do things that are so wretched and horrible and why he keeps
back other people from doing it. All I know is he keeps his
elect from committing the one sin that will send them to hell
irretrievably. And that's blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost. So in Numbers chapter 15, I want
to show you the teaching that God set forth while the children
of Israel were in the wilderness. And he knew, he just knew, if
I don't put this fence up, if I don't establish this parameter,
if I don't build this framework into their conscience and their
theology, they are going to, as a whole nation, rise up in
blasphemy against me for sure. And so this is why God gives
us warnings to keep us back. So in Numbers chapter 15, here's
an interesting context. Numbers 15, I'm gonna start at
verse 27. Now this is a discipline that
you will find in the book of Leviticus all the time. It's
called the sin, the trespass offerings of ignorance. And so
God takes it up this way in verse 27 of Numbers 15. Now, if any
soul sin through what? Then he shall bring a she goat
of the first year for a what kind of offering? So you saw
when I said ignorance is not innocence, it's still sin. And so you have to do the right
thing in terms of acknowledging that you have sinned against
God's precepts. Only you just didn't know you
guys got that. So that's what he's teaching.
Then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for sin offering.
And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth
ignorantly when he sinneth by ignorance before the Lord to
make an atonement for him. And it shall be what forgiven
him three times It emphasizes he sinned how? Ignorantly. You shall have one law for him
that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among
the children of Israel and for the stranger that sojourns among
them. That means the native born Hebrew
and then the foreigner proselyte who comes into the commonwealth
of Israel. And what that would mean is God
doesn't have two laws in the world. Like if you are outside
of the commonwealth, You are not part of the blessing of the
covenant people of God. But when you come into the commonwealth,
there's not a law for the blood born Hebrew and the proselyte
made Hebrew. There's not two laws. There's
one law. There's one law giver with one law so that God makes
us all equal, whether we are legitimately blood descendants
of Abraham or whether we are brought in through proselytization. It's one law. Here's what he
goes on to say. But the soul that doeth aught,
or doeth anything, what is our word? Presumptuously. Do you see it? The soul that
doeth anything presumptuously. And this is what we're going
to work with here tonight. Now, some of you have been with
me for a long time, and you know we have dealt with this concept.
But I know that in our Christian church, this is not a category
that we deal with much. And so it's important for you
to hear, because this will help you be able to better Examine
yourself and determine what is the tenor and trend of your own
relationship with Christ with regards to whether or not you
are being presumptuous Right. It's very important for us to
think this through I mean the fundamental warning of scripture
is that on the last day multitudes will think they're saved who
are lost and So we go on to read these words but the soul that
do with anything presumptuously, whether he be born in the land
or a stranger, the same does what reproach the Lord. And that
soul shall be cut off from among his people. See that little phrase
cut off. That means damned, damned, killed, cut off, removed from
the Commonwealth. And it's equivalent to not being
saved. Okay. It's equivalent to being,
to being exposed as not being saved. And it's a really harsh
concept. And that's the terminology that
God used basically for almost every open rebellion. And here's
the reason why. Because he hath despised the
word of the Lord. See it? He has despised the word
of the Lord and hath broken his commandment. That soul shall
utterly be cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him.
You know what that means, right? No atonement. No justification. No removal of guilt. No washing
in the sin. He has to bear his own iniquity.
No substitute. No mediator. No one by which
his sin can be transferred from him to somebody else so that
he can be alleviated of his guilt. He must bear his crime. Now,
what God does after giving the precept of this law of what is
called actually in the Hebrew, the Hebrew language here is high
handed. The word for presumptuously is
what we would call high handed. High handed. Now, that's also
anthropomorphical terminology and what it simply means is this.
There are sins that we commit against God that are more subtle
and more, uh, uh, manipulative, more cowardly in nature. There
are sins that we commit against God that are more subtle, more
manipulative, and more cowering in nature. This is the disposition
of the soul. This here is the complexity of
sin where the conscious knows this is not right. I'm struggling,
but I'm doing it. Are you guys hearing me? The
soul knows, this is why I'm talking about the conscious because this
is critical to understanding how God views us. As you're struggling,
you're cowering. And so you find yourself getting
trapped and drawn in as Romans chapter 8 says, I find a law
in my members that when I would do good, evil is present with
me, causing me to enter into a struggle where my allegiance
for Christ is abated and I find myself led into something that
manifests my fallen nature. Does anyone bear me record? Now,
if I were to stay there and develop that in terms of the new nature
coexisting with the old nature in a body that's supposed to
be a servant to the new nature, what I would say is the old nature
ruled in that moment because you were not capable of being
able to apprehend that old nature so as to make your body a member
of righteousness. You thus gave your body over
to your own nature and your body now became an instrument of war
against the glory of God. Your new nature hated it, but
it succumbed. And so it's struggling with the
conflict of having done something that it did not affirm. Anybody
following me? What I'm saying? Are you hearing
what I'm saying? But when the soul walks in a state of full
unity and total agreement and harmony with an act of rebellion
against God, That's called high-handed sin, where you raise your hand
and say, God, I see you, and you see me, and I'm doing this
anyway. It's called high-handed sin.
Are you guys hearing me? That's the language. I'm gonna
give you several verses so you can understand this. This is
why one of the messianic traits essential to affirming an authentic
conversion in the life of a Christian is the fear of the Lord. This
is why one of the messianic traits, Isaiah chapter 11, essential
to authenticating true Christian conversion is a fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Let the world mock you who fear
God. You are wise. You're a wise and
it's fundamental to keeping me back from doing something that
my fallen nature would be given over to do. The fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring forever. The fear of the Lord is right.
The fear of the Lord is good. The fear of the Lord is wise.
It's essential to an authentic relationship with God. The fear
of the Lord will allow my confession to be authentic and pure. Are
you guys hearing me? It's critical. Now watch the
narrative. He's gonna give us a case scenario
and point to prove that God doesn't play on this matter of presumptuous
sin verse 32 and While the children of Israel were in the wilderness
They found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day Now
several chapters back Moses had already instructed the people
of God. The Sabbath is a unique sign It's one of the things you
guys will be able to affirm concerning covenant signs ladies next Wednesday
if you remember One of the covenant signs was the Sabbath. In fact,
that was a unique covenant sign given to Israel only. The covenant
sign of Sabbath keeping was not for the Gentiles. It was not
for the non covenant people. It wasn't for the rest of the
world. It isn't today. The covenant sign was only for
the people of God. The people of God were called
to keep Sabbath because keeping Sabbath separated them from the
world. and showed a distinguishing grace
that was bestowed upon them where they worship the true and the
living God in the face of the world doing all that they did.
This one singular day manifested the distinction between the people
of God and the rest of the world. Which, if we carry it over, the
only principle that we bring into the New Testament is that
when we gather together, as it were, on the Lord's Day, we call
it Sunday, and worship, and we worship authentically, we are
separating ourselves from the world, demonstrating publicly,
as a congregation, that we are the covenant people of God. And
they, for a few hours, get to see the distinction on a social
level. And then we go back into the
community with them because of our evangelical calling to be
in the world though not of it. Am I making some sense? So worshiping
God in that separated state where we get together with God as the
people of God under a covenant canopy to separate from the world
is that we might have a devotion of time to be with God, to hear
from God, to be affirmed by God, instructed by God, taught by
God, educated by God. And then we go back out into
the world to love people with the truth of the gospel. But
we love them from an in the world, but not of the world status.
Well, that's why Israel had 40 years in the wilderness, because
those 40 years were years of dependence upon God. He had separated
them from Egypt. He had separated them from the
world to teach them that he was married to them, that he was
king, they were servant, that he was their father, they were
his son, and that they were going to develop a strong relationship
with each other before he would deploy them in the land so that
they would be affirmed in their identity and would know how to
walk when they were in the world, which is a struggle for the people
of God. For while in the wilderness, we're fine with God, but as soon
as we got to go to work, we forget we're Christians. That's because
the time separated unto God is not effectual. Did you guys understand
that? That's because the time separated
unto God is not effective. So we come to church and we play
games and don't go deep with God. We won't be affirmed in
our unique identity as the people of God so that when we go back
to the world, we'll be able to stand in the midst of them, be
with them, enjoy them, them, us, without us, as it were, contaminating
them by hypocrisy or departure from biblical principles. That
is basically denying our identity as people of God. And one of
the reasons we come to church is to be strengthened in our
identity in Christ. So that when we're with people,
we can actually be with them. And greater is he that is in
you than he, that's of the world. We can just, Hey, this is who
I am. This is it. You don't like this. This is
who I am. I know who I am. I know whose I am. And, uh, and,
and, and so here is the account verse 33 and they found him gathering
sticks. And they brought him unto Moses
and Aaron and said, and unto all the congregation, verse 34,
and they put him in ward because it was not declared what should
be done unto him. This was the first time that
someone had violated this law. Now you remember what the deck
of law taught, right? 10 commandments. Love the Lord
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the sum
of the 10. At the top was no other God before me. The next
command, no idolatry of any kind. The next command, you shall not
take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Next command, honor
the Sabbath day. Can I go through the rest? Of
course I can. We should all be able to go through all 10 commandments,
because they are a commentary of the relationship between the
people of God and God. So the man or the woman who fails
to understand the importance of sanctifying the Lord's day
is the man or the woman who doesn't understand the benefit of worship
as a point of reaffirmation and strengthening of the identity
that they have in Christ and thus they are in danger of misrepresenting
God on this on this occasion this man broke the fourth commandment
didn't he this is an explicit violation of the fourth commandment
Israel had done many other Violations before numbers 15, but certainly
this man breaks this commandment and Moses now is wondering what
what what does God want me to do? Verse 35 and the Lord said
unto Moses the man Shall surely be what put to death. You know
what that means. There was no blood atonement.
No sacrifice No expiation no justification No atonement for
his sin. There was no way this man was
going to be forgiven of his sin and you might think that that's
harsh. I but God never judges unjustly. He always judges righteously. Now, why would he so matter of
factly say, kill him? Because that man had openly with
high hand said to God and all the people, God does not run
this show. I do whatever I want to. This
is just religion. Are you hearing me? I can do
whatever I want to. Now, I know we we're supposed
to be worshiping God, but listen, if I'm cold, I'm going to do
what I have to do to warm my house. I mean, I know what God
said, but I'm going to do what I want to do. And listen, I'm
letting everybody know I run my show. Kill it is what God
said. Now, the other reason with which
God was so severe about breaking the Sabbath day, because he says
you are to keep the Sabbath day holy. Right. What's because the
Sabbath The Sabbath, like many other signs and tokens that we're
learning about the covenant, pointed to the person and work
of Jesus Christ, God's darling son. And the man who started
picking up sticks on the Sabbath day was saying to God, I do not
need your rest. I do not need the death of your
son. to expiate my sins in order for
me to have fellowship with you. I do not need him offering me
the rest that comes as a consequence of his death. In other words,
he was purely spurning the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
You guys got that? And so God says, no, no, no,
no. Stop him now, because if you don't stop him, that act
is going to contaminate everybody in Israel. And then on the Sabbath
day, folks going to be doing all kinds of stuff on the Sabbath
day. Rather than resting and worshiping on the Sabbath day,
they're going to be cooking hot dogs and hamburgers at church
and they're going to be selling them. They're going to start
putting up stands and selling banners and selling this and
t-shirts on Sunday. This is how it led to the den
of thieves and robbers that Jesus had to whip out of the temple
when he came initially twice. So a little leaven always does
what? Leaven the whole lump. And let me just say this as I
get ready to go to a couple, two or three other scriptures.
I have learned this over almost 30 years of observing Christians. If God doesn't reveal to you
his covenant, you will despise the very things that God takes
most seriously. If God doesn't reveal to you
what's important to him, you will despise the very things
that God takes most seriously. So what Christians have to do
is learn what's important to God. Like, you know, there's
all kinds of rules and all kinds of things we are free to do. There are things that we are
compelled to do. There are things that we ought
to do. But what you and I really want to learn is what really
is important to God. And those important things are
the things that must become important to us because they make for our
wisdom. The passage that I would give you is Romans chapter 12,
verse one and two, and you can just read it in your own time.
But what it fundamentally says is that I beseech you, dear brethren,
by the mercies of God, to render your bodies a living sacrifice
unto the Lord, which is well-pleasing in their sight, and be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. No more be conformed to this
world that you might know what the good and acceptable and perfect
will of God is. You guys got that? So what the
believer is in pursuit of is the mind of God. The believer
is in pursuit of the mind of God, and you will learn what
really is important to God in terms of the priority of things.
Everything's important, but there are some things that are that
are essentially important. We would call them non-negotiables.
Like the man or the woman that takes light worship is in trouble. The man or the woman that takes
light the doctrines of the gospel is in trouble. The man or the
woman that takes light prayer is in trouble. Are you guys following? So it's very important for you
to know that there are some things by which, in fact, this is one
of our verses in our biblical theology class. You can take
it up and learn it. Psalm 25 verse 14. The secret
of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will reveal
to them his covenant. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. That
means he will bless them to enter into the covenant truths of his
revelation and his will, and they will know what is important
to God. These are the men and women that
are successful in their walk with God. You'll meet a lot of
Christians who are not successful in their walk with God. You will.
You'll meet them who meander. They do whatever. They get caught
up in this or that. They've got a thousand opinions.
You'll meet Christians who love to debate and they're not firm
on anything. And you'll meet tons of Christians
who are bearing little or no fruit for the kingdom of God.
And yet they think they're secure. These are the people who are
wasting their time. Are you hearing me? Wasting their time. And so the text is very serious. This man had committed high-handed
crime. The other verse that I want to take you to is Deuteronomy
chapter 17. Go with me to Deuteronomy 17.
verse 12 and 13. Because Moses has to talk about
this a few times. We're going to go to three verses
and then we're going to head on back and see the blessing of my point.
I've got about 30 minutes and we'll wrap it up. Deuteronomy
chapter 17, 12 and 13. Here's what God says in the area
of inquiring about how to, again, deal with a problem in the fellowship
of the saints. In Deuteronomy chapter 17, here's
what God says, and we'll start at It actually starts at verse
eight. If there arise a matter too hard
for you in judgment between blood and blood, between plea and plea,
between stroke and stroke, two people are in controversy matters
of controversy within your gate, then you shall arise and get
you up to the place which the Lord your God shall choose. Now
mark this and you shall come unto the priest, the Levites
and unto the judges that shall be in those days and inquire.
And they shall show thee the sentence of the judgment. Now
you notice what's going on? The people get into a controversy.
They get into a conflict. They get into a battle. They
don't know how to work it out. They had two institutions in
the nation of Israel to go to. To the judges and to the priest. Both the judges and the priest
were to know God's law. In other words, the people didn't
have the prerogative of working out the problem themselves. They
had to go find out what God's word said. Now it goes on to
say, and thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of
that place which the Lord shall show thee, and you shall observe
to do according to all that they inform thee, according to the
sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according
to the judgment which they shall tell thee, You shall do you shall
not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to
the right hand or to the left Now watch this children of God
This teaches a number of principles You get into a controversy. You
can't work it out. You're supposed to go to the
elders, right? Isn't that the New Testament? Commentary and
the elders are supposed to give you not their opinion. But what
the Word of God says rightly divided And when they lay out
what the Word of God says rightly divided, guess what? You have
no option to modify it. God has actually spoken to you
through his ordained authority. You guys got that? Now listen
to the language. Verse 12, And the man that will
do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the priest, that
stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or unto the
judge, even that man shall what? And you shall put away evil from
Israel, and all the people shall hear and what? And do no more
what? So this particular one teaches
us, go with me now in your Bible to Deuteronomy 29. Let me show
you something in Deuteronomy 29. But this one teaches us that
not only are the people of God or the professed people of God
or religious folks inclined to kind of carve out their own way
and do things that will endanger their soul on an eternal level
like violating the Sabbath or distorting the gospel. That's
what it would be equivalent to today. Violating the Sabbath,
Denying God's rest in the means by which that rest comes is the
same as teaching a works gospel today Did you guys get that? denying God's Sabbath Denying
the fact that God has prepared a rest for the people of God
based upon the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ for our souls
which by faith receives receive brings us into a place of peace
with God and to distort the gospel and thus say that we are saved
by what God did plus what we do would bring you under damnation. Is that true? Is that harsh language? But is that what the New Testament
says? Galatians chapter one verses seven through nine. If any man come unto you and
preach any other gospel than that which we have preached unto
you, if an angel comes to you. Or if we were to lose our mind
and come to you later on with another gospel other than that
which we have preached to you concerning the crucified Christ
and salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ
alone apart from worse and begin to tell you, you must do something
to be saved. Let us be anathema. That's how serious it is. In
other words, this is what I meant earlier. If you start reading
your Bible and start determining for yourself what's acceptable
with God without asking God to show you what's acceptable with
him, you can find yourself on the left hand of God facing his
wrath. That's the broad road of religion
today. Most of our churches have abandoned the gospel and they're
caught up in some form of works religion and they think they're
all right with God and they've got their hand high. about to
face God. On this occasion, they were told
when you have a controversy, you can't work it out and you
want to honor God, do what's right, go to the leadership. If the
leadership gives you a sound exegetical development of the
law where it's uncontrovertible, where they have plainly shown
you precept upon precept, line upon line, that this is a judgment
of God and you sit and you go, you know, I don't want to do
that. I don't like that. And according to the scriptures,
Ezekiel chapter 12 and Ezekiel chapter 13, I'm sorry, 13 and
14, a man will leave the true teaching of the word of God and
go find a false prophet to tell them exactly what they want to
hear. And you know what God says? I did that. I gave them over
to the vanity of their own heart. I blinded them to the truth and
I allowed them to leave the court of divine judgment to go find
someone to lie to them. And him and the prophet I have
deceived. You got that? These are the consequences
of playing games with God, Ezekiel 13 and 14. Ezekiel 13 and 14. So in that context, what we are
simply saying is, If you ask someone who is actually faithful
to God's word, who is committed to biblical truth, and they tell
you that truth, it's just as if God spoke to you. Jesus said it in the gospel of
Matthew. He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that heareth
me, heareth him that sent me. He that rejecteth you, rejecteth
me. He that rejecteth me rejecteth
him that sent me. So you see, God does work through
means, doesn't he? Very much so. The next one is
an interesting one. We'll finish here and go back
and see how Peter's statement, you did it in ignorance, is to
be parsed out and then we'll be able to close out with the
concept of the blessing. But it was very important that
you and I exercise our senses in this study so that you and
I don't find ourselves falling prey to not really knowing the
Lord. In Deuteronomy chapter 29, listen
to what it says over in verse 19, but I'm going to back up
to verse 16 to prepare us for verse 19, and then let's meditate
on it. I'm thinking verse 20 applies
too. Verse 16, for you know how that we have dwelt in the land
of Egypt and how we came through the nations which you passed
by. And you have seen their abominations
and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among
them. Moses is talking about the journey of the children of
Israel out of Egypt, headed toward the land of promise. And as they
were passing through, they saw all the idols, right? You know
what that's called? Temptation. Now, lest there be
among you a man or a woman or a family or a tribe, watch this
now. This is going to carry over into
Acts chapter five when we get there. Lest there be among you
a man or a woman or a family or a tribe whose heart turns
away this day from the Lord our God, remember Achan, to go and
serve the gods of the nations, lest there should be among you
a root of what? That beareth gall and wormwood. Now he's using a metaphor now
of the attitude of the soul. This is what? the writer to the
Hebrews talked about in the 12th chapter when he says that root
of bitterness, let there not be a root of bitterness dwelling
among you as there was with Esau, that profane fornicator who had
a very angry and hostile relationship with God. Remember that this
is what he's saying that as the people of God, the corporate
people of God, you are always culpable of miscuing your relationship
with God, presuming that your relationship is secure based
on your corporate identity with God, rather than your heart being
right. And he's saying, don't let there
be somebody among you who thinks it's all right to identify corporately,
but in practice, they're engaging in idolatry and witchcraft and
all other forms of pagan worship. An individual, a family or a
tribe. You got that? He says, now, if
they do that, here's how this plays itself out. Verse 19. And it come to pass when he hear
it, the words of this curse. What does he mean when God says
there's a judgment that will come upon you if you commit idolatry,
the judgment that will come upon you if you turn away from the
truth, the living God, that's the words of this curse, basically
the law of God. Cursed is every man that continues
not in all things whatsoever the law says to do right When
he hears the curse now watch this when he hears the curse.
Here's what he says. Here's what they say When he
hears the curse that he does what bless himself in his heart Saying now I want you to mark
this I shall have peace I Shall have peace I don't fear that judgment. I
have no regard for that warning. That prohibition doesn't bother
me. Even though I know I actually
want to live and practice and do the very opposite of that
prohibition, I'm not bothered. I shall have peace. You know what that is? High handed
rebellion against God. That's the man or the woman or
the family or the tribe or the church. who has been taught the
truth and have chosen openly and publicly to defy the consequences
of sin against God's word and declare that I'm going to be
at peace. You see that? Now listen to what it says. This
person blesses themselves in their heart saying, I shall have
peace even though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add
drunkenness to thirst. This is an old Hebrew phraseology
that means for you and I to operate according to our own opinion
and our own mind is foolishness. That when we decide that our
mind is the orbiter of truth and that the final judgment as
to what's right and wrong is what I feel about it, we are
functioning as psychological and spiritual drunkards. And
all we're doing is increasing the thirst of our drunkenness.
You guys do see that, right? And there are folks who do that
today. Sociopaths. They'll hear the law, they'll
hear the teaching, they'll hear the precept, they'll be told
how they are to act and function in this area, that area, but
in their own private life, They are opposing God with the confidence
that they'll be all right with God. You don't see any evidence
in their life that they're all right with God. They don't think
right. They don't act right, but they're going to tell you
I'm all right. You see? And so the word of God exposes
when our hearts are not right. A remedy Psalm for you to read.
If you want to work through this, it's not only a Psalm 51 and
Psalm 32, Psalm 51, Psalm 32, but Psalm 19. Read those three Psalms and David
will teach you what happens to the man or the woman that with
high handedness opposes the sovereign and true God. And he gives the
remedy there too. Verse 20, the Lord will not what? Spare him. See it? The Lord will
not spare him. But then the anger of the Lord
and his jealousy shall smoke against that man and all the
curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him And the
Lord shall blot his name out from under heaven. And the Lord
shall separate him unto what? Out of all of the tribes of Israel,
according to all the curses of the covenant that are written
in the book of the law. So that the generation to come
of your children that shall rise up after you and the stranger
that shall come from afar shall say when they see the plague,
that land and the sickness which the Lord has brought upon it
and the whole land thereof be brimstone is a judgment laser
this is actually a prophecy of what happened to Israel in 609
BC and 587 BC it finally came you do understand that right
it finally came go with me back now to to your chicks I know
there's one yeah I won't go there go with me now back to Acts chapter
3 and let me share a few more things about that and then let's
move towards the blessings Let me just say this as we're
moving back. I am confident that if you are a child of God, you
appreciate these warnings. Only the children of God take
heed to his warnings. My sheep hear my voice. In Acts chapter three, the apostle
Peter says this with regards to the statement, and it needs
to be clarified through through a few New Testament texts as
well. I know that through ignorance you did it and also your rulers. Verse 17, and I know that through
ignorance you did it as also your rulers. Now what we have
to ask right now is did God blanket the whole nation with the gift
of ignorance? so that they were not aware of
what they were doing to the point of damnable culpability? Or were
there some who actually committed the infraction of the unpardonable
sin in this act while others did it not knowingly? And the
answer is the latter. So even though in general, the
whole nation was involved in the act, And that in general,
Peter could say, we know you did it in ignorance as also some
of your rulers as your rulers, because right now Peter's in
the temple talking to the common people. The rulers will be coming
in the next chapter and they will have actually a different
attitude towards this very same confrontation. But may I put
it like this? There are a number of passages
that were affirmed Peter's thoughts. that there was a general blanket
of ignorance that lay upon them. One is Luke 23, where our Lord
is hanging on the cross after the bloodthirsty mob says to
them, give us Barabbas. We want Barabbas. Kill Jesus. His blood be upon our hand. Our
master said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they're
doing. That was not a blanket statement. Covering all of the
people from conscientious awareness of their blasphemy against the
testimony of the Spirit of God in the life of Christ. For in
that same chapter, Jesus said, in a place of Luke, he says,
and it's also in the gospel, he says, to those that betrayed
him, it had been better if the man who betrayed me had not been
born. Woe unto him by whom I am betrayed. This is Matthew chapter 26. verse
24 and 25. Now, who are we speaking of?
Judas Iscariot. So to treat this subject and
close it off, Judas Iscariot stands for us as a model of a
person who had been brought so close to a knowledge of God as
did qualify to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Okay? Judas Iscariot was one of probably
a handful of men who met these requirements, who gathered together,
who conspired, who paid him covenant money to do what he did, who
would have been, as it was said of Judas in John chapter 13,
the night that they ate the last meal before the Lord's Passover,
the text says in John 13, and Satan entered into Judas' heart. That's John 13. Which, and I'll
just say this for the record because of just bad theology
that's present everywhere, Judas Iscariot was not saved. He was
not a Christian. He was not born again. He did
not have the Spirit of God. Are you guys hearing me? He was
a son of perdition. John chapter 17. He was a child
of the devil. John chapter 6. It's very important
for you to know these things because Judas emerges as the
ultimate and quintessential apostate for which we are to be warned
to be careful to avoid. that a man or woman can draw
to a level of knowledge of God that transcends a sense of being
able to be retrieved by God's grace where they an open high-handed
rebellion because of something they want. Because Judas Iscariot,
what did he want? He wanted fame. He wanted fortune.
He wanted power. He wanted prominence. He wanted
Israel to be politically powerful and to rule over the Romans.
He did not want the will of God. and yet he was drawn as close
to God as any human being would ever be drawn. No one gets closer
to God than to come alongside of Christ and become an apostle.
Are you hearing me? No one gets closer to God than
that. Judas Iscariot is the terrestrial counterpoint to the devil. For
the devil had a great, great privilege that celestial realm
from which he fell through the same pride of self-will according
to Isaiah chapter 14. I will be like the most high
God. I will sit in the sides of the north. I will rule over
the people of God. I will be like God. This is where
will is dangerous. The will is dangerous. So Judas
Iscariot and a handful of men gathered together to affect what
Peter came to know Jesus did know is a word that basically
describes all of the New Testament language. You know what it is?
Fulfillment. Fulfillment. The Old Testament
is filled with prophecies of what Jesus would do and did do. And all throughout Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, you know what we read? That the scriptures
might be fulfilled. This is why we call new covenant
theology fulfillment theology. Old Testament was a shadow and
a tight anticipatory pointing to realities that would emerge
during the ministry of Jesus Christ. And then it would perpetuate
itself through the new Testament church. We are in fulfillment
theology. That's why when Christ laid his
head on his shoulder at the end of his cross work, he plainly
said it is finished. The covenant now is ratified.
The New Testament is established. The old is fading away. That's
what we are in the book of Acts, the fading away of the old, the
establishing of the new, but for the Jewish people to enter
into the blessing, they will have to admit their crime. Are
you guys hearing me? So this is where we are in our
text. So we'll take the next few minutes and simply deal with
the concept of the blessing here. Listen to what he says, but those
things, verse 18, But those things which God before had shown by
the mouth of some of his prophets, is that what you're saying? That Jesus Christ, that Christ
should suffer, he had, so what? So every prophet in the Old Testament
pointed to whom? And when they pointed to Christ,
there were two aspects of Christ's work that they pointed to. His
suffering and his what? Glory. his suffering and his
glory, his suffering and his glory. This will be first Peter
chapter one, verse 10, his suffering and his glory. The prophets always
preached about Christ's suffering and his what glory is why when
we go through the old Testament and we look at typology, whenever
a lamb is slain, what does it point to the sufferings of Christ? Whenever a sinner is forgiven
in the Old Testament, what does it point to? The glory of Christ.
Whenever God gives pictures of resurrection types, what does
it point to? The glory of Christ, the resurrection
of Christ. So you have the suffering and
the glory of Christ, the suffering and the glory of Christ. Wherever
there's victory won in the Old Testament in battles, it points
to the glory of Christ. because the resurrection of Christ
and the glory of Christ is the quintessential victory won over
every sin, every enemy against God's people. Typified in the
Old Testament. You guys follow what I'm saying?
And the prophets all preached the sufferings and the glory
of Christ. And we should too, out of every text of scripture. Now he goes on to say, repent
therefore and be what? I love it. See, so after having
told them that they were guilty of committing the crime, he said,
but you did it ignorantly. unbelief you know who I could
see standing there wondering what in the world Peter is saying
Paul the Apostle for we read in first Timothy chapter 1 verse
13 these words first Timothy chapter 1 verse 13 these words
this is what the Apostle Paul says and you might want to turn
in your Bible to market this is a fundamental principle The
Apostle Paul says, I was a blasphemer before God saved me. And I was
a persecutor before God saved me. And I was injurious before
God saved me. But I obtained mercy. Do you
see that? But I obtained mercy. Now, you
know, Paul was a mess before conversion. He dragged people
before the courts. He had them killed. He was zealous
for his God. Only he was ignorant of the truth.
Remember that he got papers from the high priest to take everyone
who spoke about Jesus and bring them to court He was a terrorist
for religion. This is true He was he was no
joke and you know, I want you to mark what he says He says
but I obtained mercy. You know what mercy is mercy
is undeserved favor It's God acting opposite of what he should. We're learning this in biblical
theology, right? God does not act, God responds. God does not act, God responds
because he sees the end from the beginning. And whereas he
should have killed Adam and Eve, he clothed them with coats of
skin because he shed the blood of his darling son as a substitute
for them having paid for their sin. Now he can move them into
a grace redemption mode, right? This is what we call the, uh,
what's the term that I use the counterintuitive action on God's
part or counterintuitive deed on God's part. What he should
have done according to his justice was kill them. But what he did
according to his mercy was cover them. It's called mercy. And
in fact, for every one of us that say we are only saved by
mercy. This destroys and demolishes
any vestige of salvation based on merit of who you are or what
you did. You are only saved by mercy. Now, you know, Paul felt that
in every fiber of his being. You know, he had to struggle
in his conscious with how much of a wretch and a rebel and a
hostile criminal he was against God openly and God saved him. This is why as soon as God did
that that what we call the pair of tip to my for Paul turned
him around converted him That brother ran in the other direction
just as fast as he did when he was rebelling against God He
wasted no time Telling the truth about Christ. He was more zealous
than in his conversion than he was in his rebellion and disobedience.
And that's how we ought to be when we know how deep the pit
was that God brought us out of, how dark the place was that God
brought us out, how rebellious we were by nature. We should
be just as equally as zealous for running for Christ who hunted
us down and brought us out and took our place and established
us in his mercy because I did it in ignorance, in unbelief. God gave him the revelation.
As profoundly antagonistic and hostile as Paul was against the
Christian church, God had still blinded him, blinded him, blinded
him in a providential way that he did not know in the depths
of his being what he was doing. Are you guys hearing me? That's
1 Corinthians 2, verse 7. It's the last verse and then
we'll go back. 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 7. This is Paul
talking about this and he's speaking of himself too. He understands
this fully. He says over in verse 6, how
be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect or mature, yet
not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world
that come to naught. And he was part of the wisdom
of this world and the princes of this world. By the way, the
word world is understood several different ways in the scriptures.
OK, this is not a univocal term. It means a lot of things. And
in one context, the world meant the Jewish world of religious
leaders who did not know God. He was part of that Jewish world.
This is why Jesus could say, you are of the world. That's
why the world loves you. I'm from above. You're from beneath.
That's why you don't understand me. You are worldly. I was a Jewish leaders and Paul
was among them. He says in verse seven, though,
listen to this, but we speak wisdom. What is the word wisdom
referring to? Christ, Christ. That's verse 30 of chapter one.
But of him are we in Christ, who of God has made unto us what?
Wisdom. But we speak Christ in a mystery. What is the mystery? The gospel. The gospel. That's right. The person and work of Jesus
Christ is a mystery. But it's the wisdom of God and
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. This
is what I meant by the secret of the Lord is with them that
fear him and he will show them his what? Covenant. He will show
his people Christ in all of the full scope of his beauty and
offices as their savior. This is what Paul is saying.
So when the gospel was preached in the old Testament, folks didn't
get it. When Jesus came preaching the gospel, they didn't get it.
Without a parable, he did not speak in order that those who
saw could not see. And those who hear could not
hear. You guys understand what I'm saying? But he made these
things known by the spirit of God according to the will of
his father unto babes as Matthew's 11, right? Father, I thank thee
that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, but
you have revealed them unto babes for so it seemed good in your
sight to make the gospel manifest to humble sinners who realize
that they have absolutely no merit to bring to you. Am I making
some sense? And so then he goes on to say
this, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the
world unto our what? Crazy! For the glory of God's
people, God purposed before the world began, a covenant of redemption
and grace and mercy in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
we call the gospel, to be unfolded throughout human history, which
we call biblical theology, wherein God would make manifest his wisdom
in parables, in types, in shadows, in pictures, in symbols, through
prophecies, the mystery of redemption in Christ for those who trust
him by faith. So the Old Testament saints,
We're looking to Christ just like New Testament saints are
looking to Christ and the world is calling us fools And it's
calling Christ irrelevant and insignificant, which is the same
as calling God a liar Are you hearing me? which is the same
as calling God a liar and for the for those of us who believe
the gospel and trust Christ and realize that he is the only way
and not only the only way he's the right way and he's my way
and Because he's God's way. And that's all that ultimately
matters for us. He has revealed to us the mystery
of the gospel. But what he has revealed to us
is mercy because there's not a one of us who have a right
to the tree of life based upon our merit. You and I are just
as guilty as Paul is. Guilty as Judas is. What's the
difference between Judas and Paul? Mercy. That's all. Did you hear me? Don't listen. The only difference
between Judas and Paul is mercy. It was the mercy of God to providentially
blind Paul so that he could say what he says in first Timothy
1 13. I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Judas can't say that. How profoundly aware of his rebellion
and sin against the testimony of God was Judas. He took those
30 pieces of silver, threw them back into the temple treasury
and went out and hung himself because he can find no repentance
in his soul. Are you hearing me? He could
find no repentance because repentance For those
of us who know the Bible, it's not an intrinsic quality with
mankind. Human beings of themselves cannot
repent. Are you hearing me? Repentance
is a what? It's a gift. Just in case you
don't know, read it for yourself. Acts chapter 11 verse 18, 2 Timothy
chapter 2 verse 24, the whole chapter of Jeremiah chapter 31,
Psalm 80, Psalm 87. I could go on and on and on.
Turn us again, turn us again, oh Lord. And then we'll be turned. Turn us and we'll be turned. Cause your face to shine upon
us and we will be saved. If you keep your face hid from
us, we will perish. If you don't turn us, we will
never turn. We'll keep going in the wrong
direction until we perish under the wrath of God. Do you believe
that? So the only difference between
Judas Iscariot and me is the mercy of God. And I can say right
along with Paul, God blinded me to the truth in his own prerogative
and purpose until the day he made manifest his glory in his
son, Jesus Christ, through the gospel, when he broke into my
heart with the preaching and flooded my soul with the light
of his truth and turned my world around. Is that what happened
to you? This is what we call the glory
of the gospel, which the, which none of the princes of this world
knew. See it for had they known it, what they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. This gets into a whole lot of
other stuff. Done it by God's right to blind and to give sight
God's right to choose whom he's going to allow into his kingdom
and not. Isn't that right? It's very clear right there.
Here's what we call. Do you know what we call it?
We just call it Bible doctrine We're not trying to justify God
and we're certainly not trying to justify sinners Let sinners
argue with God all they want to you know what the Bible plainly
says in Romans God has mercy on whom he will have mercy and
he'll harden whom he will harden and he is expecting some of us
knucklehead postures to argue with God and He'll stay silent
until judgment day And on Judgment Day he'll give us the answer.
Only if we haven't bowed the knee to the truth in the living
God. It'll be too late. The answer
won't do our souls any good. God knows what he does. He knows
what he does. And this is why Christ who was
both a perfect man and divine by nature as God could say even
so father it seemed good in your sight. You do whatever you That's
where you and I should be. I promise to deal with the blessing.
I'm not going to deal with it now. I'll deal with it next time.
We'll come back and we'll deal with the language that he puts
forth here. Go back to acts. I just want
to read it in your hearing and we'll unpack the implications
and develop this part next time. When the apostle Peter says in
verse 19, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins
may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from
the presence of the Lord. So the door is open, isn't it?
Didn't he give them the key to being extricated from and absolved
of their guilt? What's the key? Repentance. Repent
ye therefore and be what? The word is turn, ladies and
gentlemen, turn. Turn, literally turn. It's the
idea of being on a track, going in one direction and then being
turning, going in another direction. And so Peter's opening the door
for their life to change because they're still going in a direction
where they're thinking they're all right with God, where they're
thinking that they're saved by their works, where they're thinking
that they actually killed the worst person in the world when
they killed the best person in the world, where they think that
they are saved by the works of the law. rather than by the grace
of God. He's saying, turn now, now that
you've heard, turn, turn, turn. And we're going to talk about
how that works next time. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for this study. Thank you for, uh,
your old time proven truths, which your faithful servants
have held to for generation, a generation, a generation towing
the line of base of, of, of faithful gospel preaching and teaching
and have preserved it unto this day. even in our generation,
where we can read your word unmolested by authorities and powers that
would take the Bible from us or kill us because we believed
in it, and we can now face the difficult but also saving truths
of your word. And we ask, Lord, that you would
cause your word to go deep down into our soul. Take root downward,
bear forth fruit upward so that you might be glorified in our
lives. You deserve everything that we have and more because
you are such a good God, a gracious God, a saving God, and a holy
God. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Bless you.